Weddingbee Blog

A few weeks ago I started a pretty simple DIY project. It all began when the Dude and I received a package from his sister, J-dawg. While she was visiting Austin for SXSW, she took a few pictures of us for a photography class she was taking. We just assumed they were for a project and would never see the results. Instead, eight black-and-white glossy photos showed up in our mailbox! I just knew that I had to incorporate them into the wedding somehow.

I decided on six of the photos to use and hit up my local Goodwill for some picture frames on the cheap. Two trips later, and I had these bad boys for under $15 total!

I selected frames in roughly the same size (about 11×7). I didn’t have to worry too much with exact size because of the generous white borders around the pictures. I was going for interesting textures, so that once I hit them with some black spray paint, they would still have some dimension to offer. I even picked out one faux-leather frame!


I laid out some scrap cardboard to protect our lawn, and then spray painted the frames, backside first. After letting them dry for an hour, I flipped them and sprayed the front. It only took one coat.

Little did I know, the hard part was yet to come. None of the pictures fit perfectly into the frames–the borders would have to be trimmed. I took a pair of scissors to the first two and almost cried at the horrible, crooked hack jobs I had given them. The photos and frames hung out on the living room floor for several days until I had a brilliant idea–hand this project over to the Dude! He’s a civil engineer, so he’s incredibly meticulous. Besides, I needed to study for the bar. So I set him to task with some scissors, Windex, and my finished frames.

He whipped these photos into shape in no time!

Here’s the final product. I originally wanted to connect them to each other with wire and suspend them from something (not sure what) in the ballroom for our reception. However, I have decided just arranging them with the cake and cookie tower will be so much easier, and will still look great.

Have you handed any DIY projects over to your fiance?