diy wedding invitation ideas

since i'm planning on doing as much of my wedding as diy as possible, i've been trawling the internet for inspiration. at the moment i'm looking at pretty much everything as our date is still over twelve months away and i've already booked the major vendors that were the most important to me, so i don't have any need to rush or focus on anything in particular. in saying that, i came across these beautiful wedding invitations while browsing one of my favourite wedding blogs, Snippet & Ink, and had one of those "that's exactly what i want" moments.

 photo from Snippet & Ink

i think that their simplicity is what makes them so beautiful.
and the best part(s) for me are, a) i love painting, b) watercolours are one of the easiest and quickest mediums to work with, c) i can totally personalise my design and still keep this diy task as reasonable to achieve, and d) i've already got a complete artists (second hand) set of water colour pencils so i'm halfway there for materials already. i was also thinking of having a stamp made to add some fine detail to the design. however i'm still completely unsure of what design the stamp will be haha.

so far the best sources of inspiration for me have been both my and my fiance's personal interests (we both love the beach and nature/natural locations, hence our ceremony and reception venue is an acerage that looks over the ocean), themes that are relevant to us (our wedding arch is going to be japanese torii gates, to represent our meeting through karate, and also torii gates traditionally mark the entrance to a sacred space which i think is a beautiful symbolic representation of entering into marriage), and our personal values (i'm an eco freak hence i am doing as much of the wedding diy as possible, including invitations, table settings, decorations, and the materials i am using are going to be second hand or eco friendly as much as possible). when i first got engaged and started looking at all things wedding just to get an idea of what is involved in planning one, my head nearly exploded with all the details, but once i got those main ideas straight, it's all started to fall into place (and i'm freaking out a lot less about the hugeness of the process!!)

x

saturday seconds

i've been searching for some unique candle holders for a little while now as i have tonnes of candles in my house, but no holders. so because of this i have a lot of wax on the cabinets, tables, desks and bedside tables in my house.
so when i saw these cute little jars while thrifting this morning, i straight away had an awesome idea for them.

candle jars!

i cleaned them out after i bought them and dropped in some of the candles i had lying around the house. i'm also thinking of pouring a few drops of essential oil around the bottom of the candle, so as the candle heats up the air inside the jar, it will hopefully diffuse the essential oil into the air.

x

crafty love (handmade gifts from the heart)

a cute little way to show your love with a thrifting gift!

 

i had the idea for this bottle of "my love" (the letters read: X MY LOVE) when i found the bottle in an op shop.
(my man thought it was the cutest thing ever when i gave him a bottle of my love to keep - yeah, i'm a sooky romantic when i want to be)

how did i make it?

1st: the letters were easy: cut out some letters from a piece of cardboard (from a used cereal box or something similar) and paint them, or you could cut them out of a magazine and stick them to cardboard for a bit of strength, then stick them to pegs.

2nd: the pegs are easily raidable from your parents laundry (my mum had heeaaaps), or if not, you can still buy wooden pegs out there at supermarkets, or get craft sized ones at arts and crafts stores (if the rest of the idea is eco, i'm sure we're forgiven for buying one thing new, as long as they're not plastic!).

3rd: the twine the letters are pegged onto and from around the top of the bottle came from under my kitchen sink.

4th: i measured out the string/twine, so that there was just enough to hang each end in the jar without touching the bottom, and wind around the neck a few times. then i pegged the letters to each end of the string and hung one end in the jar. i wound the middle of the string around the neck of the jar to provide a bit of an anchor to help hold the string the letters are hanging on in place, and then dropped the other end of the string in the jar so both ends were in. then i held the string in place with one hand as i screwed the lid on with the other.

now, a note to make this a little bit easier when screwing the jar lid on: try to have the string coming out of the bottle a little left of centre before you screw the jar lid on, because when you do, it drags the string with it as it turns. if you have the string a little left of centre and hold it tight, the lid should drag it straight as it turns right and tightens.

5th: tie a bit of extra twine in a bow around the lid to make it pretty.

and to finish; give it to someone you love!

x