Wedding Season

 One of my best friends just got engaged to be married! Congratulations Kat! It is such an exciting time especially the planning and the time right before the wedding.  Every bride wants the perfect wedding and the perfect weather. Well, you can only do so much, right? I got married in August of last year. Some may still call us newly weds. For our wedding, I did most of the planning and all of the decorating! It was a lot of work, but I also enjoyed it very much, and I saved a lot of money! Since it is wedding season, I decided to share some of the crafts that I made for our wedding.

 We'll start with the invitation. I made a bunch of different ones until I was finally satisfied with this one. I used a golden heavy paper for the background. I cut two slits in the gold in the top left and bottom right corners to hold the other paper in place. There was no glue involved. The top paper is paper that you would print pictures on. It has a nice gloss to it. I found the image of the rings online and edited it using Paint.net, which is a program that you can download for free. I cut each and every paper! That was the hardest part of this project. If I were to do it again, I would invest in a paper cutter.  There were also two cards that went with the invitation. One had all the info for times and places and the other was an RSVP card to be returned with a reply so I had a semi accurate account of guests. I also included a return envelope with a stamp. I wanted it to be as simple and convenient for the guests as possible.

  The place cards were also a lot of work. These were made after getting the RSVP cards back. Again I cut and folded all of these by hand. The outside is the hand written name in calligraphy and on the inside their table number and a note of thanks in the guest's original language which was either English, Spanish, or Filipino. I was a little upset at the guests who didn't show, because I feel like I wasted time and energy in making their place cards so personal. But, it happens, people won't show even if they say they will. I'm over it now!

 I was very pleased with how this card box turned out. Before this one, I tried to make one in the shape of a wedding cake using three boxes, but I didn't like how it looked. I really like this one though, I used a medium sized box and cut a hole in the top large enough to fit a large card. Then I covered the whole box with blue wrapping paper. I used white ribbon to add a splash of color, then I hot glued some roses that I made from blue ribbon and a gold ribbon bow on the top. The word, Cards, was made from the gold background paper of the invitations. I drew the word and cut it out with a craft knife. It took a few tries until I had it perfect.

 The is the gift table. A simple table decorated with blue streamers and blue balloons. There were a few people who didn't put their cards in the card box, but many more who read the box and inserted their card. The main table was also decorated with blue and white streamers and balloons. I can't find a picture of the centerpieces. It was a small glass vase with blue water tinted with food coloring and a white floating candle. The vase sat on a round mirror that was about 12 inches in diameter.

In slavery times, black people made their own traditions for marriage. One is jumping the broom. During this ceremony, the couple will sweep away their old life and leap into their new family together. I found this broom in an Asian food store. It was very cheap. I decorated it with our colors. I used blue ribbon and a gold wire spiraling down the handle of the broom. I embellished it with ribbon flowers and bows that I made. I also used gold glitter hair spray for the bristles of the broom.

 The bouquet was made with fake flowers that I picked up from Michaels Craft Store. I arranged them and added a few embellishments to add some color. I used some tulle for the outside and wrapped the stems in tape for a handle.

  I didn't get a good picture of the flower girl's head piece. I used flowers from Michaels that I cut and glued to a wire that I shaped to fit my daughter's head. I also made her bouquet which was similar to mine, but with some blue flowers to match her headpiece. Isn't she lovely?

  There are so many resources out there and online for ideas for your own wedding. You can save so much money by doing some things yourself, and you might have fun doing it! You could also recruit some of your bridesmaids or family members to help.