Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Special touches and DIY details

I had so much fun brainstorming and coming up with all the little details for our special day.  I wanted to make sure all the elements were personal; really allowing mine and Derek's personalities to show.  I also wanted to keep things as simple as possible, without breaking the bank.

Here are my top 3 tips regarding wedding details:

Tip #1 Keeping the small details to a minimum creates more of an impact.  You don’t want a million little things everywhere, or else people won’t really take-in anything.

Tip #2 If you would like to add personal details to your wedding day either through signage, decorations, signature cocktails, programs, etc, whatever you do – get a head start on the projects.  There is so much going on during that last month before the wedding and you don't want your projects to lose priority when things get hectic.

Tip #3 Don’t be afraid to enlist friends, family and your bridal party to help!  If you have an A-type personality and are controlling by nature, you may need to let go a little bit, or else things could be very overwhelming.  I understand that this can be difficult if you have a very specific vision in mind.  Either give very detailed instructions or find someone who is an even bigger perfectionist than you are! You will rest assured the job will be done right!

Here are just a few of my favourite elements of our wedding and the DIY projects I included:
  • A welcome sign for guests to see as they walked into the wedding venue.  We decided against programs, but I really wanted to highlight our wedding party and family members names, as well as welcome our guests to our big night!  I found a cheap piece of framed art at a thrift shop and then just painted over the glass with black paint.  I used a chalkboard marker to write my message so that I didn't have to worry about the chalk rubbing off during transportation.  I love how it turned out!


  • Signature drinks which were served during the cocktail hour before the wedding.  Derek and I each worked with a bartender from The ARC to come up with a Bride's drink and a Groom's drink.


  • Cute chalkboard signs around the rooms.  I used the same technique as the welcome sign on faux-silver platters that Ashley and I found in thrift shops around town.  It was just a nice way to provide instructions and information to our guests.
  • We needed to include some details that paid homage to the date of our New Year's Eve wedding.  I displayed a few clocks around the coffee and at 11:30PM hats and noise makers were "served" on trays to our guests.



  • Card Box and Guest Book.  These weren't details I stressed over too much, however I'm super happy with how they both turned out!  I purchased our card box at the Great Glebe Garage Sale last spring (and wrote about it here), and then all I did was create some bunting with red felt, twine and press on letters.  So easy!


    I used our engagement photos to make a guest book through Blacks'.  And I even used our engagement photo props as extra décor which was super cute and brought our photos to life.



  • Coffee Wedding Favours.  Derek and I are both coffee lovers.  Who isn't, really?!  We are lucky that my mom is an devoted supporter of local vendors at the Metcalfe Farmer's Market and she has introduced us to Poppa Bean Coffee.  Poppa Bean is a small business owned and operated a lovely couple, Sarah and Paul.  I knew their coffee would make the perfect favour for event.  We purchased a bulk order and packaged it ourselves using bags from Pritchard Packaging and I purchased the labels from Etsy.


    The label read: The Perfect Blend and included our names and wedding date.  Guests chose from a dark, medium or decaf roast of coffee.


  • Personalized vows.  This was always very important to me and thankfully Derek was on board with the challenge.  It was amazing to share our truest feelings with each other out loud, in front our friends and family.  I believe our vows, and ceremony in general, really personalized our wedding, while adding romance as well as some humour too!


  • A dessert table.  I love the look of styled dessert tables, and since there wouldn't be much décor, I thought it could also work as the centrepiece in the room.  The lovely Melissa from the flour shoppe set-up our sweets the day of the wedding and it looked amazing.  I created tags simply by writing the names of the desserts on white card stock and sticking them in sparkly pine cones which I actually already had as Christmas tree ornaments.


    Melissa even plated some of my mom's homemade butter tarts, which are a family favourite!  I actually posted the recipe here when I made them for a Christmas dessert exchange.


    It was fun to have easy to grab desserts like mini cupcakes, cookies, and pretzels, which gave our guests the energy they needed to dance all night (and they did!)


  • A bag piper.  A must!  Our piper, a high school student who lives in my parents' neighbourhood, was amazing!  The ARC restaurant isn't very large, so the pipes were loud!  It was awesome!

When I start writing all the details down like that it seems a little overwhelming.  Please know that I was not the only person responsible for organizing details - I had so much help from our friends, wedding party and families.  It wouldn't have been possible without their help.

And although I took care of creating the decorations and little details, Derek was in charge of transportation and execution the day of the wedding.  I left everything in his trusty hands (with detailed instructions) and he made sure everything was where it was supposed to be, all the while I was enjoying my wedding morning at my parents' house with the ladies.  It was great not to have to worry about anything the morning of the wedding.

Derek and I are both very happy with the way everything turned out.  And even though there were a few glitches on the way (like a venue change mid-planning phase) and at the last minute being told the bridesmaids couldn't walk down the aisle with sparklers like we had originally planned, it didn't matter in the end.

The end result was an intimate, upbeat and happy celebration.  I think the special touches we added really represented our families, personalities and our relationship, which was my main objective.

1 comment:

  1. I love this post! Where were you 7 months ago!? :P

    ReplyDelete