DIY Photo Lantern Centerpieces

Photo by Dexter Davis

And now for my favorite DIY wedding project, my photo lantern centerpieces! I decided to do lanterns because I wanted something I could personalize and thought they went perfectly with the lodge-y style of my venue. I got a ton of compliments on these and they were a great conversation starter during dinner.

Instead of using table numbers, I named the tables after important places in our lives. For example, we had a "Linden" table (the street I grew up on), a "Russell" table (the dorm where we met) and a "Bellevue" table (the park where he proposed). There were a few a few cases where I had to get a little creative to keep the names elegant - rather than name a table "Jackson Hole" to commemorate our Wyoming vacation, I decided to go with "The Granary," which is an amazing restaurant we went to on the trip. Each lantern had text explaining the meaning behind the table name on two sides and a photo from that location on the other two sides.

Photo by Dexter Davis

The whole project probably took about 5 hours, including writing table descriptions, hunting for photos, formatting, printing and assembling. Pretty quick compared to DIY invitations! I should specify that I made the lanterns only - my amazing florist was responsible for the gorgeous wreaths around the lanterns.

Photo by Dexter Davis

I started by ordering a set of ten bronze lanterns on Ebay. Then I sized my text and photo templates based on the lantern dimensions and started writing and formatting. I printed everything on cream vellum paper, made sure the ink was dry then cut all the pieces to size. The lantern actually had little flaps on the inside that held the paper in without having to secure with anything else.

Photo by Dexter Davis

I also made a seating chart go to with the lanterns, tied in using the same fonts. Just printed a poster and put in a large wooden frame.

Photo by Dexter Davis

And there you have it! Probably the most rewarding and worthwhile DIY project I did for my wedding. If you're interested in further details feel free to send a message!

Alyssa

DIY Wedding Invitations

Making your own invitations can be a great way to get a custom look and save a decent bit of money. HOWEVER, it is definitely a labor-intensive project! 

I ended up choosing to make my own invitations, mostly because I had a lot of ideas on how I wanted the invitations to look. The money saved (about $500) was an added bonus.

I spent about 10 hours designing the invitations, between researching materials, sizing the pieces and laying out text. If I'd chosen to do a simpler design, that time could have been cut down significantly. Printing and assembly probably took another 6 hours, but I had the advantages of a high quality printer, an electronic paper cutter and 2 sets of helping hands.

Envelope & Closed Pocketfold.
Pretty sweet monogram, amirite?

Unless you're truly enjoying yourself, I don't recommend breaking your back making the invitations. It can be a nice detail, but it's not nearly as memorable as the details on your actual wedding day. If you want to keep the process simple, I'd recommend checking out the invitation kits at Cards & Pockets. They also have other pre-cut pieces to mix and match if you want to make something a little different. Now if you want to know how I made these bad boys, please read on! My wedding color scheme was forest green, cream and gray/silver, so I stuck with that palette for the invitations. 

Materials

Patterned accent strip
(back of pocketfold)

• Forest Green Pocketfolds // I thought a pocketfold layout would be the best option to organize all the information I included, such as an itinerary, an RSVP postcard and a breakfast invitation. Or if you wanna get super cray, you can even make your own pocketfolds, which can get a little tricky depending on your sizing and layout. 
• Embossed Invitation Paper // To add a high-quality feel, I decided to use embossed paper for the actual wedding invitation text.
• Cream Cardstock // For the information cards and outer monogram, I used regular old cream cardstock to match the color of the invitation paper. 
• Powder Green Swirl-Patterned Paper // I wanted to add a bit more color and flair, so I ordered this awesome custom patterned paper, which I used for the monogram backing, accent strip and RSVP postcard. Another nice way to incorporate patterns is with an envelope liner.
• Silver Envelopes // The invitations ended up being mostly green and cream, with black and gray text. I thought silver envelopes were a nice compliment to the green while tying in with the text colors and overall color scheme. 

Be sure to order paper samples to make sure all the pieces and colors will work together! You'll also want to sketch up your invitations (include dimensions) and try making a prototype to check that your sizing works. 

Once you've decided on your layout, it's time to format the text for each piece. I used two different fonts: an eccentric script for major headings and an elegant but fairly normal font for body text. I won't bore you with all of my sizing, formatting and cutting details, but I'll take you on a brief photo tour of the pieces I assembled to create the final product:

Information and RSVP card inserts.

Back of Reply card, Breakfast information card.

1.5"x1.5" Monogram to be mounted using spray glue
on 2"x2" Backing.

The accent strip was a 2.5"x9.5" cut of patterned paper,
scored 1.25" in from each end to avoid crooked folds.

And there you have it, all of the things! 

Hope you enjoyed reading and/or found this helpful. Feel free to ask if you have any questions or would like to hear more details!

Alyssa