Trendy Wednesday: Crafty Bride

Trendy Wednesday: Jenna Paniccia

Crafty brides never fail to disappoint! Although planning a wedding can be a bit stressful and overwhelming some brides truly enjoy customizing and personalizing aspects of their big day. With prices on the rise, brides are looking for ways to cut costs without cutting the elegance of this spectacular celebration.

By adding DIY projects to your wedding day décor, you are allowing creativity to surface while placing your personal likings on display. DIY projects don’t need to be something extravagant. You can choose how many DIY projects you’d like to invest your time in, and pick projects that will help add character to your wedding without taking away the overall concept.

Favors and place cards are two of my favorite DIY projects. Favors are great because I truly believe the favor should bring out your personality. Sit down with your fiancé and make a list of things you both enjoy. This can be candy, desserts, candles, champagne, hiking, movies … the list goes on and on.  Narrow your list down and think of a DIY project that will help bring your guests into your life.

Here’s the perfect example.  If you both love Macaroon cookies give your guests a few in a DIY box tied with a fabulous ribbon. The thank you tag could read “the sweetest way to end this sweetest day.”

DIY projects are also a wonderful idea for your bridal shower. Walk around a craft store or discount home accent store or even thrift shop. You would be amazed at how many ideas you will stumble across on a budget.

These projects are a great bonding tool for families and bridesmaids as well. If you are making the place cards, or putting together floral arrangements for your bridal shower invite the people you love over to bond and craft! I’m sure you will laugh a lot and get the project done much quicker! Photo Credit: inviteswedding.com, creativeweddingideas.net, fashiondivadesign.com, bargainhoot.com, bugsandfishes.blogspot.com, mostweddingflowerideas.com, weddbook.com, weddingbylily.com

Do It Yourself

Diary of a Bride to Be by Lauren Cooper

As a college Art major and soroity alumnae, I’m big on crafts.  So, I’ve been searching for ways to do little wedding projects myself without taking on too much and driving myself insane.  To date I’ve decided to print the escort cards, menu cards and programs myself, and I’ve even purchased Microsoft Publisher to make them snazy looking.  But I’ve been searching for something a little more “hands on.”  Enter my wedding savior Etsy.  I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but I LOVE Etsy. I started searching for address wraps for our invites, since I’m not so confident in my caligraphy skils and I thought a plain label would be a little, well, pasee.  Anyway, I found the perfect one from blushprintables.  Ok so it’s not totally do it myself since she has already designed the lovely wraps and all I have to do is type in the address and print.  BUT, it’s just what I was looking for to add an extra touch to our invites.  Whoohoo!

Coming up next:  Birthday weekend dress shopping!  This saturday (my birthday) my mom, sister (and new baby), FMIL and bestest friend ever are going dress shopping to help me make a decision between the two dresses I’ve been dreaming of.

Stressful DIY Wedding Projects

Okay ladies, so I’ve been reviewing our polls and it appears that some of you are feeling crafty, creative and thrifty. As much as we all love to read up on Martha Stewart’s cute  arts and crafts ideas, it’s important to note that these projects aren’t suitable for every woman’s lifestyle or personality. Not to burst your DIY bubble, but in keeping true to this blog and my passion for informing couples I’ve listed some tips to avoid the stress of attempting to be crafty.

Photo from http://www.oncewed.com

5 tips you need to know before approaching a DIY wedding project:

1. Spending an hour of labor on a project is very different then spending 40 hours of labor on the same project. First, figure out if you have enough FREE time and enough time before your wedding to allocate into your schedule to complete the project or projects you are looking to do. Tack on an additional 30% of time to your initial estimate. Chances are you underestimated how much time it would take you.

2. Never buy exactly what you need! Always buy 20% more of the suggested materials. You will make mistakes and you want to avoid the travel time and cost going to and from to pick up additional supplies. OR you may want to avoid additional or rush shipping costs if you are ordering online.

3. Home printers can cause paper jams, smearing and inconsistent color. Be ready to win the battle with your printer. If you are very particular about your colors then DIY printing projects are not for you. The only way to match colors and get a true color is by supplying a PMS (pantone) color to your printer or production house.

4. Make sure that if you are using scissors, exacto knifes or cutting tools that the blades remain sharp. Once they dull out it makes your job more difficult to maintain a crisp, clean edge.

5. If you get tired…STOP! Don’t push your way through. Trust me people can see when the TLC is missing and there is nothing worse then half-@$$ looking favors, hang tags, etc. Say no to the extra red bull…and yes to taking a break and returning to it later. Not to mention, your boss won’t care that you stayed up all night on a wedding project only to have no energy at work the next day! Prioritize 🙂