Something Blogged: Will you be my bridesmaid?

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Will you be my bridesmaid?

I wanted to do something special for the girls that I was going to invite to be in my bridal party. As I was cruising through all my wedding blogs and perusing Etsy sites, I saw some really cool ideas for bridesmaid invitations. I ultimately decided to go the DIY-route and decided that it would only be proper to ask my bridesmaid to join in on this journey with a ring. After all, this whole "wedding" thing started with a ring! I then had to decide what kind of ring. I was looking through ring options online when I saw a locket ring. It stuck out to me because one of my bridesmaids, Tara, has a very important locket and she gave each of us (i.e. her bridal party) a beautiful locket as a bridesmaid's gift. So, I decided to figure out how to make a locket ring. Here is a sneak peak at the end result:

Materials:

Adjustable Silver Tone Ring Blank

Silver Plated Photo Locket Charm

Jewelry/metal glue

Photo

Instructions:

1) Bend the pendant section back and forth so that it comes off the charm. Make sure that there are no sharp edges.

2) Spread a small amount of glue on the ring blank and place it in the center of the bottom of the locket charm. Make sure that the hinge lines up with the ring itself.

3) Rest the glued sections so that the locket is on the table and the ring balances on top and let the glue dry. Most jewelry glues recommend 48 hours before wearing the material.

4) Take the picture you want included in the ring (in my case, I provided my bridesmaids with a photo of her and myself as well as a photo of her and her significant other) and reduce it down so that it is .75 inches wide (or slightly smaller if you plan on laminating the photo)

5) Print the photo and cut it into a circle with a .75 inch diameter (or slightly smaller if you are laminating).

Optional: I took my photos to Staples to have them laminated so that if the girls forgot and washed their hands with the ring on, the photo would not be destroyed.

Note: Jewelry glue can be used to secure the photo inside the locket. I chose not to do this as I gave each girl two photos that could be used in the locket.

I put the ring in a handmade origami box made with wedding-themed scrapbooking paper (purchased from Jo-Ann Fabrics). I gave this to my girls along with a "Will you be my bridesmaid?" card as well as a Bridesmaid Information card (the names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of the other bridesmaids and my mom). Since this was right around Valentine's Day and I had to fill the whole box for mail delivery, I also included some conversation heart candies.