Over the weekend my husband and I celebrated our wedding anniversary. I had planned to share how we met but my husband "didn't want our story floating around the internet". So, I thought I would share about some of the items I made for our wedding.I apologize now for the pictures. The only good pictures we have are in our wedding album which would be difficult to scan.
For the favors, we gave out chopsticks. I printed our names/date on vellum an tied the tags with mizuhiki cord. I think I was up until 3:00 in the morning making these the night before my wedding. Can you say procrastination.
I made my wedding veil. When I went shopping for veils I thought the prices were outrageous. And so, the true do it yourself attitude came out. The veil came out okay, it could have been better. I'll leave it at that.
My mother setting up the place cards.Did you have a DIY wedding? What did you make? Please share with us.
49 comments:
Ooh, what fun! I love your dress, by the way, I had a picture of one very similar cut out of a magazine in my "I like these!" pile. :)
We had a DIY wedding that was very simple. My favorite thing we did was my DIY bouquet -- since it was such a small wedding (about 22 people in attendance), I had every guest pick up a rose on their way in. Then when I came in, I went up to each person and they handed me their rose. One by one, I gathered the wishes and blessings of my loved ones together. Finally, my ten-year-old daughter handed me the last rose, which had a ribbon tied to it, and I bound all the roses together. And that was my bouquet! Yeah, I think I'm going to cry all over again just typing that out... :)
Laura,
I think I'm going to cry reading that story! I love that you put so much thought, heart, and creativity into a bouquet! What a wonderful wedding memory. Thank you for sharing.
lovely pictures and your dress is beautiful. we got married in Cambodia, (didn't want to upset my English family or his Japanese one!) I drew the design for my dress and worked with a dressmaker to get it all put together, I wanted the neckline beading and she couldn't do that so I did it myself, not that I had ever beaded anything before in my life! I also made fans for the guests since it would be hot and had our wedding details on one side and the itinary on the other, it was a lot of fun and i am glad I did it 'my' way :o)
I made my veil also, for the same reason you did, with the same results. It worked, but cost about 3 dollars instead of 50.
I got married by a ship's captain, at sea.
Ooooh, I believe one should make at least one item by themselves for their wedding, makes it even more special.
For mine, I designed the wedding invites and each one had a pop up flower in it (no joke cos our custom and tradition invite a lot of people, we're talking 600 cards I had to put together). I made my own beaded hair pins so it looked like I had drops of pearls in my hair. I beaded my veil (it belonged to my sister when she got married ten years ago, it looked a bit plain, heh) I arranged and decorated the dower I was giving. And I made 100 origami flowers for my family members to wear during the wedding.
Totally enjoyed it :-D
This is such a wonderful way to share such a special memory....very personal (as each wedding is so unique) but not too personal!
I don't like traditional American weddings, so we did a lot of things ourselves. I made my dress (eyelet was in that year), the flower girl's dress, the invitations, and some other things. My mother did all of the floral arrangements using nice fake flowers as well as the reception decor (picnic themed). It turned out lovely despite my parents' apprehension; however, my favorite thing about it was that we sent out quilt squares with the invitations for everyone to personalize and bring back to the wedding (I am still working on making the quilt...)!
Your dress is gorgeous. You looked very beautiful.
I had a very diy wedding due to not having much money. I made my own invites and thank you cards. I took in and let out the bridesmaid's dresses myself, made the flowergirls dress, did the flower arranging for the church, made the bouquets and buttonholes, made pewends with led tealights. Think that was it!
I also got my cousin to do our hair, and the church choir I sing with sang at the wedding. So it was a very personal affair.
I also had a DIY wedding, mostly done by my mother and friends because I was in Japan and they were all in South Africa. I sketched the dresses for myself and the brides maids, and a friend of mine knocked them up. My mother-in-law beaded necklaces for us. My mother did all the invites and programmes herself, and they did all the table settings with silver spray-painted candelabras and green ivy from my parent's garden. The whole thing only cost about 1000 dollars in total.
Just to say that you are beautiful! You look like a retro-actress :)
We did everything for the wedding. I made the invites, all the favors, a lot of the food (the rest was a potluck), we set everything up and took it all down after. The things we didn't do ourselves were gifts to us. The photography was a gift, our cake was a gift (carrot cake, yummy!), our kareoke party after was a gift ;). I too made my veil and bouquet but my dress was recycled from a friend and I did the alterations and hand cleaned it (it was terribly stained). Our entire wedding cost under $1000, which was mostly for the hall rental, DH's new tux and table things plus travelling since we married out of town but our reception and ring exchange ceremony was in our hometown.
Everyone said it was the best wedding ever! 10 years later we're still reminded of aspects of it that was great by friends and family :)
I love handmade weddings too! I handmade the bonbonierre bags that housed the personalised rock candy (that stuff was so addictive!). It said Amber (loveheart) Chris. Sweet! I handmade all the wedding invites using flower punches, and the felted vase covers. I just did a post on these the other day, funnily enough! www.mamamoontime.com
I also prepared a hand made scrapbook and everyone had to do a creative page (we supplied the crayons, pencils, stickers, tags, glitter, glue, and took a photo of each couple to add to the page later). Even the guys got into making their page!! It meant we had a finished scrapbook by the end of the night, with everyone's heart felt wishes and dreams written down. Lovely!
I made my veil too; I used the money I would have spent on a veil to buy my sewing machine, then made a "practice" veil and the final version for about $10. Best money I have ever spent...with three little girls I am sewing all the time.
Even though he could afford it, I didn't want to ask my dad to pay for our wedding. It was 1973, but the whole thing cost about $100 - this included my dress (sewn by my mother from a Vogue pattern), shoes,invitations (I made my own), cake (from a local bakery), bouquet and flowers (from a local florist), candles and kneeler rental. We had a studio portrait made (not included in the $100) and my brother-in-law took photos, which turned out quite well.
It was a simple wedding and it suited us very well. We began our married life with no debt.
yeah the dress was amazing! I love the fact that your wedding reminded me so much of mine and how much organisation the whole thing took - was well worth it in the end!
yeah the dress was amazing! I love the fact that your wedding reminded me so much of mine and how much organisation the whole thing took - was well worth it in the end!
I didn't really make anything for my wedding, but it was a "village" effort:
A family friend made my wedding dress and my bridesmaid dress. Her daughter did all the real flowers. My mom did my headband and the fake flowers. My maid of honor made her own dress. My brother-in-law made our invitations. Another friend of the family was our bartender. My mom used the fact of our wedding to install a gazebo and a small fish pond that she'd wanted for years. It really took a village to get it done, but it was lovely.
I made the bouquets, the wedding favors, the invitations, the thank you cards (stamping was big then, I was too cheap to buy a heat gun so I held the cards over the stove to emboss, hehe.) My grandmother made the cake and we all did the food. Everyone took pictures (disposable cameras mainly) and my grandmother video taped it. My great grandfather (who was a minister) married us. It was so fun having everyone involved and it made the wedding so special (and we were able to start out our married life debt free.)
I never had romantic notions about weddings as a little girl, so when my husband got down on bended knee, I thought he was looking for something under the couch! We eloped with just his parents as guests/witnesses since we just wanted something very low-key and fun. My dress was a vintage, pale yellow silk sheath I picked up for $3 over the summer, and I proceeded to add pearl buttons and silk thread closures along the slit bodice, took up the hem (since I'm so short!), and sewed delicate lace as trim. My husband made our rings out of 2 silver dimes ... he was in my room early the morning of our ceremony still sizing my ring! We had "found" mine earlier in the year when we were walking through a parking garage on our way out of work. Mine still has the date visible--1907, which is 90 years older than the year we got married--and the word "UNITED". It was such a lovely day for us despite being windy and November. If we hadn't decided to just go ahead and get married two weeks after he proposed, I might have done more, but I don't regret a single thing about that day.
Holy macaroni, you are so beautiful! I wish I had more of a DIY wedding, but it wasn't a priority back then like it would be now. My mother did make beautifully blown and decorated eggs as favors, which could be used as Christmas ornaments.
Happy Anniversary! You looked absolutely beautiful and radiant!
We did a completely DIY wedding at our home 5 years ago. We made the invites from Japanese paper (and announcements), flowers were bulk purchased- my SIL and I made centerpieces and little corsages/boutonnieres for the guests the night before, cake was a family recipe made by my husband's grandmother, my husband made his special boeuf bourguignon for the guests... it was a really small (30 people), intimate wedding and we were so happy to have made it special by doing most of it ourselves.
Thank you for your post which helped me relive our special day!
By the way, I wanted to tell you that your dress was very lovely, something I definitely would have chosen for myself if I had wanted a bigger affair. The chopsticks were also such a charming idea ... my relatives would have loved it, though my mom would have said bamboo is better for everyday. My sister did have a huge, traditional Vietnamese wedding with all the dress changes and speeches and stress; she still talks about how she didn't enjoy the day at all. You look very happy in your pictures, and happy anniversary too!
beautiful picture! We made the invitations, programs, veil, decorated my shoes, painted the pots for the plant centerpieces, made the paper to make the bookmark favors, I think that's it. It was crazy.
Mine was so DIY that I nearly did my own cake, and not because I wanted to, but finances dictated it. My folks weren't keen on me getting married, so they didn't offer to cover any expenses until the last moment.
Let's see, I did my dress, veil, all the bridal flowers and everything for anyone in the wedding or related. I did the toasting glasses and cake server, and all this was done an paid for in 9 month's time.
In the end, what mattered was the marriage, not the fancies expended on one day. It will be 24 years for us this May. We've been to some pretty expensive, showy weddings in our time, but so very few of them are still married. I like to think simple is (still) best.
You are stunning. I love the great things you shared. We were pretty DYI too, college students. We had a NW wedding, evergreen boughs & christmas lights, I refashioned my mother's wedding dress that my dad's great-aunt made her. and tried to copy my grandmother's wedding veil with paper flowers. Thanks for sharing.
we had a diy wedding. printed and designed our invitations, my mother-in-law hand-embossed them, we did our pew decorations, the altar flowers, and we decorated our reception hall. it was so much fun, and people are still talking about our lovely wedding, ten years later.
I made our invites, programs, table numbers and seating cards. My sister and best friend arranged the flower centerpieces and our bouquets.
My favorite though was our favors. Since I like to bake, my mom, MIL, best friend and I all made various types of cookies, and we had a cookie buffet at our reception. Guests could choose their own cookies and take them home in vellum bags we provided.
Oh, I forgot abour our guestbook. We designed and made preprinted pages with various boxes for guests to draw a picture of themselves, write how they new the bride or groom, give advice etc. Then we assembled them all into a scrapbook. I love to go back and read it!
A colleague had a diy wedding a few months ago:
http://olivetreegirl.blogspot.com/2009/09/blog-post.html
Btw I absolutely can't believe that was your mom in the photo!
Fantaisiste,
I'm guessing you're saying that because she looks young? I've been hearing that all my life. People would always think we were sisters or even worse, twins. Now, I see it as a blessing. If I'm lucky, I'll inherit those genes.
Since we're on the topic, here's a funny story. The day my engagement was announced at my husband's church, my mother came to visit. Someone came up and congratulated her thinking she was the bride to be!
I love your wedding pic! <3
Looks so romantic! <3
You look so gorgeous even though you were up so late the night before your wedding!
If it were me, my panda eyes would have been very very visible! :P
I think the veil came out lovely! <3 I think it is always better making small gifts and invitations on our own :) Makes it more personal <3
my sister in law and i made a billion (well maybe a few less) paper cranes for the table settings at her wedding. There was one crane on each plate and it looked amazing. the ceiling was filled with paper lanterns and she held a large chinese painted umbrella for the wedding photos. Beautiful wedding for a beautiful girl. xx
That's so romantic. Very interesting stuff you have for your wedding. Thanks for sharing. :) You have given me some ideas indeed.
Alexander
Alex's World! - http://www.kakinan.com/alex
Our wedding was on a shoe string. I used my mother's veil to create my own. I made our own cake topper. Our cake was made by a family friend as her gift to us. Using the shortened portion of my dress, I made a bag to hold cards. We made all of the table favors (M&Ms in toule). I am sure there was more. Our out of pocket expenses were less than $500 and that included the cost of my wedding dress, rings, and tux rental!
I've never posted to you before but I just wanted to say that I had the exact same dress for my wedding. Looks lovely on you!!
I had a few DIY elements in our wedding. I made our programs, gift tags for our personalized Jones Soda bottles. I also made scrapbook pages for the guests to sign instead of a traditional guest book. I almost made flower pens to go with the scrapbook pages. I had so much fun doing these things myself, and it saved money!
we had quite a bit of help for our wedding beginning with my aunt that did all our floral arrangements and bouquets (she had a florist shop before retiring).
But what shocked me in seeing your pictures is seeing the dress! I wore the same dress almost 10 years ago, an Oleg Cassini that I'll admit you wear much more picturesquely.
http://maricucu.blogspot.com/2009/08/9-years-ago-today.html
For our favors my uncle brought over little mini fans from Spain and I printed up tags on the computer to then attach. Quite a fortunate favor considering our wedding was outdoors in August in South FLorida.
You look great in the pictures.
I love your photos! Our wedding was 16 years ago and ended up being really simple. Everything that could go wrong ahead of time, DID go wrong. We moved and had to change venues TWICE...once within a couple weeks of the wedding.
In the end, I made all the decorations for the tables, the Church doors, aisles, the reception table, and the little birdseed sachets. I also ended up doing my own hair because I didn't know anyone in the new town we had just moved too. I made my own veil because I couldn't find one I liked.
We had to use silk flowers because the season was wrong for the ones we intended to use and when we changed venues, we couldn't get the florist we had originally chosen to deliver there!
After wards, I made wreaths for my participants using the flowers from my bouquet and the reception table.
When I look back, I am so thankful that our marriage has been much smoother than the wedding!
I wanted to DIY my wedding, but I didn't go back to Japan until a week before my wedding. When I though I had to bring everything I made from NY back to Japan, I gave up.The only part I DIY were my own invites and thank you cards. Wanted to do the favors too, but didn't want to bring a big suite case, so...
You are amazing! And you were so beautiful!
happy anniversary! Beautiful wedding!
I "did" have a diy wedding...and thanks for the ides to share...I'll post mine next month for ours.. :)
Thank you to everyone for leaving such wonderful stories. I've read and enjoyed every single one of them! I
I read this post the other day and didn't have time to respond.
Just wanted to say what a beautiful bride you made! Everything looked so lovely!
I did a few diy things...made the ring bearer pillow (at the time I hardly knew how to sew), decorated the reception (at a train depot roundhouse) myself and put on a tiny bridesmaid lunch that I made everything myself. Everything was pretty simple, but not all done by me. :)
Beautiful! And such great DIY ideas!
Your dress is fabulous. I had a very DIY wedding. We were both in college full time and working part time so we made it work. I made my own veil, too, and the decor for the small chapel. It was simple and beautiful...and here I am almost 16 years later and i still wouldn't have changed a thing!
Beautiful photos! I love all your DIY projects!!
I made our invitations, rubber stamping and vellum. My Mom made my bouquet out of fake flowers, so I still have it, she also baked & decorated our cake. We made favors, with plastic spoons, 2 hershey kisses in each spoon, wrapped in tulle with a little tag that said "A spoonful of kisses from the new Mr. & Mrs." Our theme was Hershey kisses and our colors were lavender and silver. It was a small wedding, but lots of fun and of course, full of memories!
wow....the effort you've put into your wedding amazes me :)....you are very pretty and I love your wedding dress :)
My husband is Japanese, too. I went with a red,black and white theme. We filled some bowls with goldfish and surrounded them with orchids. Black tablecloth and red glitter surrounding it was quite a pretty site. Super cheap. We had someone making the cakes, a friends mom made my bouquet, and the church reception hall was free. We spend less than $100 on everything including our invitations and pictures (all taken for free)...less than $500 if we consider the dress. The one splurge. I love your fun ideas.
How beautiful!
I made my dress, all hand-sewn. I made bobbin lace for the back of the dress, and my mother made a crocheted lace edging for my handkerchief and my sister crocheted lace for my shoes, and my grandmother gave me a doily she had crocheted to go around my flowers, and the lace on the front of my dress was tatted by my great grandmother, and my veil (which I wore as a shawl, it's a square, six feet across) belonged to my great-great grandmother, back in Ireland. I made my own pearl bobby pins and did my own hair. We bought flowers from a farmer and made the bouquets and boutonnieres, my dad made crossword puzzles for the favors, and I made one for the rehearsal dinner. Also I wrote the ceremony, not exactly from scratch but from dozens of sources.
Thanks for sharing Amanda :)
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