I purchased the blank canvas from the internet and it came in one roll.  I gessoed it first and then taped off my borders on each side to make my border.  I blended my burgundy and pinks together, which was very time consuming, but I always liked ribbons that blended colors together, so that's what I was trying to imitate.

  Since I love watercolor, I used my pinks, burgundy and green in sections going down the middle of the runner to give some washes of color.  And since I was painting this all in my kitchen on the floor, it picked up the pattern of my tile.  Then when I stood back, instead of being horrified, it made it look like lattice!  So that's why then I did my freehanded rose buds inside that to make it appear as if they were climbing around it. 

 While my paint in that area was still wet, I sprinkled german glass glitter to give some sparkle.  It was all then sealed with a poly. sealer for protection against those footprints at the church. 

 

As you can see in the picture with the back of my dress, the poem The Promise was in the perfect place for our wedding pictures in the chapel.  Also, our monogram was at the back of the church so everyone saw that when they came in. 

 

If someone would want to buy this, I plan to only cut off our monogram part and I can put the next couples on there for them.  It is really a one of a kind aisle runner and because of the sealer on it, it could be used outside too.  With the canvas, it's heavy duty (10 oz. weight) so heals won't go through it.

 

My bouquet is huge.  Since my dress stood so far out, I wanted my bouquet to be big........  I used swarovski crystals on everything from my tiara, to my bouquet, to my wedding cake!  I put the crystals on a curly wire I found from only eBayers in England & strung red, clear AB and pinks of various shades then wound that in all my arrangements.  I also placed the crystals on individual wire stems and stuck them here and there. 

 

I also made my bouquet holder.  They were so expensive to buy, so I looked at some I like and figured out how to make my own.  I thought it came out pretty good!  Made my large bouquet much easier to hold. 

 

I used all silks, but I bought the best!  Lots of them were the ones called 'real touch' where if you touch the petals, they really feel like a real rose petal.  Amazing.  It allowed me to make up everything as I went along and then store it in boxes so I could save the little things like my favors for the quests until last.  I even made my own candies to give out at the reception!

 

And sinse it was a Valentine wedding I bought some antique Valentine kids cards and found some others on Amazon.com that were  the punch out ones from when we were kids.  So I had Victorian cards and ones from the 50's & 60's sprinkled around on the tables for the guests to take home.  And we signed them on the back saying to 'please be our Valentine' Karen & Sonny.

 

Oh, & my wedding cake.  The squared layers had over 450 red swarovski glued individual on wooden skewers cut down to about 2 inches and stuck into the cross over pattern on the cake.  I also bought lots of the gum paste flowers and hand decorated them myself to pull in all the colors I wanted.  Then inside some of those, I even glued some swarovski crystals to give some shine to the flowers.  I wish I had a better close up picture of my cake because I think it really was unique.

 

All of the items Karen did for her wedding can be purchased from her. If you are interested and would like to contact her, her email address is:

KGaither@mcgriff.com

Update! The carpet runner has now been sold!!! Don't miss out on all of the other gorgeous wedding items she has for sale!