"Up"-Themed Wedding Gifts

This past weekend, I had the joy to attend the wedding of my longtime friend, Erin. I've written before about my brain injury and that one of the benefits of it is that it really clarified my friendships. Erin is one of those people that drew closer to me in the months and years after my injury. Niels and I were so honored to meet her Bob last year and were thrilled to share their big day.

The movie Up played a big part in their engagement, so it was a natural theme for their wedding as well. Originally, I had planned to have a quilt ready for their wedding, but I underestimated how complex the design is, so it will be an anniversary present instead. I decided to give them the ever-popular gift of cash. 

I wasn't happy with the idea of just giving a card to a friend who has done so much for me, so I watched Up for the umpteenth time with my son while browsing Pinterest to get some ideas. There are a lot of great Up movie ideas out there!

The first idea I had was to make a personalized famous couples print. I love this example from The Domestic Geek blog. (Click on the link for a tutorial using Word.). There are also several available on Etsy, if you don't want to make your own.

Please do not pin this photo from our site. Please pin from the source: The Domestic Geek Blog.

This was a really easy project to do. I changed up the couples to be meaningful to Erin and Bob. I used PowerPoint to lay it out so I could put the image of Carl and Ellie in the background. (I converted the original image to black and white). 

Of course, I had to include Carl and Ellie Fredricksen from Up at the top of the list. And since Erin played a big part in me and Niels getting together, I added our names to the bottom of the list. The font is Tw Cen MT Condensed.

The est. print was a no-brainer. Does anything say the joy of marriage more than the house from Up? The script font is Xiomara and the san serif is Tw Cen MT Condensed again. 

I got the image from a screen grab of the movie off my iPad.

Lastly, the Paradise Falls savings jug was the most fun of all. 

If I had planned ahead better, I would shopped around for a glass gallon jar of apple cider, but the local places I checked out only had plastic containers. So I took advantage of our Amazon Prime account to order a jug online (<-- Amazon Affiliate link). 

Once the jug arrived, I made the "Paradise Falls" sign in PowerPoint using the WordArt Styles feature to create the arch. I couldn't get a perfect match, but the idea is there. I spent way too long looking for a matching font with the print-style lower case "s" but finally gave up. I settled on Dancing Script OT. After printing out the label on cardstock, I used rubber cement to adhere the paper. I used green striped washi tape I had on hand for a matching look to the movie version. 

Now for the real present: cha-ching! We thought about putting dollars (or one big dollar) in the jug, but to be true to the theme, we went to the bank and bought 50 one-dollar coins. 

Our son was super excited to put the coins in the jug. He's very interested in money and counting, so we turned it into a little math lesson, counting to 50 by 1s, then 2s, then 5s, then 10s. 

Erin is an auditor so I suppose it's fitting that we gave her money for her wedding. There aren't a lot of people I know who are better with money than Erin and I know she and Bob will put their savings to good use.

And now, a few snapshots from Erin and Bob's super cute Up wedding!

Linked to:

Cherished Bliss * DIY Dreamer * Fluster Buster * I Heart Naptime * SNAP! * This Silly Girl's Life