Make that completely crushing on them.

Let me start out by saying that I am quite the Wes Anderson fan–I can watch The Royal Tenenbaums ad nauseum, and I think my pals are a little sick of me playing the Life Aquatic Stuido Sessions with Seu Jorge whenever there’s a party.  His obsessive attention to detail kills me–from wardrobe to set design to soundtrack choices, what seems like an odd mix of random elements becomes cohesive and pitch-perfect under his direction:

(Image from imdb.com)

And the promotional shots of the Louis-Vuitton designed luggage for The Darjeeling Limited have been in my mind for a while and I wanted to work them into my wedding aesthetic somehow:

(image from Rushmore Academy)

And then my muse whacked me over the head with a fabulous idea.

My first contact with these suitcases was from reading a weddingbee post–one of the lovely Bees was a.) making her bridesmaids a little “will you be my bridesmaid?” gift and used suitcases as the packaging and b.) a huge fan of Paper-Source, one of the links over there on my blogroll.  So not only did she give me a great idea for my bridesmaid gifts, but she even gave me a place to buy them (and for a reasonable price, to boot!).  So much thanks and good DIY-karma is currently being sent her way.

What did I end up choosing?  Fortunately, given that my main color is fairly commonplace, I was able to find a small riveted suitcase that completely worked with my Anderson-inspired aesthetic:

I’ve ordered all six (which is why they are now out of stock!) and they are likely arriving on the ides of April to my parents’ house.  They’ll join my package of ivory wraps that I bought for each of my ladies (not for the ceremony as much as something to use during the cocktail hour, and then as a scarf later on) that I ordered from Target, as well as the bracelet I’m currently DIY-ing for each of them (and for each of those, I am constructing an origami box, because I’m a nerd like that).

The question, though, is what else to add?  I’m already adding a luggage tag to each of them…but what else should go in there?  I was thinking a piece of vintage jewelry for each of my ladies (not necessarily to wear on the big day–more of a keepsake), or perhaps a Moleskine journal and pen…but I don’t know.  What I’d really love to do is to get each girl one of the new Moleskine City Notebooks of either a city they love or one they hope to visit one day…but is that enough?

Help!  How did you add a personal touch to each of your bridesmaid gifts?

If you checked out my inspiration board, you may have noticed that there is a big ol’ honking book cover that’s prominently displayed:

Image from amazon.com.

This happens to be from the 60’s-era Scribner Library Classics series and is my primary influence when it comes to designing our favors and our programs.

You see, I have a thing for vintage paperbacks due to their tendency to have strong, minimal graphics (but I also just happen to love old books in general).  I used to drag the RG to my favorite used bookstore in Paoli, PA armed with a $20 bill, and usually would come out a little sneezy (due to the mold and dust) and with a pile of books.  Sadly, the Paoli Book X-change has since closed (the last time I passed by it the building was completely gutted, to my horror), but it will live on in the spirit of the party as…

Our road-trip friendly wedding favor!

The RG and I are pretty serious about making awesome CD mixes whenever we’re faced with a drive to and from Pennsylvania.  So when the topic of wedding favors came up, I immediately knew that we’d make a CD, and together we decided that a mix geared towards carrying on our party’s spirit in the car would be more guest-friendly (and more fun to make) than one full of sappy love songs like I’ve seen in the past.

To be a bit romantic as well as a bit irreverent, we picked some of our favorite love-related quotes from unexpected places–The Office, The Godfather, Ulysses, and Okervil River’s album Black Sheep Boy.  Some are more serious than others, but they all reflect our very diverse taste in all things television, book, film, and music-related.

Now we have to just figure out the final playlist…which may prove to be tougher than deciding on a final guest list was.

 What was/were the best favor(s) you received at a wedding?

Welcome to my first DIY! In addition to my own jewelry, I’m making each of my bridesmaids a bracelet in my color palette as a small part of their overall gift (but more on that later). I realize that I should probably be working on the more complicated bridal necklace instead of something so simple, but I do have to make six of them, so better start now than forget.

Would you like to step into my bead studio? It’s very spacious, as you can see:

Actually, not so much, but what it lacks in space it certainly makes up for in quantity:

But I digress. Let me take you through the creation of one of these bracelets. My intent was to bring in the three colors of the palette into a small token that wasn’t an immediate focal point (so no necklace) but instead just a small detail that adds a touch of uniformity to them.

My mise en place:

Blue-violet and orange (although they call it dark red) aventurine beads, 4mm and 6mm respectively, mono-filament string (also known as fishing line!), toggle clasps, and my trusty wire clipper.  Beads and findings were purchased at Michaels from their “bead gallery” brand, which at the time was on sale, so bonus.

I really liked the colors by themselves, so instead of doing a pattern like I am generally wont to do, I instead decided to have two layers of nearly solid color.  I added crystal spacers at the end to give a little more length to the bracelet and to also add a bit of sparkle:

Unfortunately, I didn’t realize until after I finished stringing the larger beads that the two rows weren’t even, so rummaging through my haphazard collection of random beads found me a string of 8mm amethyst rounds which nicely completed the palette and, with one on each end, made the orange row the perfect length:

Like I said, this was a pretty simple project, so I’m not going to insult your intelligence by giving step-by-step instructions on how to essentially transfer beads from a temporary string onto a “permanent” one, but if anyone has any questions on this, post in the comments section and I’ll get back to you.

When I start getting into the real work, aka my necklace, then you’ll see some real step-by-step instruction.

So, what do you think?  Anyone else make their BM’s a little something for the day?