DIY Wedding Weekend!

My Dear Lady Friends and Gentledudes: How about a little update on life, love, and the pursuit of all things "wedding". It's a lazy Saturday in Angleton. Now normally, these days are pretty boring. Mom and Dad con me into doing chores around the house or even worse, yard work (no thanks!). This Saturday, however, I have been abandoned at the house while the parents frolic off to San Antonio, reconnecting with some long lost friends. I was invited of course. Here's how that went down:

Mom: You can come with us, or stay at home and take care of all three dogs.
Me: But the dogs are so whiny and needy and annoying when ya'll leave.
Mom: Fine, you can go with us.
Me: What are ya'll going to do in San Antonio?
Mom: Go to dinner with 4 other couples and talk for hours about the good old days, reminisce about when we were younger, and leave early the next morning.
Me: Umm.....Yeah, I'll take the dogs.

So that catches us up to right now. Sitting in my pajamas waiting for my California Pizza Kitchen frozen pizza to cook in the oven, and in serious wedding mode. I have never been much of a "crafty" lady, but there's something about planning this wedding that has brought out the Martha Stewart within me. I love that this wedding is so full of handmade details. That's why I am a (partial) DIY bride. DIY= do it yourself! Basically it happens like this: You're walking through Crate & Barrell; You see something really cute but really expensive; You think to yourself, "Self, I bet I could make that for a fraction of the cost". Next thing you know, you've spent 2 hours and $100 at Hobby Lobby. Ok, so maybe sometimes it turns out that you spend more making it yourself than you would have buying it, but.....who cares!? You've made something with your own hands and that is pretty cool.

I've worked on 3 DIYs today (whew!) and am pretty excited about the progress I'm making! So take a look at these little handmade details in various stages of done-ness.

Here is the inspiration....a woman makes and sells these cake toppers on Etsy for $30-$60 a set.

 

These are our little wedding cake toppers. The bride is done, now I need to paint the groom. Or I could just leave him unpainted, but then it would look like he's naked. Not appropriate. I found the wooden forms at Joann's Craft Store and had the paint lying around already. Total price: $1.75!

 I had some pretty yellow yarn lying around so I bought these cardboard block letters for $1.50 each. Turns out that the R is pretty difficult to wrap. Not sure how to finish the rest of it, hence the half-wrapped product you see now. Not really any inspirational photos for this one.

Here is the inspiration. These are handmade and sold on Etsy for $20-$40 each.

I bought some soldering wire from a Tractor Supply and stole borrowed a pair of needle nosed pliers from Dad's toolbox. 15 minutes later....

I still need to buy a wooden hanger. The plan is to drill holes on the inside of the arms of the hanger and glue the ends in there. Now this is an example of when you might not save a lot of money. The stupid soldering wire was $20! It turned out to not be that bad though. I can probably make 4 or 5 hangers out of all the wire left over, so I will be saving money in a sense. In case you were wondering, this is just something pretty to hang my dress on and get some cute photo ops ;) Again, I just love the little details. I think they make the experience that much more special.

Sidenote: These are just the three I'm working on right now. We've got a LOT more to do!! Programs, favors, banner, centerpieces...they're all DIY! But I think this is all I'm going to show you right now. I guess you'll just have to come to the wedding to see the rest of it! 27 days!