How to Tint Mason Jars

Supplies

• Mason Jars-any size
• liquid food coloring
• Mod Podge-Gloss
• newspapers
• wax paper
• baking sheet
• disposable bowls
• plastic spoons

Directions

1. Cover your work surface with newspaper.
2. Off to the side make a stack of 3-4 layers of newspaper for your drying area.
3. Pour a few globs of Mod Podge into a bowl, add 15-20 drops of desired color and a spoonful or two of water.
4. Mix completely.     
5. Pour the colored mixture into a mason jar.
6. Swirl the jar around to completely cover the inside with color.    
7. Pour leftover color mixture into the next jar.
8. Once a jar has been covered and the excess poured out, place the jar upside down on the newspaper to continue dripping for about 30 minutes.
9. Repeat steps 5-8 until you run our of the color mixture or jars.
10. Preheat the oven to 250° F.
11. Cover a baking sheet with wax paper.
12. Place the mason jars mouth down on the baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.
13. Now turn the jars mouth up and bake for an additional 30 minutes.   
14. Check to see if the jars are clear. If they are still a bit milky, continue baking and checking every 15 minutes until they are clear.
15. Allow the jars to cool completely before filling them with decorative items.

Check this out! @MomMaven is tinting mason jars!
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I hope you found this craft tutorial helpful. I have had a lot of fun trying new things for the wedding. Did you see my Glitter Mason Jars? I’ll be posting other wedding crafts as I complete them. Right now I have 8 more mason jars to tint!

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Along the way we found a design on Vista Print that we all really liked…and was in budget. Unfortunately, while we were waiting til it it was time to order the invitations,  a friend of the couple recently used a VERY similar design for their invitations. Back to the drawing board-again. We looked at Wedding Paper Divas and Etsy too but we just didn’t find the right fit. On a recent trip to the craft store I saw some blank invitations that you print yourself by Wilton. I didn’t see any at that store that I liked but I came home and looked online and found some that could work. According to the Wilton website, Staples also carried their invitations. Hubby and I ventured to Staples to see what they had available and while  I didn’t find any Wilton wedding invitations, I found one from Gartner that was perfect! Recently we took the kids to Staples and they agreed that these were perfect so they bought the invitations and response cards- for a total of $1.08 each or $81, and they have enough budget left to order the photo thank-you cards that they have their eye on!

Yes, we saved a lot of money and yes, we have to print and assemble the invitations ourselves. Is the savings worth it? YES! Aaron can print the invitations on a fabulous printer at work…yes, he got permission. Once that is done, we will have an invitation assembling party and get that done in short order.

In the end choosing your wedding invitation focuses on 3 things:

1. Budget
2. Style
3. Theme

Going overboard and spending too much on invitations is just silly. Stay around 3% of your budget and you will be fine. Make sure the invitation you choose fits the style of your wedding. If you are having  formal wedding then make sure your invitations are formal and use a font with flourish. An informal wedding calls for an informal invitation, no script fonts required…and definitely no sealing wax! If your wedding is a backyard barbecue, make sure your guests are aware of that fact by the invitation you send. You don’t want Aunt Pearl showing up in her Sunday best to sit on a picnic bench and eat ribs.

Your wedding invitation is the first peek your guests get at your wedding and it is all about setting expectations. Not only does it inform your guests as to where and when the event is happening, it lets them know how to dress and what to expect. Make sure your invitation accomplishes its goals.

Next week I’ll be sharing on the sticky subject of invitation wording. Make sure you are subscribed so you don’t miss out.

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The weddings of the 80’s and 90’s were pretty much the same, and as a church vocalist I attended a lot of weddings in that era. The colors varied but most weddings included a church ceremony and either an elaborate ballroom reception or a smaller church hall reception. Those seemed to be the only choices.

Now you can have any theme or style you want for your wedding. Things have come a long way and I think my grandmother would pass out if she knew people were serving barbecue at their wedding reception! A wedding should reflect the couple who is getting married and no longer has to fit a rigid stereotype. I think we can thank television, especially David Tutera and the Internet, especially Pinterest for such a swing in wedding planning.

Why You Should Choose a Wedding Style

1. Direction-It is easy to go overboard with wedding planning, especially where decorations are concerned. If you know your style it is easier to make decisions.
2. Cohesiveness-If everything from your venue to your flowers to your decorations all say “Hollywood Glam” then everything feels right because it all belongs together.
3. Communication-You will be able to communicate to your vendors much better if you can speak in their terms. If you tell your caterer you are having a rustic outdoor wedding they shouldn’t pitch you an elegant filet mignon seated 4 course meal because it doesn’t fit.

Choosing Your Wedding Style

Your wedding does not need to be “themed” but choosing a style helps keep you on track with your planning and decorating.

1. Know your budget. It is difficult to plan an elegant black tie wedding on a $5000 budget.
2. Who are you? Are you a trend setter? Modern? Sophisticated? Laid-back? Country? Rustic? Quiet? Your wedding should reflect who you are, not what others think you should be.
3. The possibilities are endless, but don’t get overwhelmed. Pinterest has been a huge help in planning Aaron and Summer’s wedding but it can be overwhelming if you let it. It is a tool, with a great search feature so use it wisely. Search terms like “rustic wedding”, “beach wedding”, “elegant wedding” or “modern wedding” and scroll through and see what style resonates with you.
4. If you are still having trouble deciding search Pinterest by wedding color. It seems some colors suit certain styles better than others. Search “blue wedding”, “peach wedding” etc and see what unfolds before you.

Summer and Aaron are having an outdoor ceremony and an indoor reception. The theme is rustic chic which will include mason jars, chalk boards and wooden pallets. Did your wedding have a style? What was it?

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Choose Your Wedding Colors.

Most brides still wear white but other than that the palette is up to you.

1. Do you have a favorite color or flower? That is a great place to start.
2. Consider your venue, what colors are the walls and flooring? You don’t want to clash!
3. Consider the time of year (different flowers  are more readily available in different seasons).
4. If you want the bridesmaids to wear your main color, make sure it is a color most people can wear.
5. Once you have your main color you will probably want to choose an accent color. Now you need to remember elementary school art class and color theory. You want to choose colors that are either complementary (colors across from each other on the color wheel-red/green, violet/yellow), analogous (colors next to each other on the color whee-red/red-orange/orangel), or tertiary/triadic ( a mix of a primary and a secondary color-violet/orange/green).
6. Often the third color is your neutral, and the basis of what the guys will be wearing ie. black, gray, khaki or brown. Make sure your main color and your neutral are sympatico. Most colors work with black and gray, brown and khaki are a little more tricky.

If you need more inspiration a great website for wedding color palettes is The Perfect Palette, this site is well-organized and is great, especially for visual people who need to see how colors truly work together in real life.

In case you are wondering, Summer knew exactly what colors she wanted for her wedding. Of course, everyone calls it something different so it is turquoise/malibu/cyan with silver/gray as her accent color.

What were/are your wedding colors? I reveal mine in next week’s Wedding Wednesday post!

The post Choosing Your Wedding Colors-Wedding Wednesday appeared first on The Mom Maven.

They have eight different guest book templates to choose from, I chose the Chalked Guest Book since chalkboards are part of their wedding theme. I uploaded all of their engagement photos to the site and then the fun began! I love making scrapbooks and photobooks so this is truly a gift of love from me to the kids. I spent about an hour and a half making sure everything was just right. I purchased the square soft-cover photobook for only $19.99!

Mixbook.com also offers affordable, customizeable wedding invitations to fit every wedding’s style and budget.

Other Posts in this Series:

They’re Engaged
Our Wedding Binder
David’s Bridal-The Good, The Bad, The Disappointed
Save the Date

The post Photobook Guest Book-Wedding Wednesday appeared first on The Mom Maven.

David’s Bridal-The Good

We signed in for our appointment and we were told to look around and they would call us soon. We only waited about 10 minutes before Summer’s name was called and we met our consultant Christine M. She asked us our dress budget and when we told her $200 she seemed a bit put out but took us right to the 50% off rack. She explained that everything on this rack was 50% off the ticketed price. She asked if Summer had any preferences and we pulled out my phone to show her the dresses we were interested in. She took a very quick look at 1 picture grabbed a dress from the size 6 section of the rack and said, “You’re lucky, this is your dress.” I spoke up and said that Summer was probably a size 4 and not a six and she told me to trust her. We followed her back to our dressing room and Summer and Jessica, the Maid of Honor went in to get her dressed while Christine went over to check on her other customer. Summer came out in the dress which was too big and nothing close to any of the dresses we were interested in. I told her to go take it off and I would go look for dresses in her size.

I ran into Christine at the rack and I filled her in on a bit of Summer’s story and why our budget was so slow. Her attitude softened a bit as we picked out a few size 4 dresses for Summer to try on. She fell in love with a dress I had picked which had a price tag of $399.99 on it. When Christine came back to help us I asked her what the dress at 50% off would cost and she said, “$200, right in your budget!” We were happy but tried on a few more dresses, including the dresses Christine pulled, which were all out of our budget!

Summer decided she wanted to try on the $200 dress again so she did, this time with a proper bridal bra. She also tried on 2 different veils and made her decision as to what length veil she wanted. Once everything was decided on we went to checkout. As Summer was paying for her purchases I was asking Christine if we needed to make another appointment to try on bridesmaid dresses or if we could try on the one we had in mind while we were there, and there was still time left in our appointment. She said to meet her at the dressing room when Summer was done checking out so we did.

Jessica tried on the dress and we all fell in love with it. Christine made a note of the style and color in our file and we promised to come back with the bridal party soon to order the dresses.

David’s Bridal-The Bad

The next day Summer was going to be visiting with her mother for Mother’s Day and, of course she wanted to bring her dress. I cautioned her to be very careful (her dress is a tad long and needs to be hemmed). I also asked her if I could make a copy of the receipt for my files so that it didn’t get lost. I copied the receipt and tossed it on my desk. Later that day when I was cleaning off my desk to prepare for the new week I looked over the receipt in detail and noticed that Summer was charged $299.50 for the dress! I immediately reached out to David’s Bridal on Twitter and I was given an email address to contact. After several emails back and forth with the Corporate Area Customer Service Manager I was told that the 50% of is from the original dress price, not the markdown price. There is only 1 price tag on the dress and it is the one pictured above-there was no way for us to know that this was a markdown price. Also, the consultant told us it would be $200.

I gave up with email and I called the store. The customer service person, Sandra told me I should have know that it was a markdown because it ended in .99! I informed her 1. I have never bought a wedding dress in my life, I rented mine, so how should I know this and 2. It was their consultant, Christine M. who had told us the price would be $200. She contacted the store manager, who was aware of my concerns because of my dealings with the Corporate Area Customer Service Manager. After a few phone calls back and forth I was told that there was nothing that could be done at the store level, because I had talked with corporate first! So, David’s Bridal owes Summer $99.50+tax and she will never get it back.

David’s Bridal-The Disappointed

On top of being overcharged, we now needed to find new bridesmaid dresses. There was no way we could spend more money at a business that had already stolen from us. We have ordered dresses elsewhere, but we are not happy with them at all and we are in the process of returning them and that will be another blog post.

When I posted my David’s Bridal frustrations on Facebook I received several stories from others who have had nothing but trouble with them as well. I am amazed that a business with such bad customer service can stay in business. I am writing this post in hopes that other brides-to-be will see this and they will look elsewhere for their bridal attire. Whether you are spending $200 or $20,000 on a wedding dress you should be charged what you are quoted. The fact that no one at David’s Bridal will accept responsibility or do anything to make up for their error is very disappointing.

Have you used David’s Bridal? How was your experience? Please leave me a comment and let me know.

**UPDATE**

Today, 6-20-14, I spoke on the phone with the Corporate Area Customer Service Manager and she said that her superior had read my post and did some digging into how the wrong ticket could have gotten on the dress. They have basically admitted their error and have agreed to refund the $100 to Summer’s debit card. We will be calling the store tomorrow, when Summer is here with her card, to get the refund taken care of. We appreciate them taking action to make this right.

More Wedding Wednesday Posts

They’re Engaged
Our Wedding Binder

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All Things Are Ready: A Bride’s Complete Christian Wedding Planner

While I was doing my research, the planner I wanted had to cover several things that I felt were important:

• It had to be about planning a Christian wedding.
• It had to include checklists.
• It had to include a timeline.
• It had to keep Christ first in every element of the planning.
• I wanted a 3-ring binder format if possible.
• I wanted it to include notes or devotions for the bride to keep her focus on what is truly important.

All Things Are Ready includes all that and more! I actually found this book on the Doorposts.com site. We have used products from Doorposts in our child training since our children were young. I knew that they advocated courting, as we did so I thought they might have a wedding book to recommend…and they did!

About All Things Are Ready

 This is a new Christian wedding planner that will help you organize a beautiful, enjoyable wedding. Unlike most wedding planners available today, this planner looks at weddings from a distinctly Christian, Bible-based viewpoint.

This Christian wedding planner is based on three basic assumptions:

1. Planning your wedding doesn’t have to take very long (unless you want it to).
2. The cost of your wedding should not exceed what your family can afford.
3. A Christian wedding is all about rejoicing in what the Lord has done in the lives of two people and their families.

All Things Are Ready is full of to-do lists, planning resources, tips, budgeting and timeline tools, options for personalizing your wedding, ideas for portraying biblical themes, and devotions to keep your focus on the Lord and the work He is doing in your life through marriage.

Mom Maven’s Thoughts

All Things Are Ready has been an invaluable resource for us as we plan a frugal, Christ-honoring wedding in 6.5 months. We were easily able to tweak the 12 week wedding planning calendar to meet our longer planning period. My husband and I meet weekly with the couple and go over what has to be worked on each week. This keeps us all on track and keeps the planning moving forward. The Master List is a wonderful tool to make sure we don’t miss any little detail of the planning process. The bride’s devotions are helping keep the focus on the love she and the groom have for each other and God and not on stressing over the small stuff.

If you, or someone you love is getting married I recommend All Things Are Ready: A Bride’s Complete Christian Wedding Planner. It will keep the focus on the big picture while making sure every little detail is covered at the same time.

The post Our Wedding Binder-Wedding Wednesday appeared first on The Mom Maven.

Follow Cindy Schultz-TheMomMaven.com’s board Ideas for Aaron’s & Summer’s Wedding on Pinterest.

A little back story on the happy couple. Aaron, my oldest son (21) met Summer (19) several years ago at church youth group. They have been friends a looong time. I have mentioned before that we raised our boys with a no dating policy. It is our belief that dating is preparation for marriage and relationships should not be entered into until you are 2/3 of the way through your professional education and you are financially able to settle down.

Fast forward a few years…in February of 2012, Summer moved into our home full time due to some family issues. We turned what was our homeschool room into Summer’s bedroom and she has lived with us ever since. In February 2013, Aaron and Summer presented my husband and I a long and compelling letter as to why they feel they are ready to begin courting. We agreed and presented them with a courtship contract that outlined specified behaviors and requirements of their courtship, to which they agreed.

On Sunday, April 13, 2014 Aaron and I had this text conversation
Aaron: So uh Summer and I are getting engaged today
Me: WTH?
Aaron: Yup
Me: Are you 100% sure about this? Did you ask her dad’s permission?
Aaron: Yes and Yes
Me: Ok
A while later I received a picture of the ring on her finger!

Aaron proposed out at Robinson Preserve on the tower and Summer was completely not expecting it!

Since we have 2 boys, we do not have a wedding account for them and unfortunately, neither does Summer’s family. Our goal is to help the kids host a wedding for 120 guests on a $4000 budget. The wedding date is set for Thanksgiving weekend, November 29, 2014 so follow along with us on our journey.

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