The DIY Bride

All Good Things Must Come To An End...

2010-10-05T15:40:00.000-07:00

Well ladies, after much thought and consideration, I have decided to no longer update this blog. I truly believe that this blog has definitely lived up to its purpose to provide future brides with tutorials on how to create DIY projects to make your wedding more personal. I plan to still provide my stationary templates soon, but I've decided to leave the wedding world and enter the new world of being a wife. A crafty wife at that.

So to answer your questions, no, I'm not disappearing! I'm starting a new blog! My new blog is titled, "diary of a crafty wife." With this new blog, you can follow me as I adapt to my new life as a wife. I will be sharing recipes, crafts, projects and a more in depth look into the daily life of yours truly. So I invite you to continue to follow me on my new blog!

I appreciate all of the wonderful feedback that I have received from you all over the last 10 months. I wish you all the best in creating your dream weddings, and don't hesitate to stop by my new blog to find out what I'm up to!

ps. Did anyone else love the Stewie picture? My husband and I are avid watchers of Family Guy!

Wife Chop!

2010-09-17T09:39:00.000-07:00

I actually got my hair cut on July 1st, but I have since cut even more off and I'm actually planning to cut even more off on Tuesday (Sept 21)! I had not gotten a haircut in nearly year since I was growing it out for the wedding, but with summer in full bloom, having no A/C and driving a car with no A/C.. It needed to be cut and FAST. Overall, I have probably cut off 10 inches.

Don't mind the cheesy smile..

Now my hair has been chopped off, but I'm getting bored.. so on Tuesday, I'm doing this..

An Inverted Bob!

Pictures to come!

Frequently Asked Questons Answered!

2010-09-08T11:59:00.000-07:00

Hello all! Over the past 3 months since the wedding, I've been receiving excellent feedback from so many people (Thank you!) and have been getting a lot of questions regarding our wedding. So I wanted to take the time to answer these questions for you all. Keep in mind that I will be summarizing and grouping some questions together. For example, I have been asked about my dress, hair, shoes etc. all on separate occasions so I will group this all into one question and one answer.

Where did you get your bridal attire?
- My dress is from the Oleg Cassini collection at David's Bridal. The style number is CT314 and you can view it by clicking here.
- My shoes were on clearance at Shoe Carnival $9! Unfortunately, they are no longer available. However, mine are a size 7 and if you're interested in them feel free to email me at diy(dot)bride(at)yahoo(dot)com.
- My crinoline was also purchased from David's Bridal. The style number is 603 and you can view it by clicking here. Mine is still for sale and if anyone is interested in please email me at diy(dot)bride(at)yahoo(dot)com.
- My earrings were bought from Macy's on sale. You can view them for sale on their website here.
- My bracelet was handmade by me and you can make one too by following the directions that I created for making pearl necklaces. I bought all of the supplies to make the necklaces and my bracelet from Hobby Lobby.
- In terms of my hairstyle for the wedding, I've been getting incredible feedback, and many have asked for pictures of the back to share with their hairdressers. You can view the back of my hair here and here.
Where did you get your groom's attire?
- The suits worn by my husband, his groomsmen and my father were all rented through Jim's Formal Wear. The exact suit that was rented can be found by clicking here. In our area, each suit rented for $100 each, which included the jacket, pants, shirt and a tie. Shoes were sold separately, but the men in our bridal party just wore their own brown shoes. At the end of the day, the guys really liked the suits and boasted on how light and comfortable they were.
- My husband's tie was purchased from The Tie Bar. The same tie is still for sale and can be purchased here. The groomsmen tie's were included with the suits that we rented and we rented them in the color, "Mandarin."
Will you be providing templates for your stationary projects?
- Absolutely! I've had to purchase a new laptop since my old one is having issues. My old laptop has all the stationary templates on it and I haven't been able to get them to open since my old laptop is on the fritz. So I may have to start from scratch on those, but as I finish them and find time to work on them, they will definitely be posted!
Where did the bridesmaid dresses come from?
- The dresses were purchased from David's Bridal as well. The style number for the dresses is F13287 and they were the, "Tangerine," color. You can view them on their website here.
Where did you order your parasols?
- The white parasol that was used to create my Thank You Parasol was purchased from Asian Ideas.
- My hot pink parasol and the orange parasols were purchased from Hobby Lobby. Unfortunately, they were purchased on clearance and are no longer available.
- All of the parasols were 32" in diameter when fully opened.
Where did you order your paper lanterns?
- The paper lanterns were purchased from two different websites. The hot pink and tangerine lanterns were ordered from Asian Ideas. The yellow lanterns were purchased from the Paper Lantern Store. The hot pink and tangerine lanterns were 14" and the yellow lanterns were 10".
Where did you order your guest book?
- When I ordered my wedding gown, I received a coupon code from Shutterfly for a free Hardcover 8x8 Photo Book. All I had to do was pay for shipping. I just chose to use our engagement pictures to create the book and add lines to pages for people to sign.
What kind of food did you have catered?
- The food that we had catered was absolutely delicious! We received so many comments on the food. We had our food catered from MCL Restaurant & Bakery. We went with more comfort-type food for the reception and our menu consisted of:
Where did you get your garters from?
- My garters were purchased from Etsy through seller luly612. You can view her shop and the garters I purchased by clicking here.
Where did you get your hair flowers from? Were they fresh or silk?
- The hair flowers were silk and were also purchased on Etsy through seller PrimandPosies. You can view her shop by clicking here.

I really hope that a lot of you will find this helpful and fell free to email me if you have any additional questions!

A New Chapter, A New Wedding, A New Bride

2010-09-06T11:58:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to share with you all this new segment! My friend, Crystal, has asked me to help her plan some aspects of her wedding. I met Crystal through my best friend/Maid of Honor, and I offered my assistance to her if she ever needed any. Well as it turns out, she has asked me to help create her wedding invitations! So now I am on a new mission for a new wedding for a new bride and I couldn't be anymore thrilled to help her. I hope I will have more details of their wedding to share with you all. So far, here is what I have..

Crystal and her fiance, Brian, are planning a wedding for June 18, 2011 in my hometown. Their color scheme is going to be yellow and gray. I've noticed that yellow and gray is becoming a more popular scheme for weddings.

Isn't it gorgeous? So much in fact, I have asked my husband how he feels about it and now, we plan to use the same color scheme for our living room! But anyways, back to weddings. The day after Crystal enlisted my help on the design of her invitations, I immediately got to work. She had sent me an idea of a design that she liked from Merriment Design. The invitations are made of mostly fabric and since I'm not yet knowledgeable about the craft of sewing, I asked her if she would be against the idea of using cardstock to make a similar design for her invitations. Once I was given the go ahead, I went straight to work with supplies that I had on hand. So here is a mock up of what I came up with..

Now, keep in mind that this is rough mock up of a potential invitation for her, and the colors may end up darkening or lightening in terms of shade, but for the most part, I say that the mock up came out really well! It involves quite a bit of cutting of the individual shapes since they were all cut freehand, but the design definitely allows for variation. I suggested that we could make some invites like these and then for others, we could change the dominant color of the flower from yellow to gray and use a yellow button instead, or we could make a white flower. So many ideas are already flowing through my head, and I can't wait to finalize all the details with her!

Thank You Cards - Check!

2010-09-05T17:56:00.000-07:00

I actually had these made a few weeks ago, and have been working on them to send out to our guests. But now I have finally gotten around to making a post about these. If you remember my Thank You Parasol Post, where I shared with you all on how to successfully create your own thank you parasol. Ours was a total hit and our photographer loved it! She had never seen a thank you parasol before and loved exploring different ideas on how to create the best shot for our thank you cards. Anyways, without any further adieu..

Photography By Meredith Rogers

I created these through Vistaprint. If you sign up for their weekly emails, you will receive different specials on their products. When I ordered these, they were having a special on their note cards by selling them at 50% off. I uploaded our photo to Vistaprint's website and had these printed in gloss finish. If you plan to make these for yourself, make sure to have them printed in gloss finish or linen finish. I had them originally done in matte finish, and they weren't good. So I was able to contact customer service, and they sent them to me in gloss finish for free, and they even shipped them priority so that I would receive them faster. Their customer service was absolutely awesome and they didn't charge us at all to replace the matte ones. Another piece of advice that I have for you is to make sure that the photo that you upload is of high resolution. If they are not of high resolution, then the picture will come out grainy.

Dudley's Dos & Donts of DIY: Ceremony Decor!

2010-08-28T10:48:00.000-07:00

The wedding ceremony. The time has come to marry your honey, and the guests will all be there to watch. But let's face it.. the guests are eager and excited to watch you get married just as much as they're also wanting to see your decor and what you did exactly to dress up your ceremony space. For the most part, ceremony decor should be relatively simple. No need to go over the top because going simple goes a long way. Que Billy Idol's "White Wedding!"

DIY Ceremony Decor - Dos & Donts

Whether you're getting married indoors or outdoors, there are a number of things to consider when you begin designing the layout of your ceremony. So I've compiled ideas for both. Now let's say you're having an indoor ceremony. Imagine with me, if you will, your guests are walking up to the doors to enter. You have a few options, in terms of decor, on how you could potentially spruce up those doors. Decorating the doors are by no means mandatory, but let's say if you were going to..

DO: Be clean and uncomplicated.
No need to go overboard since your guests will just be walking through the doors and will see the decor for roughly 5 seconds. Hanging door letters like these are just the perfect touch.

DON'T: Hang anything resembling a woolly mammoth
with a pink bow.
AHH! Too much! You don't want to scare people do you?!

So now your guests have entered your ceremony space. Do you have anything lining the aisle? More than likely, yes, but you don't need to. Depending on your space, sometimes very little ceremony decor is better. For instance fellow knottie, Brie of Brie-Fit, held her ceremony in a large beautiful church with tall, colorful windows..

Photography by Danielle Aquiline
Brie chose to keep her ceremony decor minimal, which was perfect considering the church already was an immaculate decoration on its own.

Now, let's say you're having more decor..

DO: Design the aisle, don't destroy the aisle.
Another fellow knottie and blogger, Ashley of Bride on a Budget, took a different approach when it came to decorating her aisle by creating "S" petal designs on the grass that lined the aisle. Gorgeous!

Photography by Micha Everett.

This bride chose to use an overlapping ring design.

DON'T: Use rose petals to design anything resembling alcoholic beverages or anything provocative.
Whether this bride decided to have her aisle decor in the shape of a martini glass, we will never know.

DO: Non-traditional decor to line the aisle.
Laying out traditional rose petals to line the aisle with a runner is no longer a must for every wedding. Brides are taking to new heights and modernized ideas to line their aisles.

Photography by Meredith Rogers

Fruit! Candles! Centerpieces! Lanterns! Pomanders! OH MY!
...Just don't do them all.

DON'T: Balloon Arches. Just don't.
Keep in mind that this is a wedding. Not your high school prom or Disneyland. Balloon arches are OUT.
She's a beauty isn't she? Even in the shape of a heart!

Balloons inside balloons are still a don't. But you have to see my favorite...

Balloon arches that line an entire aisle.
I'm speechless.

DO: Incorporate a monogram or design into the aisle runner.
A trend among weddings are monograms/logos. How you choose to incorporate the monograms is completely up to you, but one way to carry it out in ceremony decor is through your aisle runner. Fellow knottie, Jennifer of Vogt Stories, creates these beautiful monograms on aisle runners. Make sure to check out her Etsy shop!

Photography by Angela Laird

Another major part of your ceremony decor is your bridal party. Believe it or not, bridal party members are there to support you, but they also can help carry out your wedding color scheme and/or theme.

DO: Coordinate your bridal party well.
If you don't want them to match, then they don't need to. But just remember that not only do you want them to look good, but they want to look and feel good too.
Coral dresses with coral ties. Done. Nothing major

DON'T: Making your bridesmaids identical and perfectly matched.
Having them all wear the same dress is one thing, but to go as far as make them wear matching shoes along with matching accessories and similar hairstyles... Major don't. Your bridesmaids have personalities so let them express it.

Here is a great example of a bride who told their bridesmaids to choose their own green dress or a dress with a green embellishment.

They look great! Each can express her own personality, and feel comfortable.

So modern and fun!

DO: Providing beverages.

Cute and personalized water bottle labels are a hot new trend right now in the wedding world. Providing beverages are not a requirement, but definitely a nice gesture for those ceremonies that will be held outdoors or extra long.

Photography by Meredith Rogers

A lemonade stand is a unique and fun idea too!

DON'T: Getting flower and color happy.

You don't want to overload your space with color or flowers.

Hello red!

Did red rose petals throw up? =)

And there you have it. My Dos & Donts of DIY for Ceremony Decor.

I do have one more question though..

Why when I was searching for wedding decor, did this picture show up?

Here's a better question, WHY IS A DOG STANDING ON CHEESEBURGERS?

I'll leave ya with that!

Made A Married Bio!

2010-08-19T08:42:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I was up late last night, so I decided to make a Married Bio! I've shared some pictures on here with you all already, but the bio provides more pictures for you all to see more details of our wedding. Feel free to check it out: http://dudleygetsmarried.weebly.com/index.html

Dudley's Dos & Don'ts of DIY: Invitations

2010-08-18T11:50:00.000-07:00

When you begin planning your wedding, you begin scavenging through photos for inspiration for your own big day. Whether it be your dream wedding gown to those modern invites that you must have, I think it is important to stress that DIYing items for your wedding definitely can have its limits. So I have compiled my own, "Dudley's Dos & Don'ts of DIY," which I plan to incorporate as a new feature!

Invitations. The first impression that your guests will receive of your wedding. With many wedding invitation vendors charging as much as $4-$5 per wedding invitation, it has become more common for brides to opt to design and create their own. You don't need expensive calligraphers or diamond-finish cardstock to make your invitations spectacular, but there are a few key guidelines that you should follow when it comes to DIYing your invites.

DIY Invitations - Dos & Donts

DON'T: Be sloppy.

The use of different sized fonts can be perfectly fine for your invite, but do it the right way. An array of text, sizes and colors will have your guests dizzy before they even realize exactly what they're being invited to. Be more orderly when compiling your words.

DO: Clean and simple can go a long way.

Simple use of color, clean lines, simple graphic, and proper alignment will give your invitation a more professional look. Think modern.

DON'T: Attempt for cheap laughs and corniness.

A wedding is a union between two people joining their lives together. Not a circus. Yea, just don't ever do what the couple did below.

DO: Be Organized.

Organization is key when it comes to compiling the final product, whether that be with a pocket, ribbon etc. When your guests open your invitation for the first time, they don't want the little extras to fall out of the envelope.

DON'T: Pretending to be fictional characters instead.

No "Romeo & Juliet," "Bella & Edward," or "Elvis & Priscilla." Be yourselves.

DO: Be creative.

Add color. Add a vector. Now don't go nuts, but the days of plain, floral wedding invitations are GONE.

DON'T: Adding too much and being too busy.

No need to put three pictures of you and your honey on the invite, one will do. Your entire invitation doesn't need to be covered with something. Like I said previously, think clean and simple.

DO: Think outside the norm.

Belly bands are becoming more and more popular in the wedding invitation market, but who says that they have to be plain? This couple opted to incorporate their first names into their belly bands.

DON'T: Incorporating your registry.

Major no-no. Weddings are parties, but gifts are by no means necessary. By adding your registry information to your invites, you're suggesting to your guests that you expect a gift. Registry information should be told by word of mouth or can be displayed on your wedding website.

DO: Create a theme to carry out.

Themes are by no means mandatory, but a cute detail like this beaded band can be used in many different ways throughout your wedding. It will give your wedding a more chic and modern feel.

DON'T: Misspell or be grammatically incorrect.

Spell check everything, and then have a few friends or family members check everything again. Typos can be quite embarassing too, so make sure to double check and re-check everything!

And there you have it.

Don't go crazy with your invitations, but by following simple guidelines like these, you will make your invitations something to remember and treasure.

Do you have any "Dos & Donts," to share?

Any pictures of past weddings where there was a major DIY do or dont?

If so, email them to me! I want to see them! They may be featured!

diy.bride@yahoo.com

DIY We Love: Back To School Themed Weddings!

2010-08-14T19:25:00.000-07:00

With schools gradually beginning their fall semesters, I began thinking about weddings and how school could become a potential theme for your nuptials. If you and your sweetie are teachers, or if you're high school sweethearts (like my husband and I), school-themed weddings would be a creative and innovative way to help your wedding stand apart from the rest. Let's check out exactly how this could be achieved!

DIY Ideas

For starters, you will probably want to incorporate more school-themed decor into your cocktail hour and reception decor, but you could introduce your theme to your guests with your invites and subtle ceremony decor as well!

Mini tabbed file folders could be used to hold all of your wedding invitation materials pinned with paper clips, and your invitation could have a lined-paper look to pull the theme together. This bride used an "Attendance Report," to track her RSVP's!

The guest book could incorporate a more spiral-bound notebook look along with some doodles and a No.2 pencil. This wedding party posed with a vintage name board to make it look like a class picture!

How about the cocktail hour?

How about milk served by the pint along with cookies, small sandwiches and apples!

A desk could be used to hold apple escort cards!

A new trend among weddings is incorporating chalkboards. I shared with you all previously, Chardonnay's DIY chalkboards, and how they can be made quite cheaply with a little chalkboard paint.

How about using chalkboards for your table numbers? Cute, simple and unique!

Also, you could make larger chalkboards that you could use to share the wedding meal menu with your guests.

Now what about those centerpieces? Why not.. books!

Books can be dressed up in an array of ways or dressed down if you want to go for a more vintage feel.

Flower arrangements could even be placed on top of books to give your reception a more elegant look.

No matter what theme you want to create just remember that a little can go a long way, and always think outside the box. Ya never know, it could end up on my "DIY We Love," feature!

Do you have an amazing theme to share? Did you have a DIY wedding? If so, feel free to email me at diy.bride@yahoo.com to be featured!

LinenTableCloth.com Sale!

2010-08-11T17:16:00.000-07:00

Still in need of linens, napkins, chair sashes or chair covers for your big day? Check out linentablecloth.com for their awesome sale going on right now through 8/31!

All of their most popular tablecloth sizes in White, Ivory and Black are now 30% off our

already low prices! Sale ends 8/31/2010.

DIY We Love: Non-Floral Bouquets!

2010-08-07T11:41:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that many brides are seeking out new and innovative ideas to replace traditional floral bouquets nowadays. Whether it be for lack of funds, flowers aren't your style, you want to be different etc., non-floral bouquets are gradually becoming more and more popular. Possibilities are becoming virtually endless when it comes to deciding which approach you want to take.

Fellow knottie, as well as the fabulous graphic designer of our wedding logo, Bec (BecW2Be) decided to make button bouquets and bouts instead:

Click here to learn how to make these on your own!

Another favorite of mine was found on the OffBeatBride's website, where she featured bride Sandy's ornament and paper bouquets!

Check out the entire feature here!

Sandy created these paper flower bouquets by purchasing Wild Magnolia paper flower kits from Paper-Source. Click here to view all of the other great paper flower kits that can be purchased from paper-source.com!

Feather bouquets are a new trend on the rise as well!

These can be dressed up with color, different style feathers (peacock feathers perhaps?) or even jewelry! The above bouquet has been accented with a simple pearl brooch. Looking to create these on your own?

Follow my simple tutorial on creating your own toss bouquet except replace the silk flowers with feathers!

Are you looking to really think outside the box?

Etsy seller, REFINERII, sells aluminum wire bouquets in her Etsy Shop!

How about candy?

Click here to learn how to make these candy bouquets!

Or perhaps you could create your own Tootsie Roll Roses!

The blog, Dabbled, shares her tutorial on how to make your own Tootsie Roll Roses.

If you don't want to create these for the wedding, how about making simple Tootsie Roll pop bouquets for the Rehearsal!

How about forgetting the idea of having a bouquet at all, and carry parasols!

Think outside the box when creating your bouquets, and really create something that you truly love. No need to settle for flowers if you don't want them and if you can't afford them, you don't need them! Just have fun with it!

Wedding Recap #10: Our Reception!

2010-08-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

After a long day and night, it was finally time to party! Our reception literally could not have gone any better. When we walked into the reception hall for the first time as a married couple, it was such an amazing feeling. Everyone stood up when we entered and clapped for us, and the cheers probably could have been heard from across town. It was so great to see all of our family and our friends there to support us, as well as to see all of my hard work pay off. All of my DIY projects fit perfectly together in the space, and I was getting compliments all night on the decor. So many guests couldn't believe that all of the decor had been made by me, and all I kept hearing all night was, "That's so Lacey!" It was so nice to get recognition for everything because in the end, it was ALL worth it. Another highlight was when I entered the reception hall, and I caught a glimpse of our cake. I was in total awe. After all of the crap that we had gone through earlier in the day, to have this beautiful wedding cake sitting in front of me was so overwhelming. I had no idea how it was going to turn out at all, and I gave the bakery free reign over the cake since it was so last minute. It was perfect. Check out everything below!

Our get away car! A 1930 Model A, courtesy of my husband's grandfather.

My photographer took this while she was driving!

My Maid of Honor giving her speech. It was amazing. Also, isn't she adorable?

She made us cry.

She caught my toss bouquet!

Then, our nephew caught the garter. HA!

Time to dance!

Overall, after all is said and done.. I give our wedding day a perfect 10. It was everything that I had ever hoped for and ever wanted. Sure we had some problems, but in the end, everything and I mean EVERYTHING worked out. We definitely had someone on our side that day =) It was without a doubt, the best day of my life.. so far!

Wedding Recap #9: Our Ceremony

2010-08-02T11:53:00.000-07:00

Finally, it was time to get married. After months of planning and six years of dating, it was time to finally become man and wife. I had imagined this moment to be so nerve racking based on hearing other experiences from other brides, but surprisingly, I was soo excited! I was so antzy standing in the back just waiting for everyone else to walk. I was ready to get it going! I wasn't nervous AT ALL.

Then, the moment came..

I had so many things going on in my head that I barely remember this moment!

We did it!

Wedding Recap #8: Pre-Ceremony

2010-07-29T10:58:00.000-07:00

One thing that my husband and I wanted to do was have a "First Look," by seeing each other before the ceremony. I was all for having our pictures done prior to the ceremony, and since I've had problems with panic attacks since I was little, we felt it would be easier to just see each other beforehand. Right before I walked out to see him, I was so nervous! That moment of waiting for him to arrive and for me to see him was such an intense feeling because it really hit me that I was getting married. We were able to take the 3 hours before the ceremony to get 95% of our formal pictures done. Check out our pre-ceremony below!

My daddy =)

Here we go! He's waiting for me!

Wedding Recap #7: Our "Dudleys" Wedding Sign

2010-07-26T11:37:00.000-07:00

A few weeks before the wedding, my husband and I wanted to add something extra to our Sweetheart Table. So my husband and I decided to make a plaque that would say, "The Dudleys," and hang it from our table. Plus, we knew once the wedding was over, we could hang the plaque up in our house as a momento. Check it out below!

Wanting to complete this on your own?

Materials Needed:

Wood (My husband suggests 24x48, roughly)

Drill
Heavy duty wire
Wood glue
Paint
Wooden Tapered Plugs (Pegs)
Super glue
Letters
Jigsaw
Oval cardstock template (Created on Microsoft Publisher) - Optional

1. We began by first buying the individual letters to spell out our name at Hobby Lobby, along with some black spray paint.

2. After painting the letters, my husband attached the plugs (pegs) to the back of the letters with the wood glue. The plugs gave the plaque a more 3D look so that the letters didn't just rest on top of the plaque, but actually had some height.

These look similar to the pegs that we used. They were about 1/2 inch tall.

3. My husband then used a jigsaw to shape the wood into the oval shape. I created a simple cardstock template on Microsoft Publisher, printed it off, cut it out and taped it together. My husband attached the template to the top of the wood and then cut the shape out.

4. He then used a high gloss white paint to paint the actual plague.

5. After the paint dried, he used the super glue to attach the letters to the plaque.

6. He drilled two small holes on the top of the plague and ran the heavy duty wire through the holes. He left enough wire so that when we attached it to our table at the reception, the wire was able to reach the legs so that we could wrap the wire around them.

Ladies, if you're looking for a cute, fun, simple project for your husbands-to-be to complete, have them do this! My husband enjoyed doing it, and loves that we incorporated it into the reception. He's even happier that we have it afterwards to remind of us our wonderful wedding day!

DIY We Love: Homemade Chalkboards!

2010-07-24T09:43:00.000-07:00

Fellow knottie, Chardonnay, is getting married on September 18, 2010, and has been busy with her DIY Projects! She also has a DIY blog where she provides pictures and tutorials of her projects so that you can easily recreate them on your own. One of my favorite projects that she has made would have to be her homemade chalkboards!

Check out her blog to learn how to create these on your own!

DIY We Love: Incorporating Fruit into Decor!

2010-07-22T11:15:00.000-07:00

Incorporating fruit decor into your wedding has become increasingly popular over the past couple of years and I don't see them going away anytime soon! If you want to add a splash of color into your decor and become more budget-friendly in the making when creating your centerpieces, try simple ideas like these:

Or if you're interested in using fruit in different ways, why not use them as escort cards!

You could sprinkle the fruit around your escort card table and use candy to hold your cards too!

I also want to share with you, one my DIY projects from way back before I was a bride or planning a wedding. During my undergrad, and being a Dietetics student, I was required to help plan a formal meal in one of my cooking classes a few years ago. Of course, I love to think outside the box and be different, so I decided to incorporate fruit into our menu cards that we placed at each place setting. Check them out below!

I typed up the menu card and alternated with plum and yellow cardstock and ribbon to match the pineapple and grapes used. I purchased a daisy cookie cutter, a pineapple and a bag of large grapes. I managed to cut about 12 slices from the pineapple and I simply cut the daisy out of the slices with the cookie cutter.

In this photo, you can see me along with my two classmates. We were all in charge of different aspects of the meal, and mine included the main entree and decor (of course!).

Here are the menu cards on the table, at a place setting:

Think outside the box. Be creative! But most of all, have fun!

For Sale!

2010-07-20T12:17:00.000-07:00

I've got all of my wedding items up for sale now! Check it out here: http://forsaledudley.weebly.com/

If you're interested in anything, please contact me at diy.bride@yahoo.com

DIY We Love: S'More Kits!

2010-07-17T09:22:00.000-07:00

Originally featured on twigandtwistle.com

How adorable are these? If you're going for a fun feel for your favors, how about individual s'more kits for your guests! Or if you don't want to provide one for each guest, provide them per couple or perhaps leave them in hotel rooms of your OOT guests!

Thinking about doing these yourself?

You can purchase the clear plastic boxes here!

Then, let the creativity soar. Dress them up with some colorful satin ribbon and cute note reading, "Love Is Sweet!"

Our Programs: Up Close & Personal

2010-07-13T08:28:00.000-07:00

I was finally able to get better pictures of our programs yesterday for you all to see. As I mentioned previously, one side of the programs listed the order of the ceremony and the bridal party while the other side was filled with either a crossword puzzle or a word search. Also, I know I've had a few requests for the template for these, but I've been having trouble with my computer and with the document itself. I'm in the process of recreating the template entirely, so bear with me! Here are the programs!

If you want to do these with the attached pencil, my only recommendation would be to use different ribbon. I used satin ribbon because it was what I had, but it was too slick and the knots kept coming untied. So if you pick a ribbon, pick one that has texture to it.

Pro Pictures Will Be In This Week!

2010-07-11T12:07:00.000-07:00

I still have to recap the Pre-Ceremony, Ceremony and Reception with you all, but I received a text from our photographer saying that she will have all of our photos done and ready to show us this week! So I wanted to hold off on recapping those until I had new and more photos to share. I still have a few more projects to share with you all, and I plan to start a new feature. The feature will highlight new DIY projects that fellow brides are completing on their own, as well as templates and potential tutorials. Just because my wedding is over doesn't mean I'm going to stop sharing projects with you all!

Wedding Recap #6: Getting Ready

2010-07-08T22:04:00.000-07:00

After only 3 hours of sleep, and already behind an hour on wedding day, I was off to the salon to get my hair and make-up done. While sitting in the salon, I received word for my husband about our cake and how we were actually going to have one. After hearing that news, only having 3 hours of sleep didn't matter anymore. It rained some while we were at the salon getting pampered and pretty, and my bridesmaids were constantly checking the weather on their phones. Almost every weather website predicted rain from 2:00pm-6:00pm, which was the time we had alloted for pictures and the ceremony. If I could make any recommendations or give any advice to future brides, HIRE A DAY-OF COORDINATOR. My DOC was awesome. The day before, I had given her all of the items needed for the ceremony along with a copy of our ceremony, a list of things I wanted her to do and lay-outs on how I wanted everything to look. She took care of everything for me on the day-of and kept us on schedule. I was able to relax and hang out with our bridal party without any stress. It was so nice. I definitely recommend having one!

Also, I want to thank my bridesmaid, Jennifer, for these photos!

My hair was looking pretty funky at first.

I purchased my hair flowers from Etsy for $20. I highly recommend them. I also purchased my garter set from Etsy for $20 as well.

Getting my make-up done. I had never had someone else do my make-up before, so I was quite skeptical and really happy with how it turned out. I don't look too thrilled in this photo, but I was!

All done!

My Maid of Honor working on her speech at the salon, haha!

My Sister-in-law all done and beautified!

Another one of my bridesmaids hanging out.

Haha, another one of my bridesmaids having fun at the salon!

My Maid of Honor finished her speech and then painted her toes on the salon floor. I love her!

Meanwhile, the men were getting dressed at the reception site.

The groomsmen and ushers opening their gifts. We got them pocket knives.

My handsome groom all ready to go!

Back in the hotel room with my ribbon bouquet that my bridesmaid, Jennifer, made for me! I had forgot to bring it to the rehearsal, so I brought it on the day-of to get ready with.

My Mom and my Aunt bringing in my gown!

Putting on the hot pink crinoline.

The sexy pose with my crinny and garter. Everyone LOVED my crinoline. It was totally unexpected and no one had ever seen that before.

Wedding Recap #5: Rehearsal and Rehearsal Dinner

2010-07-07T13:16:00.000-07:00

Our rehearsal took place at our ceremony location the day before the wedding. The weather ended up being quite hot and humid. The weather forecast predicted that the whole afternoon was supposed to be full of rain and wind. Well the wind we definitely got, as you will be able to tell from the pictures. But the rain was a no show. Our rehearsal dinner was hosted by awesome new father-in-law and my step-mother-in-law at a local park. We kept it low key. The dinner was catered by Bird's Smokehouse BBQ. SOO delicious! We had pulled pork sandwiches with mac & cheese, and baked beans. Then to top it off, I enjoyed a delicious slice of blueberry cheese cake (the best cheese cake I've ever had in my life!). Check out everything below!

Our ceremony location

Walking down the aisle with my dad and nephew. My nephew wanted to be in on the action so my dad

carried him with us! Isn't he adorable?

Me thinking: "Whoa, this is beginning to feel a bit more real now!"

Wind-blown hair

My girls! I borrowed these photos from my bridesmaid, Jennifer, whose boyfriend photographed the whole thing. Thanks Curt and Jen!

Maid of Honor and Best Man

Bridesmaid and Groomsman/Father of the Groom

Bridesmaid and Groomsman

"The Tan Ones"

Bridesmaid and Groomsman

"The Married Ones"

Wedding Recap #4: The Programs

2010-07-07T11:50:00.000-07:00

For the programs, I decided to make paddle fan programs, and I made my own template on Microsoft Publisher. (If you want the template, please feel free to email me at futuremrsdudley55@yahoo.com for it!) With the programs, I decided to add a little something extra, so for half of the programs, I added a Wedding Day Crossword and for the other half, I added a Wedding Day Wordsearch. I made both of these puzzles through Discovery Education. Both puzzles were completely free to create and have. My husband and I then bought some pencils and cut them down to golf pencil size. We found that by buying regular pencils and cutting them down ourselves instead of buying golf pencils that it was a lot cheaper. My husband then drilled holes into the ends of the pencils and at the bottom of the program paddles. I connected the two with a satin ribbon. They were a big hit! They served as programs, fans and entertainment for our guests.

More Recaps Coming!

2010-07-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! So I know I've been MIA, but we just got back from our honeymoon in D.C., and we've had so much going on that I haven't been able to update. But that will change since I'm back! I would post another recap and how-to but my photos to upload are on a different computer. Anyways, I just wanted to let you all know that I'm still here!

Wedding Recap #3: The Centerpieces

2010-06-20T08:04:00.000-07:00

Another DIY that I chose to tackle were our centerpieces. My husband and I had bought these aluminum pails from Hobby Lobby for about $3.99 each. They were originally in bright colors, but they didn't match the wedding, so my husband spray painted them all white. We were very fortunate with our flowers because we were able to buy them wholesale. We got 50 yellow, 50 orange and 50 hot pink gerber daisies, and only spent about $1.05 per stem. Overall, I was very happy with how they all turned out. Check out our experience below!

The wholesale single-stemmed daisies

The pails

I found these glass bottles at a local glass factory in my hometown for $.50 each! I put a single gerber daisy in each, and put them on the memorial table and a couple on our sweetheart table.

My awesome bridesmaids helping me out with assembling.

The finished centerpieces. My bridesmaids though that the pails needed a pop of color, so my Maid of Honor went to Hobby Lobby and bought the sheer ribbon to tie around them.

Wedding Recap #2: The Favors

2010-06-18T08:06:00.000-07:00

For our favors, we decided to do cake balls. They were delicious! We bought 2 devils food and 2 classic white cake mixes, along with 2 milk chocolate, and 2 white cans of frosting. We basically followed the directions found on Bakerella. We made enough to alternate flavors at each place setting at the reception, and this is how they looked on the tables..

Materials Needed:

Cake mixes (We made 4 boxes of cake, which made about 130-140 cake balls.)
Frosting (We used 1 can of frosting for every 1 box of cake.)
Candy Melts (We coated the white cake in vanilla candy and the chocolate cake in chocolate candy.)
Decorations (Sprinkles, Gel, Drizzle Icing etc.)
Cookie Sheets
Parchment Paper
Any baking materials needed for baking the cake mixes (Oil, Eggs, Water etc.)
Optional: Cellophane bags
Optional: Ribbon or Zip-Ties

Directions:

Bake all of the cake mixes according the box directions. Allow all of the cake mixes to cool appropriately before the cake ball process.
Once the cakes have cooled, crumble one pan of cake into a large bowl. (This is one of the fun parts since I doubt you were allowed to do this as a kid =p). Crumble the cake evenly so that the frosting will coat better.
Add 1 can of frosting to the now-crumbled cake. Make sure to have squeaky clean hands or gloves before this next part.
Begin mixing the frosting with the crumbled cake. It will be easier to complete this step if you use your hands, and not just a spoon, but using a spoon will do the trick too. Mix until all clumps of frosting have been mixed, and the cake resembles dough.
Find a flat surface, and cover your cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Begin rolling small amounts of the cake between your hands to make a ball. The cake balls that we made were roughly 1"-1 1/2".

7. Once all the balls have been made, place the cake balls into the freezer for about 2 hours for them to set.

8. After 2 hours, melt your candy melts according to the package directions. (We melted about 1/2 of the bag at a time at about 1 minutes and 25 seconds.)

WARNING: DO NOT ADD ANY LIQUIDS TO THE CANDY MELTS BECAUSE YOUR CANDY WILL NOT MELT PROPERLY OR COAT THE CAKE BALLS EVENLY WITHOUT HARDENING TOO FAST! THIS INCLUDES FOOD COLORING.

9. When coating the cake balls in candy coating, it is best to use a spoon to coat them evenly, as well as to work with a partner. In our situation, we had one person coating each ball, while the other decorated them. They need to be decorated immediately after coating because they will dry pretty fast.

Make sure to allow the cake balls to cool in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to set again before you begin wrapping them in cellophane. They could potentially sweat.

Voila!

"My I-Do It Yourself Wedding Blog" Featured Us!

2010-06-16T19:46:00.000-07:00

Check out our feature here!

She also awarded us the "I Like The Way You Craft" Award! Thanks again so much for all the support and feedback!

Become A Fan On Facebook!

2010-06-16T11:29:00.001-07:00

Become our fan on Facebook by clicking HERE!

Wedding Recap #1: The Cake

2010-06-16T11:03:00.000-07:00

I'm planning to recap the wedding with you all as much as possible before we head out for our honeymoon on Monday. To begin my recaps, I want to share with you all of the projects and details that were done the week of the wedding. Then, I'll share our rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, getting ready, ceremony and reception. But I wanted to start these recaps off with our major FAIL of the week. My husband is a baker, and I enjoy decorating and such, so we decided to take on the task of baking and decorating our own cake.

The baking was easy-peezy..

The cake layers lay all pretty and such in my parents freezer. Oh the mayhem to come...

A few days later, we filled, crumb-coated and stacked the individual layers. Still everything was going smoothly. No issues!

If you remember previously, my husband and I made the top layer of our cake to practice..

It was so perfect! At the time!

So this time around when we began working with the fondant and stacked the layers.. it looked okay. Until.. the cake began to lean. We had put dowel rods and such between the layers to support one another, but it didn't matter. And after my dear husband had brought home all of the stuff needed to do the fondant, it had become a total waste. Check out our 50 lb bag of powdered sugar!

We decided to just buttercream the layers as smoothly as we could. We even bought these tiny jars of dye that dye buttercream frosting to match our colors. It seemed like a sure proof plan! We were up until 4:00am on the day of the wedding just trying to get this thing to look right. It was a no go. So after 3 hours of sleep, my husband went down to the bakery where he worked, and asked if there was any way possible of icing 100 cupcakes for our guests that day. They said that no matter what it took that they would get it done.

WHEW! I was so relieved that we didn't have to take our disaster of a cake to the reception hall.

My husband's boss/owner of the baker then called my husband to find out the whole story of what happened with our original cake. After much explanation, his boss said that they couldn't do the cupcakes afterall. My husband was disappointed but he understood. He then said, "You guys need a real wedding cake at your wedding." We were shocked. We felt so blessed because he saved our butts that day. On top of that, he gave it to us free of charge! That was the first time I cried on our wedding day after hearing that wonderful news. And after only about 4-5 hours of baking, crumb-coating, stacking, icing and decorating. We had our beautiful cake delivered at the reception before guests arrived by the owner himself...

My advice? Trust the professionals when it comes to completing your cake. I may have been the DIY bride, but this is one project that even I couldn't do.

Oh, and what happened to our original disaster cake you may ask? When my parents returned home from the reception, they found this...

It died.

Fell over at some point during the day. Ah, what memories we have!

Nominate Me!

2010-06-16T08:29:00.001-07:00

Love this blog? Nominate the blog for Best DIY Blog!

Click here to nominate me if you love this blog!

Thanks for all the support over these past couple of months!

Pro Pic Teasers!

2010-06-14T18:28:00.000-07:00

Our awesome photographer has already posted teasers via Facebook! Check them out below!

Married!

2010-06-14T09:43:00.000-07:00

Hello ladies! I'm back and married! I have so much to recap with you all, and I plan to over the next coming days. I wanted to take this post to show you all some non-professional pictures, and I should have some professional pictures to share tomorrow! Enjoy!

LinenTableCloth Coupon Code!

2010-06-07T17:47:00.000-07:00

The coupon code that I used for 30% off my order has since expired, however, I got a new coupon code today!

Here is what came in my email!

NOTE: You must be a registered customer, AND be logged in to your account in order to use the promotion.

Use coupon code JUNE20 during the checkout process and receive 20% off of your order total.

This offer does not apply to products in the Chair Covers, Bargain Center or Linen Accessories categories. This offer cannot be combined with any other offers/coupons/promotions, except for our Free Shipping Over $50, Free Shipping Over $100 and Free Shipping Over $150 offers. Offer is limited to available quantities ON HAND while the promotion is in effect. Rain checks are not available with this promotion.

Offer expires June 30th, 2010.

Enjoy!

New Escort Cards - Check!

2010-06-05T11:10:00.000-07:00

So my original idea of escort cards didn't work out. I decided that I wanted a different design, so I started over. I took the time to make these a while ago..

And I still wanted to use them, so this is what I did!

Whatcha think? I love them and these pictures certainly do them no justice, but once our professional photographer gets better pictures of them on wedding day, I'll be sure to share them with you all!

Menu Cards & Napkin Folding - Check!

2010-06-05T11:04:00.000-07:00

I wanted to print enough menus to sit at each place setting inside of the napkins, so I designed my menu, which looks like so..

And with the napkins, they look like this..

I bought our cloth napkins from linentablecloth.com a few months ago. I was able to use a coupon code good for 30% off the entire order (I also purchased linens as well) and since I spent more than $50, shipping was free! I got a really great deal on them.

Anyways, I took to the internet to find how to fold the napkins. If you want the napkins to fold better, I highly suggest ironing them. Iron them on a low setting at first as to ensure that you won't burn them. It took me 3 hours to iron 120 napkins, but I watched a marathon of America's Next Top Model at the same time, so it wasn't so bad.

All nicely ironed.

Here is how I folded them:

1. Lay out a flat napkin.

2. Fold the napkin in half, with the crease facing you and the open end away from you.

3. Fold the top layer of the napkin down in half.

4. Flip the entire napkin over.

5. Now fold over a portion of your napkin inward. I folded in about 4 inches.

6. Fold over again and finally once more to complete your folded napkin.

Reserved Seating Signs - Check!

2010-05-28T15:44:00.000-07:00

I showed you all my design a while ago, but I got around to finally finishing these up a few days ago. Have a look!

Toss Bouquet - Check!

2010-05-26T08:56:00.000-07:00

Making a toss bouquet was next on my list of to-do's. I plan to preserve my bouquet, so I didn't want to toss it during the bouquet toss. So I decided to just make a simple toss bouquet to throw instead. I went to Hobby Lobby last week, and all of their floral products were marked 50% off. So I bought 6 silk gerber daisies, floral tape and floral wire, and everything cost me about $8.00.

Materials Needed:

Silk flowers
Floral tape
Floral wire
Scissors/Wire cutters
Ribbon (optional)
Glue gun and glue sticks (optional)

Directions

Cut your stems to your desired length.
Begin with two silk flowers and bunch them together. Wrap them together with floral wire. You don't need a lot of wire, just enough to wrap the wire around the stems once.
Add two more flowers, and wrap again.
Add the final two flowers and wrap with floral wire again.

Sure it looks like a mess, but it'll be covered.

5. With your floral tape, begin wrapping your stems with the tape at the top and work your way down. As I was doing this, I decided to slide off the floral wire as I went along.

6. Once your stems are wrapped, choose a ribbon of your choice to wrap the stems with. Once again, begin at the top with the wrapping and work your way down. Once you reach the end, the ribbon obviously doesn't have any way of staying put unless you manually attached it. I decided to use a small dab of hot glue with my hot glue gun to make it stay put. And voila!..

New Table Numbers! - Check!

2010-05-24T12:47:00.000-07:00

I decided after some careful consideration to re-design my table numbers. I liked the idea I had before, but I kept running into different problems. So I decided to start over. Here is what I came up with..

What I decided to do was actually incorporate the numbers more into our actual pictures. I have an amazing printer, but I don't have any special programs that would allow me to add the number to the photos digitally, so I decided to do it a different way, and here is how I did them!

Materials Needed:

Colored and white cardstock
Pictures of your choice
Tape
Xacto knife or box cutter
Adhesive
Scissors

Open a Word document, and type in the numbers 0-9. Enlarge the numbers to the size of your choice. I enlarged mine to 200. Print them off on cardstock. These numbers served as my templates.
Cut the numbers out of the cardstock.
Take one of your photos, and choose where you would like to place the number. When you've decided, turn the picture over and the tape the number to the photo backwards.

If you look closely enough, you can see where I tape the #1 in the center of the picture backwards.

4. With your box cutter/Xacto knife, carve out the number with the number template as your guide.

5. Take a small piece of your colored cardstock, and tape it to the back of your photo, over the number.

Now, you may be asking yourself, "What do I do with numbers that have a more to them?" Such as a 4 or an 8. If you cut out the circles for the 8, they will end up being separate. So you will need to add these pieces separately. For example...

The 4 isn't quite finished because I had to cut the center of it out separately, and add it.

6. Lastly, add some sort of adhesive to the back of your photo and apply it to another sheet of cardstock. Have fun with this part by mixing up colors. For example, I made the #10 a yellow number, but added a bright orange sheet of cardstock to it so that the #10 would pop out more.

I'm very happy with the way they turned out, and overall, this wasn't very time consuming at all. I made 15 numbers, and it roughly took me about 2 hours to complete them all.

Day Of Timeline - Check!

2010-05-18T20:54:00.000-07:00

Boy, am I glad this is done! I knew that I needed to just make myself sit down and figure out the entire day. It took me about 4-5 hours to figure everything out and create my timeline, but you'll see why! Being the person that I am, I like to be creative and do things differently. So here is what I did:

I love it! I found the inspiration for it on The Knot. I made this in Microsoft Publisher, my new best friend.

Water Bottle Labels - Check! (Finally!)

2010-05-13T15:42:00.000-07:00

I have actually been working on these for a while, and have been trying out alternate ways of how I want to make them. In the end, I decided to purchase 30 sheets of Weatherproof Matte Inkjet labels from OnlineLabels.com. I ordered the 8" x 2.5" labels and four labels came on one sheet. Overall, the labels are great and when I printed on them, the printing came out very even and quite nice! Here are my labels!

Overall, I wanted to keep them fairly simple and clean looking. I also don't want to use a ton of ink to print them, so I just kept them fairly simple. I tried to print one label with one of our engagement photos on it, but the paper didn't hold the picture very well.

I had tried using different templates for these puppies, but since I decided to order the labels, I had to make a new template entirely so that my document would line up properly with the labels. If anyone is interested in my template, please feel free to email me anytime!

Here is my email where I can be reached: futuremrsdudley55@yahoo.com

Inspiration Board: "The Bride"

2010-05-12T19:51:00.001-07:00

Here is my bridal look for wedding day..

Reserved Seating Signs - Work In Progress

2010-05-12T14:19:00.000-07:00

I want to have the first row of our ceremony reserved for parents and grandparents, so I wanted to achieve this by making reserved seating signs. Here is the design that I've come up with..

I wanted to keep them relatively simple, but I also plan to add colored cardstock to them and a ribbon to tie them to the chairs.

Escort Card Table Centerpieces Finished!

2010-05-12T12:58:00.000-07:00

Well, it is May 12th, which means I have exactly one month left to get all of my projects done. The last few weeks have been pretty busy with graduation, finals, working more hours at work etc. But now, I have a lot more time to dedicate towards finishing up everything! Like today, I finished off all three of my escort card centerpieces. Take a look!

If case anyone is wondering about these, I used 6" styrofoam balls for my pomanders. I wanted to make them slightly larger than my pomanders that I'm using to line the aisle with. I bought the beads from Hobby Lobby, and put them on fishing line. Adhering the beaded strand to the ball was the toughest part. I used hot glue, and had to make a small hole in the ball, then I filled the hole with hot glue. Then with my bead strand, I took the top bead and plugged the hot glued hole with it. Since the bead strand was pretty heavy, I had to hold it in place for several minutes until the hot glue finally dried entirely. Then, I place the ball on to the vase with the bead strand hanging down, and I let it hang for a while to see if it was going to come off or not, but it never did! Anyways, overall these bad boys were really simple to make and they'll add a little something extra to the escort card table!

Any Ideas?

2010-05-04T11:55:00.000-07:00

Hello! Right now, I am currently working on my table numbers and I will be sharing my tutorial this week! Now I ask you all, what are some DIY projects that you are working on currently? Anything you would like to see me try to tackle? I love hearing about new ideas for the wedding, and I want to make it as unique as possible. So feel free to give me some suggestions/ideas!

Finished Memorial Candles

2010-04-26T12:45:00.000-07:00

I received the rest of the pictures that I needed to complete my memorial candles, so I thought I would share them with you all. I believe that this will be such a wonderful way to honor our decreased loved ones and really make them apart of our day. =)

Invitations are DONE!

2010-04-24T06:52:00.000-07:00

I'm so relieved that these are finally done. I truly couldn't be any happier with them, and I absolutely love them. My fiance and I had an invitation assembling session yesterday for roughly 3 hours, and then we made a trip to the post office to send them off!

Ready to be mailed! YAY!

Wrap-Around Labels - Check!

2010-04-24T06:48:00.000-07:00

These were super easy to complete. I used another handy-dandy Xyron machine, except a smaller one. It is the 1.5" Xyron machine and it can typically be found for less than $10 (even cheaper if your sign up for Hobby Lobby weekly emails and use a 40% off coupon).

Making these was quite simple, and here is how I did it..

Directions:

Open up an 11" x 8.5" document in Microsoft Publisher.
My invitation envelopes measured at 5.25" x 7.25". Insert a text box (this will be the box that indicates the label as a whole.) I made the label 7.25" inches in length since it would still cover a majority of the front of the envelope and stll left some label to wrap-around to the back.
Since my Xyron machine can make stickers up to 1.5", I decided to make my label 1.5" in height. Overall, my label measured at 7.25" x 1.5", and this is what my text box was sized to.
Insert a text box where your guests address will be, and insert a textbox where your return address will be. The return address portion should be on the far left and will be the portion of your label that get folded around to the back of your envelope.
Insert any pictures, wallpaper, designs that you wish.
Type in your return address, and begin typing in your guests address. I was able to fit 6 wrap-around labels onto an 11" x 8.5" document. It will be easier to make the labels if you "group" together your items in Publisher. You can do this by pushing "Ctrl" on your keyboard, then begin clicking on your items in your label. They will all become highlighted and then you will be given the option to "Group."
I printed them off and cut them out with my paper cutter. Then, I sent them through my Xyron machine.

And here is what they looked like when added to an envelope..

Belly Bands - Check!

2010-04-24T06:27:00.000-07:00

FINALLY! I finished these little suckers. And here they are!

Now for my directions..

Materials Needed:

Ribbon
Xyron Machine or some type of adhesive
Tape
Cardstock
An invitation
Scissors

Directions for Belly-Bands

Cut your ribbon strips to the size desired to fit around your entire invitation shortways. Mine measured at 5.25", so I cut my strips to 5".

2. Wrap tape around the ends of your ribbon.

3. Place the ribbon underneath your invitation evenly.

4. Place a piece of your already measured out cardstock onto the center of your invite and pull one end of your ribbon onto the cardstock. Tape the ribbon to your cardstock.

5. Tape the other end of your ribbon onto your cardstock.

6. Remove the sticker paper from the back of your monogramed cardstock and position it on the taped cardstock.

Part One of the Belly Bands

2010-04-18T15:22:00.000-07:00

I finally began my belly bands today. I had been putting them off because I lacked any sense of motivation, but I want to get these invites out by Wednesday, so I kicked my butt into gear! Do you own a Xyron machine? If not, I highly recommend them because they're awesome. It is helping me out tremendously in assembling my belly bands and you'll see why in my next entry. Anyways, check out my progress!

A here's a thumbs up for a job well done! Now, I am off to eat some Taco Bell!

Photo Stamps!

2010-04-10T14:14:00.000-07:00

Finally! A new post! This isn't so much a DIY project since all I really did was just upload a photo, but none the less, I present to you all.. my envelope photo stamps!

Snapfish was having this awesome sale on photo stamps a few days ago, and I was able to get these stamps for $.35 cents each (Thanks Ashley!) after all of the discounts came through. Love them!.

Venue Issues!

2010-04-01T11:23:00.000-07:00

Ughh.. my least favorite part about wedding planning is when things don't work out the way they're supposed to. I've been wanting to share more DIY projects with you all, but we hit a major snafu in our planning this past Monday and I've been too stressed out to work on anything. Basically what happened was..

Our original venue was going to be used for both the ceremony and the reception. When we booked them, they informed us of an approved list of caterers that they provide to all of their couples, however if we weren't able to use any of them or if we just wanted to use someone else, we could. We just had to have them approved and have the restaurant/catering company fax their proper paperwork over to our venue. Awesome. No problem right? Well this past Monday, I decided to email the Events Coordinator at our venue to check in on things and to see if our caterer that we had booked had contacted her yet. She replies with this.. "In the Fall, we sent out an email or letter to all of our 2010 brides, letting them know about our new catering policy. The approved caterers on our new list are the only caterers we allow to cater here now." WHAT?! I never received an email or a letter, and I sent her an email telling her this. This hasn't been the first time that our venue had done something like this and to be frank, they have been awful to work with. So basically, the caterer that we booked and paid a deposit for already was no longer usable.

That was the last straw for me. My fiance was very upset. It wouldn't have been such a big deal if we hadn't found such an awesome caterer that fit into our budget wonderfully, and if the approved caterers list had been condensed since we received our copy of it at our contract signing. Plus, 2 of the caterers are already booked, and 1 of them has a conference on our wedding day. So that basically left us with having to use our venue as our caterer at roughly $21.99-$25.99 per plate on top of a 18% gratuity. Not budget friendly at all. So I was talking to my mom and my older brother about our dilemma, and my brother says, "A friend of mine is the owner of a local reception banquet hall here in town. I could give him a call and see what he could do." Well as luck would have it, the couple that had June 12 booked at his reception hall had canceled their wedding because they broke up that very day about 4 hours prior. So we arranged to go see it the following day (Tuesday). The owner was such an awesome guy, and VERY accommodating. He understood our issue and since he knew my brother, he knocked off $1000 of his Platinum Package deal, which include a DJ, linens, a caterer, day before set-up, next day accommodations, free security, dressing rooms.. I could go on and on. Plus the banquet was sooo nice! Way nicer than what we had booked for our reception already. So my fiance and I booked it.

Now we were at 2 reception venues, 1 ceremony site, 2 DJ's, and 2 caterer's. Oh boy. So yesterday afternoon, my fiance and I decided to perform negotiations and damage control. Basically we still wanted to be married outside, which we still had at our orignal venue. First, I took care of our originla DJ. We never signed a contract with him or gave him a deposit, so that would be the easiest to cancel first. He totally understood our situation, and we ended things on great terms. Now between our prevous caterer and our original venue, my fiance and I decided to each take one. I decided to call the venue, and he took the caterer. We never signed a contract with the caterer, but we did give him a $150 deposit. As luck would have it, he was awesome about the situation as well, and my fiance drove over there today to retrieve our $150. Score! I contacted the supervisor at my original venue. Basically the cost breakdown was as follows: The outdoor ceremony garden cost $500, and the indoor reception room was $400 to rent. So when we signed the contract, we were required to put down half ($450).

I called up the supervisor, and basically just told her due to what we learned on Monday that we decided to switch to a new reception venue since it was a lot cheaper (and a lot nicer, but she didn't need to know that =)). Then, I told her that I was hoping we could negotiate us just using the outdoor ceremony site, and to cancel the indoor reception room. She followed up with, "So you've probably paid $450 already correct?" I told her yes, and I waited for her answer. A few moments later, she replied, "Sure! That is no problem at all. We won't charge you for cancelling the room." What!? Seriously?! No penalty? Nothing? In our contract, it states that if we cancel a site on their property with more than 31 days before the wedding that we would be required to still pay half of the room rental's fee, which would have been $200 since the indoor reception room rents for $400. But she was very nice and understood how the caterer situation kind of put us in a tough position. So she just simply asked if she would be allowed to release the indoor reception room for another couple to rent, and I told her absolutely, and she told us that we just owe $50 to cover the remaining cost to rent the outdoor ceremony space, as well as the rental fee of the chairs that we will need (which we knew about from the beginning.)

So in the end.. everything has worked out!! I couldn't be happier. Now back to those invitations..

Invitation Re-Design!

2010-03-27T12:58:00.000-07:00

So last week, I was on Excel checking out my guest list for the wedding. I had inserted a formula a while back to count up how many invitations that I needed to make. The total came out to be 39 invitations total. So I made 39 invitations. Well last week, I decided to reprint my guest list and count up by hand how many invites I needed, and I actually need 58 invitations. CRAP. I should have done it that way from the beginning and I still have no idea how Excel came up with 39 invites. So basically, earlier this week, I needed to get started on embossing 20 or so more invites. I was doing them, and was about to start my 5th one when I caught myself looking at them, and I was unhappy. I want to be proud and happy about our invitations. I know they're just going to be thrown away by our guests, but I want to keep a few of them and frame them. I want to look at them 10, 20, 30 years from now, and still love them. So on Wednesday of this week, my fiance and I went out to Hobby Lobby in search of some inspiration. Some things we wanted to keep the same still..

What we kept the same:

The hot pink invitation envelope
The hot pink RSVP envelope
The sand metallic pocketfolds

My fiance actually ended up finding our new inspiration for the invites, which was a flower border paper punch. And now I present, our new invitations!

Honestly, these pictures do them absolutely no justice whatsoever. But in person, they are absolutely gorgeous and I am so happy with them! I feel like this huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders because down deep, I still didn't want to use the other invites, but since I put some much time, money and effort into them.. I was just going to settle. My advice: DON'T SETTLE! Take pride in your work, and be happy with your results. You don't want to have any regrets about your projects. So how do you like them!?

PS. I love how our new paper punch incorporates flowers that are almost identical to the fondant flowers that we are going to create for our cake!

Made a Huge Decision Today..

2010-03-24T16:19:00.000-07:00

After embossing and assembling about 70% of our invites, I have made the decision to change them. I basically stuck with them this long because I had put so much work in them, but when I looked at them and thought about them, I wasn't happy at all. Sure, they're just going to be thrown away, but I want to be happy and proud of them. Plus, I plan to keep a few of them for a shadow box project after the wedding, and I want to look back at them years from now and still love them. So my fiance and I just spent the past hour in Hobby Lobby looking for inspiration, and my fiance found something that we both love. Maybe now I will actually be happy and excited to complete our invitations instead of just staring at what we have now and not wanting to finish them at all. I'll have a mock-up to show you this weekend!

Revision of the Table Numbers.. Check!

2010-03-22T13:16:00.000-07:00

My fiance found these adorable photo holders at Hobby Lobby marked 40% of $1.67, and since we loved them, I knew that my original table numbers weren't going to work as well. Here is what we plan to do now!

It is kind of hard to tell, but what I actually did was enlarge some numbers in a Word document to 200 and print them off. then I took some scissors and cut out the numbers. Then, I printed off one of our engagement pictures. I taped the number backwards on the back of the photo, and cut around it with a box cutter. Then, I taped a small piece of orange cardstock behind it then glued the whole thing to a piece of hot pink cardstock. I will post actual directions once I get started on making more of them!

In this last one, you can kind of see where the photo is separate from the orange paper and where I cut.

Escort Card Table Centerpieces - Check!

2010-03-22T13:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a pretty low key Sunday, so I took the time to complete my first of three escort card table centerpieces. I plan to make one more hot pink one and an orange one. Have a look!

And here is my dog, Liberty, begging me to stop with all the wedding stuff and pay attention to her..

Bride's Bracelet - Check!

2010-03-22T13:05:00.000-07:00

I had some left over glass pearls after making the pearl necklaces for my bridesmaids, and I wasn't looking to spend a lot of money on something that I would only wear for one day, especially since I never wear bracelets. I'm not wearing a necklace for the wedding and I bought my beautiful earrings a while back, but I thought about wearing possibly a bracelet to compliment them. But anyways, enough jibber jabber.. here is my final product!

It is just really simple, and I matched it with my real pearl earrings and you can't even tell a difference. I'm excited to wear it!

Finally! Centerpiece Mock-up .. Sort Of

2010-03-22T13:00:00.000-07:00

So after my original centerpiece mock-up fiasco, my mom and I went in search of new ideas and inspiration. We finally found it at Hobby Lobby. They are taller/slimmer aluminum pails. We had to buy them in assorted colors since they didn't have enough of one single color, but that's no problem since my fiance was going to paint them white for me anyway. But here is the pail after it was painted..

The inside of them haven't been painted yet, but in due time!

Since the "theme" of our wedding is revolved around bright colors and gerbera daisies, I loved how these had incorporated flowers around of the rim to kind of "fit" our theme.

Here is a semi-mock-up of a centerpiece.. keep in mind that it still needs a lot of work!

This only has 6 daisies in it right now, but our final products will have at least 9 in them with 3 orange, 3 hot pink and 3 yellow. Also I'm thinking about sitting them on top of our cloth napkins and with some votives or colored stones sprinkled around it. I plan to fill the pails with colored stones to hide the flower foam at the bottom of it.

I will have a full centerpiece mock-up to post in a few weeks!

Cake Trial No. 1

2010-03-15T13:07:00.000-07:00

My fiance and I just completed our first cake trial. Since we are on a tight budget, we have decided to bake and decorate the cake on our own. We baked it yesterday and let it sit overnight in the freezer to harden some. We didn't buy enough cake mix, so our layer is only half the size it should be, but we know for next time! This was our first time using fondant so that was definitely an experience. I LOVE to watch cake shows with Amazing Wedding Cakes, The Cake Boss and Ace of Cakes being some of my favorites. So I wasn't completely clueless as to what to do. I definitely need to practice some more though.

But anyways, without any further ado, here is our first cake trial...!

So not too terrible right? I think we did pretty darn good for our first time!

Just a reminder, here is the look we are going for..

I think we are well on our way there! What do you think?

Monogram Table Runner - Check!

2010-03-15T10:13:00.000-07:00

Boy am I glad this one is done. It took roughly 8-9 hours to complete. Anyways.. here it is! (The blurred out portions are where our names are displayed.)

I decided to add some artificial daisies to the monogram to give it some more dimension, and I added those with hot glue.

Materials Needed:

Table Runner (I ordered mine from linentablecloth.com and it is roughly 38" wide.)
Fabric Paint
Paintbrush (I used a small thin paintbrush to make the lines a lot cleaner.)
Enlarged Monogram (I got our monogram blow up at Kinko's for $3.00.)
Pencil
Wax Paper
Tape

Directions:

1. Start with a large flat surface and tape your enlarged monogram down onto the surface.

2. Lay your table runner over the enlarged monogram, and with a pencil, trace the monogram onto your runner. Don't press the pencil into the runner too hard, but enough so you can see where to paint. You don't want pencil lines to show on your final product.

3. Fold back your runner, and tape wax paper over your flat surface. You'll want to do this because the paint will leak through the runner and attach to the surface. Wax paper will prevent this from happening and will easily release the dried on paint.

4. Place your runner back over the wax paper area, and begin painting. I STRONGLY urge that you use fabric paint because it won't bleed, and the end result will look a lot better.Also, depending on your monogram, depends on how long it will take you to paint the entire runner. I had four colors in mine, and had to take breaks in between the colors to let them dry. Also mine involves many small details, so that also made the process longer.

Overall, I very happy with it. I can't wait to display it over our gift table at the reception. I also plan to keep it and turn it into a piece of wall art after the wedding is over!

Centerpiece Nightmare

2010-03-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

Well I didn't get as much done over Spring Break as I would have liked. I attempted to do our centerpiece mock-up last Tuesday night. Boy was that fun!...NOT. If you remember, the centerpiece that I wanted to do consisted of a bubble bowl vase and fruit slices. I couldn't get it the way that I wanted AT ALL. I was so disappointed, and I ended up cutting my finger pretty badly during the process, so I gave up on it. So all day last Saturday, my mom and I went in search of a new vase for the centerpieces. Well we came up short until we got to my favorite store, Hobby Lobby. They didn't have any vases that I wanted, but when I went back to this 40% off section of Spring items, I found these elongated aluminum pails for sale. They're in assorted colors, but I really liked them, so my fiance spray painted a sample of one white for me, and it is absolutely perfect. So I was able to exchange all of the bubble vases that I had bought for these aluminum pails at no additional charge. We need to spray a second coat of paint on it still, otherwise I would have had a picture to show you all, but since it was wet and really cold yesterday, the paint wouldn't dry. So we will hopefully be able to try again today! At some point today, I should be able to share with you all my NEW centerpiece mock-up, as well as my painted table runner monogram that I finally finished. Stay tuned!

Memorial Candles - Check!

2010-03-10T08:06:00.000-08:00

This is still a work in progress since I haven't received photos of my fiance's deceased loved ones yet. So the only one I could complete was my grandmother's memorial candle right now, and I think it turned out beautifully. I wanted to do something differently to honor our loved ones that are no longer with us instead of the usual paragraph in the program, so I sought out different inspiration, and I definitely found it. As our guests enter the reception, they will be faced with our escort card table to their left and the memorial table to the right. Anyways.. here it is!

This photo certainly does it no justice. But what I did was buy a 6 1/2" x 10 1/2" vase, and I created a 6 1/2 x 11 document in Microsoft Publisher. I inserted my grandmother's photo, then inserted three separate text boxes. In the first text box, I wrote, "In Loving Memory Of,", the second, "Her Name," and the third, "Grandmother of the Bride." Then I inserted a fourth and final text box that lined the entire document, and then turned it a light gray color. I did this so that I would know where my cutting points were once I printed it off. I printed it off, cut it to size, wrapped it around the vase and held it will tape. Then, I used some thin satin ribbon to line the edges of the vase. I used my hot glue gun to make it stay. It was really simple, and easy to do overall. It probably took me a total of 20 minutes to do from start to finish. On wedding day, I plan to insert a small candle into the vase and light it, so that the photo and words will illuminate.

I found this DIY to be very sentimental to me, and I'm glad to have done it. I believe that it will definitely honor our deceased loved ones and truly make them apart of our special day more.

My Table Runner Monogram - Still A Work In Progress

2010-03-10T07:52:00.000-08:00

Well I had a minor snafu with my painting our monogram onto the table runner yesterday. Everything was going so well! I had traced it on, and it looked great, but then it came to painting. I used acrylic paint, which I thought would work wonderfully... nope! The paint ended up bleeding beyond the lines of my monogram, and it just looked awful. I took some pictures to show you..

EEK!

So today is a new day, and I went out to Hobby Lobby yesterday and purchased some fabric paint. Now, I'm just going to use the opposite side of this runner, and my messed up monogram side will be against the wall on wedding day so no one will even notice! Hopefully I'll have pictures up later on to show you all how it turns out this time!

Thank You Parasol - Check!

2010-03-08T09:52:00.000-08:00

I absolutely fell in love with this next project, and constantly argued with myself back and forth about doing it or not. I was worried about whether I could do it or not, or if I would mess it up! But I decided to give it try and hope for the best. And here it is.. !

I did it! YAY! Haha now onto my directions for making one of these bad boys for yourself!

Materials Needed:

White Parasol - The one I bought is 32" in diameter.
Black Acrylic Paint
Small Paintbrush
Black Sharpie - I used a fine tip sharpie pen.
Pencil
Scissors/Exact-o Knife
Cardstock
Tape

Directions:

1. Create a 25x25 document in Microsoft Publisher. Insert two text boxes, one for each word.

2. In the text boxes, write "Thank" in one, and "You" in another. Then, enlarge the text to 700 and bold it. Then, choose which font you would like to use. I wanted to keep the same script for the parasol that I have used on all of my other wedding stationary, which is Feel Script. You can use one text box if you prefer, but I found that by having them separated, I could make the words fit better into the document.

3. Print off your document, and organize it like a puzzle. As you can see, I turned my "You" upside down in the document to make it fit better.

4 . Now comes the time consuming part, cut out all of your letters and tape together the portions that became separated when printed.

5. Open your parasol, and lightly tape the stencil onto your parasol.

6. Using your pencil. trace the stencil onto your parasol. Don't press too hard, as to not rip the parasol.

7. Using your sharpie, trace over your pencil. I used a Sharpie fine-point pen because I found that a thicker Sharpie has a larger tip and smears a lot more than the Sharpie pen.

8. With your black paint and small paintbrush, paint the letters. If you mess up a little, don't fret! You can fill in some minor odds and ends with your Sharpie.

Pearl Necklaces for Bridesmaids - Check!

2010-03-05T13:26:00.000-08:00

I saw this idea over and over again on The Knot, so I decided to give it a try because I liked them! The ones that I found being done had a satin ribbon attached to them, but after some thought, I decided not to use the ribbon and used regular necklace clasps.

Materials Needed:

Bead Wire
8mm Glass Pearl Beads
Crimp Pliers
Crimp Beads
Necklace Clasps

What I Used..

Directions:

Measure out 24 inches of your bead wire, and 55 glass pearl beads. The pearls that I bought only came in sets of 50 glass pearl beads, so I bought an extra pack to add the additional 5 beads. I wanted to make the necklaces a tad bit longer since at 50 beads, they were more choker-style necklaces.
Add 1 crimp bead, then add one side of the necklace clasp.

3. Loop the end of the bead wire back through the crimp bead a second time to secure the necklace clasp from slipping off.

4. Close the gap that the loop created between the clasp and the crimp bead. Then using your crimp pliers, crimp your bead closed.

5. Now string 55 glass pearl beads onto your bead wire.

6. Once all of the pearl beads are added, repeat steps 2-4 to secure the loose end.

All done!

These weren't time-consuming AT ALL. It took me about an hour to complete 4 of them. I hope that my bridesmaids like them as much as I do!

Stay Tuned For These Up and Coming DIY Projects!

2010-02-27T06:18:00.000-08:00

With Spring Break quickly approaching, I have an entire week to dedicate to DIY projects for the wedding. I will be uploading my templates and/or directions for all those interested in pursuing of these projects themselves! Here is my list of DIY for Spring Break starting March 8:

Water Bottle Labels
Thank You Parasol
Hand-Painted Logo on a Table Runner (Thanks for the awesome idea, Ashley aka Bride on a Budget!)
Belly Bands for Pocketfold Invites
Centerpiece Mock-Up

Stay tuned!

Seeking Ideas!

2010-02-27T06:12:00.000-08:00

Hello DIY brides! I recently purchased a Women's Short-Sleeve Fleece Zip Hoodie from Old Navy in white with the intention of possibly putting something on the back of it or left-pocket area for the wedding. IT WAS ONLY $10! Here is what I bought:

Any suggestions as to what I should have put on it? Or I could put nothing on it. Let me know what you think!

Possibilities So Far:

Mrs. Dudley Est. 2010
Future Mrs. Dudley
Soon To Be Mrs. Dudley
Bride (on the back or on the left-pocket area)
Nothing!

Also if you're interested in purchasing one of these hoodies for yourself for your wedding day Click here! Again it was only $10 so hurry up and order one if you're interested!

Invitation Inserts - Check!

2010-02-21T12:53:00.000-08:00

So I've finally marked off another DIY on my To-Do list, and this one has been a major pain! It has mostly been a pain because of me and my obsessive-compulsive nature, as well as my indecisiveness. But after messing around with these for about 3 or 4 months now, I've finally figured out how I want to have them look! Since our wedding colors are hot pink and tangerine, I wanted to incorporate both colors into our invites, and so far I had only used hot pink. So, why not use the tangerine in the inserts?! Here they are:

I wanted them to have a layered look, as well as incorporate our tangerine color, and I think I pulled it off! Another thing that I found to be so difficult was the design/look of the inserts. I LOVE my Upsy Daisy stamp design and I wanted to incorporate it somehow. However, the stamp is rather large and the inserts are smaller. So I was able to use my embossing ink from my embossing project, and produce a watermark on my inserts like so..

I love how they turned out! No more stressing over these! Well at least at far as design =) I didn't put a watermark on my directions insert since it has such a large map on it already. I'm really proud of this map too. I worked quite a few hours on it, and it came out great. Here is how I made the map..

Directions on Making a Map:

Using Google Map, type in the location of your wedding location(s). Zoom in.
Press the "Print Scrn" button on your keyboard to copy your image.
Open Microsoft Powerpoint, and paste your image on to a slide.
Insert lines, images etc., and outline the streets, landmarks, rivers and locations of significance that will help your guests find your location. I included a river, a park, and a landmark on mine to help.
Label accordingly. Maybe even make a Key.
Now with your outlines, labels and images in place, click on the pasted Google map, and delete it. You'll be left with your map.

Table Numbers - Check!

2010-02-09T06:38:00.000-08:00

I'm so proud of these! They came out really well and now they're ready for their close-up!

I made them on Microsoft Publisher and printed them on photo paper.

Escort Cards - Check!

2010-02-08T08:59:00.000-08:00

I knew I wanted to do something different than the traditional tent-shaped escort cards and being a DIY girl, I was going to make that happen! I found some mini envelopes on a website recently and then it clicked! I decided that I wanted my escort cards to be credit-card sized envelopes and the table number would be printed on a card on the inside. I thought about buying the mini envelopes on the website, but then I caught myself.. I decided to make them myself! So I took to Google and searched, "Free mini envelope templates." A TON of things popped up, and different shapes, but I eventually found what I was looking for. This is the template that I used: Template I printed it on cardstock, cut it out and voila! I had my template.

Here is my template, after it had been folded:

So here is what I did..
Materials Needed:

Template
Cardstock
Bone folder
Adhesive (I used mounting squares, but you can use pretty much anything)
Scissors

I traced the template onto my large sheets of cardstock.

2. After you have traced the amount of envelopes that you need, cut them all out.

3. Using your bone folder, fold in the side and the bottom flaps.

4. If you're using the mounting square, take your scissors and cut each square that you're using in half.

5. Place the now-cut mounted squares onto the sides of the bottom flap so that it will adhere to the side flaps.

6. Fold the bottom flap and press it into the side flaps.

7. Using the bone folder, fold down the top flap to complete the look of your envelope.

After I was all done make the envelope itself, I wanted to added a little something extra to it, so I bought a daisy-shape paper cutter and made my own daisies to add to the front of the envelopes! Check it out below!

I love them!

I would like to introduce my partner-in-crime for this whole DIY madness, I want to introduce to you.. The Big Mistake!

I hope you enjoy making these as much as I did!

New DIY in the Works

2010-01-31T15:35:00.000-08:00

I haven't officially started on this next DIY, but my fiance and I have decided to try and take on the task of baking and decorating our own wedding cake. My fiance is a baker and we have been talking for months now about trying to tackle decorating cakes. So starting tomorrow, we are heading to Hobby Lobby and picking up the materials needed to do a miniature cake mock-up. I'M SO EXCITED!! We have a baker booked right now, but we never signed a contract with her, so if we were to cancel it wouldn't be an issue. We wouldn't have thought about doing this, but our baker called yesterday and invited us to come to the Bridal Expo in my hometown that I had no idea was going on today. She said she airbrushed daisies onto a white cake for us to come look at and see if we liked the look of it. Here is what we want our cake to look like..

We want her to use fondant for the flowers, but she insisted that we come look at her "stenciled" work. Her stenciled work consisted of her taking a flower cookie cutter, holding it up to the cake and airbrushing inside the cutter on the cake. To be honest, it looked awful. She could tell we weren't happy with it. It looked splotchy and runny. So I told her we want fondant instead. I asked if she was going to use the same flower cookie cutter for that too and she said yes. We weren't crazy about the cookie cutter at all. It looked like a wavy funky flower stolen from the 1960's, and not modern at all, like we want. So chances are if things go well with our mock-up, we are going to cancel our baker and do it ourselves. I'll be sure to post pictures as soon as we finish our mini mock-up! Wish us luck!

Not A DIY.. But Wanted To Share!

2010-01-27T18:27:00.000-08:00

My fiance and I decided to walk around our mall today since we were both pretty bored. While in Macy's, we ended up finding my earrings for the wedding! They were regularly $300, and I got them for $135!

Emboss Invites - Check!

2010-01-18T14:42:00.000-08:00

Hello! With having MLK Day off from school and work, I decided to try my hand at another DIY project. My invites are without a doubt my biggest DIY because I have so much I want to do with them. I printed them all and cut them all with my brand new paper cutter (which rocks btw!), and now wanted to emboss them with a stamp design. I looked and looked online for months for potential ideas of what to add to our invites to dress them up a little, but since they're hot pink, we didn't have a lot of options. That was until, I learned about embossing. To be honest, I was pretty nervous to attempt it, but after a few months of trial and error, I was finally ready to tackle our invites. Now I want to share with you how to heat emboss!

Materials Needed:

Paper/Cardstock
Embossing powder
Embossing ink pad
Heat gun
Rubber stamp
Embossing buddy (optional)
Stamp-A-Ma-Jig (optional)
Miniature paint brush/duster

1. Getting started, you want to start out with your cardstock on a flat surface.

2. Optional Step: With your embossing buddy, rub the area where you place to emboss. I found the embossing buddy to be very beneficial because its purpose is to keep the embossing powder from sticking anywhere else other than on the embossing ink.

3. Collect your stamp and your embossing ink. Tip: The embossing ink will work best if left upside down when not in use.

4. Apply the embossing ink to the stamp.

5. Optional Step: Using your Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, line the cardstock/paper up and place the stamp inside the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig. I found this tool to be very helpful since I was able to line up the stamp perfectly each time.

6. Press the stamp on the cardstock/paper.

7. Pour the embossing powder onto your image.

8. Spread the powder out with your finger to cover the entire image.

9. Shake off any excess powder into a container.

10. Optional Step: To remove any left-over powder and to clean up your image, use a small paintbrush or duster to remove any powder not wanted. Once removed, blow off any powder.

11. Once you have your image the way you want, turn on your heat gun and heat the stamped image. Once the heat gun is fully warmed up, the powder will begin melting and rising.

12. All done! Pat yourself on the back for a job well done!

Embossing is such a great additive to add a little extra flavor to any paper project that you are working on. Just make sure to practice with your stamp and the technique plenty before jumping into embossing any invites, programs etc.

WARNING: Your working area may look like this while working. Big mess!

Centerpieces.. Changed my mind!

2010-01-13T13:19:00.000-08:00

So I know I blogged earlier about how I want my centerpieces to look, but I have changed my mind and made my final decision! I want to incorporate my tissue paper flowers that I've been making for pomanders a lot more, so here is what I've decided to do:

These will be my escort card table's centerpieces..

Now these vases are a tad bit taller than what I plan on using, and I bought similar looking strings of beads like this black one except I bought them in my colors. This is also another way that I can incorporate my tissue paper flowers. I can't wait to show everyone how they turn out!

Now, for my reception centerpieces. All I've know for sure is that I want to incorporate fruit and gerber daisies, but I've googled and searched until my face turned blue.. and all I can say is that.. I FOUND IT! I've found exactly what I want to do and here is it:

I found these bubble bowl vases (8 inches) at Hobby Lobby. They were $5.99/each, but they were 50% off! So I was able to buy 15 of these for $3.00/each. WOO HOO! Now for how I plan to incorporate my tissue paper flowers.. another thing I've been doing is researching wholesale flowers online for months and I've found my daisies, but now I need to find mums like the green ones shown in the photo. Well after some thought, I realized that I can make these myself out of tissue paper and they will look just to same. If you've seen my tissue paper pomander tutorial, then you've seen how large the flowers turn out. I plan to cut the size in half for the centerpieces. You'll see what I mean when I do my first trial! Which will be VERY SOON! STAY TUNED!

Envelope Liners - Check!

2010-01-06T14:59:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited to share this DIY with everyone! As you previously saw in one of my posts, I wanted to line our invitation envelopes with one of our engagement pictures and here is how they turned out!

I absolutely love the way that they turned out. I inserted the photo into Microsoft Word and enlarged it to the width of the template that I made. This photo that I took of it certainly doesn't do it any justice! It looks much better in person!

Now for my instructions for making these!

Materials Needed:

A heavy piece of cardstock, plastic, cardboard
One of your envelopes
Glue stick (or some kind of adhesive)
Ruler
Pencil
Scissors

Instructions:

You'll need a heavy piece of cardstock, plastic, cardboard etc. to make your template since you will be tracing around it many times in the future. I chose to use 110 lb. cardstock. You'll also need one of your envelopes to begin your template.

2. I began by lining up my envelopes with the piece of cardstock in one of it's corners (less cutting!).

3. Trace the envelope onto the piece of cardstock.

4. Next, you'll want to measure how wide the adhesive portion of your envelope flap is. You want to do this to determine how much to cut off your template, otherwise you'll overlap the adhesive on the envelope flap and won't be able to seal your envelopes once finished. For me, it measured 1 cm.

5. From your now traced line on your cardstock, measure that width inward on your template and mark it with your pencil. Continue to do this along the sides. I did about three marks on each side.

(You can kind of see my marks here.)

6. Place your envelope on top of your cardstock at the marks that you just made and trace the envelope flap again.

7. Cut out your template. Cut on your SECOND traced line.

8. At this point when I tried to put the template into the envelope itself, it wouldn't on the side very well, so I decided to cut off 1 cm on each side of the template.

9. Insert your newly made template into your envelope to see how it measure up and make any adjustments as needed. For me, I decided to fold my template in half vertically to make sure they lined up evenly. There were a few places where I decided to cut to little more off to make sure the sides were even.

VOILA!

My Upcoming Projects

2010-01-05T07:23:00.000-08:00

So while I'm in the works of some new projects, I wanted to share with you my inspiration for my future projects!

How cute are these? I CANNOT wait to get started on this project. I plan to type up some directions for anyone interested in completing this DIY. I will be starting on this in the next couple of day so it won't be long!

I want to utilize my pomanders in more than one area of the wedding, so I want to put these (in my colors) on our escort card table to give it a little height.

I love these for our escort cards. I'm the type of person that wants to go beyond the norm and do things that people haven't seen, especially since all of the weddings we've been to have been very traditional and very much the same. So small details like these will make our wedding more unique.

I found this idea on The Knot's Wedding Obsession Blog. This would serve an entertainment piece at the reception so that guests can get a better idea of our history together.

This is one of the first DIY projects that I found when I first began idea shopping for the wedding. I want to try and make my table numbers very similar to these and also put on the bottom a little fact about us.

I can't wait to get started and share my projects with you!

The Paddle Program Saga Continues

2010-01-01T08:34:00.000-08:00

So my latest project has been my paddle programs. I've created one side of my programs and I am currently working on the second half. I'll be sure to post pictures once I'm done. But until that time, I want to share the website that I'm using to create my programs. Here is the website that I found my template for creating my programs: Program Templates If you scroll half way down, you will see find the paddle program templates! I'm using the "Classy Program" templates. If you're interested in doing program fans, but don't want to do the paddle fans, there are also Panel Fan Program templates if you scroll all the way back up to the top!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T08:28:00.000-08:00

Happy 2010! Here's wishing everyone a wonderful 2010!

Guest Book - Check!

2009-12-29T13:11:00.000-08:00

This has to be one of my most favorite projects that I've completed. Since I bought my dress and bridesmaid's dresses through David's Bridal, I received a code for shutterfly.com to create a free 8x8 photobook. I decided to take this opportunity to create a photo guest book that incorporates our engagements pictures into the book! Here are samples of photobooks from shutterfly.com:

Here's a glimpse of how ours turned out!

Vases! Vases! Vases!

2009-12-29T13:03:00.000-08:00

In my hometown, we are lucky to have a glass factory that is open to the public, where glass items, candle etc. are sold very cheaply. So my fiance and I made a trip to check out vase possibilities for future DIY projects.

Here is what we came up with (potentially) for centerpiece vases:

I knew I wanted square vases of some sort, but a little taller than my inspiration centerpiece that I found online. So I'm hoping to take these and turn them into something like this:

Next, I plan on displaying a memorial table for loved ones that are no longer with us. I wanted to honor them by making memorial candles for each person. I found these that we plan to frost:

I want to take these small vases and turn them into memorial candles like these:

The candle will be submerged into the vase, and I will border the picture with ribbon instead.

Lastly, I wanted to find vases to hold single-stemmed gerbera daisies that will be displayed behind the memorial candles. We found these:

I LOVE these! They were 2/$1.00 and so unique. I bought ten of them to line the back side of the memorial table and I want to put a single gerbera daisy in each with colored water. Basically I want to incorporate the ideas below:

I can't wait to run trials of these and get started!

The beginning of my programs!

2009-12-29T12:39:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! I've taken on another project for the wedding, so I haven't been posting as much, but I would like to share what I've been doing with everyone! Since our wedding ceremony is being held outside in a garden, I thought it would be best to make the ceremony programs into paddle fans. I'm also making twice as many programs than a typical person would make because I felt it was important to make a fan for each seat so that everyone would have the opportunity to use a fan and not have to share. So I'm making 120 of these bad boys. Here's what I've been doing:

These are the supplies that I've been using to create the programs. I wanted to spray paint the wooden sticks, but I found it nearly impossible to find my colors in spray paint. The closest I came to find tangerine and hot pink in spray paint was fluorescent spray paint, which I didn't care for. So I'm taking on the task of hand-painting each stick, front and back.

Supplies Needed:

Acrylic paint
Wooden craft sticks
Wax paper
Acrylic paint brush
Card stock (later on)
Adhesive (later on)
Ribbon (optional)

I bought all of my materials at Hobby Lobby. You will want a nice large flat surface to work on. My fiance suggested using wax paper since the paint from the sticks won't stick to it as it is drying. I've lined my area with wax paper (2 areas for drying and 1 area for painting). This can be time consuming if you plan to go the route that I am, but overall, if you have a day where you have nothing to do, these can be painted easily over a couple of hours.

Here you can see how I utilized the areas on my flat surface. Aren't they fun!?

As you can see, I still need to paint some more and fill in areas on the sides of the sticks. I can't wait to show everyone how they turn out once they're done! More to come later on once I'm finished painting!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2009-12-25T06:36:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone from the DIY Bride! For now.. I leave you with pictures of my beloved pets. =) Have a great day!