Photo featured on Offbeat Bride

This photo from our wedding ceremony was featured on today's Offbeat Bride!



by Haley Luna

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! :)

Wedding'd!

Back in mid-June, Daniel and I were properly hitched.



After the walk-through of our vows and surrounding events, check out the link for the entire photo set!

- - -

The ceremony and reception in Oklahoma City at the JRB Art Gallery, catered by Big Truck Tacos, photographed by Haley Luna, custom dress by Maisy Brown.

We wanted our ceremony to be light-hearted, funny, and totally secular. In Oklahoma, it is difficult to hold a totally secular ceremony outside of a courthouse. In our search for an officiant, we lighted upon the idea of having my cousins marry us...and to keep this a secret until the moment the ceremony was to begin!



The script from our vows:

Hello all, and welcome! We are gathered today to celebrate Megan and Daniel’s love for one another. Each of us has strengthened their character and brought happiness into their lives. It is through our continued support that they stand before us together. And, because you are so dear to their hearts, they have decided to make this ceremony short and sweet so we can all get to the food a little faster.

Do you, Megan Raley and Daniel Solis, realize that this ceremony is the biggest real-deal, unplugged, sincerely meaningful, and everlasting thing you’ll ever do?

[in unison] "We do!"

And are you prepared to support and love each other unconditionally, throughout your many years together, no matter how silly or serious, geeky or nerdy, artsy or fartsy, the situation may be?

"We do!"

Do you, Daniel, agree to be Megan's technical support, spellchecker, jogging companion and loving life partner?

"I do."

Do you, Megan, agree to be Daniel's playtester, barber, life coach, and loving life partner?

"I do."

The rings, please.

[Shannon's sister Amelia holds up rings.]

Megan and Daniel made these rings from a single piece of silver. They may look simple, but creating them by hand was not easy to do. Sawing. Forging. Hammering.... Acid baths. It's ironic how many ways you can lose finger when trying to make a ring, but they made it through with all ten digits.

[Megan and Daniel wiggle their fingers and make a heart shape together.]



Awww. Okay, here comes the big important part!

Daniel, do you like it?

"I do!"

Then put a ring on it! Megan, do you like it?



"I do!"

Then put a ring on it! By the power vested in me by the state of Oklahoma, I now pronounce you... hitched!

[Megan and Daniel remove their glasses and smooch.]



[Music: "Never gonna give you up" by Rick Astley]



- - -

Yes, we Rick Rolled our wedding guests. And also, probably one of the only weddings ever to include both a Beyonce reference and the word "fartsy".

We moved the whole group outside for a photo before digging into our delicious food, and JUST as we all lined up, the weekly Oklahoma tornado siren test sounded for about 2 solid minutes. What timing we had! We had to explain through our smiling teeth to our out of town guests not to panic, this is TOTALLY NORMAL. Then, one of my hilarious uncles says loudly, "Illegal preacher siren!" (reminding us all of my cousin with the e-church certificate of ministry who just married us).



Click here to see the whole set! :D

Jeffrey Brown portrait

Please check out the most awesome wedding gift from our friend Brian:





It's fresh from Comic-Con and by the indy comic artist Jeffrey Brown.

Brian knows us all too well. This is flippin awesome.
I made the connection today that he was the artist side of one of my favorite inclusions in the most recent edition of Popgun!

Wedding group Polaroid

The whole group from our wedding on June 12, 2010.

(While this photo was taken, the weekly high-noon tornado siren test blared for 3 minutes! HilARious!)

Wedding Shower goes literal

Daniel and I went to a wedding shower thrown for us by my lovely family. It was on my parents' property, in a sleepy, tiny, North Arkansas farmtown.



Here are links to a couple of slide shows of said shower:

Set 1

Set 2

The best part of this shower, however, was the moment in the late (hot) afternoon when we were ambushed by the local volunteer fire department and hosed down. It was so hilarious, ya'll.






Exchange the water in this shot for a few zombies and we'd fit right in in some horror movie...RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY


Did my Dad ever let go of his $5 cigar despite it being completely soaked? No.

Our invitations featured on Oh So Beautiful Paper

Our invitations (illustrated by Yours Truly and designed by the lovely Kathleen), were featured on the Oh So Beautiful Paper blog this past week. Check it!

Button Bouquet

As a full disclosure, I never envisioned a wedding for myself; so, my opinions on all the big and small details were pretty much nil. I knew what I DIDN'T want, that's about it. One thing I knew I didn't want to spend much money on was a cut flower bouquet - and the idea of having flowers that were grown on another continent cut and shipped just for MY WEDDING was a little overboard (yes, many of the flowers in florist shops are from maaany miles away). I actually had thoughts of no bouquet, but with as small and simple as we're going, I thought I'd oughta fancy it up a little with something bouquet-esque.

My attempt at an alternative is a button bouquet. It's not the freshest idea these days, but it's up my kinda crafty ally. It also doesn't cost $100+ to make one.

Here's my bright colored mini-bouquet test:





Suessian would be a good word for it. It's cute! I like it.

Here's my attempt at the wedding version (NOT FINISHED YET):



I need to add more...something. Maybe it needs more cream/white



Photos will come once finished!

Many thanks to my friend Brandy at Bella Vita Jewelry who helped supply some of the lovely buttons.

Making Wedding Rings

On Sunday, Daniel and I had a wedding-band-making-adventure! Yes, that's right - we made our own wedding bands.

Despite my jewelry making hobby, I'm not much of one for big sparkly rings. I tried picturing myself looking at rings from a chain store and nothing I could imagine was very interesting (and that would not be a cool enough story for us-"Remember that time when we went to the mall and pointed at those bands in the bargain box from the back of the store and then paid way too much for them?")

I investigated online for more unique sources for rings. I found several Etsy artists and ethical diamond sellers that proved a little more interesting, but it still didn't feel like "us". Then, I found a business that exclusively offers 'make your own wedding band' workshops! Fun! They're only on the east and west coasts? Not fun.

Then, I found out about a local metalsmith with a studio in the Paseo Arts District. Her name is Sheridan Scott; Please check out her location if you can - in fact, there's an Arts festival/show in the Paseo in May. Her website, A Jeweler's Art, shows just a little of what she offers in the gallery. She does one-on-one sessions in her studio for metalsmithing, PMC (metal clay, I TOTALLY will do this class once I have some free time), polymer clay work, and more.

(she also has a super cute little helper named Valentine. She's an old chocolate lab and reminds me of my old family dog. She can't see very well, but she's so sweet. Awww.)


Step 1: consult over the style of ring.



My engagement ring is a tiny bird on a thin, hammered, round band. It was also a half size too large, so I had been wearing it on my right hand. We had initially talked about making a nested band for the birdie to rest in (get it? nested?), but I quickly decided that I was too green to finish something like that properly. So, we both decided to make simple textured sterling silver bands. Sheridan would also be able to resize the birdie ring so I could wear it stacked with the band I was about to make.

Step 2: cut the silver into 2 strips





Daniel made the first cut, and then I cut that piece in two. I gotta say, the toughest part of the process is getting used to the jeweler's saw. I took a jewelry making class in high school, and the difficulty of using the saw came back to me pretty quick.

Step 3: anneal the metal





We got to use a propane/O2 mix torch several times. Awesome. There is so much chemistry involved in metal smithing. I think more schools should incorporate hands-on projects like this to supplement chemistry class. I know I would have been a lot more interested in molecular structure and how chemicals interact if I had to consider it while pushing metals around, but I digress.

Step 4: hammer the metal





I was cheesy and suggested we texturize each other's rings. Aw, love and hammers. Daniel gave mine a 'tree bark' look (to match with birdie). I was experimenting with the hammer on a test piece of metal, making a cross hatch pattern. Daniel said it looked like the giant crystals from Superman's Fortress of Solitude. You bet I used that pattern on his ring - Superman, Superawesome.

Step 5: bending and trimming





Slowly, the hammered and jagged metal strip became a ring.

Step 6: soldering



Eep! Solder. I as not a successful solder-er in highschool. This time it turned out alright!

Step 7: filing, grinding, and trimming





Had to clean up and shape the sides of the bands at this point. My cutting became a
little better by this point. I had to cut mine in half to make it narrower. Daniel did a lot of filing while I saw saw saw'ed.

Step 8: polishing





We used a big ol' polishing machine to buff the sides and underside. An ultrasonic
jewelry cleaner got the bits we missed. Sheridan gave them a matte finish on the outside with some baking soda, and they were complete!

Tadaa!



I highly recommed any interested parties do this sort of thing. It was great, fun,
educational, and something Daniel and I will talk about for years. To finish up the afternoon, we had an early dinner at The Hideaway. Our first date was at a Hideaway in Tulsa, so it seemed only appropriate!

Invites done!

I would blog about them, but Kathleen has done a proper job of that already.


Click to see more

Silver Strawberries

I picked up these bali silver strawberries (they look like strawberries to me...if they're not, I'm going to pretend they are) recently. They're a kind of bell/chime, so they're not super light weight. I'm hoping to use them for jewelry to match the wedding dress.

Hopefully!



(The golden sun guys were awesome, I've already used them for something else.)

Another wedding dress post

Alright, folks. I'm biting the bullet next week and ordering the dress from this post.

What I need your help with is the motif on the front of the sash. In the photo it is a cherry design on antique style lace. I have the choice of cherries, a pear, an apple, or a pair of strawberries. I wish I had photos to show you, but the artist did not have public web photos available.

At any rate, which would you choose? I liked the strawberries or the pear.

Wedding invitations, stage 1

This past weekend, I worked on drawings for our wedding invitations.



I had worked towards something fairly clean looking, but I decided to go with my gut and stick with a messier prismacolor marker version I had actually made as a thumbnail sketch.



A friend of ours, Kathleen, is laying them out for us. She designs amazing invitations, and you can bet I am totally excited to see what ours will be!

Wedding Dress Possibility

I'm getting married this coming June. Yes, it is inevitable that you'll see a bridal-planning post on here from time to time until then.

I've been idly looking at dresses online - this is the first one that really made me think, "Oooo":


It's from Etsy seller Maisy Brown.
The only thing I would change would be the design in the lacey center, which she can do because custom made pieces are awesome that way.