Wedding Bells Blog
traditional
The Recessionista Bride’s DIY Guide
It’s a pretty safe bet to say that we’re far from having the biggest wedding budget in the world. So when times are tight, what better way to save money (and have far too much fun!) than to attempt many brides’ favourite thing: DIY projects! I know I’ve been talking about my über-nerdy cake toppers for a while, but they’re not the only thing we’re doing ourselves. We’re also making our invitations, and centrepieces too. So without further ado, I bring you my DIY Guide for the Recessionista Bride!
Project #1: The Centrepieces
In my last post, I mentioned the centrepieces we’d ordered on eBay. I was initially looking for some white or silver branches, but after scouring the Internet, I found the cost to ship them to Canada was exorbitant. And no matter how committed I was to DIY, I wasn’t spending a weekend collecting twigs off the ground, spray painting them silver and covering myself in more glitter than a night with Adam Lambert in Vegas. So luckily, what they say is true—you can find anything on the Internet if you know where to look! We found these beautiful faux twigs on eBay—perfectly wintry, mess-free, and light enough to be incredibly reasonable to ship. We stocked up on vases from the Dollar Store, ordered votives in bulk, and hit the local Safeway for a few bags of sugar with which to fill the vases. Because nothing says “Winter Wonderland” quite like a trip down the baking aisle. What do you think?
Project #2: The Invitations
I’ve been fortunate to have had experience in graphic design for several years, as well as in the printing industry, so I had a bit of a heads up on where to look for supplies. We found a great deal on pearlescent card stock at the Blue Dot Paper Shop, who cut it all according to our specifications and had it on our doorstep within the week. I designed the invites, and we printed them on the card stock at Staples. We matted a shimmery white stock onto a sparkling ice blue, and adhered little rhinestones, one by one (note to self: when DIY-ing finicky projects, skip the gel nails!), to the printed snowflakes. We made the same design in English and French, ordered a custom snowflake return address stamp for the envelopes, and finished up with something we were rather proud of!
Project #3: The Nerdfest Cake Toppers
Now, I realize some of you may have never encountered a Dalek before. For those of you that have—yes, we went there. For those of you that haven’t? A quick lesson in sci-fi: Doctor Who is a British show that’s been running since the 1960′s, and currently holds the record for the longest-running science fiction show in the world. The Doctor travels through time and space with various companions, battling villains, saving the Earth, and generally being just about the most awesome thing ever. Generations have grown up “hiding behind the sofa”; some episodes have had me thoroughly chilled, while others have had me jumping up and down, clapping with excitement (did I just lose all my street cred?). There are a few repeating characters, the Daleks being one of the original baddies, their goal being to “EX-TER-MINATE” all non-Dalek life from the universe. They’ve become synonymous with the name Doctor Who, the show that’s kept us both thoroughly entertained on Saturday nights since we’ve been together. So on top of entering the reception to the theme tune, we decided to give the traditional bride-and-groom cake topper a bit of a twist. And make them into Daleks. I ordered two action figures, and used the extra tulle I had from my nightmare eBay veil to make a miniature one, along with an old ring as a headpiece. I bought some faux flowers and ribbon, and made a miniature bouquet, and some felt to make a bow tie and a little top hat for the Dalek Groom. Any girl whose fiancé is willing to indulge his inner geek along with her is a lucky lady indeed!
Overall, I think our projects were a hit! Are you attempting to DIY anything for your wedding? And are there any other nerd-brides out there?
Tags: blogger search, budget, cake topper, centrepieces, diy, ebay, invitations, traditional, winnipeg
Comments
64 Responses to “The Recessionista Bride’s DIY Guide”
Add your comment here
Please help us foster a friendly environment by keeping your posts civil and on-point. We reserve the right to delete comments as we see fit. Posted comments do not reflect the opinions of Weddingbells.ca. Read our privacy policy for more information. We may contact you.
Haha! I WISH we had a TARDIS, I’d totally set it up at the reception for photo ops, maybe with a cardboard cutout of Tennant… a girl can dream!! :) Thank you ALL for supporting (or indulging?) my nerdiness! xxx
This might be the best wedding cake topper ever! I just want you to have it inside a TARDIS now :P
Awesome! You are so good at DIY projects. I am impressed. I think the centerpieces look so good and seem pretty easy to do. What a great idea. The invites look adorable as well. Of course, the cake toppers are amazing. Who could ask for more? You are a talented lady!
Oh so cool! And great tip with the sugar, I would never have thought of that.
I’ve never seen Doctor Who either – I guess I should get with the program! lol
Daleks for wedding cake toppers? YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Emily you are TOO funny! lol Someone should just pay you to blog all day, that is all. ha ha
Love the creativity with the centerpieces! Bravo!
If you need to rent anything for the centerpieces try this place: Dream Day Decorators (Ste Anne Rd). I used them when I planned the Business Banquet and they were great to work with and uber cheap!
All the best!
Aaron
If my husband and I had had an actual wedding (we eloped at the beach), I would have done A LOT of DIY projects! Not only do they save money, they make a wedding so much more unqiue and your own. I love your centerpieces and the cake topper!
You are too funny. Love the Adam Lambert/glitter/Vegas comment. Too hilarious.
I love, love, love the invitations! So beautiful. And is it wrong that I want my invitations to be in french, even though I don’t really speak it, nor would any of my guests? ha. They would probably be a wee bit confused, eh? :) Maybe i just need to find a frenchman or something.
I love to see couples make the wedding a reflection of themselves – you & David are clearly doing that! I can’t wait for the big event! :) Thanks for sharing the planning process with us!
I just LOVE all your creative ideas!! When we got married, we kept it frugal and did a lot the decor ourselves. Best decision ever!
Oh awesome! My fiance and I were just talking about tracking down a white Dalek (or painting one) and making a bride and groom :)
Brilliant!
I ADORE that caketopper!
Now if only I could come to the wedding, or BE IN the wedding, or just marry you and David myself. ;)
I could totally get ordained over the internet, you know.
i liked your last blog post about your wedding. especially the comment about glitter and adam lambert in vegas. i died laughing!
Number One: I’m so excited to finally see the Dalek cake topper. It is brilliant!!
Number Two: Our whole wedding was DIY except the reception and flowers. We decided to splurge there.
My mom and I spent an entire afternoon printing invites on vellum on her laser printer at work. Friends helped put together the favors. We made our centrepieces ourselves using flowers we chose from the florist who did our bouquets. I even burned the CD of all the music to be played in the ceremony. Nothing live for us. (I HAD to use the organ wedding intro from “The Sound of Music”!)
I’m so excited for you and hope everything turns out as planned. It will be beautiful!
Love the invites, and I’m totally stoked that you guys are doing the wedding very much so in your own style, yay for geeked out cake toppers! :)
LOL Corey I love you :D
DECORATE! DECORATE! DECORATE YOUR CAKE WITH DALEKS! DALEK DECOR IS SUPREME THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE! :^D
I agree it sounds like lots of fun! You’re putting your creativity to good use I see. Well done everything looks wonderful!
I love the cake toppers!!!! Everything is fun, though! It makes so much sense to try and do things yourself. We made our invitations, too. My favorite creation was putting together the welcome boxes that guests received when they checked into their hotels. We decorated the boxes with a Vegas theme, we had decorated water bottles, maps, and even a photo treasure hunt game in there. It was a lot of fun to put everything together and I loved how they turned out. It’s fun to do it yourself!!!!
Needless to say I’m impressed! The centrepieces are wonderful and I’m so impressed with your cake toppers! When it comes to your invitations, I’m never surprised at how well your creativity serves you and I’m sure this endeavour is no exception. I’m looking forward to hearing more!
When I get married, unless I marry into some rich, rich family, it’s going to be on a tight budget and I’ll be doing a lot of DIY projects. You scored some great finds, especially on the centerpieces! Beautiful. And I love the invitations as well.
Extremely cool centrepieces. Except now everybody will know it’s sugar LOL! Great idea though and it looks awesome. Love that your’e making your own invites too. They look fab. Can’t get over the sci-fi awesomeness. Which theme are you going in to? Not abig fan of the “new” one. Seems really overly retro. But loved the big BBC orchestra one they used for Tennant. Gonna be great girl!
Those cake toppers are amazing – so unique.
The invites are divine. Your weddings sounds like it is going to be simply stunning.
Thanks everyone!! Marie – we’re still waiting on his bow tie :) I’ll share pics on my blog once they’re both wedding-ready!
Emily! Tom Baker!! He’s awesome!! I would love to have a Tom Baker scarf… Have you been watching the new ones??
Thanks Giulietta! I love how homey the Internet can be sometimes :) Way to go on your outfit for <$200. I'd love to see pics!
Heather you have PATIENCE!! That sounds like quite the project!! (I say that now, before I affix 300 rhinestones to our invitations… lol!!)
I Love the cake toppers. They are so unique! You should have added a photo of the groom! Great job.
your cake toppers are perfect!
Nice too know another Dr who fan i have episodes on video, i still miss my favorite dr. though the scarf man….
Hey Emily,
Followed you here from LionSlinger! Like how you’re recycling on ebay. That’s great and a good idea. That could be an entire biz, really.
I wore a “used” lace dress and long, flowing head thingy that everyone loved! Cost under $200 dollars for the entire ensemble. Took me exactly one hour of dress looking/trying on to find it.
Love the SciFi theme as well. Make it your own, I say! Generic is passe.
Thx and have a great wedding. Giulietta
Just from the photos of your centerpieces and invitations, I can tell your wedding will be a winter wonderland!
Thank you for being my dalek-ette! (Did I just say that?)
I am DYI’ing a lot of stuff. Most recently I decided it would be fun to make 100 pinwheels for our seating arrangement -oy!
I’m totally a nerd at heart, but not really putting any nerd-related stuff in the wedding (okay that’s a lie were doing star wars imperial march when we enter the reception)
Love the stuff!
Yaaaaaay!! Oh you guys are AMAZING… nerdiness FTW!! Thank you so much for your comments!! <3
Oh my gosh, Emily. I love you even more for this!! Your centerpieces and wedding invitations look amazing, and I just LOVE the cake toppers! They are soooo personal and just, suuuuuper fun. It’s symbolic of something the two of you enjoy, and that is just so rad. Awwwwww!! I love it, love it, love it. <3
My step-sister made her centerpieces too and they were lovely–a perfect DIY project!
em the centrepieces are gorgeous!!! too funny you used sugar lol how’s that for thinking outside the box. love the daleks too when can we see the little groom???
[...] Please commenOt over @ the WeddingBells site! [...]
Omg those daleks are fabulous!
I LOVE THE LITTLE DALEKS!
Oh, dude! All your projects look amazing. The invites look STUNNING. You’ve done such a great job.
Haha I did not know you are having Dalek cake toppers. That is so fun! I cannot wait to see pictures of your wedding!
What a wonderful testament to your spirit Emily, this journey has been full of ups and downs and you are facing each and everything with positivity – this was a very fun post to read. I have yet to see Doctor Who but I have heard many good things about it. How wonderful that you are both incorporating such fun into your day.
The centerpieces are perfect and the peek of the invitations look beautiful. Wishing you continued luck in everything.
You tell great stories – original, creative and sooooo you!!! You are going to have an amazing wedding!!!
Emily yet another fabulous post. What makes you stand out in this competition is your personality – you make things that some people have never even heard of compelling and entertaining. Big props for adding those extra touches to your day and for staying true to yourselves. You are both going to have such fun!
I love the centerpiece and the invitations! They are just perfect for a winter wedding. And the cake topper is so fantastically unique! :)
Your wedding Miss Emily is going to be unlike any one I have ever seen before and I love it! So unique! You really have made this DIY wedding your own and I think you should be so proud!
Best,
Hannah Katy
loving your center pieces!!
Just showed that to my fiance, and perhaps we’ll put that on the groom’s cake.
Love Dr. Who and love your Dalek!
OMG! Bride and Groom Daleks!
We finally get to see your cake topper – so cute! Thanks for the lesson on “Doctor Who” as my coworker loves the show and talks about it often and I unfortunately have never seen an episode. SHOCKED? Ya, according to Mark I need to be cultured as I also haven’t seen some of the greatest movies out there.
Anyhoo – yet another great post! Sugar? How creative! So as you know from my last post, my DIY centre pieces turned to be a nightmare only for them to rescued and made (cheaper than DIY too) by our florist. My veil, all our stationary (invites, programs, table numbers, guest book, presentation box etc.) and other misc. items will most probably be DIY but who knows, things may change. Thanks for the tip on Blue Dot Paper Shop as I’m still searching for paper for our invites.
Everything’s looking great! Nice job!
Jess thank you so much!! I’m so excited too… I think David may even wear Star Trek cufflinks as well!! :)
Melissa – thanks so much for commenting! The eBay seller was “factorydirectwedding” and the item was called “Winter Wedding Silver Moss Grass Bush w Glitter Decor”. LOL I’m not sure how I ended up finding them or where “grass bush” came into the equation but they were really good!! Best of luck :)
Hi Emily,
I love your twig tree centrepieces – I’m actually in search of supplies to do something similar for my wedding… Who was the eBay seller you bought these from, and what search terms did you use to find them?
omg em this might just be the coolest thing I have EVER seen!!!! I love how you guys are incorporating such personality to your wedding, can’t WAIT to see you both come in to the dr. who theme song!!!! invites and centerpieces are looking awesome too!!!