Christian has been busy covering just about everything in sight with chalkboard paint. When he isn’t doing that, he’s spray painting everything else teal. We’re a little less than four months out at this point, and the wedding crafting has been thrown into high gear.
Because we’re trying to save money, we’re doing everything we can on our own. No professional wedding decorator here. This includes homemade chalkboards; our book centerpieces; seating charts on discarded vintage windows; and bouquets made out of paper book flowers.
Christian is proof that a DIY wedding can be done. I honestly can say that I wouldn’t know what to do without him. He’s been planning, making lists, making sublists and organizing in ways my brain can’t even understand. Even if he can be a groomzilla at times.
Last weekend, we went to visit the future in-laws in New Jersey for my future niece’s first birthday and spent some time planning and crafting with Christian’s mom. She’s an interior decorator, so she knows her way around a paint brush and a hot glue gun.
Friday was spent cutting out banners and table numbers, and I began making crepe paper flowers with the perfect teal color we found at a party store. The banners will be hung on the large banquet tables set up for gifts and the seating chart, the cake table and the head table.
Christian painted all of the wooden frames we got at AC Moore and Michaels teal. He then painted thin, square pieces of wood with chalkboard paint and glued them to the back of the frames. We’re going to use smaller frames to hang on the chairs of the reserved aisles during the ceremony. Some of the bigger chalkboards will have the food and bar menu. We’re not exactly sure what we’ll use all of them for, but I think they might look great with some cute quotes about love or something.
Check out our Pinterest page to see where we got a ton of our ideas.
I also started working on what I think will be the bouquets the bridesmaids will carry. I made a bunch of the book paper roses, but they needed some color. After doing some research and finding Martha Stewart’s how-to on making crepe paper flowers, I decided to give it whirl.
See what my bridesmaids will be wearing.
After making a few crepe paper flowers in several different colors, I decided that I liked just the teal flowers and book paper roses the best. I’m thinking of maybe adding some silk leaves to give the bouquets some greenery and give them a little bit of a life-like quality, even though the flowers are obviously made out of paper.
Check out the paper tutorial here.
I really wanted to use a vintage suitcase to hold our cards during the reception. We picked up this great vintage-looking cardboard one for 40% off at Michael’s, bringing it down to about 12 bucks! We’re going to string the banner that says card across the top.
I’m also super excited to have my mom and aunt come visit June 29, so they can finally see all of the wedding progress so far. I want to take them by the wedding venue while it’s not the dead of winter, so they can see what it looks like all lit up and pretty. I’m also going to try and rope my aunt into helping make a sash to go with my dress. I found one I love, but I can’t justify spending more than $200 on it.
I also tried my hand at making my first birdcage veil. After a few hours, I got it to look a little how I wanted. I’m going to attempt a full veil next (tulle is like $1.79 a yard, why not?) just to see what my options look like, trying to save myself between $150 and $300. More on that later …
As you can see, it’s been a week of crafting and more crafting. Four months and counting … anyone want to come help make flowers?
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