When I got married I never even entertained the idea of making my own wedding cake—namely because I thought it would be impossible. But there’s a craft tool for everything these days, including one that makes professional-looking cake decorations a snap for even the most novice of bakers. The Cricut Cake is a machine specifically designed for decorating cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and more. It cuts perfect, and at times intricate, shapes out of sheets of frosting you run through the machine. Choose a shape, a size, and press “cut.” Then top your basic, plain cake with it for instant color and style. You can make stylish swirls, colorful monograms with your initials as a couple—the possibilities are pretty much endless. Use it for your wedding cake, then to bake birthday cakes and cupcakes in the years to come.

Have any brides had experience with the Cricut Cake? We’d love to hear if it worked for you, so please leave a comment!

Paper lanterns are an inexpensive way to add ambiance and create a soft glow at any evening wedding.

Apertura Photo

Anna Kuperberg

The DIY movement for weddings is in full effect and as a planner, I want to make sure that when my bride and groom spend countless hours crafting fun details that our team allots enough time to set everything up and have it just perfect. I have been seeing a lot of these dainty fabric flag banners. These are very easy to make (the fabulous Once Wed has a great tutorial here) and can dress up any ceremony or reception.

Ken Kienow Photography

One Love Photography

Wedding signs, which can be directional for guests, leading them from one area to another, or simply for decor, are a great detail that can turn into a special keepsake. Etsy is a great place to search for a sign for your wedding with a home made look or you can whip out the tools and build your own! Another great tutorial here from Hitched Weddings + Events.

Meg Perotti Photography

Combining your monograms with floral decor make for a pretty detail on entrance doors or gates. Talk with your florist about how they can best make one of these for you or DIY with this nifty tutorial on Design Sponge.

Liz Banfield Photography

Robert Evans Studio

What ways will you dress up your wedding venue? Any special hanging details that you want to share?

Supplies needed

My first idea was to take ordinary small brown paper bags and transform them into cute little bags to use for the candy favor table. Where guests will be able to pick and choose from some of our favorite candies to eat through out the night or to take home. I tested a few ideas using scissors, a stamp, and pen then resorted to a Martha Stewart paper punch and Thank You stickers. I think the end result goes well with décor.

A few different trials

The one I liked

Second, I felt like I needed to test out the boutonnieres for the guys. I had so many ideas swarming around in my head. I know that flowers are something I am capable of doing since I worked in a floral shop years ago. However it has been awhile since I have made boutonnieres. I decided I wanted to do something a bit unusual in style as well as something that goes with our wedding colors. So I tested green orchids, with brown felt leafs. After cutting the leafs out of a felt sheet I hand wrapped the felt, orchid and a curling branch with floral tape and then wrapped that with a dark brown silk ribbon.

Floral supplies

Finished product. It looks very big in this picture but it's actually much smaller.

It actually looks jaw dropping in person. I could not capture the color or correct size of it with my camera. I am now thinking these same orchids will look great strung onto manzanita branches for possible table centerpieces?

I was thinking about what to get my friend for her bridal shower gift and thought to myself “what is something a bride will need, but may not think of for herself?”  Then it hit me: Thank You cards!  My sister and I decided that to make it even more special we would make them ourselves.  It was a little time consuming, but definitely worth it.  Here are a few instructions to help you get started making your own cards too!

One of my favorite techniques is dry embossing.  It is very simple, but always looks great.  Here is what you need to get started:

Items you need:

• Blank cards and envelopes
• Colored paper that matches the wedding colors
• Stencil
• Embossing tool (round tool that fits within the stencil lines)
• Ribbon
• Stamp pad (any color)
• Thank You stamp

Instructions:

Step 1:  I recommend cutting your colored paper to the appropriate sizes.  Measure one color to match the size of your stencil, with another piece slightly larger.  Then, cut your third color to be slightly wider (approximately 1”) than your stencil and a few inches longer so there is room to tie the ribbon.

Step 2: Place your stencil on a clear surface that is lit from the bottom.  (I used my glass coffee table with a flashlight underneath.)  Place your smallest piece of paper over the stencil. Wiith the light shining through, you should be able to see the design.  Trace the design using the round tool from the list above.  If you do not own an embossing tool and do not want to buy one you can try using a small nail head, ballpoint pen, or anything you can think of that will not go through the paper.  When you are finished and you flip over the paper, you should see a copy of the stencil imprinted in it.  That was the hardest part, you are almost done!

Step 3:  Glue your embossed paper to the other two pieces you cut in step 1 (as shown on my card). Tie a piece of ribbon around the bottom and affix the entire thing to the card.

Step 4:  use the stamp to put “thank you” on the card.  I chose the bottom, but you could also put it on the top or running down the side.

Everyone will be super impressed when they find out you made these cards yourself!

By Erin Frank

DIY Desserts made by family members

My Do-It-Yourself wedding advice continues!  If you read my DIY Flowers post, you’ll know my husband and I were on a small budget for our wedding and took the Do-It-Yourself option to the max. We did the flowers, the decorations, the music (courtesy of my iPod nano), brought in the alcohol, and even the handled the food for a 75-person reception ourselves—DIY food being the topic of today’s post.

For the bride on a budget, providing the food for your wedding reception may be the answer. You can save literally thousands of dollars and still end up with satisfied, well-fed guests. But before you decide, take a close look at your resources. Do you have a talented network of friends and family who like creating meals? Do you have bulk food stores like Costco and restaurant supply stores nearby? Do you have transportation large enough to accommodate heavy loads? While saving money on food sounds like a dream, you can’t do it alone—without the right help and gear this endeavor will become a nightmare that threatens to spoil your big day.  And let me say this up front—if you can afford to have the meal you want catered and still stay within your budget, then absolutely have it done professionally. Caterers “get married” dozens of times each year—this is your first.  If you do decide to forge ahead with DIY food, here are a few tips to help you get started:

Boudin Bakery makes animal-shaped sourdough creations that taste even better than they look. They're a big hit with out-of-town guests.

1) Get to know your wedding site inside and out — Ask all of the important questions well in advance: Do they allow food from outside sources? Do they require certification for servers and/or bartenders? What are their policies on Sterno cans and other open flames? How many electrical outlets are there and where are they located? Is there running water and/or a kitchen area available for use? Does my liability insurance cover anything that might go wrong? Knowing the answers to these will help you pick food for your wedding that is easy to prepare in your environment.

2) Plan, plan, then plan some more — There are a number of great resources out there to be found. Cooking for Crowds for Dummies keeps it simple, and there are tons of websites. Just search for “Make your own wedding reception food” or “Cooking for a crowd.” What you cannot do without are estimates on how much food each person needs, so here’s a basic “Rule of Thumb” guide for quantities:

Hors D’oeuvres

• 6 individual pieces or bites if preceding a meal
• 4 – 6 bites per hour if hors d’oeuvres are the only meal

Main Course

• Meat, Fish or Poultry – 6 ounces when you have one main dish, 8 ounces of combined meats if you are offering two or more types
• Rice, grains – 1.5 ounces
• Potatoes – 5 ounces
• Vegetables – 4 ounces
• Beans – 2 ounces
• Pasta – 2 ounces for a side dish, 4 ounces for a main dish
• Green Salad – 1 ounce undressed

3) Keep it simple and don’t be afraid to “cheap it up” — Choose hors d’oeuvres that can be eaten with fingers and a napkin to avoid needing silverware for cocktail hours. Select pre-cooked meats, pre-sliced when possible, to avoid long cook times before the wedding. Ideally you can buy nice cuts of pre-cooked and seasoned meats, store them in their serving dish, then simply heat them to a safe temperature above sterno cans in time for the reception. This keeps things clean, and easy to transport and heat, but be sure to do a trial run in your home a month or two before your wedding to ensure success. Think about what your audience likes to eat, and don’t fancy it up too much.  My guilty little secret? The most popular dish at my wedding was the mashed potatoes. They were awesomely buttery and delicious. And folks, they came from the Safeway deli department. Was it a gourmet recipe? No. Did my wedding guests rave? They sure did, and it was insanely affordable. Remember, at the end of the day only you and the groom will know what the label on the package said.

4)  DIY means Delegate It Yourself — Now listen closely here: on your wedding day you are not to touch the food until it hits your plate. No bride should be slaving over a hot stove before she says I do. Remember that list of resources you made at the start? Assign tasks well in advance to your friends and loved ones. You can provide the recipes, money, and even serving bowls but let them make the food. All you need is a core group to make one dish each in the quantities you need and bring it on site the day of.  Provide them a place to set it up and heat or chill it if needed and you’re off and running down the aisle!

There’s a lot more to catering your own wedding than one blog post can capture. Leave a comment below if you want advice on a particular problem and I’d be happy to help!

Call it “Recession Chic” or “Decor on a Dime.”  A lot of brides are looking for ways to save money on their weddings. This could mean DIY (I was on overly ambitious bride—we did everything from the decor to the food ourselves) or simply some savvy shopping to stay within a budget. When I went looking for inspiration on where to buy unique wedding decor most bridal blogs repeated the same stores:  Ikea, Michaels, Save-On Crafts, Anthropologie (Anthropologie can be very pricey—check the sale section). I love all of these places, and bought from most for my wedding, but here are a few Bay Area locales you might not have spotted that are prime for saving you cash.  Warning: none of these are glamorous places to shop. You have to have a keen eye and creative mind, but when inspiration strikes you can see past the junk and find something terrific.

1) Kamei Restaurant Supply:  Kamei is a restaurant supply store with depth.  Whether you need to outfit your bar, buy water pitchers, tongs, white dishes or serveware, their prices can’t be beat. With a creative eye you can find inexpensive ways to turn restaurant supply staples, like teapots or sake bottles, into beautiful vases and centerpieces. And you can get great prices on white takeout boxes to package homemade favors in. (Kamei: 525-547 Clement Street, San Francisco, (415) 666-3699)

2) Chinatown: Chinatown is terrific for finding favors and decor, if you know what you are looking for.  Best bets are bamboo, vases, lanterns, and favor boxes. I recommend the Far East Flea Market Liquidation Center (729 Grant Avenue, San Francisco), but you have to have a discerning eye to find the right items. The rest of the cheap imports leave much to be desired.

3) San Pablo Flea Market: One woman’s trash is, well, mostly trash but a few real gems. I won’t lead you astray on this one—it’s a junkyard. But if you’re willing to take your time, and deal with the dirt and grime, you can find some great items. With absolutely no digging I found dozens of glass milk bottles, vintage postcards, fun beaker sets for you science buffs, and lovely silver trays that just needed a good polishing. (San Pablo Flea Market: 6100 San Pablo Ave, Emeryville)

4) San Francisco Flower Mart: Many of you must know about the San Francisco Flower Mart, but if you don’t, allow me to blow your mind. The San Francisco Flower Mart is where many of the city’s florists get their blossoms, and after 10am it opens to the public. It has every conceivable type of flower and floral arranging product you need in a warehouse of pop-up shops and permanent storefronts. Some stalls only cater to the wholesale crowd, but catch the retail stalls after 10am (don’t dawdle, many close just an hour or two later) and you’ll be sure to find spectacular blooms. Cultivate a relationship with a seller. Not only will that warm up their sometimes frosty salesmanship, but the seller can tell you when prices will drop, what flowers are in season around your wedding date, and suggest affordable alternatives to create the look you want. Hiring a florist? Make a sample bouquet with flowers from the Mart so you don’t have any surprises on your wedding day. (San Francisco Flower Mart: 640 Brannan Street, San Francisco)

** Everything you see on the table at the top was purchased at one of the above shops. The milk bottles were $1 each at San Pablo Flea, the tall vase is a placemat I got for $1 at Far East Flea Market then wrapped around a vase and filled with 99-cent bamboo from there as well.  The white vases on the right are sake bottles from Kamei, as is the silver votive, all for about $6-$7 total.  The flowers were around $12 at the Flower Mart, but the amount shown is only 1/6th or less of the quantity that bought me.  The rest of the flowers I gave to a neighbor.