Let Your Groom Take Charge (Just a Little)

(photo credits from left to right: bride and groom, groom getting ready)

So, we know that a wedding is often times a lot more stressful for a bride because she wants everything to be perfect. It's often the groom that is laid back and nonchalant about the whole event. But, that doesn't mean that we should forget about the groom and just concentrate 100 percent on what the bride "should know" and do in order to be prepared for her wedding! A bride may not be willing to let her groom take control of certain details, but it will be an enormous help if they let go of the reigns and let the groom take care of, well, himself. Now, hand over the computer to your soon to be husband and remove some things off your wedding to-do list.

When I was planning my wedding it was really hard to let Joe take control of some of our wedding details, but when I did, it was such a relief and it really did make me feel less stressed out and more like I could just relax and have some things taken care of by my future spouse. So, if you're not sure if you should step in or are scared your bride will shoot down all your ideas, I would truly suggest at least trying. She'll love you even more for it.

Whether you are a laid back groom, a groom that doesn't want to be involved in wedding planning at all (but should be at least a teensy bit) or a groom that is truly interested in helping but can't find a way to do so, read on my friends! There are many great websites that offer resources just for grooms that are a great place to start. Like...

Knowing how to choose a suit or tuxedo for your body type.

Mens summer suits.

Mens winter suits.

Groom Guide checklist.

What all men need to know about marriage.

The Groom's List website

If you haven't noticed yet, Friday's are all about the groom here at The Handmade Wedding, so do check back on our Manmade Wedding segment for great manly DIY projects, inspiration boards, and more!

The Manmade Wedding: DIY Rustic Driftwood Frames

Hey everybody, welcome to The Manmade Wedding segment. I hope all of you are keeping warm with your hot buttered rums, and are as excited about this week's segment as I am.

This week we are going to create a driftwood frame. This makes a great decoration piece at a rustic or barn wedding or even a handmade gift for your other half. It's low cost, quick and great looking.

Part of my goal when building stuff is to use fairly accessible tools and materials. I know not everyone has a drill in the garage, or even a garage. So I made sure to keep it basic, but without sacrificing a tremendous result.

The materials you'll need:
Four pieces of round driftwood as equal in length as you can find. (These are branches that have spent time in the lake, river, ocean or what have you.)
Gardening twine
Clothesline clips
A Pair of Scissors
Photos

When picking driftwood, be sure to find pieces that are going to fit the dimensions you are thinking. If you want a rectangle, find two of the same length, then find another two that are the same length, but longer/shorter than the other two. In the end, you're going to let the wood speak for itself when you hang it though.

Directions:
Step 1: Lay out your driftwood pieces on a table in the shape they will end up in. Again, let the wood do it's thing and sit naturally. In the end, it's gorgeous wood already and will look good no matter the arrangement. Now start hot-gluing the pieces of wood together in the corners. It can be a little sloppy, but the hot glue is easy to clean up.

Step 2: Once you got all sides glued and dried, you're going to wrap twine around the corners to cover the glue. You don't need too much, maybe a bit over a foot or so. It really depends on the thickness of your branches. Then you wrap, twist, wrap. That will give you an "X" on the corners. Repeat this step until you've wrapped all four corners.

Step 3: You are now past the halfway point, and in the home stretch. We're going to attach the piece of twine that will stretch from one branch to its counterpart and hold your photo. With twine still on the roll, do one wrap around one branch and tie the first part of a knot. Just under once. Then squeeze a bit of hot glue on top and make sure it touches the branch. Then do two loops on either side of the original loop to cover the glue on each side. Tie it off and cut off any extra. Now do the same at the other side, cutting the string from the roll this time. Just make sure it's long enough to wrap a few times.

Repeat as many times, for as many rows of photos you would like. If you make a bigger frame than me, you can put a vertical string and separate it even more. There is a lot of variations on this that you can do to fit your style.

Well, that's all there is to it. Construction time is about half an hour, and cost is about $2 if you already have a hot glue gun and around $10 if you don't.

I hope you enjoy it. Be sure to share your creations with us!

Step 1:


Step 2:


Step 3:

The Manmade Wedding: Hot Buttered Rum

Every guy out there knows the wedding is for his bride. And for that reason, most wedding sites and blogs you'll stumble upon are for the most part, appropriately geared towards her. Here at The Handmade Wedding, we want toss in a bit of the Y chromosome from time to time, hence The Manmade Wedding column written by the other half of the HMW blog team, Joe Proudman.

Today we're bringing you a drink recipe for Hot Buttered Rum. Unless you're living in Southern California where they just played the Rose Bowl in sunny 80 degree weather, you're just as cold as we are. Hot buttered rum is the perfect drink for those type of nights where no matter how many layers you have on, you're still cold. At any bachelor parties up at a cabin, or camping way up high in the mountains, this would be the best companion you could ask for. Or as you catch the game on a chilly night, while planning your wedding.

So lets get started. You'll need:


Unsalted butter


Brown sugar


Dark rum

The last think you'll need is some boiling water and you're good to go.



The first thing you want to do is put enough brown sugar to cover the bottom of your mug. It goes without saying, the more you put, the sweeter it'll be. It usually amounts to a tablespoon of sugar if I'm making a cup of HBR.



Next you want to pour a bit of water in to melt the sugar.

Toss in the butter next. My general rule of thumb is the same amount of butter as sugar. So about a tablespoon for each cup. As you can see in the photo below, the butter is still melting, but you can already see a light layer of foam forming and a light bronze color in the drink.

Next all you have to do is add about a shot of dark rum, or more depending on how warm you want to be, and you'll be done. It's important to use dark rum. From my experience every time I've asked the a cashier for dark rum they've had a blank look on their face. So just take a look at the label, it'll say dark or black rum. But this is what you'll get:



There are a billion ways to make this drink. A lot of people will add nutmeg, cinnamon, ice cream and whatever else. If you have any recipes for hot buttered rum, or any other warm drink, give a quick run down in the comments.