TheBunny's DIY items

serving trays, swarovski mirror, invitation box, see you at the altar card and so much more!!! (community article)

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Above is a picture of the silk box that housed our wedding invitations. I saw these on-line but they were way over my budget so it became my very first "DIY". I purchased the chocolate silk gate fold box on-line, hand selected the gold duponi silk ribbon (used all throughout the wedding) and ordered a swarovski brooch closure. After figuring out the slack needed for the ribbon and the perfect fabric glue...I was off! They came out GREAT and VERY affordable. They really set the tone for our wedding!

Above is a picture of the hanger I made for my hubby! I felt that the grooms role was really minimized by all the accessories the bride has and my honey is not to be minimized.

I purchased VERY small wood letters from a local craft store, stained them with the same wood stain I used to create our centerpiece box (another DIY below). I had a custom made stamp of our "wedding flourish" created so I could emboss items such as this to make it personalized to our wedding. I used the stamp to emboss the letters and I purchased a crown that I used wire cutters to cut in half. I then unscrewed the metal hook of the hanger just enough to add a bit of height so the crown could have room to sit on top. I also spray painted the hook gold.

Hubby Loved It!!!

Above are three serving trays I made. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!!

Tray #1 is full of crystals with a chocolate brown ribbon trim and a oval swarovski slide buckle. Tray #2 was a tufted luster paper with swarovski jewels on the high tufts. A gold organza ribbon accent and I attached a brooch that WAS actually a napkin ring from Target (set of 2 for 4.99!) The swarovski band was actually a dismantled belt from a tacky little store. That belt went a LONG LONG way......I purchased yards of swarovski trim from the fabric store and it was so expensive...I was determined to find a cheap alternative and still have genuine swarovski...well rhinestone cowboy "THANK YOU!"  Tray #3 was my FAVORITE...photos don't do it justice. The movement of the ostrich feathers looked so wonderful when it was being passed! Again I finished it off with a 4 row Swarovski band (and again........thank you to the belt and my wire cutters)

All of these trays were made from acrylic picture frames and I reinforced the center with additional acrylic so the middle would not sag with the weight of the drinks. This way it was functional and looked like the drinks were being carried on feathers, crystals and clouds!

The above picture is my Swarovski mirror! SO MUCH SPARKLE!!!!! OMG! I purchased a vintage hand held mirror on Ebay. I first spelled out my NEW last name (Mrs. Borges) in Aquamarine swarovski crystals and then filled the rest with clear swarovski stones. I will cherish it forever!

Above is a picture of the gifts for the moms. I had a few invitation boxes left over so I used them to present the gifts in. I stuffed the box with ostrich feathers and had a calligrapher write a poem that I made up on it. We had so may extra pieces of paper from the calligraphers request 15% overage it was needing to be put to use. On each side of the box I attached a gold organza ribbon and adheared a locket. On the left, a sephia image of my husband when he was a toddler and on the right, a sephia image of me also when I was a toddler. Of course I then stuffed the pockets with plenty of Kleenex! The actual gift was a gold necklace with a gold nest pendant that held three pearl eggs in the center. I was very maternal to me and symbolic of motherhood. Also, something I thought they would both actually like! The poem read a bit differently for each, I presented my mother-in-law with her gift and my husband presented my mom with hers:

You brought him up in a warm, loving nest,

Cared for him and raised him to be the best.

Wear this pendant as a symbol of his love for you

and my gratitude for a man I am honored to vow, "I do"

 Shawn and Erin 01/03/09

 You brought her up in a warm, loving nest

and cared for her and raised her to be the best.

Wear this pendant as a symbol of her love for you

and my gratitude for a woman I am honored to vow, "I do"

 Shawn and Erin 01/03/09

 As you can see, they LOVED the necklaces!

The centerpiece box was a 12' wood box that we constructed and stained chocolate brown. It housed three manzanita trees and was so beautiful! The box was wrapped with two layers of ribbon and a two-row swarovski trim. The layers were: gold duchess satin, Sage organza with a silver edging and then of course the two row swarovski crystal banding to top it off. I spent MONTHS lightly gluing the organza to the silk and many more months sewing between EACH swarovski to attach it to the two layers. Then I carefully nailed it to the box! I used the same ribbon all over the wedding (gold ribbon was on the invites remember????). Here are other ways I decorated the venue with this DIY ribbon accent.

 I used the ribbon to create a clean edge on the mantles of both fireplaces at our venue.

 I left the crystals off and attached a HUGE swarovski ornament to the end of the ribbon and use it to cinch the linen into an hourglass shape on our highboy tables.

Above are our favor boxes. They were wooden boxes I purchased from the craft store. I wrapped them in chocolate brown silk, padded the inside by wrapping cardboard pieces with silk and attaching it to the base and the top of the box. I used the same ribbon to attach to the box that is used in all other areas of the wedding. I wrapped cardboard craft picture frames in the gold ribbon and placed it on the top of the box with each guests name calligraphied in the open frame area.

Above are the pictures of our "I DO" cards. we read love letters to eachother and they were held on the back of these cards so when our guests were watching us the could read the words "I DO"

Above are the "WE WILL" card I gave to the bridesmaids. They were cute friendship vows we exchanged before the ceremony. They were the same as the "I DO" cards and I thought my girl were so great we should be bound for life with vows as well!

 Not sure if these socks qualify as a "DIY" because I did need to have a lady embroider them for me but it was my creation. The socks you can buy are always black and it's on the leg of the sock.... I liked it across the toes so much more and so we cut the back of a pair of brown socks and after 15 different failed vendor attempts we finally got the right lady who could embroider on socks...I guess it's hard because of the size and stretch of socks....so it's a 1/2 DIY but unique and worth mention...i think.

 1 week before our wedding "Emilie" was born, she was obviously too small for her own chair and place card so I sprayed a wooden letter gold and attached swarovski crystals to it and suspended it with brown ribbon. It dangled over her sweet little head, off the edge of the table during the reception 

Above are our love birds card box. I wrapped a cardboard oval box with brown silk and created a mini bow tie from the left over fabric my hubby's cravat was made from. The girl bird had lashes, twinkle toes and a swarovski hair comb just like mine.

Last but certainly not least...... I created a card that went on top of my hubby's gift. It said "Can't wait to meet you at the altar" and it gave a mini replica of what it would look like when we finally saw eachother there. I found a stamp with a silouette very similar to my dress and embossed it in the center of the card. I gathered twigs to replicate the manzanita trees, used a icecream come 3-D sticked to create our urn for the manzanita to sit in (cut off the ice cream and just used the cone), stuffed the urn with moss and hand strung crystals and hung them from the trees and twisted little petals into what looked like orchids and glued them to the tips of the branches (below is a pic of our actual altar)....I think i did good.

Member Comments

1761 110 92 GinaBEE

09/25/2009 at 04:03 pm :( ohh no! darn! it sounds like she had some great ideas!

485 102 23 Cheeky.Bride.

09/25/2009 at 04:02 pm TheBunny deleted her page a long time ago... She had an AWESOME wedding! Bummer that shes gone :( I had a ton of her pics as my inspiration and they all got deleted...

1761 110 92 GinaBEE

09/25/2009 at 03:51 pm yeah....what? the first post is "good job!" i want to see too :)

470 72 65 Biteka

09/25/2009 at 03:50 pm I am obviously missing something... I think the first post is missing or this is a part of the tread from somewhere else...I want to see!!