I Survived Being a DIY Bride- Part 1

I started blogging after my wedding, because to be honest there was no time before it to blog! As I mentioned before, I am ridiculously cheap- so I knew I would be making a lot of things myself. It also didn't help that I was finishing up graduate school, searching for a teaching job, landing a teaching job, starting my first year as a high school teacher all while planning this crazy wedding for 200+ people. No sweat, right?

HA. Major sweat. I don't remember sleeping much that year, at all.

I knew we would get married eventually, we had been together for nearly 5 years. I just had no idea when it would happen (and its not for a lack of asking, either!). I liked to tell people that we would get married when pigs flew. It shut them up pretty darn quick on a question that I had no answer for (because I couldn't very well ask myself to marry me).

Well, on December 12, 2009 he made pigs fly while putting up our Christmas Tree.

All photos in this post are from Kristen Wynn Photography

Patrick was sneaky, he hid the ring in the Christmas tree ornaments and had his baby cousin hand it to me. Not ten seconds after this picture I was already being asked wedding details. Who, what, when, where, how many, how much...people were insane. They all assumed I had a wedding planned and hidden under my bed. Well, they were wrong.

As we started to plan we realized that this was going to be a pretty big affair, because we both come from large families. I'd always been pretty crafty, so I set out to start DIY-ing my way through my nuptials. I made everything I possibly could, from the things I thought were too expensive to buy to the things I just couldn't find what I wanted. I knew I wanted a shabby-chic wedding, as I am obsessed with the style. I also knew I had to have pink. So that's exactly what I had, one day before Halloween on 2010. (And if you're wondering, I didn't give a crap that it was a completely non-fall wedding in the fall- its your wedding, you can do whatever you want!)

My first project was this aisle runner- I got the ideas and the instructions from Heather over at Road to the Aisle here

My next idea was for hand painted Bride and Groom signs to decorate the pews at the back of the church, so everyone knew which side to sit on if they were too impatient to wait for an Usher. (Instructions coming soon!)

Next was a pomander for my two flower girls to carry. I had my heart set on all fresh flowers for my wedding, until my florist told me that a pomander would be $60. I had two flower girls, so were talking $120 for flowers they would bounce up and down, pull out, toss around. Uh, no thanks. I made this little beauty (instructions coming soon) with tissue paper flowers, a Styrofoam ball, hot glue, floral pins and ribbon for about $5.

My pew cones were next on my massive DIY list. I didn't want pew bows, I wanted something that would tie in things they would see at the reception- so using an idea from my MOH we made these out of a piece of scrapbook paper, tissue paper flowers, crystal beads and ribbon. The paper was on sale for about $0.25 (Joann's super sale!), and I got the beads on clearance at Michael's for about $4.99. All in all, to make 14 pew cones, it cost me around $10. (Instructions to follow)

The last ceremony DIY project was my programs, and I waited till almost the last minute to put them together. I used 4 different engagement pictures, and paper left over from making my invitations (oh yeah, I made those too.) I copied all of the inserts at work, the joys of being an educator, and used ribbon to tie them together. Inside I had the usual wedding participants, wedding program and thank you sections; but I added things that showed our personality. I had 'our love story' where it told guests about how we met, a coloring page for our little guests, and a 'who's who in the wedding party' that told interesting things about our bridal party. I used four different pictures from our engagement photos- which I didn't know would prompt guests to take one of each of the four programs. Glad I overestimated and made extra.

Up next- DIY reception decor as well as instructions on all of these projects :)