Some things not to do at your brother’s wedding.

The wedding was amazing. Gorgeous, memorable, all those things. My brother and (now!) sister-in-law know how to throw a party.

But.

As their calligrapher, I learned a few things. Look at these signs:

They look nice, right? I nonchalantly volunteered to do these signs thinking “how hard can it be? It’s only chalk!”

Turns out working with chalk is not, as my son would say, easy-peasy. I enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to working with chalk again, but next time I won’t be underestimating any artistic medium (lesson #1).

Lesson #2

Don’t tell the bride you’re totally cool with whatever when it comes to hair and makeup. I think she told them to go all out. (I liked the result but I don’t typically go for this type of look) It took several scrubbings to get the makeup off and hairspray out of my hair😉

Lesson #3: take better pictures. I’ve been promised professional photos but I should’ve taken more of my own. This isn’t the final incarnation of this display. The end result was all a bibliophile like myself could want. (Look at my signs!! They look so cool!!)

Oh, and one last lesson.

Nice, right? All my mom’s doing. I spent all morning discovering that chalk isn’t easy to work with and then I broke the chalkboard that originally went into this frame. My mom told me to stop working, she knew exactly what to do. And she did. So Lesson #4: moms are awesome. (What you see above is chalk paint and foam board)

Oh oh oh. Aren’t these cool? I shared a photo of these last week but I’m sharing again because they’re awesome. Takes about 20-30 minutes to do each book. These held the bookmarks my brother used in lieu of a traditional guest book😊