We incorporated a lot of DIY (do-it-yourself) into the big day. I LOVE to make and create "things". I love art, design, and owning these projects. These were a nice distraction from work where I can’t create "pretty" things. I did 95% of it myself and sometimes enlisted the bridesmaids in sweatshop-like conditions (don’t worry, they were fed snacks and wine). (Some templates are also available for download. Look around.)

If you think I slaved day and night over the projects, then you’ll stand corrected. DIY shouldn’t be so difficult that you’ll give up. I just worked on everything for a couple of hours every couple of nights. It ramped up as the wedding got closer, but it was nice that we had such a long engagement. This website is also a DIY – I used to design websites way back before college and picked it back up to help our guests get more information. Then it just kinda grew after I received emails from other brides asking for help!

Paper Stuff

	Vector Graphics All paper stuff included a logo that I designed, representing the dragon and phoenix tails.
	Bridal Party Newsletters We sent out newletters to the Bridal Party throughout the planning process.
	Save-the-dates To match the VIP party theme, I made VIP magnetic lanyards that came in a card as save-the-dates for our guests.
	Invitations I ordered the custom scroll with the DIY logo and put everything else we made together.
	Pocketfolds It was much more cost effective to make chocolate pocketfolds instead of buying them. I designed a template and started cutting, folding, and gluing away!
	Enclosures I used the logo design I DIYed above to flourish the left side of the enclosure cards which were all printed, cut, and punched at home.
	Wrap-around Address Labels Since the invitations had to be sent in boxes, it was ideal to make address labels with the DIY logo and have them wrap around the front of the box.
	Assembly of DIY Invitations Now that everything has been DIYed, the invitations were assembled with tissue, ribbon, and the steps are here.
	Rehearsal Invitations Invitations for the rehearsal party were designed to match all other stationary with the DIY logo.
	Timeline The super-popular timeline that I made to help the guys and girls plan out their day. Since posting this timeline, it has been featured on theknot.com!
	Scrapbook Guestbook I turned a plain-jane scrapbook into our wedding guestbook with some simple fabric and brooch additions.
	Pages and Pockets Inside the DIY wedding guestbook, some pages were transformed to include pockets and pictures. These pockets allowed the guests to submit a private message to the bride and groom.
	Guestbook Insert Cards Guests have to leave their messages somewhere. I DIYed little cards for the guestbook.
	Boxes to hold insert cards The guestbook cards had to go somewhere…
	Escort card envelopes and cards Instead of making plain escort cards, I designed a little envelope that allowed table numbers to be inserted inside. This made it easy to later re-arrange the seating AND it allowed me to start working on these WELL before the RSVP list was complete.
	Menu cards DIY menu cards that were slipped into a custom-folded napkin. Each guest got details to the six courses that they were about to eat.
	Thank You program The thank you message was designed on the back of the menu card above.
	Table Map Poster Sometimes, simplicity wins. This was not an element that I wanted people to pay attention to, so it was made to be very simple.
	Table Numbers Give the guests something to talk about. I made each table a different picture of an adventure we had together: snorkeling, snowboarding, camping, etc.
	Thank You Sign Since the bridal party is wearing all different colors, I made the thank you sign simple out of foam posterboard and paint.
	Thank You Card Make your own thank you cards via vistaprint. It’s fast and easy.
	Thank You Wrap Around Labels Easy-to-use Word templates for wrap-around thank you labels.
	Photoshare Cards I’m inserting one of these into each of our thank yous so that guests can check out our professional pictures, download from other guests, and share theirs!

Fabric DIY Stuff

	Traditional Vietnamese Dresses I didn’t physically make these. Rather, I redesigned the traditional dress to be more modern and updated and had a tailor make the dresses for me.
	Dance floor panels This is a really easy way to dress up a bare dance floor. I made chiffon panels to hang amongst lanterns.
	Lounge room orchid panels Our venue isn’t the most modern, but the design for the wedding is, so I made fabric panels that I painted with vector orchids to bring the room to life.
	Crinoline I dyed my crinoline/petticoat purple.
	Napkin Fold He got involved and created our custom napkin fold with the napkins we had made in Vietnam!
	Birdcage Veil Most of the birdcage veils I found were over a hundred dollars and that just wasn’t in the budget… so I made one with my mom.
	Pillows How do you dress up a less-than-gorgeous space? Make some pillows in your theme/design.

Other DIY stuff

	Hair comb fascinator My sister and I got together to work on this hair comb to wear with my reception dress.
	Boutonnieres Instead of paying $15 for family bouttonieres, I made them with wire, fake flowers, tape and feathers.
	Flower girl baskets I bought baskets on sale post-Easter and wrapped them to dress them up as flower girl baskets.
	Place setting flowers I incorporated the tradition of folding 1,000 cranes into hundreds on origami lilies to adorn each guest’s place setting.
	Tile Chargers Instead of renting silver chargers, we bought ceramic tiles from Home Depot to create an organic/zen look.
	Jewelry I made earrings to match each bridesmaid’s different dress color out of swarovski crystals and sterling silver findings.
	Shoe brooches My shoes were dyed lavender, but they needed a little something extra, so I made a brooch with earrings and beads.
	Card box He worked with me to make this great picture card box for card gifts.
	Signature Drink Sign and Recipe …how the DonThao came to life.
	Out of Town bags Guests staying in the hotel received goodie bags.
	Hair & Makeup At 4am, it was difficult to find a salon or stylist that was available to do my hair and makeup. Why bother looking elsewhere anyway if you have a talented sister who’s great at all of that!

Not really DIY

Favors So this was not really DIY, but we put them together.

Post Wedding

	Bouquet Preservation Professional bouquet preservations can cost a lot of money and after the wedding was over, that was the last thing I wanted to do. So I grabbed some hairspray and preserved my bouquet aka my new coffee table centerpiece.
	Wedding Coffee Table Albums Photographers charge a ton of money for high quality coffee table books… why not include images your guests took and make your own coffee table albums with the images that YOU like?

Share: