{Wedding Inspiration} A Few DIY Ideas For Your Wedding Photo Booth

Image: Kauai Wedding Photography

Many of us agree that photography is a HUGE part of your big day.  After all, your photos stay with you forever!  As if pictures weren’t prominent enough in the wedding biz, they’ve taken a step further into the spotlight with the introduction of photo booths.

So what’s the big deal with these anyway?  Obviously, a photo booth lets your guest take home sweet photos, sure to bring up memories of the fun they had at your wedding.  But pictures aside, photo booths keep guests’ spirits high.  After the pomp and circumstance of a formal ceremony, it gives your guests a chance to cut loose and express themselves in a humorous way.

Now, let’s get real for a minute.  Yep, we have to start thinking about the dreaded b-word.  Photo booths for weddings typically rent for $1000+.  And when you’re on a budget, well, that can be a lot of dough to dish out on a novelty.   But let’s step back and think about the concept of the photo booth.  You want to give your guests an easy way to capture wedding-day memories.  You want to provide them a fun setup.  Thinking about it this way, having a photo booth – without actually renting one – is totally doable.

A couple ideas:

The Polaroid Setup.  This requires very little work from you.  All you need is the camera; a small table to set the camera on (along with extra paper and batteries, if you have a large guest list); and backdrop (whether it’s a folding screen, or pretty fabric tacked to the wall if your venue allows).  Make it fun and set out a box of props, too!

Polaroid Z340 Instant Digital Camera, $299 at Polaroid.com

Polaroid cameras are easy to operate, so guests can take turns taking pictures of each other, or hold up the camera to take pictures of themselves.

Tip:  If you don’t already have a Polaroid camera, register for one!  Make sure it’s on your registry early and maybe, just maybe, you’ll get it before your wedding.  If not, cross it off the registry and pick one up yourself.  It’s less than a third the cost of a photo booth, and you get to take it with you on the honeymoon! If $300 is still too rich for your blood, you can grab an old school vintage Polaroid for a fraction of the cost of a new one on Etsy, and source film for it from The Impossible Project!

The Laptop Setup.  To get closer to the real deal, you can purchase photo booth software (like Spark Booth, $59) that takes the pictures through your webcam.  By bringing in a laptop and printer, you can set up a photo station that snaps your guests’ photos in a single keystroke and prints them out in photo-booth format.  Brilliant!  Interested in the details? See the step-by-step and results from a real wedding here.

You can take these ideas a step further by using the pictures in your guestbook, as an alternative to signatures.  Set out markers for the guests to write messages on the prints, and mounting squares to stick their snapshots in a scrapbook.  (Your crafty girlfriends will have fun with this, too!)

Image:  Emmaline Bride

How are you getting creative with photos at your wedding?

{Real Wedding} Brooke and Landon’s Love-filled Jazzy Pink & Zebra Fete!

Hey, Broke-Asses! Christen, your new Real Wedding homie, here. I originally thought I would intro myself with my wedding, but then I saw Brooke and Landon’s pink-and-zebra country club fete oozing with tradition and sentiment, and I couldn’t resist moving them up in the queue. Brooke and her family are dear friends of Dana’s – so we’re extra thrilled to share their special day with you! These two managed to squeeze a 300-person wedding into a budget of ~$23K and its oozing with style! And feel free to get slapped in the face with the incredible amount of luuurrve you’ll get from them.

Name: Brooke

Occupation: Assistant Manager at The Buckle

Wedding location: Salina, Kansas

Wedding Date: June 3, 2011

Budget: $23,597.75

How would you describe your wedding?

Our wedding was PERFECT, at least we think so. Our day started off with me waking up at my parents’ place with my mother and father by my side in the morning with big smiles on their faces. Landon woke up at his family’s place and made sure everything was taken care of at the reception. Landon and I didn’t want to see each other at all before the wedding at 7:00 in the evening. We wanted to be traditional and not ruin the moment that I had dreamed of since I was a little girl.

Our wedding theme was different at both of our sites. At the church it was filled with cherry blossoms, white, pink and just a touch of zebra. The cherry blossoms were used in our family because Landon is part Japanese. His grandmother is actually from Japan and is such a beautiful woman both inside and out.

When you arrived at the reception site you walked in to feather-filled centerpieces, with hot pink and zebra in your face.

Our church was not a traditional church. It is actually a church converted into a blues recording studio. We wanted a church with a lot of character, and we got exactly what we asked for. The walls are covered with signed autographs of famous blues players and posters of past concerts that were held at this old church.

Our reception site was at our country club. This isn’t the fanciest place in the world but it held a tradition for me. About 37 years earlier my parents had their reception at that same country club and I wanted to dance in the same spot they had danced 37 years earlier. We had a jazz band that played when people arrived at 8 until all the people were gone.

When we arrived at the reception we went straight into our couple’s first dance, toasts, slideshow and then the cutting of the cake. We allowed people to eat before we got there so they wouldn’t be waiting on us, because we find it extremely annoying when you are starving and you have to wait on the bride and groom to get there after taking photos for 3 hours so that they can eat first. We then got to eat (a little) and then go around and see all of our friends and family. Then we got to do our father/daughter dance, mother/son dance, group dance, bouquet toss (that included lottery tickets, money and gift cards that both men and women were able to participate in). Then we danced the night away!

I did wear something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. My old was my grandmothers gold ring that my mother wore in her wedding. Something new was my Maggie Sottero wedding dress. Something borrowed was my mother’s diamond earrings, and something blue was my garter.

What was your favorite part of your wedding?
Not to be cliché, but when I saw Landon at the altar waiting for me to walk down the aisle. My hairdresser bet me that morning that he would be blubbering. I thought “No way!” As I waited nervously, hiding at the back of the church thoughts ran through my head of what he would look like, that I should try not to cry, and not to trip as I walked down the aisle. I looked at my Dad and he gave me a grin and our song started to play. I felt like I needed to pee, puke, all of the above. My father took me by the arm and started to go.

I noticed everyone standing up and all I wanted to see was my family and Landon. I turned the corner down the center aisle and saw his face. I will never forget his face as long as I live. He had the biggest grin but he was struggling trying to fight back tears.

Then, I lost it. All of my scared nervous energy went straight to a smile with tears rolling down my face of joy, that I had finally found my soulmate and today was our day. People keep telling us that when we walked down the aisle you could feel the love between us.

What did you splurge on?
We definitely splurged on our photographers, We Are The Parsons, because we wanted to be able to relive each moment of our wedding for as long as we live. Landon’s father passed away several years ago and we realized how important pictures are because they can capture a memory of a time and a place that we can go back to. We found these photographers online and knew that they were the ones. They fly all around the world to photograph weddings and we were lucky enough to have them in Salina, Kansas, for our wedding day. I hope to continue to have the Parsons take pictures as our family grows for years to come.

What did you save on?
Instead of a sit down full on steak dinner, we decided to do hors d’oeuvres and Shirley Temples. Even though it was still a lot of money it could have been a lot worse with all the people we had. We served mini grilled cheeses with tomato soup shooters, twice-baked potatoes, fajita bar, and a chocolate fountain with fruit, cheesecake, etc. We did not have any alcohol at our wedding because both of us and our families are not very big drinkers in the first place.

Was there anything you would have done differently, in retrospect?
I loved having our wedding reception at the country club, but unfortunately at the same time I had to have about four different meetings with the head people of the club to make sure that everything was ready and good. They seemed to be very unorganized and often forgot the wedding menu and timeline of that night. On our wedding day, our menu had changed a little without notice and our projector we needed for our slideshow was in a different location that day and it was our job then to find another one that morning. Luckily, Landon and my father were to the rescue. I would just make sure that for all your venues you hire someone who will keep in contact with you and who is very organized. This will save a lot of headaches.

What was your biggest challenge in planning?
Trying not to go over our budget! We planned to stay around the $20,000-25,000 range, which we did!!! YAY! But it was hard because we knew a large chunk of money was going to the photographers and toward my dress. Luckily, I had one of the best wedding planners ever and she made it happen.

What lessons did you learn from planning or from the wedding itself?
It’s really really nice to have a timeline and make sure you stay on top of it. in one of my first meetings with my wedding planner, we went over what had to be done every month so I knew what to expect. I was soooo excited about planning my wedding that we were way ahead of schedule on most of everything which was soooo nice. I know several of my friends who got married that same summer didn’t have a set timeline, and it was very challenging for them about 2 months out from the wedding since they had so much to do.

What were your top 5 favorite things about your wedding?

1. Having the most amazing wedding planner, Laura Besher.

2. Our photographers and our photos that we now have forever and ever.

3. Our beautiful four-tiered cherry blossom cake.

4.  My dress.

5.  The Bill McMosley Jazz Band.

Top 5 least favorite?

1. How hot the church was with over 300 people in it and the A/C was on full blast.

2. Not being able to breathe before walking down the aisle.

3. People walking in last minute right before you walk down the aisle.

4. Landon’s father and my grandfather were unable to be there physically. (But they were there spiritually.)

5. Having to decide who to cut from your close friends on the invitation list so that you don’t max out.

What was the best wedding advice you received?
We had been given this advice from several people, “Enjoy and cherish every moment you have at your wedding, because it will fly by.” This was especially true for us because we didn’t have our wedding until 7 in the evening. This was honestly the best advice because we can remember and enjoy almost every moment from our wedding because we took the time to enjoy it and not worry about the little things.

Any other bits of wisdom?
Be yourself and have a blast!! Just remember that this is your special day with the person you are going to be with the rest of your life. It’s kind of awesome.

Budget breakdown?

Cake: $872.57

Cherry Blossoms for Cake: $50.00

Unity Candle/Decorations: $80.00

Guest Book: $25.00

Hair and Makeup (6 people): $500.00

Shoes: $100.00

Wedding Gown: $1,700.00

Pastor Fee: $150.00

Pianist: $200.00

Programs: $200.00

Centerpieces/stands: $156.00

Jazz Band: $800.00

Flowers: $1,364.10

Invitations: $400.00

Envelopes: $95.00

Postage: $122.0080

Return Postage: $88.00

Photography: $4,900.00

Shirley Temples: $584.28

Decorations for Reception: $1,900.00

Food for 300 people: $5,842.80

Lunch for Bridal Party: $150.00

Vendors:

Wedding Planner: Laura Besher, Every Little Detail

Ceremony Site:Blue Heaven Studios

Reception Site & Catering: Salina Country Club

Wedding Dress Shop: Reni’s Bridal Boutique, Wichita, Kan.

Flowers:Designs

Photographers: We Are The Parsons

Hair Dresser: Terri Hajny at Hair Connection in Salina, Kan.

Cheers, Brooke and Landon! Looks like a rockin’ good time. xoxo!

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!

{Sponsored} Create Personalized Wine Bottle Labels with Bottle Your Brand!

Whether its monogrammed napkins, ice sculptures carved in your likeness, or temporary tattoos with your wedding date on them, there’s a million and one ways to make your wedding day super personal. But here’s a simple, cost-effective way that’s sure to resonate with you and your guests – Bottle Your Brand lets you design personalized wine bottle labels! Choose from their broad selection of designs, or, if you’re a stickler for absolute creative control, use their Design Online tool to make your labels from scratch!

You probably haven’t thought of approaching your wedding from a marketing perspective, but Bottle Your Brand gives you all the tools you need to let your event leave an imprint. If your life as a couple had a label, what would it look like? Create your own logo, add monograms, words of wisdom, favorite quotes, photos of you, your pets, your grandparent’s wedding snapshots – whatever strikes your fancy! Personalized labels from Bottle Your Brand are a sure way to get your goth college girlfriend and your 86 year old great grandma chatting over a nice glass of Syrah!

Maybe you’re opting out of wine and springing for a nice cooler full of microbrews instead? No problem! Bottle Your Brand also does beer bottle labels, and water bottle labels! They also have a ton of excellent, personalized little extras, like gift boxes, food labels, bumper stickers – the wedding favor options are endless! If you and your hubs-to-be spent an entire weekend canning your own salsa or making French macaroons, don’t let your guests walk away thinking they’re store-bought! Slap on a customized label and make sure they know how much love went into every favor.

{Inspired DIY Goodness} Photo Wall Display + Seed Packet Keepsake Escort Cards

This is the 3rd post in a week-long series of amazing DIY projects from Kimberly at Inspired Goodness from a wedding she designed. We already shared her ceremony canopy, ribbon wall, chair signs and tissue paper garland… and today we’re serving up her photo display wall and seed packet escort card favors!
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In keeping with Dan’s request to keep all the decorations “with a clear purpose”, we were given quite a challenge when trying to decorate such a massive loft space. The venue is completely bare, aside from a wood floor and large windows along one wall so the idea was to bring in color and but everything had to have a clear intention or purpose.

We choose to take the grass green color and mix it up with a series of large panels covered with moss. One of the panels featured photos from Marquina and Dan’s engagement shoot and the other two held escort cards.

Acting as double-duty as guest favors, the escort cards were tiny envelopes filled with Wildflower Seeds. We designed a sticker to coordinate with their invitations for them. The front side listed the guest name and table number while the backside served as a set of directions for how to plan the seeds. Efficient, beautiful and creative!

Using photos the couple printed out from Shutterfly, we created one large moss-covered panel to showcase the pics.

To recreate these panels, here’s a simple how-to:

1. Using a hot glue gun, glue down sheets of moss onto foam core panel.
2. Attach photos to black cover stock using black photo corners
3. Affix the photos to the panels using straight pins on each corner. Be sure to push the pins through the photo corners, not the actual photo (so you don’t damage your prints).

Cost Breakdown for Photo Panel + Escort Card/Favor Display:

• Foam core: $15
• Sheet Moss: $30
• Black cover stock: $8
• Package of black photo corners: $5
• Straight pins: free (we have a large box in our sewing kit!)
• Kraft Paper Envelopes $20
• Avery Labels: $14 (we only used a portion from the box)
• 1 Box of Pearl Head Pins: $5
• Wildflower seeds: provided by the couple, approx. $30

Total Costs for both projects: $129

Stay tuned throughout the week, for more Inspired DIY Goodness from Kimberly Canale, including a photo-display wall, seed packet escort card favors and invitations! Playing catch-up? Don’t miss the Ceremony Canopy and Interior ribbon and tissue designs!
(photos by Casey Fatchett Photography)

{Inspired DIY Goodness} Chair Back Signs, Ribbon Wall + Tissue Paper Garland

This is the 2nd post in a week-long series of amazing DIY projects from Kimberly at Inspired Goodness from a wedding she designed. We already shared her ceremony canopy, and today we’re moving to interior decorations with the ribbon wall, chair back signs and tissue paper garland! Keep coming back all week for more tasty goodness, but for now, I’ll let Kimberly take it away.
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Since the venue was a large empty loft space, we decided to visually portion off some areas with simple decorations. The vibrant colors and repeat patterns were a nod to Dan’s love of architecture and clean lines. Marquina selected the grass green, white and lilac color palette and we ran with it.

Above: a 12-foot wall of ribbon was secured between to large floor-to-ceiling columns. It served as a backdrop for the sweetheart table and hid some pipes along the far wall from being in photographs.

Shorter variations of the ribbon wall were used to decorate the bride and grooms’ chairs with “Just” and “Married” signs, along with a bit of detail on the front of the sweetheart table.

We created a series of tissue paper garlands using grass green, lilac and white squares. These were tied in an “X” shape over the dance floor and also were wrapped along the staircase leading from the ceremony area to the reception space outside.

Ribbon Wall

To recreate the ribbon wall, you want to simply measure the space you have (both width and height) and break out your calculator to do some calculations based on what width ribbon you plan to order. To give it a random look, we worked with about 5 different colors and widths. It made planning a bit more difficult, but the end look was just perfect.

You want to begin with one spool of ribbon at a time. Cut to your calculated room height, but be sure to add an extra 2” at the top for sewing a loop. Once all your ribbon is cut, organize it (believe me when I say you will need a lot of space for this project. It took over my apartment for a good week and there was a mess of ribbon everywhere mid-way through.)

Break out your sewing machine and thread with a color that compliments your color palette. We choose white thread. At one end of each piece of ribbon, slightly fold over 1” and sew a line. Make sure to seal off the ends with a backstitch. Cut the ribbon off the threaded machine and you’re good to go.

Day-of, you can thread the sewn ribbon onto a heavy gauge fishing line. If you are using a lot of ribbon, be sure to bring wire to secure it to the columns. It’s easier to handle than fishing line.

Since you will be most likely using a large amount of ribbon, it’s key to find it from a wholesaler. We went with JMK and choose a Satin / Acetate blend. It comes in a ton of colors and is really cost effective. We recommend going with larger widths like 2” and 4” to make sure you have less ribbon. It makes the project run a lot faster.

Total Project Cost: $75

Tissue Paper Garland Tutorial

Materials:

1. Tissue Paper Squares: Oriental Trading Company had the best selections I found. Their price for a set of 8 colors (625 squares of each color) is just $4.99.
2. Thread: I used standard white sewing thread. Originally I purchased clear thread, but it kept breaking in the sewing machine. The white worked perfectly and I used less than 1 full spool (including the thread for the bobbin).
3. Sewing Machine: I had to do some tests first with the tension since tissue paper is very brittle to sew. A chain stitch worked perfectly to hold the pieces just right.

Directions, per above photos:

1. I started by separating the squares of tissue paper and organizing them by color. This took a little more time then expected, but it makes sewing a breeze.
2. My sewing machine was threaded with white thread and with some gentle pressure on my foot petal; I kept a slow, constant pace, alternating the three colors.
3. Close-up detail of the spacing used for the squares. Some were layered on top of each other and others we’re spaced out a little wider, as in this example.
4. Detail of the finished garland

Total Project Cost: less than $10

Stay tuned throughout the week, for more Inspired DIY Goodness from Kimberly Canale, including a photo-display wall, seed packet escort card favors and invitations!
(reception photos by Casey Fatchett Photography)

{DIY or DIE} The Easiest DIY Flower

You probably wouldn’t have guessed this about me– and I’ll deny it if you ask me in front of my future grandfather-in-law– but I’m completely lazy.

I don’t like projects that are too complicated because I get halfway through and I’m bored, and sometimes sticky, and I’m missing my trashy TV shows, and the directions are suddenly in Spanish {what?!!} and all at once I realize that I don’t care enough about this craft to keep going. So I don’t. I stop. And I leave it there, and then The Groom comes home and asks what happened and I tell him that it’s a craft project and that he’s not allowed to touch it, even though he and I both know I have no intention of finishing it and in a week, he’ll end up using a chisel to un-stick it from my desk and tossing it in the garbage can as I stand there with Elephant in my arms wailing about how life is so unfair.

For everyone’s sake {and because I have a beastly sinus something-or-other happening that has rendered me useless as a human being this week} I have switched over to lightweight crafts for the next couple days. But being sick takes its toll on me, because I can only spend so many consecutive hours in bed, sniffling and pathetic, before I get bored and the need to bedazzle something takes me over. To resist it, of course, I made myself popcorn. And like all great ideas in life, the popcorn is really to blame. You see, I put it into a couple coffee filters {because I don’t like butter to get on my hands, which it does if you eat right from the bag, but… my mother in law had just done all the dishes. And I didn’t want to soil a bowl. So I cheated, and used coffee filters! Because I am brilliant and, also, a little crazy.} Once I was done with my snack, I got antsy again, and started fiddling with the coffee filters. The next thing I knew, I looked down to see a beautiful paper flower in my hands. {And it smelled like popcorn. So, you know. Bonus.}

And in that moment, a light bulb went on.

The research I did to validate this specific craft uncovered a Green Wedding Shoes project {here} and a Rhonna Designs flower garland {here}. But they both looked really complicated, and required tools I don’t have {shredding scissors and a sewing machine… I checked the box from the Benadryl that I had for breakfast, and I’m pretty sure the words it said were: “Do not sew anything, anything, young lady, if you have taken these. Also, The Groom owes you a pony.”} {Some of that might be untrue. I was drugged. There’s no way to be certain now.} I was left with no choice but to do what I always do when something is clearly too complicated for me to take on: I ignore the directions and make it up as I go along.

Ladies and gents: Coffee Filter Flowers, the easiest DIY project you are ever going to find.

Coffee Filter Flowers: The Easiest DIY Craft You’ll Ever Do.

I’m using these flowers for the bouquets, the centerpieces and our flower vine-garland thingies, which are still in concept development, as I’m having a hard time selling The Groom on the idea of spray painting in the house because the average temperature this week is -472 degrees and I’m allergic to hypothermia. {He’s so “logical” sometimes, though. There’s no reasoning with him.} Because so many of the flowers are going into so many different projects, I haven’t added the finishing adhesive touches to them yet.

All the same, as far as materials go, the essentials are pretty basic:

You’ll need: Coffee filters, string or floral wire {depending on how you’re adhering them to stuff}, floral tape, watercolor paint, and tissues and Motrin, if you, too, are doing this with a sinus something-or-other plaguing your existence. {And, may I just say, you are a TROOPER for sticking with your crafting through SinusPocalypse!}

Now, there are two different sizes you can make: 2-filter or 3 filter. I know it’s rocket-science level math, but stay with me now… 2-filter flowers require 2 coffee filters. 3-filter flowers require 3 coffee filters.

Left: 2-Filter flower. Right: 3-Filter flower. Depending on what size you need them to be, make to your convenience. I am using both as filler for my centerpieces, and in the girls’ bouquets. They have great volume and add a little texture and drama to floral arrangements.

Once you’ve figured out how many flowers you need, and which type you’ll be making, the steps are really simple:

Lay coffee filters together. Flip them upside-down and poke the center with your finger.

Fluff and twist coffee filters until they’re nice and flower-like-looking. I found that it worked best if you stick your first finger and your middle finger on either side of a coffee-filter layer and gave a little twist. It pulled the filter away from the other layers and added a nice swirl of “petals”. I tended to twist different layers in opposite directions of one another, which kept them from going back to their original positions.

Once the filters look like a flower, flip it over and give the bottom a good twist, so it turns into a point. *Note, this is harder to do on 3-filter flowers, as they’re a little bulkier. It’s just to create a spot for you to hang these to dry later, and serves to create a little nub for you to put the floral tape on. It doesn’t have to be super-pointy, it just has to be able to serve those two purposes.

Tra-LA! You are a crafting GODDESS! Look how pretty your coffee-filter flower looks! And here’s the best part of this project: All the work took about 30 seconds, and if you hate your flower, you can just smooth them all out and start over. Or, fill them with popcorn and call it a night. Either way, you’re a winner!

Make as many as you’d like! Stop periodically to congratulate yourself for being so amazing. Seriously, you deserve it.

When it comes to coloring the flowers, please know this: What I’m about to say sounds really technical, but it’s not.

The real key to getting a good, natural-looking color on the flowers is to make sure your paint saturation in your water isn’t too high. Which means: Dilute the crap out of your paint.

They key is to use just a liiiiiittle bit of paint. I opted to use a plastic snack plate, because last time I water-colored something, I used a tea saucer and I forgot about the paint overnight and it dried and dyed the saucer pink. As funny as I thought that was, my mother-in-law was far less amused. Now, I use disposable dishes.

To make sure I’m getting the color I wanted, I mix the paint together before I add the water. It just gives me more control over the actual color I’ll end up with– easier than adding the water and THEN trying to tweak, which can leave you with clumps of undiluted paint, which can leave you with flowers that look like they have acne. Not a good look on teenagers, not a good look on paper flowers.

I also mixed a contrast color, to brush along the edges and to bleed down the sides, because The Groom wanted peach and I wanted not-boring flowers. The way watercolor paint bleeds together is one of its biggest assets as a medium, I think. And when you hang the flowers to dry, the paint that seeps to the “tips” of your flower petals will leave a beautiful edge, like the kind you see in two-toned roses.

If you want an idea of how your paint is going to look on the filters {without ruining any of your flowers} paint a line down your paper towel. It’ll give you a pretty good idea of what it’ll look like on your paper project. From there, adjust your pigments accordingly.

Dip the flower into the paint, petal side down. Leave it in for 1, maybe 2 seconds, rolling it a little to make sure all the edges get some of the action.

Flip the flower over and let the paint drip down into all the petals. Drip more paint into the blossom with a paintbrush if there are dry or white spots. This is also when I add the contrast color to the tips of the petals. It’ll bleed a little, which is good. It gives the finished product a more natural color. You just want to run your brush along the edges of the petals, letting a little of the contrast paint drip down at a time.

Now all you have to do it hang them up and let them dry. You can easily fluff them up after they’ve dried if they flatten out a little {mine stuck together, which made me worry– they don’t end up ruined, you just have to wait for them to dry completely to pull them apart because the paper gets a little fragile.} You can see here that the contrast color bled down to the tips and gave the flowers a nice little something-something extra.

Now. My flowers didn’t drip because I only put them into the watered-down paint for a couple seconds, and because when I flipped them over, any water that would have dripped off the flower, did so down my hand and to my elbow. Happily, I live in sweatpants, so it wasn’t a huge deal for me to wipe it on my clothes. Be ready for a little bit of a mess– it’s just what happens when you work with really-watered-down-paint. If your flowers are drippy, hang them somewhere where it doesn’t really matter, and throw some paper towels under them.

You can see my fancy dry-line is just bakers twine that I tied to curtain rods on connecting walls. I thought it was brilliant, albeit a little hackneyed. The Groom just rolled his eyes and asked what I was up to.

“I am up-to being brilliant,” I informed him. “And you can thank me for it later when our wedding looks amazing thanks to my inability to admit that I am not a craft-tastic person.” He smiled and kissed me on the forehead and assured me that he would never accuse me of being ordinary and asked how he could help…

… and it was a very pleasant reminder that we’re all in this together.

… And everyone lived Happily Ever After.

-MM.

The Fresh Hubby + The Man Registry + Booze = A Match Made in Drunken Heaven

If your future hubby hasn’t discovered The Man Registry then he is missing out. Chris Easter and the crew are dishing out entertainment and education galore from, and for the male perspective of tying the knot.

I was super psyched to contribute a post to their Grooms Advice blog. I’m doling out tips to save you major moolah when it comes to the intimidating wedding bar.

Click Here to check out the rest of my post on The Man Registry and let me know what you think.

It was great to write distinctly for the dudes, but I hope the tips are useful for anyone planning on buying drinks for all their friends and family on the greatest day of their life thus far.

I’m happy to say Chris will be on our blog to give some of his tips to grooms later this week!

Are you worried about how much you’re going to spend on the wedding bar?

iPod Weddings – Bring the Noise, Bring the Savings?

Talk About Using The Resources You Already Have...

It’s up there on the list of typical wedding saving tips -

Book off-season (November – March/April) – CHECK!

Cut down the guest list – CHECK!

Limit the Bar – CHECK!

Pre-owned wedding gown – Check!

iPod your wedding music – hmmm…

It would definitely be cheaper, but maybe a little bit more work on your part. Okay, a lot more work, but that is why we  DIY…and in order to save money, time often has to take the place of it.  It may be worth saving the $1000 – 2000+ that you’d spend on a DJ. And, of course, it’s also a great way to control all the music that’s played during your wedding.

But like everything else, if you want to pull it off and not drive yourself nuts, there are rules. First of all, check with your venue about their sound system, before you do anything. Find out what kind of equipment you’ll need to tap speakers into it, and whether you can get the speakers from them, or if you have to rent them. And after you get the speaker system, test it out at your venue!! And not during your rehearsal, either, because you need plenty of time to make changes if you have to. And figure out the logistics, if you have to move the system from the ceremony area to the cocktail hour to the reception. Don’t forget about extension cords.

Then, and this is very important: Pick someone to monitor the music. It could be either of you, or a friend, but someone has to do it. Since you’re going to be a little busy during the ceremony, you’re going to need back-up! Make sure they have a list of all the songs that are in your playlist(s), and that they’ve physically seen it either on your computer or on the ipod itself. That, you can do during your rehearsal.

Now it’s on to the music:

I know you’re all fired up about the tunes you’ll be popping during the dance time at your reception, but first things first, and that means your ceremony. Is everyone (parents, wedding party) going to walk in on the same music? What are you walking into? This is a good time to remember that cross-fading is your friend, so you’re not being jolted from one song to another. Make a separate playlist for each segment of your wedding – ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner, reception events (first dance, cake cutting, bouquet throw, etc), and open dance floor music,  in order.

Cocktail hour – One hour is about 18-20 songs, depending on the length. If you look at the bottom of each playlist in itunes, it will tell you how long it is. Maybe throw a few more in there, just in case you’re not feeling whatever’s playing at the time.

Dinner – When you’re building this playlist, think about whether you want to play it straight through, or shuffle it. I’ve found that my ipod and itunes playlists tend to shuffle in the same order. Anyone else notice that? It’s not really a shuffle, but it can be helpful when you’re deciding which route to take. Make sure you have a good mix of fast/medium/ slow songs – you don’t want all your songs in any one category. Look for the happy medium between getting the heart pumping and putting everyone to sleep.

PAR-TAY!!!

Reception events – I’m a big fan of keeping each in a different playlist, instead of throwing them all together, just in case the timing is off. It means a lot less running around to pause the music if you have to. One should do as little running around at one’s own wedding as possible. Shouldn’t one?

Open dance floor – knock yourself out! Now’s the time to make sure that everyone gets a chance to get on the dance floor, so think about your crowd. Hip hop? Country? Sinatra and the Rat Pack? Heck, show tunes? Throw in a little somethin’ somethin’ for everyone.

And, to get you started, here’s link to $3 in MP3s on Amazon.com. They download directly into itunes for you. You’re welcome!

So, are any of you considering and ipod wedding? Either way, what was more important to you, the cost or the control?

See you at the end of the aisle,

Our DIY “Balls of Pretty,” aka Bouquets

I am very excited to share today’s post with you all.  It’s been one helluva a journey, but I am finally ready to reveal the DIY bouquets we’ve been working on since April for my handmade wedding! After countless glue gun burns, hours of hair-pulling frustration, painting and re-painting, trial and error, then more trial and more error, then more trial and more error once again… the goal to complete 8 DIY bouquets has been accomplished. *Dusts shoulders off like a pimp*. Hopefully this provides you with some wedding inspiration of your own. Here’s the loot:

Seven beautiful bouquets, for seven beautiful ladies.

Here are a few up close and personal:

I made that!

Yes, that is a red lion "leaping" through the bouquet. Have you met me yet? My name is Wacky.

This one showcases cranes made out of magazine pages, then painted. Looks pretty funky fresh if you ask me.

And without further ado, here is MY bouquet, The Ultimate Ball of Pretty:

If I told you how many hours I spent making this thing, you wouldn't believe me. I don't even believe it. Let's just say I'm glad I started MONTHS ago...

Here’s a few more glamour shots of my bouquet, because, let’s face it, it’s just too awesome to not show off its curves:

The top of the ball. I am in love with the colors. In LOVE!

And you know what the *best* part about these bouquets is? They are 100% re-usable. In so many ways. I can Brideshare them… Ladies, let me know if you’re getting married in Los Angeles after July 31st. These babies could be all yours for free… as long as you promise to give them back to me when you’re done Hey man, I want to decorate my apartment with them after this whole wedding thing is over!  But my absolute favorite part about these bouquets is that they are going to double as part of our centerpiece decorations at the wedding. Here are just a few examples of what we may do:

Blue ball jar + Cardboard packing coaster + Bouquet = Centerpiece magic!

My bouquet. Sittin pretty in a gift box that I covered in Chinese character paper and ribbon trim.

My bouquet in a wine tube carrier that I covered with Chinese character paper and laced-up ribbon.

The reason why I am more inclined to call these “balls of pretty” instead of “bouquets” is because the word bouquet implies real flowers. Well, at least in my mind it does.  And I knew from the start that real flower bouquets weren’t going to be a possibility.  So after much thought, I was able to boil the idea of a bouquet down to this definition: “Bouquets are just balls of pretty on sticks. They can be made out of anything you deem attractive to your eye. That’s it.”  In case you are wondering what MY balls of pretty are made of…  I started with a bouquet holder that set me back only 2 bucks. Then I glued some corks on it to create a good base, like so:

The bouquet's base. The heart. The center. The insides. The goo.

Then I started gluing like a mad woman. Here’s a list of materials I used:

• Wine Corks
• Champagne cork wire
• Yarn/yarn balls
• Ribbon
• Paper bag grocery bag handles
• Lace
• Pieces from old jewelry
• Plastic toy animals
• Bottle caps
• Brass brads
• Paint
• Mini finger skateboards
• Foam flowers
• Dried flowers
• Fake butterflies
• David Bowie pins

Even though this process was tedious to say the least, I would definitely recommend it for those who want a DIY floral alternative for a bouquet.  I describe the process as tedious because you will need time to shape and build and color your bouquet to your liking… which, if you are like me, can end up taking a long time to figure out. Don’t try to get these all done in one weekend. Spread it out. Have a craft party and invite some friends over to help.  Work on them a little at a time, and slowly fall in love with your creation!