Back, But Never Really Left

Hi Crafty Friends,
WOW, how long between posts? Too long!! First a quick catch up . . . spring cleaning, end of school year, heavy work load and knee surgery too. No need for the details on any of that. Simply put life has caught up with me for sure!! Through it all I have been crafting and gathering ideas. Wedding ideas! How is it that when a wedding is a year and a half out, one becomes obsessed with all things wedding. So I have one daughter and while I have never been a party planner type, I have resigned myself to the fact that I want it all to be perfect.  I have looked at favor ideas on pinterest, etsy, ebay and every wedding site on the net. I have purchased paper samples, favor samples, you name it I have already researched it. I am now done! The wedding is a year and a half away and it's time to rein myself back into reality. Now with that said I am starting with the most simple reception item I can think of.  The seating cards.  You know, when you get to the venue the little card that tells you what table you are seated at.  If you dare go ahead and google the phrase "wedding placecard holder ideas".  REALLY, there is like hundreds of ideas that would run from cheap to crazy expensive.  So my job as Mom of the Bride was to find the one we could afford, I could make, and the one that would fit the moment.  Come on peeps!, have some faith, I found it. and we love it!!! The venue where the wedding receptions is to be held has an awesome black grand piano at the top the this great staircase.  That is where the venue puts the seating cards.  So the guests come up the steps and the first thing they see is this beautiful piano. After much research and some trial and error, Sam and I thought some form of candlelight on the piano would be awesome, so why not incorporate candlelight and the place card together. The venue would not allow for wax candles so we knew going in that battery operated tea lights would be our best and only option.  I saw on google images some great tea light holders using them.  I ran (yes, ran . . . operated knee and all) down to the kitchen drawer where all my votive holders are and grabbed a plain 2-1/5 inch tall glass votive holder and got to work. I used CraftArtist2 to create the vellum wrap for the holder.  I printed the label on my Canon laser printer and foiled the label with silver foil that I bought from MyBindingCo.com. (for an awesome price, I might add) and I use my laminator to foil the label. Wow!  I can just see 60 or so of these sitting on top of the piano.  I think the best part will be that everyone will bring these to the table so there will be additional  candlelight on every table during the reception.  I have pictures and I only wish it was a picture of all of them, but for that you will need to come back and visit around November of 2016!  If you have any questions on how I created the template let me know.  Here are the best pics I could get:

Thinking that the SU Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon will be changed out for something satin.

I promise I will add a pic of them all at some point.  In the meantime, my next quest will be the bubbles. Gotta have bubbles at the church for sure! I can't even begin to talk about the favors for the wedding and for the shower.  We surely have become "go big or go home"! So much for the budget, oh well, only one daughter so I guess I am going BIG!!
Thanks for stopping by,
Lysa