Dressing Up My Mom

Shopping for a dress for my mom to wear for the wedding wasn't something I was particularly looking forward to. Remember how I bought my dress without ever going shopping or withoutever  trying it on, well this was part of the reason. After the fact, I asked my mom if she was upset that I had bought the dress without going shopping together, she told me she was not looking forward to that part. See, while I love my mom and my mom loves me, if we spend too much time together - we tend to fight and irritate the crap out of each other. We are VERY similar in personality and for some reason, that doesn't gel very well after a while. I think we both expected this to be a BIG disaster.

My dad called my mom around noon to see if we had killed each other yet.  We hadn't even left the house. Ahahaha.  Good start to the day. So we headed out with the confidence of my father spurring us on.  I'm not sure if the stars were aligned or we've just gotten better at shopping together, but we did NOT fight - not once - during the entire dress shopping time!

Oh, yeah, and my mom found a dress.  That's the point of this post, right?

My dress shopping experience in stores is very much like my dress shopping experience online.  I see a dress I like, and I know it's the dress I have to have. The first dress I picked out for my mom, just happened to be the one she bought.  The dress just caught my eye, and she LOVES it so much she didn't want to take it off, which is a good sign!  The only thing I really cared about was that it fit with the colors of the wedding - she wanted nothing matronly, or mother of the bride-ish - just something elegant.

Here is what she chose:

THE Dress - front view

And the back.

Obviously, brown isn't in the color family of the wedding, so here's my mom in the right color dress -

The smile says it all - she LOVES the dress. And isn't this color AMAZING. 

The dress is too big, but the color is spot on.  It is a grayish blue, and just fits perfectly.  I saw it on the hanger and new instantly that this was my mom's dress.  She tried on a few more, but none compared to the first one.  I loved it. She loved it.  It was meant to be. 

Even though she found THE dress in such a short time, dress shopping had just begun. She was also looking for a dress for my brother's wedding which is in October. Their colors are a pale green and and purple (not unlike Miss Sword's!), and this is the one that is currently in the lead.  

Notice the gloves? The store has you wear them when you try on dresses to not get the oils from your hands on the dress.  It is SERIOUS there. Also, Mom  was really liking the one shoulder look. 

We ended up going to two more stores, looking for a dress for my brother's wedding (I introduced my mom to the wonderful world of Nordstrom Rack - dangerous!), but she didn't really find anything that was better than the one above.

By the end of the day, we were definitely tired of shopping, and a little cranky (there may have been one small disagreement on the way home) but I would say the day was a success!

How was your shopping experience with your mom? Did anyone else choose their mom's dress for them? 

Happy Shoppers.

If I were to make a list of things Mr. Ly loves it would surely include video games, movies, music, and of course ME, but do you know what Mr. Ly does NOT love?  Shopping.  ESPECIALLY on the weekends.  So to entice him into enjoying our day of registering, I let him hold the scanner, which I convinced him was sort of like a video game remote. (See he even holds it like a Wii remote) and promised him free food.

And I let him choose whatever he wanted.

We first registered at Crate & Barrel, during a Wedding Party Event.  Getting Mr. Ly up early on a Sunday was not going to be an easy task, but there was food and beverages. And the fact that the store wasn't open during the registry event made it even more appealing.  I strongly suggest signing up for one of these events if you are bringing a reluctant shopper with you.  It was so much fun, we had some breakfast, got to sample some products from vendors who were there, and racked up a list of things we would love to receive without the typical weekend crowds and stressful shopping environment.  It was actually a really laid back time and we had a ball!

Just lounging on the couches, after an easy morning of registering (doesn't he look like he's having fun??) 

So what did we register for?

SodaStream Soda Maker via Crate and Barrel

This soda machine is top on our list of things we really want.  We don't drink a ton of soda, but we go through seltzer like it's going out of style.  Seriously, I started drinking seltzer when I gave up soda sometime last year, and got Mr. Ly hooked on it too. We go through four or five liters of seltzer a week. Maybe more. It's not expensive, but still - paying for bubbly water seems a bit lavish when you can make it yourself. What we love about the SodaStream is that you can control the carbonation, and also we won't have to pay much for our seltzer addiction anymore.

We also registered for some dishes, glasses, kitchen gadgets, and some cookware, but nothing too exciting to note.

Our next trip for registering was at Bed Bath and Beyond.  Unfortunately they don't have any Rock Your Registry events near Philly, although I hear that this is like THE registry event if you can get to one.  But I wasn't going to make the mistake of taking Mr. Ly to BBB on a weekend (I've heard some horror stories about registering there on a Saturday or Sunday!), so we headed over one night after dinner to create our registry. We probably got there around 8 pm on a weeknight, and as you can probably imagine, the store was pretty dead.  By the time we got our registry set up, and started scanning, it was probably closer to 9.  The store closes at 9:30, but since we weren't making any purchases, just scanning, they were willing to let us stay as long as we wanted - long after they had closed.  It was, again, a very low-key, no pressure experience.

My favorite thing from our BBB registry?

Kate Spade New York - Darlington Toasting Flutes via Bed, Bath & Beyond

Surprised? No, probably not. But we only registered for these and the matching dessert set for our cake cutting.  I didn't make Mr. Ly register for an entire set of Kate Spade china, no matter how badly I wanted to!  I let Mr. Ly pick the pattern he liked best, and he coincidentally picked the same china that my sister and brother-in-law received for their wedding 8 years ago - at least the pattern is still around! And if we don't get a full set, we can combine with them and share!

Noritake Aegean Mist  via Bed, Bath & Beyond

Finally, we have our Amazon registry.  I love the Amazon registry because I can add anything I want to it, from any website.  I have a universal "add to registry" button on my toolbar, and if I'm browsing the internet and come across something I love - it goes directly on the registry.

This is how we ended up with not one, but two cookie jars on our registry.

Mr. Ly doesn't know I added this one... so it's kind of a surprise.  If we don't get it for the shower - I am definitely buying it for his birthday! (shhh. don't tell.)

Portal Weighted Companion Cube Cookie Jar  (a must have for ANY Portal fan!) via Think Geek

And this super adorable cookie jar is more decorative, but I love it.

Wide Eyed Cookie Jar via Anthropologie

We haven't touched our registry in months. I haven't even really thought about it to be honest but Mr. Ly said to me just the other day, "you know, we should go back to those stores and finish our registries."  I think I nearly passed out because Mr. Ly never suggests that we go shopping. Ever.  He must have really enjoyed himself.  

I think the secret to a happy shopper is 1) an empty store, 2) a full stomach, & (most importantly) 3) ONE STORE PER DAY. Both times we weren't hungry (which means we won't get hangry!) and we had the run of the store to ourselves.  I'd say, if you can swing those two things and can spread your registering out over multiple days, you can get almost any non-shopper to enjoy registering! 

Anyone else surprised by how much your fiance enjoyed registering? Any other tips for keeping reluctant shoppers happy? 

Inspired: Mad Men Hair & Makeup

Now that I've shared with you the inspiration for our engagement shoot, it's time to actually do some planning for hair & makeup.  

I wear makeup EVERY SINGLE DAY. Not a ton, but I feel completely naked and not very pretty without it.  I've worn makeup daily since 8th grade, and feel that I am pretty good at doing my own makeup.  (That being said, I will be getting it done professionally for the wedding because I love getting my makeup done!)  But for engagement pictures, I can handle it on my own.  Being that we'll be in Atlantic City, I think it would be a hassle to try to get someone to do my makeup for the day.  Also, I'll be doing my hair myself.  I am not great at doing much with my hair, so this may be a bit of a struggle.

For our Mad Men themed photo shoot, I'd like to look something like this...

Christina Hendricks / Image via Soap Net

I don't ever post pictures of me without make-up on, but for the sake of posterity and seeing what I'm starting with - for you guys, I will.

Here I am, without makeup on:  (I'm cringing as I even type this!)

Ok, whew.  (I saved you all the horror of having extra large photos of me w/o makeup)

So, for this look, I think the eyes have it all.  I have this kit by Bare Minerals, that I thought would help me create this look perfectly.

bareMinerals Face Fashion - Classic Glam

Here is how it turned out:

 Close ups are weird and I never take pictures dead-on -- you can see why! 

Overall, I'm please with how the makeup turned out, even with the weird closeups. But unfortunately, makeup doesn't complete the look. Next up, the hair...

Here's how it started:

Lots of hair

And here's what I came up with:

It's nothing fancy, really just swept to the side in the front, and I rolled pieces of my hair and pinned it in the back. It took 10 minutes, maybe. I have no pictures of my from the back, but it's really just a mess.  I need to figure out to make it neater.

So what do you think of my Mad Men inspired hair/makeup?  Any tips for improving the look/help me create a neater up-do?

Edit: I went to the grocery store like this... and got some interesting looks! Maybe it's just too dressy for a trip to the store, but maybe it looks terrible? Thoughts??? Am I just paranoid? 

Finding Our Song

As I mentioned previously, Mr. Ly and I have spent a lot of time trying to find our first dance song.  We found our last dance fairly easily, but we still couldn't agree on our first dance.

We needed a plan to narrow down our choices.  We have the habit of putting things off, so we decided we'd take 2 weeks to compile a list of choices. We'd each make a list of our top 5 choices, and then we'd listen to each other's selections, and come together to make a final decision.  (Seriously, did anyone else employ such an intensive process?)  Without this process, we may have ended up with My Sharona as our first dance. (we have seriously discussed this possibility.)

So last Friday, we sat down and listened to each other's choices - separately, so as not sway either of our decisions. We took this VERY seriously. After listening, we came together to discuss and decide.

Without further ado:
Miss Lyre's Top 5:
1. Songbird - Eva Cassidy
2. Heavenly Day - Patty Griffin
3. Keep Warm - Ingrid Michaelson
4. Someone Like You - Van Morrison
5. Hold You in My Arms - Ray Lamontagne 
*Bonus Track* Colors - Grace Potter (I added this as my extra track because I KNEW Mr. Ly would choose this song.)

Mr. Ly's Top 5:
1.  At Last - Etta James 
2. In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel
3. Colors - Grace Potter (I was RIGHT!)
4. The Luckiest - Ben Folds
5. The Book of Love - Peter Gabriel 

Obviously, we could have just easily agreed on Grace Potter. But we argued our cases for the other songs as well.  Mr. Ly picked a lot of songs that have significance to our relationship, and I picked songs more based on lyrical significance.

I had really been pushing Ingrid Michaelson for a while - I love the lyrics to "Keep Warm"
"Sables and wine till the end of time you give me much more than that
Diamond rings and beautiful things
Oh you give me much more than that
When you smile 


You are mine to keep warm
And it's cold outside but I'm just fine
You are mine to keep warm"

With our winter wedding, and our love of Ingrid (ok, mostly mine - but Mr. Ly does appreciate a lot of her music), I really pushed this song pretty hard. But Mr. Ly just couldn't get behind it. He was ok with any of my other suggestions, but I didn't really push for any of those.

Mr. Ly really pushed for "The Luckiest" and "The Book of Love," both songs I love, and have a strong significance to our relationship.  We were seriously discussing "The Book of Love" but as much as I love Peter Gabriel's version, I'm partial to the Magnetic Fields' version, which Mr. Ly feels is too abrasive sounding. So we had to nix another suggestion. 

Throughout our discussion, we were overlooking our overlapping choice - "Colors" by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. One of our first concerts together was the XPN music festival, and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals was one of the first acts we saw.  We enjoyed her performace so much that for my birthday that year, Mr. Ly bought us tickets to see her with the Avett Brothers in Baltimore.  I can remember listening to the song both times we saw it performed live, and how at the time, it gave me "love song butterflies" (you know when you're in the early stages of a relationship and you think every love song is just perfect for you and your SO!) It reminds me of a time when we were just discovering our love for each other and we both connect so strongly to this song. We gave our mutual choice one more listen, and decided that this song has the lyrical elements that I love, and the sentimental elements that Mr. Ly loves. So we both agreed that it will be a perfect first dance song.  It is a tad long at 5 minutes, but hopefully our guests don't mind too much! 

"You don't have to ask me why 
Because I know you understand 
All the treasures of my life 
Are right here in my hand 
Suspended in a moment 
No more breath to catch 
If you hold on to your end 
Maybe we can make this last


This is the greatest time of day
When all the clocks are spinning backwards
And all the ropes that bind begin to fray
And all the black and white turns into colors"

And that is how we finally chose our first dance song!  To be honest, we had mentioned it before but we were both certain that there were other songs out there that would be better for us.  Turns out we should have gone with our initial gut, but it was fun taking a musical walk down memory lane, and coming together to select a song that truly is perfect for us. 

Who else had a detailed and organized process for selecting a first dance? Was yours an easy choice or did you have a debate over your choices? 

Engagement Shoot Inspiration

You remember when I told you that I found our Save the Dates while I was searching for inspiration for our engagement shoot?  Well, I am presently putting together the inspiration for our photo shoot next month.

We obviously aren't using these pictures for our Save the Dates, and didn't really need them since we had a photo shoot the day we got engaged, so we thought we'd have a little fun with them. It comes with our photography package, and I think it's a great chance to get to know our photographer a little better - and get some cool photos too!  We decided to have some fun and do a Mad Men/retro themed/1950s-60s photo shoot.

First up, location scouting.  First I was looking into doing the shoot at an old fashioned bar in Philly, but bars aren't always open during the day, I didn't want to have pay any shooting fees, and they are kind of dark for pictures.  So I changed my focus to hotels, and considered possibly seeing if we could get a room to shoot in, or just shoot in the lobby.

So I was on Groupon (ha, really, don't be surprised!) and saw a great deal for a stay at The Chelsea Hotel in Atlantic City.  We're not taking a vacation this summer because we're saving for the wedding and will be taking two trips next year.  AC is a day trip really, but we decided an overnight stay in the penthouse would suffice for NOT taking a vacation this summer. Also, it's a prime spot for some killer retro style photos.

(all photos below courtesy of the The Chelsea Atlantic City)

Hotel Entrance

Lobby

Restaurant & Hotel Bar

The Living Room (lounge area)

C5 Night Club

Since we'll be taking our pictures in the middle of the week, during the day, I don't anticipate having to fight off crowds, or running into any trouble using the spaces.  I think they will be the PERFECT back-drop to our photos.

Now, what to wear?
I gathered some inspiration for the photo shoot and created some collages to capture the feel that I wanted for the pictures.

Here's what I had in mind for the casual portion of our shoot -

Casual Engagement Shoot by Miss Lyre 

J Crew j crew cardigan
jcrew.com

50s Style Polka Dot Prom Dress As Seen In MORE Magazine
etsy.com

Fitzwell strappy heels
zappos.com

Fendi red jewelry
$135 - pret-a-beaute.com

Kate spade jewelry
nordstrom.com

And for the formal shots, I had something like this in mind -

Formal Engagement Shoot by Miss Lyre 

Classic black dress
$55 - amazon.co.uk

Salvatore Ferragamo low heels
$470 - farfetch.com

Logo bag
atelier-mayer.com

1928 antique vintage jewelry
1928.com

I realize that both outfits are pretty dressy, but I think they both fit the look I am going for.  I have almost all the elements of both outfits already, and I am really excited to see how it looks all put together! Now, I just need some inspiration for Mr. Ly - which is proving to be harder than I originally thought! 

I hate to keep you all waiting, but our shoot isn't until August, so keep an eye out for these photos in about a month or two (hopefully our photographer won't keep us waiting too long!) 

Did anyone else use their engagement shoot as an excuse to play dress up?  What are some cool ideas you've had for a themed engagement shoot? 

Do Me A Favor.

Last night, I was having dinner with some family friends who are visiting for a few weeks from Sweden.  They had a lot of questions about the wedding, and somehow the topic of favors came up.  The mother of the family lived in America for a year (with my family, actually) and understands favors, and explained them to her children as being an American tradition.

I never thought about it one way or the other, but it surprised me to hear that American's are the only ones who give gifts to people who we host for parties.  After a little bit of research, I found that we aren't the only ones (apparently, it has history in many countries in Europe, Australia, India, & many other countries I didn't come across in my brief search, too). But there isn't a good source I could find quickly to confirm it completely.  All I know is that we give favors rather expectantly, and my family friends from Sweden think this is strange.

If you're interested in knowing WHY we give favors, I can give you a brief history based on what I read quickly in my search.  It dates back to medieval times, when sugar was a thing of wealth, and gifts of sugar and confections were given out to demonstrate the wealth of the hosts and as a means of thanking the guests for coming.  In a slightly more modern sense, in the 16th - 18th centuries, when sugar was still a measure of wealth, it became popular to give gifts of sugar in jeweled or porcelain boxes, at any party or event, again as a display of wealth.  As the price of sugar was lowered, favors trickled into the lower classes and became more of an every man's item. Here is where we have the inception of jordan almonds - the standard fare wedding favor that dates backs hundreds of years, where five jordan almonds were given as a favor to represent fertility, longevity, wealth, health, & happiness for the couple (these five blessings are found in many cultures traditions).  Unless you are one of the few people who enjoy these almonds - the taste is not delicious for a reason - it's supposed to be a balance of the bitterness and sweetness that married life brings. This makes me hate those wretched candies a teeny bit less - but I will still never eat them!

I'm sure you all wanted that brief history lesson. You're welcome. :)

Anyway,  this brings us up to speed to today, where wedding favors are somewhat unnecessary, sometimes unappreciated, but much stressed over. If you're following with tradition, then today's favors that are sugar based are spot on.  And usually the most appreciated too.  We have never had a candy favor that got thrown out in this house (except Jordan Almonds)! Initially, a candy/food favor would seem the most appropriate for us.

Mini Cakes @ MOH Diane's wedding / Personal Photo

You all remember how my MOH is incredibly talented at her job? Well for her wedding, she created over a hundred mini cakes - in both chocolate and red velvet, covered in fondant, and hand decorated with sugar flowers and piped icing.  She did that on top of making her own 7 tier wedding cake.  Needless to say the guests (myself included!) were bowled over by her talent and has been by far the best favor I've ever received.  However, since we will have an over abundance of food at the wedding, not to mention two cakes, we will not be doing a food favor.

We then toyed with the idea of coasters. I really liked Future Mrs. K's DIY Coasters

DIY Coasters / Image via Weddingbee's Future Mrs. K

I even went as far as buying all the stamps.  But in the end, coasters are not "us" and while I love how cute these are, and Mr. Ly was totally on board,  it just wasn't the right fit for our favors. Also, I'm not all about turning favors into a labor intensive project for myself, although I do want to use those stamps for something!

Our final choice for favors was one I had been resisting, for very silly reasons.  I love photo booths, I have since I was in middle school. Any and every time I pass one, I am just drawn into it.When they started popping up at weddings, I was thrilled.  In 2007,  I experienced my first wedding photo booth and told myself that I would definitely have one at my hypothetical, far off wedding.  Flash forward to recently engaged me in 2011, where photo booths may be the jordan almonds of our time (not gross - I just mean you see them A LOT).  I told Mr. Ly that I did NOT want a photo booth because everyone has a photo booth.  This lasted about 3 months. There was an awesome photo booth deal, and I realized that it didn't matter if every single wedding I ever went to/will go to has a photo booth - I like love them.  So everyone else is doing it - SO WHAT?  I decided we couldn't pass it up, and when I went to buy it, not 24 hours after it went on sale - it was gone.

Just a few of the photo strips currently being displayed in our kitchen from weddings, bridal shows, & the shore
Personal Photo

I hunted LivingSocial deals, Groupons, Philly's Dealyo, Eversave, Saveology, any flash sale site you can think of for months - I was on a mission. I even would check as far north as NYC and south as D.C., I was prepared to pay the travel cost for a good deal! I had to stop myself short once from buying one in Virginia Beach, yes almost 300 miles away. Finally, a good deal came around, we snatched it up, and I'm sure you are all relieved to know that we will be having a photo booth at our wedding!

So far for the Lyre wedding we have Groupon/Living Social favors, nectar (mini) moon, & printing for our invites - do you think I'm obsessed much? What do you think of photos as favors? What are some of the best/worst favors you've ever received?

Invitation Lust

I'm in the phase of wedding planning where all my big stuff has been done - all our major vendors have been booked, and things are just truckin' right along.  Everyone says once you hit the 6 month mark, time just flies by, and I'll look back at this time and wonder where it all went. I've been trying to avoid that rush of time by being ahead of the game as much as possible - I know there are things that can not be done until close to one month ahead of time - but if I don't get a bulk of wedding stuff done before school starts back up in September - I'm screwed.

My next big project is designing our invitations. Using a 30-day trial of Adobe's Creative Suite 6 (maybe if I really like I'll break down and buy it using my education discount!), and Miss Eagle's awesome tutorials, my plan is to design the entire invitation suite and have it printed elsewhere. I don't want anything super complicated, so I'm pretty confident I can pull this off.

I've been scouring the internet for the inspiration I can use to create the best invitation suite for the Lyres.

Love the elegance of the cream and gold with the pop of color here!
 Lourdes Wedding Invitation Suite / via LIANA Photography

I love the all script invitation and the slanted typography
Quill Letterpress Invitation Suite / The Aerialist Press

Again, I'm loving the all-script invitations - and the continuity of the calligraphy throughout the entire suite
Letterpress invitation suite / by Anne Elser 

So you can see I'm drawn to a uniform style of script, and monotone colors (with maybe a pop of color in the liner/belly band), also I'm kind of obsessed with letterpress.  I mean, who isn't? It's so gorgeous and just screams elegance. However, letterpress invitations were never really in our budget. Our theory for most of our paper products is spend less, save more. Since of all the invitations we send out, 95% of them are going to end up in the trash eventually.  We'll save ours, obviously, and some of our family will too, but everyone else will most likely chuck it after the wedding is over. 

My hope is if I can design the entire suite, I am very much willing to splurge on the printing (if I can convince Mr. Ly it's worth it!) - and we were able to score a good deal on invitation printing a while back on Groupon, so I'm hoping that will help discount our printing needs!

How do you feel about letterpress invitations? Is the cost worth it? Has anyone saved the invitations to all the weddings you've been invited? (My future sister-in-law does!) 

Being Present

I am the type of girl who lives behind my camera.  I am always trying to capture moments of my life on film/video. I feel like if I am not taking pictures, no one will, and the moment will be lost and forgotten.  Sometimes, I feel like it keeps me from really being present in my life. I'm capturing it, on film, so we can all relive it, but I'm not actually reliving it, if I'm living it through photos only.

How most people see me / Personal Photo

As a wedding guest, I'm definitely the person who posts pictures on Facebook the day after the wedding, and you know it never even occurred to me that some people would rather that I not. I've actually become a lot more conscious of what I post, and who I tag, even more so recently than in the past. Before dating me, Mr. Ly had about 10 pictures of himself on any social media site, now, there are probably hundreds - thanks to me, mostly.  Some friends request it - and some depend on it. But at the end of the day, I would like to be fully present at my wedding events - showers, parties, etc. - without worrying about taking pictures.


Another aspect of being present means disconnecting from social media. I'm a total internet junkie, and to be honest I can't remember what it's like to not have the internet on my phone, information available at a moment's notice.  As a librarian, I am a full-on early adapter when it comes to new technology.  Some people extol the horrors of media & technology as being bad for our society, for our kids, and for social interaction in general. Some people just really don't like it. I can respect their position, but it's the way most people share and communicate, and I embrace it. I'm not an over-sharer on Facebook (except maybe with pictures!), and I sporadically use Twitter, Instagram, FourSquare, and I love having the outlet when I want it.  I never post something that I think would be questionable if my grandmother read it (my 88 year old grandmother is an avid Facebook user!) or use it as a sounding board for my problems or personal challenges, and I respect other people's choice to use the internet how they will. I am not going to object to people posting our pictures after our wedding, in fact I'm already looking forward to it.  

With that being said (and it may seem hypocritical), but I am going to request that people BE PRESENT during our ceremony. Some version of this sign (or something like this) will greet our guests as they enter the ceremony:

Image via Offbeat Bride

However, I know there will be people who will still take pictures, or post them on Facebook as soon as they happen, and I'm kind of counting on it.  So why have the sign in the first place? I know most people won't take pictures, but there are a few who may not see the sign, or read it, or care. And I really am ok with that.  I want to be present at my wedding, and from the time our pictures start til our very last dance - I will be.  (I can't make any promises for getting ready!) I'd love it if my guests were too, but as someone who knows what it's like to watch a ceremony through the viewfinder of my camera, I fully understand the other side. I see it as a reminder to people who, like me, can get really caught up in preserving the moment, rather than living it.

If I saw this sign at a ceremony, I most definitely would not take pictures, and maybe all of our guests won't either.  That's a risk I'm willing to take.   

If you were at a wedding, and saw a sign like this, would you still take pictures?  

Easy-Peasy Chevron Tote Bag

One of my job responsibilities at the library where I work is to run teen craft nights.  I can plan whatever I want for these, so I've been finding ways to slip wedding-related crafts into something teens would like to do too.  Thus far we've made fabric flower headbands, covered button earrings,  even baked and decorated cupcakes.

I would love to do a chevron clutch for my bridesmaids, but I haven't found any yet that fit my price range or style that I like.  I decided I could probably make them, if I found the right bag, at the right price, how hard could it be? Since I had a craft night coming, I decided we'd make tote bags, and I could practice my chevron stripe.  If you want to make a tote bag for your out of town bags, bridesmaids tote bags, just for fun beach bags - here's a really easy tutorial:

(all photos personal) 

Supplies you'll need: 

• Cardboard (for template)
• Tote Bags
• Painter's Tape or Duct Tape (any strong tape that will stick to the fabric but not permanently!)
• fabric paint & paint brush 

Step 1: Trace a chevron stripe onto cardboard and cut it out: 

(you can find stripe templates all over the internet, I just made my own using word)

(I had to make 13 of these for our craft night!) 

Step 2:  Place stripe on tote bag, using painters tape or duct tape tape around the outline of the stripe: 

Once you have as many stripes as you want on your bag, using fabric paint, paint between the lines of the tape to create the desired effect: 

Let the paint dry, and then peel off the tape to reveal your super cute chevron tote bag! 

I added a small green heart at the top of mine, after it was done - it just looked like it needed something more: 

I am thrilled at how easy this was, and the kids had a great time with it, too! There are some things however that if I were to do it again for my bridesmaids, I'd change:  

• one color paint for the whole bag, higher quality fabric paint - maybe screen printing ink?
• make the template the same size stripe as the tape (I don't like how the painted stripes are thicker than the tape stripes - and personally I like the thinner stripe better)
• making sure all the paint edges are adhered to the bag - the small splotches where the paint bled through are fine for this project but I would not be happy if these came out this way on the bridesmaids bags! 

Also, for time-saving tips: cut the tape strips all at the same time, and just line them up along the surface you are working on. The most time consuming part of this project was cutting the tape every single time I had a new row.  Also, I was supervising 11 teens at the time as well, so that may have been why it took so long!  

I'd say it's a DIY success for the tote bag - now do you think I can replicate/improve it for the clutches? Anyone know where I can find plain white clutches for not too much money?