Hello strangers! What have we all been up to? Life as I know it looks entirely different than two years ago: A cross-country move, a marriage, the purchase of a house! Substantial changes with room for plenty of growth and adjustment. I’m trying to be patient with the transitions, which is easier said than done, and I’m looking forward to sharing more as I go. In the meantime, I wanted to wrap up the riveting self-coverage of my big 2021 project: a wedding! Our wedding!
I posted individual paper projects on Instagram and rounded it all up on one page of my website, if you’d like to take a peek. I’m very nosy and always want to know how the sausage got made, so I tried to dump as much behind-the-scenes info as was reasonable. There was one project that proved tricky to squeeze onto your iphone: the giant clock we made! It’s a little ridiculous to break down. Who among us needs to make an enormous lightweight clock? What is this email newsletter anymore? But I enjoyed the process and result, and thought y’all might as well. And there are pictures!
Back in the dreamy days of early engagement, Thomas and I agreed New Year’s Eve wedding would be the ultimate fun. There’s so much hype/expectation/expense surrounding the holiday, and it seemed convenient that a NYE anniversary would give us plans for the rest of our lives. Serendipitously, we realized Thomas’s last name (Greaves) rhymes with Eve. The venue contract signed itself!
Weddings consume as much as you feed them, so we tried to be thoughtful with every decision–and there were quite a few! On the other side of it all, I’m so satisfied with how we used our resources and made the most of the process. Stressful, of course, but also incredibly fun to realize a vision. My dear friend Brennan of Overgrowth Floral collaborated on our flowers and decor from the beginning, and in one of our brainstorming calls I offered the idea of hanging a giant clock somewhere to countdown to midnight. They were PUMPED about this idea and said if we could make the clock, they’d build a floral tower to mount it. I only needed one enabler, and I quickly convinced Thomas and my dad to join in the task.
Before purchasing materials, we brainstormed construction methods and looked at a bunch of pictures of clocks to figure out what kind we were after. Our beautiful venue preserved so many details from when the hotel was originally built in 1922, and we used that reference to ensure the styling wouldn’t be out of place. There wasn’t time to overthink it, so we jumped right in!
The base of our clock was the biggest piece of black foamcore we could find with a cream colored Bristol board face layered on top. To cut circles from both materials, we scientifically tied one end of a piece of string to a pencil and the other to a pushpin centered on the board. With this janky compass, we traced the circular guides and cut the material down with an X-acto knife. By tightening the string around the pushpin and pencil a few times, we drew the guides for the numerals—hardly precise, but it worked! Other than a protractor to measure the hours, I eyeballed the rest. I drew the Roman numerals with a black Posca paint pen – twice, since I ruined the first clock face by writing the number 12 two times. How we laughed!!
For the ornamental frame, we raided the DIY cosplay endcap at Hobby Lobby: foam half-dowels in two sizes provided the borders and cleaned up the imperfectly cut edges, and this air dry foam was a great medium for sculpting decorative molding. I watched a few YouTube videos about making different things with it, and played with shapes I could replicate and layer to make 12 flowers and a bunch of leaves. Extremely fun and satisfying to use a new material! They dried overnight, and then I spray painted everything gold before attaching it in layers with hot glue (and patience!).
Hobby Lobby sells clock mechanisms, and we bought their biggest one. The instructions on the package were straightforward enough to install, but the quality left a little to be desired—when we needed to reattach the mechanism, a tooth broke and it started losing time. Critical! The next morning we called in the big guns (my dad who loves clocks), and he ordered this part from Amazon. He set the time from his atomic watch the day of the wedding, and we didn’t lose a second!
Brennan ordered this metal base and asked us to buy sandbags for stability and an 8 foot long 2x4. We did not want that thing tipping over! The clock mechanism had a loop on the back, so the day of the wedding my dad hung it from a nail in the 2x4 and stabilized it with masking tape. (“Oriented horizontally, from 4:00 to 8:00 on the back of the clock and across the 2x4. Stagecraft,” he reports). After setting up the rest of the venue, Brennan wrapped the post with chicken wire and filled it with flowers.
Lightweight, large, and legible from any point in the room, that clock remains one of the most satisfying & beautiful projects from our wedding. Functional and symbolic, it watched over our celebration and kept us on track. The night flew by and we welcomed the new year, and the next day we carried that enormous clock into our basement, where it keeps perfect time!
Building the pieces of our wedding was among the most rewarding art projects I’ve ever undertaken, for the symbolism and being my own client and the true collaboration. It’s been a long two years of working from home and finding creative ways to tend to community & friendship, and our clock reminds me of one of my favorite things: chasing a crazy idea and building it together, all in the name of celebration.
As this newsletter finds its origin in recommendations, here are a few favorites, quick fire!
Contextual retellings of 80’s - 90’s pop culture topics I was too young to comprehend:
Wild Things podcast about the history of Sigfried & Roy
Welcome to Your Fantasy — the true crime rise and fall of the Chippendale dancers!
Impeachment American Crime Story on FX/Hulu. Sarah Paulson’s Linda Trip is…a trip.
The air fryer — always looking for new ways to phone dinner in. And it reheats leftovers so crispy!! We have this one but from my Wirecutter/Strategist research I don’t think the brand particularly matters.
Reducing the volume: I’m all about less noise from all directions! Recently, this means waiting an hour or more to check my phone in the morning and leaving my car radio on the classical radio station.
Tomorrow, August 2, Kansas will be the first state to vote on an abortion amendment after the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade. My husband Thomas (featured heavily above) is an OBGYN and has recorded a few informative videos about the vote itself and concerns the medical community holds for reproductive care. He’s shared them on Instagram & Facebook if you’d like to learn more or eavesdrop on conversations.
Thanks for reading! Hope to chat soon!
Frances
Beautiful stuff! I loved seeing all your wonderful wedding creations! Thank you for sharing that :) Also your favourites 3 and 4 are particularly 🤌💋