DIY: VIP Place Cards

Last week during my b-day leave, h2b and i met with our wedding coordinator to get the labels we asked her to print. Everything’s complete and I love how our VIP place cards so with our entourage souvenirs turned into reality.  Thank you to pixlr.com, and I was able to DIY some labels without spending that much and exerting too much effort. Hehehe! I must say that the clone tool can really be powerful! 

Here's our sample place cards ♥

and here's the layout I made ☻ (Shared from my previous post already) 

DIY: Paper Flowers

Hello there bride to be’s! Yesterday, I’ve been very frustrated about the centerpieces we are going to use at the reception. I love Great Eastern Hotel (GEH), but there is no way we are going to use the centerpieces they are going to provide for our wedding party. It’s just too sad that we have already paid in full, and we can no longer refund the amount we have shed for their floral arrangement. There’s a mistake on our part too, since h2b and I became too complacent that the flowers and POTS, (yes, flower pots!) would suit our taste and motif. 

I am really sad that we paid more than 8K just to get those not so pleasing to the eyes flowers. Not a smart move! But hey, that shouldn’t make me a bridezilla, besides, I am already eyeing for a simple look. (kunwari lang!)

Even h2b agreed with my decision that we are only going to put our table names per table.  After all we are going to have a Lauriat style set up, so there’s no need for extravagant thingamabobs because we are thinking that 5 viands plus soup and rice wouldn’t fit the Lazy Susan.  No wonder almost all of the pictures I have seen online wherein the wedding reception took place doesn’t have a centerpiece. Because it just looks horrible! Hehe. Their flowers and POTS are not appropriate for a wedding atmosphere. Sigh.

On the other side, we’ve got no choice but to let them decorate the venue but we are not allowing them to put any centerpieces per table. Just table names we have DIY'ed.

However – as I was searching the Internet yesterday for possible non-floral designs, I stumbled to Martha Stewart Weddings website, and tried to make the paper flowers. It was a trial and error part, because I’ve wasted a couple of tissue papers (sorry office), and some crepe papers, but then, since practice makes perfect; I was able to make some “picture-perfect” paper flowers. haha! While I am already on the verge of planning of using these paper flowers as an additional centerpieces for our tables guest, one of my agents said that they are going to shoulder the expenses for the flowers for our reception centerpieces. Sweet, isn’t it? Gee, I couldn’t thank them enough! Thank you Klaine for the offer! hiya ako talaga! ☻☻☻ and so with the rest of my Team Chicago Girls!!! 

Even if I am no longer going to make these paper flowers, let me share you the pics that I took yesterday when I made it.  

We're getting there! ♥

With only few days left on our wedding calendar, Mark and I are already crunching our weekend rest days to accomplish what needs to be done.  Guest list, payment, props, DIY’s and so much more. It’s such an ease that we have planned way ahead of time so we didn’t have to stress ourselves that much. We are both anti-stress, that’s why we are enjoying every second of our wedding preps. We can still sleep soundly and proud that we didn’t have to experience Lovers Quarrel during the preparation stage.

Right now, we are already finalizing the guest list, (endless finalization) and reviewing the contracts with our suppliers. We have also listed and prepared most of the accessories we are going to bring to the church and reception. We also placed all our wedding paraphernalia’s in one big paper bag so we wouldn’t miss anything. 

Here are the accessories we have organized. The boutonnieres, pens, matches, wedding cord, bouquet, wedding scrapbook/guestbook and rosary. 

DIY - Our Oatmeal cookie packaging

As an additional wedding favor, H2b and I decided to give home-made oatmeal cookies for all of our guests. This would also serve as our thank you and sweet favor in 1. I have been very worried about the packaging I am going to do with these cookies because I had to make sure that the paper bag doesn't look too big. 


Good thing, I was able to do a work-around by cutting the paper bag and make it smaller. 

DIY: Table names and favor tags - checked!

Last stop during my 2 day vacation - Meet up with Marj, event Manager of Alpha Events Management

After our appointment with Norly, we went to Megamall to meet up with our wedding coordinator. We talked a little bit about the wedding and discussed their roles on our big day. She also handed us the labels and tags I asked her to print. ☻ 

DIY: Mint Candies Label

Few months ago, I have been raving about mint candies giveaways; but due to the "packaging issues"; I then decided to decorate the container, than re-packing the mints individually. (Gee, I just wasted the 20 mini baskets I bought from Uniwide) hehe. 


So let me share the mint labels we are going to stick on our Mint candies giveaways. 

And here's my peg! ♥ Beautiful, isn't it? :) 

http://www.beau-coup.com/wedding/personalized-wedding-tic-tacs-favor.htm

Once I am done with this DIY, I'll share the picture ASAP ☻ 

Crystals & Beads

Dreaming of being a unique bride on your own wedding? Imagine yourself getting the attention of everybody, in awe of your presence, sparkling & so beautiful while walking down the aisle? Then add sparkle on your wedding day! 

CRYSTALS & BEADS offers personalized wedding paraphernalia & accessories, elegantly made & carefully hand-crafted with beads & crystals which would surely add uniqueness on your special day!  Pieces are created with the maker's passion for the craft & beauty.  Reasonably priced, these bead/crystal bouquets, bouttonieres, wedding cord & rosaries, unity candle set & matches, offertory candles, bible cover, pens, etc are all custom made to harmonize with your wedding theme & color/motif...

Budget bride-to-be? budget wedding?

Don't let anyone tell you that creating a dream wedding on a budget is impossible.  We can customize the materials & try to squeeze them in to your budget :)

For inquiries, you may send an email at azel1106@e-mail.ph

DIY: Our Wedding Guestbook in the Making

Hello Summer. Hello March. 2 months to go!!! This is it. 

The official wedding countdown starts right now. I’m getting more nervous each day and quite paranoid with the checklist I have right now. What if the checklist I have right now is incomplete? Gee, I think I am turning in to a BRIDEZILLA already! :D ahaha! With only 2 months to go, Mark and I are already stretching ourselves to finish our DIY’s. We are almost done writing names on our invitations, and I have also started working on our DIY Guestbook.

Inspired by Ate Jolen's wedding invitations (feeling close lang) Mark and I opted to DIY our guestbook instead ♥  Not only because it’s more cost-effective, but it would also serve our bonding time together.

We bought the blank guestbook from PAPEMELROTI, and scrapbook materials in NBS. As per the pictures we are going to use on the guestbook, we had some of our prenup pictures printed from Tronix. (3.50 per piece) However, due to my excitement, I lost track of the pictures I saved on my USB, and printed out more than 180 photos. Now I am wondering what we are going to do with the extra prints. :D

Here’s the sample prototype:D I have only started doing the lay out for the guestbook. I can no longer wait to ornate it with the scrapbook materials.  

Now, what pictures do we have  to put on our guestbook. :)

I must say that we were able to accomplish a lot of things yesterday. Documents, shopping for DIY,s and at the same time, we pigged out! :D hihi! 

DIY - Accordion Pinwheels for our Table Names

After a couple of weeks contemplating what design to use for our table names, I finally found an inspiration from one of my favorite wedding blogs! I always wanted to have something that would look as if it’s also an additional centerpiece for our guests table. Thank you RuffledBlog for presenting so much ideas to internet savvy and budgeted brides – and I am so happy to find a unique and “cute” way to DIY our table names.

This is really easy to do, most especially that I used to make paper fans when I was still a lil girl. Doing this wouldn't really hurt your pockets most especially that you can use old books/ magazines instead of specialty papers.

Since I have been very excited when I saw this online, I created 2 accordion pinwheels as the prototype. I tore 5 pages from my wedding magazine. Hehe :D  (Sorry, I didn't have the time to cut the edges to make it look better) :D 

The Pinwheel on the left has smaller folds, while the pinwheel on the right has the bigger folds. I find the small folds much better. 

I am going to put bamboo skewers at the back so we can put it inside the flower vases.  Take a look at the sample below: Photo grabbed thru ruffledblog.com

DIY - Bottled water labels

Ever since I found out that the price of bottled water near our place is to some extent affordable, I already thought of doing DIY bottled water on our big day. Though this is not a 100% great idea for my DIY’s (most especially that this is not an OOT wedding), it never stopped me from doing the water labels, just in case this impression would take place!  There are a lot of editable templates you can download on the Internet, and what I came up with using the template I found online! :D  

My mom suggested that we can buy 30 pcs. of bottled water and give it to our guests after the ceremony. But then again, how can we be so sure if the guests are really thirsty right after the ceremony, most especially that the actual wedding rites won't even  last for more than an hour. ☻

Editable templates can be found in: http://ruffledblog.com

Can't get enough of monograms

Even if H2b and I already have our official monogram, I just can't stop myself playing with colors and create  labels and designs from one of the useful sites I have googled a couple of months ago. With the leisure of time I have for tonight's work, here are some labels I have created!  ♥

Wedding Invitations = Checked! ♥

After several days of spending time and revising with our wedding invitation layout, I am proud to present the actual sample of our wedding invitations.

This is one big part of our DIY for the wedding! It’s such a great feeling to see something “cute” and hear compliments from other people about a hard work. The layout I have printed in black and white and nth time of revisions has turned into actuality! H2b and I couldn’t believe I was able to do this design on my own, even without seeking professional help, but rather moral support from my friends. Weeh! 

We are "MINT" to be ♥

Mark is into mints and it has been a part of his daily routine to take mints before going to work (to freshen up his breath while talking to me. ) haha, so I thought of adding some mints on our table as an additional centerpiece.

Last year, during the first few months of our wedding preps, I have seen a lot of styles how to use mint candies as a wedding favor. Unfortunately, the rates are unbelievably expensive which I do not find quite practical anymore.  Due to my frustration, I planned to do a DIY and emailed a couple of suppliers who are selling tin cans. Much to my surprise, the tin cans are not that expensive, but if I am going to add the costs of mints plus the materials I am going to use for the DIY, it would sum up and even higher to the actual prize of mint favors I have scouted online.

As luck would have it, I was able to find an alternative way how to pack the candies. I would have to let go of the tin cans and stick to the inexpensive way of course.

I bought 20 mini baskets (1 basket per table - each guest will get their own pack of mints of course); in one of the famous warehouses here in the country: D and 3 dozens of Tic Tac mints. 2 yards of ribbon and here are humble the results:

(Of course, the Mint to be Tags that I used below is just again, a prototype:D ) 

Our DIY Cootie Catchers Wedding Origami

I’ve been to DIY’s lately and been thinking of doing something unique to entertain the guests while waiting for the actual wedding programme to start. I was thinking of doing my own fortune cookie made of paper thinking that it would suit the food that we are going to serve; but for some reasons, I just couldn’t make the colored paper to look like a “real” fortune cookie – it looks more of a crumpled paper.

In lieu of the fortune cookie DIY, I found this online seller in ETSY doing Fortune Teller Origami or also known as Cootie Catcher. I bet most of the kids of my generation would find this unique DIY very familiar. This has been very famous during my childhood days and I can still remember the questions I used to write each portions.  ☻

Doing this Cootie Catcher would also give our guests some trivia’s about Mark and I.

I am thinking to use this as an escort card, but knowing the number of guests that we might have on our reception means this DIY would really be very tedious. (like putting the names + table names on the cootie) So instead of making it as our escort card, we’d plainly produce similar cootie’s with our names on it – and make sure that each and every one of our guests get to enjoy and learn the trivia’s we are going to put inside the origami paper.  

You predicted your future mate with the help of a few paper folds; now you know who he is, but that doesn't mean you can't still have fun with cootie catchers - Martha Stewart

Here are the sample cootie catcher's I've seen online - and I can pretty tell that this is such a unique way to entertain our guests! Just like our table names, we are going to use specialty paper for this cootie thingy. ♥

Pictures grabbed from: http://www.hillcitybride.com/2010/09/giveaway-cootie-catcher-from-darling-girl-paper/

And here's my DIY cootie origami!!! Disclaimer, this is not the type of paper I am going to use. This is just a plain bond paper! :D 

Tada!