rings

wedding DIY - wedding bling

My engagement ring was a collaboration between David and JewelSmith. He knew I would like something unique. I love it. And I know that nobody else will have anything like it.

When choosing our wedding bands, I thought I wanted something simple, easy, and "off the rack." But the little creative bug wouldn't let me just PICK something, I had to have a say. So we went back to JewelSmith and designed a wedding band to coordinate with my engagement ring. I really love that they "go" and not "match." The tiny flower below the diamond is the same flower used as a pattern on the wedding band.

For David's band, he picked something we found on etsy (a seller in California). I also picked something from etsy when choosing jewelry for the big day (a seller from Edinburgh, Scotland, UK). Supporting DIY-ers around the world!

favors

Wedding DIY - favors

The container store had plenty of choices for boxes in several colors and patterns. However, they ran 50 cents to one dollar each. That can really add up when you are making over 100 of these things. So, I got the cheapies on sale at Michael's, with a coupon. They ended up costing me less than 10 cents each. I hole-punched some of them, and the others I glued on the punched-out pattern.

On the inside, we placed a paper muffin cup which held a chocolate truffle, and a custom designed magnet favor. David and I designed 3 different patterns for the magnets. We used some of the same symbols from our invitations (made by Tamara). We added a cute little C & D on the edge with our wedding date.

ceremony

Wedding DIY - ceremony

We put together a little slide show for guests to watch while they got seated and ready for the ceremony to begin. We chose old family photos, as well as pictures of us as a couple when we were first falling in love (awww!). We paired this with some of our favorite love songs.

David and I picked our ceremony music as well... Then David chopped it up and mashed it together to make a beautiful instrumental processional.

Together with our super awesome officiant, Erin, we created a ceremony PERFECT for us. This was a fun process. It was so nice to have some creative freedom here. We chose some excerpts from a lovely poem called "I like you" by Sandol Stoddard Warburg. It is really sweet. Read it.

cake towers

Wedding DIY - cupcake towers

Yeah. This did not go quite as planned.

I wanted to make several cake stands since we ordered mini cupcakes for the wedding reception. I planned on these going with my "colors." Turns out I really didn't pick "colors" for my wedding.

I used a guide from the wedding craft book I got in the spring. (There are a lof of fun ideas in the book, and they all can be done in a non-wedding-y way). I had trouble covering the edges of the support pieces. It was looking a little too arts & craftsy, even for me.

Then, the cake table ordered by the caterers would only fit ONE big tower of a cake stand. So, my multiple cake stands would not fit.

The project was fun to play with, and now I have some fun ribbon with which to decorate holiday gifts. However, I have a surplus of cardboard things just taking up space in the craft room.

Since I did 6 weddings in 2011, I think I am going to give the wedding stuff a rest for now.

invitations

Wedding DIY - invitations

When we got engaged, I knew we wanted to do something unique for our invitations. Our obvious choice for screen-printer was our friend Tamara. A lot of ideas floated around, and we settled on a subtly nautical theme, in a natural & neutral color palette. We had to bring in our love of maps as well. I found the envelopes online, and Tamara did the rest.

I had the idea to do something funky for the reply... we asked our guests to get their creative juices flowing. These replies serve as a kind of guest book for us. We get to have a keepsake from so many of the special people in our lives, even if they were unable to attend the wedding.

Getting the reply cards back was SO fun for us. Thank you to all of our friends and family members for sending us creative, cute, silly, and colorful responses.