Wedding News --- Wedding Favors!

Our son got married on November 9, 2013.  Three weeks have already whizzed by since then!  Whew!  I haven't blogged much over the past month due to the wedding and being out of town.  Since I've been back, I've been busy catching up on everything and now trying to catch up on crafting and blogging.

The Hubs and I were in Oklahoma for ten days, which was a much needed break for him from work, a nice change of scenery for the both of us (did you know central Oklahoma is REALLY flat?), and to spend a little extra time with our son and his now wife, before the wedding.  

Oklahoma is now the farthest west I have traveled across the U.S.  And yes, being a mountain girl, I was surprised at how flat it really was!  

First, here is a photo of the happy newlyweds:

Mr. & Mrs. Patrick Salkeld

The wedding was small but beautiful in a tiny chapel on the campus of the University of Central Oklahoma, where both Patrick and Helen are students.  Helen had her best friend as Maid of Honor and Patrick had his brother, Ben, as Best Man.  Helen's mom did all of the decorations for the chapel and they were beautiful! 

Pew Wreaths made by Bride's mother

As the Groom's parents, Dave and I were responsible for the rehearsal dinner.  And, I decided to make some favors for everyone.  The wedding party was just the bride and groom, a maid of honor and best man (our youngest son).  And since we had some extended family fly in for the wedding early we decided to invite them and the bride's siblings/spouses/children.  The total was about 21 people in all, so not really a large number.

Thus, months ago I began thinking and planning along with Helen and Patrick.  They had originally thought to have a small token of Oklahoma (where Helen is from) and a small token of West Virginia and North Carolina (where Patrick grew up).  However, it became difficult to find something inexpensive and small from each place.  

I had purchased handblown glass kisses from Tamarack back in the summer.  For those who may not know, Tamarack is a large handcraft shopping mall situated in Beckley, WV.   All of the vendors/crafters in Tamarack are exclusively West Virginians.  If you ever have the opportunity visit West Virginia, Tamarack is a must for wonderfully exquisite handcrafted souvenirs.  

And, it just so happened that the day the Hubs and I stopped by on our way back from visiting family and friends in WV, an old friend who also happens to be a glass blower, was working in the glass section of Tamarack.  They have a huge plate glass window from which behind various WV glass blowers come and work and blow glass for customers to watch glass being made right there.  We hadn't seen him since we moved ten years ago so it was truly a special treat.  He doesn't make the glass kisses I bought, but I did get a free glass ring holder he does make!  

 

The large kiss in the middle was a special kiss for the Bride and Groom.  All of the others were the clear crystal ones.  Please excuse the poor photo quality.  I took the photos with my IPhone in the hotel room after we had put them all together. 



I put each kiss in a muslin bag that I had stamped "Together Forever" on the front.  On the back side I stamped an "H", a heart, and a "P".  Of course I had to remark to both Patrick and Helen that it looked like "Harry Potter" initials.  LOL

Since we didn't find anything from OK or NC, I bought some glass favor jars and decorated the outside of them and then filled them with chocolate kisses.

Everything went down inside a decorated kraft style gift bag lined with pink tissue paper.  If you haven't realized already, the wedding colors were pink and brown with a kind of natural kind of theme.

I kept the bag decor simple using the same stamped monogram "S" as on the jars and burlap and added a pink embossed label behind all of it.  The monogram stamps had some crystal Stickles added to them for a little sparkle.

This was the bride and groom's bag with 2 roses.  Everyone else only got one rose.

It was a bit challenging putting these all together as I had to have my son buy the jars in OK so I wouldn't have to transport them on the plane.  I had also mailed all the glass kisses to them too.  And of course, I didn't have everything completed in order to just send it all over ahead of time and wound up carting three ziplock bags of labels and burlap and two packs of gift bags in my carry on with my dress for the wedding.  Wasn't any way I was going to check any of that!  LOL  So then, once I got to OKC I had to get supplies out there and put everything together.  I found the burlap did not stick to the jars so well without a glue gun.  And the paper label on top of the burlap would not stay wrapped around either without several pop dots.   For all I know, everyone now has label-less jars! LOL  At least they looked good that night!

Now for some more wedding photos ---

Patrick (Groom), Me, Ben (Best Man)

                               

Ben - Dave - Patrick

The Salkelds

  

The Salkelds & The Salkelds

It was a very special and memorable 10 days.  And while it was a wonderful day it's nice to settle back into routine and to feel blessed having expanded our family to include a daughter in law!

Irish Marriage Blessing

May God be with you and bless you.
May you see your children's children.
May you be poor in misfortunes
  and rich in blessings.
May you know nothing but
happiness from this day forward