Page 62 - Real Weddings

THE JOURNEY
C Memento matrimony COUPLES CAN FIND VARIOUS WAYS TO PRESERVE WEDDING MEMORIES
ouples’ wedding days are mo- favorite liquor, and ask guests to sign the Bowman Bears produces such bears, which mentous occasions, and most label or the bottle itself. Store the bottle can be passed down to future generations. couples want their memories until a special occasion, such as a memo- Crafty couples can also sew pint-sized of the day they tied the knot rable anniversary; then toast to the hap- gowns and tuxes for bears using wedding-
to endure long after the nal guest has py marriage. day attire.
departed.
Weddings can be amazing, but they
“We offer a wine, Blank Canvas, that is great for weddings and other special oc- casions,” said Debbie Goolsby, owner of CrossRoads Wine & Spirits. “The label is blank, so someone can write or draw something on the label. Or, for no extra charge, we can have labels printed that adhere to that blank label, creating a per- sonalized label.”
• Create bouquet jewelry: Encapsulate favorite wedding owers into a resin pen- dant, bracelet or earrings.
only last a few hours. Memories can last forever if they are effectively document- ed. The following are some ways for a couple to permanently memorialize their wedding day.
• Frame the invitation: Display the wedding invitation in a beautiful frame with custom matting.
• Dry the bouquet: Wedding bouquets can be freeze-dried and/or chemically pre- served so that the colors, textures and vol- ume of the blooms can appear just as vi- brant as they were on a couple’s wedding day. After preservation, the bouquet can be displayed in a vase or in a specially pre- pared shadow box with other mementos.
She added that couples can nd many other ways to celebrate with bot- tles, such as serving a drink made in the place where they will honeymoon, hid- ing a message in a bottle for a rst anni- versary, or engraving the wedding date on a bottle and turning the bottle into a decanter.
• Revisit the site: On their anniver- saries, couples can visit their ceremony site or have brunch or dinner at the venue where the reception took place. Take an “after” picture to display with the “before” shot from the wedding day.
• Create a custom locket: Brides can wear a piece of their wedding gown day af- ter day with a custom necklace or locket. All newlyweds need to do is trim a small piece of lace or another embellishment from the gown and enclose it in the locket. Jewelry designers may also be able to con- vert a section of the gown pattern into a metal adornment using a casting process.
• Make a cake replica: Ask an artist to make a miniature replica of the wed- ding cake out of pottery. Put the clay cake out for display, or ask for it to be made small enough to serve as a Christmas- tree ornament.
• Make an invitation ornament: Cut the wedding invitation into strips and place them inside a hollow glass ornament. Seal the top, and hang with a ribbon.
• Have guests sign the label: Purchase a special bottle of wine, champagne or a
• Teddy bear transformation: Have tuxedo fabric or wedding-gown mate- rial turned into a keepsake teddy bear.
courtesy of metro creative contributions by sarah declerk
• Design a greeting-card scrapbook: Turn all of those special handwritten messages and well-wishes into a scrap- book so the memories can be revisited again and again.
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