Weddingbee Blog

Mrs. Penguin here! I had the pleasure of visiting Mrs. Plumeria a little while back, and she showed me these letters she sent out to her bridesmaids. What made these letters so special is that they included “paper doll dress cutouts”. Each of her bridesmaids could custom design her own dress, from the top to bottom. Length, style, sash/no sash - you name it! Mrs. Plumeria picked out the color and her bridesmaids were able to design their dress at home. Here, she shows us how she put her newsletter together. This DIY project was originally posted on January 3, 2007.

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I’ve had my bridesmaids’ newsletter in the works for a long while now, but things have been so busy I just never completed it. Family conversations which ensued over the holidays did help to motivate me, as they sparked a sudden realization that the wedding is really only a little over four months away. I’m not sure how that fact evaded me all this time, but once I became fully aware of it, I’ve really been pushing forward with wedding plans… you can definitely expect to hear more from me as I do so! Anyway, without further ado: my newsletter!

The top page is a letter to them. This part was by far the hardest, because I don’t think I can really express how much the friendships of these girls mean to me! Behind that page, I put written information about schedules, location, dresses, shoes, and hair & makeup.

I used the styling and imagery that I had created for the invitations. The tulips ended up looking nice, though not in the metallic gold ink they will be printed with on the invites, since I printed them at home.

The last page has all of the dress details for them, including a swatch of the material. The outfits consist of different tops, skirts, and sash options from which the girls can mix and match to choose their own outfit. I had a unique problem in presenting the dresses, because they are being made, not ordered from a manufacturer — so I did not have pictures of the outfits for them to choose from. Furthermore, the different pieces are taken from various sewing patterns, so even the photos on the pattern envelopes could not portray what the actual outfits would look like. So, I decided to get a little crafty and make paper doll type pieces for them to play with. Their final outfit can be taped onto a mannequin on the response form so I know exactly what each girl wants. I hope that they’ll have a little bit of fun with the whole process, since they didn’t get to go and try on dresses at the stores.

Finally, I tucked all of the pages into a plastic folder, ready to be placed in the hands of my six dear friends.