Wedding in Review: All the Projects

To wrap up the Wedding Wednesdays, I wanted to provide a wrap-up post of all the projects!  I hope they've inspired you to DIY a few elements of your own wedding, whether it be to personalize, save money, or just to have something to do with friends!

PS: Friends, I still have most of this stuff, so if you'd like to borrow it for your own wedding, just ask!


The DRESS - designed by us and handmade by my Mom

My dress was a hand-beaded, Chantilly lace fit-and-flare gown with a strapless sweetheart neckline and rows and rows of flounces.  It also featured a button-off removable train and beaded belt.

Mismatched Bridesmaid Dresses

Personalized Bridesmaid Robes

Personalized Jewelry for Bridesmaids and Flower Girls

Flower Girl Dresses

American Girl Dresses to Match the Flower Girls

Flower Girl Baskets

Ring Bearer Pillow (made from leftover dress fabric)

Invitation Suite

Thank You Notes

RSVP Map

Will You Be My Bridesmaid Paper Doll Cards

Wreaths for the Chapel

Hydrangea Bouquets

Peony Bouquet and Ranunculus Boutonnieres

Ribbon Wands

Pennants

Pennant Cake Topper

Chair Ribbons

Ribbon Table Runners

Coastal Centerpieces Made From Lantern, Chrome Shells, and Coral

Chrome Coral Table Number Holders

Name Buttons

Photo Guest Book 

Cloth Napkins for Favors

Save-A-Guest Kit

Dancing Shoes

Bonnie Projects

Glitzy Holiday Monogram Wreath

Inspired by a photo on Pinterest, my first holiday project this year is a glitzy, sparkly monogram for my new last name!

This project was inexpensive and super easy!  It's also a fun project to do with kids as young as 6.  Here's how I did it.

Materials:

• A letter cut-out.  These are available at the craft store.  I didn't like the size or shape of the available "M's," so I cut my own out of a piece of leftover plywood using a jigsaw.
• Craft paint in silver or gold
• Balls.  I took apart four floral stems with glittery berries on them, as well as a strand of beaded garland.  You can also use Mardi Gras beads.
• Craft glue
• Ribbon

What to do:

• If you're making your own letter, draw the shape on a piece of wood.  Cut out using a jigsaw, and lightly sand the edges.
• Attach hangers to the back of the letter if desired.  Do this before attaching the balls - if you do it after, you risk crushing the beads.  I used a fencing staple as my hanger. {yes, I did do this project at our family farm!}

• Paint the letter with silver or gold craft paint.  This way you don't see wood through the spaces between the beads.

• While that's drying, remove the berries from the steps and cut the beads apart.  I put mine in a large frisbee and mixed them up so they'd be random.
• Start gluing the balls to the letter using craft glue.  I made sure to mix up big and small, silver and gold, to create a look of controlled randomness.  I made sure to use lots of the Mardi Gras type beads because I had more of them and they're cheaper.  I couldn't completely cut the strings off of them, but once they were glued down, you could hardly see them, and with so much going on they're not noticeable.

• Don't do one whole side at once.  I did each corner before filling in between them so that if I ran out of one kind of ball it wouldn't be obvious.  It turns out I had exactly the perfect number of balls, a none of the ones from the stems were leftover.

•  Let the glue dry completely.

•  Add a pretty bow and hang!

This project took 2-3 hours to complete (it's hard to be exact on the time, because my cousins got interested in it and wanted help making their own).  It cost about $15, which includes the floral stems, beads, ribbon, paint, and glue, but not the wood (thank you Michael's half-price Christmas sale!).

If you have Mardi Gras beads, wood, glue, and paint on hand, you could do it for free, like we did for the kids!

I’m sharing this at the Dare to DIY party hosted by Decor and the Dog, Maybe Matilda, Newly Woodwards, and Two Twenty One!

Autumn Yarn Wreath

Last year I saw this amazing wreath on Pinterest, and vowed I'd make one of my own this year.

Argyle Wreath by Itz Fitz

Because I have a lot of other projects going on right now, I looked into buying it on Etsy.  At $45, it's reasonably priced.  I was really inspired by the other wreaths in the sellers shop - they're beautiful!

Yarn Wreaths by Itz Fitz

My only qualm was that the ones I really liked were only 12" in diameter and I felt like they would be too small for our door.  Solution: DIY!

I started with a 16" extruded styrofoam wreath from Michael's.  These forms are really skinny, so I beefed it up a little with strips I cut from quilt batting.  I used about a yard of quilt batting, cut into 4" strips.  I wound these around the form, making a total of three layers.

Next I gently wrapped a thick, chunky yarn around and around the padded form.  I took the whole skein of yarn to cover the entire wreath!

Yarn wrapped wreath

yarn wrapped wreath

To add some quirky fun to the wreath, I made some flowers from wire-edged ribbon.  I pulled the wire on one edge to gather up the ribbon, then rolled it up to make roses.  This was incredibly easy and required zero sewing.  Score!

roses made from wired ribbon

My spool of ribbon had enough yardage to make three flowers.  I hot glued the flowers onto the wreath.  I nabbed some feathers from a hideous floral arrangement that was left in our house by the last owners and was destined for the trash.

bunched feathers

I accentuated the flowers with the feathers by hot gluing them in place.

yarn wreath with ribbon flowers and feathers

And that was that!  Time for the front door!

autumn yarn wreath with ribbon flowers and feathers

autumn yarn wreath with ribbon flowers and feathers

I'm so happy I tried this project!  It turned out exactly like I had imagined it.  It took about one hour and cost less than $20 for all the materials.  What a great kickoff to the season.

How are you decorating for fall?