Monogram Dance Floor

For my wedding I wanted my monogram on the dance floor, but I knew that I could not afford to have lighting to do it. I did some investigating and this is what I did to still get the look I wanted.

What you need:

• Design on jump drive or cd. Design must be in a jpeg or gif format.
• 2-3 days of wait time.

I took my design to Kinkos (tried to go to Staples and Office Max, but they did not do what I needed in the time that I needed it) and spoke to one of business advisers. The business advisor took my jumpdrive, uploaded and formatted it for my project. Have you ever noticed advertisements on the floor at your locate store? This is what I had made. This floor mat had a reusable adhesive on the back that can be laid on any floor and pulled up without ruining it. Once you are done with it you can put the backing cover on it and store it for later use. It was very durable and people were able to dance on it all night without ruining it.

It took 2 days to make it, since when I went to pick it up it was a poster and not the mat that I ordered. So they had to take another day and redo it. When doing this make sure that your, consultant knows what they are talking about. Mine did but the people making did not.

Depending on the size mat that you order, depends on the cost. I spent about $80.00.

It added a great touch to my wedding and it looked really good. It was an unexpected surprise...which I really liked.

DIY: Build Your Own Chuppah

No, I am not Jewish...but I loved the concept of having a chuppah (which symbolizes the home that the couple will build together) at my wedding ceremony, so I made one (with some help). You can click on the picture, to get a better view. I had previously posted about having a chuppah before my wedding. Here is what you need to make one of your own:

• PVC pipe
• 4 PVC joint connectors
• 4 Paint buckets
• 4 Quick drying cement

You will need to start this a day or so before you need it. I assembled most of mine the 2 nights before the wedding. I thought it was really easy to do. Here are the steps:

• You will need to measure your space to see what length that you need to create the chuppah. I used 4 ten foot PVC polls and 4 five foot PVC polls. Make sure that you have your measurements when you go to the hardware store to obtain your pipe, so that the you get the hardware stores staff to cut it to the length that you want. I could have used shorter polls ones, but wanted a grand effect.
• Mix the quick drying cement. Be mindful of what the temperature is when mixing it. You do not want it to be too runny or too thick.
• Fill the paint buckets half full. Place the long PVC polls ( for me the 10 foot polls), in the center of the bucket. Make sure that you secure the polls with rope or wood to ensure that the polls dry in the cement straight. I thought that I had them straight, but when Mr.Broomjumpinggroom came home he immediately said that they were not and got busy making sure that they were.

Once at the site....

• Space the buckets with the polls in them where you want them.
• With using the connectors, connect the shorter polls to the longer polls. Once connected you should have created a square.
• Decorate how you want. I used fabric, ribbon and flowers on my chuppah. The only issue that I had was ensuring that the numbers printed on the PVC pipe were covered up. To fix this I turn the buckets to the back of the altar and covered the polls with ribbon. You may want to use light fabrics because extra weight may not work well on the PVC polls. Make sure that you have good tape and/or stick pins to attach your decor to the PVC polls.

In creating a chuppah, make sure that you have many hands to assist with assembly at the site. It is quite helpful. Depending on the height make sure that you have a ladder, it makes it so much easier. At the end of the night, taking it apart was easy....my husband (who was ready to to leave) pulled on one of the polls and it just popped apart. Even though it came apart so easy, the chuppah was really strong. If you want to ensure that it does not pop apart you can always, use constructive adhesive to link the PVC connectors and pipes together. In the end, the buckets and polls that I used went in the trash, mainly because I do not have anywhere to store it after the ceremony and I kept all the decor.

Cost:

• PVC pipe $3.22 a piece ( the 4 short pieces was two pipes that were cut in half)
• PVC connectors $1.55 (4 connectors)
  
• Quikcrete $ 2.77 (4 bags)
  
• Paint bucket $ 1.00 (4 buckets)
  

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Total $40.60

( I love this picture. It shows my mom's handy work off. She made the table cloth, chair bows and the napkins for my sweetheart table. Thanks mom!!!)

There will be additional cost for the decor that you want to add to it. I loved the way that it looked for my wedding. My husband and I stood under it with our minister for the ceremony and had our sweetheart table underneath it for the reception. It added so much to our wedding. I was proud that I made it.

DIY: Wedding Programs

Here are my wedding programs. They were easy to make , but I will admit that they were a little time consuming. Thank goodness my matron of honor came over the Thursday before my wedding to assist me in putting them together.I think all the time and care that went into them made them totally perfect. I have had several people tell me that they were beautiful and different.

The program consisted of 6 pages. The pages were as follows:

• cover
• order of service
• pages 3-4 had a listing of persons participating in the wedding
• menu for the evening
• our thank you's

I used english and copperlight gothic fonts for the program. I printed them off on my printer and then took them to Staples to have them cut. I tried to do it myself, but I though that there were to many pages and that would add more time to the assembly process. The template that I used I was able to print two of the programs on the same page.

The back cover of the program, I used an aqua colored hard stock. the back cover was cut longer than the other pages so that it could be folded over on the front at the top. Once the back cover was folded, we used a two hole punch and punched holes through all of the pages. I then took the ribbon that I used for the coloring books, since I had so much of it, and thread a piece through and tied it in a double knot. I think that they turn out so beautiful. I am really proud of them.
Click here to get the template.

DIY: Monogrammed Aisle Runner

Of course since I was monogram obsessed ( which several of my wedding guest were very impressed how every thing had the monogram on it) I wanted a monogram on my aisle runner. Here is what you need:

• aisle runner
• paint
• design
• time

I have had my design of my monogram for sometime. I took my design to Staples to have them blow it up poster size. To save money, make sure that when getting it blown up have them do it in black and white. My copy person accidentally made the my copy in color..but since it was not what I ordered, I got it for a black and white price, which was $4.99.

Place the design under the aisle runner and trace it. This is one of the time consuming parts of this process. Make sure you use a steady hand and do not press to hard through the aisle runner because you can rip through the aisle runner. Once the design is traced, it is time to paint.

Make sure that you have something under your runner while you are painting, so that you do not also paint what is underneath. This can take time as well.

Make sure where ever you are painting it aisle runner can stay there a day or so to ensure that the paint is totally dry so that when you roll it back up for transport you do not have paint on other parts of the runner that you do not want paint on.
To finish off my aisle runner, I added rhinestones to the curly loops of the D, C and J which added extra sparkle. I also added some brown satin ribbon on the end of the runner for another touch. Since I have time on my hands and if you want some help with your runner contact me for pricing.

DIY: Coloring Books

More DIY. Here is another project for you to complete. I created these activity books for the kids and the kids at heart. I got this idea from the Bona Fide Preppy Bride. Here is how you can create your own:

• Template
• Ribbon
• Crayons

On the template site there are many different forms of the coloring book. Once you make the coloring book your own, make copies of it. I had Staples help me make into the booklet. Once made into a booklet, you then use a hole punch and punch holes in the side of the booklet. Then take ribbon of your choice to secure the booklet together.

Plan ahead when doing this project when it comes to the purchasing of the crayons. I had crayons from a school box in my house that I have had for years. When purchasing crayons, they are cheap around school time. You can purchase lots of boxes for about $.10-.$25 a box. This can save you money. If you can not purchase them around the beginning of the school year, check out your local dollar store. To cut cost, put three crayons in each set and tied them with a ribbon.

Thanks to the bridesmaid that assisted me with this project. It was fun and I hope that the books are fun for all that use them.

DIY: Water Bottles

I just could not let the water bottles that are going to be used at my wedding, just have the regular labels...I had to add another DIY project. I made two different water bottle labels with our monograms on them. The are really easy to do, here is what you need:

• water bottle template
• glue
• scissors
  

You can alter the template to look like anyway that you want. You must have a steady hand (as I found out) when cutting the labels. If you don't you will have to take the original label off so that it is not seen when you place yours on the bottle. You wrap the label around the bottle and then glue the edges together. I found that it works better when you use a glue stick instead of glue in a bottle, because it might make the label to sticky and it might stick to other bottles when you place them back in the box. Again this project is not hard, just a little time consuming. I really appreciate one of bridesmaids assisting me on completing this project. One more personalization touch for my wedding.

DIY: Monogram Stickers

When I made my invitations, I also wanted to add some flare to the back of the envelopes. I had been looking at making stickers, but could not find sticker paper. When I was at friends house, who loves to scrapbook, I asked if she had a sticker machine, which she did and allowed me to utilize it. They were so easy to make.

Items needed:

• Xyron sticker maker
• Pattern
• Scissors

First you have to create a pattern of what you want your sticker to look like. I took our monogram and and created a table in Microsoft Word. Once created, I printed them and cut them into squares. After the monograms were cut, I placed them in the top slot of the Xyron machine. Once in the item is placed in the top slot, I pulled the sticker paper at the bottom of the machine and the monogram was between two sheets of the Xyron sticker paper.


Below shows how your sticker comes out of the Xyron machine. When I pulled the top layer of the sticker material and was left with the monogram being sticky on the back.
I placed my stickers on the back of the envelope to assist in sealing them. I think that they turned out pretty good and added some personalization to envelope.

Invitations

Over the past week I have been creating my wedding invitation. I had spoke in previous postings I talked about purchasing them. The invitations had 50 invitations and 50 RSVP cards along with envelopes. Each box was $8.99. The invitations are cream with a raised floral design on the side. I used the font English for our names and used Copperlight for the rest of the invitation. I placed our monogram that is going to be used throughout the wedding, on the top of the invitation. It took a whole evening to figure out how I wanted the invitation to be formatted, but once I saw it on the screen I knew it was right.

On my RSVP cards that I added our monogram to as well. When I received wedding invitations in the past as so as I opened the invitation all of these little papers would fall out. I decided that I did not want my guest to go through this, so I made these cards that on one side have a listing of where we are registered and hotel accommodations. On the other side, there are directions to the ceremony site. To make these cards I bought a pack of card stock the same color as my wedding invitation for $5.99 at Staples and printed them on my computer. I formatted it so that there were 6 sets on each side of the page. I then took them to Staples to have them cut for $6.00. I tried to cut them myself, but I was just cutting them every which way but right.

The other night my MOH helped me put the invitations together. After we ate dinner, it took us about 3 hours to stuff them. Some of my invitations went out today and the rest will go out by Monday morning. It is really a finalizing experience taking your invitations to the post office. Even though I have been engaged for sometime, going to the post office today made me really realize that I am getting married in a few short weeks.

DIY: Cake Topper

Just call me cheap, but I wanted a sparkly cake topper, but really did not want to pay alot a money for something that I was going to use once. I decided to make one myself.

Supplies used:

• Paper mache J



• Rhinestones



• Hot glue gun/ glue sticks



• Skewers

I used different size rhinestones to cover the J. The project is not hard, just a little time consuming. The project really did not cost much either. I purchased the paper mache J at Jo-Ann Fabrics when it was on sale for $1.99 and the box of different size rhinestones for $6.99 with a 40% coupon. I had the glue gun and sticks. Once I started the project, I realized that I was going to use the entire box of rhinestones. I had to go back to Jo-Ann Fabrics to purchase another box. Luckily, I had another 40% off coupon. When I was covering the J, I left a small area on the bottom to make a small hole, I then stuck two skewers in the hole and added additional glue to secure them in place. I think it turned out pretty well for only spending a few dollars.

DIY:Petal Cones

Petal cones are completed. The cones will be given to guest, probably 1 per couple or 1 per person, when they enter the ceremony. I would like my guest to throw the petals when we take our walk down the aisle after being introduced as the Mr & Mrs. They were really simple to make. Here is what you need:

• petal cone template


• decorative paper or vellum paper


• double sided tape


• scissors or a shape cutter

On the template you can change the names, quote, font and colors to anything that you want. It did not take me long to make them. One day I printed them and cut them out. Another I put them together while I watched CSI and part of The Eleventh Hour. The most time consuming part, I thought, was cutting them out. I will be filling them with the petals that I talked about in a previous post. I think that they turned out nice. I can not wait to see the photo of the rose petals showering us as we walk down the aisle.