Asking the bridal party. AKA: Thanks a lot, Pinterest.

Do your remember the Pre-Pinterest days when asking someone to be a bridesmaid was as simple as calling a friend and saying "Hey, dude. Do you wanna be a bridesmaid and help me pee with my wedding gown and stuff?"

I feel like with the invention of Pinterest, those days are long gone. Now apparently you have to "pop the question" to your whole bridal party. I thought about skipping the tradition, but then FMIL Rucksack mentioned it. If even FMIL Rucksack was expecting me to craft something awesome, then I knew it had to be done. (In addition to blaming Pinterest on my "must DIY" obsession, I also blame Minnesota. Those Minnesotans are a crafty people.)

Pinterest is a terrible source for competitive Type A people like myself because when I see something cute my thinking goes something like this:

"That's awesome! I could do that!"
"Crap. It's on Pinterest. I wonder who else has seen it."
"If it's too popular, I can't do it."
"I must do it BETTER."

Which is how on a Wednesday evening I came to be opening up a package of darts from an Amazon package.

You heard me right: darts.

Via Amazon

And then I attempted to paint them with pink glitter paint. (I am only now starting to realize just how crazy that plan was.) It was a total failure and it was at that moment that I used my favorite stress-related phrase: eff it.

It's a phrase I first used when stressing out over finding the perfect brown belt to go with my "meet the parents" outfit when Mr. Rucksack flew me out to Minnesota the first time. After searching through stores for over an hour, I realized his parents wouldn't care or know that my outfit would look cuter with a brown belt. And so, "eff it" was born.

Similarly, my bridesmaids never have to know that my initial plan involved them popping a heart shaped balloon with a glitter painted dart to reveal confetti and a fancy banner requesting their bridesmaids services. I know I'm totally giving up the world's best bride award here, but I know my bridesmaids will thank me later when I'm significantly less crazy and twitchy from craft related stress.

And you know, their gifts are still cute and original:

I made the bracelets and the holder based on ones that I saw on Etsy. The little quote works perfectly since I did theater through high school and college and I ended up using starfish as my stars since it fit with our beach theme. The folded cards were purchased from Etsy seller Charm and Fig.

The best part about my simplified gifts is that they could be sent easily in the mail. With one bridesmaid in Minnesota and one in New Hampshire I was going to have to spend money on shipping a big (although very light) balloon holding box.

Of course, we couldn't leave out the groomsmen and kiddos! Up next, the rest of the bridal party gets their goodies!