Weddingbee Blog

According to The Knot, “In the days when roads were unpaved, wedding guests would arrive at the church and track in dirt or mud from the streets. It didn’t seem right for the bride to drag the hem of her dress in the mud, so the aisle runner was first used to protect her gown.”

We are going to have an aisle runner, not necessarily to protect my dress from mud, but because I adore them. Today, I spent a few tedious hours painting a monogram onto our aisle runner.

Below you will find a tutorial on how I made my aisle runner.

Supplies needed:

• Aisle runner (Mr. Spring Roll’s aunt purchased ours from Oriental Trading for $24.95)
• Acrylic paint (on sale 2/$1 at Jo-Ann)
• Paint brushes
• Waxed paper
• Photoshop, or a similar editing program
• Scotch tape

Steps:

1. Using Photoshop or a similar editing program, design your monogram logo.

2. Increase the photo size to approximately 30 inches wide. (Our aisle runner is three feet wide, giving three inches of slack on each side).

3. Save and copy the file to disc. Bring the file to Kinko’s to be printed in full size; Mr. Spring Roll paid around $5 to do this. (You could print from your home printer; the design will print on several pages, then you can tape the pages together).

4. On a smooth surface, lay out the monogram paper and tape it down.

5. Tape waxed paper over the monogram paper. (This is so that the painted aisle runner will not stick to the paper).

6. Place the aisle runner over the waxed paper, and tape it down to secure it in place. (You should be able to see the monogram design through the aisle runner).

7. Using acrylic paint, slowly paint your design onto the aisle runner. (Don’t sweat over small errors. No one will notice.)

8. Let the painted monogram dry, and slowly remove it from the waxed paper. Safely store your aisle runner until your wedding day.

Will you customize your aisle runner?  What will your design look like?