DIY Wedding Menu Cards

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After making our wedding invitations, calligraphy envelopes and then rehearsal dinner invitations oh and the escort cards I figured why not make the menu cards as well?!?!

We went back and forth about having 2 menu cards per table or a a menu card for each guest.  In the end since the cost difference was minimal we decided to go for a menu card for each guest.

DIY Wedding Menu Cards | Life's Tidbits

What you need:

Paper cutter, Printer/Ink, Card Stock and Photoshop or MS Word

Menu cards are one of those things you can do ahead of time, but no too far ahead. It’s important to have had the tasting and finalized the WHOLE menu.  If the menu isn’t finalized then some reprinting might be in your future.  When using PhotoShop my suggestion is to paste the menu text into MS Word first so everything is spelled correctly.  Even with my husband and I both double checking the menu card we missed a spelling mistake and had to reprint a number of menus. :(  Thank goodness one of the bridesmaids caught the mistake!  Oh and don’t forget to figure out approximately how many menu cards are needed. I made a few extras just incase.  The extra menus weren’t used, but it was nice to have a “clean” one for the wedding scap book!

Menus come in all shapes and sizes.  An important thing to consider when deciding on a size is will it be big enough to fit all the text.  We had three entree choices (fish, chicken and vege), which took up a lot of room on the card.  I went with long thin menu cards – 3.5 by 11.  Partly this was because of the text length, but honestly it made for easy paper cutting as well … one cut and done.

For the wedding and rehearsal dinner invitations I did the paper cutting after the printing. For the menus I cut the paper first and then did the printing.

I didn’t really have a menu “inspiration” card, however I did reference the menu cards of weddings I had previously been to. I decided I wanted a small image/graphic at the top and then the rest of the card to have a clean look. To tie the menu card in with the rest of the wedding paper items I re-used (FREE!) fonts: Mutlu Ornamental and Adobe Pro – from the Wedding Invitations and Allegro – from the DIY Calligraphy Envelopes.

We also used the same type of paper from the wedding/rehearsal dinner invitations, but in a different color – light purple!  The light purple looked great with the gold table clothes and sterling silver roses on each of the tables.  Here’s how they looked:

Photo credit: Korie Lynn Photography

I went back and forth on rounding the edges of the menu, but in the end my mother and husband liked the non-rounded look better.

My tips are pretty much consistent with other printing related projects I’ve blogged about:

  • Print on High Resolution
  • Spell check!
  • Print tests on white paper before doing a test on your nice card stock.  White paper is far less expensive!
  • Don’t wait to the last minute.

Happy DIY and Wedding Planning!!

Did you make your own menus? Any tidbits for other brides you can share?

Don’t forget to leave your tidbit by commenting below! :)

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DIY Wedding Envelopes with Calligraphy

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We had received a few wedding and other party invitations with super pretty writing on the envelopes.  Specifically gorgeous calligraphy!  Despite loving calligraphy I couldn’t justify the cost of paying for hand done calligraphy on something 99.9% of people just throw away after opening the invitation.

So we went the route of DIY calligraphy.  By DIY I mean using the computer and printer, because my handwriting is less than ideal even for meeting notes. :)

Materials Needed:

First the husband and I went online and viewed a ton of different free calligraphy fonts.  After much deliberation we downloaded a free calligraphy font …

We had a little over 100 invitation to address.  The envelopes we chose came in packs of 50, 250 and 500.  Clearly the 500 was over doing it, but we couldn’t decide if we should order 150 (3 packs of 50) or just go for the 250 pack of envelopes.  In the end we decided we could find other uses for the extra envelopes and went ahead and purchased 250 envelopes.

How to Create Envelopes in MS Word:

  1. Open MS Word
  2. Click Page Layout > Size > More Paper Sizes
  3. From the Paper Size drop down choose Custom Size
  4. For me I had A7 envelopes (5-1/4” x 7-1/4”)
  5. So within the width I entered 7.25 and height 5.25
  6. Click OK

DIY Calligraphy / Wedding Envelopes | Life's Tidbits

For the return address I decided to use a standard “block” font called “Adobe Caslon Pro”.  I have only received one invitation where the return address was calligraphy font, but I think this is all a matter of preference.  And since it’s DIY you can make it fit your style and font preference.

  • Type in a test address > select font, size and line spacing

Ours looked like this …

DIY Calligraphy / Wedding Envelopes | Life's Tidbits

  • Save the file someplace on your computer and clearly mark it as the return address portion of the envelope.
  • Once you are happy with how it looks print a TEST version.  I suggest plain white paper.
  • Once you are happy with how it looks go ahead and print a test version on an envelope.
  • Confirm everything looks perfect and make tweaks as necessary. Ensure you’ve spell checked as well.

At this point you can go ahead and print return addresses on all your envelopes.  If you have 130 invitations to send make an extra 10-15 envelopes with return addresses.  This will save you time if you have to reprint an address.  As you print them make sure the envelopes don’t fall on top of each other in the tray … it can cause smudging.  We lined our bookshelves with the envelopes and allowed them to dry over night before putting them in a pile.  Our apartment looked like a little printing press! :)

With the return address completed you are ready to start on the front of the envelope.  The steps are the same as above.

  • Type in a test address > select font, size and line spacing
  • Print tests on plain paper and then an envelope.
  • I think it took us at least 5-7 printed drafts to be happy.
  • Once you are happy go ahead and add all the addresses into the word file (click save periodically to ensure you don’t loose your work people!!).

Here’s what ours looked like in Word:

DIY Calligraphy / Wedding Envelopes | Life's Tidbits

A Couple Tips:

  1. Print High resolution.  I printed the 1st few on standard.  They looked nice, but when the husband suggested printing on High resolution it looked better.  This does use a little more in than standard, but in the grand scheme of things I don’t think it really cost us any additional money.
  2. Buy extra envelopes.  As I already mentioned print tests on regular white paper for a while until you think it is right.  You will need envelopes for testing, but you will also find that people move or you have an address incorrect and have to reprint.  Extra envelopes purchased up front save you heartburn later, promise!
  3. Start early.  Everyone laughed when I started printing envelopes 3 months before we sent them.  Giving myself a lot of time to complete the project reduced my stress level and made it more fun. Plus it ensured I gave the envelopes plenty of time to dry before additional printing or sending.  Nothing was smudged because we were rushing.

Here they are ready to be sent!  Oh how I still love those custom stamps.

DIY Calligraphy / Wedding Envelopes | Life's Tidbits

Good luck with your printing press!  If you have any questions about the process, please leave a comment … I’m happy to provide additional details!!

Happy Planning and DIY!!

signiture_nicole

 

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DIY Bottle Cap Cupcakes and Party Details

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I planned a small/intimate surprise birthday party for my husband turning 30.  And let me tell you he was SHOCKED when he walked in the front door.  I decided early on that I wanted the party to be beer themed, which clearly meant the cake needed to go with the theme.  I was very inspired by a bottle cap cake I found on a blog.

Unfortunately when it came time to making the cake I didn’t have enough time to make fondant.  So I went with option B.  Swiching from a cake to cupcakes. I mean cupcakes are in anyways so win!  Then I made made little bottle cap decorations for each of the cupcakes.  They are super easy to make.  AND how cute are these???

What you need:

Toothpicks
Glue
Beer Bottle Caps

Place a small dot of your duco cement in the center of the bottle cap. Let it dry for 30 seconds or so.

Place the toothpick at an angle into the glue dot.  Roll the toothpicks in the glue a little.  Then hold it in place. Unlike my husband try to put the toothpick at an angle and against the bottle cap edge.

Instead of holding the toothpick while it drys, which takes FOREVER there’s a better option! This took me a while to figure out, but in the end it was a life saver.  Put a second bottle cap on top of the bottle cap/toothpick like so …

Let dry for at least 15 minutes.  The longer the better and depending on the glue you use they will dry at slower or faster rate than mine did.  Then stick it into the cupcake and away you go.  I think it would have been nice to have a few more different types of beer bottle caps, but over all I am very pleased with how they turned out!  Check out the little display:

The color theme of the surprise party was yellow and chocolate brown.  The cupcake liners had yellow stripes on them.  You can find them here and they are pretty cheap and come in a lot of different colors.

Remember how much I wanted to use barbershop straws again? I got them for the surprise party!!  The other small decoration included brown and yellow balloons.

Oh and one more fun little detail for the party … custom napkins!  I had wanted to do custom napkins for our wedding, but it didn’t work out. I would never plan another party without custom napkins.  I love how they turned out!!

Surprise parties are so much fun and all the little tidbits and extra details all the difference in making the party look so cute.  :)

Happy DIY and party planning!

Don’t forget to leave your tidbit by commenting below :)

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Wedding Detail: Candy Buffet/Display

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Shortly after getting engaged and reading (too) many wedding blogs I became obsessed with having a Candy Bar/Buffet at our wedding.  Here are two candy buffets that were part of my inspiration:

Wedding Candy Buffet

Found on WeddingBee

Wedding Candy Buffet

Found on Aisle with Style by the Photo is from Hostess Blog.

Best place to buy anthropology jars that I found was Marshall’s.  All the good jars were about $12, which isn’t too crazy.  We went to multiple Marshall’s and waited a couple of months and then went again.  It took a while to compile all the jars, but in the end all the trips were totally worth it.

Other places I found candy jars were Michael’s, Crate and Barrel, Ebay and Craigslist.  9 time out of 10 though Marshall’s had the cheapest and best options.  I would definitely suggest doing some window/online shopping before buying from anywhere.

About 6 weeks before the wedding we purchased all the candy.  That’s not to say I had already picked out the candy months before purchasing it! :)  We went with purple, white and pink candy to go with the color theme of the wedding.  Well sort of, cause pink wasn’t a wedding color … but so many good candies are pink though!

We got the bulk of the candy from Candy Warehouse.  Here is exactly what I purchased:

  • White “Just Married” Sweet Tart Circle Rolls: 5LB Bag
  • Lavender Foiled Milk Chocolate Balls: 5LB Bag
  • Princess Candy Necklaces & Bracelets: 24CT Box x5 (this was too much probably only needed x3)
  • Strawberry & Creme Salt Water Taffy Candy: 3LB Bag x2
  • Green Rind Watermelon Slices: 5LB Bag
  • Haribo Gummi Pink Grapefruit Slices: 5LB Bag

The jelly beans were slightly cheaper at Bulk Candy Store.  Here’s what I ordered:

  • Island Punch Jelly Belly: 5 lbs
  • Coconut Jelly Belly: 5 lbs
  • French Vanilla Jelly Belly: 5 lbs
  • Strawberry Daiquiri Jelly Belly: 5 lbs
Here is the candy buffet all set up at the house two days before the wedding –

Wedding Candy Buffet | Life's Tidbits

A few small tidbits to consider:

  1. I had ~100 people at the wedding and this was too much candy for the size of our wedding.
  2. If we had provided the “to go” candy boxes at the tables people who missed the candy bar/buffet might have gone to seek it out. This could have meant not so much extra candy after the wedding.
  3. Don’t open the candy until a day or two before the wedding/party as the candy could go stale.
  4. The hotel provided the scoops, which meant we didn’t have to buy any!
  5. Make sure you visit your own candy buffet! We were so busy talking and dancing I didn’t make it by the buffet and I wish I had.
  6. If you are going to make name tags for each type of candy do so ahead of time. I ran out of time the week before our wedding and that detail just didn’t make the cut.
Over all I loved how our candy buffet came out!
Wedding Candy Buffet | Life's Tidbits
Photo Credit: Wedding Guest

Wedding Candy Buffet / Candy Bar / Love it Sweet| Life's Tidbits

Photo Credit: Korie Lynn Photography

Wedding Candy Buffet | Life's Tidbits

Photo Credit: Korie Lynn Photography

I think the candy display was cute and came together how I had envisioned.  I sold all of the candy jars to a bride-to-be in the DC/VA/MD area. It felt so nice to see the HUGE smile on her face as she loaded them into her car … and how relieved she was the search for jars was over.

What extra tidbit would you have added to the candy bar/buffet?  Anyone have tips for other brides?

Happy Planning!

Signiture_Nicole

 

 

 

Don’t forget to leave your tidbit by commenting below :)

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Recipe: Guinness Stout Brownie Bites

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One of my favorite party planning blogs is Hostess with the Mostess.  I recently browsing for fun party ideas and cam across this super fun blog for Guinness Stout Brownie Pretzel Bars.  I thought these were perfect for our Super Bowl party (and my husband’s beer themed birthday).  The recipe is by Esther Kang of Batch from Scratch.

Ingredients:

4 oz Bittersweet Chocolate
8 oz Butter
1 Egg
3/4 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Cocoa
1 1/4 cup Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Vanilla
1 cup Guinness
8 oz Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
3.5 oz Butterscotch
2.5 oz White Chocolate Chips
1.4 oz Heavy Cream

Place the bittersweet chocolate & butter in a bowl.

Melt in microwave or double boiler.

Using a mixer beat egg, sugar and brown sugar for 3 minutes.

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl cocoa, flour, salt.  Add the melted chocolate to egg mixture then mix in dry ingredients.  Last add vanilla and beer mixing until incorporated.  Pour into a 9×13 pan.

Sprinkle semi-sweet chocolate on top of the batter.  Then pop it in the over at 350 for 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

To make the butterscotch ganache combine butterscotch, white chocolate and heavy cream in a small bowl.  Microwave in 30 second increments, stir until melted and smooth.  I heated mine for a little over a minute, however make sure not to over heat them or it will go ALL over you microwave and you will loose a lot of the ganache (can you tell this happened to me?? Hahaha). Spread the ganache over the cooked brownie.  Refrigerate until firm.  Then cut into small bites and serve.

The blog suggests topping with 1/3 cup Crushed Pretzels and Flakey Sea Salt  (maldon salt works well).  I should have put the pretzels on while the ganache was still a little warm because I couldn’t get the pretzels to stay on the brownie bits after they were totally cooled.

Here are the YUMMY Guinness Brownie Bits …

The brownies were a big hit and perfect for both the super bowl and birthday parties.

Happy Cooking & Party Planning!

Don’t forget to leave your tidbit by commenting below :)

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