Tuesday 24 May 2011

DIY Wedding Monogram

For the inserts in our invitations and also on our wedding menus I loved the idea of having a monogram. As I was printing them all myself I needed to figure out how to go about making one. After a few hours playing around I finally figured it out.

I thought I would share with you all how easy it is to make your own monogram.
(I am using Office for mac, but it should be similar on windows)

This is our finished monogram.
Start by opening a blank document in Microsoft word, you then need to insert text box. Choose the font that you want to use. For the 'C' in ours I have used Edwardian Script (size 200) Once you have chosen your font (This site is great for free font downloads. you need to make sure that you have set up your text box with no lines or fillers.
To do so you double click on the box outline and a 'format text box' will appear. Click on colour - No fill and Line - No line.
This will ensure that you will be able to overlap your monogram.


Complete the above instructions again to make your second letter and also your names and date of the wedding. For the 'M' I used Times New Roman (size 250) I also used a darker purple here to ensure that it stood out.

Once you have all your letters chosen and placed onto your word document you can then line them up over the top of each other and change sizes if necessary.


And again our finished monogram, which I then moved onto to our inserts by copying and pasting, I am sure there may be an easier way to move it over but I wasn't able to figure that bit out. Look here for our finished inserts: Invites>

Hope this helps if you are planning on making your own monogram.

C xx

Monday 23 May 2011

DIY Projects

Well as my title says, I am planning my wedding with lots of DIY touches:

So far I have:

  • Made all the invitations, RSVPS and gift list inserts
  • Painted all the table sign holders
  • Made all the table signs
  • Painted 'Mr & Mrs' sign for top table in our theme colour
  • Painted 'I do' letters for the cake table
  • Designed an 'Out of town' leaflet
  • Photographed and printed a map for instructions to get to the church
  • Kids activity bags
  • DIY photo guest book
  • Personalised unity candle
  • Guest book table sign
  • Bar sign to show all complimentary drinks
Still to do:

  • Kids activity books
  • Kids scavenger hunt sheets
  • Order of services
  • Menus
  • Table Plan
  • Gift for my mum which requires some hand made work
  • T shirts for the morning of the wedding
  • 'Mrs' tote bag to hold all my bits and my flats!
  • Wedding dress hanger
  • I spy cards
I am always on the look out for other things I can be doing to personalise the wedding in the run up to the big day, I am really enjoying being able to do a lot of it myself, although getting it to Spain will be another issue! lol

Some of the sites I have been using for inspiration are:



Are any of you doing a lot of DIY?

C xx

Saturday 21 May 2011

Major Milestone Reached!

The wedding invites went out today!

I know that it is still 5 months to the wedding and people may think that it is a little too early to send them but I suppose this is another side to planning a wedding abroad - plenty of notice.

Save the dates did go out in January but I wanted to give people a gentle reminder so that they can get their flights and accommodation booked before the prices increase too much. We have also designed a website, which has all the details of the wedding weekend including airlines, accommodation and things to do whilst guests are there. My plan is a few weeks before the wedding I will also send out an 'out of town' leaflet that will give everyone further details of what to expect.

Really excited to hear what people think of my first DIY project.

C xx

5 Months Today!



All images courtesy of Goggle Images


5 months today until I marry the love of me life, counting down the days!

Wednesday 18 May 2011

Wedding Planning update

Well after a few frantic months of sorting out everything for the wedding and working on the deadlines of trying to do everything on our two visits over to Spain. All the major decisions have been made and we have hit a bit of lull. I suppose all wedding planning goes through the same, I have been hitting the weekends thinking, what will I do today?, then wondering why I am not doing anything for the wedding. I did stress a little the first few times with thoughts flying through my head that surely I must have forgotten something really important as I shouldn't be this relaxed but after checking my trusty (3 page!!) checklist I am confident that I haven't.

So the last few weeks I have really relaxed into the planning and must admit that I am really enjoying it. The last few weekends have been spent, finishing off the invitations (totally underestimated the work involved in this) which are going out this week, whoohoo! and looking at other DIY things that I might turn my hand too over the next few months.

I have been looking at all the nice bits and have ordered presents in personalised gift boxes for the flower girls and pageboy which I am looking forward to seeing and I have also got something special for my Mum that I fear may make her cry, but hopefully good tears. I have also got my Bridesmaid an amazing handmade bracelet that hopefully will match her dress.

I have also had a good chat with my dad and we have decided that we are going to do a Dad/Daughter dance. It will be just after our first dance and once we are finished that the DJ will ask my Dad to come up and take my hand, the song we have chosen has already had me in tears so I better start listening to it a bit more to get used to it.

156 days to go!!



Thursday 5 May 2011

DIY Photo Guestbook

I decided that I really wanted to have a guestbook for the wedding day, I know that they are not everyone's cup of tea but I wanted something that I could look back on and read peoples thoughts on the day.

I didn't want a bog standard guest book though as I personally always struggle with what to write and end up just writing something very simple and to the point. Whilst researching guest books I found suggestions to do things slightly differently and to have a topic on each page to give the guest something to write about and I loved this idea! I always really wanted to make it like a photobook/coffee table book that we would look back on with great memories. This brought me to look at Blurb Books www.blurb.com Where you could customise your pages and allows for blank pages as well which is what I needed to allow space for the guests to write.

I went for a hard back book with cover which has 20 pages including two pages for guests to write their names at the front. I have put pictures of some of the pages on for you to see what they have turned out like. I am really impressed and can't wait to see what the guests write!



Left Image - Front of book




The pages include the following:

  • How do you know Claire & Maurice
  • Advice on being the perfect wife
  • Advice on being the perfect husband
  • The Best thing about marriage
  • Your favourite memory from today
  • Love is?
  • Where do you think Claire and Maurice will be in 10 years?
  • Your predictions!
On the back page I have the quote that is also being used on the unity candle and Order of services, which I feel helps make it all tie in well.
It took quite a while to sort out the pictures and the format that I wanted to print them in throughout the book but I feel it was very worthwhile and love the finished product. What do you think?