Tutorials/Blog Posts

2/19/2018
Good morning! It’s 5 degrees here in Ipswich, SD. What better time to get some coffee and write a quick blog update! Today’s topic: my wedding.
It’s been just over 6 months since Ryan & I said “I do!” and I have a few brutally honest truths to share with you. Nicole & I have done 2 bridal shows since that time, and at each of the shows I wish I could tell brides these truths I’m about to reveal.

I bought all of my decorations because, well, I’m capable of putting together some decorations and I knew we could reuse them for other brides. I’m sure you’ve had this thought too. I regret this decision entirely. Here are my reasons: my house was FULL of decorations for 6 months. I spent around $2,200 on decorations and I ended up renting a storage so I could have my house back (add another $60/month cost to those decorations).

To give you a comparison of what our business can do for you… One wedding we decorated for was entirely full service (meaning we set up the decorations and we took them down the next day), we decorated the church and the reception site for $2,400 and the bride didn’t lift a finger (as it should be!). We met with the bride 3 times in the months before the wedding, showed her pictures of what we could do, presented a contract, and the day went perfectly. I wish I had hired a wedding decorator.

So a comparison—you’ll spend the same amount of money as what we would charge AND you have to do all the work. It’s a no brainer—hire us. “But I’ll get to keep all my decorations afterwards!” Let’s assess that phrase. You’ll have to shop for, store, assemble, haul, disassemble, and store those decorations again until God knows when. Bye bye extra space in your home/garage! And eventually you’ll end up trying to sell them on the online rummage sale (which is a pain in the rear, you know it, don’t deny it). And why? Why would you want to keep 35 centerpieces?!?!? If you want to keep a few pieces of what we rent you, that’s fine! We can work out a purchase price for a few of the centerpieces or whatever you want. Heck, we can probably even give you one of them!

If you’re seeing the $2,400 and wanting to pass out, relax. The $2,400 included the set up and tear down, which was a decent chunk of that price tag. Nicole & I will set up & tear down, if you want to pay for that service. Otherwise, we will have everything ready to go in totes for you to pick up the week of your wedding. Everything will be as put together as possible so you can just set them out on tables. Sometime the week after the wedding, return the totes to us. And, we can decorate for any budget. You tell us what you want to spend, what your ideas and vision are, and we will deliver!

Decorating for your own wedding totally, utterly sucks. We were married on a Saturday, which meant that the entire day on Friday was spent hanging lights, hauling totes of flowers, directing people where to put things, making sure table cloths were laying perfectly, etc, etc. It was miserable. All my close family and friends were there to celebrate and all we did was work. I was tired to begin with from the excitement and stress of the impending nuptial. And then I was put to some serious work.

Now, if you hire us and don’t want to spend the extra money for us to set up & tear down, you’re probably thinking that you’ll have to put in that work anyway. Wrong. I spent 8 hours decorating for my wedding (probably because I thought, “oh I can wing it, I don’t really need a plan for the backdrop” which was a mistake). We will have all of that preplanned and can even include an instructions sheet. All in all, it probably takes about 2 hours for you to set things out/hang up backdrops, etc… And, if you factor in the time that YOU would spend arranging those centerpieces, gluing that burlap around jars, arranging the twinkle lights, etc, etc, your time will be exponentially more. Let us do that! You just enjoy this time in your life. I promise you, it goes way too fast.

And the day after our wedding (family is still in town, mind you…) we had to go back up to the reception site and take all of the decorations down. I’ve never felt as exhausted in my life as the morning after our wedding. All I wanted was to sleep in, lounge around with my family and my coffee, but again, we were put to work.

Final note—I wish I had hired a wedding decorator. I hope I’m not giving this decorating thing a bad rap. Nicole & I love it! And you may love it too! I’m just saying, from experience, that you want to spend your wedding week relaxed and soaking in the experience, as it’s a once in a lifetime thing (or twice, whatever, we don’t care). We just want to help make your wedding day go as smoothly and cost effectively as possible. Call, e-mail, or text us to set up a meeting! We would love to give you a quote.

8/10/17
Meredith here! I'm laying in bed, exhausted, but too excited to sleep! Nicole and I just finished one of our biggest craft parties yet, and our wheels are spinning trying to plan the next party & how to make it better.

Maybe a little background information will help. We started crafting together in the spring of 2016 and have been in the "craft party" scene for about a year. We knew we loved to craft and wanted to share that with others. What better way than to do make-and-take craft parties! Every party takes extensive planning, trips (yes, plural) to Menards, and lots of love and patience from our families.

We sincerely dislike shopping for materials. And that's putting it nicely. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I probably would choose to lose a finger rather than go to Menards ever again. Every party we put together requires at LEAST one trip to menards, a mile long list, incorrect terms like "those metal thingys", & several odd looks from either employees or our husbands. But, crafts can't be made without materials, so we usually try to tackle our materials list in one shot, dignity optional.

Our biggest surprise/delight we find at these parties is the creative talent our customers have. Every single party, we find ourselves saying "Wasn't it cool how she did that?!" or "Did you see the details she added?". We find so much joy in seeing our customers leave a party with a completely finished project ready to display in his/her house. This has to be the best part of parties, and even vendor fairs/shows. We sincerely hope that every purchase finds a perfect spot in your house, and if there is ever a concern with a product, please let us know. We want you to enjoy your purchase just as much as we enjoy making it.
Our business has developed from two ladies struggling to run power tools, to having 485 followers on our Facebook page. We are excited for our future and couldn't do it without our amazing support group.
We appreciate each and every one of you and welcome any comments, suggestions, and future craft ideas.

Thank you all again for your kindness and support on our journey with Love Repurposed.

Sincerely,
Meredith & Nicole

Welcome to the first blog post for Love Repurposed! I can't tell you how very excited this endeavor makes us.

Wedding Prep

Meredith, half of the LR team, is getting married, then all of the LR team (both of us) are making it happen. We've been discussing decor and food and venues and dresses for months. All of the big decisions have been made. The venue is secured, food ordered, marriage classes attended, dress is bought and men's attire determined.

But now, we are approximately FIVE weeks from the wedding day and there is still so much to do! First project: shower decor. (I may have asked nicely (hijacked) this from the bridesmaids. If my vision is realized, we are making a giant, paper flower garland for the tables.

Stay tuned to the LR blog for many wedding-related projects.

The Creative Process

In a perfect world, my house would be neat, tidy, and decorated with the skill and style of Joanna Gaines. My husband would receive a home-cooked breakfast each morning and a hot, healthy meal each evening. My children would be well behaved and stylishly dressed, Bills would be paid, the money tree blooming and full, and time would always expand to meet the needs of the day.

But, apparently, the maid quit, my decor is hidden under a pile of laundry or parked in a garage corner waiting for me to have time, my children, both hilarious and good looking, are typically digging through the clean laundry pile for a mostly not wrinkled shirt while arguing with one another. The money tree is dead, and time is always running short - hence the giant piles of laundry.

So, until my perfect world finds me, I must settle for a house that is occasionally clean, and sometimes picked up, children who are alternately the most wonderful and most annoying part of life, bills that seem to always be more than expected and a dead money tree. Thankfully, though, I find solace in creativity.

New projects are such fun! I thoroughly enjoy my early weekend mornings when the house is quiet. I sip my coffee, peruse Pinterest, watch some Flea Market Flip or maybe the Food Network, and make giant lists of projects that I want to do. On a perfect weekend morning, I move from my coffee drinking into the garage to work on projects.

It's here where the creativity truly blooms. We take piles of old, dirty wood and turn it into something better. The best day includes making a super cute ____ that cost us nothing but time and stuff we already have. In order to have this creative spirit and the supplies to make something from a pile of nothing, we collect everything.

Do you have a grandma who has a table that is sorta broken, but it has a cute bottom spindle? We'll take it. How about a pile of random wood that is too good to throw away, but really odd sizes? Yep, we'll be over. A bag full of flowers that are a little ugly, but the greenery is cute? We'll take. We love free. We'll look and and consider cheap.

But, this amassing of goods is a process that truly needs organization and space. Neither are plentiful. So, we split it up, make piles, devise plans about how we will redo and move stuff out, and then we get more and more and more. And any semblance of organization vanishes like a pile of sawdust in the wind.

We really do try, though. Tools go on the tool shelf, just like the husband suggested. Put the bits back in the box. Keep the table cleaned off so that it's easier to finish the projects. Logical, right? I agree with him too, in my brain, but in the moment, I've got shit to do. I think we could totally make this a true statement if the damn maid hadn't quit. However, I can either create stuff or keep things orderly.

The creative process needs room to spread out, or so I tell my better half. I need to be able to see what I have to work with, make piles of things here and there, place pencils and bits of sandpaper on every surface (because I lose several), and a long rolling table featuring different sized screws, random paints, stains and rags, a few snacks, and perhaps a few projects-in-progress. He just shakes his head and goes back to his own projects.

Yes, the creative process can get messy and perhaps (maybe...just a little...ok, a lot) I could use a few lessons organization and time management, but I maintain that my brain is just bursting with ideas. The days are short and the projects are plentiful!