Handmade Wedding Invitations

We wanted to make every aspect of our little green wedding as meaningful as possible, so we decided to handmake our own wedding invitations.

I turned our used paper into a slurry, which I proceeded to turn into handmade sheets (for instructions on how to make handmade paper, the best resource is the Arnold Grummer website). The leaves and flowers are from bouquets we've given each other over the years, or picked at various places we've been to.

I did the calligraphy myself. (At the Catholic school that I attended from kindergarten through high school, I didn't see why they were such sticklers about having perfect penmanship. I remember spending hours in grade school doing page after page of loops and swirls. Looking back, I'm thankful for the experience, because being able to do the calligraphy myself has not only saved me tons of money, I've been able to do the calligraphy for my friends' weddings as a unique gift.)

With no two invitations being similar due to the variations in the paper, as well as the florals and leaves that we used on each invitation, we came up with beautiful pieces of artwork that truly represented who we were as a couple. Best of all, something that would have cost us hundreds of dollars only cost us several hours of hobby time.

www.thecheapchiccouple.com

I Handmake My Own Paper- Martha Stewart, Eat Your Heart Out!

In our household, green is really good, and we reduce, reuse, recycle and refuse as much as we can.

That's how I got into papermaking as a hobby. It's one of the ways I reuse and recycle. I save practically every scrap of paper I get my hands on - the unprinted borders on white paper, glossy magazines, direct mail pieces- and I turn them into handmade paper craft.

These are just a few of the things I've come up with over the past several months:

PRESSED FLOWER PANEL - I took some of the petals from the bouquet Corey gave me for our 1st anniversary, embedded them into the paper when I was making it and weighed the sheet down with a heavy book. A new twist on pressed flowers for the incurable romantic!

RUSTIC JOURNAL - Corey loves journals, so I made him one using recycled paper. I used a twig and a leather string for the binding, pressed some leaves I found just outside into the "cover", and used a coconut shell button that fell off one of my handbags and string as a "lock".

POSTCARDS- I always have ziplocs of "found" items that I initially never know what to do with, and the ladybug just happened to find the perfect spot to land eventually. I drew the coffee mug with that puffy stuff that goes on t-shirt designs to give it an interesting texture. The martini glass, I drew with a regular felt-tipped pen. For texture, I mixed olive green paint into good ol' Elmer's glue and dabbed it onto the handmade paper to give the olives a 3-dimensional look.

-Dezzi Rae

The $5,000 Cheap Chic Wedding Challenge

They say the average wedding in Southern California costs $33,000.

We are 10 months away from our October 2008 wedding, and the quotes are coming in for wedding cakes, venues, flowers, gowns, what-have-you, and while it’s nowhere near that $33,000 magic number, the one line that goes through my head after a visit with one of these wedding vendors is, “ARE YOU FRIGGING KIDDING ME?!!!”

The mortgage consultant in me - the one who gives clients a stern lecture about taking the cashout from their refinance and putting it towards their daughter’s college fund or putting it back into their homes (great for value appreciation) instead of blowing it on a spiffy sportscar that strokes their egos and nothing more- can’t even comprehend how a couple-unless one of them had a last name like Trump or Hilton- could spend that kind of money on the Big Day. I know it’s the most important day in every couple’s life but $33,000 ? Come on! You can pay the closing costs and the down payment on a starter home. A starter home which would give you major tax deductions, and grow in equity over the years.

Having worked as an ad agency account exec prior to becoming a mortgage consultant, I also had to handle some event planning for my clients. We would do a decent markup on the vendor items, but it’s interesting how the mere mention of the word ‘wedding’ is reason enough for the markups to go through the roof.

So, we decided to take on the $5,000 Cheap Chic Wedding Challenge, of course. But how does one go about having a simple, elegant wedding for $5,000 in Los Angeles ?

I have planned enough successful events in the past to where we can do without a wedding planner. I make handmade paper as a hobby so we will be making our own custom wedding invitations. We just walked through the L.A. Fashion District over the weekend and found a store that would sell us two 50 yard-rolls of tulle for only $60, and 20 yards of gabardine for $1/yard (the vendor was going to charge us the same amount to rent it, but I intend to do something arts-and-craftsy with the runner after the wedding). I found these elegant burgundy floor-length gowns with intricate beadwork for my bridesmaids at $76. Corey found beautifully made black paisley vests ($29) and ivory shirts ($15) that his groomsmen could wear over and over at special occasions, and that was just the start. We didn’t make it down to the Wholesale Flower Mart before they closed but we know we’ll find some really sweet deals there as well.

Will we meet the $5,000 Cheap Chic Wedding Challenge? Who knows, but it’s a lot of fun to try. Plus, it’s one way to ensure that we won’t be up to our eyebrows in wedding debt when we're pronounced husband and wife!