DIY Wedding Ideas {From Our Wedding}

Today, we are celebrating our THIRD wedding anniversary!  In honor of the Big Day I thought I would walk down memory lane and share some of our DIY wedding Ideas with you. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about our wedding, it was perfect and I wish I could do it all over again!

When I was little, I always had the dream of making my own wedding dress but that didn’t quite pan out. I’m still kinda sad that I didn’t do it, but we did A LOT of other projects to make up for it (and I LOVED my dress). I am a very detail oriented person and I wanted every detail of our wedding to be perfect and cohesive, which resulted in a lot of DIY projects. I’m so glad we took the time to do them, not only did they add a personal touch but they saved us $$$ too!

1. Custom Wedding Linens

After meeting with several rental companies we quickly discovered that renting overlays and chair covers was going to cost us a way more than we wanted to spend. PLUS I couldn’t find table linens in the right shade of champagne. SO we made them. Because I was working full-time and busy with other wedding details, my mom did all of the work on these. Not only did she make the overlays, but also the chair ties and ties for the tent. My mom is kind of amazing like that.

We found the fabric at Joanne’s and went back week after week so we could use a 20% 50% off coupon on all of the fabric. The whole process took many many many hours, but it saved us a ton of money and we have reused the table lays for several events since then. Good thing champagne is a neutral color because we will be using them for years to come!

2. Candy Buffet Table

Let me fill you in on a little secret. I like LOVE candy. I’m mildly obsessed actually. Gummy, sour candies are my favorite to be exact. So for my Big Day I wanted to share my favorite thing with all of our guests! We purchased all of the vases at a variety of stores and bought them with either a coupon or on sale. For the display we placed boxes in a variety of sizes under the table lays to create a tiered effect. I also made display signs for each flavor.

3. Ring Bearer Pillows

Why buy a $40 ring bearer pillow when you can make one for $5? I had two ring bearers and the thought of spending $80 on two pillows killed me (seriously, why is wedding stuff so expensive?). For the pillows I bought white silk shantung fabric and added a champagne accent to match the rest of the wedding theme. The brooches cost me nada because they actually came off my bridesmaid dresses. I didn’t care for them much on the dresses but they sure spiced up these pillows!

4. Flower Girl Baskets

The same scenario goes for the flower girl baskets, they were way too expensive and I couldn’t find anything that I was in love with. The baskets were very simple to make. I bought two wicker baskets for a few dollars at Michaels and wrapped them in the same silk shantung fabric that I used for the ring bearer pillows. Then, I wrapped the handles in a champagne ribbon and added a few loose bows to top it off.

5. Hidden Treasures in My Bouquet

Family is extremely important to me, so when I found out my grandma wasn’t going to make it to our wedding I wanted to find a way to have her with me. Very few people knew this, but inside my bouquet I attached tiny picture frames that held photos of both my grandmas and my mom on their wedding day. It was a very special touch and I loved knowing that each of them was actually walking down the aisle with me!

6. Tears of Joy

To make sure our guests didn’t smudge their makeup with all those tears, we provided each lady with a tissue “For Your Tears of Joy”. I bought the paper in bulk and printed the saying along with our wedding date on each paper, folded them to make a little pocket and inserted a tissue that represented our wedding theme.

7. Dinner Menu

The minute your guests start to fill the reception hall what is the first thing on their mind, FOOD! At least mine always is! To keep my guests informed, I printed a small menu and placed it at each place setting. I purchased the paper in bulk to save money and then printed the menus at home. I used a chocolate-brown paper for the border and a champagne color for the menu. Super inexpensive and just adds something extra!

Special thank you to Azzura Photography for our amazing wedding photos and Flora Nova for our beautiful flowers.