Craft:

I'm due to get married in September and have been keeping as much of it handmade (and homemade) as possible. I've been blogging about the decorations I've been making, and most recently, the shrugs I've been knitting for my bridesmaids.

As I go along, I've been working on a hand-drawn zine compiling all my sources, inspiration and even some tutorials for making similar bits and pieces so other brides can make their big day that little more personal.

I'll be even more gripped than usual to this month's posts on Craftzine.com, you really couldn't have timed it better!

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Posted by: TrishR on June 2, 2009 at 9:14 AM

I got married on the beach last July and since my husband had a large family who was willing to get hands on, they supplied us with a ton of stuff that saved us money.

His mom made simple hemmed runners of our turquoise color of choice for the tables so all we had to rent were the tables themselves and plain white linens. On top of the tables, his aunt displayed a large piece of driftwood across the center of the runner with various shells, starfish, coral, votive candles, and a little sand. We spent $0 on big flower arrangements for the tables, everyone loved the centerpieces, and you could actually converse with the people on the other side without looking around the standard tall centerpieces. Everything was pulled from things family already had so the only $ spent on it was for the candles.

I found a pattern for small Chinese takeout boxes and added pictures and words on their sides in photoshop. We copied it on card stock in various shades of blue and tan and crafted approx 200 of them for favor boxes. His mom once again came through and made chocolate seashells for them which were so very tasty and very cute!!! Once again, a big hit and a personalized favor without the big bucks. It was a little time consuming, but I spent only $20 on the paper and string for the handles. A lot of places offer pre-made boxes in various colors you can fill with whatever candy, etc. you like.

The invitations were ordered through David's Bridal but instead of purchasing a fold out invitation with stuffers for directions (it was an out-of-town wedding), I used some of the previously mentioned card stock to create a 1/8" boarder around the invitation (make sure it still fits the envelope) and made a pocket attached to it to hold the extra pieces of paper with information that we designed and printed at home. We also created a mail-merge list on the computer to address the envelopes and found the font used on the invitations to use for it. A lot less expensive than using a calligrapher!

The bouquets were all made from white hydrangeas, smaller bunches for the bridesmaids and a larger one for myself. All were tied together with turquoise ribbon (white for mine). I also took a family tree with small frames and dissected it to connect all the frames with wire to my bouquet. In the frames, I put pictures of all our grandparents/loved ones who were no longer with us. My husband's grandmother passed away earlier that year and we wanted to pay tribute to her and my grandparents who already passed. The boutineers were simple orchids with a leaf from the hydrangea behind them to hide the wire that helped them stand up and the corsages were a mix of hydrangea, orchid and small green berries and small turquoise bows. All the flowers were purchased in bulk from Costco.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something and I had tons of other ideas as well, but time ran out :) I have pictures I can share for anyone interested.

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I'm excited for this. I am planning on doing my own bouquets for me and my bm's.

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I'd love to see cratfy ideas for center pieces, bouquets or non-floral things for bridesmaids to carry, decor, and favors. Hair pieces and veils would be nice too! Thanks :)

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