DIY Wedding : Making your own programs

 

I am down to crunch time so in an effort to save time I went onto Etsy to try to find some premade printable programs. Some that I liked were $80, others as low as $15. After noting some of the dimensions to see how many print on one page I realized that a lot of them are 2 per page, cutting the 8.5x11 down to 4.25x11. So I resorted back to my standard thought any time I see pretty much anything…. “I could make that”… It only took me about an hour to get everything done.

I started out by editing the size of the paper down to the 4.25x11 but then realized when it came time to print that it wouldn’t print multiples per page the right way… so I changed it, and it is EVEN EASIER. I swear. I hope all those DIY brides read this and realize they can do it themselves!

I used a banner from a free digital kit I found on Persnickety Prints. I also used a glitter heart from Design Editor (follow her blog, you won’t regret it) I have a massive amount of digital scrapbooking supplies, all free. If you are looking for some elements to use I suggest starting at Quality DigiScrap blog. You can find just about anything for your wedding theme. Don’t forget about clip art and using google images or even engagement photos.

Now… Onto the tutorial…

Open Microsoft Word. Let’s setup the document to make 2 programs per page. The layout should automatically be portrait for Word, if for any reason it isn’t please make that change. Next you will setup the Margins to be “narrow” and then the Columns to be “two”. The beauty of using Word is that it is so user friendly. The setup will automatically make sure the the columns are the same size and there is a margin btwn them. So no worrying about things bleeding over.

Next it’s time to start putting in the digital scrapbooking elements or even clip art or the photo.

There are some tricks to using photo files in word. Word will try to keep them in line with text and in the body of the document unless you select the picture and make a few quick changes. These changes will make it where you can more freely move and resize the photo file. But do keep in mind that word will now not recognize that in the body of the text, that means when you start typing your text might overlap the photo. Just enter down a few lines until you are clear of the photo.

Now we can start editing the text needed for your program. What I saw on most was “the wedding of NAME & NAME” followed by the order of the ceremony events. On my “second” page which will be the back I have the Wedding Partys names and roles. A lot of them also listed a thank you to the guests or a map to the reception venue, as my reception is in the same place and my list got a little long I just kept it to the wedding party names.

I formatted the text to be centered in each column for my preference but that is up to you and how you want yours to look. You can add as many digital elements you like, and you can also use which ever fonts you like. I will show you how mine turned out and some extra tips for formatting the text for better placement.

Fonts Used: Titles – Branboll, Names – Dead Hardy, names and details – Yummy Cupcakes

A few extra settings to help with the spacing btwn lines. If you notice in word when you hit enter to go down to the next line the spacing might be more than you want, like where it says bride’s entrance and then lists the song I wanted those right next to each other. Also where it says the wedding party title and then the names listed.

Make the spacing 1.0 and it will probably say “remove space after paragraph” and you will want to click that to remove that space. If you want to add it for spacing btwn the different parts of the wedding party like btwn the groomsmen and the bridesmaids just add that space back in in lieu of adding and extra “enter” space.

Printing: Since this is the front and back of your program on one side, all you need to do is insert the paper once printed into your printer the other way around and the program will print the front on the back of the back and the back on to the back of the front… (confused?) I would suggest printing these on cardstock.

Cutting: If you have a paper cutter just line the edge up with 4.25” and cut away, if you print these at Staples they will charge $2.00 to use their big paper cutter to cut multiples at once. I would suggest this to save you a headache of cutting them over and over and over. DO NOT FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY TRY TO CUT THESE WITH SCISSORS. Please… just… don’t.

Cost breakdown: I made a call to Staples for pricing and was told for full color front and back it was $1.98 a page and then the additional $2.00 for the full order to cut. I have used Office Depot a lot and have sweet talked them into only charging full color for front and black and white for the back since technically the back is black and white, which will save almost half the cost. For cardstock they typically upcharge you anywhere from $0.07 – $0.25 depending on the paper you choose. If you are printing at home make sure when you print in your printer settings that you have it on either “high quality” or “photo” settings so that you won’t get any streaky lines in your clip art items. (also note that a lot of printers now a days will not feed cardstock from the bottom tray, if you have a feed tray from the back it works, the cardstock will not curl around the rollers on the inside. If you want to print at home but yours doesn’t have a back feed tray then look into “resume” paper, its thicker and has a nice texture to it and will feed through printers.)

I hope all the other DIY brides out there find this tutorial helpful in making there day exactly what they want. I am so glad we are DIYing a lot of our stuff, cuz even if I wanted to find some of the things I want, it just isn’t out there. Our Wedding is not traditional. And I wouldn’t want it any other way!

Much Love,

Tamara

Wedding Wednesday

You may not know, if you don’t know me, but I got engaged on Christmas and I am in full wedding planning mode. We have actually been planning the wedding since last spring (you have to book stuff way way way in advance here, it’s crazy!)
I thought I would share with the blog-o-sphere what I am doing, where I found inspiration or tutorials and the true cost of things and doing them the DIY way.
Lets start with my wedding mood board: (click picture to see my Pinterest board)

*The red framed chalkboard became my inspiration for color scheme. Red, Black, Blue & White. And I mean Cherry-fire engine-candy apple red and cobalt blue.
*The alter I found via Pinterest is just what I had in mind. We wanted something that would block the view behind us, have personality, and be something we could DIY.
*I have never been one for flowers, so when trying to figure out what to do for flowers and budget… I came across the paper flower bouquets made from books and comic books… I fell in love with them instantly… bonus: WAY CHEAPER.
*I am personally partial to all things red so when I was trying to find some more blue to bring in I saw the beer bottles that had been glittered/spraypainted/ modge podged and thought about the new Bud Light Platinum bottles that are a really pretty cobalt blue. With the help of my Maid of Honor and one of her friends they drank enough (over several weekends) to get me almost 50 bottles! I will say tho that these are the HARDEST to get the labels off! More on that later
*I definitely want a photobooth. We are still working out logistics on having one setup since my camera doesn’t have a remote. My MoH will def be making the “Grab a Prop & Strike a Pose” sign, she has such pretty handwritting.
*I was looking for venues in our area and kept getting sticker shock for how expensive some places were and the restrictions they had on types of food and drinks. I was talking with my Mom one day and I was in the process of telling her about the prices and she asked where my friend Jexica was getting married (She deserves her own post for all the DIYs we did for her wedding, look for that in the future) and she was getting married outside at her grandpa’s pasture… So my mom just said.. “what about Memaw & Papaw’s?” It hadn’t even dawned on me that we could get married there and save literally thousands of dollars! They have 3 acres out in Lonoke that backs up to a nice big field (occasionally there will be horses or cows out there but rarely). Plenty of room for parking, 3 bathrooms for guests, a nice big deck to put the food on… This is the best idea my mom’s had for the wedding!
** You might notice a lot of I instead of We… in true manly fashion… Scott is letting me do what I want, within reason of course. But I still show him all my ideas and he just keeps saying “whatever you want baby” I will say tho that it was his idea for us to make our own cake… yes you read that right, we are making our own wedding cake. I’ll have a special post for all the tips I found online and our trial run we do to test the batter amounts and things like that.
On the next Wedding Wednesday: Paper flowers. Look for it in two weeks!

Things I love Thursday: Evernote

I first downloaded Evernote on my Android phone to keep track of those random things I came across online that I wanted to go back to (usually giveaways that I wanted to enter, one day I will win a Silhouette Cameo!). I remembered that you could get Evernote for your computer too and downloaded it onto my new laptop. I had been looking for a good way to keep track of my thoughts and ideas for the wedding and my Pinterest board is a bit over full (anybody else?) and I wanted to make my wedding master list and have everything there in WORDS and PHOTOS.

I can break things down into Notebooks and then Notes… so I have lists and then sub lists. Does anybody else get excited about sub lists like I do? I can break down things and think about them one tiny element at a time.

And I can do this from my laptop AND my phone and they sync together so I can work on a note tonight and then go off somewhere tomorrow with my phone and be able to pull it up and remember what I need or the look I’m going for.

I really think this will be a life saver for the wedding!

{edit btwn writing this and posting it: I also added another “notebook” and converted my massive craft to do list over to it. I had a 19 page list in categories in my purse for the last month. And now it’s in Evernote!}

Much list love to you all,

Tamara

Should I DIY my wedding dress?

As little girls we have imaginations. And we let them wander. All throughout childhood and teen angst and heartache in college we still have daydreams… little wanders in the realm of fairy tales. I got my nerd in shining armor… but I was a little surprised at how expensive things are when it comes to the wedding dress. Admittedly my ideas on a wedding dress suited to me has changed as I became older. It changed as I changed.

As a little girl it was the big poofy white dress and the ride off into the sunset. As a teen I had a fascination with medieval  garb: the big train, the embroidery, the big sleeves, and corset base. Then in college (after prom with my massive dress that I couldn’t dance in) I went a bit more toward the rockabilly style with the shorter dress. Now, I know that shorter dresses don’t look good on me, that I can’t dance very well in big poofy dresses, and that medieval style is just a dash over the top.

When Jexica got engaged and we went shopping for her dress I got a dash of hope… I realized that wedding dresses aren’t $7,000 like on “Say Yes to the Dress”… but it came with a dash of reality… Jexica has a much bigger budget than I will. More than double. And I just can’t spend a lot of money on a dress I’m going to wear once. I’d rather spend that money else where.

I was inspired by Corinne’s DIY Wedding Dress and then I went on Crafster and saw that there were other brides that had made their own wedding dress. I had been looking a lot online and found some overseas websites where they make knock off dresses but I couldn’t try the dress on to make sure it was flattering first. And then I found several dresses I like that aren’t carried by any store around me… (one in Australia the other I’d have to drive down to Dallas)

I really like this dress: (this is the Australian one)

I live in the USofA and can’t fly on down to Australia to try this baby on. And they don’t list a price so I don’t even know what it costs. But I love the silhouette, the details, the sash, and the fact that is has STRAPS.

But I’m not a big lace person, I think it’s beautiful but I don’t wear it much. But I do love the shimmer tulle on this dress:

(the one in Dallas, the Cinderella dress… literally… from the Disney collections)

But the shimmer of the tulle is so me. OOOOOH shiny!

So last night while I lay awake in agony with allergies I started to peruse the patterns of the major companies… And I came across this:

(Vogue 2979, they were having a sale on their patterns too!)

It has the bottom that I would have a hard time making from scratch but the top is not right. But I do not believe that making the top would be difficult nor would finding a pattern if it came down to it.

Next hurdle? Fabrics… there is a severe lack of good fabrics here in Arkansas. We have a bit of a selection at Joanne’s but other than that it’s Hancocks (mostly cottons) and Hobby Lobby (also mostly cottons)… I don’t know where to get good fabrics or even what fabrics to use. Most commercial wedding dresses are polyester or other various cheap fabrics… yet they are hundreds/thousands of dollars. I am thinking since I want to do a sparkle tulle overlay (or polka dot?) that I might be able to get away with costume satin for the skirt. And I might try going around some thrift store and see if I can pick up a lace dress/top that I could overly the top with. Corinne gave a good tip on the dress she made since hers was a corset top there is a special fabric that goes as the lining of the corset that has NO stretch to help give structure, I might pick up a yard of that for my top just so it holds ‘the girls’ up.

But I definitely need more ideas from people who have done this before. Or even people who have made dresses more.

I’ve made a couple but not much. I got a year to get good! I think I might try to do something similar in black and red for a Halloween costume. I have a nice black mask. It’ll let me work with the fabric and figure out tricks and tips for helping make it a smoother process.

 

First things first… time to make a home made dress form… I’m gonna need backup!

 

~Tamara

Shopping for Jexica's wedding

This week I took of the days to help my friend Jexica do prep work for her wedding. And I tried on  probably 14 dresses (probably 40 between all five of us) for options for the bridesmaids. I personally love the dress she picked (it has pockets). Then watched her try on a good 40 dresses. Including every lace dress that David's bridal had. Then we went to The Bridal Cottage and she tried on five dresses and then we all cried.
But it has to be altered and the sales woman said the first thing the seamstress its going to ask is if she has her shoes. And since poor Jex its trying to plan this during her spring break that meant we were on a shoe mission! Cut to six stores later... Really, nobody has blue shoes? So the next day we hit up five more and low and behold, DSW to the rescue! Not only did they have several shoes in blue but we also found bridesmaids shoes! Which I also love!

I was worn out! But I think she got so much done. And as evidenced by the crowd at dinner Wednesday night, she has plenty of help!
~ Tamara
Ps. The dress in the picture is not THE dress, I can't ruin the surprise.