Save the Dates Ceremony Programs Table Runners
Ketubah Coasters Lavender Cones Seating Signs Favors
Envelope Labels Tissue Paper Pomanders Thank You Cards
{Unless otherwise noted, all photographs are by me}
We used reproduction vintage DC postcards (purchased from Cafe Press) as our Save the Date cards. We ordered a custom 3 x 2 1/2 inch stamp (which we found works best for a 4 x 6 inch postcard) online from Simon Stamps with our information, stamped them, and mailed them out! Probably the most simple project of the whole entire wedding.
The programs were my favorite DIY project. I designed the programs using the graphic from our invitation suite as the main cover, and then some design elements that we carried through the rest of the wedding on the inside. We wanted the programs to be small enough so that they could be kept as keepsakes, but big enough that they would contain all of our information in a readable size font. I designed the programs to be exactly 4.25 inches by 5.5 inches, which means that we could print the entire program on one 8.5x11 sheet of card stock and then just cut in half and folded to create a small booklet.
Once the pages were printed and cut, we used our bone folder to crease and fold the cardstock and punched holes along the spine where we could string blue and brown striped baker's twine to bind the booklets. Finally, we used a corner punch and embosser from Jo-Ann Fabrics to hand-stamp the corners of each program to give the programs a more finished look.
Within the programs, we included the names of our wedding party and parents, the order of the ceremony and some of the Jewish traditions that we chose to incorporate into our service, as well as our marriage and ring vows. On the final page, we included a word of thanks to our parents and friends for being so supportive throughout the planning process.
{image via buyfabrics}
We purchased our fabric from buyfabrics.com and comes in a variety of pattern arrangements. I made table runners for both our guest tables (which were 28' in total length, comprised of a mix of 8' and 6' tables lined up end-to-end) and for the shorter (6') tables where our food, cakes, and drinks were set out.
Based on our caterer's advice, I made one long table runner each for the guest tables to ensure a smooth and continuous look. I then used our leftover fabric to make shorter runners, just over 6' long, for each of the non-guest-tables. Since our tables were all the standard 30" wide, we wanted our runners to be about 10-11" wide to leave enough room for plates, glassware, napkins, etc.
The fabric that we used is 54" wide, so depending on the width of your runners, you can get at least four runners per bolt of fabric even with a hem allowance on either side. For a great tutorial on how to DIY table runners, check out this post from Miss Sundae on Weddingbee. This was tons of help when we were making our own runners.
My Dad printed our ketubah on his photo-quality printer on archival watercolor paper. A ketubah is a Jewish marriage contract, in which the bride and groom make promises to each other regarding their future together. In our ketubah, we promised to respect and support each other, and to move forward as equal and supportive companions.
Not a new idea, but I really liked the idea of having custom made coasters during the reception. All the ones that I found online were too expensive, so I designed my own and printed them with my Gocco on blank coasters that I bought online. I did two sets, one in light blue and another set in eggplant purple, but I can't seem to find a photo of any of the purple coasters.
These are little paper cones that we made so that our guests could throw lavender buds on us at the end of the wedding ceremony. We used printed flat thick paper from Paper-Source, cut them into squares measuring 4" on each side (each sheet of paper made four cones) and then rolled them into cones, used double-sided scrapbooking tape to secure them in place.
I printed the labels on our printer using 2.5" bluebell round labels from Paper-Source. To make sure that the lavender wouldn't fall out of the bottom of the cones, we put a small drop of clear tacky craft glue to block the small hole at the bottom of the cones. We loved the prints on the paper, which both tied in our color scheme and our vintage/global elements, since one of the papers has vintage postcards as its print, while another uses foreign mail. I love how these came out!
I'm sure that many other couples have used similar cards, but I was inspired particularly by the wedding of Joy from Oh Joy! We bought scalloped white note cards from Paper-Source, then I used my Gocco to print the design. The swirly design in the corners was a design element that we featured in the programs, coasters, and thank-you cards. We punched holes in the top and bottom for the ribbon, and tied the cards around the backs of the front-row chairs during the ceremony.
We purchased the favor boxes from Favors from Kate the paper came pre-cut in the shape of a flower with leaves but flat, so we folded and assembled them ourselves. Inside were two chocolate truffles from Whole Foods - the flavors were turkish coffee dark chocolate and rosewater in milk chocolate with a white chocolate shell. Once the boxes were assembled, we hand-stamped small tags with the word "Merci" in light blue ink using a stamp from Paper-Source, and then tied the tags to the boxes using blue and brown striped baker's twine.
{full envelopes, ready to be mailed out}
We bought vintage stamps via ebay to use both for mailing our invites and for the return rsvp postcard. I also gocco'd a border on the front of the outside envelope in lieu of a more formal address label.
I took a page from Amanda and made tissue paper pomanders to hang from the chairs lining the aisles during the ceremony. This project took forever! Each pomander takes about 40 flowers, and we made a total of ten pomanders (six in light blue and four in dark brown), and our cat destroyed a few in the process, so we made close to 500 individual tissue paper flowers.
Andy refers to this project as the "never ending tissue paper project" because it literally felt like we were NEVER going to be done. But we did eventually finish (although the week before the wedding) and used blue and brown striped ribbons to hang the pomanders from the chairs.
{step one, with the first run of light blue ink}
I designed these myself and then printed them using my Gocco on blank folded cardstock from Paper-Source. The main "thank you" is in English in brown, and the words around the card say "thank you" in several different languages (French, German, Arabic, Farsi, Somali, and Swahili), each of which we've either studied or used while traveling overseas.
We made a total of 50 knowing that we would have a few mistakes. We only have 50 guests at our wedding, many of which are couples, so we probably won't need all of them - although the sentimentalist in me had to keep at least one as a wedding keepsake.
{step two, with the final run of brown ink}
Overall, I'm really happy with how they turned out, although I need to get better at lining up my prints more accurately - it was really tough getting the brown elements to line up with the blue in the right position, so I had to give up on getting them to line up exactly. Andy says it adds to the "handmade" quality of the cards.
