DIY

We are doing a lot of the wedding details ourselves so we can do it as inexpensively as possible.  We have gathered most of the stuff from the Internet and many trips to Michael's & JoAnns.  Thank goodness for 40% off coupons and living a block away from both!  I hate procrastination and therefore am hoping to have everything done the winter of 2009. 

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Monogram

I think this is the end version!  I created it in Powerpoint and changed it a billion different times. 

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Unity Candle

We bought the pillar from Michael's and the tapers from JoAnn's.  The stand we bought from Flower Factory.   The ribbon I also got from Michael's and JoAnn's.  This is my latest version....I liked how it turned out except for the date rolling around the side too far.  I also found out that when printing on vellum if you change the printer settings to transparent the color does not come out the same.

unity_candle.pub
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Garters

Another completely DIY wedding thing.  It took forever and I'm satisified with the way they turned out.  The two green are for the BMs and then the dark purple is a toss garter and the white is keepsake.

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Pomanders - Pew Decorations/Centerpieces

My first DIY project with my sisters help.  They were fun to make.  We got the flowers from Roseys-garden on eBay, styrofoam balls from Flower Factory which FI graciously cut in half with an electric styrofoam cutter from JoAnn's.  We glued the flower heads onto the stems with a hot glue gun and then just stuck them into the styrofoam.  It took about 35 flowers to do one half of a 6" ball.  We still have to figure out how to attach the ribbon to them but it shouldn't be too hard.

UPDATE:  I finished these around March.  We placed a piece of felt on the backside to cover the styrofoam and just hot glued the ribbon and felt onto the styrofoam!  Easy peasy!

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Bridesmaid's Bouquets

I again got the flowers at Michael's.  The girl's dresses are a darker purple so I'm glad I found flowers that will pop!  the pictures on the left is all of the completed bouquets.

Bride's Bouquet

From the very beginning I was DIY all the way.  I wanted something very simple.  I had a hard time finding the right gerbera daisies, but in the end found them at Michael's.  I almost had a bridezilla moment when I ran out of flowers for my bouquet.  Darling FI to the rescue!  He was out of town for work and stopped at another Michael's and picked me up the rest of the daisies in my color! 

The brooch was my maternal grandmother's.  Thanks to FI for finishing the wrap and putting the brooch on!

Corsages and Boutonnieres

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Photo Cardbox

We used the infamous directions for the photo cardbox.  We had to make quite a few modifications to get it to look how we wanted.

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Bridal Shower Favors

I stumbled across this idea while trying to figure out how to use some of my excess wedding items laying around.

Title.

My inspiration pic.

I found a few other tips/tricks online to help them look better.

1. Take the flower off the stem or cut the stem as short as possible.  Take the cap off the top of the pen and insert the flower into there with some glue.  That way you don't have a stem on the outside of the pen.
2. After wrapping the pens with the floral stem tape use flour, baby powder, corn startch, or whatever similar product you have around the house to make it less sticky.
3. Hot glue is your friend!!
   

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