Wedding Week: DIY + Details

DIY Projects

Here are some of the DIY projects from my wedding. Although it was pretty time consuming I am so glad I put in the time because everything turned out beautifully. All of the handmade touches really brought to life the vintage, rustic look I was going for.

The Mr. and Mrs. Banner was made from burlap and strung together with pink ribbon. We used a stencil to outline the letters and painted on the lettering with black paint.

One word: chalkboards. I loved all of the cute chalkboards that were a part of each table and there was one on every table that acted as part of the centerpiece. For the frames I went shopping at thrift stores to find one with gold, detailed frames.

We printed off tons of pictures from when we were dating and some of our engagements and strung them along a wall with a string of twine and clothespins. It was really cute and a fun way to display pictures of us.

My husband made out cake topped from wood and then stained and painted it. He is so talented! My Mom and I made this ribbon wall to use as a backdrop which was really simple but took quite a while.

We ordered wooden utensils for the reception and stuffed them into handmade packets made from packing paper and sewed with pink string on the sides. The picture on the right is of the bags that our guests used for their candy bags. We spray painted all of the clothespins and bought little paper bags from Michaels.

My sister sewed this fabric banner together that's in the background of this picture. We hung it on two and again it was really easy it just took FOREVER to cut all of the pieces of fabric.

Makeshift candles hung in trees; my husband bsically tied some wire to these cute little jars and then we put candles in them. In the picture on the right is the 'time capsule' guest sign in that I made. Guests wrote notes that we couldn't read for a year (we actually ended up reading them all the next day, whoops, don't tell!)

For the main bouquet of flowers on each table we used a mason jar. To add some detail I tied burlap around the jar and then tied a little bow with a pieces of cream colored ribbon. For the centerpieces we also has little vintage vases (that I still have) so that there were three vases on each table. We placed the largest vase on a wooden tree trunk. All of that lay on a burlap table runner and lace doily. Swoon. The flowers and centerpieces were probably my favorite part of the entire wedding!!

Details

When we first talked to our photographer I told her that I wanted pictures of little details. Those are my favorite type of pictures and those are the ones I enjoy taking myself. For the reception I cared so much about details and making sure that every nook and cranny was perfect. I also really loved pictures of special moments during the day; here are a few of my very favorite pictures.

Thanks for reading all about my wedding this week! I was so in love with everything that I just had to share it all! It was such a beautiful day and it went by much too fast. I loved planning and putting everything together and was so glad I put so much time into it even though at the time it was not always the most fun. Anyways, tomorrow is my aniversary and I will be celebrating with my husband for a day that he has planned. It's a complete surprise and I can't wait to spend the day with him. Love you Matty!!

 

Decorating on a Dime

As newlyweds we are always looking to save on money, however, since it is our first Christmas I really wanted to add some festive decor to our room. I found a few ideas on Pinterest that actually seemed doable and got to work. They were all really simple to make and the materials needed were easy to find. We also spent less than $50 for all of the decor and supplies. Here are the projects that we made!

1. The first project I did was making some "presents" to display on our mantle. This was beyond easy! I found some red tin boxes at the dollar store and bought the silver bow from Walmart {I'm classy like that.} We just wrapped the tin boxes with gold ribbon that we already had and topped them off with the bow to make them look like pretty presents.

2. The second project we did wasn't so really a project, we just put some ornaments from the dollar store into a vase and I put them next to our presents.

               

3. For the next project we made a banner out of tinsel. This is as easy to make as it looks. We just cut the tinsel so that they were all the same length and then tied them to a thick piece of sparkly gold rope. We bought each of the tinsel pieces for a dollar at the dollar store and we already had the gold rope. This banner is the one hanging in the first picture.

                            

4. The next project is probably the most hands on one. We turned our fruit into sparkly Christmas decor that makes a lovely display. For this little project we needed adhesive spray and glitter which we got from Walmart and the fruit which we got from the dollar store. We sprayed the adhesive, let it sit for about 30 seconds and then rolled the fruit in the glitter. Then we let them dry for about 30 minutes before we put them on a plate for display.

5. This last decor idea isn't really a project...it's more of a display. While perusing the dollar store I found these super cute Christmas porcelain houses and pieces that looked like they were part of a little set. We got a ton and I seriously could not believe that they were a dollar each! We got some houses, stores, some trees, and some people to add to our vintage village. We also got some of the cotton snow to put underneath all of our pieces. Here are some of the little houses and stores up close.

We had fun making these projects and decorating together for Christmas. I am really excited to keep these decorations for years and years to come and to be able to have these memories from our first Christmas.