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Example: When we bought our house, there was a wind chime on the back deck. It was pretty boring, small, barely audible. Aaron was not a fan. Then one day while he was working, (he's a rigging specialist for a yacht sales and services company) my hubby-to-be came across a tuning device that one of his co-workers--who moonlights as a musician--had in the shop. At lunch, Aaron went home and retrieved the wind chime, took it to work and started sawing away on each of the chimes, shortening them to different lengths until their rings corresponded with (different) specific notes. Now, every time the wind blows, we hear a sweet little melody in C Major. I become acutely aware of just how crafty he is every time it rains.
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But that's just the kind of mind he has.
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So when I asked him to paint the words "here comes the ide" onto a piece of wood for our ring bearers to carry down the ailse, I should have known I was going to get a lot more than what I asked for. I'm absolutely tickled!
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Aaron asked me to print the phrase out in a font I liked, to the size I liked.
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I couldn't have imagined the lengths he'd go to make it perfect. But I'll walk you through it like the proud soon-to-be wife I am. (Please excuse the camera phone photos.) This is basically a step-by-step outline of how to make one of these cutes little signs, but I don't recommend doing it yourself unless you have some woodworking experience. I didn't even see the steps until he was finished with this part of it, and as experienced with this kind of thing as he is, it took about two (long) days to do.
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I think it looks fantastic!
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First, he used the printed words to create a stencil out of tape. For some reason, this strikes me as the most impressive part. He'd surely say that was ridiculous, but I still don't know how he did it. Then, he spray-painted the words onto a simple board.
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Next, he sanded the board down, rounded the corners, and routed the edges. Are you totally impressed yet?
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To add a little nautical element to it, he wrapped a piece of line (that's boat speak for rope) around it.
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From there, he use wood carving tools to carve each letter by hand. (There are machines that can also carve letters like these, but it's way cooler to do it by hand.)
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The near-final sign looks like this:
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This weekend he's going to either burn or stain the carved grooves to make the letters a little bit clearer, and then he'll add handles to the back so two of our little ring bearers can carry the sign together. And to put the cherry on top, he'll carve (in much smaller print) our names and wedding date into the back. Such craftsmanship!
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Am I a lucky girl, or what?
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I cannot WAIT to see the finished product!
