Escort Cards & Unity Candles - DIY

I bet you thought i was joking with all of these DIY projects huh? Nope I was not joking. I was serious about saving money by doing stuff myself. Since time is money, then I used my time instead of spending my money LOL.

So, I think that I explained in a previous post that one of my pet peeves is searching through tons of escort cards for my name. Her is my solution to that dilemma:

I found a few styrofoam boards, some wooden clothes pins and the escort cards. Then I alphabetized the escort cards by last name, and I attached the cards to the pins and stuck the pins into the sky painted styrofoam board. Get it "Ribbon in the Sky". Yay and voila, on theme, alphabetized escort cards. I have 3 boards that will say last name A-H, I-M, N-Z. This idea can work for just about any theme. I got my inspiration from one of my bridesmaids weddings. She had a beach theme and painted the styrofoam board with some kind of sandy paint and put the names on mini beach umbrellas. Super cute. 

The cardstock was $11.00 (which I used for my wedding programs as well so got double duty out of one package), ribbon (which I have been using for just about everything), the styrofoam, my stepfather had in the  basement and the pins were from another project and the paint was $.89/tube. So I spent about $5.00 for this project. 

Predesigned escort cards are about $15.00 on Amazon. Hey any savings is a good thing right? 

Ok on to the unity candles. Here is the finished product:

The only thing that I am not crazy about is the fact that the blues are off, but I am going to deal with it because I don't feel like designing another monogram. My buddy PJ designed this for our reply cards and so I took it and used it for this. But anyway, unity candles can get pretty expensive, but they are really easy to make. 

Two long candles - 2 for $1.00 at the Dollar Store

Middle Candle - $5.00 at Pat Catans

Ribbon - Left over from other projects

Paper Monogram - Free

Candle Holders (not pictured) - Borrowed from my aunt

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Total Price = $6.00

On average Unity Candles run about $30.00 on Amazon and can even cost more if you buy them in a store so I saved about $24.00. 

How to make:

Take some ribbon the color of your wedding and wrap it around the candle. Then take some straight pins and push them into the candle to attach the ribbon. The monogram is actually made of paper, but you could also use a clear label if your design does not have as much color as mine. You may need to pin that label to the candle as well if adhesive doesn't stick to the wax. Then just put it on your candle holders and there you go, a decorated unity candle set. 

Welp, two more projects almost done (still need to put together my last escort card board), and on to the last one, putting ribbon on the ceremony programs. I survived the DIY projects and saved some pennies along the way. 4 more days until the BIG DAY. Yay. I am now getting excited. LOL. 

How To Save On A Wedding Veil

So its 5 days before my wedding and I am almost finished with my DIY projects. Still have about 20 wands to complete tomorrow and have to put some ribbon on our unity candle in some cute and inspired way. But what I want to talk about is saving money on a wedding veil. So, if you look at wedding veils at any main stream bridal shop you will know that they cost hundreds of dollars. This is one of the main projects that I decided to do when I started this process. With my mother's help with some of the sewing, we put together my wedding veil. It is floor length and if you have been following my blog, I did decide to be adventurous put a little trim at the bottom of the veil.

In all I paid about $15.00 for the materials:

2 yards of plain white tulle ($1.99/yard)
1 Bottle of Glitter spray paint ($5.99)
1 Spool of Ribbon - $1.19
1 Strip of Pearl Trim - $.97
1 Pack of Metal Combs - $2.99
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Grand Total: $15.12

To save even more money, come armed with coupons for Joann Fabrics. I completely forgot to bring mine, but you can usually find some 50% off coupons online.

At David's Bridal, the average price for a full length veil is $100.00 or more. In all the grand total for savings is  about $85.00 by making your own veil.

Here is the 95% finished product. Still need to add a couple more details, but for the most part it is complete.

The full veil (I haven't sprayed the glitter on yet) 

When you spray the glitter on, make sure to test the spray paint on a piece of the scrap fabric to make sure it does not ruin it. The kind I used was Krylon Glitter Spray Paint and it worked perfectly on the tulle. 

A picture of the trim (still need to put the little pearl detail on.)

How it looked on my wedding day. So proud of this DIY project. 

If you would like to try to make your own veil here is a video that may help you get started. This is what I used to help guide me in my wedding veil making adventures. 

It does take a little bit of time and patience, especially if you would like to put a little bit of trim on the bottom of the veil. Hey for $15.00 you may want to experiment and if you don't come up with something you like, you still have time and money to find other options. But, if you are even the least bit crafty, it could save you a bit of money. I hope you enjoy this project, I thought it was really easy and fun. Save those pennies ladies. 

DIY Overload

Here are the latest updates on my DIY Projects. I am almost finished with my ribbon wands. I only have 53 more to make. That one is the biggest one and when it is finished a big DIY weight will be off my shoulders. They look really cute and I even had a dream about them. Yes, I am back to having panicky dreams about my wedding. I had a dream that I forgot to bring the wands to the wedding and panicked at the altar because I had spent so much time on them. Turns out that my fiance had brought them for me. Hehe. But anyway, they are really cute and I am hoping that I will get some cute pictures of them

My next project is making the escort cards for the reception. I was going back and forth about whether or not I should put ribbon on the cards, but I decided that I was going to stay with my theme and do another project. They look so cute. All I have to do is print out all the names and stick them on the cards that I am making. I also have this pet peeve about not being able to find your name on the table that the cards are held on. So, I am going to hopefully make it a little easier while still staying on theme. I am taking a couple styrofoam boards (that my stepdad happened to have in the basement) and some wooden clothespins (that I happened to have in my room from another project), paint the styrofoam like the sky with clouds, and stick the clothespins in it with the cards attached in alphabetical order. Hopefully it turns out really nicely.

I also have to fill up my candy bags that I stamped a long time ago with wedding date and stuff. Just have to pick up all of the candy. I waited for the last minute to buy candy, because I didn't want to give people 2 month old chocolate. That's not a good look.

Last, but not least, I am making my own veil. Here are the material that I bought the other day. It totaled about $10.00 and it is going to be a floor length veil. I could not justify paying over $200.00 for something that I could make myself. I have done a lot of YouTube research on this project and am really excited to see the finished product.

Organza & Glitter Spray

I hope this works.

I will post some pictures of what the finished product looks like. I still need to look for a comb, but this is pretty much all you need. I also may add a little trim onto the bottom if I am feeling ambitious. 

UPDATE TO THE ABOVE POST:

So I wrote this post before the DIY project party. Two of my wonderful bridesmaids, a couple friends, cousins and aunts all got together and helped me with my projects. Some filled candy bags, some painted clothes pins and others put together ribbon wands. I wish I had had the forethought to take some pictures, but you guys will just have to believe me when I say that I have the best family and friends ever. They are definitely helping me have my personalized wedding without breaking the bank. You all are the best. Save those pennies ladies and have your friends and family help with stuff. 

Bachelorette Party

Hey everyone...this has by far been the most stressful 2 weeks of my life. Between family coming and some family deciding to ditch me on my wedding day and decide not to come, I am thoroughly emotionally spent. There really are not words for how I feel right now.

But, I would like to thank everyone who came to celebrate my bachelorette party with me this past weekend. I would also like to give a special thank you to the best maid of honor a bride could ever ask for, Brandy Gaines. I had the best time. There were 3 parts to the party and it was an all day event.

Part 1:

A Day At The Spa - We went to this cute little spa in Murrysville and I must say that I will have to find a way to get massages more often. That is exactly what I needed given the past 2 weeks of stress. It felt so good to just relax, get a massage and a pedicure. I can see why people make such a big deal about going to the spa. It is definitely relaxing.


 
  

Part 2:

Movie & Lunch - We watched The Best Man and just had girl talk (really we screamed at the television) and talked about how we would have handled the situation. It had been a while since I'd seen that movie so it was fun to watch an oldie but goodie. The food was really great as well. What more could a girl ask for when she has good food, great friends and a good movie?

  

Part 3:

A Taste of The Good Life - We took a limo to Savoy (an upscale restaurant and lounge for non Pittsburghers). Sidenote: we had to have broken a record because 6 girls go ready in 45 minutes in full hair, make-up and cute clothes with only 2 bathrooms. Good job girls. But anyway it was really fun. It was good to just let my hair down and relax, dance and hang out with some of my best friends.

 

Thanks again to you all. I had a blast and will definitely remember it for a long time. Every bride needs a friend or friends who will help them relax when things get stressful. This is priceless and worth all of the pennies in the world.

Savings Tip Number 4 In Action

So I did a series of posts back in July of 2011 on different ways to save money during your wedding planning. http://dawns-weddingonpennies.blogspot.com/2011/07/my-top-ten-penny-saving-tips-in-five.html
Tip number 4 was to search eBay for different things that you will need for your wedding. Yea, so my groom doesn't really do eBay, but he LOVES I mean LOVES Amazon. I think 95% of the stuff he buys on a day to day basis is from Amazon. But anyway, he has been looking at wedding stuff on there and every now and then goes ahead and buys some good stuff on there. Some of the things that he has purchased that have saved us money are:

Aisle Runner:


$26.00 on Amazon

It has a rose design on it and its really pretty. He found it on Amazon for like $26 bucks. That was spot on with my budget. Hey ladies, I wouldn't really waste too much money on this thing. They have really nice ones out there for low costs. I was talking to my aunt the other day and she was worried about the runner sticking (like they do in almost every wedding) so she went to a craft store and bought a more expensive one and guess what...yup the aisle runner stuck. This is going to happen and if it doesn't happen at your wedding, you are among the lucky few. LOL so, why waste $50 bucks or more on a "nice" aisle runner when you can get an inexpensive one from a place like Amazon and just be use it for what it was designed for. Look nice in pictures as you walk down the aisle on ONE DAY of your life.

Cake Cutting Set:

  VS.

This one was $6.25 on Amazon                       This one was on sale for $30.00 at 

                                                                              Macy's originally $43.00

I am super happy about this find on Amazon. We had a set on our registry from Macy's and they were like $40  or something like that. Guess what...we found a set for $6.00 on Amazon. I am sure that the quality is not as high as the set at Macy's but it looks just as good.

Once again...this is going to be used for ONE DAY to cut your wedding cake and look pretty in pictures. Use the internet to your advantage and don't waste money on stuff that you don't need to waste money on.


Lastly...we bought the garter on Amazon as well.

Yup another $6.00 purchase. I was looking through at the different kinds and they can get pretty expensive. I don't really know why because its just a strip of fabric with some elastic inside of it and some frilly stuff on it. It is thrown away at the reception anyway. I found one that was light blue (the color of my wedding) and it was really cute. It will serve the purpose it was made for and I didn't have to spend more than I needed on this wedding extra.

We are well on our way to planning this wedding. Things are getting really stressful and the time has come to start calling all the people who did not send in their RSVP. Just wanted to let all those thrifty brides out there know that these ideas really do work. If you look far enough in advance to give yourself plenty of time to figure out if you like your purchase or not, you too can save money by doing some bargain shopping online or even in thrift shops, discount stores or by doing DIY projects.

There are so many ways to get what you want for a price that you can afford. Remember to save those pennies.