Real-Life DIY Wedding Projects

It’s a snowy mess outside right now! Over 10″ of snow has fallen in the last 12 hours and it’s still coming down… So, instead I’m thinking back to last September and my wedding day. We did a TON of DIY projects for our wedding as a way to save money, personalize our day, and have a little fun. My plan is to go into more detail about each project . I would love to hear from you so please comment below!

Flowers – Bouquets, Tables, Etc.

I couldn’t be more pleased at how our flowers turned out! This was by far my favorite project of the wedding. We grew about 1/3 of all our own flowers, the rest we sourced from a farmers market friend, and for the bouquets we bought daisies, lisianthus, snap dragons.

Dance Floor

We had originally planned to rent our dance floor from our tent company, but when we ran the numbers with my now father-in-law he thought he could build one for the same cost (or cheaper) and then reuse the materials after the wedding for his garage. So, that is what we did! And I am so grateful or his (and my husband’s) hard work on this dance floor. It became such a centerpiece of our reception, and we received so many compliments about it.

Wood Signs

My awesome childhood neighbor Corinne helped me make these amazing wooden signs to use all over our wedding site. I used new wood boards that I distressed with apple cider vinegar and steel wool (thank you Pinterest!). Then Corinne did the painting for me. They came out soooo well! They were such a nice addition to our decor and served a key purpose in directing our guests where to go.

Vintage Window Seating Chart

Thanks to my avid Pinterest habit, I got hooked on the idea of using an old window as a seating chart. So, we did it. However, it turned out to be way more work that I expected. The window we picked was big… and heavy. The frame was in bad shape, so my husband and his father had to reinforce it and then create a way to make it stand on it’s own. Then, there was the actual task of writing all 260 names on it… thank goodness for my bridesmaid Jessica for powering through that tedious task!

Arbor/Cupola

What is it supposed to be called anyways? You know – that structure that you stand under/slightly in front of during a wedding ceremony? Well, whatever it’s called, we made one. We used white birch saplings and branches from my family farm. My husband assembled the whole thing, then my friends and family helped decorate it the day-of with flowers and tulle. It turned out lovely :)

Birdseed Toss

We have attended A LOT of weddings the last couple years. And NONE of them have done any kind or rice or birdseed toss. I’m sure some of that is because of venue restrictions, but also I think it’s because it’s messy. But we didn’t care about the mess, and we had no venue restrictions, so we went for it. We were picking birdseed out of our hair for the rest of the night, but it was worth it!

Cornhole

Since our ceremony and reception were at the same location, we wanted to have some extra activities to keep guests entertained during cocktail hour. We had a whole area set up with lawn games – cornhole, ladder golf, and can jam. We made the cornhole boards ourselves. My brother did the construction, my husband, his cousins and I did the painting. People kept playing until dark so I’d say it was a hit!

Homemade Pies for Dessert

To top it all off, we asked our close family and friends to help us out by baking pies for our dessert instead of cake. We had asked for about 30 pies and we ended up with close to 50! Our baking friends came out in force! It was so heart warming and such a great gift for our special day. Not to mention – they were delicious!