A Memorabilia Museum

One of the Countdown Party decorations I'd planned from the very beginning was a museum-like display of some iconic Disney memorabilia.  Unfortunately, even though I'd had this idea in mind for over a month, and knew almost exactly what I wanted represented, and even bought and painted the frames weeks before our party...

M was kind enough to spray paint the frames that weren't already gold

...well, you guessed it.  This became a last minute DIY project.  I'm not sure why I procrastinated so long on a project I wanted to complete so badly.  I think I was overwhelmed by the enormity of the task, and afraid that it wouldn't turn out exactly as it looked in my head.

But I shouldn't have worried, because after 3 hours of kneeling on the floor with a hot glue gun while my mom made potato salad (mmmm) my Memorabilia Museum turned out exactly how I pictured it!

A compilation of all the frames and their "captions"

I made six displays using frames I'd found in thrift stores, heavy black poster board, ribbon, and props for each movie.  For inspiration, we picked films that were near and dear to us (Aladdin, Beauty & The Beast, and M's favorite, Lilo & Stitch) and some that were more 'classic' like Cinderella and Snow White.  Our guests loved them, and it made me happy to see people wandering around the perimeter of our backyard (where the frames were prettying up our ugly fence) as if it really was a museum. 

My only regrets came from rushing the project to finish it at the last moment.  Although I never intended them to be permanent works of art, some of the backings were already starting to fall off by the end of the night because I'd hot glued them to the frames so carelessly.  My other nit-picky mistake was how the ribbons looked once they were staple-gunned on.  The little corners and ends of ribbon sticking out past the frames could have been fixed so easily and it would have made for a more polished product.  I wish I'd taken to heart the saying, "If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing well"  - and I certainly will in the future!  But I'm glad that we included this in our party,  and I'm sure those frames will find reuse in our wedding decorations...