My Top 20 DIY Wedding Websites!
For the next few Wednesdays, I’m going to be posting some information for you all, which I hope will come in handy. My favorites! This week, I’d like to share with you my top 20 favorite DIY web resources. These websites and blogs are absolutely chock full of DIY goodness. As an added bonus, they’re all quite budget friendly as well. Read on, friends, read on!
My Top 20 DIY Web Resources! (in alphabetical order)
This blog has been one of my favorites from the get-go, because its author’s wedding focus is so utterly refreshing- good old fashioned values like commitment, community, caring for the earth and the people around us. And as an added bonus, budget friendly DIY ideas abound!
Are you sensing a theme yet? This bride has collected and posted many, many lovely wedding projects you can do yourself, and I’m always psyched when she finds something new!
This bride has amazing taste and lovely ideas. Definitely check out last week’s hanging mason jar project. So much fun!
This is the website for you if you want to create lovely DIY wedding projects but lack the graphic design skills to design your own images. I have personally worked with the designer, Sarah Guze Brown, and her prices are very reasonable, her work is excellent, she communicates quickly, and she is lots of fun to work with!
This amazing bride is from my home state, but the real reason I love her is that her blog is tons of fun! I particularly love the photo thank you postcards she made, along with the DIY argyle programs she has posted.
This much loved blogger bride planned her own amazing DIY wedding on an unbelievable budget. Her graphic design background probably helps, but seriously, almost all of her ideas could be replicated by a novice and she gives great money saving tips (like customizing bottles of “Two Buck Chuck” to save on your wine budget)!
The name says it all, and you’d be nuts not to check this blog out. I especially love how many of the ideas could be used, not only for weddings, but also for parties, home decorating, you name it!
I first began following this lovely bride on Weddingbee and later became hooked on her other blog, Glamour This! Check out her DIY brooch tutorial and you’ll be hooked too!
From crackled shabby chic chair signage to felt flowers, this bride can definitely teach you some DIY budget tricks!
iDIY is the perfect place to go for paper inspiration, freebie downloads and more. For me it all started with downloading freebie vintage photoshop brushes– and suddenly I was hooked for life!
A wonderful, wonderful blog with amazing ideas- like making your own dance floor monogram. LOVE!
With an abundance of DIY ideas, this blog will charm the socks off of you. Especially the DIY Ohio printables- or am I just partial?
I found this blog by accident, but I’ll never lose it now that I have found it! The many amazing ideas on this blog will have you hooked too! Right now, I’m particularly enamored with the vintage book table numbers. But really, who can pick a favorite?
With an entire portion of the website devoted to DIY weddings, you’ll be hooked too. My current favorite is the kitschy winter table decor, featuring an ADORABLE owl made from a pine cone, but I’m sure you’ll find your own favorites within minutes!
This wedding planner’s blog is a dream come true for any bride, with its rustic-chic, elegant and fabulous ideas!
I am especially smitten with this blog’s DIY silhouette “bride’s side” and “groom’s side” pew cards, but really, all of the ideas are sure to have you drooling.
This blog has some unbelievably great DIY ideas, and was the place where I found my water bottle labels. Plus, you know how I feel about vintage glam wedding ideas!
Ok, I admit, this isn’t technically a “wedding blog” but with so many gorgeous, free, vintage images, I couldn’t resist!
A great place to go for freebie downloadable invitation goodies. Check out their category titled “DIY & Templates” and start swooning for yourself!
With this blog, you will spend many hours reading, smiling, loving. There is an entire section devoted to wonderful DIY projects too, what else do you need to know?
free image courtesy of www.fotosearch.com
Filed under DIY, favorites, inspiration, website
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Making Menus
This past weekend, I checked another project off our massive wedding to-do list. Menus!
Early in the process, J. and I decided to make our own menus even though our venue provides them at no charge. We thought it would be an easy place to add some personalization to our wedding, and gave us a really fun opportunity to add some humor into our otherwise formal event. To do so, we “borrowed” an idea from a friend and decided to go with double sided menus. On one side of the menu, we have a serious description, so that the guests will know what to expect. On the other side, we thought up a number of silly descriptions to (we hope) make them laugh!
Will everyone at our wedding think this is awesome as we do? Probably not. But its never stopped us me before!
Our menus were designed by Sara Guze Brown of Belletristics, and she custom-made them to coordinate with our address labels.
Sneak peek of our address labels in action…
One side of the menu will be green and gold, and on the other side we reversed the colors. To print them, I purchased standard 8.5″ by 11″ card stock, and had staples custom cut it in half, lengthwise, for $2. We used our home printer, so I only spent about $30, including the fee for the design itself, to make 170 of these- and they turned out great!
For more information about the menus, visit Belletristics’ blog!
Filed under DIY, budget-friendly, reception
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Mercury Glass Inspiration!
Mercury glass! You’re going to see it at our wedding in mass quantities because I heart mercury glass. Somewhere between rustic elegance and polished glamour lies a gorgeous gray area of speckled, mirrored glass… for me it is absolute quintessential “vintage Christmas.” And oh-so wedding perfect! But why should I have all the fun? Mercury glass objects can be found everywhere from flea markets to TJ Maxx, and some of my personal favorites are actually bargains I’ve found at the Christmas Tree Shop. Apothecary jars, vases, candlesticks, jewelry boxes, and of course, Christmas ornaments abound! So here’s some inspiration I created using this most lovely of materials, with cranberry and plum accents in honor of the fall!
xoxo,
Sarah
Sources: Birnbaum and Bullock gown, programs, mercury glass candlesticks, groom, lavender bunches, Juliette fascinator, bouquets, wedding cake, family photos,Ella earrings, Louboutin pumps, Wonderland invitation, Priscilla of Boston bridesmaids dresses.
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Erin and Anthony’s Romantic Getaway Wedding
Its Friday, and I’m pretty happy to be able to say that. So in honor of happy Fridays, today I have another amazing wedding to share with you! The wedding of Erin and Anthony!
I should say at the outset that originally I myself wanted to have a destination wedding, and when you see these photos you’ll understand exactly why! These two were married in an intimate ceremony at Couples Swept Away in Jamaica, with their families and each other. The bride’s favorite color has always been orange, so the couple paired it with a bright shade of teal for a fun pop of not-too-formal color. The bride carried tropical flowers featuring orange lilies, and wore a lightweight chiffon gown perfect for the weather! The bride and groom said “I do” right on the beach with the salt, sand and wind, and afterward ate cake, drank champagne, and – yes – took a swim! You can see instantly just how much complete and total FUN these two are together. It has been a blast to see them in love- its like cuteness to the 1000th degree!
After the wedding and a few lovely days away, the bride and groom threw a barbecue reception (also pictured below) at the bride’s parents home in Solon, Ohio, complete with the best BBQ I’ve ever had: Hoggy’s. The tables were decorated with hand painted pots filled with flowers, photos of their wedding were everywhere, and a second, larger cake was cut for all to share! J. and I ate seconds, thirds and fourths, and had a great time visiting with Erin and Anthony, and their friends and family!
I also ought to note a huge feature of this wedding that is not at all obvious by looking at it- this wedding was done on a budget! Yes, really! By keeping the wedding small and by celebrating BBQ style at home, Erin and Anthony were able to experience a truly romantic getaway, a private and deeply personal ceremony, amazing family memories, and in the process they saved enough money to buy a gorgeous new home where they recently celebrated their one year anniversary!
Congrats Erin and Anthony!
Filed under budget-friendly, photography
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Ladurèe s’il vous plaît
I don’t speak French, but I might have to learn after trying the Macaroons of Ladurèe, my amazing discovery of the week! My good friend H. brought me a sampler package of macaroons back as a souvirnir from her recent trip to Paris, and in it were six flavors of the most delicious treat I have tasted to date- rose, caramel with salted butter, pistachio, strawberry, vanilla bean and lemon. She gave them to me smiling like the devil, and I tasted the delicate lemon first. Swoon! I of course acted like I was going to save them and savor them over the next two weeks, but in spite of my good intentions, I went straight back to my office and devoured (as slowly as I could) the remainder of my tasty treats.
Filed under favors, inspiration
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Tattoos: Haute or Hide?
Most people are surprised to learn that I have a tattoo. A big, giant fairy tattoo on my back. My good friend T. worked with me at the tender age of 19 to create this stunner, and I had the work done at Stained Skin in Columbus, Ohio. Would I do it again? Heck no, that sucker was painful. But I love it. It is a reminder of a time in my life that was all about freedom and growth, rebellion and identity. So when people ask if I’m planning to cover it up for the wedding I am always a little taken aback. I know some brides do so (and I really do understand why), but the way I see it, its a part of who I am and I refuse to cover up who I am!
my tattoo and T. the artist!
And that’s why today, I’d like to feature some of my favorite images of super-cute brides showing off their tattoos! I love how in each photo, the tattoo is notable but doesn’t steal the show- absolutely lovely! The description below each image links to it’s source. Continue reading »
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Invitation Rejects
The title of this posting is a bit misleading, because it implies that I don’t like the subject matter- but nothing could be further from the truth! This weekend I finished putting together our wedding invitations, but I can’t show them to you until they’ve been sent, so instead I thought I would write about the ones I didn’t choose. My main criteria for invitations was that they be affordable. Really, really inexpensive invitations are extremely tough to do tastefully if you don’t make them from scratch yourself, but that was the goal I set for myself. I also wanted good paper and print quality, a vintage look, and something that felt holiday-appropriate without beating guests over the head with “Christmas.” Tall order right? (Especially tall if you’ve seen some of the tackiness out there in the world of Christmas weddings). So without further ado, my journey through the invitation world…
These “New Orleans” invitations, from The White Aisle, are incredible, letterpressed and wonderful. They are also so far outside my budget that they really don’t count as options. Nonetheless, I found them inspiring. And they set me on a hunt to find letterpress on a budget. The White Aisle actually has competitive pricing for letterpress, along with more affordable options (including DIY) but what I really wanted was outside the budget. But it was fun to dream!
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Wedding Shoes: Pulling a Reese
Do you remember the fiasco when Reese Witherspoon wore a white and silver “vintage” Chanel dress to the Golden Globes in 2006, only to find out that the dress Chanel gave her was actually only three years old (and had been worn by Kirsten Dunst to Globes after-parties in 2003)? Well, I still love Reece. And I’m about to knowingly do the same thing.
That’s right. For our wedding, I’ll be rocking some customized “vintage” Manolo Blahnik’s. Wheee!
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Initiating Facebook Nerd Forcefield
J. and I have a little joke, “initiating nerd forcefield.” Basically whenever one of us is acting like a nerd, we say it to each other. And literally as I type he’s saying it to me now. Why?
Because I figured out how to make it possible for you to follow The One! on Facebook using the NetworkedBlogs feature! I even did the HTML code myself just like a big girl.
Join in the fun today by clicking “Follow this Blog” under the NetworkedBlogs title to the right! If you’re not on Facebook, you can also subscribe to receive email updates (top right) each day that The One! features a new post.
Yep, techno-nerd forcefield. 
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The Dress That Almost Was
This dress makes my heart stop. It is dramatic. It is deco. It is everything I thought I ever wanted. Iloveit Iloveit Iloveit! It is from Birnbaum and Bullock, and sadly it is no longer made. But I can’t say enough good things about B&B.
When I first became engaged, one of the first things I did was call the B&B store immeditately to inquire as to the availability of this dress… I had a crush on it for that long. Though they couldn’t put me in the exact dress, I was invited to the store to see their other gowns. Specifically, THE Steven Birnbaum brought me in and worked with me. We tried on many dresses, but one silhouette stood out among all others- and it was actually the same dress as the one pictured, but with different embellishments! Steven told me that was probably for the best, since the pictured dress was very dramatic and hard to pull of. And I believe he’s probably right about that.
J. it is time for you to stop reading. Do not click through. I mean it, stop right there buddy.
Filed under attire, gown
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