Si­mone Sant-Ghu­ran

We've come a long way from ten to 15 years ago when, by and large, peo­ple frowned up­on the idea of a bride who want­ed to make and de­sign items for her wed­ding.Back then, many guests would have ques­tioned why one should both­er to go through the trou­ble of mak­ing things, es­pe­cial­ly when wed­ding ac­ces­sories are so eas­i­ly ac­ces­si­ble on the mar­ket.Luck­i­ly, many brides nowa­days are em­brac­ing the "do-it-your­self" (DIY) method and some are re­ject­ing "mass-pro­duced" items, opt­ing to make their own re­cep­tion and cer­e­mo­ny ac­ces­sories, fash­ion items and favours.

To­day it is ac­cept­ed that brides not on­ly go the DIY route be­cause of fi­nan­cial con­straints but, be­cause they want to share their cre­ativ­i­ty with their guests and be orig­i­nal.Nat­u­ral­ly, these projects take time and pa­tience but they can bring you im­mense per­son­al sat­is­fac­tion. DIY wed­ding projects al­so pro­vide ex­quis­ite and un­ex­pect­ed de­tails, and they're won­der­ful ways to spend some time re­lax­ing be­fore your big day.Per­haps if you'd like, you can in­cor­po­rate a project in­to your bridal show­er by hav­ing your girl­friends and cousins help you pack­age, cut, cook, glue, sew, stick, or trace. It will make the tasks eas­i­er and add more fun and laugh­ter...guar­an­teed!The best thing about DIY projects is that you can tai­lor them to suit your colour scheme, theme, bud­get and style.

Here are some tips to get you start­ed:

�2 Start an in­spi­ra­tion fold­er or bul­letin board with clip­pings of ideas and pho­tos of what you would like to have at your wed­ding. For ex­am­ple, if you are try­ing to make the cen­tre­pieces for your re­cep­tion, keep a pho­to or mag­a­zine pic­ture of your favourite one and see if you can think of ways to make the idea your own. Oh...and don't for­get to set a bud­get for each ta­ble cen­tre­piece

�2 Vis­it a copy shop and have poster-size prints made of pho­tos which can then be framed, used in your d�cor and then re-used in your new home. Some print­ers can even do cus­tom wall pa­per for you–ide­al if you're plan­ning a "pho­to wall" area for your guests.

�2 Think of every­day items in an un­usu­al way. Here are some house­hold items that can be re-used:

�2 Pa­per cof­fee fil­ters may make a handy favour hold­er for gourmet cof­fee. Just fill, twist and add rib­bon and a per­son­alised tag. Cof­fee fil­ters can al­so be tea-stained or dyed and made in­to flower gar­lands. If you don't like cof­fee fil­ters, you can use crepe pa­per, light fab­ric or pages from old books and mag­a­zines

�2 Pret­ty tea tow­els can be trans­formed with sim­ple stitch­ing, in­to ring pil­lows or in­to draw­string lin­gerie bags for brides­maid gifts.

�2 Re­move the glass from pho­to frames and mount them on the wall for in­stant d�cor at your re­cep­tion en­trance. You can even place your stick or hang your es­cort cards in­side of them. You can even keep the glass on and turn them in­to serv­ing trays for your hors d'oeu­vres.

�2 Em­bell­ish–A lit­tle glitz can go a long a way! Think about dip­ping your glass vo­tives, twigs or can­dles par­tial­ly in­to pale gold glit­ter or in beach sand. Or how about glu­ing moth­er-of-pearl but­tons on­to vas­es, ta­ble num­bers or pho­to frames?

�2 Use tem­plates–there are many Web sites where you can down­load free in­vi­ta­tion, pro­gramme, save-the-date, favour box, cup cake top­per, and la­bel tem­plates.

�2 Mix com­mer­cial with hand­made–You can start with ba­sic items (eg in­vi­ta­tions bought at re­tail or through a cat­a­logue) and cus­tomise them with rib­bon wraps, stamps, seals, crys­tals or feath­ers. If you bought blank card stock, you can utilise your print­er and an em­boss­ing stamp to jazz them up.

�2 Feel you don't have an artis­tic bone in your body? Think about home­made ori­ent­ed items such as giv­ing gift bas­kets, get­ting fab­ric items mono­grammed or silk-screened, or even mak­ing a pho­to scrap­book or mi­ni-recipe book, for mem­bers of your bridal par­ty.

If you'd like to see more DIY in­spi­ra­tion and im­ages, be sure to vis­it and fol­low the Trinidad Wed­dings.com's Pin­ter­est Board here: http://pin­ter­est.com/trinidad­wed­ding/diy-wed­ding-ideas/ or join us on Face­book for ideas: www.face­book.com/trinidad­wed­dings

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