An Elegant DIY Garden Wedding. Inspired by Versailles and the Secret Garden, I hope you fall in love with these dreamy details and feel inspired to make them your own when you see that you can do each one yourself!
I poured my heart and soul into this wedding. I planned, created, and planned some more for over 18 months. This day was everything I could have imagined and more. In all honesty, although I made most of everything myself we still spent quite a bit of money on the venue, food, DJ, and photography. Those were things I knew I could not create by myself and be left feeling proud and happy. So I left those things to the professionals. Literally, everything else was a fair DIY game!
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Dollar Tree Bowl and Candlestick Centerpiece
Spray Painted Gold. This isn’t revolutionary but it’s an easy DIY wedding hack. The cost of premade floral containers is outrageous – even at wholesale prices. When you are only going to use them once, why not DIY Dollar Tree? If your venue provides them, take advantage of that but my venue only offered shabby chic style floral containers and I wanted the feel to be more like the Garden of Versailles – not a secret garden. The gold urn style fits the theme!
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Sequin Fabric Square as a Centerpiece Overlay
I wished for a full table of sequin overlay but alas, much too expensive. Instead, I went down to Los Angeles Fabric District and picked up 5 yards of this navy blue sequin fabric and cut it into large squares to go on each table. Now each table has a pop of navy and gold sparkle. Maybe it’s kind of weird but I like it and I felt like it added another layer of character to our wedding. It’s so easy for weddings to all start to blend together so being weird wherever you can is always awesome!
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DIY Giant Wood Cross and Floral Cage Flowers
My now husband build this giant cross for us to be married in front of. We stained it espresso brown and then attached a few heavy-duty nails to the center. We built the flower arrangements inside an extra large Oasis floral foam cage and just hung them on the hooks. It was heavy and made us nervous but it stayed up the entire time!
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Spray Painted Plastic Dollar Tree Bowls with Floral Foam Inside
I tape the floral foam down really well to the container with duct tape and then just went to work arranging the flowers like they were a normal arrangement and when we got to the venue we just stuck the bowls into the venue-provided tall white centerpieces. If you look closely, can you tell it’s just a spray-painted plastic bowl under there?
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2 Dollar Tree Gold Picture Frames glued together with a crystal chain sandwiched
This was one of my favorite DIY decor details. We hung them throughout an ivy tunnel that led to the ceremony location. It was a romantic touch to show everyone a look into our relationship. The tunnel was also decorated with Glass orbs holding a single rose. I bought the frames at Dollar Tree, ordered the crystal strands on Amazon, and had the photos printed at Walmart. This is a beautiful personal DIY that we have even used at my grandmother’s 80th birthday party!
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DIY Place Setting Escort Cards and Display
So the Display was a DIY project and every card was also made by me. First, the cards were just printed at home on blush cardstock bought from the paper source and then glued to a blue mat – which was just navy blue cardstock, also purchased from Paper Source. I picked up these tiny paper roses from the dollar bin at Michael’s craft store and glue each one to a sewing pin. The sewing pin poked through the paper into the board behind.
The board itself is a giant cork board covered in moss from the craft store. We built the ‘frame’ by buying some really ornate molding from the home improvement store. The hardest part was the angled cuts but we did our best and filled the gaps with wood filler. Once that was dry, I sanded it and then spray painted it metallic gold!
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DIY Thermography Dinner Menu
These thermography place setting menus were designed using Microsoft Word, which I know is dated software now. I was able to set the design size and then just created them within those parameters. I made all my final designs into PNGs and was able to fit the wedding invitation, rsvp card and direction card, this menu, and the favor toppers on a single 8.5″ x 11″ sheet. I then took that single sheet design to a small printing shop near Los Angeles, CA that offered thermography printing.
Thermography printing is similar to embossing. The ink has a raised finish at the end and often a bit of metallic shine.
The printing cost is very reasonable but the catch is – they make a single ‘stamp’ for the design and that’s the part that costs the most. So if you have an invitation, rsvp card, direction card, menu, and favor tags that could be 5 separate designs – 5 separate ‘stamps’. BUT because I combined all my designs on a single letter-size piece of paper it was technically only 1 stamp. It cost 5 times less than another way.
PLUS the print shop offered some cutting services. While the design was a little crazy they were able to make 2 or 3 cuts for me saving a ton of time from having to manually cut out each design.
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DIY French Macaron Wedding Favors
I love to bake and was once on a fast track to becoming a pastry chef. That life got derailed but I will always keep my knowledge of baking and pastries. These were a labor of love. Homemade Macarons – Frozen for 8 weeks and then packed frozen into the clear boxes. I topped it with the cut out from the thermography paper order and a thin gold ribbon.
Clear boxes came from papermart.com
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Wooden Table Numbers with Cardstock Number Glued on
For table numbers, these were salvaged wood blocks stained in the espresso stain. I simply glued painted cardstock numbers to the sides. Very simply made and very cute for their one-time use!
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Here is a look at some of the passed appetizers. We chose to have brie cheese and berries, ceviche tostadas, Ahi Tuna on cucumber, Caprese Salad skewers, and stuffed mushrooms. Everything was delicious and we heard nothing but good about the food choices. The food really is so important for the guest experience. Guests that feel comfortable eating and enjoying what they are eating will have a better time and bring a better attitude to the rest of your wedding.
Venue: Twin Oaks Garden Estate
Makeup: Brides Amore
Photography: Dapper Images
Cinematography: Dapper Images
So now it’s your turn! If you try this, tag me at @goldengluegun
Golden Gluegun is a DIY lifestyle blog featuring incredible DIY flips, sewing tutorials, crafts, and creative inspiration. Join me as we plan and create!
