Joyful Weddings and Events » my life

Where I have been

courtney.toney — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:38:23 +0000

Sorry for the lack of posts this past week. I was busy enjoying this:

I spent a week camping in Yosemite with friends and family and as I look back at this picture my husband took, I am still in awe of the amazing beauty. How incredible would it be to get married in the park? Have any of you been to a wedding in Yosemite?

Lots of good stuff coming up in the next week, so stay tuned.

Big News!

courtney.toney — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:47:25 +0000

I just made it official on my twitter, so I figured I better tell the blog world too:

Baby Toney #2 is on it’s way in February! We could not be more excited!

Isaiah wants to baby to come out of my belly now so that he can hold it. He also thinks he has a baby in his tummy- we are working on getting him to understand that one

My Cancer Story on Life Rearranged

courtney.toney — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:13:53 +0000

I’ve told you about the amazing blog Life Rearranged before. My friend Jeannett had a mission to start a blog that could inspire and do something big at the same time. Life Rearranged is that mission. She has guest bloggers share their stories and chose an organization to raise money for. There is a giveaway- great stuff- and you get an entry to win for every dollar donated. So cool, right?

Well, guess what? I’m the guest blogger this week! I was honored when Jeannett wanted me to share my story with her readers. I am raising money for I’m Too Young For This- an organization support and raising funds and awareness for adolescents and young adults with cancer. You can read my post here.

A few crazy facts about young adults with cancer:

(1) Each year, nearly 70,000 young adults, aged 15-39, are diagnosed with cancer and roughly 10,000 will die due to the disease.

(2) Over the past 30 years, young adults (15-39) have seen the greatest increase in cancer incidence than any other age group.

(3) The 5-year survival rates in young adults has not improved over the past 30 years on par with other age groups.

You can find more information on my Life Rearranged post and also on the i2y website.

…

Guess what we are giving away? A fully custom banner by me! So, if you have been wanting to order a banner for anything, now is the time. For a few bucks, you can enter the giveaway and be helping people like me.

Here are a few recent custom orders I have made:

(excuse the bad pictures…)

Also, a few new items in my etsy shop:

Thank You Banners:

(photo by Matthew Morgan)

Just Married Banners:

(photo by Meg Perotti)

On Cancer and Weddings

courtney.toney — Tue, 04 May 2010 05:53:55 +0000

A warning right from the start: today’s post gets personal. It’s a little bit of my story and how you can be a part of a bigger story. You see, I sometimes forget that people do not know everything about me. I will drop things in conversation like:

“oh, because when my husband and I were dating in high school…”, which is often received with a “what? I did not know you were high school sweethearts” or:

“…you know I can sing you any show tune because I did theater most of my life”- “what? you were an actress?”

This happens most often when I drop the word. The “cancer” word. In the middle of a perfectly normal conversation I’ll say something like, “yeah, when my hair grew back in after chemo it was totally darker”. To which I am usually met with a confused, quiet stare.

At the age of 15, I was diagnosed with a rare form of Ewings Sarcoma and my life was forever changed. Multiple surgeries, 18 months of chemotherapy, countless hospital stays and one bald head took over my high school agenda. I faced fear, hopelessness and despair. I found true joy, faith and hope.

In fact, that is part of the reason why I chose to include the word “joyful” in my company name. Through my battle against cancer, I learned to find joy in the everyday. The little moments made me feel normal, made me feel overwhelmingly loved and gave me hope and peace as I trusted in God. Since completing my treatment, I have made it my goal to live each day joyfully, enjoying the blessings that each day brings.

In the past couple of months, I have been thrilled to hear that the wedding community is standing up to cancer. Showering love on those who are fighting, showing that we care. My heart is full being able to share them with you today.

Here locally in Southern California, San Diego wedding vendors have joined together to support the amazing Peggi Walker, of Metro Floral, who is bravely battling cancer. Through REVOweddings, local couples have the opportunity to bid on amazing wedding services in an online auction. More than 75 San Diego vendors have donated their talents to raise money for Peggi.

If you are a local bride getting married in San Diego, you can get some great deals for your wedding, all while supporting a wonderful cause. And, seriously- you can get some amazing discounted pricing!

If you are interested in having us coordinate your wedding, you can bid on us here (at over 50% savings!).

If you live out of the area, but are interested in ordering a custom banner for your wedding, you can also bid on that here.

Secondly, an amazing foundation has been started this year to give the joy of a wedding to couples battling terminal illnesses. Wish Upon a Wedding is the first wedding wish organization- similar in spirit to the Make-A-Wish foundation (which I was blessed to be a part of), they put together weddings for couples who might otherwise not be able to celebrate their love and commitment while going through such a difficult time.

I am so excited to get involved and see this grow! If you know of someone who would qualify or if you would like to get involved, you can find out more on the website.

Not a day goes by that I am not thankful for the life God has given me and I am so happy to be able to share it with you all!

Our Seasonal Season Parties: Winter Party Number 2

courtney.toney — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:59:42 +0000

Those of you that have followed my blog for a while know that my husband and I throw a party at the start of every season. We invite some of our close friends, have a potluck, decorate with details that celebrate that season and my hubby creates a stellar playlist and we give a copy to all of our guests. It has become a favorite tradition in our group of friends and we always look forward to the upcoming parties. You can see our past seasonal parties here and here.

Since it is almost Spring, I decided I better shape up and get the Winter party up here.

This year, I had literally one day to prepare everything, so it was definitely the most stressful seasonal party to date. I tried to keep my crafting simple, but ended up a bit over my head. Even still, it was a wonderful party and I am happy with how things turned out. Here is a little look, with photos taken either in terrible light or the day after the party.

I love paper cut art, so I wanted to have the feel of that throughout the party. I used my cricut to cut out words related to winter and stuck them all over the long tables where guests sat.

I created a runner by placing different sizes of doilies in the middle of the table. I jazzed up some old votive candles I have by covering them with glitter, flocking powder or yarn. Other than that, I grabbed whatever pillar and taper candles and holders I had in my supply and stuck them on the tables. I also whipped up some turquoise yarn balls and scattered them amongst the candles.

I hung some tissue poms and string orbs (which you will be seeing again, very soon!) from the ceiling and each guest had their soup bowl, spoon and napkin waiting for them at their seat.

Just like our last winter party, dinner was a soup potluck. Each couple brought a different type of soup- which is so fun! Most of us had multiple servings so we could try all of the different varieties. I made little labels so we would know what each soup was and had the cooks fill in the information.

I will be back on Monday with our Winter playlist, which is one of my favorites to date. A big thank you to Classic Party Rentals for providing all of the wonderful rentals.

Happy New Year!

courtney.toney — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 18:36:45 +0000

Happy 2010 everyone!

What a great year 2009 was and I am excited to see what is in store for 2010. I wish you all a blessed and joy-filled year!

For those who may be interested, I am starting off my year by taking part in 30 Days of Praise. It is a project that my husband is a part of and I am so excited for it. Every day, a devotional focused on an attribute of God is emailed to those who sign up. My husband also recorded an album of original worship songs inspired by Psalms 145-150, which will be available for download this weekend.

If you are interested in joining a group of people comitting to praising God daily for the first 30 days of this decade, you can check it out at: www.30daysofpraise.blogspot.com.

Joyful Joyful #17: Our Christmas Decor

courtney.toney — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:52:23 +0000

A few snippets of Christmas at the Toneys:

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

Joyful Joyful #16: Greetings

courtney.toney — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 06:24:42 +0000

This year, I got more ambitious than ever (read=crazy) and decided to hand make two different sets of Christmas cards. One set for my clients and one set for friends and family. They are finally all out and in the mail, so I am excited to show you what I came up with.

My husband and I record a 4 song Christmas album every year to send out as a little gift to family and friends. It is a fun collaboration- he works on the music and CD design and I come up with the card design. This year, I wanted to combine the CD case and card and here is the final product:

We found a CD envelope template online and chose some digital scrapbooking graphics and my husband worked his magic in photoshop (I am helpless when it comes to graphic design). We popped in one of our favorite photos from the youngrens and voila! Well… not really. Each had to be cut out by hand, folded and glued together. Time consuming, but I love the result.

**Good news! If you are interested in hearing this year’s CD, you can download it for free here: www.davidtoneymusic.com**

For my clients, I wanted to do something simple but pretty. My intern and I designed the card and then I cut out sparkly Joyful letters. My original plan was the card on the left- to create a mini banner. After making one, I decided that would not be very time efficient, so I ran the letters through my xyron instead and just stuck them on.

Joyful Joyful #13: Wrap, Wrap, Wrap

courtney.toney — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:55:59 +0000

Did you know that toy vacuums are a hot Christmas gift? I do now that I have been looking all over town for one.

Today I am finishing up my shopping and that means I can get to the fun part: wrapping my gifts. I love it! Here is how I wrapped my gifts last year (please excuse the terrible photos):

If you have not seen the jaw drapping beautiful wrapping ideas by Grey Likes Weddings, featured on Style Me Pretty, you must check it out. Here is a little sample:

It’s just all so lovely. You can see all three posts here, here and here. Photos by Jenny Liu.

I am also loving these felt bows from Twig and Thistle, made using How About Orange’s paper bow tutorial:

I’ll be back later with some free printable gift tag resources. Happy shopping and wrapping!

Joyful Joyful #12: Vanilla Peppermint Cupcakes

courtney.toney — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 09:46:43 +0000

Need a fun dessert to make for a holiday party this weekend? Those who follow me on twitter or facebook may remember the Vanilla Peppermint Cupcakes that I made earlier in the week. They were so absolutely delicious that I decided to share the recipe with you!

The recipe was created by Candace Nelson, who owns the super popular Sprinkles Cupcakes. I found it on Oprah’s website. It is fairly easy and was a definite crowd-pleaser. I am going to make them again this weekend but, this time, I am going to use a bit less butter in the frosting.

Vanilla-Peppermint Cupcakes

Recipe created by Candace Nelson, owner of Sprinkles Cupcakes

Vanilla-Peppermint Cupcake:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour , sifted
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. coarse salt
1/2 cup whole milk , room temperature
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 tsp. peppermint extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter , room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg , room temperature
2 large egg whites , room temperature

Vanilla-Peppermint Frosting:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter , firm but not cold
1/8 tsp. salt
3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar , sifted
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. peppermint extract
1/2 tsp. milk

To make cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In a small bowl, mix together milk and extracts; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy. Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until well combined and fluffy. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and slowly add egg and egg whites until just blended.

With the mixer on low, slowly add half the flour mixture; mix until just blended. Add the milk mixture; mix until just blended. Slowly add remaining flour mixture, scraping down sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary, until just blended.

Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Transfer muffin tin to oven and bake until tops are just dry to the touch, 22 to 25 minutes. Transfer muffin tin to a wire rack and let cupcakes cool completely in tin before icing.

To make frosting: In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat the butter and salt on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Reduce the speed to low, gradually add the confectioners’ sugar and beat until incorporated. Add the extracts and milk and beat until smooth and creamy. Do not overmix or the frosting will incorporate too much air; it should be creamy and dense, like ice cream. Add additional milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, if frosting does not have a spreadable consistency.

To frost: Scoop a generous amount of frosting on top of a cooled cupcake. Hold the cupcake in one hand and with the other hand use a small offset spatula to smooth the frosting over the entire top of the cupcake. To achieve the Sprinkles look, use the length of the spatula to create large swirls around the circumference of the cupcake. Or for a more homespun and rustic quality, use the tip of the spatula to create small ridges and waves in the frosting.

Be careful to handle the cupcake with care and not grip it too tightly, which can crush the delicate cake. In general, the less the cupcake is handled, the better. An experienced Sprinkles froster can frost a cupcake with only a few turns of the spatula!

Top with crushed candy canes!

Happy baking!

**I got my cute cupcake liners and tinsel tree toppers from Layer Cake Shop.