Seattle is home to a thriving DIY ethic and culture. As part of an occasional series of posts, we feature hand-made items created by staff at The Seattle Public Library and the library books, CDs, and DVDs that showed them how to do it themselves. We hope you’ll draw inspiration from their creations and check some of the many great how-to resources the Library has to offer!
Even before we fell into this “current economic crisis,” I was cheap. I avoid ever paying full price for anything. So when I started planning my upcoming August wedding, I never wanted to give someone else $5,000 to arrange my flowers, or shell out $10 per invitation. The answer: DIY (or, in my case, DIWYBP – do it with your bridal party). Although this does add a bit more time and stress, saving what can amount to thousands of dollars is worth it. But because I have never thrown a party at this magnitude before, I needed some help (and pretty pictures) to get the ideas flowing. Luckily, the library has a ton of books on the subject. Here were some of my favorites:
On flowers:
Simple Stunning Wedding Flowers: Practical Ideas and Inspiration for Your Bouquet, Ceremony, and Centerpieces, by Karen Bussen. Easy to understand examples of centerpieces, bouquets, and decorative flowers that you can do yourself.
Pretty Weddings for Practically Pennies, by Catherine Yarnovich Risling. Each chapter focuses on a different wedding style, with colorful full-page photographs.
On invitations and other paper crafts:
The DIY Bride Crafty Countdown: 40 Fabulous Projects to Make in the Months, Weeks & Hours Before Your Special Day, by Khris Cochran. Step-by-step instructions for creating all kinds of wedding crafts.
On decorations in general:
The Perfect Wedding Details: More than 100 Ideas for Personalizing Your Wedding, by Maria McBride-Mellinger. Because I am not hugely traditional, I enjoyed this book’s fun, colorful and original ideas for the more modern bride.
Overall:
Weddings (Best of Martha Stewart Living). Helpful sections in the back of this book include planning and seating tips, music suggestions, recipes and sources for wedding supplies – all useful for the bride who is her own wedding planner.
I can’t wait to create that fabric-covered display board for my handwritten place cards, and use sliced lemons in simple glass vases for my centerpieces. And I’m really excited that the invitations I am designing and printing myself will only cost me $2 each. I cheated a little on the “DIY” and bought some wedding favors online using tips I picked up in How to Buy Everything for Your Wedding on eBay–and Save a Fortune! by Dennis L. Prince, Sarah Manongdo, and Dan Joya.
But for the rest of it, all I need now is a trip to the craft store, and a weekend of detailed-oriented labor from my sisters and best friends. ~Samantha W., Central Library
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