"The sweetest way to end the sweetest day is with a quick brush of your teeth to keep the cavities away!"
As I sit here and eat ice cream before bed I can't help but recall one of the greatest nights of sweetness in my entire life-my wedding night! I thought I would share our wedding favor that we made- toothbrushes! Since we had a dessert bar for the reception of our wedding we thought it was fitting! The toothbrushes were just one use, pre-pasted brushes that we got from smilemakers.com. We then slide the toothbrushes through slits we made in small paper doilies and added this saying to them, "The sweetest way to end the sweetest day is with a quick brush of your teeth to keep the cavities away!" Here are some of the sweet treats we had at the reception! Yum!
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I have been married to my high school sweetheart, Karic, for over a year now. I used Pinterest to make my wedding as unique and original as possible! We had an evening wedding, and went with a classic, vintage style in navy blue and silver/gray. I'm going to try to post as many DIY things I did for my wedding, both to document it for my own sake, and so that others can see how fun it is to do things differently to make your wedding extra-special! I really got into all of the decorations that I made, and it was easy to think of original ideas for that, but the one thing that I really struggled in making my own was the ceremony. Don't get me wrong, a traditional wedding ceremony is beautiful, but I wanted to make it memorable as well. Some things we did to make our wedding "ours": -We decided to go with an evening ceremony, for a more formal feel -We had all desserts at the reception...yum:) -Our son, Rory, was the Honorary Best Man -Our high school teacher, track coach, and Fellowship of Christian Athletes leader officiated our ceremony -We asked all of our guests to wear the "something blue" -My cousin Nick, sang "I Won't Give Up" by Jason Mraz as we walked down the aisle, we had all recorded music for everything, and no piano or organ. He also sang the Lord's Prayer during our Unity Ceremony...And that's what this post is about, the Unity Ceremony. The Unity Candle is the most basic of Unity Ceremonies, I have seen the sand, and even a Unity Cross, but I wasn't feeling any of those. It just wasn't me. Then I came across this "Off the Beaten Path Unity Ceremony" Pin on Pinterest from It's a Brides Life Blog. A UNITY PAINTING!!! This sounded so great with me being an Art Education major, and loving painting, and I had only seen it in this one place! The one problem with this was because this is such an original idea, it was hard to find much input from anyone on how to do it! So I did some research, asked around, and finally decided just to test it out before the wedding! 1. Test run is a mustFirst we did a test run. That is what the canvas is above. We made the image of the heart about 2 weeks before the wedding to test out how we had to mix the paint and how it would flow onto the canvas from the type of container we were using to pour it. (This was a really good idea, because then we used the image that we tried it out on as a decoration at the wedding, and so that guests had an idea of what we were doing while we were actually making our Unity Painting during the ceremony.) To test it out the most important thing was figuring out how to mix the paints. We used Acrylic Paints from Michaels. Because our colors were navy and gray/silver, we had to mix both of them to get the correct shades to match everything else. My formula was not scientific by any means, but I kept track of about how much of each color paint I mixed, as well as how much water. It ended up being about 1/3 water, and 2/3 paint, but it is important that you test out the brand of paint that you buy, as well as the type of container that you put it in! Our bottles were tall and skinny, and did not have large openings, so that paint had to be more watered down than a cup would have to be. Again-TEST IT OUT- get a feel for how the paint pours and what you have to do to make it go where you want it to go. It will also help with nerves on the day of, and you can talk to your partner about it as you go! 2. Punch pourer? no. Paint mixer? Yes!We did not ask anyone to pour our punch, or carry our gifts or cut our cake for our wedding day....We didn't want to trouble people with the little things like that, BUT we DID have to ask someone to be our official PAINT MIXER. This is important because you do not want to be mixing paint in your wedding dress. NO WAY. Plus, do you really think you have time for that! NO! Our wedding didn't start until 5:30 PM and we started getting ready at 10AM- the day flew by! Anyway, find someone who has experience with paints to mix your paint. Write down your scientific (not :) ) formula for them and discuss how the paint should look, show them your practice run, that kind of thing. Set up a time for when they can mix it and tell them where to put it! This is a time and stress saver for you, I promise! Also- don't forget to ask the church if it's okay to do this. We laid down a protective clear covering that stuck to the floor that you can find in a roll at a hardware store, (Menards). 3. The real deal : Unity CeremonyDuring the ceremony, you may be nervous being in front of people, and you might be worried about how this new "Unity Painting Ceremony" will go--don't be! This is the time for you and your husband to share and enjoy. You are being unified in marriage! Don't be worried about how it looks, just go with the flow, take your time, and don't sweat it if you get a little paint on your fingers :) (I did, and our officiant graciously gave me his handkerchief to wipe it off!) Karic's paint didn't come out as smoothly as possible, and he had to give the bottle a couple smacks to get it started. We had a little laugh, didn't panic, and kept going! We decided for our Unity Ceremony not to have a plan of a certain image we would make, but just to have it be abstract. But I'm sure you all could come up with something if you wanted to! Initials, heart, cross-- depending on your colors you might come up with something else! 4. Hang your paintingsFinally, let your paintings dry, and get them hung up! Enjoy them! I keep a photo from during the ceremony near by so we can remember making them! Here is a list of things you may need for your Unity Painting: Canvas (any size you would like, ours were 18x24) Acrylic paints Water Containers to pour from Funnels (to pour paint from bottle to bottle) Protective clear plastic Easel or prop for canvas Rags Have fun with this, make it your own. And share your own original Unity Ceremony ideas here!
Happy Wedding Planning! -J |