Bridesmaids: You're Cordially Invited..
When my fiancé proposed, my head was spinning. I couldn’t believe it was happening, to me and to say I didn’t see it coming, well that would be an understatement. After planning countless television weddings, it’s finally my turn and I couldn’t be more thrilled! It still doesn’t feel real that I get to marry my best friend. But now that I have had some time to let it sink in, I’m getting used to it. Like when Beyonce’s Single Ladies comes on, I don’t gotta put my hands up! It’s great!
One of my first thoughts when the whirlwind began to settle was how I would ask my besties to stand up there with me. Every thought went through my head… Singing telegrams with gorilla suites (why not?!) Mix CDs of our favorite songs, bottles of champagne… I mean the list went on. I hunted through Etsy and Pinterest, racked my brain of ideas from all the weddings I’ve helped plan… NOTHING! Then finally, wham! It came to me, classy and funny. This explained my friends perfectly.
Some of these girls, I have known since we were nuggets. We played dolls together, the whole nine yards. So I thought, dolls! What better way than using a Bridesmaid Barbie to ask these girls, seeing how it’s my turn to play the Bridal Barbie! So I customized them each a Barbie and Barbie box, complete with a bridesmaid’s dress, accurate hair color, and wedding packaging. Next was creating a card to pop the question.
Since California is all about recycling items, upcylcing items I took that into consideration when creating the card’s envelope. I wanted to give the girls something they could reuse, since I didn’t know how much they really would use the Barbie! So I grabbed some extra fabric, an existing envelope, my crafty mom and got to work.
By opening up an existing envelope, where were able to use it as a template for the fabric envelope. This created something the girls could reuse for lip-gloss and items in the bottom of their purse while providing the perfect packaging for the note inside! Even better, with the extra envelope fabric, I was able to have my mom sew little bridesmaids’ dresses to really tie everything together!
I quickly created a card on the computer (Thank you Lindsay for your help!) and added some dimension by mounting it on cardstock. The card really served as the icing on the cake, carrying each element into the next. Once it was all wrapped up, the gift looked classy even though what was underneath was….well, a joke. It was definitely a fun way to reuse some old supplies, in true California style, and make something fun!
Now.... I just had to convince these girls it’s a good idea to deal with me for the next year while I plan this wedding!!
Contributed by estCA staff, Megan Araujo