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Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Rehearsal Dinner- Italian Style

My friend, Christy, is hosting a rehearsal dinner in September.  It is out of town, so the challenge is to create  simple, easy to transport, décor for the event!  She is having the dinner at an Italian restaurant and the menu sounds divine!  In addition to having the dinner at an Italian restaurant, Christy is Italian!  So a theme was born! Yesterday, we spent the day creating the invitations, menu and centerpieces.


First we designed the invitation.  Christy chose the words for the invitation and we typed  them on a red background.  We then had them printed on a 4 by 6 photo paper in lustre finish.
13 cents a copy- not bad!



We stamped and embossed the black envelopes with an Italian postmark in gold.
 

Finally, the invitation was glued on to a gold border with a black background! 
Now they are ready to address with a gold pen and go in the mail.
 
 
Next for the menu card.



Using the Italian flag as inspiration, we used each color stripe  to list  a different course.



And to keep the same feeling as the invitation, we again backed it with gold and black cardstock.
 
 
Placed on  a white starched napkin, it will look crisp and festive.

Next for the centerpieces. 
They had to be easily transported and quick to assemble on the night of the party.    So in keeping with our Italian theme, we decided to use wine bottles and create our own special label for the bride and groom.



 
I found hand dyed red and tan silk ribbon in my ribbon stash, along with a spool of gold vintage French thread. And I spotted a package of sealing wax with a crown stamp!
 
What to do with these we asked ourselves???
 

 
We created a wine label out of a copy of an old map of Italy and edged the borders in 18 kt. gold.
They were applied with a glue stick to the front and back of the bottle, so the bottle would look good from both sides.



Next the sealing wax was used to create little crown seals for the bottles.
 
 
 


 
 
The ribbons were tied on the neck of the bottle and the crown seal was applied with glue.
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
Now- what flower is readily available in most parts of the country?  A red rose!
We knew that with a Costco nearby , that we could easily find lots of long stem red roses.
And a red rose was the perfect color for our Italian theme.




Imagine lots of these bottles down the center of a long table with votives placed in between.
It's a simple set up- water in the bottles, roses in the bottles,  then placed on the tables with votives.
Place the menu card on the white napkin and voila!  It's a set up that her friends can easily quickly do, while  she is at the wedding rehearsal!
 

 
 


 
Now- we only need to drink 18 more bottles of wine to get enough empty bottles to finish the project!
Now that's not a problem!!!
 
 
 
 
 

8 comments:

MT said...

Gorgeous! Sure to impress

Christy said...

I am crying! The bottles look wonderful. I can't believe you did more. And the ceiling wax crown is perfection! I am beyond blessed to have a friend like you. I still can't quite believe how wonderful the invitations turned out and the menus are perfect!

frenchbourne said...

As our friend Christy would say, "to die for". Just a beautiful job. I know one happy Mother of the Groom. Beautiful!

Splenderosa said...

Susan Susan Susan, how delightfully wonderful! Love every single thing...and I think I'm available to come that evening. It will be so much fun!

Katha said...

Perfect! Love it all! Another creative theme very well done!

Jeannine said...

You are just brilliant!! How utterly romantic and perfect!! I love reading and seeing the amazing things you do!! Thank you for sharing!!

Laurell Banner said...

Just beautiful. This dinner is going to be something they won't forget.
Great job girls. I think you have found a new career.

Jill said...

The whole presentation is wonderful!-- and transportable!!how fabulous is that --- sure the dinner will look as good as these pics!!-- congratulations on yet another event well done!!--- you have to for sure help Laura and I this summer on the planning of her big events!!