Wedding Welcome Sign – Save Hundreds!

Hello fellow DIYers…

Who am I kidding?

I do not DIY anything. I am the worst. I am creative – when it comes to processes to follow. Not so much when it comes to painting and art. I’ve been trying to write a book practically my entire life, but writers block prevents that.

But weddings are EXPENSIVE!

I really want a beautiful dream wedding… can I do it for a couple hundred dollars? The answer is no. Venues alone run you thousands of dollars (in my area). So I have to find ways to save. And some of the design aspects I found I could DIY for drastically less (🥲).

Here we are. My first major DIY for the wedding! And I’ll walk you through how I saved hundreds so that maybe you can too! (Also some mistakes I made/things I would do differently so maybe you can avoid those yourself).

Wedding Welcome Sign

First – I have a free app on my iPhone (works on Androids too) called Da Vinci Eye. This app uses your phone as a looking glass of sorts – where you can put the image you want over top of the paper you are working on and pretty much trace that image.

I designed the image I wanted in another app called Enlight (basically photoshop editing type app – I do not know if this app is free still, but any editing app that lets you overlay images on top of each other will work). I used images off google searches that I liked, overlaying letters and words and images to design this mock-up:

I bought this large 5.5ft sign at a local thrift store for $50. (Sometimes thrift stores have bargain days, so I probably could have waited and gotten it even cheaper!)

After that, I used the Da Vinci Eye app to project my image on my TV so that I could see where I was drawing / writing at… and I painted away! (The great thing about acrylic paint is it dries quick and if you hate it – you can paint right over it to fix any mistakes!)

I did end up free handing the greenery, and I watched Pamela Groppe’s YouTube video on “how to paint leaves (beginner friendly)”

Things I would have done differently:

I definitely would have used painters tape to line out straight lines with the highest and lowest points I wanted the letters to be. Whether I moved the tripod or if it was just me… some of my letters became a bit slanted or not as big as I would have liked.

While this isn’t what a professionals work would have come out to look like – I paid less than $75 and a few hours and likely saved $400-$500 (as I am sure a custom 5.5ft sign like this isn’t cheap)

Subscribe for future crafting updates! I’ve got a few more up my sleeve (and luckily some friends who love me)

David’s Bridal Wedding Expo 2014

I have been in more wedding dresses than I care to count… So I threw on one more for David’s Bridal Wedding Expo 2014!

The big #engagement

Congratulations! So he’s popped the big question. That’s so exciting. I’m sure all you could think was ‘Yes!’

Yes to the dress, Yes to the wedding, Yes to that chocolate fountain you know everyone will just absolutely love at your reception! Yes to the ring, Yes to the cake… Yes, yes, yes.

Remember, though, that you are not just saying yes to all these things. What you are really saying ‘Yes!’ to is a man. An imperfect human being with ambitions, flaws, fears, and expectations of his own. As you both are so excited about getting #engaged, do not forget about being #engaged. As much as you think you know each other now, there is still so much to learn. The number one important thing here is to verbally communicate everything. It may feel like you are talking a lot, but unspoken expectations are let downs every time. So do yourself a favor, in attempt to prevent the expensive divorce that comes along with saying yes to a dress and forgetting that you are really saying yes to one of God’s finest sons; Communicate.

You may say “oh we communicate great! That’s why we are in love. That’s why we are getting married.” Then wonderful, if you communicate great then you are prepared for this next challenge I’m giving you. No fears because Marriage is Hard.

Challenge #1
If you are still in that stage where they do absolutely nothing wrong, nothing gets on your nerves… Then wait. Hold off on that engagement, hold off on setting that wedding date. Because eventually everything they do will irritate you. Everything that you fell in love with them for will start to irk you the wrong way. Typically it’s because they’ve started doing other things that actually annoy you, that you are just certain they do on purpose because clearly common sense wouldn’t ever have them doing such things. The funny thing about common sense is that it’s not that common. So if you are still just engaged… Watch for it, it’s coming. Those little irritants. Wait to see them. Wait until everything they do is getting on your nerves. Find out if you can live with that.

Once the irritants start to come (because they almost always will) it’s time to really start communicating. Be prepared to be criticized as well because no one likes their flaws pointed out, and yours will start to be thrown in the midst eventually as well.

It is better to let a relationship go before marriage than marry when things are shaky and end up in divorce. Dr Kim

Challenge #2
If you are under 30 ask yourself, and be honest, if you are just getting engaged to be married. If you are over 30 ask yourself, and be honest, if you are just getting engaged to be married. Marriage is hard. Divorce is harder. The engagement is fun. Dating is fun. Marriage can be fun to, if it’s to the right person and you both are equally committed to making it work.

I know what you are thinking. “Gosh, negative Nancy over here.” Well, first off my name is Ashlee and no, I’m not being negative. I’m being a realist, and after paying for an entire divorce you start to look at the reality of marriage. After everything Disney promised you doesn’t come true, after preparing yourself to face all the let downs in your marriage that your parents faced and finding that these letdowns are different ones you weren’t prepared for… You start to question where you went wrong. It’s almost undoubtedly in unclear communication and lack of healthy boundaries (yeah! you should have boundaries with your friends! children! family! and definitely your spouse!).