For the girls... (Betty)

I wanted to blog about these sooo much when I got them, but I had to wait because I didn't want to spoil the gift for the girls if they happened to look at our blog.

A beautiful customized necklace of a stylized infinity symbol, with a wine-red pearl to match the dresses

Hair clips made by yours truly out of the tulle I used for my veil, and vintage buttons I found about a year ago

For my beautiful bridesmaids.  :)  I was so happy to see them wearing these gifts at our wedding!

Upload photos please!

First of all, thank you so much to anyone and everyone who made it out to our wedding!  I will be updating again as soon as we get our photos back from the wedding.  Suffice to say, everything went lovely and we're so glad to have so many loving and caring friends and family to support our marriage.


Secondly, we're having people upload their photos to a picasa web album. To do this you need to go to:
https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?hl=en_US&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Flh%2Flogin%3Fcontinue%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fpicasaweb.google.com%252Fhome&service=lh2&ltmpl=gp&passive=true

The login is nickandbettystipp@gmail.com
The password is wildhorse

Once you log in, click the "upload" button to the right near the top, and enter your name as the album, then upload the photos. Should be pretty simple!


Stay tuned for more updates and please upload those photos!

Little Paper People

I wonder if I'll actually be able to finish this?

It took me a while to figure out how the tuxedo is made all as one piece.  These aren't very clean or sharp, but I'm hoping to clean up the technique and use good quality paper.  I hope I can get this done, I really like these.

In your nearest mailbox...

The invitations turned out beautiful.  My brother Aaron spent countless hours making them especially for us, an awesome beginning to what we hope will be an awesome wedding.  :)  I didn't even get tired addressing and sealing all of them.  

Grow Fonder (Nick)

It's been 25 days since Betty left to go back to Arizona, and every day is harder than the next.  I mean, I knew it would be hard, but seriously...this is damn hard.  It's also become increasingly difficult to plan a wedding together when I'm 2000 miles away and constantly busy.  Betty has become responsible for a lot of the little things that it takes to plan a wedding, and I've been adding my input as often as I can.  It was so much easier when we were both in Tucson, where it was much easier to communicate and plan!

On the bright side--and there always is one--it's amazing how much you come to appreciate loved ones when you're forced to be away from them for some time.  I absolutely cannot wait to get back into my old life with Betty and everyone else I care about.  The wedding is only two months away, which seems like two weeks at this point.  So much to plan, so much to do... but it's worth every ounce of effort.

Cake Topper (Betty)

Exploring more ideas for cake toppers, going from the idea of using a laser cut simple silhouette for a cake topper, and I found someone that makes these:

These are so unique and adorable!  I love the idea, and I think I could make one myself adding my own personal touch (and saving some money).  :)  I'm going to start working on that this week, when I get a chance to run to an art shop and get some pretty papers.

I wish I had brought my crafting tools with me from school...

New ideas: Buttons, cake topper (Betty)

I've been thinking about more details for the wedding for a bit.

I started looking at cake toppers and had the idea to make our own using the laser cutter and wood.  I'm planning to do this with some other items here and there, like the placards and maybe some accents for table decorations...

This is a family of quail, obviously.  What I'm thinking of doing is something like this of a silhouette from one of our engagement photos of the two of us, and leaving it wood colored.

I've also been collecting buttons in the colors for our wedding, to use for centerpieces, placards, corsages bouquets.   I've had the idea for a while of incorporating a few buttons into the floral pieces where the flowers all come together, as a cute accent to add color and interest.  I don't really have any picture examples of this though.  I looked online to see if anyone's done this, and it looks like the only examples I can find are of people who did entire wedding bouquets completely out of buttons instead of flowers.  I only want them there as an accent.
Actually, found one example sort of.  Replace the whispy dried pieces with flowers:

I happened upon this wedding section on etsy that displayed photos of a Southern themed wedding, where the bride also collected buttons.  She had a friend sew them into her hair, and I'm thinking this might be really cute for my hairstyle as well.  I'm not doing an updo, but this sort of thing could easily be done with the side or sides of my hair... and maybe adding some extra fabric detailing of some sort.  I'm getting some extra fabric from my dressmaker for the floral and for hairdos for me and the bridesmaids, so we'll have good colors to work with!

Dress finalized (Betty)

Well, I finally decided on specific colors and whatnot for my dress, and it's in production mode now.  I'm working with a lovely lady in Portland who makes really pretty and unique items, Anisa.  Her store is called Makool Loves You, and her items are available on etsy or in her shop in Portland.  She has a blog, http://blog.makoollovesyou.com.

The dress is like so:


The colors I picked are similar to what's seen here, with another color thrown in for the strap you can barely see in the photo.  I went for the same colors for the body of the dress as well as the contrasting red sleeve.  I think this will go great with my idea of having sunflowers here and there in the wedding.  I chose for the other sleeve to be light green, as we'll be using that throughout the wedding also.

Hey Shaynanana (Betty)

What do you think of putting our laser cutter to good use for table centerpieces/placards that are more special?

Let's dooo it!  We could make something really cute I think.  Might not be able to laser cut tablecloths...but this is doable!

Love is Friendship Caught Fire (Betty)

“Love is friendship caught fire; it is quiet, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection, and makes allowances for human weaknesses. Love is content with the present, hopes for the future, and does not brood over the past. It is the day-in and day-out chronicles of irritations, problems, compromises, small disappointments, big victories, and working toward common goals. If you have love in your life, it can make up for a great many things you lack. If you do not have it, no matter what else there is, it is not enough.” 


This is by Laura Hendricks.  I found it a long time ago and saved it, thinking I'd like it used somewhere in the ceremony.  Maybe during some sort of unity candle lighting?  Hmm.  Anyway, I really like it.