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Lately, I’ve been obsessed with DIY wedding stationery. Not only is it a great way to stick to a tight budget, but what better way to give your guests a sneak peek at your wedding style? And whether you’re going the print-at-home kit route, or cutting blank cardstock for your own creations, your invites don’t have to look plain. It’s easy to use decorative elements to pack a punch and add a bit of personal flair. After all, your wedding should be your own!
The source of my inspiration is this lovely invitation envelope. While the paper itself is your standard white and brown, it gets prettied up with vintage-style stamps and a touch of lace, both of which are easy to achieve.
Let’s start with the lace edges. The practical side of me wonders how the delicate lace on the outside envelope would hold up in the mail. A nice alternative might be to use paper doilies instead — you achieve the same effect, but with more strength. And did I mention doilies are super cheap? (You can find packs of 30 for about $2-3 each.) If you need a little direction on how to cut and position the doilies, here’s a great DIY tutorial.
On to stamps. While there are plenty of custom postage designs on the web to choose from, they require a little more dough than you’d spend at the post office (usually double or more). And when you tally up all the stamps you’ll need to buy — for save-the-dates, invites, reply cards, and thank-you cards…well, let’s not get into how much all those custom stamps would be! That’s why it was refreshing to find that the pretty stamps on the inspiration envelope can be purchased through the post office…at every-day stamp prices. Yay!
Featuring pretty herbs, you can mix and match these 29-cent stamps at your pleasure.
If vintage and flora aren’t quite your style, the “Love: King and Queen”designs are a good bet, and less ho-hum than the Wedding Roses and Rings designs.
Or maybe you’re an unconventional bride, and you’d rather have and “pretty” isn’t a concern to you. With an open mind, you’ll find the post office carries many other choices. You might like something a little quirky, like the Mark Twain design, or even American Scientists. Neat!
How are you making your stationery special? If you’re going the DIY route, what special touches do you think you’ll add?
Yo, home-dizzles! Ready for more wedding-liciousness to ogle until your eyeballs pop? Welll … Shannon and Ross had a sweet, purple-infused beach wedding in Brewster, Mass. When I first looked at their photos, I instantly recognized the gloriousness that is Cape Cod. I instantly got uber excited, since the Cape holds a super special place in my heart. I hope y’all enjoy this sweet, fun and DIY-explosion of a wedding! xoxo
How would you describe your wedding: Our wedding with traditional with a bit of spice!! We had the wedding party as well as my dad and I, dance down the aisle to Chris Brown’s “Forever.” We also decided to go with cupcakes instead of the traditional cake.
What was your favorite part of your wedding? One of my favorite parts of the wedding was getting a photo booth to use as part of our guest favors. All of our guests had soo much fun in the booth. We had it set up so two strips would print. The guest keeps one copy and the second copy was glued into a scrapbook and the guests signed next to their pictures. It will be a great book to look back on.
What did you splurge on? We splurged on our location. We really wanted a destination wedding, but knew that a lot of our family wouldn’t be able to attend and we didn’t want that. So we picked a location that was close enough to drive, but still had the destination wedding feel. Our wedding was a beach theme and we were able to have our ceremony right on the water.
What did you save on? We saved on so many different parts of the wedding. By spending the bulk of our money on the resort, we had to be creative with everything else. One of my favorite things I saved money on was my wedding dress. I had gone dress shopping and found so many gorgeous dresses, but couldn’t see myself spending $1,000 or more on something I’m going to only wear for a few hours. I went on eBay and found a lady that had some really cute designs and that makes dresses custom fit. I decided to take the risk, and was more than glad I did. Including shipping, I only spent $200.
We decided to go with artificial flowers for our centerpieces. I Googled pictures of what other people have done with a beach theme and then went to Michaels and got everything to do myself. We saved thousands!! I had met with a florist prior to get an estimate and was told it would cost around $2,000. Our biggest savings yet, was definitely our photographer, Amanda Borozinski. I met her at a bridal show at Hidden Hills in Rindge, N.H. A two-minute conversation and I knew right away she was going to be our photographer!! Her personality and style of photography was everything we wanted. I showed my husband her website and he agreed! We met her for our engagement pictures and her and I began to talk about my love for photography. She mentioned that she was looking for someone to help edit and that it would be a great opportunity for me to learn more about the field. I was more than excited. I started working for Amanda and we came to an agreement that I would work to pay her work instead of writing her a check. This was amazing!! I loved the job and didn’t even consider it work!!
Was there anything you would have done differently, in retrospect? We would have planned the dance down the aisle better for the ceremony instead of just winging it.
What was your biggest challenge in planning? Staying within our budget.
What lessons did you learn from planning or from the wedding itself? No matter how prepared you think you are … there’s always going to be one little thing that was missed. You can’t stress and you just have to roll with the punches!!
What were your top 5 favorite things about your wedding?
1.) The photo booth
2.) The party bus that brought us all back to the hotel
3.) The location
4.) The food
5.) Being able to spend the night with all of our friends and family!!!
Least favorite?
We did open bar for everyone one the guest list for the first hour and it wasn’t announced, so not many people knew.
What was the worst piece of wedding advice you received?
The worst piece of advice we received was to elope.
The best? The best advice we received was to not settle. You only get married once, enjoy it!!!
Any other bits of wisdom? Search the Internet for everything. There are discounts and coupons on just about everything made!! Why pay full price if you don’t have too?
Budget breakdown?
Reception Site: Ocean Edge Resort, $15,016.02
Ceremony Site: Beach, $750.00
Photographer: Amanda Borozinski, $0.00
Dress: eBay
Tux: Express, $300.00
Hair: $0.00
Officiant: JP Marie, Sherman $140.00
Flowers, centerpieces: Michaels, $300.00
Flowers Boutques: Colls Farm Stand, Jaffrey N.H., $206.00
Cake: Family friend, Donna Clark, $150.00
DJ: Jim Bean, $800.00
Invitations $30.00
Save the Dates: Save the Date Magnet $140.00
Paper/Ribbo:n $20.00
Postage: $110.00
Favors: Candy, $200.00
Gifts: $600.00
Misc.: $200.00
Cake Topper: Etsy
Party Bus: Access Express, $1,024.00
Photo Booth: Red Eye Phtototh, $871.25
Total $20,857.27
Bride Parents Helped $5,000.00
Our Total $15,857.27
The Broke-Ass Bride is always looking for rad-tastic Broke-Ass weddings to feature. Interested? You can submit via Two Bright Lights or by emailing us directly!
It’s a new year, which means it’s time for new videos! Last year we made a bunch of fun craft and advice videos, and now a whole new batch are done and ready to share. Hunter and I get pretty silly this time around
First up: How to Make DIY Fabric Poms for your wedding or event!
Special thanks to our friends Shabby Apple for my pretty dress, and ban.do for the Heart Headband! Love.
(PS: Shabby Apple is having a store-wide sale right now! 20% off, enter code NEWYEAR at checkout)
And for extra-easy reference, here’s how it all goes down…
Materials Needed:
♥ Yarn
♥ Hands
♥ Scissors
Why poms?
Poms are kind of a no-brainer for budget, handmade-chic weddings, bridal shower, or any event! It’s a quick, fun craft that allows you to add interesting accents to your decor without spending much money at all.
You can scatter them around your wedding, string them up in the venue like a bunting, or put them on clips in your hair or belt. Heck, you can even use them for a toss alternative to flower petals! They’re super charming and sweet and you can customize them to any color you desire. It’s a great, simple craft for doing with friends, or during a Veronica Mars marathon. Best of all, they practically cost mere pennies to make.
Step 1: Roll the Yarn Bundle
Take bundles of yarn in the colors you want, which you can easily find at a fabric or crafts store. Using your palm as a measuring device (or your fingers if you happen to have very large palms), wind the yarn around your hand. Keep winding and winding and winding!
When you have a significant bundle of yarn wrapped around your hand (trial and error will help you decide how much you need for poms as bushy as you desire), simply snip the other end of the yarn. It doesn’t need to be precise.
Step 2: Tie & Trim
Carefully remove the yarn bundle from your hand, careful to keep it intact. Then take an extra length of yarn and tie it around the middle of the yarn bundle, like you’re cinching its waistline.
Finally use your scissors to cut through each of the tops of the loops like you see in the video. Then trim all around the pom until you get the length you want, edward scissorhands-style… like you’re trimming a hedge! Voila! You now have simple and easy pom poms to use as your heart desires!
Got a request for a future video? Leave it in the comments or Email Me! And be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel for updates on any new videos we post!
Whaddya think? Will you be making poms for your wedding?
If you’re looking around your broke-ass digs and thinking “Hmmm, how can I make this more holiday-tastic?”, well then you’re in luck! We’re reposting this DIY Christmas classic from last year! ENJOY!
On Thursday, Hunter and I leave to spend 3 weeks in Chicago for the Holidays, so we decided that the space a proper Christmas Tree would take up in our house isn’t really justified considering our lengthy absence. In fact, I’m cool with nixing the traditional tree altogether, at least until we celebrate the holidays here, at our own house. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want any Christmas spirit up in our living room… I’m a sucker for the season! So I had an idea to make a 2-dimensional tree instead, using reclaimed wood, some paint, string bulb lights and ornaments… and we whipped ourselves up an affordable, crafty, reusable and festive space-saving spin on an old tradition!
We found this old cabinet door at our local architectural salvage, for $25. Yeah, we’re eco like that. Plus it adds character! I love the little knob on the side. Its thin enough to suit our drilling purposes (about 1/2″ thick), and can easily be hidden away somewhere after the season until next year.
Hunter, all sexy in his carpenter-artist mode, removed the hinge on the side, and sketched out a tree shape in pencil.
We shopped at a local, indie art store for the art supplies. Paintbrush: $1.99. We used 2 shades of green to add a little pizzaz and contrast. The lighter green paint was a test can for only $3.99, the dark green and brown were $0.75 because we needed so little. We got the lights for $6.50 at Rite Aid.
Once it was dry, Hunter used a wide-gauge drill bit to make holes big enough for the bulb part of the lights. Then he drilled halfway through the backs of the holes with the next-largest bit, so the rear of the hole was wider, but the front narrower.
That way, the fatter light socket could fit through the back of the hole, the thinner bulb could fit through the front, and they could “mate” somewhere in between, thus holding the lights in place juuuuuuuust right. I love those bigger multi-colored lights at Christmastime. They feel so cozy to me!
Then we strategically nailed in some small ball ornaments that we got in tubes of 6 at the dollar store. We went with red, silver and white ones, about the size of golf balls, some matte, some shiny. Cost: $2.00
We thought about painting on a yellow star, but then we had a better idea. Paco’s favorite toy happens to be a stuffed yellow starfish, with a face that seems to say “oh noooooo!” but for our purposes I see it more as Noooooooeeeeeell! (or something). Voila! Our tree:
Total cost: $40.98. Lean, green, and bursting with holiday cheer! We just leaned it up against a bare patch of wall, but I think next year, we’ll hang it!
We absolutely love our kitschy little tree and its warm, cozy glow. Everyone at our holiday parties loved it too. We’re gaining confidence in our ninja crafting skills, little by little…. and this project was pretty darn easy peasy. What do you think? Would you DIY your Christmas Tree?
A couple weeks ago, Hunter and I had the great honor and pleasure of hosting a livestreamed episode of Bridal Wave at the Kenmore Live Studio in Chicago. Bridal Wave is a new webseries that introduces a new bride each week, polls her whole network on typical issues concerning relationships and marriage, and then shares their answers, along with some great wedding planning advice in a tidal wave of bridal advice and support. Their usual host, the fabulous Azure Nelson from OneWed.com was out of town and we were very excited to fill in for her in my lovely hometown.
We’ve never done a live performance of this magnitude, and I was pretty nervous about it, but it turned out to be all kinds of fun! The show’s focus was on DIY weddings, and we had special guest experts Debi Lilly from A Perfect Event and Khris Cochran from DIY Bride join us with some great tips. The people at Kenmore Live Studio couldn’t be nicer, our bride Melanie was adorable beyond belief, and my family and bestie were in the audience. It was a pretty fantabulous time.
And yes, while it was originally streamed live, through the magic of the internets you can all enjoy it at your leisure! Check it out!
I’m back for my third and (sniff, sniff) final installment on the ups and downs, dos and don’t of DIY’ing your own wedding stationery. We’ve already covered the potential pitfalls of DIY, and ways to keep your DIY design fly. But, we realized not all of you want to take on the whole enchilada. So, here are two options for cutting some costs with DIY “lite”.
Printable Stationery
Happy craftin'!
Printable stationery allows you to forgo the design process, but save money by printing and assembling yourself. There are lots of options available for printable stationery, generally breaking down into two groups:
1) Pre-printed, blank card “kits”. You set up files on your computer to print the details of your wedding on the blank areas of each card in the kit. Check out this adorable set from Target!
2) Pre-designed computer files (usually PDF files). Typically files arrive pre-formatted with your wedding details and card graphics ready to print on your home printer. Most print on standard letter-size paper that you must purchase separately and then cut apart after printing. Etsy.com has a HUGE variety of printable wedding invitations and accessories
Sugarflower Design
Some things to keep in mind when considering printable stationery:
a) Are you confident in your home printer to do the job?
b) Does the printable stationery come with sufficient instructions, templates and/or support from the designer to ensure your stationery is printed successfully?
c) What level of proofing for both color and text is supported by the PDF
designer?
d) What materials and tools are required to print, cut and assemble the stationery? Are they supplied, or do you need to find them on your own?
DIY “lite”
You have a limited budget, but you are not interested in designing or
printing your stationery. Consider purchasing low-cost, simple stationery
and spiffing it up with some DIY embellishment. I suggest sticking with
something you’ve done before – particularly if it alters the invitations
themselves (such as watercolor or embossing). Some ideas:
I can haz print job?
1) Hand-cut your own envelope liners. Templates for your envelope size/shape are available online and in craft stores.
2) Apply some well-placed Swarovski crystals to your invitation
3) Purchase a nice, contrasting color of cardstock to “stack” behind your invitation card. Just be sure your envelopes will accommodate the larger backing card!
4) Add a fabric or ribbon “belly band” to hold your cards together.
5) If you are artistic, or have a friend willing to help out, consider some simple watercolor details on your cards.
6) A custom embossing stamp with a pretty emblem or your initials will add some detail to the top of your invitation card or the back flap of your outer envelope.
It’s been a blast my ladies of BrokeAssery. Now, go get your card-on!
Today we’re handing the reigns over to Autumn from Sugarflower Design yet again for another fabulous post! Did you miss Part I? Be sure to check it out here…take it away, Autumn!
You’ve got a plan, now you’re ready to design! Keep in mind some basic design principles to help keep your invites “professional”:
Make an inspiration board!
1) How will you print your stationery? A lot of the technical aspects of the design of your stationery are driven by the printer you use. This is particularly important if you plan to send your invite to a professional printer (digital, offset, letterpress, etc) Files have to be set up in a very specific way for their equipment – often requiring specific kinds of software. If you don’t know how do prepare your files for professional printing, consult a pro OR consider printing at home.
2) We all love a good font, but don’t go craaaazaaay. If you use a heavily
stylized font, use it sparingly and pair it with something simple for the
other text. Two fonts are really enough. Check out Dafont.com for some
great FREE fonts.
Clip art inspiration!
3) Use art wisely. Make sure all photography or clip art is 300 dpi at actual size to print well. Dover Publications makes lots of great clip art books, many with CD’s included of the art already formatted and ready to go.
4) Keep your color palette simple and cohesive. For inspiration, use this awesome tool that allows you to turn a favorite photograph into a coordinated color palette.
5) Proof. Proof again. Have your mama proof it. PRINT proofs to check for color and margin issues. Proof it again. Editing tip: read your sentences backwards to check for spelling. Our brains tend to gloss over misspelled words when read in the context of a sentence.
WHOO! You’re now on the path to designing the invite of your dreams! Join us next week for the final installment of Autumn’s EPIC DIY trilogy! Now go gather some inspiration from Autumn’s own designs!
Oh, BAB readers, you are in for a TREAT. Today we have a special guest post from the uber talented, stationery-designing hottie behind Sugarflower Design! She’s gonna clue you in on whether you’re truly ready to get your DIY on or not – it may save you a ton of $$$, but it’s not always a cakewalk.
Hello Broke Ass Bride readers! I’m Autumn. I own Sugarflower Design in Austin, Texas where I’ve been designing wedding stationery for the past 8 years. This guide is meant to be an inside track for those of you hoping to invest some “sweat equity” in your wedding invitations without dipping into your bar budget or breaking out in a pre-wedding stress rash. I’ve encountered many brides along their DIY journey – some needing rescue, others advice. I bet this is what they would tell you over mojitos and some queso…
Full-On DIY
This is when you design, print, cut, embellish, assemble and mail
everything yourself with or without the help of (hopefully willing)
friends. Ideally this project should save you money, be FUN and result in
pretty, personalized wedding invitations.
Gettin' crafty!
1) Don’t get in over your head. Making your own wedding stationery is a big project. It’s probably best to keep things simple – focusing on good quality materials and artistic elements you are already familiar with. Gaps in your technical knowledge can become a source of stress or additional cost – particularly if you try something new and ambitious (I could tell you the sad tale of a bride, a new home silk-screening machine and a box of vintage handkerchiefs.)
2)Consider consulting with a pro. Before you get your heart set on a design, and certainly before you purchase expensive materials or equipment, consider investing in an hour of professional design consultation. A pro will catch simple issues that would otherwise derail your project – like postal code regulations, technical issues around printing, etc. That hour could save you a lot of money and headaches down the road.
3)Time vs. Cash. Yes, DIY stationery may save you money, but it also
takes your valuable time. In fact, it can take a LOT of your time. If you
want to tackle all aspects of design and production for 25 invitations –
great. That’s a good weekend-size project. 250 invitations? Think hard.
Slice n' dice!
4)Will it save money? Printing at home isn’t free. Paper, printer ink, envelopes, embellishments, tools for proper cutting, etc. add up fast. Buying small batches of paper and envelope leaves you out of the bulk savings enjoyed by stationery manufacturers. In some cases it can actually be more expensive than buying inexpensive printed stationery. Be sure to research your materials carefully to keep costs low.
5)Will this be fun or stressful? Ladeez, I cannot tell you how many tearful calls and emails I’ve received from brides who’ve come to the end of their crafty-crafter rope. They hate their @&$^)*# printer! The glue is everywhere! I’VE RUINED 63 HANDKERCHIEFS! Be smart about what you can handle.
Picked your project? Tune in for another post from Autumn on how to DIY your own wedding stationery, coming soon! In the meantime, be sure to check out all the fabulous paperie in Autumn’s Etsy shop!
A little while back, real-bride Mallory turned out an incredible DIY or DIE post on origami flowers. I was intrigued. I was perplexed. I was… determined to try them for myself. As a decidedly less-than-innately-crafty chicken, it was a challenge I couldn’t quite resist. Plus, the promise of paper pointy monster fingers with which to play was just too tempting.
RAWR.
And I decided, if I could do it, anyone can. So to prove my point and help you along in your own paper-folding forays, we put together an episode of Broke-Ass TV to teach you how! You can also read Mallory’s tutorial here.
The finished blossoms are pretty bad-ass, dontchathink?
Are you foregoing formal foliage in favor of folding your own flowers? (also, are you a little turned-on by my sexy alliteration skills? Yeah, I thought so.)
Got a video request for us? Let us know, yo! We specialize in making dreams come true, you know.
Herbs stamps – Roll of 100, $29.
