Category Archives: DIY

Bachelorette Survival Kits

Bachelorette survival kits can be created by the hostess of the bachelorette party as a party favor or can be put together by the bride as a thank-you to her friends for organizing a fantastic weekend. Try to fill the bag with a mix of little things the guests will find useful, but that are also cute and thoughtful. Band-Aids might be useful in a crisis, but she’ll probably appreciate a nice shade of nail polish or a cute hair band more. Treat the term “survival” loosely. Every survival kit starts with the perfect (and hopefully reusable) bag though, so here are some of my favorite finds. Want even more inspiration? Check out our Bridesmaid Survival Kit Pinterest board.

Finch and Fox creates personalized hangover kit bags that are absolutely adorable. Bags can be designed to reflect the city or state where the event will be held or the theme of the weekend, like a fiesta or wine tasting, for a truly personal keepsake.

For my ladies across the pond, I adore this neon hen tote. If you don’t mind the 2014 in the corner, you can get this bag at a deep discount right now (only 9.62!) and you could probably cover the date up with a custom sticker or patch. Otherwise, a 2015 version should appear soon!

Ok, these aren’t bags, but they’re too adorable and perfect not to mention! These personalized hair band favors from Flhair Accessories can be customized to fit your colors and theme for the weekend. I am such a huge fan of the modern typography and stylish color combinations Emma puts together!

Words to live by, girls. Words to live by. Fill these canvas pouches with a few (inexpensive) beauty products, like your favorite shade of essie nail polish, a Stila lipgloss and Burt’s Bees hand salve. Browse the checkout area at Sephora for lots of travel- or sample-size products to add in.

This “Plan to get a tan” tote is perfect for a beach weekend. Fill with sunscreen, a brightly colored pair of sunglasses, the latest celebrity gossip mag and a bottle of hydrating coconut water. Ready for fun in the sun!

I love the bold typography on these kraft paper bags, which can be stamped with the date and location of your party, or even a personal party slogan you dream up. At about 5×7″, they can hold more than you’d think too. Try a mini bottle of their favorite liquor, a few Tattly removable tattoos, and directions to where you’ll all share a much-needed Bloody Mary the morning after.

Not really the DIY type? I got you covered. Check out Minimergency Kits by Pinch Provisions. These little pouches come in a huge array of colors and patterns, like these metallic striped ones, and are prefilled with lots of handy little items, like double-sided tape, dental floss and even a tampon. For a quick-fix personalization, just add each guest’s name to a tag and tie to the zipper with a gold ribbon.

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A Bridal Crafting Party + A DIY Bunting Banner + A Raspberry Iced Tea Recipe

Bride Gemma enticed her bridesmaids into helping her with some of her DIY projects by throwing a pretty little bridal crafting party on the rolling hills surrounding her grandmother’s home. The ladies gathered for a meal of love-inspired bites all shaped like hearts, including chocolate-filled cronuts (a croissant + a donut) and tomato soup paired with mini heart-shaped grilled cheeses. A hair and makeup artist herself, this DIY bride used the occasion to trial the wedding-day hair and makeup for all of her bridesmaids, resulting in gorgeous fishtail braids and casually tousled up-dos. Scroll through the sweet shots from this sunny afternoon from Maru Photography and find two bonus DIYs below: the recipe for the refreshing raspberry and citrus-infused iced tea the ladies enjoyed and instructions for the delicate bunting banner they created.

Citrus-Infused Raspberry Iced Tea

A light, fruity tea forms the base of this recipe. For the best result, you’ll need to brew your own using loose tea leaves. Bride Gemma used a blend called Cosmopolitan that incorporates raspberry and strawberry notes. If you can’t find that exact blend, simply substitute another herbal fruit tea. David’s Tea Mighty Aphrodite would be a perfect fit.

Ingredients:
6 cups raspberry tea, brewed strong
1/2 cup simple syrup
Juice of 1 lime
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 lime, sliced (+ lime peel twists for garnish)
A handful of raspberries to garnish
Ice

Directions:
Brew a strong batch of raspberry tea, then allow it to cool completely. Mix tea, simple syrup, lemon and lime juice together in a pitcher. Add raspberries and lime slices, then fill pitcher with ice. Take a sip and then dilute with more ice or water if necessary. Add a swizzle stick with raspberries or a lime twist to each glass for a pop of color. Enjoy!

Bunting Banner

Gemma and her bridesmaids crafted these chic bunting banners to add a vintage, handmade vibe to her country hall wedding. On the wedding day, the banners crisscrossed the rafters along with strings of twinkling cafe lights.

Supplies:
3-5 different fabrics in varying patterns or colors
Sharp scissors
Double-sided tape
Fishing wire or a pretty string or ribbon cut to the desired length of the complete banner

Instructions:
1. Cut strips of fabric that are about 2 inches wide and vary in length from about 10 to 14 inches. Be sure to test your fabric out—avoid those that frays easily.
2. Fold each strip of fabric in half. Place double-sided tape between the two sides, leaving enough room to string the fishing wire or a ribbon through.
3. String on your fabric strips in a repeating pattern or go for a random look—either can work!

Bridesmaid Bouquet Frames

When I was a flower girl at the age of three, I was presented with a basket of baby blue fabric petals and instructed to drop them as I processed down the aisle. I innocently inquired what would happen to the petals after I dropped them. “Someone will throw them away, honey,” some unsuspecting bridesmaid replied. Oh heck no!, I thought. Why would anyone take beautiful flower petals and throw them away? My three-year-old mind balked. I would not throw the petals! To this day I still have that basket of soft blue petals, not a one dropped! So I can totally understand my cousin Dawn’s impulse to save her bridesmaid bouquets. Here, a tutorial for preserving those gorgeous petals in a keepsake for yourself and the bride.

Bouquet Frames
a project by Dawn Jason

Bouquets are one of my favorite aspects of a wedding. From the choice of flowers to the style of ribbon wrapping the stems, every bouquet has its own flare and reflects the bride’s personality. Some beautiful bouquets are even created without real flowers—I have carried artificial flowers and bead bouquets and seen girls toting pinwheels, fans, clutches and brooch bouquets (which I have always admired).

Being sentimental, I have saved the bouquets from each wedding I have been in, hanging fresh flowers to dry. This means I have a nice, dust-attracting collection of six bouquets (seven counting the bridal bouquet I caught at one wedding).

Wanting to clear up the clutter and give my allergies a break, I decided to find a better way to preserve these memories. This simple project had been on my to-do list for months, but I don’t know why I waited so long—each frame took less than 30 minutes to complete.

What you’ll need:
Bouquet, dried
Picture frame with a wide mat (I choose a 5×7 frame with a 4×6 opening)
Double-stick tape
A picture from your friend’s wedding or of the two of you

Drying the flowers:
There are a variety of ways to dry flowers, including placing them in silicone gel, microwaving them in cat litter (I have not tried this one), pressing them or, my method of choice, hanging them upside down out of direct sunlight and just forgetting about them for a few weeks.

The bouquets I used for this project were between 9 months and 3.5 years old. Although I noticed that the petals from the older bouquets were more fragile, I was still able to make the frames regardless of how long it had been since the wedding.

Prep:
Once the bouquet has dried, remove the petals from the stems. Be careful not to break the petals, since the largest ones are the easiest to work with. Rose petals are especially nice since they are broad and lie flat. Daisies and other flowers with narrow petals require more work, while denser flowers like orchids should be dried flat or pressed for the best effect.

Next, apply double-stick tape to the front of the mat and place petals appropriately. Overlap petals throughout and do not worry about going over the edges, as you can always trim the petals. If you’re using a bouquet with a variety of flowers, plan ahead and try alternating colors to add dimension to your project.

The edges of the petals are bound to stick up where the petals overlap, but don’t worry about trying to press them down because a) double-stick tape does not really work petal to petal and b) the glass in the frame will solve all of your problems. It took me approximately three rose blooms to do one frame.

Add your decorated mat and chosen picture to the frame and adjust appropriately, cutting off any excess petals. Since the petals are fragile, the less you have to take the mat in and out of the frame the better, so be sure to clean the glass and affix your photo in the right location before placing the back on the frame.

I was able to make two frames from each bouquet with petals to spare. Making two allowed me to give one to the bride as a gift to memorialize their special day.

Oh, and it seems my sentimental bouquet streak is genetic; my mother still has petals from her bridal bouquet in a dish on her dresser.

An Orange and Aqua Backyard Bridal Shower

Two creative bridesmaids turned the DIY factor up to 10 to put together this handcrafted backyard shower in sunny California, beautifully captured by Alex Rapada Photography. Almost every element was handmade, from the Chinese buffet to custom “He” and “She” signs at each table. Fluffy white china mums and sunset-orange roses pop in the hand-painted aqua Mason jars and set off the delicate lace tablecloths. And I’d take a scrapbook and a shower gift over a blender any day—it’s such a thoughtful keepsake that will last a lifetime. Each guest left with fortune cookies dipped in chocolate and coated in sprinkles—such a cute modern twist!

Wine Basket Bridal Shower Gift + Printable Poem Gift Tags

Today, I’m so excited to bring you a series of printable poem gift tags, perfect for a wine basket bridal shower gift. This is a great gift to team up on with a couple friends. You can split the cost of 8 bottles of wine (at least one should be champagne!) and then add a poem gift tag to each bottle so the bride has a wine collection ready for the milestones of her first year of marriage.

When I decided to embark on this project, I knew my friend Amanda was the perfect person to collaborate with—she is absolutely the master of writing cute little poems. (When I was in her wedding, she wrote a poem for each bridesmaid, talking about how special our friendship was to her.)

We looked at similar projects around the web and both agreed that we didn’t like certain events that were commonly used for this gift. We thought First Fight was weird (“Yay, we’re married and we fought!”) and we agreed that Christmas and New Year’s were kind of lame, especially since it’s likely you’ve already spent a few of these holidays with your significant other before you get hitched. We liked the idea of celebrating the first baby, but didn’t like how most poems for this event were designed so that the lady didn’t get to drink anything! We decided that we could get around this by reserving the baby bottle of wine for right when you decide to start trying to get pregnant or for after baby is born! We brainstormed different life events that merited a bottle of wine and came up with a list of eight options: Wedding Night, Honeymoon, First Anniversary, First House, First Baby, First Dinner Party, New Job and Just Because!

For the tag design, I experimented with some of my favorite color palettes—some sunset-inspired shades, then neons, and finally metallics paired with warm neutrals. But when I tried them on wine bottles, I really didn’t like how the colors clashed with the shades of the glass. I finally decided to pull colors from the bottles themselves and landed on four shades of green and violet that would complement the natural colors of wine. (My color choices are also inspired by Pantone’s shades of 2014.) I added a geometric triangle at the edge for a bit of a visual pop. What do you think?

IMPORTANT NOTE: To print these to make your own bridal shower wine basket, you should download the PDF from the link below. It will give you the best resolution and most clear type—the jpegs used throughout this post are just to show you the design, but are too small and will pixelate if you print at full size.

Print from this link for the best results: Wine Basket Printable Poem Gift Tag PDF

I hope you love! And if you want to design your own tags, you can find the full text of the poems after the jump.

Continue reading →

A Kaleidoscope of Colors Bridal Shower

Sometimes a lady does not want a shower that’s all pastel flowers and pink ruffles—she craves whimsy and vibrant colors, a modern affair for a modern woman! Anne from Circus Berry has just such a friend, so she obliged with an explosion of geometric garlands and colorful glassware in this kaleidoscope bridal shower. The crowning centerpiece is the donut hole tower, easily assembled with a styrofoam core, plastic wrap and a whole lot of toothpicks. When the bride asked for a nod to her beloved feline friend, Anne was momentarily stumped, but found the perfect solution with geometric cat cupcake toppers (love the question mark tail!). Check out Anne’s tutorial for the hand-painted champagne glass favors here.

A Chic Chevron and Stripe Handmade Bridal Shower

Chalkboard signs and paper rosettes, patterned burlap garlands and chevron table runners…this shower is just bursting with handmade touches, all done up in soft greys and pale pinks—with a few pops of color, of course. Photographer Megan Small couldn’t wait to plan a handcrafted shower for her best friend (since second grade!) Hillary. Guest book idea I’m stealing: Have the guests sign a cookbook next to their favorite recipe—now you know what to make when they come over for dinner! Check out Megan’s list of the stellar Etsy vendors who helped her pull off the event below.

Photography: Megan Small Photography | Patterned paper rosette garlands: Jennifer of The Papier Studio | Faux chalkboard signs: Katie of Lane Love Designs | Burlap pennant signs: Jessica of Cuter Than Words | Chevron printables: Heather of YouMakeDo | Rosette centerpieces: Lili of Beautiful Paper Crafts | Hillary + Adam bicycle print: Michael of DexMex | Catering: Susan Jodon of Swanky Catering and Events