DIY Bride™

My friend and penultimate wedding diva, Terrica from Once Upon Your Wedding, had a fabulous post the other day about stupid wedding things you can skip that no one will notice.

It’s easy to get caught up in the spending frenzy that weddings tend to become and we tend to buy things we don’t really want or even need just because we’re expected to. Add up all the little extras and I’ll wager you’ll be pretty shocked at how much money you’re losing at crap your guests won’t care about and that you’ll never, ever use (see) again.

In addition to Terrica’s list, I’d like to add:

• Toasting flutes for the bride & groom
• Cake server & knife
• OOT baskets (a nice gesture but completely unnecessary)
• Decorated/special pens for the guest book

What are some of the things you’re skipping and why?

Hey, everyone. The downloads section is experiencing some problems and is unavailable. I’m working on a fix right now and will post an update when they’re ready to go. Sorry about that!

My humblest apologies for the extended downtime. The site was hacked sometime last week and  I’ve had to go through and repair the damage in addition to all of the lovely, wonderfully, fabulously fun steps to help ensure it does not happen again. While we were down, I took the opportunity to reformat the site so it’s (quite) a bit different than if you had visited last week.

I know I’m going to get several emails asking where the downloads are, so here’s the scoop: they’re in the Forums area and YOU MUST BE LOGGED IN TO ACCESS THEM.

Have a peek around, enjoy yourself, and say hi if you have a chance.

So, you have, what?, 3, maybe 4 gazillion ideas for your wedding. You’ve got oodles of magazine clippings, reams of printed goodies from sites, and hundreds of bookmarks from things that may have caught your fancy at some point along the way. How do you put all of those ideas and inspiration together? Let me introduce you to the mood board.

Mood boards are nifty tools used by designers to present a collection of ideas and inspiration. Graphic designers, landscape architects, interior designers and event
coordinators all use mood boards as a way to gather their ideas together for a project without commiting to any one thing. (Don’t like that flower arrangement with the room color? No problem! Swap it out with another picture.) Mood boards are traditionally foamcore or posterboard presentations but lots of designers have gone digital, using Photoshop instead of a real board.

The uber-wonderful design blog, Decor8, recently announced a mood board contest (win Amy Butler patterns!) and that’s set off a ripple through the Internets. There’s lot of mood board buzz this week (even though they’ve been around forever). Flickr has some awesome non-wedding mood board inspiration to get you started on the MB concept. (Search mood board + inspiration board .)

Now, for wedding-specific boards, check out Weddingbee! They’re posting user-submitted mood boards and I can’t wait to see what they share. My friend, and ultra-cool wedding diva, Terrica, from Once Upon Your Wedding will be showcasing a new mood board on her blog every week. Net-A-Porter has some wedding board goodness. And, of course, I’ll be creating some mood boards with a DIY point of view coming up soon. (For the impatient among you, check out our Themes & Styles board in the forums for some inspiration.)

If any of you, my dear DIYers, would like to share your mood boards, I’d love it! Send ‘em over!

[ Editing to add that Style Me Pretty has amazingly beautiful wedding mood boards,]

Continue Reading »

DIYers, go grab a copy of the the June/July 2007 issue of Sew News magazine! The issue is dedicated to all-things-weddings and they have some fun and lovely ideas. (My personal favorite project is the chair covers.) Veils, ring pillows, gowns, reception decor are all featured and there’s some great info on fitting gowns (yours and your maids’).

And, before I forget, DIYBride.com gets a sweet little mention on page 96. Very cool!

Sew News can be found in bookstores, fabric stores, and online . This issue should be hitting stands right now.

Continue Reading »