Top Secret Design Stuff

Ever since Luis and I got engaged, I’ve been getting asked a variety of wedding-themed questions: did you set a date? Where are you having it? How’s the planning going? Etc.

The answers are:

  1. Yes, now we have. We have a date.

  2. We don’t know yet. Apparently the venues where we want to have it are already booked as they’re private estates/vacation rentals. The ones that are available are too expensive for us. *coughcastlecough*

  3. It’s going. It’s slow, but it’s going.

Then there are the questions about what I’m working on when I say I’m working on wedding stuff and the thing is, I can’t tell you. I can’t tell anyone.

Why?

Because the stuff we’re working on are in preparation of proposing to our wedding party.

Let me tell you, having multiple close girlfriends as well as those I’m obligated to ask makes this part very stressful. There are two women, three even, whom I want to ask and have as a part of my party, but seeing as I already have 11 on my roster…

I am lowkey hoping some of my girls say no. I know that’s the complete opposite of what most people want, but seriously…

Of course I could make this extremely easy on myself and just ask my matron of honor and like 2 bridesmaids and call it a day.

Problem is, I also want my fiancé’s daughters in the party, and he has a good friend he wants in the party, and then I have a great friend from art school, and—

I’m at 11.

So I have been badgering my fiancé to, like, think of more men he’d like in his party. I don’t mind if the numbers are uneven by 1 or 2, which I think we were able to get to.

My mom told me I should only have 2-3 bridesmaids.

Oh man, Mom, oh man….

Regardless, we’re working on these proposal boxes that have cut/applied vinyl on them with a funny statement on the front with the question popped on the inside. We’re filling them with custom curated goodies and waiting for things to come in for the boxes.

I ~promise~ once everything is said and done and our party is finalized, I will do a whole post on everything we did with photos (and maybe some video, not sure yet).

So be patient! You will get the wedding content you’re looking for!

Proposal Pumpkins

You always see on Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok how these people get these lavish, elaborately planned and laid out engagement proposals from their significant others. Some of them might be less elaborate than others, but the planning is there and it is absolutely one of the sweetest things you might see in your lifetime, even if you see multiple versions. It sometimes gives you ideas of what you might want or want to do.

My boyfriend’s daughter sent me a text one day asking if I’d be able to do her a favor. She decided she was going to propose to her girlfriend and asked if I could put words on some decorative pumpkins she bought at Target. She had three of them and wanted them to have three specific sayings on them: “V-ever” (5-ever, but with the roman numeral), “will you marry me?” and “be mine”. Super cheesy, but at the same time, super cute.

So I agreed. I had just shipped off all of my extra art supplies (basically all of them) to California to a longtime friend who decided she wanted to go to art school. At the time I was working and figured she could use the things more than I could—after all, I had been out of undergrad for several years at this point and most of the supplies sat unused.

However, now that I wasn’t working, it would be an extra expense for me to get the paints for this project. She offered to pay for them, but seeing as I’d be keeping the paints, I decided to just make it rain on Hobby Lobby and go get what I needed plus some.

I remember buying white and silver and black acrylic (along with ultramarine blue, canary or cadmium yellow—can’t remember, and some sort of “real red”) to paint the pumpkins. Small tubes is all, as the pumpkins were white and I didn’t need to gesso them or anything.

I started with sketches (that I no longer have) and sent them to her for approval. I did this for each pumpkin. When all was good, I mapped out the pumpkins with graphite and sent her photographs of those as well. With the thumbs up, I began applying the paint. Part of me wanted to etch the surface so the paint would grab. However, I was also afraid I’d ruin the pumpkin, so I just took a chance and left the pumpkin’s surface alone.

I sent photos of the first pumpkin—it was OK, but the silver was very, very flat. Though, to be honest, I’m not sure entirely what I was expecting. Luckily, I had some glitters on hand (silver and white iridescent craft, as well as some cosmetic grade ones, if need be). I started mixing in the iridescent glitters, and while it looked great, the consistency became very dry. After a few minutes of adjusting ratios and even introducing water into the mix, I got a consistency I could work with.

I thought painting these things would be easy, but I wasn’t getting an opaque result with just one coat, and now that I’ve changed the consistency of the paint, wasn’t getting the coverage I’d normally get. These pumpkins ended up taking me a couple of days to knock out, but in the end they were worth it. She loved them and said she would pick them up from her dad’s when it was the day of the proposal.

Fast forward—she ended up changing her proposal plans and did something that included her now fiancée’s two sons. The pumpkins were never used and we’re coming up on the one year anniversary of what should have been their engagement in a month. In fact, the 19th day of this month is when I started working on the pumpkins. It’s taken me a year to get this blog post up because I was waiting for the pumpkins to be used! But it’s the perfect time now since we’re already into fall and ‘tis the season, right?

In hindsight, I should have painted the words on with black first. Let it dry, then apply the silver. And if it needed more glitz, apply a layer of clear or something, and sprinkled on the glitter. Instead, what I concocted ended up being thick and difficult to paint on, so I ended up dabbing it on to keep the opacity. They didn’t come out bad, but they weren’t my best works of art. Oh well, I’ll do better next time! (Anyone need engagement pumpkins painted?)

Butterfly Bridal Package

One of my best friends got married in 2018 and because she was on a super tight budget, I did what I could to help her DIY everything.

As her maid of honor, my job was to be her right hand man (woman?) in everything she wanted—dresses, expos, decorations, invites, etc. So, I did just that—we started with save the dates (pictured), then I worked on the bridal shower invites with the other bridesmaids, then came table decorations for the guest tables and signs for the prop tables.

The easiest part about all of this was the access I had to the equipment that would make my life easier: a laser cutter, wide format printers, jump shears, paper guillotines, vinyl for stickers, etc. I could use all of these for free and whenever I wanted!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get photos of everything, but the package was color themed: black, white, purple, pink and silver. We used butterflies (her favorite), flourishes, script fonts (whomever designed Autumn in November—thank you), and other delicate elements.

The full package included: save-the-dates, invitation set (main invite, RSVP, directions), envelopes (purchased!), script table numbers cut from 1/4” scrap acrylic on the laser cutter and painted with silver glitter spray paint, informative signs for guest photos on social media made with scrap Dibond, black vinyl and silver glitter spray paint, the bridal shower invites (shh, those were a surprise!), and Cricut-cut seating cards.

The wedding was a success and with all of the tangible elements being hand-made, it all had a personal touch. It was super fun making everything and I would 100% do it again if I still had access to the right equipment.