Groomsman Gift - The idea that kept evolving....

As I mentioned in the first post, I was engaged to get married to my fiancée, and on December 20th we finally tied the knot up in Alexandria, LA.

As everyone knows, the groom typically gives a gift to his groomsman for helping with the wedding proceedings and all this associated with it on his end. So I'm not a huge fan of useless items that never get used, but you feel obligated to hold on to it, because someone gave it to you for being in their wedding five or ten years ago. So I decided to look for a gift that was practical and useful.

For all that have not met Pinterest and Etsy, trust me, they are your friend when looking for ideas. I searched on both for ideas for a groomsman gift and finally found an idea right around Thanksgiving, a railroad spike knife. I clicked through Pinterest into the Etsy store, only to find out it was a blacksmith that was located 5 minutes from my office. When I say I could literally leave my car at the office and walk to his shop, I mean it.

I started looking through his designs and found the one I wanted, the cottonmouth. The best part of the gift was that my family and future-in-laws only thought the gift was for the groomsmen. I recognize the importance of other men in my life, my father, my father-in-law, and my uncles, who flew to Louisiana from Pittsburgh, PA for my wedding. So I ordered the knives from CineScape Studios in Baton Rouge, LA with the hope that they would all get made in time, since he hammers each knife by hand with no other workers.

Terry at CineScape Studios called me to pick them up and they were amazing but I couldn't figure out how to wrap them up and give them to the guys. I searched for a small gift box at Walmart, Target, Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Dollar General, Winn-Dixie, and Hallmark to put the knives in, but none were the right size. They were either too small or extremely too big for the knives. So I decided to just build a wooden box to put each knife in.

I went to Lowes and bought a few pieces of lumber, cut it on my miter saw, then nailed it together. I added a top piece of wood to the top of the box as a lid using two small hinges. I then stained it and let it dry for about 3 hours.

After it was dry, I used some purple, gold, and green (Mardi Gras) tissue paper to line the inner box to place the knife on top of. After closing the lid, I wrapped each box with some twine and got ready to give it to the guys.

 

They were really excited about the knives and a few got used before the wedding during a hunting trip that morning.

The Floating Shelf in Dining Room

It started out as a shelf and scones to add something to an empty wall, and what it turned into was a two weekend project.

Jesse found the candle scones at Hobby Lobby and I bought some lumber at Home Depot. Between the initial concept thoughts of the space, Jesse was given a bridal shower in her hometown. One of her good friends gave her wood initials for a gift. Jesse had the idea of painting them teal to go with the color scheme of the house, since they were white and the walls were khaki.

After painting the initials, I mounted the candle scones, added the floating shelf and then drilled out the holes for the initials. During the process of the build, I decided against the vision of my future bride, to backlit the initials with white LEDs. I wired up the LEDs and dropped the wiring through the wall and into the empty portion of the shelf.

 

I ran the wires from the LEDs and power source to a switch, which is tucked away in the bottom of the wooden shelf. After hanging the initials, I taped off the areas of the wall that would be affected by paint. I added a dark walnut stain to the shelf and called it a finished project.

Welcome to Modern Cajun!

I'll start out by introducing myself and telling you a little about me. I'm Stephen, currently working the Supply Chain Management within a Higher Ed setting. I am currently engaged to my fiancée, Jesse, and am roughly under 40 days until the wedding day. I love the culture of Southern Louisiana and love incorporating many of the simple times than make Louisiana unique into my life and my new home.

One of the many things people initially think of as a Cajun must have are Fleur de Lis throughout your home. I'll be the first to say that I love Fleur de Lis within reason, and Jesse is the same way, so we try and limit the amount throughout our home, just use them as accents.

I little backstory into my life, I grew up playing sports and focused on that until I switched gears and focused on my education. I took a little time to figure out what I wanted to do in life, so I took many twists and turns in my education and work career. I have an associates degree and two bachelors degrees. When I was thinking of getting engaged to my fiancee, I started a business to supplement my income since I was working on my second bachelors degree. I ran a business out of my house and paid for her engagement ring. After we got engaged she was about three months out from renewing her apartment lease, so since our wedding was less than a year away, we decided to look for a house.

With rates for rent and for mortgages being so close to one another in our area, we made the decision for both of us to travel about 30 minutes to work each way, which enabled us to get more bang for our buck in the way of square footage and property size. We went with a new build that was within our price range, but needed a few additions to add character and our touch in our new home.

I myself like the outdoors, so its only natural that I wanted a fire pit and outdoor kitchen. Jesse would prefer inside touches to be added and make life more enjoyable, so as the saying goes, "Happy wife, happy life."

A heads up as to the types of things you'll find in the Modern Cajun blog: do-it-yourself home improvement projects, cooking recipes, workout tips, travel, family, and enjoying life as a young couple living in Louisiana.