DIY Vinyl Record Wedding Seating Displays

Keeping up with our vintage music themed wedding, I thought it would be clever to do something with the gramophone as part of the seating displays. I played with a few ideas like hanging notes on string made to look a musical score like it was coming out of the gramophone but due to the uncertainty of where we would hold the dinner (we wanted it outside on the terrace but were not sure the weather would hold up), I decided the safest bet would be to do something more simple.

I had already asked my mother in law if she had any old vinyls that I could use to decorate (wasn't sure where yet) and she came up with a whole box of her old records that had been sitting up in the attic.  I decided that this was going to still work with the gramophone - to have floating records of different lengths in front of the gramophone. 

© Blanc Coco Photographe

For the table numbers, I simply printed them and cut them out.  I cut circles out of sheet music paper (just large enough to cover the existing label) and glued the numbers on top.  For the names on the back of the Vinyls, I printed them on tan colored paper (the same ones that I used to make the program and thank you gift cards with) and used a circle template I had cut out of cardboard.

© Blanc Coco Photograph

To string the fishing wire through, I heated up the tip of a needle with a lighter until it was glowing red and poked a hole into the tops of the vinyl.

Easy as pie! and the result was exactly what I was hoping for :)

©Blanc Coco Photographe

Traditional Raclette in the French Alps

We are having a late winter here in Switzerland and there is nothing better during the cold of winter then having some delicious crusty burnt cheese.  The craving for some delicious Raclette reminded me of the little trip we took up in the French Alps to the Haute Breda Valley in search of some traditional Raclette.

Auberge Nemoz is an adorable family run restaurant/ chambre d'hotes nestled in between Le Sept Laux (Prapoutel, Pleynet and Pipay) and Le Collet d'Allevard. It's won plenty of awards from being recommended in the Michelin guide to being recommended by the Routard guide. Everything about this place has a personal touch, my favorite being that all the menus are hand written! The history of the Chalet is that it has been passed down for generations and built  and rebuilt(there was a fire) by the family.

Due to Raclette's heartiness of cheese, more cheese, potatoes and some pickles... and more cheese- it is typically eaten in the winter time and very traditional of any mountain top chalet restaurant.  Raclette in French resembles the word "Racler" which means to scrape and who doesn't love scraping bit of crusty burnt cheese onto their plates? 

Nowadays, everyone has metal raclette machines at home but at the Auberge Nemoz, they do it the old fashion way - in front of a crackling fireplace. The smokiness of the wood adds another dimension to the cheese that metal raclette machines will never give you. 

My joy of course was to watch the gooey burnt cheese getting scraped onto the plate.  It requires the server to pass quite often to rescrape every few minutes (or you have to patiently wait) but the warm gooey cheese is worth the wait. Raclette cheese is similar in taste to Gruyere cheese (click here for the previous blogpost on Gruyere Cheese) which is light, nutty and slightly acidic in flavor. 

The cheese is always served with potatoes and cornichons (thats french speak for mini pickles) and often times for you carnivores, a nice plate of charcuterie (prepared meets, usually of the dried variety like sausage, proscuitto etc). The Alps regions (both Swiss and French) are always full of dried meats that can keep over the long harsh winters. 

The Rhone Alpes Region, just like all other French regions produce some sort of wine or alcohol. Although the summer times are warm, the weather is (as you can imagine for a mountain region) milder and thus the majority of the wine produced is of the white or rose variety. We chose to go with a local bottle of Rose to go with the cheese.  It's pretty typical to eat any cheese dishes with white/ rose wine as the acidity helps to cut the heaviness of the cheese (trust me, when you think about the solid form of Raclette before you eat it, you will drink the wine to help cut the solid block of cheese in your stomach a few hours afterwards). 

The family also has horses with which they offer treks into the mountains with as well as adorable cats and bunnies.  Behind the chalet is a series of trails that take you into the mountains.  We had decided after our hearty meal to head towards the waterfall that was about a 20 minute easy hike in. We had a wonderful meal at Nemoz, with all of its' rustic charm and warm handmade touches. I keep on bugging my husband to go back -- hopefully he'll give in soon.

Taking in the fresh air of the Alps

I loved the carved wood details and pieces of Raclette cheese sitting on the fireplace

It's the Grinch!  

More carrots then this bunny can manage

Addresses

Auberge Nemoz

Hameau La Martinette

38580 La Ferriere

+33 (0)4 76 45 03 10

DIY lace & sheet music bunting and card box (Easy!)

I had mentioned before that now that I've settled in (and no longer have a 2 hour commute in one direction to work), I've taken up crafting again.  My husband and I had already had our civil marriage but finally, FINALLY!, we were going to have our wedding celebration which gave me a reason to start crafting again.

We had discussed (prior to finding a venue and all of that other wedding planning jazz) that our theme would be "vintage" or in French "retro". I know that seems super broad but the background is this -   Whenever I get the chance here in Europe to go to some antiquey store or market while I'm travelling, I'll go. I'm a sucker for cameras and gramophones.   What we love about antiques is that each peace we pick up has a story to tell. Sometimes a name written inside the box, sometimes scratches or missing buttons. We knew we wanted to use these objects that we love collecting to tell the story about us.

Both my husband and I studied music when we were young- so using the vintage theme, I had already decided that we would use a lot of sheet music to decorate our wedding. Nowadays, I have a cricut machine, but back then, as we were saving every penny for the wedding, I had to cut everything out by hand. The cricut which probably would have saved me a lot of time but I can't say that I regret putting in all that work (everything I did had to be in two languages - French and English).  The cricut limits you to using what they can sell you on their cartridges which means that the font (the same font on our logo and invitations)that I wanted to use for the bunting would not exist on the cricut.  I had cut out a cardboard template to make sure the triangles would be uniform.  I then glued the cut out letters onto the bunting and used twine to sew them together (by hand).  For those of you who aren't as worried to that detail, you can just as easily pass the bunting through a sewing machine.

All below professional pics courtesy of our amazing photographer Blanc Coco.

 

©Blanc Coco Photographe

For the card box, Karen (a friend of my mother in law) took two shoe boxes (pick nice sturdy ones) and cut a hole in the bottom of the smaller box and a larger hole in the lid of the bottom box. She covered the boxes with sheet music and glued the boxes together.  Don't forget to make a large slit in the lid of the smaller box so people can put cards in!  She embellished ribbon and lace that we found up in the attic. Keep a watch out for future posts on the fabric flowers used on our card box.

©Blanc Coco Photographe
We finished the card suitcase with scraps of fabric from the grenier (attic) and peonies

©Blanc Coco Photographe
Our wedding logo was the Master's Voice logo with a cat replacing the dog.

 For the main dining salon, I alternated sheet music and lace triangles and sewed the bunting together by hand with twine.  Since the lace was quite course, I cut the lace an extra inch longer on the top to make a lip by which I could more securely sew the twine through. 

©Blanc Coco Photographe

The bunting was very effective in achieving a playful but relaxed and "tres francais" feeling.  The cost of the bunting was next to nothing as the materials were things found up in the attic collecting dust. I spent hours sewing together the bunting by hand but it was worth it!


Addresses:
Blanc Coco Photographe 
blancoco@gmail.com