Letters A la Poodle

I am in love with wood letters, I love the fact that they are so cute and simple, either you want to do initials or the entire name, they always look amazing! want a proof?

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I told you they look amazing! So the next project on the Poodle’s house was: Letters!




So printed the ones I wanted, with just a little catch, I print on scale, the ones I printed are 10 times smaller than what the real one I have planned (Insert crazy DIY face) Because I like them BIG!

So we have being saving every single box we could, well actually after I told Mr. Poodle about the plan because he was using the boxes I was saving to start our fires at the house :( I realize after I ask him were my boxes where? He said I should have tell him before, but I never thought he was going to burn all of them LOL

After that little incident we have being saving EVERYTHING!! and this is what our letter look on the inside :)  Milk box, Pot Box, Microwave box, you name it, we used it :P





I decided to start with the most complicated letter the “AND” symbol, It is pretty difficult because it does not have a lot of straight lines, and even though it’s pretty big (100cm, more than 3 feet)

Don’t believe me?





Well, after I was done with that one, we started the big ones!!! And I'm really lucky because for this one my MIL help me a lot! She cut, glue and measure with me. Come on B say Cheese for the WB girls!




So after a couple of hours of hard work.We GOT THIS!





Here you can see the real size of both of them, I am planning on making a “J” on the same size of the “K” (150cm, more than 5 feet) and if after finishing that I still have the energy I’ll make the rest of the ones to complete our names but in the size of the “&”





Here’s the rest of the plan!





Right now the only ting that keeping me from finishing the rest of the letters is that we ran out of boxes, so until we save some more I wont be able to finish.

The plan is after wrapping them on paper tape, we are going to give a thin layer of texture ( My FIL is working on testing the best option for this particular kind of letter) then after that we might pain them.
I know that using some other new materials this would have being WAY easier, because we work more on taping all the pieces together than actually making the letter, but I feel warm on the inside because we are using all of our trash boxes to make this project :)


Are you using recycle material for your wedding decor?

E- Pics: OMG I love them!

As I shared on my last post, everything was very last minute for our engagement shoot, but everything seemed to fit so perfectly, I could not be any happier about Cat’s idea (our photographer) of shooting on Union Station, downtown LA. It was a pretty rainy (actually stormy) day, but due to Mr. Poodle schedule we just had to do them that day.

On our way there Mr. Poodle asked me if I remembered the umbrellas, I felt so bad it was pouring rain, but I was so focus on the fact that I wanted to keep my curls for as long as possible, that I run to the truck, taking advantage of a no rain moment at home forgetting this little but so necessary accessory. Note to self: Duh! Rain and Curls on your hair, DO NOT get along! Next time remember the umbrella porfavor!

Anyway, so once on the Union Station hall, took our rain coats off (that was the cool part about carrying luggage, we stick everything in there :) ) we got dry, and proceed with the FUN part! Want a sneak peek? Well our photographers already blog more than just a little one!





Adi, our photographer of the day, was kind of worried because it was so cloudy outside there for the light was not the best, so we continuously move from one window to the other, while people smile and stared at us, we felt like celebrities, I’m telling you – SO much FUN!

I love this one, look like I'm checking Mr. Poodle out, witch I do actually very often :P




A close up of our kissy kissy moment :) I love the way my rose headband looks there!




On our way to the train!




I loved the Black and white





Trying to stay serious :P




Showing some love to Mr. Poodle




Loving me back =)




This has to be one of my favorite ones, for this we actually had to run and pose while I had rain on my face LOL – I think it was totally worth it! I was freezing but I love this shoot :) A special thanks to Adi because he let us use his purple umbrella – How fitting is that for ME! :)




After that we used the extra change of clothes we had on  our bags and headed to the Subway, I had to have some purple of my own for the pics!




I love this ones too! It was so much fun because at home I was a daily user of our subway, and when Mr. Poodle went to visit, we travel around on the subway pretty much everyday, It felt like we were in Chile again :)

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I loved all the pictures they blogged! They absolutely Rocked our E-session! I am a HAPPY HAPPY bride! Thank you Next Exit Photography for such an amazing job!

Where you surprised with the quality of your E-Pics? Did you turn into an indoor place due to the weather?

E- Pics: Making it work

Remember I actually made another dress for our E- Session? I tease with the fabric here, and I showed the dress here, this is how it looks like:




Well, after realizing my Wedding dress didn't fit, I ran to try this one on, and well, it was just as uncomfortable as my Wedding dress :(
 
What a bummer!!! So I had to come up with a “plan B” because our E-Session was going to be this week!!! MOH and I researched for something similar, on a good price but with no luck, So we went to Forever 21 and found this cutie!

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We had the chance to go to Vegas with a bunch of friends and on our way there, Mr. Poodle and I did some massive shopping at the Malls on the way there. We got shirt, suspenders, my belt and supplies for the headband I wanted to make, the best part everything was 50% off! YAY!


So pretty much at last minute we ended up with this look!



I added some black plain heels and headband to complete the look

Want a close up?

I wanted to have an excuse to make this kind of headband for a very long time! It was so much fun! I did my nails on bright RED and found some cute red pearls I had to make me a necklace.

So we were ready! BUT the storm started and we thought we were going to have to re-schedule our E- Session again (We did it once because I was sick and even got a fever cold on my lip!: NOT CUTE)

We asked our Photographers if they new a place we could shoot indoors, they said Union Station in downtown LA – We loved the idea, after all our relationship has being based on traveling back and forth ever since we met,how perfect that place would it be!

We borrow some vintage looking luggage from MIL and headed down to LA :) The shoot was SO MUCH FUN!! we had lots of people staring but It was OK, after all you don't see people dress like that running with bags all over, chased by a photographer all the time!

We are so excited about how everything seemed to merge and work perfect at last minute.


Did weather play against your plan A for your E-session? Have any of you had a rainy photo session?

I have a problem

Well, actually, it’s a double problem.

Last weekend I finally tried on my handmade wedding dress to show all of you how it looks like on me. Well, I ran into a very unpleasant surprise: It does not fit comfortably, like it did when I made it.

My idea from the beginning was to make a very very comfortable dress, because I LOVE to dance, and was planning to do a lot of dancing on our wedding day!

I had to wear an uncomfortable dress when I was 13, so from then on I knew I wanted a comfortable wedding dress.


YES! that's me on my first wedding! – I’m just kidding!! :P  but the funny thing is that when I showed this pic to Mr. Poodle’s brother he ask me: for how long my first marriage last? LOL – The truth is that I was the Spring Queen of my School, and they requested white dresses.


Mr. Poodle: you know about my problem, the rest of this post will be about rainbows, butterflies, ponies and ladybugs so I don't think you would like to read it! :)

My E-ring

I just realize I have not show/talk about my E-ring at all, So here it goes!

To be able to understand why I love this ring so much and why it fits so perfectly my personality you need to know a few things about me:

Well first,  Marilyn Monroe’s Quote "Diamonds are a girl's best friend"  Does not apply to this Poodle girl, Don't get me wrong I do think they are gorgeous!But ever since I can remember there’s 3 material/things I do not like to wear.
1) Diamonds
2) Leather
3) Yellow gold

To me diamonds, (specially the big ones) are just like some dresses that I totally love, but I know they would not look pretty on my because I don't have the body for them.

Second, I am constantly doing things with my hands, and many many times that involves power tools, sewing machines, baking utensils, dirt, clay, and the list goes and goes. so because of that I only wear comfortable jewelry that I dont have to remove each time I’m doing something (that’s why I’ve lost SO MANY rings in the past)

So last time Mr. Poodle visited me down in Chile, we meet with MOH and without planning for it we end up talking about E-rings (because she was working on making one at that time) I shared my feelings about diamonds with both of them, and I have to say Mr. Poodle was very surprised, but he totally understood why I didn't like the “classic” diamond E-ring.

Actually I tried to persuade him to the point where I didn't want a E-ring at all, because well, in Chile Engagement rings are not as Popular, and the classic shapes are definitely different.

Anyway, months after that, when we were talking about our bands and the fact that MOH was the best choice to make them, he said that even though I didn't like the Classic E-ring. He wanted to surprise me with an engagement ring, since he was planning on re-proposing anyway.

He contacted MOH and to design and make my wedding band and E-ring (both a surprise for me) While I was still in Chile with MOH, so I knew she was going to do an awesome job, but I have to be honest I was pretty scared :) because when it comes to things I’ll be wearing I am pretty picky (that’s the main reason I started making my own clothes :P )

Well, without further ado, here it is! my E-ring, designed and made by my very best Friend MOH Poodle :)
 






I could not be happier with Mr. Poodle’s choice of ring for me because it’s SO ME!! It’s amazingly comfortable, I love the clean shape and little diamond detail. (Mr. Poodle wanted a diamond no matter what, so he made me change my mind on this one! )

I do have to say that I’ve encountered a few eye rolls when I’ve been asked to show off my e-ring, mostly from guys. I can see how they are not used to a different sort of e-ring, and they don’t know me that well to understand how much this ring reflects ME!

How about you? Does your engagement ring reflect your personality? Is it different than a traditional e-ring? Do you find that people tend to have a hard time accepting unique engagement rings?

My paper flowers

Remember this post? There I show you all how I packed all of the kusudama flowers my mom and sister helped me fold while I was still living in Chile.

Well that little box transform into just this little bag a week before Curly and I came to CA. I had to get rid of all the extra weight including the box of the flowers :P




As you can see, there’s not only Purple pedals folded on that bag, there’s also tons of HOT pink ones, why you might wonder? if hot pink is NOT one of our wedding colors, Well last time I pick up the recycle paper I was using for the flowers, by some mysterious lighting on the building I though that was purple!!! I still can’t believe how far from purple I was LOL – and the funny thing was that my mom realized the difference on the color after I already cut all the tiny little squares! So yeah I could not return those :( But I decided to use them anyway, after all I was the one that pick them, they don't have to miss the wedding just because of my mistake :)





Once I got over the – color mistake- Mom Poodle and Sis helped me fold all the rest of my pedals :)






I have to say that it is A PAIN! to glue all of those, but after sewing all of the labels for the invitations this was actually FUN :)


I glued all the HOT pink the week before MOH came to visit us, and she got so into them that decided to glue a line of flowers from the bag a day so we can finish soon :)




As you can see here she started really early in the morning with just a cup of tea.




And even though she said she was going to be making a row of flowers a day, she actually glue flowers ALL DAY long and later ( really late) that day, all of the flowers were DONE!!!



Here you can see them on their box/bed



We also played with them on the carpet so we could count them better



Here they are my lovely babies! my purple kusudama flowers. (Ok Hot pink ones I love you too)

MOH Poodle –> You ROCK!!  <3 Gracias, gracias!!


I still don't know If I’ll be mixing the different color flowers or If I should use the Hot pink in hidden areas, maybe the aisle? I'm pretty lost! How would you use them for? any Ideas? Have you got more help than you could ever imagine from your friends on the wedding planning?

The Poodles’ budget friendly invitations

The very first time I log into WeddingBee was while I was searching for inspiration for our invitations, while researching through the blog I found several amazing invitations, and a weird word at that time! Gocco. I wanted that little machine so bad!

Not just because I wanted to have DIY invitations, but because I loved the freedom you had on the design, plus the fact pretty much any surface can be screened by it. Yes I was in love. Sadly Gocco did not had a long future in supplies and the price was not on my budget.

I thought about different alternatives to make our invitation budget friendly and really pretty! My first Idea was to save ink by using fabric to pop color on our invitations. I had an idea of the kind of fabric I wanted for our invitations, but after I draw the pattern. I became obsessed with this particular pattern, the one I draw.




I did some quick research and found Spoonflower, a really cool website where you can upload your design and print your own fabric, but then again, when we finally set a number for invitations the price offered on that website was not on our budget :(  (But I’m still considering using that for some NWR project!)

So yeah. I was not going to have the perfect purple fabric, but still loved the idea of using sewed details, kraft paper and purple ink!

When I almost gave up to the idea of just print our invitations with Mr. Poodle’s printer. I found this giveaway. Free Brochures! I just had to look the potential out of this!!

To my surprise I actually won that giveaway and got 100 Free Brochures from Uprinting! HOW PERFECT! I could actually used the purple patter I loved and it was all going to be free!! ( well at least the first 100)

I loved the idea of having booklet invitations, just like Mrs. Lime! (I have to say that those invitations were the reason why I found Weddingbee!)

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So I got to work, I gather all the information I wanted on our invitations and divide them by page:

• Our names with the “together with our parents invite you to join us” date, time, address etc.
• Map and directions (I really wanted to draw my own map :) plus I could add our website address there too)
• RSVP postcard, we thought about doing it online but due the age of lots of our guest we chose to do it the old way
• Timeline of our relationship – After I saw this below I wanted a timeline really really bad :P

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So I had 4 pages of information, I tried as hard as I could to condensate all of the information to fit the 3 fold brochure (I did had to leave the timeline off the brochure), once Mr. Poodle and FMIL did the triple spelling check, I closed my eyes and push send, and 3 days later they were send to us!

I loved the way they ended up looking! but there was a lot of work to be done before they look like the invitations I envisioned. We had to cut the top and bottom of the brochure to make single pages, and then print the last page with the “love timeline”. We needed to sew all the pages together and make the Kraft paper belts.

On the other hand for our envelopes we also had a lot of work, I got a really cool deal back home. I bought 200 kraft paper envelopes for $2.00! Totally awesome, but that was because I went to the actual paper fabric :) a long trip very worth it at the end.

Did I mention that I got a little obsessed over a puncher? Yeah!! blame that on Martha!




Before I came I did all the hard work of putting the envelope apart, so now we only had to make the liners and sew the labels. So this is the way our liners look finish, just plain copy paper with cute edges ;)

Want to have a pick of our our invitations look like? well before I reveal our BIGGEST labor of love so far :) you can see the process of our envelopes!





First I draw a label template so I can fit 5 of them on a letter sheet. I used some of the same puncher graphic to make it prettier and one of my favorite free fronts ever!! Aquarelle <3




We cut them and used a corner punch (witch I previously measure so the lines match)





We arrange all of them so the sewing could be easier (yup we had a pretty cool assembly line at the Poodles' :P )




Notice that? I'm such a sucker for WeddingBee! and this will be the envelope that we will used on our wedding for the pro pics :)




A detail shot of the label edge…




… and some more details.


Did you used a company to print your DIY invitations? Are you making extra efforts to have budget friendly invitation?

Looking at it from the other side

When we first started our visa process I never imagine this journey was going to be at times so frustrating and bumpy.

Today we finally sent our AOS (adjustment of status) package out!! and even thought we have no idea how long this process is going to be, we know that this time we will be waiting together. We are legally married, living together, waking up every day to each other’s face. I can totally say that even if we didn't had the big April wedding, I AM COMPLETELY HAPPY! I get a warm felling each time I look at Mr. Poodle’s eyes and remember how hard and long was the wait for me to be with him.

Today that we finally sent our papers out I can look back and say if I had to cry all of those tears all over again to be here,  in the arms of Mr. Poodle, I would do it all over again, without any doubts.
I know that at the end every single hard moment we had, every time I felt like I was hopeless waiting on some stupid paper to be happy, was worth it.

At the end (even though this is just the beginning) all of the things we went through made us stronger, all of the people that said we would never made it thought being apart for so long were wrong. Our love is stronger people!

I shared before how frustrating at times this process could get, and I felt a big need to let everyone know that no matter how long it takes (for us was 10 months) that time of waiting is nothing to the JOY and HAPPYNESS of being with the one you love!

So far we had our first Christmas tree, our very first new years together (Last year Mr. Poodle left Chile two days before new years :( ! )

Navidad 2009

Welcoming 2010 with MOH!

I can’t wait to see what else is stored for us, and even though I know sometimes hard times can come again, now we are together and that makes each other stronger :)

Have you faced long distance in your relationship, does that make you appreciate your so even more?