Having read a million blogs where brides advise that you start on DIY projects as far in advance as possible (ideally 6 years, right?), we're trying to make decisions NOW about some of the more labor intensive DIY projects we have planned. I (likely mistakenly) hope to not find myself up late the night before my wedding gluing, stamping, and cutting things. But knowing me, I'll have finished every DIY project I want, then last minute decide to make up one more random thing that just MUST all-of-a-sudden be included or I'll die. One project we're trying to make a decision on at the moment is the altar. For many months I had it in my head that we'd be creating something like this:
But then I revisited my venue and realized I can't actually hang anything, unless I build some sort of structure to hang things from. I'd rather not do that. SO! What to do next? I have a couple of ideas.
The first idea is to create a giant Alice In Wonderland-esque paper flower garden. It's like a dreamland! And it could double as a fantastic photo booth backdrop after the ceremony.
Or put giant paper flowers in vases to frame the bride and groom.
Another thought I had, to tie in our literary theme, was to build an altar out of vintage hardcover books about love and marriage (and maybe even throw in a romance novel or 10). Since I can't find anyone who has done this, here's a little inspiration to give you an idea of what I would design it after. Except imagine hardcover book spines instead of wood :)
By the way, did you know you can find all sorts of books on Goodwill Books for crazy cheap?!
I also love the hanging flowers, but that requires someone to make the altar the morning of the wedding, which just isn't going to happen for me. Or you could pay BHLDN $1,800 to make a paper version for you (are you kidding me, $1,800?!).
easter lilies and BHLDN
And I also love the look of ribbons coming out from underneath a vintage side table or fireplace mantel.
This bride did something similar that turned out really lovely in our venue!
Okay, enough ideas. What do you think? I'm leaning towards the Alice In Wonderland giant flower field, in which case I should definitely start now. But I'd really love to hear what you think! I'm counting on you to tell me if I'm crazy for attempting to DIY something like this.
