I’m a big fan of the Food Network and enjoy watching “Semi-Home Made Cooking with Sandra Lee” where her “philosophy combines 70% ready-made products with 30% fresh.” Since I’m not very crafty I applied her motto toward my wedding projects since I knew I couldn’t do it all from scratch. Below are a few of my Semi-DIY projects that I tackled.
First were my wedding invitations and paper goods. I fell in love with and was inspired by White Aisle’s “Shanghai” design. I worked with a graphic artist to re-create the design with a few revisions. We made the background canvas a burnt/pumpkin orange and reversed the copy in white.
(Image courtesy of Jason Q Tran Photography)
Our wedding date was displayed vertically on the right hand side so it would peep out of the Envelopment 5×7 Portable Pocket in “Green Tea.” I bought the “Orange Lotus Blossom” sheets of paper from the Paper Studio and cut them into strips for the belly bands. Lastly custom strips with the floral motif, our names and date were wrapped on top.
We chose to have all RSVPs online via our website. We did not have any problems! Here was the RSVP panel info.
We also carried through the font, colors and floral motif through to the menus!
(Image courtesy of Jason Q Tran Photography)
The Next Semi-DIY project was our popcorn boxes for the petal toss because I didn’t want to use the standard petal cones. I found Wilton’s scallop edged popcorn boxes from Michael’s. I punched holes on each side and tied “Lemongrass” ribbon to create a handle.
I originally planned to glue a ribbon belly and monogram. But I ran out of steam as we got closer to the wedding date.
Here was the final result on our wedding day! Kristin of The Treasured Petal filled the white boxes with orange petals for contrast. I had a family friend pass the popcorn boxes in a wicker tray to the guests that were closest to the aisle.
(Image courtesy of Jonilyn Photography)
I wanted lace to somehow be incorporated into our “Shabby Chic” theme besides my antique lace wrapped bouquet (more on that on a different post). I bought Fiskar’s Lace Border punch and punched the edges of each vellum program cover.
(Image courtesy of Jason Q Tran Photography)
I wanted to carry the lace punch through to our table numbers. So I put my husband to the task.
And this was the final result.
The day before the wedding I found out the hotel didn’t have the silver clip stands to hold the table numbers Geoff created. My wedding coordinator Paola, of Just Chic Events, graciously volunteered to stop by a restaurant supply store to buy the stands the night before the wedding but I just let it go. We used the hotel’s table numbers instead.
The last Semi-DIY project was our card cake box. I’ve always loved the square stacked cake look. Since we didn’t order one as our wedding cake, I thought I could make one to use as the card box.
(Image courtesy of Natalie Williams Photography)
I started with three different square-sized department store gift boxes to stack. I wrapped each box or cake tier in plain white wrapping paper. For the bottom tier, I cut a big square hole in the top. I then cut a slit in the front of the second tier/box for the cards to slide in through. And I also cut a hole in the bottom so when the cards went in, they fell to the first box on the bottom. I cut a big X on the top and stuffed it with silk flowers and glued ribbon around the edges.
(Image courtesy of Jonilyn Photography)
I was told guests were confused as to why our “wedding cake” was at the sign in table! Then right before the ceremony started a family friend moved the card box into our room for secure storage. People were stepping aside yelling “make room for the cake!”