December = DIY

December is the most expensive month throughout the year for me. #1 because my birthday is December 20th and #2 because I usually wait until the last minute to buy Christmas presents for my very large family. To help alleviate some of the holiday over-spending, I will post a few DIY projects which are cute and practical. These tips will help save money and give your event a great personal touch.

#1...DIY Thank You Cards

I am big on all DIY projects and my wedding was a great excuse to practice. I made our thank you cards using one of our favorite pictures from the wedding and a little Photoshop. Once the pictures were printed, I glued turquoise card stock to the back of the pictures and wrote our thank you's on them. Our wedding colors were turquoise and lime green so I used lime green envelopes for mailing. It was the simplest project out of all the others but it came out well. The bonus is, now everyone has a little memento of the day they made great for us and many of them still have it. That's definitely the best part!

#2...DIY Save The Date

The photo booth theme is cute and modern. Take 3 pictures with your fiance'. In the first picture, you two can do something cute or silly. The second picture, you can hold a sign with "Save The Date" on it. In the third picture, hold up a sign with the information you want to share. If you are Photoshop savvy, you can hold up blank pieces of paper and type the words on them later. I like the black and white look with colored paper for the signs. You can do that in Photoshop as well. Once you are satisfied with the photos, arrange them with one on top of the other leaving room for a small white border around each picture. Play with the layout until it looks even. After that, they should be ready for print. You can then attach some thicker card stock to the back of the pictures and mail them like a postcard or paste a magnet backing or drop them in an envelope as is.

Wedding Dress Savings

If you are not a traditionalist or don't have any hang ups on buying used, consider saving on your gown by purchasing a "new"/gently used one from preownedweddingdresses.com

They have a very good selection of designers, an array of prices for every budget and the website is user-friendly.

" Buying a preowned wedding dress is a great way to save money on your wedding. Many of our gowns have not been worn and those that have are typically professionally cleaned."