DIY: Blackboards

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I kept reading in Bride's Magazine and Martha Stewart Weddings that blackboards were all the rage for weddings. We wanted to incorporate blackboards at our wedding but did not want to pay for pre-made ones and all the magazines suggested making blackboards yourself. Well, what the magazines fail to tell you is exactly how much making your own blackboards is and how much time it takes. So I thought I would actually lay it all out there for everybody.

We decided to make blackboards for 1) the guest seating chart, 2) the dinner menu, 3) the drink menu, 4) the cigar bar, and 5) & 6) "Mr" and "Mrs" blackboards that hung on our chairs at the wedding.

• To complete all of this we first went down to our local Home Depot.
• We went to the lumber section and found a large 72inch x 48inch sheet of wood.
• When choosing your wood make sure that the grain is smooth enough that you can paint over but that the wood is thick enough that it can stand up on its own and not morph.
• Take your huge board and go back to the "cutting" section. A lovely Home Depot worker will happily chop that sucker into any sizes you want. Thank goodness our poor helper was willing to hang in with us while we decided the dimensions of the 6 different cuts that we needed. *Make sure you know the dimensions of your cuts before you arrive.*
• Make sure to pick up some sand paper if your wood boards are not very smooth.
• Next, go over to the paint section and find yourself a small can of primer.
• Then go and find the "chalkboard" or "blackboard" paint.

• While you're in the section, don't forget that you will also need a tray to hold your paint as well as a paint roller.
• Lastly you will need to decide how you want to write on your blackboards. Traditional chalk that can smudge or rub off or one of the new fancy chalkboard pens (used by Starbucks and large grocery stars) that will not wipe off unless wiped with a wet rag. We chose to use the chalkboard pens and we loved them! I read rumors that you can find them at Michael's craft store every blue moon and we did end up looking them up on www.chalkink.com which had reasonable prices and a huge selection of colors and sizes of pen tip but we did not have enough time to have them shipped to us. So instead we went down to our local art supply store and found the pens for $3.99 a piece (we bought 2).

Next came the actual work. Another thing the magazines fail to mention is how long it takes to make blackboards but I'm gonna tell ya. When we made our blackboards we ended up working outside so they would dry faster. We worked on cardboard in the driveway and 2 sawhorses.

So first E sanded down the boards then handed them to me to be wiped down with paper towels to remove any residue (15 minutes) then E primed each board and allowed them to dry for 30 minutes then I began to roll on the chalkboard paint. Make sure you read the back of the can because we were surprised to find out that they suggested 2-3 coats while giving each coat at least 1 hour to dry. Thankfully we found out that it does not take 1 hour for each coat to dry but that may have been because we were working outside in August. Luckily I figured out a system where if I really spent my time painting each board with long strokes then by the time I finished the last board I could loop back around to the first board for a second coat, make the loop again, and do a third coat. *Make sure that you paint all parts of the board that will be visible to guests. This includes the edges top, bottom, left and right sides. Even do the back if it will be visible to guests.*
Another thing to make sure you are aware of: You cannot use chalk on the boards for 24 hours after painting them. So make sure that this DIY is not last minute.

Materials and Cost:
Large board of wood: $8.48
Primer: $6.97
Chalkboard Paint: $9.98
Paint Tray: $1.54
Paint Rollers: $3.68
Chalkboard Pens: 2 for $7.98
Total: $38.63 and about 6-7 hours of work

Now for the fun part! Pictures!

 Our seating chart blackboard greeted our guests at the door and helped us cut

down on the cost of escort cards

Our menu blackboard

The bar menu

Our cigar bar to honor my grandfather

The Mr. and Mrs. blackboards that hung over our chairs at our wedding reception

The blackboards now hang over our bed

Local Vendor Spotlight: The Downtown Athletic Club

We planned our wedding for 15 months and for 9 of those months we had our whole reception planned at a reception site in Corvallis, OR. Then one day we received an e-mail telling us that our reception site had sold out from under us. I obviously flew into a panic, we had 6 months to basically re-plan our whole reception. During a panic moment I called up the Downtown Athletic Club (DAC) and an amazing man named Kevin thankfully answered the phone. He very calmly told me to take a deep breath after I told him everything we had planned for our reception and how now everything was obliterated. He then told me that planning a reception should not be as stressful as it currently was and that he would make everything okay. And you know what? He did! Kevin helped us pick up the pieces of our reception and then even elevated it. By switching to the DAC we were able to save a bunch of money that we were then able to put into decorations, food, and even a photobooth. We were able to add Japanese lanterns that hung from the ceiling and up-lighting on the large columns of the ballroom. We also rented their projector and projected the movie "Singing In The Rain" onto the far wall that played silently in the background of our reception.

The chef at the DAC put together an amazing tasting menu that included a "Grown Up" Mac & Cheese consisting of chevre, bacon, spinach, and sun-dried tomatoes!

The food was amazing. We came up with 2 signature drinks that were hosted at the bar. The "Ginger Chuckanut" which was a strawberry infused vodka strawberry lemonade and "Gin O' Clock" which was a gin and tonic.

 My family is Italian American and so we requested that there be vinegar, olive oil, and focaccia bread on the tables. They set up all of the tables, placed all the centerpieces, lit all the candles, just all around made sure everything looked perfect for our special night.

The staff at the DAC went above and beyond in every single way. We went in the day before the wedding to drop off the lantern and votive centerpieces and had a chance to actually meet the staff that would be at our reception. Everybody was so welcoming and you could tell that they really cared and wanted to make our wedding very special.
During the cocktail hour the line for the bar got really long and my father found Kevin and asked if they could add a bartender or do something to fix the problem. Kevin immediately got behind the bar HIMSELF and began serving drinks! I can't think of a better example of how the DAC staff was willing to do anything to make our reception an experience to remember.
Even though our wedding is over, the staff at the DAC continue to work hard for us. For our one-month anniversary, E and I went back to the DAC to have dinner in their restaurant and the chef actually made the Mac & Cheese from our wedding especially for us (it is not on the menu of the restaurant) and I was able to order a "Ginger Chuckanut" also. They told us that we can come back anytime and they will continue to make our Mac & Cheese for us.
If you are looking for a reception site in the Eugene, OR area and want a site that is aesthetically beautiful with a personable staff who will do anything to make your wedding special then please check out the Downtown Athletic Club at http://www.downtownac.com/.

Do As You Please

This is your and your future spouse's wedding so do as you damn well please! I will admit that etiquette is important but sometimes you have to say "to hell" with tradition and make your wedding about you as a couple. Decide what is really important to you and make it happen.

Personal examples:

• E and I had 3 beautiful little girls who were very important in our lives but no little boys at the same level. So we chose to have 3 flower girls but no ring bearer.

• When we first started planning the wedding I saw a photo of flower girls wearing beautiful white tutus and completely fell in love with the idea. We tweaked it a little though and chose to have each little girl in a tutu that went with our colors (pink, yellow, and orange). When I received my First Communion my aunt made me a flower wreath to wear in my hair and I wanted our little flower girls to have the same experience so we ordered head wreaths with flowers from the bouquets to be made for each little girl.
• I have been blessed to have a loving father as well as a loving step-father and I wanted both to be a part of my walk down the aisle. I chose to have my father begin by taking my arm and escorting me halfway down the aisle where we paused and my step-father joined us and took my other arm and the three of us walked the rest of the way down the aisle arm-in-arm. I chose to do this to symbolize my father being there for the beginning of my life and then my step-father coming in halfway through and so the moment I reached E at the end of the aisle I was escorted by both my father's. 

• We had the traditional father/daughter and mother/son dances but E and I wanted to also honor how important our step-parents are in our lives so we added a step-parent dance where I danced with my step-father while Eric danced with his step-mother. As I danced with my step-father he pointed out how my mom was watching us and mentioned that he thought she was jealous that he got to dance with me, at the same moment we both motioned for my mom to join us and so the three of us swayed and danced the rest of the dance away. Who says a dance is only for two? I would not have changed that dance for anything in the world.

 E and his step-mom dancing

Me and my step-dad dancing together.

Me, my step-dad, and mom dancing together.

• I decided early on while planning the wedding that I did not want to throw my bouquet, instead I wanted to present it to my grandparents. My grandparents have been married for over 50 years and are a beautiful example of love and marriage. I wanted to honor them and their love by presenting my real bouquet (not a tossing bouquet). 

 About to throw my bouquet.

Fake out.

Presenting my bouquet to my grandfather (my grandmother was in the bathroom).

• Halfway through planning our wedding one of my dear friends passed away suddenly. I was devastated by the loss, especially because the last thing we talked about together was the wedding. It crushed my heart knowing that she would not be there in person to share the day with us. This reinforced my decision to not toss my bouquet because I felt that it would be unfair because not all beautiful single girls would be present to have a chance to catch it. As a symbol of this I had an extra bouquet made and took it over to her family two days before the wedding and took some time talking about her, how much she meant to me, and how much I wanted to include her in our day and honor her. We also took some special time before the ceremony to light a candle for her.

• My maid-of-honor decided to skip her college graduation in order to be a part of our wedding weekend. I was crushed that she gave up such a milestone for me but I wasn't havin it. I found out what her school colors were and what tassel she would have worn to represent her department. I then got a hold of a cap in her school colors, went down to the local university and purchased a tassel for her graduating department (kinda weird how easy that was), and set it up with the DJ. When toasts were over and my Maid-of-honor thought her time in the spotlight was over the DJ asked her to report to the dance floor, I was standing there waiting for her and placed the cap onto her head, the DJ then played the Graduation March and made her cross the stage, I then instructed her to move her tassel from the right to the left, the DJ announced her as graduated, and her parents ran up to congratulate her. She later told me that she had never felt so special in her whole life.

• Another fantastic celebration occurred the day of our wedding that we wanted to recognize. Our friend came to our wedding even though it was his birthday. The DJ announced his birthday and had everybody sing Happy Birthday to him before eating cake. It was wonderful!
• Chicken or fish? Chicken or fish? FORGET THAT! I love me some mac-n-cheese so we had two different kinds served at our wedding! There was a plain cheddar mac for the kiddos and a gourmet mac for the adults with bacon, spinach, and tomatoes. It's your wedding, and after watching what you eat to look on your day you deserve to eat what you want!

• E and I love a little local patisserie and would go there for many dates. It was an obvious choice when choosing a wedding cake but what flavor would we choose?! Hell, we chose 3! We had carrot cake (no raisins) with white chocolate ginger mousse, chocolate cake with chocolate mousse and chocolate ganache, and a red velvet cake with raspberry compote center covered in whipped cream and coconut. The guests loved it and loved the chance to try multiple cakes.

• In college my best friend's father lived part-time with them and he would be there most weekends. Now, I enjoyed a nice mixed drink in college as most do but Papa taught me how to take a whiskey shot when he started up the tradition of "Friday Night Shots". Papa would come home with a bottle of Bush Mills Black Bush whiskey and we would celebrate the weekend. For our wedding we asked our reception site to special order a bottle of Black Bush and a large group of us went out into the lobby and continued our tradition of Friday night shots (seeing as the wedding was on a Friday night) with a group toast of whiskey. There were many amazing memories from our wedding and this one ranks right up there with the best of the best.

•  My grandfather passed away before I ever had a chance to meet him but I was always told that he loved ketchup on his spaghetti and smoking cigars. In honor of my grandfather we decided to have a cigar bar at our wedding. My dad provided the cigars and the reception site allowed us to all go out on their balcony and smoke a few. I think that some of our more stunning photos came from that experience.

Let Them Eat Cake

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Here are my tips when it comes to cake

1. Choose the flavors (and however many) you want!
2. If you have a skilled enough bakery, buttercream can look just as nice as fondant (and your guests won't have to peal it off).
3. Order less than your projected guest count because some guests won't show up, some will leave early, and some may prefer pie.
4. Make sure to clearly lay out a cake cutting plan with your reception site. We thought we had talked this all out with our reception site but they ended up only serving the sheet cakes in the back so nobody even got to taste any of the 4 tiers of our actual wedding cake! It was a huge waste of money and now we are stuck eating freezer cake for a whole year. So make sure you have a talk about when, how, and what you would like them to cut and serve.
5. www.etsy.com is a fabulous site to find unique cake toppers!

We chose a patisserie that we loved to go to on dates. We decided to choose 3 different flavors. We had carrot cake with white chocolate ginger mousse, chocolate cake with chocolate mousse and chocolate ganache,

red velvet cake with raspberry filling and covered in whipped cream and sprinkled with coconut flakes.

My family is Italian and one of our traditions is to serve pizzelles (an Italian cookie) at weddings so my grandmother spent days making the beautiful cookies.

We chose to have our cake covered in buttercream instead of fondant and it looked beautiful.

We also chose to have our top layer consist of a collage of words that we chose that were then piped onto the cake.

I found a vendor on www.etsy.com who could bend wire, so we asked him to bend E + C (the patisserie accidentally assembled them to say C+E but that's okay) for our cake topper. We also wanted to use bend wire so that we could use them again. Our cake toppers now sit on a shelf in our living room so we can see them every day.