The best year ever in the history of ever.

Yes. I'm very late on any kind of blog post wedding-related. It feels like life has (kind of) started to settle down a bit. We live in a tiny two-bedroom apartment with three dogs crammed with two houses worth of furniture. Soooo needless to say, things are rarely organized and always cramped. That shouldn't last for too long, though. ANYWAY. Wedding. Right.

I knew quite some time ago that most of my wedding-related paraphernalia would be crafted, and I also knew that J and I planned on getting hitched sometime in August. So when we started talking... really talking... about getting marriaged, I started crafting. Yes, wedding planning started before we actually got engaged. Don't hate. Pinterest came in extremely handy throughout this process, but I had to be stealth about my pins. I couldn't exactly create a "wedding" board, seeing as how I wasn't exactly engaged yet. So I made a "party" board. Naturally. I'm so sneaky. (Not really at all, though.) After the engagement, the official board was created, though. (See here.)

Knowing that I wanted this wedding to be about J and I's future lives together, and our guests' involvement throughout our lives, I wanted them to feel welcome and special. Oftentimes, guests attend weddings without much interaction with the bride and groom... I wanted our friends and families to know how appreciative we are of them, and I wanted them to feel like we understood how big of a deal it can be to travel and come to a wedding. Ergo, I decided to sew their gift bags... aka, reusable shopping bags for them to have for years.

I found the free pattern here, and got to sewing. I believe I ended up sewing around 15 of these bags, and was able to do it in a couple weeks by cutting out all the pieces and going at it assembly-line-style. And knowing the importance of delegation, I asked Mom to fill them with treats for our guests.

Next on the crafting list? My bouquet. Stay tuned.