Getting the frame is another task: the one pictured above is from http://www.sandframes.com/. They customize your frame; you choose the wood and the send everything you need for the ceremony. I didn't want to pay that much, so I found the umbra frame at Kohls, on sale nonetheless for $14.99, and followed these instructions http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=a88f97c87060743e&sid=0QctHDFm1bMXbg to seal the frame to keep the sand from falling out. You can also purchase the frame from Amazon for $20. Right now, Kohls is running a special online to buy one frame get one free for $15. Great deal if you know someone else who could use the frame too. By the time I purchased the Flora Bond from Michaels, my frame cost me under $20, versus the cost from sandframes.
I decided to do a trial run, so I would know how much sand I'm going to need and if the bottles I purchased are big enough. This is the frame after I used the Flora Bond and put the glass back in place. I let it sit upright for at least 24 hours to dry.
The 2nd pic is a close-up of the Flora Bond. I scraped off the excess glue once it dried so it wouldn't be so caked up in the corners like the above picture.
I purchased 2 cork stopper bottles from AC Moore for like $1.50 total and I bought a 2 lb bag of sand for the trial. The bottles aren't big enough to hold 1 lb of sand each but from the trial I see that 2 lbs of sand will fill it up to the top almost; I just refilled a bottle with the remainder of the sand and that did it.
After it was filled, there was maybe a 1/4 of an inch of space left, which I plan to fill with the Flora Bond after the ceremony so the sand won't leak out of the top space. If you don't want to do that, you can leave the frame in the upright position but just know the sand will leak out the top if it's turned horizontal.
So, the plan is to go back and get one more bottle which I will use for the Officiant to pour sand for the "foundation" and on top of ours, sealing the deal. That sand will come from Paradise Cove. I'm going to decorate the bottles minimally, just a pink bow ribbon on mine, which will have pink sand, and a brown ribbon on Mikes' to go with his brown sand. Or vice versa, who knows. =)
Oh, I don't want to forget this, I was confused about adding the picture. What happens is you slide the first piece of glass up and tape the picture to the 2nd piece of glass. If you want to change pictures in the future, like we will, just remove the 1st piece of glass. No problem.
As far as sand, I'm going to purchase 1 lb each of the Azalea and Chocolate from http://www.moonglowcandles.com/wedding_sand.htm They have the most amazing colors and they match the colors in the David's Bridal and Alfred Angelo lines. How cool is that!
If it's not that serious with you, as far as the colors, the craft stores sell them too. Like I said, I bought the natural color in the photo above from AC Moore for $2.
Hope this helped someone and have fun!
This weekend I decided to knock out some shopping for a few wedding related items. Armed with a multitude of coupons and my shopping sidekick girlfriend, Latoya, we made our way to the first stop on the list, Kohls. I was actually browsing for my wedding day jewelry when I decided to check out their frames to see if they sold the Ether Umbra Frame that I could use for the sand ceremony. Amazingly they had the frames, 3 of them actually, and on sale for $14.99! Needless to say, this was a checkmark off the list.
