Weddingbee Blog

Here are all most of my DIY projects. They are linked up to the tutorials I previously wrote. However, if there’s a project I don’t have a how-to for and you’d like one, just let me know! Enjoy!

Bells

Ah, my bells. It was the biggest and most time consuming of all my DIY projects, but this project had three purposes (escort card, favor, and send-off item), which made it worth the time. I collected them all off of eBay by buying them in lots. Most were in lots of five or more and came from estate sales.

Each bell had a tag attached to it with the guest’s name and a swatch of their table assignment stitched on it. Yep, I stitched 105 swatches onto little tags, but it was worth it!

Photo by Steve Twigger

The bells were then tied to a long strand of 1.5″ ribbon by small pieces of 1/4″ ribbon that I had stitched on and then tied to the tree. However, when the rain came my team moved them all to the archway in our tent.

Photo by Steve Twigger

This project was a true labor of love. I tried to match each bell to the guest I thought it suited best. To this day, people still say thank you for their bell and tell me how it is their favorite wedding favor/memento they have ever received!

Seating Chart

The seating chart is done on a cheap canvas that happened to be 50% off when I went to buy it! Win! I decoupaged the “tables” onto the canvas, and everything else was added on with hot glue. By the by, I did minimal hot glue projects because, even though I’m pretty craft-tastic, I burn myself every time I use a hot glue gun. I have an awesome scar on my right hand from making this beauty.

The writing on the ivory ribbon was done in silver Sharpie, and the instructions for the bells were typed onto the green ribbon.

Napkins

Each table was assigned the fabric of the napkins I made for them. The napkins were rolled and tied with name tags. Name tags were created by my trusty old typewriter. I typed the names on printable cotton-twill fabric sheets and cut them into strips. I have fourteen sets of eight now! The Waffle house will never be without napkins.

Memory and Candle Jars

All of the jars for this project were recycled from the large quantities of pasta, salsa, and jam we and our friends consumed over the past year. I am so glad we did this DIY! The memory jars are scattered throughout our house and I absolutely love it!

Photo by Steve Twigger

For the candle jars, I printed out photos of us with the people or a person who would be sitting at that table on vellum. I pounded eyelets into the corners and tied them to the jar with twine as well as mounting them with double-sided tape. One of my favorite remarks from a guest was, “Hey! I’m a candle! That’s so cool!”

The jar lids were decoupaged with torn pages from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, A Wrinkle in Time, Jane Eyre, and Pride and Prejudice. All of the books were purchased at Half Price Books and had that nice worn, yellowed quality and a fortunate amount of underlining of important passages.

Photo by Steve Twigger

Jars were assigned to tables based on their contents. Childhood items were placed with family, college items with college friends, etc. Guests had so much fun passing them around the table and sharing stories of items they recognized. They made for great conversation starters.

Cake-Table Sign

Another hot-glue-related-injury project, but the results were worth it. Unfortunately, none of the photographers got a full picture of the cake-table sign, so here’s one from my stock.

It was inspired by the monogram our friend Mary Lee created for our invites.

Boutonnieres

I made these for Disco and Rock Star. They are a mix of vintage buttons stitched onto ribbon and then applied to a piece of felt and pin backing. This was a quick, easy, last-minute project that turned out pretty nicely.

*All photos by Nadine Studio unless otherwise noted