Inspiration: I Spy Photo Kiddie Scavenger Hunt

Seriously, how did people plan weddings before there were INTERNETS?

I'm floored by the plethora of ideas and inspiration out there.  I'm also overwhelmed.  I've bookmarked hundreds and hundreds of tutorials, tips, and templates and I haven't made the time to sit down to sift through them all.  But I've made some goals for this long weekend: I will clean out my starred reader items this weekend.  Serious!!  I'm also planning on cleaning out my closets.  I will also clean out our DVR of all its No Reservations reruns. I'm a pretty ambitious person, you see.

Speaking of ambitious, here's another wedding DIY that I want to add to our growing to-do list:

Via MS Weddings 

I'm thinking of incorporating this for the kids, to keep them occupied throughout the event.  I think some of the kids will probably be bored with it at some point during the wedding, but it has the potential to engage enough kids that hopefully we'll end up some fun and creative shots!  On more than one occasion I've handed off my old Olympus C7000, our former XTi, and our current D300 to my cousins and about 1 out of every 10 pictures come out pretty decent...or interesting.  Kids have unique angles and ways of seeing things.  I'm not all too concerned with the quality of the pictures, I'm more concerned with keeping them busy and maybe getting something fun out of it!

Next step: find a great deal on disposable cameras!  We're only looking to buy btwn 15 and 20 of them.  There should be around 25-30 kids that will be coming, but some of them are quite young so maybe I'll give them some boxes to play with.  (Just kidding.)  (Have you noticed that kids younger than 4 are more interested in the wrapping paper and boxes than the actual gift?)  I'd like a disposable camera with less than 20 exposures, but most seem to come with 27, and for some reason the ones with 15 exposures are more expensive?!

Step #2: jazzing up the cameras.  I found this great tutorial on Weddingbee for camera casing templates from Miss Cola.  Since we aren't making that many, I don't see this step being too labor intensive.  I also, want to build on that idea and create a camera "strap" for the kids to hold around their necks.  I think it could be as simple as inserting eyelets on each side, and then knotting some sturdy ribbon through them.  We'll see :)  Kids tend to set things down and they'll run around, thus losing whatever they had before, so I want to take even another step further and label each camera with their respective names.  That way, we'll know which shots came from which kid!

Step #3: creating the I Spy Cards.  This is a really nice template from MS, but I think I'd like to adapt it to our wedding colors, and I'd probably change the font as well as the size.  This font is really cute, but not that readable for a 6 year old.  Also, the colors are pretty, but too light for readability, esp as the sun goes down.  I'd also like to change some of the items as well.  Mrs. Bee came up with this humongous list that I will definitely be drawing inspiration from!

Step #4: buy mini pencils. I'm trying to think of a way for the kids to hold onto their pencils and I Spy Cards. Those little pencils are great for small hands, but I know they'll lose them.  I may have Jerry drill a small hole in the pencil, and then I'll run a piece of string through them and attach it to either the camera or of the I Spy card.  But as I progress with this project I'm sure I'll come up something. 

Via Creatieve Puzzels

That was the only picture I could find.  I guess drilling holes in pencils isn't a popular thing to do!

Okay.  One step at a time.

edit:  I just had a thought.  Will kids even know how to use a disposable camera!?  What if they want to "see" the image after it's been taken, b/c that's what they are familiar with?  Ahhh to grow up in the 2000s.  :)  Oh well, they'll learn.  :P

Mini Wedding Cupcake Favors

Photo courtesy of Martha Stewart Weddings

I have seen mini wedding cakes but they're usually slathered in some sort of fondant concoction. Pretty to look at, but not quite so edible. When I stumbled upon this simple and yet lovely idea of stacking 3 diff sized cupcakes together to resemble the tiers I couldn't stop thinking about how I could incorporate that into our wedding.

We know that cake can be pricey, so we've been flirting with the idea of having a smaller cake to cut, but also having sheet cake in the back to serve our guests as well. I definitely would prefer to serve our guests a more substantial hunk rather than a sliver of cake that's been cut so thinly u could see through it, hence the sheet cake. That being said, in lieu of favors, why not present each guest with their own 3 tier wedding cupcake?? Each cupcake can be a flavor (oh the possibilities already in my mind!) and we would go light on the frosting. The guests can eat it there, or bring it home to eat. Two birds, one stone. :)

While in theory we like the idea, we still have to figure out cost and time efficiency. For sure I would not force my bridal party to do it. Either we outsource it for a good price, or we don't do it at all, and we go back to the regular cake idea. Which is not a bad idea either, b/c cake is good anyway you can get it rightttttt? Hehe.

I know I'm ahead of myself at the moment since we haven't secured the big 3- (date, venue, and photog), but I can't resist thinking about these little fun details. :)