11.29.2010 Handmade Wedding Gifts

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving; I know we did! It was full of family, friends, doggies, and lots of memories.

I've been meaning for a while now, to post with pictures of a few of the unique, handmade gifts we got for our wedding. We are truly blessed with the best friends ever - many of whom happen to be extremely talented and creative. We came home yesterday to a most wonderful surprise, that again, just got me so excited for this posting.

Isaac, one of David's friends from New York, had given us a cute little card at the wedding. It had a picture of a pretzel on it, and said something along the lines of, "congratulations on tying the knot." In his note he mentioned that the theme of the card would go well with our actual wedding gift, which was still being made. That got us so excited and curious. I can remember sitting in Costa Rica on our honeymoon saying, "I wonder what Isaac is making for us?!"

Yesterday, there was a ring at the door - a young man, who lives in our neighborhood, delivering Isaacs's wedding gift -2 cases of specially crafted, can you guess??. . . BEER!

"David and Lisa's brew for two."

 

The label we're guessing, was designed by Isaac, as the figures carry a striking resemblance to David and Me... SO AWESOME!

And I'm already getting crafting ideas for the bottles once they're empty. Check out the brewery at TwoTunBrewery.blogspot.com.

This beautiful plate set was gifted to us by Jay and Melissa. It was made at Patrick Meyer Studio in San Francisco, CA. It has to be one of the most beautiful and unique things that we now own; And, we love cheese and crackers, so I'm sure we will get a lot of use out of it . . .

  

Okay, so the thing I said before about the cheese platter being the most beautiful and unique thing that we own. . . I think I have to take that back. It's the most beautiful and unique serving dish we own ;)

This photo does not do these portraits any justice. Mike Murray, one of our dearest friends made these for us. The piece of me was given to us as an engagement present, which brought tears to my eyes. Then he made the one of David for our wedding gift. He sketched them using actual photographs of us, and I don't know if you can see this very well in the photo or not, but they are made completely out of fabric! Each shade is a different fabric; And the thought that he put into the fabric choice alone is just amazing. I don't can't even fathom how he actually compiled them. He is so amazingly talented. You can check out more of his art work here.

This penny farthing wall hanging was given to us by our friend Aaron.

A couple months before the wedding, Aaron asked David to mail him some of his old bike parts. So, David packed up a couple old chain rings, a chain, and shipped them across the country to Portland, OR. A couple weeks before the wedding, we got a grease-covered box in the mail, with specific instructions to not open it until the wedding. One of the first things we did after getting back from Costa Rica was rip open the box, and hang this baby on the wall. It brought the biggest smiles to our faces. It's such a creative idea.

Our landlords, Jane and Loukas, live above us. They are the best. They have a cat named monkey-mou, who we love; And they own an antique lighting store called, Appleton Lighting. About a week before we left for the wedding, they let us know they wanted to give us a light from their shop as a wedding gift. I of course, got super excited. I love everything and anything vintage, and old lamps are just the best! While we were away though, Jane and Loukas noticed an old, antique lamp in our sunroom - old and tarnished, with a make-shift lamp shade hanging from the light bulb. When we got back, Loukas said they had the idea of restoring that lamp instead, if we would like. We jumped on that offer. I knew it was a beautiful lamp; Even old and tarnished, I thought it was beautiful. They obviously knew it had much more potential though. I wish I would have taken a "before" picture, but with unpacking and thank you cards on my mind, I just didn't think of it. Fortunately though, I found a picture from when we first moved in, that shows it relatively well. It looks like a different lamp now! I especially love the frilly lamp shade. Loukas picked it out just for us :)

"Before"

"After"

So, as you can see, we are blessed with some amazingly talented and thoughtful friends. . . Just one of the many things we have to be thankful for this holiday season. Now it's time to relax, watch a movie, and drink a hand-crafted brew with my honey. -L