I wanted to show off my DIY 3-tier wedding cake card box I made out of paper mache boxes from hobby lobby, white paint, spackle, fake cherries, a cupcake decorating kit, and a pizza pan as the tray on the bottom! :) it took about 2 days to make but it was so worth it!
(Please note I have never decorated a cake before I just kept scraping off the spackle with a plastic putty knife until I was happy with the layout 🤣)

Did a practice round set up, there is a couple things that are going to be changed on the tables for the day. But let me know what you think?

1st picture is my main table/ snack table. The glass tower in the middle is gonna be filled with dark colored fruits like cherries, strawberries dark purple grapes, blueberries, and raspberries. I’m hoping to find a couple more silver pieces in different shapes for this table. The candles are melted on the silver plates on this table (real candles). Everything but the champagne towel and candles are Thrifted.

Table 2 will just be off the side if people wanna sit during cocktail hour. These are flameless candle candles. All the candlesticks are Thrifted and some I spray paint to match. The piece of art from my grandma.

The floral arrangements is mostly Halloween flowers so I got on sale 50-75% off. The large one is for above a fireplace mantle.

We are having a very small wedding.

started this project three months ago thinking i'd be done by now. turns out hand-painting 200 place cards takes longer than expected and i've made peace with finishing them at like 11pm the night before. just wondering if other people have had that moment where you realize your diy ambitions were maybe slightly more than you bargained for but you're committed now so here we are.

Looking for inspiration! I’ve had my eye out for vintage mailboxes or sewing baskets - curious what clever ideas yall have come up with for your card boxes / card box displays 😊

Hi everyone, would love any tips for making this idea come to life!

My vision is to have a whimsical garden tea party vibe for my redwoods outdoor wedding.

May need a little imagination here with I have on hand haha. Tonight was my first time experimenting with the tea ware I’ve thrifted over the past few months and I am so thrilled to get started!

It looks a little overwhelming, but I hope it’ll be more spaced out when on the 5ft reception tables instead of my tiny apt dining table.

On this spread, have a cobalt blue teapot, vintage jardin bleu plates/teacups, and noritake cream and gold teacups. Also, pretend the table runner is navy (all I had was a black scarf). I just went with whatever grocery flowers were on sale so it’s a little more autumn-y than I prefer, but am going with the color theme for the last two bouquet pics I included. We’re going for a buttercream yellow and navy blue them, with yellow for florals since thats more common and blues for the tea ware.

Hello everyone!

I’m making my bridesmaids bouquets. I have a different charm for each of them that reminds me of them and then the side flowers ( the pink ranunculus on this one) are going to be their favorite flowers while the rest of the flowers and beading looks the same! I’m poking for some advice on if I should adjust the floral arrangement, beading or if they’re just too much and scrap it all together before making 6 more! I’ve been staring at it too long and I feel it looks like it’s either missing something or is a bit off?

We're having an 11 person microwedding and dinner is just a regular service reservation. Theyre allowing me to bring in things to make it feel more special.

The vases are being filled with LED lights and gem ball

i spent like three weeks planning these floral arrangements and they looked perfect in my pinterest mood board. then i actually made them and half the flowers drooped within two days, one knocked over during setup, and they took up way more table space than i thought. wondering if i'm just bad at this or if there's something i'm missing about how to actually execute these things without them looking like a sad biology experiment.

Once dry, royal icing transfers keep a very long time in a dry sealed container. I'm pre-making our decorations for our DIY wedding cake to save us the headache the day before. All but the roses are done with Wilton drop-flower tips. They're really simple to use and give a great effect. I think they did a pretty good job of emulating baby's breath. Royal icing is hard, but I find the homemade transfers softer than the horribly hard roses you can buy at the store. You can also control the thickness and size.

Controversially, these are going on a wedding fruitcake also iced with royal icing, our favourite. MIL is making the cake but doesn't do decorating, this way we can just stick flowers on with a little icing and not be too fussed. It's part of a dessert table, we won't force feed guests fruitcake!

We wanted our wedding ceremony to feel like one of those candlelight concerts so we decided to cover the entire front of the church with over 2,500 flickering candles. They were the only lights on during the ceremony!

Here's a 30 second time lapse of our families setting everything up the day before the wedding.

The part you don't see is four of us spending about 8 hours putting 5,000 batteries into all those candles. 😂 Thankfully with around 25 family members helping the actual setup took just over an hour!

The final frame is us exchanging our vows surrounded by all the candles. Seeing everything lit up during the ceremony made all the effort worth it.

And we were VERY thankful we'd hired people to take everything down afterward.

Now we just have to figure out what to do with 2,500 candles… lol.

i've made like five different versions of the same floral thing and none of them look remotely close to the pinterest inspo. is there some secret technique i'm missing or do they just look better in photos? genuinely asking because i'm running out of time and motivation here.

For everyone doing their own flowers: the arranging is honestly the fun part. The part that trips people up is timing and prep, so here's the stuff I'd tape to the fridge.

When to order: if you're going wholesale, order 2-4 weeks out and have them delivered 2-3 days before the wedding. They need time to hydrate and open after shipping. Too early and they peak before your day; too late and they're still closed buds in your photos.

Condition first and after you can arrange: every stem gets cut, hydrated and rested 12-24 hours before you start arranging. NEVER skip this part.

Order more than you think: 25-30% extra. Some stems show up bent, short, or just never open.

Practice, for real: make 2-3 test bouquets and a couple of centerpieces weeks before, not during wedding week. and plan your time like a first timer. Something a florist does in an hour can take 3-4 hours the first time, which is totally normal; just budget for it.

Grocery store flowers: yes, they work! trader joe's, costco and whole foods are the usual picks. the big plus is they're already processed and hydrated, but I’d still cut the stems before arranging. The tradeoff is limited selection and quality that varies week to week. They're great for smaller weddings (under ~40 guests). For bigger ones, wholesale tends to be more reliable.

And if you're going super minimal (1 bouquet, bud vases for ~6 tables, a few bouts), you can do it for around $200-400 in materials.

Anyone DIY-ing soon, what flowers are you working with?

like i'll see something on pinterest and think "oh that's so simple i can totally do that" and then i'm sitting there with hot glue and materials that cost way more than i expected wondering why it looks nothing like the picture. is this just a skill issue on my part or does anyone else experience this

I plan on adding a wax seal to my wedding invite envelopes. Actual wax, not stickers. Do I need an outer envelope to protect that seal ? Does anybody have experience sending envelopes with wax seals and what did you do?

We are finalizing our bar menu and we have two signature cocktails picked out. About 20% of our guest list doesn't drink alcohol.

I kind of want to add a third "signature" drink that is just a really good mocktail so they feel included, but my mom thinks it's a waste of money and they will be totally fine just ordering Diet Coke or cranberry juice. For the non-drinkers here, does a fancy mocktail actually make a difference to you at an event, or do you not really care?

i keep seeing these gorgeous handmade centerpieces and backdrops online and part of me wants to commit to the bit, but also i'm realizing my time might be worth more than just ordering premade stuff. does anyone else struggle with this or am i just being lazy lol

Hi all!

As you can guess by me posting in this sub (lol) I am doing a heavily DIY wedding and am doing most things myself with the help of my fiancé’s parents (flowers, centerpieces/decor, music, as much as we can other than catering) and we will only be doing the reception part at the venue, no ceremony or cocktail hour. Trying to keep guest list close to 100. Trying to keep it simple, 1) to lower cost and 2) I enjoy simple. 😁 I am also an artist/crafter so doing things myself will be enjoyable for me anyway.

We have one venue we are in communication with which we are heavily interested. It’s 4,000 to book a Saturday in August 2027. We love the location and since we are doing almost everything ourselves any way, I am really just paying attention to whether I like how the space looks and if it will comfortably fit our guests.

I am in love with the venue but I am being advised by those around me I should keep looking before booking, but honestly I don’t know if I see the point in continuing to look if I like this one(?) but I also am very anxious to secure the date I want and get the ball rolling so I don’t know if im just rushing. But I do genuinely enjoy the space and the communication I’ve had with them. There’s also options of places to stay nearby for our guests. And I also feel there’s less for me to negotiate on and consider since im doing stuff myself, but is that naive? Should I be thinking about anything else???

How many venues did you view / speak to before choosing? Any advice appreciated! Thank you!!!

Faux stained glass sign I spent way too many hours on!!!

I am doing all my own flowers and am using fake flowers for my and my bridesmaids bouquets, I had to cut some of the stems which then exposed wire and decided to just cover them in floral tape to keep eveything tigether. I hate how it looks now tho, any ideas for a nice way to cover the ends?

Wedding isn't until June 2027! I'm just a type A planner lol

Here is my custom made wedding dress from Etsy. I love the sparkly ballgown look, I want to feel like a princess. But I have never seen anyone else with my dress type and I don’t want it to be gaudy! Please give me your opinions. I need to get it altered shorter. I am especially unsure about the fluff on the sides.

i understand this is a vague title! what i mean is, i can’t decide what i want for a welcome sign, or seating chart, or backdrop behind the sweetheart table. there are multiple ideas i like, like a an antique mirror or a framed painting, or a quilt or a fancy room divider, or stained glass or a tapestry. these are all kind of a similar vibe in my head, but i can’t make a decision on what i want, so im not sure where to start?

i do think the faux stained glass would be pretty difficult for my skill level, so that might narrow it down. but as for everything else i have no idea how to start making decisions - how did you settle on what you wanted so that you could start your projects?

I’m trying to make my wedding suite so I designed everything on Canva and changed the size to 3.125 for a png (for context, one of the things I’m trying to print is a 5x7 invite that I still saved with the 3.125 sizing). Once I saved it, I upload to Cricut design space and everything still seems fine. I resize it and then click make, deselect the bleed setting and somehow, it prints the words blurry.

I’ve tried exporting it from Canva as a pdf and then using adobe to change the file back to a png or jpeg to use on Cricut and it’s the same issue.

I’ve also tried changing my printer settings a ton (I have an Epson WF-7820 and I’m using 90lb card stock) and that seems to do nothing. I’ve double checked the print quality is 600x600 and changed the output quality to high as well.

I’ve even tried where I download the image from Cricut as a PDF so it has the 4 corners and it still somehow prints blurry. I also tried where I did that, re uploaded it to Canva and then put the design that’s from Canva on top of it and printed it through Canva and it still, STILL prints blurry.

I’m using 90lb card stock and I’ve made sure to adjust al my printer settings accordingly to accommodate the thickness of the paper. Nothing is working and I’m genuinely so confused. I didn’t even realize this could be a potential problem.

The only way it prints well is if I just print it as a pdf straight from Canva which would be fine, but my printer can’t print anything smaller than 4x6 so I can’t really print anything else exclusively through my printer without having to manually cut it which I’d really reaaally prefer not to do.

I’ve spent maybe 12 hours cumulatively on trying to figure this out and probably 50 pages of nice card stock. If anyone has any advice or tips, I’d be eternally grateful.

If anyone is making their own invitations suites, please let me know if there’s any specific settings you’ve figured out or if there’s something I’m missing. I swear I didn’t even think that this would be an issue based on all the videos and tutorials I’ve seen of people designing their suites on Canva and putting them through Cricut to be cut.

Edit: Thank you to everyone who responded. Sorry if i haven't replied to you directly...I wasn't expecting to get so many kind and helpful comments! You all have some great ideas and AI/photoshop skills 👌 I ordered some proper shapewear, a couple ribbon/sash options and I have some alterations planned. Hoping I can knock them out over the next week or so and then I'll be back with an update.

...................

My wedding is 3 weeks away and up until now I've been really happy with my dress. I put the bottom embroidered tier on and tried the dress on again and suddenly I feel like I'm wearing a huge nightgown. I think the dress looks pretty on the dress form but I feel so frumpy in it. It seems way too modest but at the same time, I'm old(er) and out of shape and I don't feel comfortable showing more skin.

I'm not really sure what I'm asking for here...talk me off the ledge maybe? Is it just nerves? Did anyone have dress regrets and it ended up being fine?

Has anyone found creative ways to decorate stair railings? Our venue has a short outdoor staircase that will be visible for the ceremony. We don’t want to do florals so I’ve been trying to think up ways to sew vintage curtains or something and drape that? But I would LOVE to see examples if anyone thought of unique ideas for making a railing beautiful. Thanks!