Dylan and I got married in Carmel-by-the-Sea at an adorable hotel, La Playa, on October, 9, 2011 with about 75 of our dear friends and family in attendence. It was by far the most wonderful day of my life so far! As soon as we got engaged I knew that I wanted to include a lot of my own touches, so I started google searching DIY wedding ideas (if only I had known of Pinterest BEFORE my wedding!). Here are some of the DIY touches:
I created the felt flowers in my Bridal Bouquet by using this tutorial from "Take Heart":
Felt Flower Tutorial
Before gluing "backing" of the flower, I took green wire, bent the ends, and used a hot glue gun to glue the wire to the flower.
I wrapped the bottom of the bouquet with ivory ribbon and lace.
I did the same for my bridesmaid's bouquet:
Rather than spending the money on a photo booth, we set up a "Prop Table" with a camera and several props that I made by cutting out shapes (mustaches, lips, beards, glasses) that I hand drew on different colored card stock and hot glued to wooden sticks. The props were placed in wine bottles that my husband and I wrapped with twine.
For our centerpieces we used the twine-covered wine bottles pictured above and filled them with yarn-pom flowers. Here is the tutorial by Domestifluff.com I used for the pom flowers:
Yarn Pom Flowers Tutorial
I saw all sorts of cute thumb print guest book trees on etsy. Some hand painted trees were selling for up to $120! The idea to do it myself was a no-brainer! I hand drew the tree and then used acrylic paints for the tree.
Rather than having our guests do thumb prints (some people don't like to get messy) I bought some cute little leaf stamps from Michaels and some fall colored ink (red, orange, brown) since our wedding was in October. The guests all used the leaf and color of their choice and then signed the tree with different colored pens.
Mr. & Mrs. Banner I made by layering different colored card stock, cutting into triangles & then attaching to a thin piece of twine:
We had several other DIY touches, but here are some to hopefully get you inspired!
A tip my friends who are brides-to-be, MAXIMIZE your wedding weekend to the best of your abilities! While all of my friends were impressed with our DIY touches, they were MORE impressed with our ability to make the weekend feel special and not rushed. I dropped off all of the wedding decor to the hotels wedding planner days before the wedding so I wouldn't have to think about it again until the morning of...
We booked our wedding on Columbus Day weekend. With Dylan being military, most of our military friends had a three day weekend, making it easier for travel. We planned a whole wedding weekend extravaganza!
Friday night: Party at our house "Meet and Greet" for everyone in town. We had booze, food and lawn games (bean bags & ladder ball) and was a great chance for everyone to get to know each other.
Saturday (early) Afternoon: Beach day! We brought the lawn games and music down to the beach for some R&R and beach fun! Saturday evening we had our Rehearsal dinner with our bridal party and immediate family.
Sunday morning: WEDDING TIME! We chose an 11am ceremony with a brunch-style reception (who doesn't like brunch??) complete with a build-your-own Bloody Mary Bar and a jazz band! The second best thing about an early wedding? You don't have all day to stress! You wake up early, get ready and then it is game on! The FIRST best thing about an early wedding? You have ALL day to celebrate! From the ceremony, to the cocktail hour, to the rehearsal, to the AFTER PARTY!
Sunday Night: Since our wedding was finished so early we were able to keep the party going at a local pub complete with kareoke!
Our guests are still talking about the fun they had during our wedding weekend and how much fun they had making new friends and memories.
I wish I could have a wedding "reunion" with all of our friends every year :)
Photography by the lovely Avery Davis of Photography by Avery
No comments:
Post a Comment