DIY Bride™

Hey, Charlotte-area DIYers!

The ever-fabulous Shanika Butts of SJB Weddings & Events has invited me to come host an all-day DIY workshop for you in September. Here are the details:

The Ultimate DIY Bridal Workshop

A Day with the DIY Bride Khris Cochran

presented by: Shanika J. Butts of SJB Weddings & Events and SJB Weddings & Events: the blog

Who: If you are interested in having a hands on learning experience on creating fabulous accessories and centerpieces for your wedding this is the workshop for you.

When: Saturday September 26, 2009 and Sunday September 27, 2009

Time: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

Where: Embassy Suites Charlotte, 4800 South Tryon Street, Charlotte, NC 28217

Khris Cochran is the creator and founder of the award winning DIYBride.com one of the most popular bridal crafting websites and is also the author of The DIY Bride: 40 Fun Projects for Your Ultimate One-of-a-kind Wedding. Khris is dedicated to helping brides personalize their weddings by assisting them with designing elements that will enable them to put their own personal stamp on their wedding.

Topics for the day include:

* Intro do DIY Bride: How to do it well, on a budget and with your sanity in tact.
* Invitations 101: Invite basics and hands-on time creating rubber stamped invite set
* Favors for under $1: Showcase favor ideas that can be made for under $1 + hands-on project time
* Pimp My Wedding: Ideas for adding pizazz to basic wedding products. Learn how to embellish items such as shoes, gowns, favors, etc.
* The $20 Veil: Learn to create a fabulous veil for $20
* Creative Centerpieces: Showcase of inexpensive + creative centerpiece ideas

This workshop is designed to be fun and an open environment for questions for Khris as she shows you how to make beautiful items for your wedding day. You will come away with actual projects that you have made during class and the know how to create additonal items.

The workshop fee includes the hands on instruction by Khris Cochran, all class materials, hand-outs, takeaways and lunch. Please choose one of the two workshop dates that fit your schedule.

Please register here. If you have any questions please send an email to info@sjbweddingsandevents.com

Hey DIYers!

We’re oh-so-curious about your weddings! Not only do we get a peek into what real DIYers are doing, it helps us out in bringing the right projects and inspiration to our readers.

What kind of venue(s) are you using for your ceremony and reception? Church, garden, airplane hangar, museum, other? Please share!

Hey DIYers,

DIY Bride is hittin’ the road later this year and early next. If you’d like to join me for some hands-on crafty wedding goodness in your city, please let me know! I’m making workshop & travel plans for October – April right now. Let’s get together in your city for some DIY fun!

Do you have that not-so-crafty feeling? Are your favors falling flat? Are your invites leaving you uninspired? Do those darned centerpieces got you down? No problem!

DIY Bride is seeking projects we can take off your hands and give a crafty makeover. We’ll post before and after pictures and give step-by-step instructions to boot. We’ll turn those sad little projects into pimped out beauties you can be proud of.

We’re seeking reader submissions of any DIY wedding project that you’d like to take to from meh to fab in the following categories:

• Invitations and stationery
• Attire and bridal party accessories
• Centerpieces and table decor
• Flowers, ceremony/reception decor
• Favors and gifts
• Cookies, cakes, food
• Surprise us!

We’d be delighted to receive the actual project to work with! If you’d like to send it to us, please shoot us an email via the contact form and we’ll send shipping instructions.

Sometimes I get caught up in the world of wedding paper crafts, florals, and jewelry that I forget that DIY projects can go far beyond the wedding day details we so commonly craft. Luckily Kathy and Rob are here to remind us that we can exercise our creativity in unexpected ways that make our weddings truly personal and utterly unique.

Kathy says:
We made this video to show at our wedding in May in Brooklyn; It’s called Kathy and Rob’s License to Wed.  It’s about the adventure of getting a marriage license in New York City.

If you spend a little time with iMovie or any other built-in movie editing software and have a point and shoot camera with video, anyone can make a music video.  This was a fun project because the video was an element that helped set the tone of our wedding.  We thought it had a lot of energy and showed off New York and we just had fun making it.

Kathy and Rob’s License to Wed from Bobcat Productions on Vimeo.

Kathy and Rob’s License to Wed from Bobcat Productions on Vimeo.

Oh, you guys are so clever!

I love using chalkboard paint for DIY wedding projects (check out the votive seating “card”). Until now it’s only been available in black or that weird shade of green, while ok for some motifs and projects, aren’t the ideal for coordinating with most wedding color schemes.

Thanks to Hudson Paint, chalkboard paint, is now available in 24 colors! {Queue my girlish squeals of delight here.}  Quart cans are only $7.00 making chalkboard goodness within the reach of most DIYers.