DIY Weddings

Parent Cafe
61

<p>CD–I am speechless. I knew parts of what you were doing, but put altogether–wow!</p>

<p>As has been documented ad nauseum here already, I was point person for D’s recent wedding. She also was not in any way bridezilla-ish, but did have a picture of what the general feel should be, and I worked to help her make that happen. She did a lot of the actual design stuff herself–I scouted out and worked with venue and vendors, and most of in-area legwork.</p>

<p>Some of the DIY things:</p>

<p>1)Save the dates and invites were designed by D and groom–based on pictures she drew. Everything was beach themed, specifically ferry terminal (where they got married), clams, and/or horseshoe crabs. She drew a kind of adorable smiling HS crab which was used on invites and was copied by cake bakers for top of cake. She and groom also added an annotated list of places to go to in the area (sort of “best of’s”), map of the area, and tide charts, to all invitations.</p>

<p>2) The three of us put together centerpieces which were fishbowls filled with sand and beach theme stuff. My big find was a tiny beach chair figurine at a local party store, they were able to rush order enough of them just in time for the wedding. Very cute and cheap.</p>

<p>3) place cards were clamshells with name and table name painted on them. Tables were named after local beaches instead of numbered. table names were on tiny blackboard signs in each fishbowl. This was all D’s idea.</p>

<p>4) Favors were more clamshells with holes drilled in by groom and ribbons. Then painted with place and year as keepsakes.</p>

<p>5)were very fortunate that caterer supplied fabulous beach themed table clothes and napkins so didn’t have to worry about that.</p>

<p>6) ceremony pics were taken by amateur photography friend; receptions pics are being gathered by guests. Couple will make albums on line from these using snapfish.</p>

<p>7) as a surprise to D, groom collected pics of the two of them from everyone in the week before hand, had books made up and distributed on tables. </p>

<p>8) Did not buy flowers. Party carried tiger lilies from our garden. bridesmaids each had one and made a semi-circle out of them as they walked up to form the “alter.”</p>

<p>That’s all I can think of now.</p>

<p>But CD, you have us so beat! I’d love to see those steampunk coasters!</p>

<p>Can’t wait for the follow up story when it’s over.</p>

62

<p>I, too, got tired just reading all of the preparations and another 14 pages to go? Wow! Congratulations onthe wedding and a job well done. I applaud you for hosting so many at your home. I hope you have LOTS of bedrooms and bathrooms :slight_smile: And all those linens?
Where is the actual venue? Good luck and thanks for helping all of us who are about to go down that path or aisle with our children!</p>

63

<p>CountingDown - I am totally impressed and absolutely floored by all you have done for this wedding.</p>

<p>We were just at a family wedding this weekend that we estimate must’ve run around $50,000. It was beautiful, but excessive for our tastes. S2, who’s likely to be the next family member to get married, believes it’s up to the bride and groom to pay for their own wedding so we can be guaranteed that the budget will be much smaller. Your cost saving ideas would be very useful for them. I’ll be sure to pass them along at the appropriate time.</p>

64

<p>When it’s all over and you have a chance to breathe I’d love to hear about the coasters. We saw a photographer at a craft fair that took photos and “put” them on tiles with a high gloss sheen on them. Of course, someone in my family says, “I could do that.” Yeah, right. Not sure if they were “steampunk” or not. They were ver nicely done in themes by season, major cities and their key attractions. I thought quite possibly a kiln was involved. Don’t have that in hte basement.</p>

65

<p>Bookmarking this thread… I’m doing a DIY wedding and these lists are just awesome.</p>

66

<p>Oh, I am SO jealous! Everything sounds like so much fun, and exactly the kind of thing I love doing. But as a lowly MOG–should S ever marry!–my future role is to shut up and stay out of the way. Or so it seems. :(</p>

67

<p>I am in awe of all of you !!!</p>

<p>I haven’t a creative or craft-y cell in my body.</p>

68

<p>^^ Consolation, MOG may have about as much input as MOB these days, as so many couples marrying today (older perhaps than in the past, and already established in their own homes and careers) do most of the wedding arranging themselves.</p>

<p>I am closer to the wedding location than the MOG in our case, but am trying to include her input with mine. Recently she gave me and my D each various linen furniture toppings beautifully embroidered by her own mother and grandmother. (They were from Greece, where this embroidery was apparently a tradition for young ladies.) I am bringing these family heirloom linens to the wedding weekend with me, and will use them for decor in our hotel room where we will be hosting a hospitality suite at points over the wedding weekend.
(I am also hoping for some Greek folk dancing at the wedding in honor of that portion of the groom’s heritage, as well as the guests who are traveling from Greece to attend.
Groom’s father is British, but I am not familiar with any British folk dancing.)</p>

69

<p>You are a far better woman than I, CountingDown and I didn’t get past 15 people spending the night in your house the night before to say so! Kudos to you and congratulations.</p>

70

<p>JEM–Oh, I sure hope there will be Greek dancing. I was at a wedding where the bride was Greek, and it was huge fun, including the rain of dollar bills all over the place! (though IIRC your D’s wedding is outside so maybe not a good idea!)</p>

71

<p>^ No dollar bill rains, not even bouquet toss or garter throw – or CAKE! :frowning: </p>

<p>Bride and groom are very opposed to a lot of the wedding traditions, have requested donations to charities rather than gifts, so certainly will not want any dollar rains. Not even groom’s mom has mentioned that – will have to ask if it was even done at her wedding. (She and groom’s dad had two, because she was doing a post-doc in Australia and he was doing a post-doc in the U.S. They had one wedding in Fiji and one in Greece.)
So far all groom’s mom has pushed for is a Greek Orthodox ceremony (not happening, will be a civil ceremony officiated by brother of bride) and a strong opinion on wedding color (not getting her choice re that either, as the wedding color has sentimental meaning to bride and groom.)
(No bridal shower, etc. allowed either.)
And yes, it is an outdoor wedding with tented reception by a river. No tossing of anything allowed by the museum because of cleanup and environmental concerns. (Bubbles will be used instead.)
Don’t mean to make them sound unfun, just determined to do it their way. (There will be croquet, for example!)
But I am hoping for some Greek folk dancing and will do my part to encourage it! Groom’s mom was eager to teach me when we were all together a few weekends ago.
Oh, and groom’s mom is also preparing packages of white candied almonds (koufetta) wrapped in ribbons and tulle (in an uneven number to reflect that bride and groom don’t divide, but rather share, all). The candied almonds reflect that life will be a mix of bitter (almonds) and sweet (candy). B & G are fine with that tradition.</p>

72

<p>We have a four bedroom, 2400 sq ft 60s-era split level house. Folks will be set up all over the place (and we have two tents if the college-age kids want to set them up). Hey, if you don’t pay for a hotel, you get what you get!</p>

<p>I love all the other DIY ideas – wish I had more time! Maybe when my amazing sister gets here Sunday… (she is also crafty, and was here for three weeks last summer after my hospitalization – did so much work around it here it boggled the mind)</p>

<p>I went to several local thrift stores and found pretty serving dishes for 50 cents. Got plantation shutters at Habitat for Humanity ReStore for $10, painted them and am using them as backdrop for the guest book. I had hoped to hang placecards on them, but the panels weren’t wide enough and DIL objected to placecards as “too American.” She and S so seldom have had voiced strong opinions on any of this, so when one of them speaks up, I don’t argue.</p>

<p>DIL’s parents sent me a lot of pics of her as a kid and it is hysterical how many identical pics I have of S – reading while walking down stairs, KNex creations, Odyssey of the Mind, competitions, on the computer, etc. Am trying to do a slide show which we can run on S2’s big screen monitor and them print to a Shutterfly book. I think that will happen in the wee hours next week.</p>

<p>I’ve seen a couple blogs with folks who have used photos on the tiles. You can use interesting stationery, fabric, etc., but would be careful of using things that were run on a regular printer in case the colors run (but that may be the effect you want!). I used scrapbook paper for these. The resin does not require a kiln, though some say using a blowtorch can be useful for getting out the bubbles. I blew on them. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. OK by me. The resin is messy stuff.</p>

<p>My white butterfly bush started blooming this week – flowers for the bouquets, if not enough for the tables!</p>

<p>Table signs are of various spaceships from the scifi series they love, along with some text about each backstory.</p>

<p>Chair signs are a Doctor Who meme. We got steampunk and other funky hats for all. </p>

<p>S & DIL are thinking they will get the photographer to fix up a couple good pics for enlargement, but will let me play with photoshop and make books with the rest. <em>I</em> may want a real album, though.</p>

<p>The average price of a wedding in this area is pretty horrendous, but it is even worse where S & DIL live. The venue rental, equipment rental and contradance band make up 2/3 of their budget. Happily the caterer doesn’t charge extra for more people. :wink: We had expected 60-ish, figured the high end was 80 and wound up with 101 RSVPs. Marginal cost per person is pretty minimal when it’s DIY. </p>

<p>Back to work. I have finished beading the veil and came on here to look at instructions. That was 90 minutes ago. Sigh…</p>

73

<p>I’m not crafty either, and neither is S1, but his gf and her family are, so I’m sure some of these ideas would appeal to them. I’m bookmarking the thread too.</p>

74

<p>They are having a bouquet toss (aka the “ceremonial bombardment”) but no garter. They put up an “anti-registry” page on their website because they really do not want cash or stuff. They have great jobs and a small apartment and can get whatever they need. They are on the verge of getting rid of the dining room table and turning the dining area into a geek nook. </p>

<p>They suggested that if folks really wanted to do something, folks could go to a used bookstore and buy their favorite used book as a gift. They also listed several charities which cover a range of causes that are dear to them but with options for a variety of perspectives.</p>

75

<p>^ CountingDown, you are an amazing good sport with all those houseguests when you have so much else to do. Makes me grateful we are not hosting D’s wedding in our state, as I prefer to keep my load light.</p>

<p>I love the slideshow plans, and have seem some really touching ones. Could not do it for D, because groom’s mom does not have anything digitized and I did not want to pressure her to trust me with her original photos. So we will just have pics of their relationship and the many experiences they had together. But I love how you will have the delightful parallel childhood pics.</p>

<p>Cannot imagine how you keep yourself calm but again, am wowed by all that you are doing. Please take care of yourself.</p>

<p>And yes, as with your son, my D and her fiance need nothing and when they combined households in their new (to them) home a few months ago they filled a U-Haul with redundant/excess “stuff” and donated those furniture, kitchen, etc. items to a charity. The last thing they want is more “things” and they are in good shape financially. They suggested three charities (one a pet charity of his, one a pet charity of hers, and one they chose together) as options for those who insisted on doing something for them.
Love the favorite used book idea though – great way to build a library. Plus, “a book is a gift you can open again and again!” People are likely to write thoughtful notes in the books.</p>

<p>We are all so blessed to be experiencing such a joyful time with our children.</p>

76

<p>No tossing of anything at D’s wedding either. Her “bouquet” was a bundle of tiger lilies with the long stems–could have put someone’s eye out!</p>

<p>They did accept gifts–are housepoor right now and both work at very low paying non-profit jobs. They did set up a “sofa” registry if anyone was interested (word of mouth, nothing sent out.) D wanted a non-chemically treated sofa which are very hard to find and expensive. found a place that was willing to take small amounts from different people and collect them as payment for the sofa. They have almost no furniture, so this will be nice for them.</p>

77

<p>DH and I were practically children when we were married and appreciated all the kitchen goods we received. We didn’t have much. Didn’t get a sofa til we had been married three years, and had a 13" B&W TV til my folks got us one for the holidays one year. Gifts are great and I love looking for something that has personal meaning for the couple – but S & DIL felt funny about a registry because a lot of their friends are still in school/looking for jobs and traveling to the wedding was a big enough expense.</p>

<p>S & DIL also eat at work (their employer likes to keep the software engineers content), so don’t cook much at home. Nice cookware and appliances are pretty much lost on them.</p>

<p>I’m going to have to scan pictures. 1990-1995 are in albums, I started digital in 2001, but the interregnum is sitting in a few xerox boxes – and guess where the good “early interests” pictures are!</p>

78

<p>H and I were relatively young when married (24 and H was just out of grad school) and we had very little besides student loans LOL. I recall celebrating when we had been married a few years and calculated we had finally amassed a net worth of approximately zero! We were married over a decade before buying our first house.</p>

<p>But D (29) and her fiance are older and well established in their careers. In a way, though, I regret that they will not have the experience H and I had of starting out poor and building everything together. </p>

<p>Not that financial security is “everything” by any means, but we started out with so little and H recalls the days of hunting for change in couch cushions. – (By the way, speaking of couches ^^, H built our first couch using a wooden platform base he made and stained and cushions I covered myself. Can’t get much poorer than that! Any other furniture we had was second hand and/or family castoffs. I still have some of it.) I have zero regrets re those days and treasure the memories. We lived in a one-bedroom apartment until D was almost three and it was fine - cozy and minimalist.</p>

<p>D and her fiance will have different challenges, I am sure, as no life is free of problems. Money is one of the lesser ones IMO.</p>

79

<p>I think once this wedding is behind me, I will start digitizing pics of my son, so that when he and his GF finally make their expected plans, I will be in good shape for a slide show for *that *wedding, anyway! (Her dad is very computer savvy so their part will be easy peasy. Plus we live near each other so can easily work together on such a project.)</p>

<p>CountingDown, are you setting the slide show to music?</p>

80

<p>As slide show too, CD? Oh, you need to start delegating ;)</p>