Wedding: The DIY details

BIRDSEED BAGS

Instead of traditional bubbles, rice or confetti… we decided to get our guests to throw bird seed as we walked back down the aisle.  Our wedding was outside, in a grassy field, so it really fit the space and theme.  Here is how we made them:
-First we cut out 8" X 8" burlap squares.
-Fill the squares with about 3 tbsp of birdseed
-Tie with regular cooking twine (keeps the rustic feel going)
-Add a cute tag.  We used a simple paper punch to create the blue circles and then wrote T + J with a black sharpie.
SIMPLE!!


WOODEN CAKE STAND

I have many people to thank for this one.  Several people found the perfect pieces of wood for me, and then my awesome Father-In-Law put it together.  He used screws to attach the top plate to the stand and then sanded the top.  It cracked a little as it dried, but that just added to the look! (Cake topper is from Etsy)

DIY PROGRAMS

For our programs we try-folded craft colour card stock (got it at staples) and created a neat little ring to give it some flair on the outside.  For the outer ring we used blue card stock 1" wide and taped it with double tape on the back.  I used paper flowers in either red or white as the decoration and a cute white or red button in the centre of the flower.  I used mod pog to glue both the flowers and the buttons.  EASY! (The programs were printed on our personal printer at home)

BIRCH ALTER

Again, my wonderful Father-In-Law built this for the wedding.  I had no hand in the creation so I can't really explain how it was done… only that he held it together with screws.  It turned out oh so rustic and beautiful.
To compliment the alter we had a BIRCH ARCHWAY of pennant flags at the beginning of the aisle:


To keep it simple, we used pinking shears to cut the flags out of different red and blue fabric.  Then my mother (I am so glad everyone else was on board with the DIY projects) sewed them together using red ribbon.  By using the pinking shears, no hemming is needed!  The only sewing is to sew them on the ribbon!
We also used PENNANT flags to decorate the tables at the reception site:


DRIFTWOOD CARDS SIGN

This kind of speaks for itself.  Driftwood = no sanding needed.  I just used acrylic paint and used mod pog for the decoration (the same paper flowers as used for the programs) We had a red mailbox spray painted as our card box but our photographer didn't get a picture…. I'll try to find one!  Thanks to my friend ANDREW for sanding and making it a red mailbox instead of a black one!!
PIN WHEELS

We used these bad boys just about everywhere we could.  My photographer also didn't take a picture of my head table… and I Really need to try to find one!!  I didn't take pictures of the steps I took to make these… but a tutorial can be found here
JAM JAR FAVORS

We have several different kinds of jam at the wedding.  Both of my grandmothers made it for us.  We filled tiny mason jars full and then covered them with a fabric square in our colours.  We used hemp (from wal-mart) to secure the fabric and added a tag that says "Spread the Love".  This project took a looooooong time, as there were so many different things to be accomplished.  But, it was well worth it in the end.

TABLE NAMES

We decided to use places as our table names… and I hand painted every one of them with white acrylic paint from a stencil I printed off from Microsoft Word.  My Mother-In-Law JUST got a cricut… A little too late.  Again, I used paper flowers and buttons as decorations, and put them on silver table name stands.  They really matched the burlap table runners we had on the table and people loved that they were seated at a table that meant something to them as well as us!!
We also DIYed our seating chart

To make this, Jonathan covered a cork board with blue fabric.  We attached the paper flowers using sewing pins and pinned on the paper (each one listed a different table) using thumb tacks that I had hot glued red buttons over.  The letters can be created using a cricut but we did ours by hand (unfortunately).  I placed it on my painting easel and that was that.
I think that's everything I can think of right now on the DIY scene… I know it has been a while since the wedding and I didn't really do a good job documenting my creations, but I still wanted to share, just in case someone out there somewhere needs a little inspiration.
Hope you enjoyed!
Tara