The DIY Wedding Planner

Wedding Guest Book Activities

2010-04-06T15:32:00.000-07:00

Traditional brides don't have to have traditional guest books. Certainly you can purchase a standard guest book and ask your guests to sign it, but there are so many more guest book-like activities that are more unique.

Let's move from the popular to the less well known. One very popular option allows guests to sign a picture of the bride and groom. Simply take a picture of the bride and groom and have it matted in a mat several inches larger than the photo itself. Place a frame around this, but don't include the glass or Plexiglas frame. You'll add this later. Some people prefer to use "bulldog" clips to keep the mat together instead of putting the picture in the frame. The picture can be framed after the wedding.

Most couples choose a nice photo of themselves for this picture/guestbook option, although if there's a formal engagement photo, this is an excellent way to preserve that photo and show it off to friends and family. If photos are taken before the wedding with the bride and groom in their wedding attire, you can certainly use this photo. Many couples opt to either leave the mat empty or they place a temporary picture in the mat and add a wedding picture later.

Be sure to have a nice Sharpie marker handy and place the picture on either a sturdy easel or on a table where guests are sure to see it.

Another option is instead of providing a picture of the bride and groom to sign, the guests are provided with a picture of themselves! Simply provide a Polaroid camera and assign someone the job of taking pictures of the guests as they arrive at the reception. Once the picture is dry, provide a Sharpie and they can sign the picture, make a note to the bride and groom or hand draw a silly picture. It can be whatever the guest wants it to be. This is a unique, and personal, way for guests to "sign in" at the wedding.

Whoever handles the taking of the pictures should also handle putting them in an album of some sort. A scrap booker might provide a special memory book with the Polaroid pictures in it, or the pictures can simply be placed in a nice album and presented later to the bride and groom.

Many guests don't give a great deal of thought to the guest book. They whiz by the guest book table more concerned with getting their cocktail and hitting the dance floor. If this is a concern, provide a "traveling" guest book. Send each guest something either to sign or decorate before the wedding.

In this "traveling" guest book scenario, there are several options. One of the easiest is to send each guest a small piece of paper and ask them to write something meaningful or thoughtful for the bride and groom on it. The pieces of paper are returned prior to the wedding (to ensure a better response, provide a self-addressed stamped envelope with the paper) and can be compiled in some meaningful way for the bride and groom and presented to them on their wedding day.

If the guest list is a creative or particularly close group, there is one other option that is even more meaningful. Again, in a scrapbook fashion, send each guest a piece of paper to sign or decorate. The paper should be the size of a photo album, so it might be a 6 x 6 piece of paper, an 8 x 8 piece of paper, or even 12 x 12, if the guests are up to that larger size.

In a letter that arrives with the paper, the guests are instructed to create a memory page for the bride and groom. They might include photos, quotes, little anecdotal stories, or combine all of these with stickers or embellishments. It's thoughtful, meaningful and personal and it's an excellent way to include guests who might not be able to attend the wedding, but would still like to be a part of it.

Bridal Shower Games

2010-03-26T15:09:00.001-07:00

If you're hosting a bridal shower, there are literally hundreds of games to choose from. Some are silly, some are serious, but all are about having some fun with the bride before she's married. Here's a sampling.

One fun game really puts the bride on the spot with regard to her knowledge of her husband-to-be's life. Prior to the party, have someone ask the groom a series of questions, such as where he was born, what his favorite food is, things like that. Then at the bridal shower, put the bride on the spot by asking her the answers to the questions. See how many she can get right (hopefully at least half!). If she does well, give the girl a prize; she deserves one.

One all-time favorite game is toilet paper wedding dresses. This game involves separating the guests into teams consisting of at least 2 people and no more than 5. Give each team a roll or toilet paper (or 2) and have them fashion a wedding dress out of the toilet paper. One of the team members will volunteer as the model. Provide them with a "dress up trunk" filled with jewelry and shoes. They must make the dress out of the toilet paper, but they can accessorize with the provided jewelry, shoes, gloves and hats. Place a time limit on this (5 minutes is adequate) and have the bride vote on the best dress. Be sure to provide prizes for the winning team!

Another fun game that's always a hit is making the bride get dressed while blindfolded. Tell the bride she is to pretend she's on her honeymoon and the power has gone off. She must prepare for her wedding night in complete darkness. Provide her with a suitcase filled with items and then blindfold her. She must get dressed in a certain period of time (2 minutes is adequate) while completely blindfolded and with no help from the guests. Include some silly items like oversized sunglasses, garden gloves or a flannel nightgown just to make it fun. This is a photo opportunity, so be sure someone is waiting to record the end result!

Another fun game puts the shower guests more on the sport than the bride. In this game, everyone puts their purses in the center of the room. Create a list of items commonly found in a purse and assign a point value and create a list of less common items and give them a higher point value. So you might give lipstick 2 points, a tampon 3 points, and sunglasses 5 points. But a granola bar could be 10 points and a staple remover, 15 points. Then go through the purses awarding points and give the person with the highest number of points (and therefore, the most items and probably highest number of unusual items) a prize.

Before the shower, create bingo cards for this shower bingo game. In the squares, put pictures of items you think the bride will receive at the shower. So, boxes might include things like lingerie, towels and the like. As the bride opens gifts, have people mark off that item on their bingo card. If nobody gets a "bingo" give a prize to the person who marked off the most number of items.

This next game is a derivation of a popular game that's often played at bachelorette parties and involves a stripper. This is the clean version. About 30 minutes into the party, have the bride leave the room and pass out pieces of paper. Have everyone write on the paper everything they can remember about the bride's outfit, hair, etc. How many rings is she wearing? What color is her blouse? Is she wearing open or closed toed shoes? Once everyone is done recording their observations, the bride comes back into the room and a prize is awarded to the person with the best observation skills.

DIY Wedding Books about Creating Your Own Invitations

2009-09-30T13:49:00.001-07:00

It is fairly easy to make your own invitations and there are plenty of books and other ressources to help you get started. First of all you have to decide on a style for your invitations. Do you want them classic or modern? With a hand-made touch to them? Funny? Elegant? If you are just looking for inspiration, you might start by heading over to etsy.com - do a search for wedding-invitations and look what comes up.

If there is nothing that inspires you, you might think about getting a book to get you started. This is my favorite one: The Artful Bride: Wedding Invitations: A Stylish Bride's Guide to Simple, Handmade Wedding Correspondence

This book is perfect for computer-savy brides and grooms - do it yourself doesn´t always hase to be hand made!

For more books on diy-wedding-invitations click here!

Wedding Favors that Make a Difference

2009-09-30T13:47:00.000-07:00

If you feel like sharing the joy of your wedding day, giving to those less affortunate might be a great option. While you could just make a donation to any charity close to your heart, you might also give in the name of your guests.

There are organisations like Practical Presents that let you chose the good cause you would like to contribute to. The choices range from financing a flock of goats or chicken to buying a well for a village comunity or planting trees.

How do you present these unique wedding favors to your guests? There are various possibilities. The easiest one: just prepare a little card for each guest (they might even double as place cards) explaining the good cause you contributed to in their name. Or you might prepare something a little more elaborate: if you bought some chicken, get a little flower pot and sow some catgrass. Once it has grown (make sure you get the timing right!), place a little plastic hen (from dollar- or toy stores) on the grass. Prepare a little card wich says „there is a chicken with your name“ - on the backside explain i one short sencence where your money went. Sounds too complicated? Just substitute the flowerpot and the catgrass with a little square of articial lawn. Instead of a plastic hen you could also use a quial egg – make little holes at either end and blow out what is inside and just use the shell.

This is just one idea – depending on what good cause you contributed to, you will have to get creative!

Don´t get me wrong – this is by no means a cheap wedding favor. But a very original one, and a favor your guests will remember for years to come. And on top of it you might even change the lifes of people for the better – they will be remembering your wedding day, even if they won´t know whom gave this gift to them – and why...

Four weeks to go - need to lose weight fast!

2009-09-18T02:11:00.001-07:00

I have been writing about weddings for quite some years - now I´m getting married myself! I´ve got pretty much all covered - with one exception. Some of the friends who are coming to the wedding haven´t seen me for almost fifteen years, and while I can´t (and don´t want to) do much about the wrinkles, I do would like to shed some weight. I put on a whopping 33 pounds (some 15 kilos) after the birth of our twins - I am a stress eater. Well, the last three years haven´t been exactly easy - job, three kids (two of them extremely active toddlers) and a big house - so I have never been able to get them off again - an believe me, I have tried!

So yesterday I bought one of these weight loss books that promise to show you how to lose weight fast - I usually don´t believe in this kind of crash diets, but I´m really desperate! I didn´t really found the time to read the book, i´ll have to do that today. I guess I might have to head over to the health food store as well - we´ll see.

This is the program I am talking about: The Wedding Day Diet

I´ll keep you updated if it works - it´d better!