Last minute DIY for the win!

Hey everybody!  Long time no write!  Life is awesome (but busy) here in newlywed-land!  I can’t believe it’s already been four months since Zach and I tied the knot!

A little preview of our wonderful day!

To start off my recaps, I thought I’d update you on how all of our last minute DIY projects turned out!  I was pretty stressed about all we had to do in the week before our wedding.  It was definitely a lot to do, and the process was not without its hiccups.  I’m pretty proud of how everything turned out in the end though!

One of the first things we tackled was our tablecloths!  In order to create the exact hues we wanted, we used this handy Rit Dye Color Formula Calculator.  The hardest part of the process was just figuring out how much dye we needed to make and calculating the amount of each color to use for a huge bucket of dye.  Once we got it figured out though, the dip dyeing was super simple!

Tablecloths in windy action! 

Our next big project was a photobooth!  My “Pinspiration” was this photo booth:

But with a little ingenuity and use of some already-lying-around wood, this is what Zach built:

Suffice to say, it was a HUGE hit and totally worth all of our (mostly Zach’s) hard work!

Inevitably, there were a few projects that fell by the wayside.  We never got around to making an arbor or focal point for our ceremony.  Oh well!

Our biggest project was definitely self-catering our food and desserts!  Thankfully, we had a lot of help from family and friends, and everything came together beautifully and deliciously in the end.  It was definitely a busy week in the kitchen!  We actually ended up with too much food!  Here’s a little peek at the dessert spread my mom, sister, and I slaved away over:

Mmmmm…

Would I recommend saving so much DIY for the week before your wedding?  Definitely not!  Making all this happen and getting along while doing it was not without its challenges!  I’m so happy with how everything turned out in the end!

Did you save lots of DIY for the last minute?  How did it end up for you?

(Special thanks to our photographer Bright Fizz Photo!)

Our Grand DIY Intentions

I must admit, I’m not much of a crafter.  Sure, I dabbled in cross stitching, rug hooking, and sewing back in my middle and high school days.  This mostly led to a bunch of abandoned-while-only-half-finished projects.  My creative talents mainly revolve around cameras, not quilts or paints.  Basically, Martha Stewart, I am not.

However, a budget backyard wedding definitely calls for some crafting, whether I like it or not.  I do want our wedding to be pretty, after all!  With the overload of wedding “Pinspiration” out there, Zach and I tried to restrict ourselves to a select few important DIY craft projects.  Here’s what we’re hoping to accomplish:

Dip-dyed tablecloths!
Source: http://www.housetohome.co.uk

I really didn’t know what to do about tablecloths until I found this beauty online and fell in love!  Our plan is to dip-dye white cotton tablecloths in several different jewel tones.  I already have all the dye and all the tablecloths, but we’re waiting until we arrive in Arizona the week of the wedding to dye them since we don’t have space for this project in our apartment.  I really hope it works!  We’re also hoping we can resell the tablecloths later if they turn out well!

Lighting!
Source: http://www.younghouselove.com

We definitely need some romantic white lighting to transform our very “driveway-ish” driveway into a magical fairyland!  Luckily, Zach’s parents already have a ton of white string lights.  Since Zach used to be an electrician, I’m delegating this project to him and hoping it will turn out as pretty as this picture!

Photobooth!
Source: sharonlovesthis.blogspot.com

This is our most ambitious project, and, I feel like, the most likely to get axed if we run out of time and energy.  But seriously, how awesome is this photobooth?  We want to use old family wedding photos to celebrate our loved ones and also get some funky props and costumes for people to pose.  I’m hoping we have time to construct this!

Arbor focal point
Source: apracticalwedding.com

We need some sort of focal point for our outdoor ceremony.  Zach’s also taking this one on, hoping he can construct something simple and pretty from some old wood and flowers!

Easy cake stands!
Source: number-2-pencil.com

At first I wanted to scour antique stores and thrift shops for vintage-y looking cake stands and serving plates.  I soon realized that was more expensive than I originally envisioned.  Then I stumbled into this idea on Pinterest.  You just buy some fun, colorful plastic plates and cups, glue them together, and voila!

These are most of the craft project we hope to accomplish, although this is not all we’ll be DIY-ing, by any means.  We’re also going to make all of our food and all of our desserts, do our own flowers, design our own playlists, and write our own ceremony.  Uh-oh, I’m getting overwhelmed just thinking about it!  The most stressful part about these crafts is that we can’t really do any of them until we arrive in Arizona.  It’s going to make for a busy pre-wedding week, but there’s really nothing we can do about it.  Thankfully we’ll have lots of able-bodied friends and family members arriving early to help!

What do you think of our craft list?  Too ambitious?  Anyone have tips for any of these projects?