Weddingbee Blog

Last weekend, my friend Miss K came over to help me make this DIY backdrop for the portrait booth at our reception. This project was so much quicker than I ever thought it would be, and was really fun to make. Here is a cropped picture of the top… don’t mind the brush strokes showing through the sunlight… our photographer’s lights should not show any brush strokes.

To make this project, I used:

• A full size flat bed sheet from Bed Bath & Beyond that was 525 thread count cotton with an anti-wrinkle finish. This was a little pricier than I wanted to go, but not having to worry about ironing the backdrop made it totally worth it. The high thread count meant that the paint wouldn’t seep through to the back while we painted it. And of course, I used a 20% off coupon.
• Whatever supplies you will need to create your design. We used a set of Fiskars oversized circle templates. These were on sale at Jo-Ann’s for 40% off. Mr. Taffy had a set of mini circle templates that we also used. We bought some blue and black paper on sale to simulate our pattern before painting.
• Acrylic paint in black & blue (I bought way too much paint—we only needed one tiny bottle of each!)
• Paint brushes. I bought some foam brushes, but we ended up using Mr. Taffy’s small fine art brushes instead.

Before you purchase any supplies, speak with your photographer about what size backdrop she would prefer. Also discuss your ideas for colors and patterns, and how high the sheet will hang on his or her equipment.

After speaking with our photographer, I found a bed sheet that fit the specifications that she asked for. I washed and dried the sheet, then hung it up over our windows. The overhang that you see here is to account for the amount of fabric that will be used to hang the sheet.

Next, Miss K and I used these Fiskars templates to cut our circles on black and blue paper.

image source

We put tape on the back of the circles and started sticking them on the sheet. We made a pattern to coordinate with our invitations.

After a few more tries…

Once we perfected the pattern, we took the sheet down and marked the pattern with a pencil using the circle templates. We made it like a paint by number… labeling B for black and A for aqua.

We tried out the blue paint on some scrap fabric to see how it would photograph. The guys watched hockey…

Next, we got to work with the paint brushes! I think the actual painting took around an hour and a half.

We put down some paper underneath the sheet, but because the thread count was so high, we didn’t have any paint soak through. Better safe than sorry!

I hung the backdrop up the next morning, after the paint had dried.

Please note: I’m sure this will look much better when properly hung up! We used office clips. Also, the sun won’t be shining behind it, so I don’t think we need to put another coat on the aqua circles.

I originally wanted to do a “framing” design for a couple instead of an overall border graphic, but I figured that we would have more than two people in the booth at times, and the border style would work well.

This project was very easy and the possibilities for coordinating the backdrop are endless! I was actually inspired to do this after reading the many bee tutorials on DIY aisle runners. (Thanks, Mrs. Pineapple, Spring Roll, Cookie and Penguin! )

Our ceremony room has slate floors, and they advised us against using an aisle runner to prevent slipping. We are going to do a petal aisle, but I was bummed that I wouldn’t be making a fun, personalized runner. I borrowed the concept and transferred it to the backdrop!

Huge thanks to Miss K, who took time away from her wedding planning to help me with this! I am so ready to help you with any projects after May!