Wedding Blog
You get your wedding minions family members to do things for you!
This weekend I had my future SMIL (step MIL) pick up a chalkboard that I found on Craigslist.
I’ve mentioned how we’re trying to cut down on paper usage for our wedding by including the use of plantable paper. Another major source of needless paper (that will be thrown out within the hour) is dinner menus at each place setting.
I should tell you right now - Mr. Cubbie and I are major foodies (you didn’t catch on to that with my baking endeavors?). I admit to daydreaming about beautifully prepared menus to align with our beautifully prepared wedding dinner! However, I can’t justify the use of these 80 or so extra pieces of paper (no matter how lovely).
There are other ways to attaining beauty and style when it comes to educating your guests on their impending adventure in Gastronomia - a chalkboard menu!
I also plan on getting some liquid chalk pens to make the handwriting look cleaner.
I’m not the best artist in the world, but I bet I could get my bridesmaids in on the chalkboard decorating fun (à la Trader Joe’s chalkboards)!
So now I’ve got one chalkboard that my FSMIL (too much?) picked up for me.
If we decide to carry through the idea of chalkboards (like the chalkboard crossword puzzle!!), there are some really great resources out there for DIYing chalkboards!
One of the easiest ways to be more “green” when planning your wedding is to re-purpose. One couple re-purposed a non-surfable board to be their chalkboard menu -
You can also spray-paint chalkpaint onto an old mirror, a wall - anything, really!
And of course Martha Stewart’s always got some brilliant ideas when it comes to re-purposing -
A grocery list on your green chalkboard pantry door? Absolutely! Ms. Stewart has directions for making your chalkboard paint a custom color. You can even coordinate your chalkboard with your color palette!
And I’m chalking it up… to wonderful inspiration, thanks to 100 layer cake.
This is a chalkboard menu for flowers, but I love how vintage it looks! The tarnished wood border is a great touch. Actually, now that I think of it, this must be a re-purposed door, just like the one Martha made!
Man, I really wish our wedding at home didn’t have to be a destination wedding at home - I’d paint an old door/mirror/dog/wall/anything cute to make a homey vintage-inspired chalkboard menu in a second.
I have a week in Portland before the wedding - would I be crazy to take on this kind of DIY project a week before the wedding?
How do you plan to display your wedding dinner menu?
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Cute idea! Liquid chalk pens remind me of my days in grad school as a Starbucks barista. 
@Miss Bruschetta: btw, how hard IS IT to get the text on a chalkboard to look nice? I’m floating on the naive idea I’ll be able to make it look alright!
That’s so wonderful So vintage — so full of whismy (I think I spelled it different each time I said it today). You would not be crazy for picking up SCALED back versions of this project. You could also use the dry erase markers (in dark colors) on small mirrors/glass ala Anthropologie’s dressing room signs!
@Miss Bear Cub: Not too tough. I’m by no means artistic, but you can certainly letter nicely and even add small illustrations pretty easily with liquid chalk pens. Hehe, any Starbuckses in Chile, so you can go in and ask if you could try out their chalkboard and markers? 
@Miss Bruschetta: haha, it’s the ONLY coffee shop! good idea!
I saw this idea on The Bride’s Cafe last week and LOVED it! I’ve had it saved a new since
Great idea!
I’m going to have to look into these liquid chalk pens… I’ve never heard of that.
@Miss French Bulldog: omg that wedding is so beautiful! I love santa barbara.
The chalkboard is a very good idea! Love the look!
Honestly I don’t think it would be that tough a project, especially if you knew *what* you were going to be turning into a chalkboard in advance. This is so much fun! It reminds me of when I was a waitress and I got to draw the dinner specials on a marker board!
I really think you could do this pretty quickly. Especially if you have relatives picking stuff up from CL. Find someone giving away a door/mirror/whatever, have them pick it up, and really…i think it might be doable without much stress.
very cute. check out some educational supply websites like lakeshorelearning.com or schoolbox. com to buy small chalkboard in bulk.
The chalkboard idea is a great idea, I think it’ll look fabulous!
I understand your overall feeling of planning abroad. I’m planning my US wedding from my *now* home in China. Our paper savers are: no menus, we’ll be having a buffet, no programs for the ceremony and postcard style rsvps instead of including envelopes.
I’ll be back in the US a month before the wedding, but I’m still feeling a little stressed about all the details coming together during that time frame.
best wishes =)
I’ve actually used chalkboard spray paint to create chalkboard surfaces before (on wine bottles). It was fast & easy. We did have to do a couple coats but literally it just took a few minutes each time and then we left it out to dry. So awesome!
instead of a chalkboard, i’m using textured black paper in a large frame i picked up from Ikea for $2, and having “Today’s Special: Rxxx & Fxxxx’s Wedding”.
we’re getting married in a french bistro, so the menue style “announcement” to direct our guests would be cute
I had two chalkboard menus as to not waste paper. Bought two particle boards from Home Depot, painted on 5 coats of black chalkboard paint, and had one of my bridesmaids write out the menu with different colored chalk. If I’d had time I would have made a frame border, but the unfinished rustic look worked for our wedding.
http://myfavoriteplace.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/web-jpg.jpeg
This is a great idea! Mr. Taffy tried to get me to trash making our menus, but I still did one for each table. The bridesmaids were using them as fans by the end of the night!
[...] Seeing as how I’m a whole hemisphere away from my venue (and my family), I can’t exactly troll through antique stores and Goodwill at my leisure. (And collecting 40+ quart size mason jars locally and bringing them with me on the plane is rather impractical.) So, I did what any tech-savvy bride (on a budget) did - I started looking on my favorite site, eBay, I scoured the classifieds here on the ’bee, and I looked in the Portland Craigslist (my super awesome future step-MIL (FSMIL) has been the best with helping me locally!). [...]
I so want to include one of these somehow…I love the chalkboard idea! And we’d definitely be re-using it afterwards during our wedded life!
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Mrs. Cub, Chile/Portland
Age and Occupation: 26, Astronomer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Astronomer
Engagement Date: May 10, 2008
Wedding Date: September 2009
Venue: Westwind YWCA camp
About Me: I'm a small-town girl who's making a living in Chile, with her heart in the Pacific Northwest. I grew up in Southern California, went to high school in Texas, grad school in New Mexico, and now I can't wait to settle down in Oregon! I love pears, hazelnuts,
knitting, traveling, running, baking, and long talks on the phone with
good friends. I'm planning my Oregon coast summer camp wedding while
abroad with my best friend - I'm always at home when I'm with him!
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