I first came on to this awesome site as DIY Bride, sharing projects and stories about my wedding with our fantastic readers. With wedding season upon us and Pinterest use in full force, I feel surrounded by all things wedding, and let me tell you folks, there is some awesome stuff out there.
Doing a DIY wedding was a shit-ton of work. I love, LOVE the way it turned out; it was exactly like I had pictured it in my head, but if I could offer some advice: don’t try to do everything yourself. I still have nightmares about folding tissue paper poofs, and I know my nearest and dearest do, too. However, home-grown touches are lovely additions, and I have compiled a little gallery of some of my favorites for you lovely readers.
Shameless Plug for absolutely fascinating wedding related articles – DIY Bride | Persephone Magazine.
Green Wedding Shoes – DIY Ideas | Green Wedding Shoes Wedding Blog | Wedding Trends for Stylish + Creative Brides.
This blog was my absolute favorite throughout the entire wedding planning process. Everything is just so pretty. And the tutorials, OH the tutorials. So many fun, easy, and creative ideas. I made this a few weekends ago:
It was totally un-wedding related, I just thought it would be adorable for my living room wall, and it is. It is a super simple tutorial that is incredibly inexpensive and could make a great decoration for a guest book table, centerpieces, or a cake table. You can basically do any shape or design you want to make it even more meaningful to you. There are tons of others to try as well. How cute is this?
Fair warning, this site may suck up a substantial amount of your time. There are so many pretty things to look at.
Martha Stewart Weddings – Wedding Planning Ideas and Inspiration, Dresses & Jewelry ““ Martha Stewart Weddings.
I am completely unashamed of my love for Martha Stewart. I love her books, I love her craft supplies, I love her magazine, I love HER. I am by no means delusional enough to think that anything I make holds a candle to that woman, but it doesn’t stop me from trying. I am not what you would call very “domestic” on the cooking front, but I will craft with every last spare minute I have. Scrolling through the umpteen slide shows on the Martha wedding blog will give you more ideas than you would ever know what to do with. There are templates, patterns, instructions, and pretty much everything you could possible need to decorate and cater an entire affair, but I would suggest picking one or two to try. Perhaps–
Ribbon Crafts How-To Workbook – Martha Stewart Weddings Inspiration.
Rock and Roll Bride – Wedding Photography Blog · Rock n Roll Bride.
You will not find a lot of princess dresses and delicate little touches on this site, and that is why I love it. When most brides and grooms are covered in tattoos, same sex couples feature prominently, and black trumps white and ivory in almost all cases, you know you aren’t on your typical wedding blog. If you tend toward more non-traditional events, the ideas you can find on this site will be abundant.
Carnival themed wedding? Yes please!
If you are looking for ideas that you haven’t seen at a million other weddings, this is the site for you.
Style Me Pretty – Style Me Pretty – The Ultimate Wedding Blog.
On the opposite side of the spectrum is Style Me Pretty, which is definitely much more traditional than Rock N Roll Bride. The pretty is endless, but the DIY page is where I head immediately. The number of tutorials they have over there is an awesome time suck.
Tutorial here: DIY Project by Posh Paperie and Jackie Wonders Photography | Style Me Pretty. There are so many that can be done for totally non-wedding related decorating, as well, so there is no limit to the creativity.
Ruche Blog –Ruche Blog.
If you haven’t been to ruche.com, go right now. Now! Okay, sorry for yelling, but there is some serious cuteness on that site, and they are so reasonably priced. Think Anthropologie meets Forever 21. Okay, maybe not that cheap, but you would be surprised. On top of cute stuff, they also have a blog that is twee and adorable. Yes, I know, this is not wedding related, but wait. Their blog also has a DIY project section that includes some of the most awesome tutorials, many of which are totally wedding applicable. For instance:
Come on, tell me you don’t want one of those right this minute. How fun would it be to have a bunch of those laying around at a wedding to take photos with? Or what about:
Tutorial here: Ruche: Project DIY: Vintage Book Pomander. Yes, my clever and bookish ladies (or gents, if you’ve made it this far), that is a pomander made out of book pages. I know defiling a book can be horrifying, but you could always use a newer book, like Twilight or something, and let the pages sit out in the sun for a few days to get the same effect. That would be a kick ass centerpiece for a book lover wedding.
So what about you all? Do you like wedding-y stuff? Do you become nauseated when your Pinterest feed is packed full of 17-year-old gals pinning mad wedding dresses? Do you prefer tradition or kookiness from your nuptials? If you are hitched, or getting hitched, or just thinking about getting hitched someday, how much DIY did you do or plan on doing?
7 replies on “Getting Back to My Roots”
And I’m not even remotely close to getting married (I guess)! This is all so very cute. Marriage for me right now is nothing more but an excuse for a great, gorgeous party, so this post is very convenient in a not necessary way.
Thanks for all these great sites! My fiance and I finally set a date – it’s in a little over a year – and I am feeling overwhelmed, especially because during that year I will also be finishing my Phd and we will be moving across the country for his post-doc! I will have to go back and read all of your articles now. I have a feeling I am going to spend quite a bit of time on rock n roll bride. :-D
Those poofs look fantastic!
I know I’d make a terrible DIY bride…heck, I’m having trouble planning a wedding period. Â It’s fun to look at stuff though. :-)
I actually do like some of the wedding stuff on Pinterest, but the volume I see on my newsfeed, especially from my friends who are already married, really baffles me. And things like, “engagement photo ideas!” which are pins of strangers’ engagement photos, really weird me out. I don’t know why, but I find it bizarre.
Agreed! I end up with a bunch from young ladies who are MUCH too young to be thinking of such things. I feel like it is going to make weddings even more outrageously expensive than they already are. And strangers engagement photos are odd, too, except for the couple that had the zombie. That is one shoot that was awesome. Did you see that?
There was a fair amount of diy at our wedding, but it came in the form of gifts from family members if that makes sense. My mom made my dress. My sister made my hair piece–no veil for me! My grandma bought and arranged the flowers for the reception and decorated the parasol I carried. My cousin baked and decorated our gorgeous cake. Family friends let us hold the ceremony on their boat. :)
That is *awesome*! Also, it’s totally the example of ‘getting gifts you could really use’!