A Simply Sweet Little Wedding

I have some friends that got married last week.

They are very fun and sweet people.

The Tres Leche wedding cake from a Mexican Bakery was the best!  It was so moist I could have drank it!

Some of my friends and I got together to decorate the wedding for her.  It was so simple and yet so sweet.  I cannot take credit for the yellow and white flowers and pompoms, but it is amazing what you can do with tissue paper.  They also mixed in a few fresh tulips and hydrangeas.  The bride wanted to keep it simple, so we honored her wishes.

I had fun putting together the dessert bar.

Congratulations to a sweet family!!!

Cake Stand Give Away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, folks… to celebrate the nearly 200 hundred cake stands I've made and making it to nearly 100 Etsy sales, I am doing a give away.

"Like" me on Facebook and your name will be entered for a chance to win.

Just click here for details.  It is just in time for Mother's Day gifting.  But hurry… when I hit 100 I will do the drawing.  I am only 3 sales away.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rita-Marie-Weddings/137472069771525

And thanks for stopping by!

A Tour of Donato's Floral

But first....

Take a look at what we woke up to this Spring morning on April 23.... and it does not rhyme with tulips!

 The weather man assures us spring is just around the corner, even though it has not given us even a sneak preview.  This is one of the longest lasting winters I can remember.

 At least it is pretty.

Back to Donato's.  You walk into their gift shop.  It is quite lovely.

 They also have rental items (here are a few).

 My station.

Then they have their work area area and warehouse in the back.  It has a cool feel to it.

Here are some of the treasures you can buy from my little area of the shop, lots of vintage linens, napkins, hankies, and doilies.  They are a bargain, I tell you!

You can come here to have a consultation to rent vintage cake stands and table cloths.  Or to buy custom cake stands.

And I have lots of vases, candleabrus, flowers, and vintage accessories that are for sale right now.  Leave a comment if you are interested, or e-mail me at info@ritamarieweddings.com.

Thanks for stopping by!

info@ritamarieweddings.com

From Anti-rustic to Let's Get Chicken Wire

I've been wanting to tackle this make-over project for a long time, and finally got the motivation since we need it to display my cake stands on at Donato's.

I started with this (sorry they are blurry).

For Family Home Evening, we gathered the kids together and we all sanded.  It only took about 30 minutes with the 4 of us working together (Family Home Evening is something we participate in every Monday night as a family.  We drop everything and get together for a lesson, activity or games, and a treat).

Then we painted the first coat.  I used an ivory color, it was the lightest one on the color swatch.

Now here is the funny part- enter my husband.  Almost the entire time we are painting, he can't stop moaning and groaning because we are painting over this beautiful oak grain.  It was truly painful for him.  I kept telling him, yes is is pretty, but it is too outdated to display our things at the shop.  He still did not like it.

After the paint dried, it was time to sand again.  We roughed it up along the edges and certain spots to give it he rustic appeal we were going for.  Again, extremely painful for the man who just worked so hard to paint beautiful lines everywhere.  He did not like that stage of the process either!

Then we took a glaze that was tinted brown.  The Sherwin Williams guy helped me find the dark color that complemented the ivory I chose so that they had the same hues from the same color family.

A little glaze goes a very long way.  We worked together.  I used a paint brush and put the coat of glaze on, while hubby used a rag to wipe it off.  Something quite magical occurs and the grain of the wood pops out.  Mr. Skeptic was still doubting saying, "I don't know about this."  Although he was glad to see the grain again.

We completed the whole project in just 2 evenings.  It really does not take long.  If this was in our home and we used it a lot, it would have been best to put a coat of polyurethane on it.  We skipped that since this is mainly just for looks.

We needed to update the old knobs.  So 1990 they were.  My man was not looking forward to this part either.  "Are you sure they need to be painted?  They are in perfectly good condition."  

"Just trust me," I pleaded.

So we pull out the primer and he did his wonderful first coat.  Then we painted them Robin's Egg Blue.  I was going for something really different and fun that would be interesting to look at in the shop.

Aren't they cute and kinda sassy!?

Then, out of the blue, Mr. Skeptic says, "You know what would look really cool…. instead of putting the glass back in, lets get chicken wire.  We could paint it blue to match the knobs."

Huh?  Chicken wire?  He cracks me up.  He went from anti-rustic to let's get chicken wire in less that 48 hours!  I am glad he caught the vision!

Too bad we ran out of time.  We had to get it delivered and didn't have time to get chicken wire.  If he still has that artistic need, I told him he is free to do it anytime after we're settled in, but the glass needed to do for now.

Here is the finished product.

And here it is with my things on it…. more of those pictures to come.  And thank you to my husband who did the most work out of everyone (you did a fabulous job!).  It was so fun to work together on this project.

Merry Christmas!

Just want everyone else in the world to feel as confused as we do here in Minnesota!

This is our snow… pretty and white, just the wrong time of year!

Now I am singing the old traditional Christmas song with new words, "I'm dreaming of a green spring…"

Happy April 19.

Green Daisy Cake Stands

What can be sweeter than these cake stands with a daisy print on the plate….

And these charming vintage green pedestals?

 It is a great marriage.

And I've got 3 of them for sale, $29 each.  If you are interested, leave me a comment, and I will get right back to ya.

 Nothin' is much sweeter, 'cept maybe the cake.

 Where is this Southern Drawl comin' from?

I think it is from pouring over the pictures over at Savvy Southern Style Blog.  I've found a new love over there: click here to fall in love with her blog.  That's where I went to find instructions on how to do a make-over to my old China Hutch.  Pictures will be coming soon.  It turned out great and it really was not difficult.  I will be using it to display my cake stands and vintage linens over at Donato's Floral.

Thanks for stopping by, y'all!  Wink, wink.

Tea Cups and Vintage Items For Sale!

These would be so handy for collectors, or for someone throwing a wedding or party with a vintage theme.  

We placed the teacups and saucers around different tables, mingling them between flowers and center pieces and such.  It was charming.

There are 13 of them.  This entire set is $25.

We did the same with these vintage accessories.  So sweet!

There are 15 pieces to the set.  This cost $30.

The pink vase is an antique marked Lyndale China still on it, which is worth $10-15 alone.

And the tea cups without saucers were used as parting gifts with these hot cocoa baggies and the wedding couple thank you tags tied on each one.  You could put anything in them: poupourrie, apple cider mix, candy, etc. 

There are a total of 38 tea cups, some patterns are the same, but there are quite a few different patterns.

This costs $40.  

If you want all 3 of these, I will give a 10% discount.

Leave a comment if you are interested.  Or find me on Craigs List and contact me through the listing (will be posted on Monday).