Ready for a most excellent, collaborative contest within a contest?
We’re pretty excited.
Firstly because we love Miniature Rhino’s pretty handmade shop. (Surely you’ve seen Jessica’s work around the blogs?) Secondly because the impetus for this particular giveaway was to create a collaborative entry for Martha Stewart + Etsy’s handmade wedding details contest.
That’s like 4 separate crafty entities (you included) joining forces for one contest.
Here’s the scoop…
After hearing about the Martha/Etsy contest, Jessica had a super idea to involve one of you by creating a custom piece for your wedding. All you have to do is post a comment explaining how you will creatively use one of her pieces in your wedding and we’ll all pick a winner. That’s it. Feel free to discuss color schemes, creative names/words and how they tie into your wedding or story, or anything else that will help explain how the addition of a Miniature Rhino piece will be the crowning jewel of your already awesomely creative wedding.
Check out the Miniature Rhino shop on Etsy for some ideas. And let the commenting begin! We’ll pick a winner next Monday.
We cannot wait to see what you all come up with.
86 comments
I would love to win this beautiful embroidery my partners name and I are named Jillian & Julian I know, I know lol…but that’s just how love happens sometimes I guess. Jx
Oh were getting married in a forest in Ireland on my home farm and we have the alter framed by two hundred year old oak trees and were hammering (very gently) rustic and atique frames with pictures of our journey together on the trees and some native culture ornatments. Julian is from New Zealand and obviously I’m from Ireland so were trying to incorporate both cultures into the ceremony, we’re hanging some ski’s on either side.
We met while working on a mountain, ski resort, he was a ski instructor…I know, how cliche!
We would love emboridery featured on the tree’s for the all our loved ones to see and admire esp me! It would SO CUTE! x
These pieces are incredible. If I had one to use at my wedding we would place it over the cake table, we are getting married on the beach and our colors and aqua and white. I think this would be such a personal touch to add to a wedding. I love it, our names, if choosen, are Phillip and Meghan.
he first told me he loved me on a bench in Madison Square Park in NYC, on the day we got engaged, we went back to the bench and carved our names in it. The custom heart sampler would be a perfect reminder of that great day!
I would love one of these to display at our wedding – either above the gift table or behind the head table!
Our colors are red black and gold – I think this would look awesome on black fabric with red and gold threads.
We are both musicians. I would love to add some music notes to make it more “us”. Perhaps instead of the typical plus, we could get a treble clef? (looks very much like &)
David’s mom keeps teaching me new crafts – counted cross stitch, crocheting. This is the kind of idea that I love, but I’m not comfortable enough to do myself!
I was so excited to find the message in a bottle service as it would add the perfect touch to the most special day of my life. The moment I found this unique gift, I immediately envisioned how perfect this would be for a heartfelt letter to my wonderful groom John on the day of our wedding! I love its’ simple charm and truly feel that it would be a special gift that we could treasure forever.
On top of that, the gift would go perfectly with our theme of romantic – casual elegance. Thanks for the special opportunity!
My hubby and I eloped 11 years ago in September. Still, I LOVE to visit this blog for pure inspiration…..colors, party ideas, dresses etc. Don’t know if you’ll consider me, but this would be a lovely focal point on our main living room wall surrounded by picks of our 4 girls. Also, if chosen, I think I’d like it to say Steeb and Joolee……….the way we used to sign our letters to each other when we were teens in a long distance relationship:) Love it!
I love love love these!!
We are getting married in a garden in November with a beautiful, natural ivy arch. I would love to hang this from the top as we stood underneath it. It would be so unexpected amongst the plants and flowers! And then I’m sure we would place it somewhere in the reception.
I LOVE Jessica’s work! I would adore working with her to create some custom embroidered “envelopes” for my wedding invitations. The names of the guests on the embroidered envelopes will be keepsakes that can be cherished forever and will make our invitations especially unique. Furthermore, it will foreshadow the casual, rustic-chic fête to come!
I love love love these! I’m a huge fan of buying handmade and am going to incorporate as many handmade things into my wedding as possible. We’re doing a lot of wood-themed things throughout our wedding – rustic wood cupcake stands and wood grain background on our invitations. We’re also including this type of carved initials design on our invitations, other paper things and centerpieces. We’re getting married under a tree and I thought it would be adorable for us to carve our initials in the tree but I’m sure the owners of the property wouldn’t appreciate that. Wouldn’t it be fun to hang this emroidary instead behing us for the ceremony instead. C+J….love it!
The message in a bottle – for sure! I recently purchased my groom’s gift -an antique watch. The typed bottle message would be the PERFECT “card” that isn’t a card.
Thanks for the opportunity! Gorgeous needlepoint too!
I absolutely love these! I saw them at the Renegade Craft Fair and have obsessed over them ever since. My fiance and I are getting married in Hana, Hawaii this upcoming June. It’s super remote and very rustic/old Hawaii. We actually visited Hana couple years ago and we will forever remember sitting outside watching the stars (which we don’t get to see very often in Brooklyn). After about 20 minutes of stargazing, a small rainstorm rolled in and instead of getting up and running, we just enjoyed the beauty of the moment. I would LOVE to incorporate one of the constellation pieces in our wedding. It would be that personal and memorable touch that we are looking for.
Our ceremony is in an old New England meeting house that is very sparsely furnished and decorated. We’re going to keep the simplicity of the decor and I would love to hang a sweet little sampler with our names in the entry room. It’s the perfect little addition that would make guests pause to enjoy the details of our day.
The heart samplers are simply amazing. My grandmother taught me to cross-stitch when I was 13, and unfortunately I didn’t keep up with it but sewing is a big part of my family. This would be such an incredible keepsake – it really looks like something that could get passed down and I love that heirloom quality of the samplers. At the wedding, we could use it on the guestbook table, along with pictures of our parents and grandparents. It would fit in perfectly with the slightly vintage, slightly whimsical feel I hope to achieve at our wedding. Then, later on, maybe it would be the reminder in tough times that it really is just about “thomas+laura”.
My fiancee and I are getting married next August in a really creative, carnival themed wedding. I would love to win a custom heart sampler to place on my guest book or candy table. I would want it to say Gee-ome + Amber in a heart with the colors being faded red, mustard yellow, and teal blue. You see, my fiancee’s name is Guillaume (it’s French-Canadian) and the second time we met, he gave me a piece of paper with his name and phone number on it, except he added his name phoenetically spelled out because he was afraid I wouldn’t call him if I couldn’t pronounce his name. I already knew how to say his name, so it was pointless, but it’s what got us together, and I’ll never forget it. I would really really love to win this!
This is adorable! I would love one for our wedding, where we’re trying to achieve a homemade feel. I would like one with either mine and my fiance’s name on it, or maybe with one of our favorite things to say, “I love you like….” When one of us says that to the other, we finish the sentence with something such as, “I love you like hot chocolate after a day of snow sledding,” or, “I love you like a long nap in the sun on a Sunday afternoon,” or anything else that is undisputably wonderful. I would hang this sampler on the background of the homemade photo booth/area we are making and have people take pictures in front of it.
the embroidery pieces are so lovely! i would love to have one in our wedding in our colors- hot pink and turquoise – with embroidered vintage flowers. it would be perfect name-setting for our sweetheart table!
Oh wow oh wow oh wow!!!!! This is so awesome! Chris and I met 7 years ago this October in art school where we were both crafty nerds! We are getting married in a warehousey-type building on the Mississippi river this October 2nd in Minneapolis and we have been just nuts about spending weekends making paper flowers, cut-paper flags, and mix cds for our guests!
When Chris proposed he had our dog carry a note to me with “will you marry me?” and three check boxes : one for “yes”, one for “no”, and one for “maybe”. (After frantically running around looking for a pen, I checked “yes!” )
We would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hang one of your beautiful embroidery pieces on the front door of our old building amongst our fuschia, pink, orange & red crepe paper blossoms that was a heart & arrow with the three check boxes inside : (with the “yes” checked!) so our guests begin their night with a little piece of our story!
Thanks for considering us! Keep up the fantastic work!!
These pieces are awesome! We’re getting married in northwest this October. My favorite pieces in the miniature rhino shop is the “Tree Stump.” My dude and I have been together for over ten years (we’re, um, highschool sweathearts? I know. kinda embarrassing.) I would love to have a custom tree stump embrodiery made that had ten rings- one for each year that we have been in each other’s lives. on the outer ring it would have our names and our wedding date. we’d display it on our cake table, which would be awesome, because we are using (actual) tree stumps as our cake stands. I think it would be great because of what rings on the tree stump signify- growth, progression, nourishment, etc.– which, if you think about it, is much like the growth of a relationship.
How wonderful! On one of the tables (gift table, cake table… hasn’t been decided on yet), we are having a vase full of branches (used as our guest book: people will hang their wishes for us on the branches), and this lovely sampler would be perfect tied around the vase!!
These are spectacular! I adore, ADORE the Reading the Stars embroidery. (Genius).
And our rustic/gardenie/vintage/DIY wedding could use the Remember Me Sampler on our tables displays! The centerpieces had lots of green moss, little round logs and handmade mushrooms, so the Remember Me Samplers with vintage pics of our families would ad a dainty classic touch!
I’ve been a fan of these for a while and Im so excited about this giveaway! We would display it on our “sweetheart” table and then hang it in our apartment . It would always be a reminder of our special day! Thanks for doing this Jessica!
I would love to use the “reading the stars” piece as the base (http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=28749780) and have scrolled at the bottom, “to the moon…and back”.
when my fiance and i first got together, he read me the story “guess how much i love you” by sam mcbratney. at the end of the story, the little nut brown hare says to the big nut brown hare “i love you to the moon” and the big nutbrown hare replies, “i love you to the moon…and back”.
we’ve collected the story in many different languages, and are including that quote in our wedding program.
i think it would be a great way to incorporate our story into a late night garden wedding, with stargazing.
We are getting married at a beautiful estate with gardens and beautiful old trees. We are building a chuppah using twisted birch branches and I can imagine two of these hanging from each side. One with our names and the other with our dates. I want to bring as many handmade items into the wedding as possible and I think incorporating a Miniature Rhino piece would be the icing on the cake!
I’m having a Granny Smith Apple theme since my lastname will become Smith, and I’d love to have one of the custom heart samplers to hang on our “Tree of Knowledge.” I plan on having a faux tree where guests can leave their marital advice on apple cutouts for us and hang them on the tree.
I would love to have it say “Handmade With Love” so I can hang it in our kitchen!
Ok so this is a kinda weird story…… Our first date was not supposed to be a date at all. Some friends were going to dinner before heading to another friends house to play some music. We (fortunately) have unreliable friends who ditched us right when we were supposed to meet. We ended up having a blast with just the two of us talking over cheese fries and a blooming onion. We drove seperately and on the way home and Cody texted me “I had fun tonight Turkey.” So I replied with “I had fun too grasshopper.” Weird, I know. So that began our relationship. I still occasionally call him grasshopper just for kicks. It would be so special to have Grasshopper + Turkey embordered in a heart. I would place it on the table our guestbook will rest on with the story typed and framed beside it. It would be so special for us to remember that night for the rest of our lives with it hanging on our wall. Thanks for this awesome opportunity.
Mike and I are both extremely hard workers, but we love to experience new things with each other too. Mike is a farmer outside of his day job, so I have really enjoyed helping him with the garden, and sitting for hours on end in the combine when he’s working. Our wedding is this November, and I love doing a lot of the elements myself. We are making homemade lavender favors for everyone made out of fabric. This would just be amazing on any of the tables in the foyer of the reception area because it really ties in with the fabric elements we’re incorporating into the wedding. We’re a very fun couple so our colors are raspberry, orange, green, with a stripe of navy in the room. Our fabrics are just as bold and fun, they will liven up the room in November!
Thanks!
Katie
I would like to give this embroidery to my groom before our ceremony… something heartfelt and handmade that would serve as a hankie he can put in his suit pocket. After the wedding, we could put it in a pretty vintage frame and hang it on the wall near wedding and family photos and our other knicknacks we’ve picked up throughout our travels.
This really would be perfect for us, I would love to incorporate this piece into our small wedding brunch ceremony as a symbol of the stiching together of our family, My groom Bill, myself Heather, my son Caleb and our son Caden. I would love to have a heart filled with our names and a big C for our oldest and a smaller C for our youngest. It would truly be cherished and hung on our mantel as a reminder that family is really the tie that binds all things.
We are doing a guest book/heritage table that is a large table that extends up the walls with framed pictures all our parents and grandparents on their wedding days. We are having a fall wedding and I’m inserting garland, wreaths and mirrors. It will end being a whole wall mural. I would love to sneak the hand-embroidered miniature heart. We are waiting to live together until after the wedding and will be moving into a new place together. What a perfect wedding souvenir to hand in the house after the wedding.
I would love to have Jessica combine her “tree stump” and “heart” projects into a heart that looks like it has been cut into a tree for our rustic beachside reception!
We are having our reception in a rustic vinyard tucked in the DFW metroplex, but inside it feels so cozy and full of love. It smells like the fermented grapes and you eat amongst the aging wine barrels. So we decided to keep it vintage and simple with a swirly black and white pattern with red accents everywhere. I’m making paper flowers with the same theme, with black spray painted branches tucked in red pottery. As you enter the winery we’re having a phograph of us and on either side it has our parent’s wedding photos. It would be great if we could get this lovely piece embroydered with a red heart and black lettering with our last names, to symbolize the joining of our families. Gilmore (mine) and Crocker (his). That would hang right above our photos.
Aw, you have bud vases.
My grandparents grow rose bushes, and every year when they are in bloom, my grandfather cuts a rose off every day and gives it to my grandmother. She then puts it in a bud vase. So by the end of the season, there are bud vases with roses all over her kitchen — it is so beautiful. We will definitely have bud vases at our wedding, because of the simple type of love they represent to me.
These embroidered hearts would add another perfect touch of that simple love to our simple, intimate wedding.
My Fiancee and I are getting married mid-March 2010. The theme and background design of the wedding is very much inspired by the late 1800’s Victorian Era. Think Jane Austin and London town.
My gown has been designed and sent out to Pakistan with a frilly pattern–lace and all. The groom’s men will be adorned in top hats. We’re going all out. I would love to have these adorable additions to the wedding reception because I think it could be a more clever way of navigating the guests around the event. Since the lawn will be covered with a multitude of tents, I was hoping to use the crafty entities as a sort of iconic guide to the important stations like the Altar, cake, photobooth/guest book, and of course, the bar! ☺. Each one would be stitched with the station name, an iconic reference (camera, guest book, flower, champagne glass and a simple three-tiered cake).
Our color palette is a subdued pastel scheme of pinks, turquoise and yellow tints and shades. We want the wedding to look like an ecru tan from afar, but up close you notice all the spring colors.
Oh my goodness. I can’t even tell you how cherished this piece would be! We are DIYing SO much of our wedding — from cupcakes to tablecloths to centerpieces — and what we can’t make ourselves we’re sourcing from local & indie vendors. A treasure like this would fit right in with the whole theme of our wedding, which is basically a labor of love. I do the best I can to support indie artists & my wedding is going to be a reflection of that. No mass-produced items, no waste, just alot of hard work & alotta love. This little embroidered wonder would be proudly displayed nestled amongst the handmade vegan cupcakes that our punk rock chick best friend made for us. What better spot than cuddled with flakes of coconut and Mexican chocolate fudge?
The names are Nate & Justine, if chosen.
I would love to use the Custom Heart Sampler in our wedding. We are getting married in the middle of a clearing in the forest, a place where we love to camp together.
My fiance carved our names into a tree in the clearing and it would be so wonderful to have a reminder of that beautiful carving in our home. I would like to use the sample during the wedding as well. We have almost no decorations, the woods are beautiful enough! But we will be doing a sand ceremony and will have a small table to set it up on. I’d like to frame the sampler and set it up behind the sand ceremony for everyone to enjoy.
What a great giveaway! (ps our colors are chocolate brown and cornflower blue!)
Travis and I are getting married in his parent’s backyard in front of the most magnificent tree. We would love to hang one of these on the tree. The fabric would go great with our theme (how to tie a knot) because we’re using white rope instead of ribbons and tying them into various kinds of knots (my brother’s a boy scout). It would fit right in with our blue antique mason jars and milk jugs and all the green plants in the backyard. I’m making my dress; the entire skirt will be a quilt of four by four squares of white fabrics from both sides of the family so I can incorporate different textures, patterns, and shades. What an awesome keepsake this embroidery could be for Travis and I. Post-wedding we’d probably display it in our kitchen!
This would go perfectly with our “guestbook”, which will be patches that we’re going to have guests sign, to be eventually made into a quilt! This would be the perfect touch to be placed on the table where guests will scribble down their names and words of love on the various swatches. Our colors are teal, brown, and gold. We’re getting married the day after Thanksgiving in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which is a town that appreciates handy-work such as this. Our reception is taking place in an old farmhouse, and this giveaway fits right in with the feel of our wedding . Key words I would use are- warmth, family, candlelight, oldfashioned romance. Thanks!!
As part of the traditional Jewish wedding day, following the newlyweds are guaranteed a few minutes alone together together to “solidify” the marriage. While my soon to be hubby and I will use our time to freshen up and chow down, I would absolutely love to have a sign on the door letting everyone know that the area is off limits in a friendly way! Having our names embroidered for us would be amazing, and it would be treasured for YEARS to come! Thank you for the opportunity!
I am wearing my grandmother’s original wedding ring set… it was part of a beautiful, happy marriage that lasted more than 50 years. Because we are not having attendants, we have asked my grandmother to hold our rings for us during the ceremony. Our invitations feature an illustration of an oak tree with a heart and our initials carved into it, so I think a lovely handmade touch would be to have the rings tied to one of the custom heart samplers for my grandmother to carry.
I’ve been a fan of Miniature Rhino for a while now, primarily because of the Cabinets of Curiosities (have you ever read Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonders? So good!). My partner and I are getting married in May in an old building that used to be a church, and we’re imagining that the centerpieces will be like mini-cabinets of curiosities on each table: Strange things we love, that reflect us and our guests, and that pay homage to the strange history of the building we’ve chosen.
Anyway, I’ve wandered around this etsy site before, and I fell in absolute love with the ‘Reading the Stars’ embroidery hoops. They are so very beautiful. It’d be perfect because it would fit right in with the look & feel of our wedding. It’d be perfect because it would remind me of the tiny toy planetarium I’ve had since I was a kid, that my partner and I shine on to the ceiling of our bedroom and lie under. It’s also be perfect because it’s just so darn lovely.
Maybe I could find a constellation that’s prominent on the night of our wedding? Like Virgo? That would be doubly-lovely.
We’re creating a big wall to honour all of our guests (maps of where they’re all from, where we met them, how everyone knows each other, old family photos), and this sampler would have a special place on the wall, as the stars under which we’re getting hitched.
These are beautiful! I would love the heart sampler with our names, the word ‘forever’…and a tiny stitched bunny. Zach asked me to marry him on easter morning with an easter egg hunt (one of my absolute favorite things in the world)
{ok, and we also call each other ‘bunny’- }
I think that holding the sampler together for some of the first photos after we are married would be so wonderful and make for some really beautiful and original shots!
Our colors are a range of pinks and corals…
These are so cute! I would love to have one for our upcoming wedding.
We are getting married on Sept 9 on Mackinac Island in Michigan. We’re having an outdoor ceremony in a grotto. There is a big tree right before you reach our ceremony site (in the woods) that I have been looking to decorate… this would be perfect!
My fiance has created a special 09-09-09 monogram/crest for our invitations, etc. It would be wonderful to have that pattern replicated as a sampler. Our colors are black and white/ivory. After the wedding, we could hang it in our living room, and have a constant reminder of the big day.
we’d love for the custom heart sampler to be a part of our engagement photos. We are married and due to a family sickness never got engagement photos, honeymoon etc- who would have guessed. This year we booked a great photographer and the rest! We’d love to celebrate the second half of the wedding the correct way! It’s ok if it’s backwards! We’d love for you to help us do this the way we originally planned!
My fiance and I are getting married this August 22, and instead of a guest book, we will be making a “guest quilt” with squares of fabric for friends and family to sign. We are making a little clothesline for everyone to pin up their squares so they can flutter in the breeze during the reception. I would love to hang a little heart sampler with our names and date (Cheryl + Michael 8/22/09) as a centerpiece to the clothesline, and then use it as the center square of the quilt later! Our colors are mostly greens ranging from avocado to pea soup, with touches of grey, aqua, and white and definitely has a vintage/ homemade vibe with lots of stitched and screenprinted elements. This would be a fabulous addition to our homespun wedding, where 99% is handmade– including my dress I just finished, with stripes of running-stitch ribbon embroidery!
We’d use the custom heart sampler as our “RING PILLOW”! I think it would be super unique and unlike any other traditional “ring pillow”. I’m all about being different! Ha ha! Our theme is modern/vintage with color scheme white, grey, “oasis” blue and a splash of yellow or peach. I totally can see our ring bearer (my Godson) walk our rings down the aisle on top of the sampler with a handstiched “M8M”, (our known signature name with the “8″ representing the infinity symbol”) or just our names Meleesa and Mark would work perfectly! You can’t hang a ring pillow but we can hang this piece of art reminding us of our special day, every day of the year after the wedding! They’re beautiful!
We are using a lot of handcrafted items in our rustic barn wedding, including a display board (built by my future father-in-law) of our engagement photos for our reception. It will be covered in fabric in our wedding colors (midnight blue, chartreuse, grey and cream) with twine strung across on various levels. We’ll clip the photos onto the twine with mini clothespins. A custom sampler with our names would look so cute and charming as a part of this board!
I crocheted 120 winter hats for our wedding in Colorado the last weekend in Sept. At times I thought I was crazy to do this but my fiance and I love the mountains and cold weather so we’re having our reception in a field with a great view of the Rocky Mountains and I love crafting. We’re displaying the hats on a clothesline with a craft paper luggage tags that will provide seatting assignments. Having a sampler on the line would be a beautiful textural accent that we could enjoy in our homes for years afterwards. I’d love to have one!
I would use this as a super amazing surprise gift for my dear friend and her husband-to-be who are getting married at an outdoor resort this September. I think this would be perfect next to the guest sign-in!
I’m just learning to embroider. The best part is my to-be mother in law and mom are teaching me. I love the memories of us on the coach and their careful explanation and I would LOVE to have one of your pieces round out my wedding day. I would hang the piece on the back of my fiancé’s chair at our reception (um, exciting – he’ll be my husband then). I would also use it as inspiration for our thank yous – so sweet. I like that after the wedding, we could hang it in our house next to wedding portraits. Thanks so much for the contest!
I would love one if these for photos. It would be a cute shot to hold this out and have the camera focus with us a little blurry in the background. cute.
We’d use it as the ring bearer “pillow” of course!
My fiance and I are getting married in a garden with a faux log cabin. The ceremony and dinner will take place in the garden, while drinks and dancing will take place in the cabin. Our theme for the invitations has been Moose, because the cabin has a delightful moose head mounted above the mantle (I fell in love with Mr. Moose Head as soon as I saw him). The cabin will have rocking chairs out on the deck. I think a heart sampler would add a folksy, rustic touch to the ceremony, hung from the wooden arch under which we’ll say our vows, to tie it in with the rustic cabin. Maybe the heart can have moose antlers? Our invitation colors are ivory, brown, and green (though we have no official colors for the wedding itself). We’re both visual artists, so we’ve designed all of the paper goods so far (STDs, invitations, RSVP cards, thank-you notes, even the guest book). My sister and future brother-in-law are photographing the reception. My other sister is a professional make-up artist, so guess what she’s doing. My mom is making my bouquet and his boutonniere. My future sister-in-law made a hair clip for me. It would be nice to add another hand-made item to the mix, something quite different from everything else.
Our names are Matthew and Ellen. We met in college, became best friends, then unexpectedly made out on my dorm room floor, and the rest is history!
For our moose: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GMFp-cLeYa8/SkOF3ksnGWI/AAAAAAAAAHo/H7YJguq4P1k/s1600-h/Wedding_Invitation.jpg
can I just say, these are fantastical! (fantastic + whimsical = fantastical)
I would most definitely be honored to have the ‘classic’ blue and red motif in a GIANT version hanging on the barn wall of our reception. The wall will be covered with family wedding portraits, pictures of us, our favorite art, and textiles. This would be an amazing central piece of the wall art.
We’re having a picnic wedding so the food will be out in blankets in a meadow, and then the pie and cider in mason jars will burst loose in the barn with Irish fiddle music.
This captures the whimsy, charm and timeless class we are going for…and not to mention, FUN.
kendra
+
matthew
The down-home charm of the heart samplers would be a perfect fit for my wedding day. Our wedding will be in a beautiful country setting at Serenbe in Palmetto, GA (http://www.serenbeinn.com/), and we’re going for a rustic elegance look – which is exactly what these embroidered hearts say to me.
Our dominant color will be a cheerful cherry red – so I think the classic would be a great match. I envision hanging this heart from the oak tree we are getting married underneath. Such a charming, small detail to make the day all the more special! We are also adding touches like wooden signs and vintage textiles, all of which will go so well with the classic heart!
oh, OH! I love these little beauties so much!
our september wedding will be held at my parent’s property in oregon. both the ceremony and reception will be outdoors on their gorgeous 30 acre property, surrounded by flower gardens, apple trees, and even pygmy goats (they will remain behind fences
). it is a truly idyllic setting, and our very diy/homemade/crafty wedding shall serve to compliment the already existing rustic and natural beauty of the property.
Our cake table (which will also be piled high with fruit cobblers, pies, cookies, and a grooms southern whisky cake) will be located beneath my favorite childhood tree: a towering cedar with a rope swing. were I lucky enough to be the recipient of a stunning miniature rhino piece of art, I would hang that little cutie right on the big cedar tree, to serve as a unique and special backdrop as my sweetie and I cut our wedding cake.
love them all….fantastic work!
So lovely!
I’d love to have one of these beautiful pieces incorporated into our wedding (October 2009), most likely at the family table. My fiance and I are getting married in an old czech church from the 1850′s, and while the building is simply beautiful we are still in search of some unique personal touches to make our day special. I’m really hoping to have a wedding that feels warm and inviting and that draws a since of nostalgia. Textures are an important theme in our wedding and we really want guests to be able to enjoy the sights, smells, and touch of everything!
I can imagine one of these pieces in vibrant colors (deep plum, chartreuse, and cobalt blue) catching the eye of everyone! And it would be wonderful to place this work of art in our budding home to be after the ceremony! =)
Me (Sarah) and my fiancé (Casey) are two young 21 year olds who met when I was an exchange student in America for a year.
After that year we had a long-distance relationship for 2 years between Finland and America.. We are not engaged and want to get married, no matter the fact that we have absolutely no money after trying to pay for college ourselves.
We want a personal wedding, nothing extravagant, that shows how much we truly love each other and have fought so hard to get to be together!
A nature wedding in the catskills, NY (where Caseys family lives) is what we are planning and we would LOVE a miniature rhino creation to add to our simple but personal uniting of two people who no matter the circumstances want to spend the rest of their lives together.
And thank you for a great “blogg”, I am getting so many great ideas from you!
Plain and simple…I had planned on purchasing one of Jessica’s custom creations as a wedding present to my future husband. I have a cute little book from 1913 named “Don’ts for Husbands” that I will pair it with. It’s not about buying the most expensive gift for the day, it’s about giving each other a little keepsake to remember the day. Plus we can feature it next to our guest book after the ceremony.
Ok, so first of all… I <3 you 100layercake. Ahem, now that that is out of the way… I am Sooooooo excited about this giveaway. Here’s why: My fiance and I have this crazy notion that our DIY craft-tastic wedding will not be complete without a large family tree prominently displayed for all to oogle during our reception.
Our idea is to show-off our amazing families on the big day and also get a keepsake out of the deal. Why a family tree? Because I think it is the best way of visually expressing how amazing it feels to stumble upon this person that I feel so united with. All of our distant relatives had to get it just right so that my honey and I would become who we are. That amazes me! So, in order to incorporate our family tree into the wedding, I have been scouring the internet and even blogging about this idea to come up with the best tree: http://becomingmrsford.blogspot.com/2009/04/family-tree.html
BINGO, a needlepoint family tree is beyond a perfect idea. What could be more sweet, sentimental, and personal?
I’d love to hang one of these on the church door before and during the ceremony, so that everybody in town can see who’s getting married – and feel the love.
I saw this contest the first day it was posted and thought your embroidered hearts were adorable, but I didn’t really consider posting b/c I didn’t really think I had a good idea for how I would use it. Today, though, I came up with a really cute idea that would work well with the few things I’ve already considered doing.
I really want our wedding to be a celebration of our love for each other and our commitment to be married to each other for the rest of our lives. Not everyone in our families has been happy about the engagement, which had made for some rough going at first, but we’ve had some really good advice from friends and family who are excited for us…Marry each other b/c you love each other and to make each other happy and don’t worry about what anyone else says. I love the idea of having a picture of us kissing while holding this out to the camera and using that image on the front of save the date postcards, or maybe even our wedding invitations. I think it would be really cute to incorporate love birds into our wedding (I found some adorable cake toppers on RedLightStudio.etsy.com) and I think adding some embroidered birds to the heart would be a nice touch, but I think the heart would work well on its own. It helps to invoke the theme of love and happiness that I want to be present throughout our wedding and reception. I plan on using sapphire blue (my engagement rings has sapphires and a diamond!) with lavender and spring green and lots of flowers and little birds and get married in a garden to help make it a happy, joyful, spring wedding. Dusty and I are excited to be getting married and start our lives together and I think the embroidered heart would be a nice detail to add to our wedding and our home after we are married.
Sorry, that was a little longer than I intended it to be. I really am procrastinating from working on my dissertation more than I thought!
I’d really like to use some of Jessica’s cross badges with the boutonnieres for the wedding party. Maybe it could be some custom embroidered buttons instead of the printed ones in her shop…in fact, I think I’ll plan on doing this anyway, winner or no!
Against my better judgment, I decided to hand-stamp our initials with a heart — S then a heart then H — on all 150 of our cocktails napkins. No, wait, it gets even better: ON BOTH SIDES OF OUR COCKTAIL NAPKINS. (What can I say? I had a lot of DVR-ed episodes of NYC Prep to get through while I did it.)
Anyway, I’d love to put this sampler on the bar at our reception, right next to those bloody napkins that stole my life, so that people would see the adorable sampler and then see the napkins and tie the two together (the motif is pretty similar), thus making them less likely to screw their used napkin into a lipsticky ball without even noticing the precious little S Hearts H on it , ERGO validating all my hard work.
Also, I’m just kind of obsessed with the sampler in general. There’s that. And it would look pretty great in my kitchen afterwards.
I would love to use one of these instead of a ring pillow.
Our names are Sarah and Karl, but I would love to see Lobsters and Geese embroidered on it, since they are two other species that mate for life. I can just see this beautiful piece holding our bands during the ceremony.
We are getting married August 21st and our color scheme is blues and browns. This vintage inspired piece would go perfectly with the rest of the wedding…
gorgeous! we’re trying to make, design, sew, letterpress, decorate everything for our wedding. i’m a single mom (not for long) and with 4 kids between the two of us i would LOVE to delegate something to miniature rhino! we’re getting married in the laurentian mountains in sept. so far we have homemade jam, cds, crossword puzzles, my mom’s dress re-worked, friends doing the music, readings by the kiddos… oh i can hardly stand the excitement! so much fun to plan. a sampler with our names would be the perfect touch! colors – chocolate, robin’s egg blue and navy… names suzy + john (and ellie + annabel + jack + oliver!) thanks for this fun opportunity!
I am having a mixed up multicultural wedding – an american girl (that’s me)! marrying a polish guy in bavaria (that’s where we met and live). Everything at the wedding will be working hard to bridge that “cultural” gap – from having invitations in three languages, to working translationgs into the ceremony, to offering various foods.
I love the sampler because it says all it needs to say without words! (just names). The robin’s egg blue sampler on white background is perfect because white and blue are the colors of bavaria, and also the colors of our wedding (plus yellow). We are having our ceremony and reception in an old “Landhaus” in a small town in the Bavarian alps and the old-timey look would match perfectly. Stiching together two families…. so excited.
There are so many beautiful ideas here! Mine will sound a little complicated but I would love a tree stump sampler in black thread. But for the center knot have it be a little heart. Then in bright yellow thread in between some of the lines have the words “let’s grow old together… 5-29-2010″. I would love to hang this from one of the wrought iron fence posts along the entrance walkway of our reception venue. Our whole theme is a classic 1930′s vintage crafty style in black, white, and yellow. I think this would be a beautiful addition to our decor and those words have very special meaning to us b/c my FH wrote a song about us by that title. It always makes me cry hearing it and I think the symbol of an aged tree would go perfect with it.
I love the idea of using one of these beauties as a ring pillow. This would be such a creative, personalized addition to our mostly DIY wedding. My mother and I are making every invitation, save the date, favor, program, and most likely flower arrangements. My fiance Travis and I (Heather) have known each other since we were kids, but only started dating a few years ago. He was always that guy who had a crush on me growing up – and probably doodled “Travis + Heather” all over his notebooks in school
Thanks for introducing these to us, and good luck in the Martha contest!
Oh these are beautiful! We are having a vintage garden party wedding centered around family. We want to include pictures of as many of the invited couples as we can to honor all of their love – not just ours. On of these would be adorable on the table with the wedding pictures of our family. It is not as creative as some of your lovely ideas but I would cherish it all the same. Good luck to everyone!
as a cake topper. We are both good with our hands and use them often. We embroidered tea towels for a friend’s wedding, and by we, the fella did his own needlework! These works are handsome and would tie in so nicely with our aesthetic, mostly handmade wood/paper/textile themed event. Afterward, hanging this on our home would be a welcome reminder of our wedding without being sappy. Fingers are crossed.
Seattle is our home and we will be getting married in 3 months and 1 day. We are getting married in a wonderful church with about 250 family and friends. As part of our ceremony we are having our parents and immediate family bless both of our rings. I have been trying to figure out how to prevent “dropage” well this is it. If all works then I would have our mini rhino made in our colors pumpkin orange and with sage green writing and a white arrow. We will tie the rings to this and that way our family can pass the entire piece rings and all. This would be perfect!!
Hi! First of all, Jessica’s work is awesome and she’s totally generous to sponsor the contest. So thanks!
I’m getting married in September of next year. I’m an English teacher who is also crafty (and getting married two days before school starts back up), so I’m trying to incorporate as many handmade details as I possibly can. I’m making a tiny quilt for the chuppah and knitting a shawl, so an embroidered sampler ring pillow would really compliment that theme in an excellent way.
Thanks again!
Our wedding is in this adorable little garden in the middle of Seattle, with a large tree right at the entrance. I’d LOVE to hang one of your embroidered rings around the tree trunk – it would fit in PERFECTLY with our vintage, gardeny theme and add perfectly to our guest book table!
Not to mention it would look ADORABLE in my house afterwards!
What a beautiful way to remember such a sweet, special day! If I were to be so blessed to have such a remarkable keepsake, I would have it nestled as the centerpiece of my bouquet! I have always had a unique since of vintage style and think this would compliment my style perfectly. Should I be chosen my colors are light blue and cream with burlap accents! Our Initials are E & Z or Erika and Zack. Love.
I am in LOVE with the reading the stars needlepoints. My fiance’s middle name in Orion, and he’s so into astrology. This would make a perfect, thoughtful, and beautiful present for him on wedding day!
Our date is July 3rd so american arts and crafts will be sewn through the wedding details. We’ll use this on our bake sale style dessert table. We both love desserts so it’s going to be a main focal point in the 1940s Great Hall(http://emilive.com/viewer/2948/6.html) that our reception is at – cupcakes, a groom’s cake (he wants carrot cake!), pies, and cookies (from Two Tarts http://www.twotartsbakery.com/catering.htm). The location is in Sunriver, Oregon – a woodsy, romantic place that’s reminiscent of another time. The table will be traditional with pictures of our grandparents and parents on their wedding day.
gorgeous! we’re trying to make, design, sew, letterpress, decorate everything for our wedding. i’m a single mom (not for long) and with 4 kids between the two of us i would LOVE to delegate something to miniature rhino! we’re getting married in the laurentian mountains in sept. so far we have homemade jam, cds, crossword puzzles, my mom’s dress re-worked, friends doing the music, readings by the kiddos… oh i can hardly stand the excitement! so much fun to plan. a sampler with our names would be the perfect touch! colors – chocolate, robin’s egg blue and navy… names suzy + john (and ellie + annabel + jack + oliver!) thanks for this fun opportunity!
above i forgot to mention, it would be the focal point of the place card table, and we’d take a pic with it to use as our thank you cards! again, thanks a ton!
These are all so beautiful.
Our wedding is going to be full of whimsy and ephemera, which my fiance and I both adore. Other loves include art museums, fruit picking, candle pin bowling and getting lost together. In my mind (and maybe y’all can see what I mean) these samplers are a perfect fit with these loves. We are a nation of two, he and I. We have more fun together doing nothing than anything else.
These would fit so wonderfully with our handmade, quirky wedding.
In composing this comment, i started thinking of all the ways these could be incorporated as a way of honoring people. Our wedding will take place on father’s day of next year. We’re both close to our fathers, and have both lost both of our grandfathers. I was thinking of how lovely it would be to get a ton of samplers to honor all of our family units (I’m talking four sets of grandparents, two sets of parents, and one for our new unit of us).
As it is, one sampler would be so perfect above the guest “book” table. The plan is to get a library-card drawer, and have guests sign library cards that will live in the drawer. The vintage quality of the sampler would blend so beautifully with the wooden box and old-time cards.
Whoever wins will be so lucky – these are so beautiful.
i’ve just read every single comment and feel so honored to have so many great responses!
thank you for all your stories, ideas, and enthusiasm. i really wish everyone could win, but my arms might not be able to handle it all. thanks 100 Layer Cake and many kind thanks again to everyone who commented!!
First off, what a FABULOUS ring “pillow” alternative. I love it…and this is the reason I am entering….
This embroidered hoop would truly be special to me personally and also my fiance and I as a couple. My great-grandmother, Omah, was an embroiderer. When I see the hoops I immediately think of her trying to teach us to cross stitch when we were little. She was SO special to me, and some of my favorite childhood memories were having sleep overs at her house, sewing, baking, and feeling pampered! Her birthday was on May Day…a seemingly lost holiday, but one that was always so special when she was alive (she always reminded us of the may poles and ribbons and flowers for May Day!)! My fiance, unfortunately, never got to meet her (we met 2 years after she passed away) and ironically our anniversary fell on May Day – which couldn’t have been more perfect for me! So every May 1st, when we celebrate each other, I smile and celebrate Omah’s birthday too….because now it’s an even more important date in my life! So, this would be the PERFECT ring pillow for my little ring bearer to hold on our Oct. 3rd wedding in a quaint white church with a steeple on a wildflower preserve (how appropriate, right?) ….in remembrance of Omah AND our May Day EXTRA-special day!
I would love it to be in yellow and chocolate with Meeko + Emily in the heart and a tiny “In remembrance of Omah” with a tiny little flower in the corner. Then we could hang it and cherish it forever!!!!!
I am looking forward to reading this paper in detail. ,
I would love one of these at our wedding with our logo of E2 (with the 2 higher, as in E squared). Both of our names begin with E, and we would display this near our wedding cake, also with our logo.
Thanks for the opportunity!