We featured Kyle and Nicole's eco-minimal, friggidy AWESOME zoo wedding recently, and were FLOORED by her DIYed cake toppers. Nicole came up with the pattern and constructed them all herself! And believe me, this is no easy task. Not for the faint-of-heart DIYer but the payoff is huge! – Offbeat Shrie

So, you like Little Big Planet, and want to make a sackboy. If you're like me, you'll Google your brains out trying to find a pattern you like. I didn't find any patterns I liked, so I made up my own crochet "pattern" through trial and error.

I'm providing this "pattern" (I think you'll understand why I keep using quotes in a minute or so) free, and I ask that you do not sell any items you make with this pattern. Gifts are OK, however! This little guy took me about a day, but that's including all the photo-taking and writing down instructions. My first sackboy took a few days because of all the trial and error.

Continue reading "How to DIY your own LBP Sackboy toppers" →

Attention everyone searching for a the perfect vintage wedding dress! The Vintage Bride is about to become your best friend…

The Vintage Bride is an amazing resource for authentic vintage wedding items — dresses from pre-WWII to the 1960s, they have vintage veils, heck, they even have vintage cake toppers!

Since all of the dresses from The Vintage Bride are actually vintage (no reproductions here) they are all one of a kind, many were even hand sewn, AND they're an eco-friendly choice, as you are re-using these gowns.

Each dress you see on The Vintage Bride has been selectively chosen for its unique details and flattering style. And there are tons of variety on the site — big and pouffy, to sexy and slinky.

Hi, have you met my favorite dress? Yeah, seriously, I'd rock this in a freaking heartbeat and I'd never take it off. And it's under $1000. In fact, most of the dresses are under $1000 and a lot of them are as low as $325.

And don't let small sizes discourage you — Rose, the owner of The Vintage Bride tells us that most of the dresses have trains that could provide enough fabric for a seamstress to add some panels if necessary.

The Vintage Bride even has perfect dresses for your rehearsal dinner, send-off outfits or civil ceremonies, like cocktail style dresses with matching jackets, like this beauty…

Continue reading "One of a kind vintage wedding dresses, veils & cake toppers from The Vintage Bride" →

Sometimes the talent level of our OBBs astound me. OBT member Heather aka. "Hev" made these Victorian duck busts to use as cake toppers for her upcoming wedding.

"The FH and I knew that we wanted ducks on the cake and when I went looking for toppers, I just couldn't find a decent pair of mallards. So the plan was to sculpt them myself as just boring little ducks. But then after seeing the film Fantastic Mr. Fox, it dawned on me that our ducks should be dressed to match our Neo-Victorian, old-timey theme."

They look absolutely amazing. And I had to inquire about HOW she accomplished this. The short story is that Hev is a scenic artist, so she does this type of thing all the time for film, theater, and photography shoots. The long story is as such:

Continue reading "Hand constructed Victorian duck busts as cake toppers" →

Thanks to OBT member Ellabean for both finding and sharing this super creative cake topper from Bee Mine Designs…

Ellabean sez:

"We wanted to have our son represented on the cake topper with us, because we believe this is as much his day as it is ours. I asked the lady who made the [cake topper] we liked and asked her to make a Little Swirl toddler."

What a super [chunky] cute way of repping your little one on the cake topper! And I love that the designer totally took on the challenge and came up with the cutest little swirly jar kid EVAR. I just wanna eat 'em up.

Also check out Bee Mine Designs on Etsy for more creative cake toppers AND ho'ma'gawd adorable invitations…

I love multi-purpose wedding stuff. One of our orange coral centerpieces sits on my bookshelf as decor, and every time I look at it I get the warm and fuzzies thinking about our wonderful day. I also wear my wedding flip flops all the time with the same results. So when I saw OBT member Kim's (aka. "uloveit") wedding cake topper choice, thought it was a great idea! Kim found a pair of adorable salt and pepper shakers to adorn the top of her cake…

Kim's cake topper:
 According to her wedding planning update, she's going to accent this cake topper with the Mary-Chapin Carpenter lyrics, "Grow old along with me" on the cake. Romantic overload.

Kim inspired me to look into some other salt and pepper cake toppers (because how nice would it be to have a functional cake topper that you could use all the time?), and found an incredible array of choices. So I'm gonna share with you my favsies…

Continue reading "Kitschy-fabulous salt & pepper shakers as cake toppers" →