DIY Alternative Pomander

Digging these Japanese Kusudama balls, and they'd make fabulous pomander alternatives! Easily incorporate your theme/colors into this project. **picturing them made of alternating solid and damask print paper** Or better yet, make them out of recycled pamphlets, brochures, books, or maps!

Check out the 2 part tutorial here:
Part 1
Part 2

Happy crafting!

Image from Folding Trees via Whip Up

Kick @$$ Newspaper Banner

I suppose it's a blessing that I saw this tutorial after the wedding, because otherwise I'd have had another project on my plate. Me LOVES reusing materials in DIY projects! A few banners like this one (in your wedding colors?) hung between trees would be especially pretty, no lettering necessary! The semi-transparency of the paint showing the newspaper adds just the right amount of quirk for me.

I can totally picture this painted in a glittered ivory, alternating with a matte eggplant color, hung on a black satin accent ribbon. Yup, it's settled. Those are my newest fantasy wedding colors.*

Image and tutorial from maya*made, found via zakka life

* Fantasizing about wedding colors is a common symptom of PTWS even in the mildest cases

Why DIY

I'm a thoughts over fancies kind of girl, so this DIY postcard STD really impressed me: A perfect illustration of the couple's shared love for books and coffee shops, this photo was taken at the cafe table where they met and they even photoshopped their kitty on the paper!

Simple+ chic+ personal = elegance in my mind, and this is a great example of what I wish my own diy projects convey. I can't deny that there's a bit of a perfectionist in me and I sometimes focus a little too much on the details. But at the end of the wedding, I just hope our guests walk away with a feeling that the celebration was fun, personal, and that they are special to us. This has been our reason for making many of our wedding decisions, and a big part of why I put so much effort into so many of my own diy projects.

**Good job Aimee & Minh, and congratulations on your wedding this weekend! I wish you the just this kind of sweet success on your special day!**

Why do you DIY?

Cast Your Fears Away

I found this fantastic wedding captured by Our Labor of Love, via Meg from A Practical Wedding. Meg already did a great job wording the feelings invoked in me when I first saw the pics, so I won't repeat them, but I just can't resist sharing this with you all. This wedding has all the good stuff great weddings are made of, and then some.

Fabulous details:

an excited bride:
a dashing groom: gorgeous dresses: a fun cast:plus a suh-weet cast!

I personally look forward to all the unexpected things that will happen at our wedding. They usually make great photo ops and fun stories that stick out much more in people's minds than the food and the favors. To make that memory a fond one, I think it takes the right attittude. In my worst wedding nightmare, I picture pouring rain and a drunk creepy uncle grabbing my behind during a dance. Is it bad that I swear I will go stomping in the mud in the dress I don't care about anyway, and kick him in the nads in front of everyone, with a smile? (Don't worry, no one at our wedding will expect anything less from me)

More pics from this wedding can be found here

Beauty AND Brains

Reader Guilty Secret pulls off the bridal look amazingly well in this bridesmaid dress, doesn't she? Oh yeah, you heard right, bridesmaid dress. Pure geniusness. Details on her big triumph is shown on her post HERE.

Special thanks to Riley for the lead ;)

Memory Lane

I love thoughtful details. Sure, I ooo and ahh at the letterpress menus and the pintuck satin linens like the rest of them, but I'd rather take a DIY program with a funny haiku or a well told story any day. I'm not sure whether that makes me easy or hard to impress...

I adore this idea kandr came up with, lining an entrance pathway with their pictures from childhood choronologically, inviting guests to start from their beginnings down to their wedding day:

See the rest of their wedding HERE. They also had a fantastic reception 'reveal'. How awesome it is to open up doors to your guests and hear a gasp of excitment!