wedding chalkboard tutorial

i make signs for a living. 

every day i come home with permanent marker smeared on my left hand, 

and more often than not some amount of paint on my clothes. 

and i honestly {usually} love it.

my friend maddie jo finally married her sailor last week and it was beautiful. 

she requested i make something for her wedding weeks ago. i said yes.

then she showed me this darling but daunting picture:

ayeeee! how in the world was i to even attempt this?? i had never used chalk before and this thing was a goliath! 8'x8'. i swallowed hard and took the money for supplies, and after procrastinating enough, began the task.

i bought 2 4'x8' pieces of smooth, thin, but sturdy plywood {about $10 each} and primed them with a quart of {grey} gripper primer. next i rolled on black chalkboard paint, doing 2 coats for good measure.  i waited several days to allow the chalkboard paint to cure and then transported the boards back to my lovely warehouse of employement {the depot}.
*total cost was about $75 {plastic drop cloths, primer, paint, roller, roller covers, chalk, plywood}

lucky for me, the depot has a projector. i did a rough sketch, tracing the outline of the original picture onto a transparency while adding in the correct names and such.

the picture below is right after using the projector to trace an outline with chalk.  i had to adjust things a bit, since 'christensen' is such a long last name. i also decided not to include the siblings and only did the parents. because of the angle of the original photo, proportions were off slightly so i had to account and correct that, too.

after laying down one board onto the table, it was business time. my friend bill helped enormously, filling in my outlines and then smearing the chalk to create that lovely chalkboard effect.  in total it took us 5 hours. here is a play-by-play.

 {i sent maddie jo this picture, as a teaser, and she was ecstatic!}

 here is the bride's board just after we finished the chalk.

 to set the chalk, we used aerosal hairspray and matte clear coat protectant spray. at first it darkens the chalk, but we used an air compressor to speed up the drying time. it seriously was like magic, watching it come back into full white-chalk glory! we learned, however, to keep a safe distance when spraying as you don't want the chalk to become completely wet and dissolve. we only used the protectant spray after the hairspray. 

upon completing the bride's board, the groom's board was a cinch. we knew what we were doing {plus he has a shorter last name} so it took us about half the time as the first board.

maddie joe cried when she saw it the next day. success!
she and her family picked up the boards. at the wedding site {noah's, in lindon} her brothers put together the frame to keep these beasty boards upright.

maddie jo and colten got married in front of my creation and it made my heart smile.

 it was so sweet.

 husband and wife!

 me and the beautiful bride

 maddie jo loves disney. obsessed, perhaps? 

they sure looked adorable in their bride and groom mickey hats! on the back was embroidered in gold 'mrs. carter' and 'mr. carter'. 

and that is the story of how i built an 8'x8' chalkboard and my friend got married in front of it!

after the wedding we had this fantastic southern feast inside noah's. here are some of my favorite work pals:

 i also wrote on a little map for her dessert bar inside. it really was such a perfect, lovely, wedding. congrats again maddie jo!

time alone

well if oscar wilde says it's okay for me to be an independent introvert, i'll go with it.

dance walk

 last weekend my sister had a sleepover with me and ali. it was a great girls' night.
to kick off the night we shimmied over to provo's first-ever dance walk {to accompany the other 'first friday' activities of summer}.
if you haven't heard of dance walking, PLEASE watch this. it is hilarious and will get you in the spirit.

next month, the first friday of the month just happens to be my birthday! hazzah! i can't wait to shake my hips on my birthday as i dance-walk down provo center street. come join me? okay!

after shakin' what our mommas gave us, we went to texas road house with some of my work buddies. man, i love steak.

the day i couldn't get my pants off

i got stuck in my skinny jeans.
literally.

here's how the story goes:

wednesday, after a brief workday, my heroic and beautiful sister took me on a marvelous date to keep my mind off the fact that i wasn't getting married {read previous post}.

we got indian food at 'aroma' {in draper} and ate til we had major food babies.

 proof we ate sitting. make note of the skinny jeans!

next she took me to get a manicure and pedicure. isn't she the greatest? it's amazing what a little nail polish can do to fix a girl right up!

since i wore my skinny jeans to the nail salon, i had to pull my pants over my calf muscles for the pedicure. an important factor to the story is: i have huge calf muscles.  i walked around everywhere on tiptoe when i was little, because i wanted to be taller. the end result-- killer calf muscles. which is great and lovely... except when you can't get your pants off!

my sister and i went to a little boutique in draper and i found a fancy skirt to try on.  i closed the curtain in the dressing room and tried to pull down my pant legs {just below the knee}. no avail.  i unbuttoned my pants and figured i would step out of them. intense pain resulted.

so i put my big girl pants back on and said to my sister, "i can't get my pants off!"
she followed me into the dressing room, chuckling, and tugged. and pried.
i flexed my foot, and then i pointed. nothing helped. the pants were stuck above my calf muscles like glue. we unrolled my pants and tried again but without much progress.

in that moment, i felt very much like ross in his leather pants.

my sister and i were roaring with laughter: i held on tightly to the dressing room chair and she sat on the floor, yanking those darn skinny jeans. in 10 seconds of despair i imagined the boutique owner cutting me free of the skinny jeans and sauntering out to the car in the newly-purchased skirt hanging on the rack.

fortunately, and after a good 5 minutes, my pant legs descended, blood circulation resumed, and i breathed a sigh of relief to not be stuck in my jeggings any longer.

embarrassing? somewhat, but more hilarious and majestically memorable.

i just thank the heavens that our little escapade was in a boutique dressing room, rather than the draper temple dressing room{which is where we went next}. what a ruckus that would have been!

after the temple, i got to come home and eat oreos with these little darlins!

so, that's what i did instead of getting married on wednesday.
it was delightful.

piece by piece

the weather was temperamental today-- chilly for june-- but the sunset was beautiful. the wind would have rustled your tux and my heavy, ivory lace gown. the pictures would have turned out well, with bright flowers and crisp temple stone. don't you think our cheeks would have hurt from smiling too much-- for the photographer and the pure euphoria of matrimony? my small group of bridesmaids would have cried as we emerged from the draper temple, and i would have cried too, with happiness beyond measure, making a new family while surrounded by our respective families' love and support.

remember when we picked out today?
we liked it because it was an equation. 6.6.12.
nearly four years ago, we decided today would be the start of eternity.

instead, that ivory lace dress is stuffed into a bag, zipped and hanging in my old closet.

.....

today, as i was sitting in the draper temple, i felt a whisper: "there is more".

so i cried.

but the unfathomable feeling of peace settled over me and a flicker of hope ignited.

one day i will wear that ivory lace dress, and the groom will be sweet and dear to my heart. it will be more than a wedding day, it will be a new start to our adventure together, the beginning of a marriage and the continuation of a love story.

in the meantime, this quote surmises my feelings for the day:

"after...there were moments when i was convinced i would never be happy again, that, in an instant, the life i'd built and longed for had been destroyed.  even just six months earlier, i hadn't really believed life would get better for me.  i'd been lost, and in pain, trying to balance hope for the future with a dismal present.  confused and depressed, i had often despaired, but my faith and my family had nudged me forward when nothing else could.  and now, here i was...peace is always waiting for me after i despair.  in the quiet moments, inspiration and comfort always come back.  every time, without fail. piece by piece, god puts me back together and i keep moving forward" -stephanie nielson