Wedding Craft #13: Library Books & Card Catalog Escort Cards

I take great pride in being a librarian. Not only do I love what I do, but I completely embrace the culture. I wear glasses. I love cats. I love old school librarian outfits. And although we're known for being a crabby bunch - I think we're awesome (and I don't think we're all crabby)! It should also be noted that Brian thinks librarians are awesome too. Remember this? I knew the librarian theme just had to be somewhat featured in our wedding.

Our venue, Castle Green, made it so easy to incorporate our theme. The photographs and books above and below were all sitting on top of an old grand piano, which perfectly incorporated our love for music too.

Luckily for me, I had lots of access to discarded books, making this all very doable. To give some of the books a whimsical, fluttered look, I folded every other page. Doing this kept the books to stay open and look so fantastic.

My real pride and joy of the librarian theme; however, was my card catalog. My dear librarian friend, Joanna, gave me her old card catalog! Isn't it beautiful? I just love these things.

Once I had the card catalog, I knew I had to use it for the escort cards.

I made a standard Library of Congress style call number for the cards, which read (and stood for):
BA (Brian & Annette)
417 (4/17 the day we got married)
.A17 (April 17, the day we got married)
2010 (2010, the year we got married)
At first, I got real nerdy and wanted to use the call number of an existing book - but I realized that only I (and perhaps the handful of librarians in attendance) would get it, so I opted for the alternative approach and I think it worked out. Each person was led to their table, which we referred to as chapters.

Around the card catalog, we had more books and featured a number of vintage cameras and old photographs. The photographs below are of Brian's parent's and grandparents.

And my parents and grandparents...

Even our rings fit the decor. My engagement ring dates back to 1897! Brian and I both designed our antique-style wedding bands (mine is not pictured), which we had my uncles make. My uncles are so talented!

For more photographs of our card catalog and library theme, go to my flickr page.

Up next: Wedding Craft #14: Table Numbers

**All photographs above are by Our Labor of Love

More Fun With Construction Paper, Scissors, Scotch Tape, Staples, And Glue Stick

Before I move on to a new branch library, I had one more day to begin and complete mural #2! I had a general idea when I got there yesterday, but that evolved into something a little more involved than I originally imagined. I wanted to keep this wall simple, since I only had about 8 hours to complete it, but in a lot of ways, it became extremely detailed. I had a whole new blank slate to work with.

This board is even longer in length and width than the first wall I completed. Before I got to the library, I decided that I'd go for a plain black background, since the blue squares were a little time consuming. When I started setting up, I noticed that a lot of the characters that are going on the wall had black hair. This was a dilemma, because I didn't want the hair to fade in with the background. So, I decided to give the middle the blue square treatment and the edges a black border.

Strangely, it went by super quick and I was able to finish the background in no time.

I also had the kid's heads ready, but what took forever was making the kids books!

I made 8 different kid's book covers yesterday, and I'm still not finished with them. I want to add little white page flaps to the inside. And when that's done, there's still more! Luckily, they extended my stay at this branch, so I have more time to finish before I move to the next. More progress to come!