Kraft Paper Table Runners

Many of you have asked us how we produced our table runners for our reception. The truth is, it was borne out of necessity. We first had the idea of creating a dreamy summer night in the barn. I was searching high and low for specific lace fabric to cover the generic rental tables, but as it was SO expensive, we had to think of another option. The caretaker of the barn had just enough plain white table cloths that we could borrow for our event. Phew! The problem now was, how were we to cover them? We had found a way to cover the tables, now we had to figure out a creative, inexpensive way to evoke our dreamy table setting.

Since the cloths were white, it was a challenge in creating the warmness, as they were a stark, generic white. But alas, we could do it! We were thinking about creating another fabric runner but after numerous hours in fabric shops, we were stuck. Then we found a roll of Kraft paper in our apartment. Yes!! How could we forget about Kraft paper? After we agreed that this would be the perfect solution, both financially and creatively, the rest came together pretty quickly. I had met with the florist already so I knew the color scheme of my flowers.

In the coming weeks, we began searching for all the components needed to put together the sweet bird's nests. After that, we gathered as many mason jars as we could find, different colored tea lights, and our table number flower pots!

In the last days we decided on the moss and the final result was even better than we imagined!

We will be putting up a tutorial for how to put together easy (and inexpensive!!!) flower pot table numbers tomorrow! Stay tuned :)

Planning your wedding budget...It's not as difficult as you think!

Even though my own wedding is over, I am still enjoying helping all my friends with their upcoming nuptials. Being that I'm a newlywed of recent, I still feel as if I'm in frantic wedding planning mode. My cousin is planning her wedding this year as is my very best friend (and amazing maid-of-honor!). As I am thinking of them both now where I was about a year ago, I started thinking about how Husband and I came to begin our planning process.

Set a budget! It's not as difficult as you may think!

The simplest was to decide on a budget is to make a list and prioritize which elements of your wedding are the most important to you both. If you can't imagine not having flowers dripping from every nook then put it at the top of your list. If you could care less whether or not you have fancy favors for your guests, you could itemize that towards the bottom of your list. This way, when it comes to making important decisions about whether or not you can afford something, it will be easier for you both to to visualize your guests dancing to your rocking band over choosing that pricy wedding cake.

After prioritizing your list, research items at the top of your list. In the case of S and I, our venue was most important to us. We started out by looking at several venues in and around our area and compared prices. Once we had an idea of how much similar venues were charging, we could gauge how much we would have left in our budget for other necessities (catering, decor, etc.).

Don't get overwhelmed! Husband and I had no idea how to even begin the process. Once we committed to our beautiful barn we knew about how much we had to work with, which made it a bit easier (although no more enjoyable) to cut back in other areas.

If you are lost as to how to begin the process or not sure how to set a budget, this is a good guide to get you started!

Design your own wedding invitation, directions card and rsvp card!

Designed by Scott Palmer

We wanted our wedding invitation to look different from the standard. After all, our wedding was to be in a barn, so would it really make sense to have fancy embossed frilly script fonts with lacy trim? We thought not. So S set out to design a more kitschy and whimsical style invite that felt more like our personality.

It ended up being a 3 card set, printed dual-sided on 100# recycled cardstock along with a self-mailing reply card. (no tiny envelopes to address!!)

Since Husband is an amazing designer, he would be designing our invites. We started out brainstorming ideas for a theme and color scheme. Coming up with the barn idea was easy since that was the whole theme of the wedding. After testing out different shades of blue, we settled on this teal for most of the text and back of the cards. After that, the design came together rather seamlessly. We both agreed we loved the detail of the little bird holding the love sign on the back which later translated into our decor for the barn!

All the printing was done locally on recycled paper with soy based inks.

A unique save the date idea!

Designed by Scott Palmer

The idea for our save the date came late one night. S and I were freaking out, as we had to get our STD's out soon and we didn't have much room in our budget for pricey printed ones. By the way - you can get great deals on save the date and thank you cards from Vistaprint, check them out! We knew we wanted something with a homemade feel to it as well as something that featured us, not just text. We happened to have my parents fancy digital camera on loan and S had a roll of photo backdrop paper laying around so we had an impromptu photo shoot!

We dolled ourselves up and our lovely friend Charlie shot the photos. We came up with the photo strip concept after seeing several STD's that incorporated photo-booth strips. At first we thought about writing the words with markers but then spotted my knitting basket hiding in the corner and were inspired! We spray-glued the photo backing and spelled out the words with yarn. We tried out several different colors and styles and settled on these.

After choosing from 100+ photos, we picked these four. S then, being the amazing graphic designer he is, adjusted the quality so that it resembled the more grainy texture we wanted and we were satisfied!

We sent the file over to a local printer and in less than a week our STD's were ready to go! Also, we opted to send them out without an envelope (in keeping with our green theme) and instead decided to fold them in half and affix a small sticker to close. They looked great and we didn't need to waste any extra paper!