Category Archives: D.I.Y. Projects

DIY // Quote banners

We made giant quote banners as a welcome display for Bridal University. These would make a beautiful addition to a wedding venue — ceremony or reception. So, here’s how you can make your own!

You’ll need:
- Banner
- Traditional projector
- Transparencies
- Soft lead pencil
- Black acrylic paint
- Small paint brushes

Print quote on a transparency and place on projector. Hang banner against a wall. Adjust and focus projector so quote appears at desired size on the hanging banner.

Use pencil to trace each letter.

Turn off projector and lay banner on flat surface. Using a small paintbrush, fill in each letter with acrylic paint.

Allow to dry according to paint label’s instructions. Hang banner and enjoy!

DIY // How to add gold tips to envelopes

We wanted to kick our launch party invitations up a notch, but didn’t have time (or the funding) to order in supplies, so we decided to add a touch of gold to our hot pink envelopes. Below we’ll show you how easy and fast this process is and give you a few tips so you can learn from our mistakes.

A few tips for planning your invitation.

1. Go with the pointy flap envelopes. They might be a little bit extra but, in our opinion, are worth it. Flat flap envelopes say Christmas card, pointy flap envelopes say par-TAY!

2. Always order extra envelopes, especially if you are altering them in some way, like adding gold tips. 20% extra is a good rule of thumb.

3. Hold back five completed copies for yourself: One for your scrapbook, one for your mother, two for the wedding photographer to shoot and one in case you loose any of the previously mentioned.

Our invitation was pretty simple, in that it contained one flat card that was only printed on one side. This kept the cost down on producing and mailing the invitations. The hardest part was punching out our own confetti using a large circle punch and colored tissue paper.

Adding a gold tip to your envelopes

You’ll need: Newspaper, envelopes, rubber glove, gold spray paint

1. Lay down newspaper in a well ventilated area. 2. Place one envelope in the middle of the newspaper and a second envelope flat on top of the first, leaving 1/4 inch exposed. 3. With your gloved hand, press the two envelopes down so they don’t move. With your other hand, spray a light coat of gold over the exposed bottom envelope.

4. If needed, add a second light coat. 5. Repeat for every envelope, using the same top envelope as a shield each time. If the top envelope gets too wet, use a new one to avoid smuding. 6. Line envelopes to dry for 20 minutes (though it’s a good idea to air them out for a couple days to aviod having your invitations smell like spray paint fumes).

Variation: Use glitter spray paint instead of gold spray paint. The results are fun, and definately not something you can buy at the store. Caution: Glitter spray paint gets messy fast. We ended up with more glitter on the newspaper than we did on the envelopes.

Bride Blogger // DIY Thank You Cards

From Miss Behavin: I am about to embark on a new journey … bridal showers. I am so excited to spend some quality time with my friends and family over the next few months. I hear brides talk about how much time it takes to write their thank you cards after each shower. Here are a few tips I have received from fellow brides:
1. Don’t spend a crazy amount on each card.
2. Write a personalized note, thanking them for attending and the gift they gave you. (Hopefully your maid of honor will join you at your showers to write down the gift list.)
3. Place envelopes at each seat at every shower, guests then write their names and addresses on the envelope and leave it for you!
4. Write and send out thank you notes as quick as you can. You do not have to worry about getting to the post office near your big day!

To stay on budget I chose to make my own cards. I printed them on 5X7 cardstock that I purchased at Hobby Lobby.
I love calligraphy but am too much of a perfectionist to try to hand-make each card. Since I spend a lot of time using Microsoft Publisher as a teacher, it was easy for me to make them. I wanted to use a new font that would look like calligraphy, but there are very few font options in the software I used. There are many legal websites offering free fonts you can download onto your computer. Check out http://www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts/. You can even submit your own handwriting for them to make into a font!

I had a lot of fun making the cards and plan to also make the wedding thank you notes. I am ready for all the showers to start so I can start sending them all out!

Bride Blogger // How to make picture frames for your photo booth

From Miss Deco:We have all been there…a boring wedding reception. Mr. Deco and I were determined NOT to have one of those. A trendy idea to keep guests entertained is a photo booth. In choosing our photographer we decided to go with one that offered a photo booth in the package. It wasn’t your traditional booth with sepia toned picture strips, but a backdrop with a photographer taking the pictures. We loved the idea since this option gave room for more people to be in the photos. The larger the group, the sillier the picture! Usually most people set out props like hats, boas, mustaches, etc, but we went another route with FRAMES!

We shopped around several thrift stores to find a couple of large frames that people could hold up around themselves. We did not worry about the color or what the frame is holding, since that would soon change. We removed the matted art and glass until we were left with just plain old brown frames. Next, we set up some plastic tarps in the backyard and spray painted them the colors we desired. Several coats and some touch up paint was needed, but other than that, VOILA…DONE!

We printed out a sign for the reception to let guests now about the photo booth and to use the frames to create fun photos. The pictures don’t print like traditional booths but are available online thru our photographer (they were also included on a disk with our formal photos). The photos got sillier as the night went on!

More fun tutorials by Miss Deco here. Photos by Bellus Photo + Film

Tutorial // 8 mistakes brides make when sending out invitations

Most mistakes brides make when sending out their wedding invitations are completely avoidable. Here are 10 common mistakes engaged couples make when sending out their invites, and easy ways to avoid doing the same.

1. Not enough envelopes.

Give yourself room for error and purchase (or request from you invitation designer) at least 10 extra envelopes … more if you are attempting calligraphy on the envelope.

2. Writing your return address on envelopes a million times.

You are already planning to spend some substantial time addressing the envelopes to your guests, you don’t want to tack on another hour just for writing your own address repeatedly. Get return address labels that match your theme or have your designer print you address directly on the front or back flap of the envelope.

3. Not enough postage.

You’ve heard it before, but this is a serious problem, people! Take one complete invitation to the post office and have them weigh it and tell you how much postage is needed. If you don’t, you risk getting a big stack of invites stamped “undeliverable” in a few days. Oh, and if you have a square invite, that requires more postage, no matter the weight.

4. Incorrectly stuffed.

A good rule of thumb is the smallest components go on top, so your guest doesn’t miss them when they pull your invite out of hte envelope. If your designer thinks differently, go with what they suggest.

5. For goodness sakes, don’t lick the envelopes!

Think of the paper cuts, and the icky glue, and the dry tounge … And don’t run out and buy an envelope sealer just for this, save yourselves a couple bucks and follow these steps.

Lay down a paper towl and place one open envelope on top. Run a damp (not wet) paper towl over the glue. Seal and move on!

6. You missed someone!

Make an Excel spreadsheet or a Google Spreadsheet of your guests’ names, addresses, phone number and which invite they recieve if you are sending out different versions. Leave space to check off their name when you send them an invite, a space for when they RSVP and a space to check off that you’ve sent a thank you note.

7. The RSVP was returned without a name.

It’s actually pretty common: your guest marks that they are attending but doesn’t notice that they forgot to write their name before they mail back the RSVP. There are two ways to combat this. First, you can write in the name on the RSVP card before sending it out. Or, second, pencil in a tiny number in the corner of the RSVP that corresponds with a number on your guestlist. That way if you recieve a blank RSVP you can match it up with its owner.

8. Not everyone RSVPed.

It’s bound to happen that a percentage of guests will forget to RSVP. It is completely polite to call them after the “please respond by” date and just double check if they plan to attend. Not your style? Have your mom do it.

Happy Friday // Tying the other knot

This post is for the grooms.

There is one VERY preventable problem sweeping through wedding days. This is a dangerous thing that can cause a groom to be late to his own wedding, instilling wide-spread panic and anger in the hearts of family members. We’ve seen this time and time again and today is the day we stand up and say “No more!”

Dudes. Learn to tie a bow tie BEFORE the day of the wedding. If you don’t know how to do it, your groomsmen won’t know how to do it … all that pre-ceremony lounge time you thought you had will be taken up by fixing crooked, lumpy ties. Those photos of you are going to be forever, you don’t want to look lumpy.

The solution?

Step one: Pat yourself on the back for the great decision on wearing a real bow tie and not a clip-on. Your coolness level will skyrocket the second you untie that sucker at the end of the night.

Step two: Pick up your tux the night before the wedding, giving yourself plenty of time to practice.

Step three: Grab a mirror and follow along with this tutorial.

Step four: Look great, feel great and be on time for your wedding! Congratulations and send us pictures!

Recipe // Autumn Cider

This Autumn Cider Cocktail was mixed with the freshest fall ingredients in mind. It is the perfect drink for all your events this season. Whether you make it a signature drink at your wedding, wow everyone at your rehearsal dinner, or have it as a shower specialty cocktail, it’s simply one of the best fall drinks you can think of. These can be mixed individually or can easily be made in large batches.

Autumn Cider

1 ½ oz Lairds Applejack
½ oz Dark Rum
½ oz Lime Juice
½ oz Simple Syrup
3 oz Farm Fresh Apple Cider

Shake all ingredients together, serve in a mason jar, and garnish with an apple wedge.

So whip out those sweater and flannel blankets, and mix up some Autumn Ciders!

photos by Molly Lo Photography

DIY // Our Wedding Mints Obsession

Is a wedding legit without cream cheese mints?

by Rainbow Rowell, published Aug. 26, 2012 in the Omaha World-Herald

Sarah Harvey’s mother approached the topic cautiously. She didn’t want to seem like she was butting in…

“Well, do you want me to make mints for your wedding?” “Mom,” Sarah said, “am I getting married? Come on!”

Of course she wanted cream cheese wedding mints. Is a Nebraska wedding even legal without them? Cream cheese wedding mints are such a part of my nuptial understanding that I wrote them into my first novel, “Attachments” — the main character gets ditched at a wedding and eats 13 mints in one sitting. (Which is practically nothing, am I right?) I didn’t think that I needed to explain what the mints were, or that there would be people in England reading the book and thinking, “Cream cheese what? That sounds disgusting.”

But then someone from Illinois cornered me on Twitter to ask about the mints: “Good Lord,” she tweeted, “is that a THING?” Of course, it’s a THING. Isn’t it a thing everywhere? Doesn’t everyone, everywhere consecrate their unions with delicious globs of cream cheese and powdered sugar? Don’t the little kids crowd around the cake-and-coffee table, sneaking as many of the mints as they can smush in their hands? Don’t all the wedding guests walk around the reception with their tongues dyed the wedding colors? If you don’t have mints, what do you put next to the giant bowl of mixed nuts? What do your aunts do in the weeks before the wedding? (Aunts have to make the wedding mints; it’s required. If anyone else tries to make them, they spoil like day-old manna.)

Apparently, cream cheese wedding mints are a Nebraska thing. Or at least a regional thing. They seem to exist in other places — but not quite so dominantly. And people from other places who haven’t tasted them think they sound … gross. As someone from California put it: “So it’s basically mint-flavored, dried cream cheese frosting?” No!

I mean, yes. But you’re making it sound like a bad thing. Cream cheese wedding mints are delicious. Strangely delicious.

“They taste like the wings of angels,” rhapsodized Kirk Strauser, “held down and dewinged for our snacking pleasure.”

Strauser, a Missouri native, discovered the heavenly mints when he moved to Norfolk, Neb. Butter mints are more popular in Missouri, he said. (Butter? Gross.) Ryann Uden actually grew up in the Nebraska Panhandle, in Crawford, but never experienced cream cheese wedding mints until she met her husband, Stacy, an Omaha native. She was initially skeptical: “Cream cheese and powdered sugar? Seriously?” But in the Uden family, cream cheese mints are a wedding tradition. Everybody gets together a few weeks before the wedding to make them. It’s a social event.

Ryann is such a convert that she held a class in the Chicago library where she works just to share the cream cheese love with her coworkers. Tracking down molds for the class was almost impossible.

“I tried to find them out here (Chicago) and couldn’t find them anywhere. So I had to call Mangelsen’s…” Ah, Mangelsen’s. Where so many cream cheese dreams are born.

The indie craft megastore on 84th Street, just south of Center, has an entire aisle devoted to cream cheese mint molds. They specialize in the individual rubber molds. You can only make one mint at a time with the rubber molds, said longtime employee Linda Fontana, but they’re a lot easier to use than the plastic trays. Mangelsen’s sells about 40 different kinds of molds — “We sell tons,” Fontana said — but the traditional rosette and leaf wedding molds are still the most popular. “We keep a copy of the recipe in the aisle.”

Sarah Harvey did end up with a lovely tray of rosettes and leaves at her May wedding. (In her wedding colors of lavender and green.) But her fiancé, Kevin, balked at the idea of cream cheese at his wedding feast. Kevin doesn’t like cream cheese (Yet Sarah went ahead with the wedding…) Her mom revealed that she could make them with butter instead; her mom even prefers the mints with that way. So Sarah gave in. “You think you know a person…” she said.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1149, rainbow.rowell@owh.com twitter.com/rainbowrowell

Cream Cheese Mints
Recipe courtesy of Mangelsen’s cake department

Combine in bowl:
8 ounces cream cheese (at room temperature)
½ teaspoon LorAnn oil or flavoring —- 2 pounds powdered sugar
Desired food coloring

Mash cheese, add flavoring and color. Mix well. Add powdered sugar and knead with hands until it resembles pie dough. Add more powdered sugar as needed. Roll into marble-size balls. Place them on their sides in a small amount of granulated sugar. Press the sugar side into the mold. Unmold immediately.

Miss Deco // DIY pillows

From Miss Deco: Using our five wedding colors, we made pillows for our wedding reception. They will go on the wonderfulDurhamMuseumbenches in the main lobby where our reception will be held and to go on lounge furniture in the ballroom, to tie the rooms together. That puts the final pillow count at 50!

We chose 6 fabrics in one shopping trip here inOmaha. With coupons and in-store specials, the price wasn’t too bad. Next was the hard part: Pillow Fills. Local stores had 14×14 pillow fills for $5-$10 each. Totally bummed that this fun project was going to cost way too much, I turned to the internet. A blog mentioned there are pillow fills at IKEA for $1.99.

Since IKEA wouldn’t ship, my parents said they’d pick up all 50 fills from theMinneapolislocation on their long weekend there. The last step had turned out to be the easiest thanks to a co-worker who specializes in quilting. She had Mr. Deco and I set up on an assembly line cutting and ironing the fabric while she sewed the pillow covers together. We were able to make 26 in 3 hours!! They are turning out better than I had hoped!!

These directions are for a 13” pillow form. Adjust size of pieces accordingly.

iron fabricto smooth out any creases
Cut fabric into 3 pieces (14×14, 11×14, 8×14)
Surge one end of the 11×14 and 8×14
Fold the surged ends in about half inch and iron on both pieces.
Place fabric pieces right sides together with backs overlapping and sew with a ½” seam
Right side out the pillow case and Fit onto pillow.

We are only 3 months til the BIG DAY and everything is starting to come together!!! All our crazy ideas, personal touches and hard work is really going to make our wedding unforgettable!

Recipes // Three Summer Cocktail Favorites