A DIY Wedding Part 2

Hello again!

Time for part 2 of my DIY madness!  Last time I shared a little about how out of control weddings can be, but this time I thought I'd talk about how great they can be!  Getting married has always meant something special to me.  It's always been something I've dreamed of, and I believe it shows a bond between two people that is stronger than any other.  I've always felt that getting married means you have a partner in crime for life!  And that you have someone who is always there to pick you up, have fun with, and support you through life's obstacles.  I was blessed to have grown up with a great example marriage, My Parents!  Last Monday my parents celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary.  Yes, 47 years...with 4 children, 4 grandchildren, and more to come once the hubby and I have babies!  I pray that every day that my marriage is as long and as wonderful as my parents has been.

So enough of my rambling...time for the good stuff!  The rest of my projects included Decorations/Favors, my Hair Accessory, and my Guestbook.  *lots of pictures in this post*

The Decorations/Favors

Small cylinder vases

I really think that this was the favorite part of all of my projects.  I knew I'd be making decorations for my wedding, so I started planning those right away and I decided to do my centerpieces and backdrop.  We invited around 200 guests (I was freaking out at this number), but had 120 accept (was much happier with this!).  So for our 16 tables and long head table I bought a mixture of 23 vases from the Dollar Tree; larger vases that flared out slightly at the top, and small cylinder vases for all the guest tables.  I also bought floating candles online and along with the flowers I mentioned in Part 1, I also got stems of lily grass.  We filled the small vases with water, several stems of lily grass, and placed floating candles on top.  Those went on each table, one for our memory candle, and one on the cake table.  I used a couple of the larger vases on the head table and placed flowers in them.
Est. Time: Centerpieces- Vases w/candles 30-40 mins (depending on water pressure haha). 

Behind the head table we also had a backdrop, and this was my favorite project!  I searched online to find a tutorial on how to make your own backdrop.  I found one for a photographer backdrop, and just tweaked the measurements a little.  To make it I got 4- 1 in. x 10 ft. PVC pipes, several fittings, and then got to cutting.  It ended up being about 6.5 ft tall, and 10 ft wide.  For the the fabric, I got 4 sheer curtain panels, one long curtain scarf, and lots of tulle.  And the light were free, I just used my folks Christmas lights.  I had my aunt help me assemble the poles, and then I went to work on wrapping the side poles with tulle.  I put on the sheers and cut holes along the top in certain places to attach the lights to the pole.  You can sort of see why I wanted a backdrop, because there was a door behind us that led to a storage room.  So if you were looking at us from the front, which most of our guests were, I wanted the door to be gone!  Altogether, I think I spent about $40 on the whole backdrop.
Est. Time: Backdrop Cutting & Initial Assembly-1.5 hours; Event Day Assembly w/decorations-45 mins or less.  

Backdrop all lit up!

The Hair Accessory

After looking around for the perfect veil and finding out that it was going to cost me over $100.  I said "Umm, no!" and moved on.  The next thing I found was this beautiful hair piece that had crystals made to look like flowers, and it was just sparkly and gorgeous!  Still it was expensive, and I chose not to get it.  So I thought, "I'll make my own."  In the end I'm much happier that I did, because a veil would have been out of place.  The flower just went better with my dress and our setting, since we had our ceremony and reception in the same place.  I purchased ivory satin, a hair comb, and some faux crystals to make my flower.  In the end, I spent about $20 at the most on my hair flower. Est. Time: 2.5 hours.

The Guest Book

There were so many unique ideas I found for guest books, but I decided to stay somewhat traditional with our book.  I chose to do a photo guest book with pictures my best friend took of the hubby and I.  To make the book I tried out an online service called Picaboo.  I downloaded their program, inserted my pictures, added some pages for guest names, and put in some cute little quotes.  Loved it!  What's even better is that Picaboo now offers lay flat pages, wish they had them last year but oh well.  
Est. Time: All day haha...I'm a perfectionist so this one took me a while to get it right.  May take several hours, depending on the detail.

So those are basically all the projects I did for my wedding.  I thought I'd show you pictures of some other little projects, and our simple yet lovely cake (did not DIY the cake as planned, thank god!!).
Est. Time: Painted Initials-3 hours; Flower Girl Pom-2.5 hours.

hand painted initials

handmade flower girl pom

Hope you enjoyed my DIY wedding.  Did you have one of your own? Or would you like me to do a tutorial on a certain project? Let me know, I love comments!