When planning a wedding or special event; you want everything to be perfect. You probably feel like you will spend any amount of money it takes to have the perfect day, but you will soon realize that your budget can’t afford that expense. So why not recruit some help from family or friends and spend some time making a few of the items for your wedding or special event? You will have fun and save money at the same time.
One project that can be simple to complete is table numbers that hang from a bottle of wine or sparkling cider. These table numbers are constructed from Mason jar bands and lids, paper, a printer, watercolor paints or scrapbook paper. In this tutorial I will go over a few different ways to complete these fun table numbers. You may also choose to purchase my affordable pre-formatted table numbers as an instant downloads on Etsy (here).
If your not using wedding table numbers you can also use this same idea to provide information to your guests. For example: “We can’t wait to hear your glasses clink, please wait for the toasts to enjoy this drink!” or “Please wait for the wedding toast.”
Some of these options are also available for purchase on Etsy (here).
Here’s the supply list and step-by-step instructions and photos (You can find most of these supplies at Amazon or the Dollar Tree):
Mason Jar Bands and Lids (Wide Mouth or Regular)
Paper of your choice (Printer Paper/Watercolor Paper/Scrapbook Paper)
Step One: If painting on watercolor paper, trace the size of lid you’re using on the watercolor paper, paint with watercolors, let dry and then either brush on your text or table number or write with a sharpie. If using a printed background, print it on your paper. Trace circles of the correct size onto the paper, hand letter your number or text. If using scrapbook paper, trace your circles and write message or table number where desired. If using the instant download, purchase here, download, and print on the paper of you choice.
Step two: Trim circles to correct size.
Step three: Coat lid and backside of circle with Mod Podge and adhere to the Mason jar lid. Then coat the top of the print with Mod Podge and allow it to dry.
Step Four: Tie your twine or ribbon around the Mason jar band as shown.
Step Five: Once dry, heat up your hot glue gun and run a line of hot glue around the inside of the Mason jar band as shown above. Then quickly place your Mason jar lid into the ring picture side down and press until hot glue cools
Step Six: Make hot glue “tab” on the backside of the band and lid as shown here to make sure your lid stays in place. Let hot glue cool. Remove glue strands, if any hanging from the finished piece.
Step Seven: Hang your creation from wine or sparkling beverage bottles as shown. You’re done!
Wow! Wasn’t that simple. It didn’t take much time, you saved money and it added a personal handmade touch to your wedding! I would love to see photos of how you used this project at your event or wedding!
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Nature Inspired Wedding Designs
Popular for the 2017 wedding season are combinations of watercolor and nature inspired wedding designs, with floral patterns, leaves and neutral colors. Our "Greenery Wedding Suite" is perfect for a spring, summer or fall wedding! These simple invitations can be accented with some very unique color palletes. Including neutrals, yellow, purple, blue and many shades of green (as seen below). Add one of these unique colors to your wedding to accent our nature inspired floral designs.
Our greenery invitation suite is growing each day and currently includes, invitations, RSVP cards, detail or receptions cards, programs, menus, guestbook canvas prints, envelopes and welcome signs.
The images featured below are available for purchase from our Etsy Store. (Click the image for more information). If you need something no shown here or want the wording changes, please contact us as we LOVE custom orders!
The following images are available from our Zazzle store! Zazzle allows you to customize your own text, font and font colors and order your printing too! Its a one stop shop for every bride and also supplies signs, favors, wine bottle labels and more. Visit our store front to see all our wedding designs or click the image below that you are interested in. If we don't have it, we can design it, just contact us!
Do you have a unique idea that you would like to see for wedding invitations or for your own wedding, please feel free to contact us! We are here to help make your special day a dream come true! Be on the look out for more new wedding designs from Beth Ann Erickson Designs!
Unique Wedding Guest Books
Traditional guests books can feel boring and outdated. Many brides and grooms wonder, what are we going to do with a book full of signatures after our wedding? Will we even look at it again?
In recent years, wedding designers, planners and couples themselves have come up with many creative guest books that are unique, interesting and more valuable to the bride and groom after their wedding than the traditional guest book.
There are guest books that can be used to decorate your first home together. They can be used in the kitchen, provide personalized wisdom for your first year of marriage or hold memories beyond just the names of your guests.
Lets start with guest books that decorate your home for years to come and remind you of that special day each time you look at them. Here are just four ideas, but I came across many more in my search to bring you the best home décor guest books:
Wisdom, Advice & Well Wishes • Print these cards at home or your local print shop and purchase a box, basket, large glass jar or unique container to hold them after your guests fill them out. These will be fun to re-read in years to come. Beth Ann Erickson Designs
Memory Cards, same idea as above, but ask your guests to share with you and your spouse a memory they have of one of you or both of you. Beth Ann Erickson Designs
Photo Guest Books:
Polaroid guest books are very popular right now, as the Fuji Instax Mini Polaroid camera has just recently come on the photography scene. You can buy film for these cameras that have a space under the photo for your guests to sign their names or write you a special note. You can find film with white borders or a selection of colored or patterned borders. Once you have the camera and the film of your choice you just have to decide what you want the guests to do with the photos they take. You could provide a blank memory book, glue or tap and have the guest stick them in a book for you. Another option is to have a place for the guest to display their photos through out the reception. (As shown below.) This type of guest books provides you with photos of all of your guests that you can enjoy for years to come.
Cookbook Guest Books
This one is very easy to accomplish. Purchase one to three cook books you would use in your kitchen and have a sign made that asks your guests to leave a note next to a recipe they think you should try. Then through out the years when you’re using your cookbooks or looking for new recipes you will happen upon the notes. Not only do these create wonderful memories they are also very useful.
Some advice about guest books:
Much of the time guest books are over-looked by the guests and by the end of the wedding they don’t contain as many signatures, notes, photos or memories as youhoped. To make sure a majority of your guests sign or participate in your guest book, its best to have a friend or relative take charge of the guest book area. Ask them to collect presents and then request that the guests participate in the guest book. This will result in a more accurate accounting of who attended your wedding.
There are so many creative guest book ideas that I have barely scratched the surface. I hope this helps you to start thinking about what creative ways you can capture your wedding day and all of your family and friends who have taken the time to celebrate with you.
Visit my website www.bethericksondesings.com for more creative ideas, wedding, birthday, anniversary and graduation invitation designs and more! Feel free to contact me anytime for help with your next event!
Wedding Dreams:
The art of coordinating your wedding theme
This week I thought it would be fun to give brides-to-be some ideas on how to coordinate the theme of their wedding all the way from save the dates, invitations, decorations, hair & make-up, to what to wear. Our theme for the purposes of this blog, will be a rustic wedding. Currently a very popular choice among brides, but sometimes hard to coordinate through-out the entire wedding, but I have some ideas on how to help with that. I am also very excited to introduce Molly of Lovely You By Molly, she will be contributing to the blog with the hair and make-up portion along with some wonderful hair tips for the day of the wedding!
A rustic wedding can be formal-rustic or casual-rustic. So, your first choice would be what direction do you want to take? After choosing your direction, it is then time to look for your save-the-dates and invitations, along with choosing your color combinations. Most people don't realize that your invitations and other printed items can help set the mood for your special day, along with decorations, clothing options, hair and make-up. Its a good idea to use your save-the-dates and invitations to give your guests a small taste of what the day will be like.
What things convey a rustic wedding theme? Well there are quite a few things that do this. Some ideas would be, wood backgrounds, mason jars, lanterns, chalkboards, brick walls, wood rounds, logs, stumps, wildflowers, cowboy boots, jeans and much more.
Save-the-Dates and Invitations
Here are a few examples of rustic save-the-dates and invitation sets. These are available for purchase at www.bethannerickson.etsy.com. As you will see below, these use lots of wood backgrounds and a mix of chalkboard fonts and formal script fonts. There are many more styles to choose from on Etsy and they can be created in any color combination you choose.
Attire, Hair and Make-Up
The next step would be choosing what your wedding party will wear on the special day and testing out possible hairstyles and make-up options. Some ideas for rustic attire range from, trendy jeans, dress shirts and cowboy boots for the guys to short/medium length dresses and cowboy boots for the girls if you are choosing the casual side of things. For my own wedding which was a purple and silver wedding with rustic tones, we chose more formal clothing, but wore Converse to bring in the casual side of things. The bride could wear a long or short dress, or a sundress with a choice of casual foot attire. Here are a few pictures to give you some ideas.
Now I will turn the blog over to Molly for the hair and make-up portion, picking back up when she is finished.
Hi Lovelies! My name is Molly and I was pleasantly surprised when Beth asked me share some tips for Brides on how they might incorporate a rustic style in their hair and makeup for their wedding day. Let me share a little bit about myself before we get to the details.
I am a licensed hair stylist and makeup artist for weddings and events. I own my own business called Lovely You by Molly. I have two sweet kids, a 4 year old daughter and a 1 year old son. I own a cleaning business as well but the hair and makeup is definitely my favorite. It is a joy to be a part of someones special day whether it’s their wedding day or headed to prom. I love it when I see a huge smile on a client’s face after they look in the mirror, with the style they have always dreamed of.
Back to this rustic theme, What are some good looks if you are a bride planning this style of wedding? Words that come to my mind for hair are loose waves, braids, and an effortless look. For makeup, I think of natural, warm tones and a soft look. Here are some photos of some styles I have created to get you thinking. The last one is a combined hair and makeup look on myself:
Lastly, I wanted to share three tips for Brides as the plan their wedding day style:
1. Choose a classic and timeless look. When picking a hair and makeup style, try to always have in the back of your mind, is this something I will be happy looking at a few years from now, as I browse through my wedding photos? Save the trendy looks for a date night or even your engagement photos but on your wedding day, pick a style that reflects the elegance of a bride.
2. Dry Shampoo is your friend. Dry shampoo is a great starting point for any style, to create volume and texture, especially for Brides who have fine hair or tend to get oily. You will be amazed at the difference it makes.
3. Create variety in your curls. When curling your hair, alternate the direction of each curl. You will get more of a natural look doing this. It also helps your hair to not bunch together into “one” big curl as the day progresses.
Thanks for reading and I hope these tips helped you become inspired about a beautiful, rustic wedding theme. Come find me on instagram @lovelyyoubymolly as well as Facebook, www.facebook.com/lovelyyoubymolly. I would love to get in touch!
Thank you Molly for all those wonderful suggestions.
Decorations
Next up, decorations! Decorations for a rustic themed wedding really are very simple. To complete this theme, use lots of wood, pallet boards, lanterns, mason jars, burlap, candles and lace. Popular right now are wood rounds for center pieces with mason jars or lanterns placed on top. Wrapping the mason jars with burlap, twine, vintage looking paper or lace adds an extra rustic feel and is fairly inexpensive to accomplish. Here are some photos of decoration ideas. If you have any questions on how to accomplish these looks feel free to ask me.
To wrap things up, once you choose your wedding theme, coordinating that theme throughout your wedding is really very simple. If you choose a floral theme, look for invitations with your favorite flowers on them, choose a long flowing dress, and bouquets of beautiful flowers. You could use flowers in your hair and have the pocket squares for the grooms be a fabric with an underlying flower texture. Use an arbor in the ceremony with flowers affixed to it and centerpieces with the same flowers arranged around candles or lanterns.
Some current trends in wedding themes are bohemian, floral, fantasy, fairy tale and rustic. If you search for these online you will find a many great ideas! But don't overwhelm yourself by trying to do everything you see, just pick and choose what you absolutely love. I really hope this helps you coordinate the wedding of your dreams. For ideas, suggestions or to hire me to help decorate your wedding, just contact me.
Coming Next Week: Wedding Memories: The art of creating a shadow box
