DIY Personalized Napkins

I'm all about having as many personal touches to our wedding as we can. Deep down one of my biggest fears is that I'll look like a generic bride and our wedding will feel like a generic "cookie cutter" wedding. That's just not my style and not what I want. Now, our isn't going to be anything crazy strange or anything like that, but I definitely want to have as many little unique personalized touches as I can.

So... as I'm sure many of you have seen on the numerous wedding sites we all visit, they sell napkins that you can have personalized with your name and wedding date. They are cute but I just can't justify spending so much money on something people are going to wipe their mouths with. So, I decided to just to a more simple DIY version.

First I got an ink pad from Michael's (again, used a coupon. I hardly buy anything at Michael's without using a 40% off coupon). You have to make sure for things like napkins that you get the pigment ink because it's water resistant. It doesn't bleed when a sweating glass is placed on it and it won't wipe off onto your guests faces (I tested it out to make sure).

I already had the clear acrylic stamp blocks from Michael's (40% off coupon again) from when I first thought we were going to attempt embossing, which didn't really work out as great as I thought. I found this little pack of "W" stamps in one of the dollar bins at Michael's during one of my many trips there. We ended up using the one in the bottom right.

Then I went to Dollar Tree and got 4 packs of 20 pale pink napkins. I also had an open pack of white from when I attempted embossing in my earlier days so I used those too.  Then I just started stamping away. I let the fiance have some say in what stamp we used. I tried several (not pictured) but he just liked the plain "w" the best. Some of the more intricate stamps don't look as clean or nice when stampng on a napkin, so that's another reason we stuck with a simple design.

Ended up with around 100 napkins for a about $7.

Nothing too fancy, but still cute.... and super easy to accomplish.

Frame and Poem for the Guestbook Table

Another quick and easy one today.

I found some frames from the dollar store that were kind of rustic looking. They gave me the shabby chic vibe that I was going for.... except they were totally the wrong color. Their original color (which I forgot to photograph) reminded me more of an outhouse, which isn't really the vibe I'm going for at my wedding.

So.... last weekend I went to BM Tonja's house and we had a spray paint party. She was nice enough to let me use their deck and help me paint. (It's a little hard and kinda unsafe to be spray painting in my apartment, I guess.)

So I spray painted the frames ivory. They came out pretty good. I am thinking of making them a little more "rustic" by using some sandpaper on them to give them that antique/vintage vibe, but I haven't officially decided yet.  Then I typed up a poem to put in the frame to kind of explain our guest "book".

I've never really been a fan of the traditional guestbook, just because I'd hate to just put it away on a shelf and that be the end of it. So months ago I came across this photo (Sorry, can't remember where or I'd give credit where credit is due.) and knew that's what I wanted to do. We went to a second hand record shop and each bought a record of our favorite old bands. I picked an album by "The Doors" (I Loooove me some Jim Morrison) and the fiance picked an album by "Led Zepplin". We'll have the guest sign them with paint pens and then hang them in some collectible display cases (larger than the one pictured) that I got on sale at Michael's a few months back.

Anyway.... so I typed up the poem and put it in the frame. The first 2 lines I read somewhere on the web (again, I'm bad about remembering where I saw things. Sorry) and the rest I just made up. It's not perfect, in my mind, but I'm trying not to be a perfectionist when it comes to all things wedding. And since this is something that most people may not even read I didn't want to spend too much time on it.

In case you can't read it, the poem says:

Instead of a guestbook

stuck in a drawer,

Alex and Samantha

thought they would do more.

Please sign your name

or leave them a note,

so all their lives

they can read what you wrote.

Thank you for sharing

in their wonderful day,

and for helping to celebrate

in your own special way.

DIY Flower Girl Basket

This one is quick and easy.

First I found a cheap small wicker-type basket from Goodwill. (I often frequent the 50% off Saturday sales, so I got this basket for about 50 cents!)

Then I picked up a can of spray paint from Wal-mart in my desired color. I chose Krylon's "ballet slipper" pink.

So then I painted the basket in the pink color and got some chocolate brown ribbon on sale at Michael's to tie on each side of the basket.

Ta-da! Finished product: