Black and White Damask and Yellow Wedding 4

Decorations

Can you believe This used to be a church gym?

We were lucky enough to have access to a cargo parachute (I'm sure everyone has one in their garage, right??) and it was big enough to cover the entire interior of our church building's gym. A tent without the rental fees!

Lighting:

There are existing lights in the gym that can dim, so we only needed to add a bit of lighting. We choose paper lanterns, as they add a nice classy touch.

I found a great idea on the internet (I know- right?) to use throwies inside to light them(ps-you don't need the magnets). My husband had a great time putting them together. But in the end, I would have to say (as did he) that we really didn't need them. I'm guessing that in other situations, they may work fine to light them, like an outside location were it really is the only light. But indoors with another light source, they were hardly noticeable. I would highly suggest if you are considering using throwies as a way of lighting the lanterns, that you use white lanterns and don't get any larger than 16". Beyond that, you won't see much light. We used some 24" lanterns, and they had hardly a glimmer.

We used battery operated tea lights for the tables. To go along with the centerpieces, we gathered up a bunch of stage 2 babyfood jars (thanks Lori, Becky, and Crystal) and tied yellow damask ribbon on them. It was VERY inexpensive. And they turned out really nice.

Tables:

I shopped around the internet for black and white damask table overlays. They are hard to come by and expensive. Even renting them is expensive. Wedding bee has a classified section- and let me just tell you how brilliant this is! I purchased all of my overlays, and table cloths from a previous bride who also did black and white damask. I was VERY happy to find them, and I'm sure she was happy to sell them. (BTW- I am now selling them. So if you have need for them, leave me a message)

Our center pieces were made from jars we found at Target. We filled them with fresh lemon slices and the flowers purchased from Joann Fabrics. The ribbon was from Michaels.
(sorry didn't get a better picture, so this one is a repeat. You can see all the details though.)

Black and White Damask and Yellow Wedding

The Cake

Instead of having a wedding cake, the bride wanted cheesecake and a small cake just large enough to cut a piece and smash it into each other's faces. We thought a cupcake stand would be the perfect solution. I bought the cardboard stand from http://www.save-on-crafts.com/cupcaketree1.html for $35. I found damask patterned
wrapping paper at Michaels, along with the black velveteen ribbon. The flowers were from Joann Fabric.

I used double-stick tape to attach the wrapping paper, then trimmed the edges. The ribbon was attached with hot glue, as were the flowers. It was time consuming, but I liked the end result.

Going this route for the "cake" also was very inexpensive. The cheesecake we purchased at Sam's club and then repackaged in white mini cupcake papers (thanks Meagan:)because the paper they come in didn't go well with the decorations. The cake was an 8" cake from Safeway decorated like one of their wedding designs, and cost a whopping $16. I think our total for 300 mini cheesecakes, the cake, stand, and decorations for it was just under $125. Not bad for the "cake", and everyone loved that it was cheesecake instead of cake.

We also served Rita's Italian ice for refreshments. The bride picked Mango, Oreo Cookie, and Alex's Lemonade to go with her colors and theme. We purchased 6oz dessert cups from Party City that were a pretty clear plastic floral design and had a few young men serve it. It was a hit!

Black and White Damask Yellow Wedding 2

Next up on the wedding DIY scene is the table numbers. In all honesty, they were a last minute addition to our plans. We had thought of doing seating assignments, then decided not to. Changing our minds again within a week of the wedding led us to this idea: Let the bride and groom tell you where your seats are.

Using publisher, we pasted a damask pattern downloaded free off the internet as the background and then placed numbers on top of them. Then cut the number out and pasted it to cardstock. The photos were taken in black and white, then printed and tapped to cookie lollipop sticks which you can buy at Michael's. They were put into our center pieces at each table.

The placecards were printed and pasted onto yellow cardstock and taped to long lollipop sticks.

We put the placecard in jars alphabetically and divided (A-H,I-R,S-W) to make it easier to fine names. The jars were filled 1/3 full of fancy lemon drops.

The bride came up with this cute saying to go along with our lemon theme "Pucker up and pick your seat".
Here is the final product.

Black and White Damask and Yellow Wedding

Coming soon!!

All the details of our DIY Black and White Damask & Yellow Wedding. We had a very limited budget and did everything on our own (with a lot of help from friends).

I'm waiting on photos- because I know you'll want to see them!

But for now, here are some things to get you started in case you are in the middle of planning your own DIY wedding.

We bought everything we could on sale, using coupons, or used. Joann Fabric and Michael's put their floral on sale for 40-50% off every few weeks (or every week for a short time). Michael's also puts their ribbon on sale 40% off. So watch for that as well.

We also used 50% coupons from the Joann circular. Ask your friends if they can hold onto theirs for you. You can use one coupon per full priced item. These came in really handy for the apothecary jars we needed for the candy buffet.

Michael's prints a coupon after your receipt for either 40 or 50% off. You can't use it until the next week, and it's one coupon per customer per day, so that makes it more difficult- but not impossible. I also bought apothecary jars using these coupons.

I bought the table coverings used from a previous bride.

The lanterns I found at http://www.justartifacts.net/index.html were the least expensive online that were in the colors and sizes we wanted. I thought the quality was great!

If you're just starting out on your DIY wedding- I have a few tips for you:

Bookmark everything you like so you can find it easily later

Get as much help as you can

Do as much in advance as possible

Shop around for the best prices and buy everything on sale

Keep your receipts in one place so you can easily return what you don't need/didn't use

Look at sites like The Knot to get ideas and find your style- then search using keywords (like lemon wedding- in our case)

Be flexible

Good luck- and check back in a few weeks for the details!!!