Wedding Blog

As our date gets nearer and nearer, it’s time to get all the projects I’ve had floating around in my head for a year into a physical (rather than imaginary) form.

So, this weekend I started a chalkboard welcome word search for the entrance to the tent.

Obviously, it’s not quite done yet. The end needs to be trimmed since it was a little longer than I had planned on. I need to find (or make) a nice frame to go around the outside, and I need to circle the words highlighted in red to start the fun!

Total Project Cost: under $30

• Chalkboard paint ~ $11
• Primer ~ $6
• Paint roller ~ $6
• MDF board ~ $2 (found a good piece in the ’throwaway area’ @ Home Depot and cut it down to 3’x4’)
• Xyron permanent adhesive ~$6
• Poster board for letters ~ $1.50

First, I primed (2) and painted (3) the board. I put on a second coat of the chalkboard paint after 4 hours. I used a high-density foam paint roller to ensure a super smooth finish-

I blocked out a 2.75″ grid with string (I was going to draw a grid on the board, but then I realized I would have to erase it after!), then started arranging letters I had cut out using a laser cutter. I think you could use a Xyron Personal Cutting System or Cricut to get the letters cut out as well. After I had them all laid out according to a word search I had created in Excel earlier (below), I ran them through the Xyron to get them to adhere to the board and we were good to go!

The letters in red spell words we felt describe our big day - I just filled in the remainder of the black letters randomly.

We chose:

• David
• Chelsey
• Welcome (these three will be already circled when people arrive, I haven’t circled them yet since the paint instructions suggest waiting 3 days before you use chalk on the board)
• Party
• Promise
• Wedding
• Ring
• Husband
• Wife
• Greenville (the town we are getting married in)
• Friends
• Family
• Union
• Celebrate
• August
• Cherish
• Gift
• Marriage
• Pledge

… and maybe a few others!

I plan on listing these words next to the chalkboard, since I realized I had accidentally made some other words with the random letters that I don’t want people circling (like snob) - o’well!

I can’t wait to hang this in our home to remind us of the day we got married!