Our photographer’s photos of our wedding will be ready this weekend, so while I wait for those to re-cap my ceremony with you all, I’ll share a couple of my DIY projects: passport wedding programs and African music CDs. As I’ve mentioned, Dave and I are extremely lucky enough to have traveled extensively around the world; travel (in Africa primarily) is what brought us together in the first place. So instead of a monogram logo, I created a mock passport visa stamp with our names and wedding date on it, and used it on nearly every DIY project I had including our invitations, website, napkins, programs, favors, thank you notes…you name it. That $20 stamp from Simon Stamps was the best tool I bought throughout planning.
In line with the theme, I designed our wedding programs to look like passports and had them printed as small double-sided greeting cards, in color, at Overnight Prints for less than it would have cost me to print them in full color on my printer. This was actually a last-minute project, but set the personal tone of our wedding right off the bat.
At the end of the night, as guests were leaving, we gave out CDs burned with our favorite West African tunes to share with our friends and family. We stamped and embossed the front of the CD envelopes with our visa logo,and stamped the back with the song titles/artists/countries of origin, and then wrapped it with twine. I bought blank CD labels and designed those to look like old records. We continue to receive comments week after week from guests who love the CDs and have been sharing the tunes with their friends as well.
Front of CD cover:
Back of CD cover:
CD label:
Did any of you use a personalized stamp or logo on your DIY projects?
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Wow! Such perfect details to complement such a worldly couple. It’s amazing how far a personalized stamp can get you! Love these.
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I didn’t invest in a stamp, but I did do a personalized logo. I DIY’d it by knocking off a Martha Stewart design and making it my own. We used it on stickers for envelope seals, as part of our hang tags on our favors, on the OOT letter and in our thank you letters. It make a nice continuity.
.-= The Thirty-Something Bride’s most recent blog post: Oh God Oh God Oh God =-.
OMG, love both projects so much. What a great concept on the passport program, and love the barcode stamp on the back of CDs….very cool! Thirty Something Bride above is right, a simple stamp goes a long day. Less is more a lot!
[...] Loving these travel-inspired DIY CD favours! [...]
Really, really cool! I wish I was a guest at your wedding.
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oh wow i’d LOVE to feature your wedding cd favor…well, your whole wedding really…but i’d love to know what was on that cd ;)
.-= Hi-Fi Weddings’s most recent blog post: Guest Mix- Caroline Fontenot =-.
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Hi-FI, I”ve pasted the songs below. They are all on I-Tunes, and AMAZING musicians.
Number, Title, Artist (Country)
1. Africa, Toto (USA) (We added this one for fun, so everyone knows its an Africa CD)
2. Ai Du, Ali Farka Toure (Mali)
3. Aisha, Africando (Senegal-Cuba)
4. Beau Dimanche, Amadou & Miriam (Mali)
5. Karolina, Awilo Longomba (Congo)
6. Birima, Youssou N’Dour (Senegal)
7. Comme s’il en pleuvait, Mayra Andrade (Cape Verde)
8. Madan Exotic Disco, Salif Keita (Mali)
9. Redemption Song, Angelique Kidjo (Benin)
10. Sabali, Amadou & Miriam (Mali)
11. Se Pas Pou Dat, Alan Cave (Haiti) (This was our first dance-although its from Haiti its very popular form of music in Francophone West Africa called ZOUK so they play it all the time there)
12. Senegal Fast Food, Amadou & Miriam and Manu Chao (Mali-France)
13. Velocidade, Cesaria Evora (Cape Verde)
14. Y Amore, Salif Keita (Mali)
15. Yay Boy, Africando (Senegal-Cuba)
16. 1er Gaou, Magic System (Cote D’Ivoire)
wow, those programs are so cool and unique. i’m sure your guests were happy to have some good reading material in church :)
p.s. – our good friends are getting married at your church this weekend!
p.p.s. – looking forward to hearing about your MX honeymoon and the one you have planned for the fall.
So clever! They look great.
.-= Tina’s most recent blog post: Summer Reading List =-.
[...] was so extremely DIY, I have no idea how she had the time to do this. The personal touches like the African CD they put together for all their guests, their programs made to look like passports, the handmade decorations for the tables, and even the bride’s mother growing grass in leiu [...]
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I have used Overnight Prints in the past for some of my own printing. As much as I like supporting local businesses, you really can’t beat the price, far cheaper than a local printer can do.
.-= James Spinosa’s most recent blog post: HostGator Review =-.
I’d love to copy your template for the passport programs. Can you send me the link or provide me with some clue as how to do it. I love what you did!
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Sure, I’ll send you an email with the JPEGs to see if you could replicate. If you have Photoshop, I can send you a photoshop copy so you can just insert your own information.
I love your DIY projects! I too would love to see a template for your passport program…I do use photoshop…
I love, love, love the passport program. I too would love the temlate I do have photoshop also.
Just following up…could you please send my the photoshop template for the passport programs? Thanks!
I absolutely love your passport programs. My fiance is a pilot and I’m hoping to make something similar. I was wondering if you could email me the template you used to make them. Also, how did you attach the papers inside the greeting card?
Thanks!!!
I was wondering if I could have the template for your wedding program. It is absolutely incredible!
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Hi All,
I’ve gotten a couple of requests for templates but unfortunately my hard drive crashed a few months after my wedding and I lost them all! So sorry!
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But I created the passport program double-sided cover to fit the greeting card template at http://www.overnightprints.com. Then I formated my program text to print double sided on regular linen paper that I put through my home printer, and then paper cut them to fit inside the cover, and finally stapled them together.