DIY Wedding Projects | Stylish Events

February 25th, 2010

DIY Guest Book Download Freebie

After spending almost a month coming up with posts about guest book ideas, I came up with an idea and turned it into a DIY project. Most guests get a little panicked when they come up to a guest book. They have no idea what to write, and they know the couple will be keeping it for a lifetime. You can help your guests out and have an adorable guest book at the same time. Use these “recipe for a happy marriage” cards as your guest book. You can print them out onto card stock that’s 8 1/2 by 11 inches {standard paper size} and cut them. Put them in a recipe card holder or just have a stack of them with pens next to a beautiful floral arrangement. I made them in three different color combinations in hopes that one will match your color palette or go with your theme: orange and blue, purple and yellow, and pink and green.

Downloadable Orange and Blue Recipe Cards.pdf

Downloadable Purple and Yellow Recipe Cards.pdf

Downloadable Pink and Green Recipe Cards.pdf

For personal use only, please

No Comments | In: DIY Wedding Projects, Free Downloads | tags: DIY, guest book download. | #

February 18th, 2010

DIY Romantic Banner

If you’re like many brides {including me}, you’ve probably collected a stack of bridal magazines while planning your wedding. Two days ago I posted a DIY project regarding how to use those magazines to decorate your favor boxes. Today I’ve got another way for you to use your bridal magazines: make a romantic banner to decorate your engagement party, bridal shower, rehearsal dinner or wedding.

{Personal Images}

Items Needed: bridal magazines, tissue paper, romance novel {you can pick one up at a used book store or yard sale if you don’t have one}, fabric, tulle, scrapbook paper, glue, two paper circle punches in different sizes, ribbon, hole punch

Step 1: Pick out magazine pages that have coordinating colors that match your color palette for your event. For instance, I used pink, so I pulled out all the magazine pages that had shades of pink on them.

Step 2: Pick out scrapbook paper, tissue paper, fabric, and tulle in different shades of your color.

Step 3: Punch out lots of circles out of your scrapbook paper, romance novel and magazine pages. As you punch out magazine circles, check the back to see what color is on the other side. Separate the circles into two piles: ones that have a coordinating back and ones that don’t. Glue together magazine circles that don’t have coordinating backs, so that only the right-colored sides are showing. Crumple the circles to give them more texture.

Step 4: Cut circles from your fabric, tulle, and tissue paper. They don’t have to be perfect. In fact, it’s prettier if they aren’t.

Step 5: Separate the circles into 10 – 20 piles depending on how long you want the banner to be. Mine is about five feet long and took 11 piles.

Step 6: Cut your ribbon as long as you want your banner.

Step 7: Tie a knot at the bottom of the ribbon.

Step 8: Punch a hole in the middle of your first pile of circles and then thread them onto your ribbon.

Step 9: Tie another knot on the other side of your pile of circles, so they stay where you want them to.

Step 10: Tie another knot about 6 inches down from the last one and thread the next pile of papers onto it. Continue until you’ve completed your romantic banner.

Step 11: Feel good for recycling your bridal magazines!

NOTE: If you don’t have the time to make your own but love this banner, you can purchase this one in my Etsy shop! Enjoy.

1 Comment | In: DIY Wedding Projects | tags: Bridal Shower, decoration, DIY wedding project, engagement party, reheasal dinner, romantic banner, wedding. | #

February 16th, 2010

DIY Project: Bridal Magazine Favor Boxes

{Personal Images}

Lately, I’ve been hooked on trying to find ways to use materials that I already have around my house. Because of my wedding and obsession with event planning, I have a stack of wedding magazines that are collecting dust. I want to keep subscribing to my favorite wedding magazines, but I feel guilty wasting so much paper. Plus I don’t want to recycle them – the pictures are too pretty. This made me wonder if other brides think about ways they can use their bridal magazines. I came up with an entire list of ideas for using these magazines over the course of a couple days, and I’ll be presenting them all throughout the next few weeks.

The first one is easy {and in my opinion, adorable}. Use your bridal magazines to cover your favor boxes. Pull out pages that have colors that match your wedding palette and use them like wrapping paper to cover your favor boxes. This is one way to make your favors stand out. Use cake stands of varying heights to stack the favors on your favor table. They’ll be an extra decoration at no extra cost.

{Personal Image}

Related Posts:

DIY Invitation

DIY Pink Ribbon Dessert Buffet

DIY Multi-Media Wedding Invitations

1 Comment | In: DIY Wedding Projects | tags: bridal magazines, DIY wedding project, favor boxes. | #

February 8th, 2010

Save-the-Date from The Inspired Bride

If you’re looking for a DIY, FREE save-the-date idea, check this one out from The Inspired Bride. You can download it for free in blue and brown or pink and brown. It’s a postcard - which means no envelopes! It’s just plain adorable.

Image from The Inspired Bride

No Comments | In: DIY Wedding Projects | tags: DIY save the date, The Inspired Bride. | #

January 28th, 2010

DIY Wrapping Paper Programs

I’m all about DIY projects that add a little something to a wedding and are inexpensive. This one is so simple – yet creative. A bride found wrapping paper that matched her wedding colors, so she wrapped her programs in the paper. Each program is like a little gift! I love it.

Image from the knot {photograph by Susan Jackson Photography}

No Comments | In: DIY Wedding Projects | tags: DIY wedding programs. | #

November 10th, 2009

DIY Fall Cupcake Toppers

Last night I made cupcakes with my new KitchenAid mixer (my new baby thanks to one of our wedding guests). I really love to bake, and I haven’t been able to do much of it due to the wedding and new puppies. Now, I’m so thankful that I can get back into the swing of things. After baking them, I wondered how I could decorate my applesauce spice cupcakes and decided to whip up some fall cupcake toppers. These would be a great touch for a fall wedding reception, a dinner party or Thanksgiving dinner.

What You’ll Need

Circle Punch

Craft Glue

Stamp Glue Pad

Stamp Glue

Stamp

Glitter

Construction Paper or Cardstock

Craft Sticks

Instructions

1. Most cupcake recipes make 24 cupcakes, so if you want cupcake toppers for each one, punch out 48 circles from construction paper or cardstock.

2. Fill your stamp glue pad with stamp glue.

3. Firmly stamp your stamp on the glue pad and then on your punched out circle. Cover the stamped area with glitter, turn upside down and shake off excess glitter. Repeat this until you’ve decorated 24 punched out circles with a stamp.

4. Using craft glue, place some on a non-stamped circle, making sure to place glue near the edges and in the middle.

5. Place a craft stick on the circle that has glue on it and cover it with a stamped circle. Firmly pinch the two circles together.

6. Allow them to dry and place them in the middle of your cupcakes.

1 Comment | In: DIY Wedding Projects, Entertaining | tags: DIY project, fall cupcake toppers, glitter. | #

October 27th, 2009

DIY Invitation

If you want to wow your guests starting with your invitations but don’t have a big stationery budget, use the free clip art template from Martha Stewart Weddings to make your own adorable invitations.

Image from Martha Stewart Weddings

1 Comment | In: Budget Friendly Ideas, DIY Wedding Projects, Stationery | tags: DIY invitations, Stationery. | #

September 11th, 2009

Sponsor Introduction: Blooms by the Box

Image from Blooms by the Box

I’m so happy today, because I have two new fantastic new sponsors. You’ll be seeing their ads appear in the top right corner of my sidebar by tomorrow! I’ll tell you about the first wonderful sponsor now: Blooms by the Box {and the second one tomorrow}. This company sells fresh, high-quality flowers at an affordable price. They are super budget-friendly and have a 99.3% approval rating. It doesn’t get much better than that.

I believe that ordering wholesale flowers is a great option for brides that want beautiful flowers but can’t afford to hire a florist to do it. And if you read a few articles and watch a couple tutorials on the Bloom Blog, you’ll be able to pull it off. Seriously, don’t sweat it – you can find lots of informative articles like this one, DIY Wedding Bouquet.

Not only should you check out the Blooms by the Box website, but you need to see the Blooms Blog. In the beginning of August, they featured a video from the Flowergod on how to make an elegant bride’s bouquet that is a must see for all DIY brides. There are well over 50 videos on this blog on centerpieces, boutonnieres, bouquets, and more. It’s a DIY bride’s dream come true. While you’re at it, you should take a peek at these posts: Great Decorating Ideas from Pottery Barn, The Peony Alternative, and More About Color in Fresh Flower Bouquets and Arrangements.

So, you can learn how to arrange your wedding day flowers and buy your wedding day flowers from the same company. How brilliant is that? You don’t have to take my word for it. Check out this testimonial from a bride who gushed over their services and products: “Thank you very much! My orchids arrived beautifully. My arrangements were a huge hit at the wedding and had a professional florist asking which florist I worked for. This is great since I just do arrangements for fun.” – Stephanie P.

Welcome Blooms by the Box! I’m extremely excited to introduce your company to my readers today!!!

1 Comment | In: Budget Friendly Ideas, DIY Wedding Projects, Sponsored Posts | tags: blooms by the box, DIY wedding flowers, wholesale flowers. | #

September 2nd, 2009

About WeddingDNA – DIY Resource for Brides

WeddingDNA.com began in 2003 when the founder, Jim Williams, wanted to create a resource for brides offering vector-based graphics. This idea is HUGE, and I’m so excited that I get to share it with you. When I found an email in my inbox from Melanie about this website, I was confused. I thought, “Are they really offering all of these graphics for only $39.95 for the year?” Thinking it was too good to be trued, I emailed Melanie back and asked her – and she replied that it was correct.

If you’re a bride who wants to make your own programs, invitations, and other stationery items for your wedding but you don’t have or know how to operate Adobe Illustrator (which is very expensive), then you MUST look into this option. They offer program and invitation templates to make it user-friendly and it’s certainly budget-friendly.

It’s true that you can now make your own invitations and stationery, pay only $39.95 to have designer quality invitations and only pay an additional cost for printing. I bet you could make your own invitations using this site for just as much money as you would spend on a generic boxed set at Target or Michael’s. And you can be as creative as you want using only the templates or making your own by accessing the tons of graphics they have to offer.

And I love that they aren’t a big corporation – they’re a tight 10 person team of designers and programmers. Don’t you just love these invitations?!? And by the way….I’m not being paid for this post. I’m doing it, because I really believe in this idea and think it’s great for budget-conscious brides.

Images from WeddingDNA.com

Thank you Melanie for sharing this amazing DIY resource for brides.

3 Comments | In: Budget Friendly Ideas, DIY Wedding Projects, Wedding Planning | tags: budget-friendly wedding invitations, DIY invitations, DIY programs, vector graphics, wedding stationery, weddingdna. | #

September 1st, 2009

DIY Multi-Media Wedding Invitations

I began taking pictures of my DIY wedding invitations from the first step; however, I quickly realized that they were more complicated and detailed than could easily be explained (there would have to be about 100 steps). Even though they aren’t easily replicated, you could still get inspiration from them for your own invitations.

After looking at a multi-media magazine, I decided that I wanted to make my wedding invitations multi-media not realizing how much hard work and time would have to go into this project. But I’m so happy with the results and would do it the same way if I had to do it over. I started with cream colored cardstock and envelopes and built the invitations from there.

I will try to summarize the process: First we got our invitations, rehearsal dinner invitations, and RSVPs printed at Kinkos using dark brown ink. Then I hand embossed the gold pumpkins and trees onto the wedding invitations, rehearsal dinner invitations, RSVPs, and the envelopes (this took a long time but I love how the raised gold pumpkins and trees looked on the finished product). I also made a stamp that said Rehearsal Dinner and one with our names and addresses for the envelopes. I hand embossed those with burgundy embossing powder.

The next step included cutting out all the pieces of fabric for the invitations. I cut a burgundy background, dark brown strips, and brown strips of tulle for the “skirt” at the bottom. Next, with the help of my mom, we sewed gold trim around the burgundy background. Then, with the help of the mom and stepdad, we attached the invitations to the fabric with spray adhesive, so we would be able to sew the invitation to the fabric without putting holes in it with pins. We sewed the invitation to the burgundy background with burgundy thread. Then we made the skirts by sewing together the strips of dark brown fabric and brown tulle and pulling one of the threads to bunch the fabric. Then we sewed the “skirts” onto the invitation.

And we’re not even close to done. Then I cut out circles of tulle and strips of ribbon and attached the cream colored strips of ribbon to the bottom where the “skirt” was sewn onto the invitation. Then I attached a fabric flower to the bottom right corner and added a Swarovski crystal to the middle of the flower with a hot glue gun. Then I attached a circle of tulle to the top of a fabric flower with a bronze brad giving it a “veiled” look and attached that to the right upper corner with a hot glue gun.

We made the envelope liners on Adobe Illustrator. My fiancé and I made up a newspaper page with columns about the football the game the wedding party is attending on the Thursday before the wedding and one about the wedding itself. We also included an ad for the rehearsal dinner location. You can see it in the first picture unattached to an envelope.

I made the invitations pockets out of heavy cardstock using a bone folder and attached corners that I cut from the same cardstock to hold the invitation, rehearsal dinner invitation, and RSVP in place. Then my mom elegantly tied the invitation pocket envelope together with twine and we added handwritten names to tags I punched with a Martha Stewart paper punch.

My future mother-in-law did the calligraphy on the outside of the envelopes. Isn’t it beautiful? I’m lucky to have so many creative people in my family and soon-to-be family.

All together, it probably took about 100 hours from start to finish. But I’m so glad that I did it, because I LOVE them and have gotten lots of compliments from our wedding guests.

4 Comments | In: DIY Wedding Projects | tags: DIY wedding invitations, fabric wedding invitations, fall wedding invitations, multi media wedding invitations. | #

July 25th, 2009

DIY Engagement Announcement

One way to announce your engagement to friends and family is to send them a fun story of your relationship and the proposal. This way you won’t have to tell the same engagement story 1oo times. Just make sure that you prepare for lots of phone calls after you send it out. If possible, you should still tell your parents face to face. Here’s an example of DIY newsletter engagement announcement (this would be a full page in size, so it would be easier to read):

No Comments | In: DIY Wedding Projects, Engagement | tags: announcing your engagement, DIY engagement announcement. | #

July 18th, 2009

DIY Birdcage Veil

Image from Hip Hostess

Check out these easy to follow directions with pictures on the Hip Hostess blog to learn how to make this beautiful birdcage veil.

No Comments | In: DIY Wedding Projects | tags: diy birdcage veil. | #

July 8th, 2009

101 DIY Wedding Projects, Second Edition

This is the most excited that I’ve ever been to make a post. I have been collecting the best of the best DIY projects from blogs and websites over the past few months, and it’s finally complete. In April of 2009, I posted a list of 101 DIY Projects that was INCREDIBLY popular, and many brides wrote me e-mails to thank me for putting together an extensive list of DIY projects. I knew that I would have to do it again. I separated the projects into easy-to-access categories to help brides find the type of project they’re looking for effortlessly. So, without further ado, here is the second list of 101 DIY projects. I hope it helps you in your planning process. {click on the titles to get to the project}

My Top 10 Favorite DIY Projects (1-10)