Im having a nerdy book shower.

So instead of having a normal shower.. We decided something a bit alternate and have a book shower. I didn't know about this until the 5th hour when Mum said that I had to do the invite design. I found out I had to do this last Sunday and my mum wanted these by the Tuesday. I found the design as a template on a blog somewhere. Just literally typed "Library themed wedding" in google and it lead me straight to a template.

I used photoshop and put the typewriter font in with details. Not bad?

I don't know if I could have done a book theme for a wedding but I'm glad it was just for invites for the shower!

Anyway, mum wouldn't let me put names on them, but I think she was going to write on the back of them the persons name in a calligraphy font. My mum has mad skills in this area but she wouldn't calligraphy my wedding invitations, wish she did! but I understand.

Are you doing something alternate for your shower?

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Its the freebie template post!

Sorry ladies... Kinda been MIA recently with my blogging. But that's just been pure laziness!.

So its been awhile since I posted a freebie, but I stumbled upon free invitations and talk about SCORE!!!

So these are some of the invitations you can download at. http://www.loveandlavender.com/

How cute! I think also if you already have your invitation design how bout you use them for bridal shower invites? hens night?

Awww anyway if you want the downloads.. head to there website cause there's more and its free!! (how am i doing on the sales pitch here?) in all seriousness its just worth your while just dropping by!

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Save the Date & Favor template from Burrs & Berries

I found some Printable “cootie catcher” save the dates and favor labels in yellow, navy, and white by Samia Kallidis of Burrs & Berries.

If you like these you can find the template here.

http://www.nonpareilmag.com/downloads/issue-02-printable-diy-cootie-catcher-save-the-dates-favor-labels/

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Vintage Paper Templates- freebie!

E.M Papers have provided this black and white printable Wedding Invitation Kit and it contains an editable PDF template for every piece of stationery you will need for your wedding. This free, downloadable wedding kit includes a templates for: a wedding invitation, a save the date card, a response card, a wedding program, a menu, place cards/escort cards, table numbers, a seating list and a thank you card.

Here's the link:
http://www.empapers.com/wedding/free-black-white-printable-wedding-invitation-kit-bike

Pretty cute :) I really like the whole set, makes me want a vintage wedding just to use these!
Enjoy!

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Favors, home stretch!

So I finished wrapping our favors! yay!!

and the last section of this job was to create our favor tags today. Using a free template from http://www.prettychicky.com/ I adjusted the design to suit us and changed the font and things to tie it all in and pictured is the end result. Here is a pic of what the original template looked like.

And here is what ours look like:

Anyone DIYed there favors tags? did you use a template or create your own?

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

not my weekend. Invitation epic failure..

The word of the moment:

Failure: The condition or fact of not achieving the desired end or ends;

So usually I post about what DIY projects Ive done and mainly just the successes and never the failure, because.. well who likes to fail??

Well today, I failed, I failed epic.

I thought I would handle the never wanting to do stuff. i.e. ribbon pomanders and the maps and accommodation cards for my invitations.

So I had finished my invitations awhile ago, well RSVP cards and background pretty much completed as below.

looking pretty suave right? for my first DIY attempt on things wedding, I was really stoked with my effort.

I opened up the invitations today to work out the maps sizing and stuff and to my dismay, when I opened it, some of the double sided tape had started to peel causing the wraps to FALL OFF! I opened the next one, the ribbon was starting to come off on that one. I opened all 150 base invitations and 55 of them were useless.. I nearly fainted actually (you know how you get that head spin sometimes when things aren't just going right?).

According to FH my face went white as a sheet.. and took about 5 minutes for it to get color again.

WHAT THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO!! is my immediate reaction, I could re glue them? but then I figured by the time I re glue them, I will have to fix the others, as some when the ribbon was falling off, well.. it didn't exactly look fab.

So after a 30 min discussion and series of trials and errors with trying to fix it we decided it would be best if we made new invitations. With 6 months to go, I can do it. We also decided.. NO gluing.. I'm not gluing a thing on my new invitations or try to avoid it!

Well after a further half hour of discussion all 150 invites, went in the bin and 55 smaller invitations. I cried, in fact I wont lie... I BAWLED my eyes out. I hate failing, (prob just like everyone else) absolutely hate it with a passion. Seeing something you work really hard at fall to pieces. Mind you not the end of the world its only invitations FH keeps reminding me and hes right, its just paper.. He was just as disappointed as me and been in a glum mood as he helped create them.

So the hunt has begin for new ones and FH has joined in on this and boy are there some beauties!

So seeing paper creations for the last 4hrs on the internet has kinda perked my mood up, so all is not lost and I am brimming with ideas.

If anyone actually has a template or post were they got there invitations from I really would appreciate it, would love to see what others are doing!

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Wedding Programs - oh so cute and trendy!

So my goal.. is to have these programs like the one pictured, I found off the DIY section of Weddingbee.com and I was lucky that when I fell in love with them that the poster had a template for them! I really love it when people include the template in the post. Here is the original link;

http://diy.weddingbee.com/topic/diy-program-that-hung-on-each-chair

Ive started off today by creating the card stock which we have on the back our thank you (this wasn't in the original design but I thought why not!)

Today we begin the rest of our life
Together forever as husband and wife.
Our dreams came true, with love and more—
Adventures to have and the world to explore.

Thank you for celebrating our wedding day.
As we share our vows, we just want to say:
These wedding memories will become a treasure,
And seeing you here is part of the pleasure.

Charis & Sheridan
August 14th 2010

I had other stuff that said thank you in a little less corny fashion but this the one FH liked best. So I designed and printed those today

My next step is to create the program itself, but I wont do that for the next few weeks as FH is unsure of one member of the bridal party. He has had a few issues so until that's sorted I wont print it out. Just thought I would get ahead and create as much as I could. And I will do the belly band I think next week.

But its good to have at least the template! and know what direction we are heading.

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

I am constantly on the hunt for cool freebies, I think like most DIY Brides.

One of the Blogs I check is Color Me Inspired. They have a range of cute templates/fans/ color trends and a great port of call for inspiration.

So if you like these thank you cards you can find the link here :

http://www.colormeinspired.com/2009/09/04/153/

If you want me to find you a particular freebie, list your category or what you need and Ill go on the hunt and then post! I love posting freebie templates!

Thanks Color me inspired!!

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Seed Packets from Blue Tricycle

Even tho I'm not having seed packet favors, it cant hurt to blog and offer a freebie right?

I was cruising the net and found modishblog.com -this girl has style! and a friend of hers Heather has posted some freebies for seed packets from her etsy shop Blue Tricycle. Which seriously well worth the visit.

So I'm sharing the love!

To download the Purple and Green packets click here:

www.modishblog.com/files/gardenseedpackets_purple_green.pdf

To download the Yellow and Grey packets click here:

www.modishblog.com/files/gardenseedpackets_yellow_gray.pdf

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Crepe Paper Flowers - Part 2 - How 2!

So I had an inquisitive poster on Weddingbee.com asked if I could post instructions on how I did my crepe paper flowers.

I think alot of it once you have the basic concept, the possibilities are endless. Also I would like to say that I will be the first to admit I'm not the most fantastic at explaining how I do my DIY projects but I give them a shot. With this I tried to include a lot of visual. So excuse the picture heavy post!

(Tools needed; Scissors, wire cutter/pliers/, 28 gauge wire, PVA glue, Skewers, Floral Tape, Buttons and crepe paper)

My Crepe paper that I'm using is GALA brand which is 240cm long x 50cm wide. I find I can either make four big ones out of these or 17 small ones.

(slide your crepe paper out of the packet sleeve)

Place your template over the top. This can either be a circle, a heart shape, or leaf shape. Those are the three main ones that will get you variations.You can combine them all in one, or just use a particular shape for each flower.

Also, use a template in regards to how big you want your flowers. So i.e the bigger the flower, the bigger template you use when cutting your crepe paper, and in reverse. The smaller template the smaller the flower. Logic right?

Cut around your template.

Also some people at this step here "prepare the petals" Prepare means by either stretching them a little, cupping them or rolling the edges in with a pencil, so they take more of a curve. It's up to you tho what you would like to do. I don't usually do anything on my small flowers but on my big flowers cup them a little so they don't just lay flat.

Now would be the time to cut your flower tape into three 10cm pieces for later use, as your hands will probably be covered in glue.

I'm adding a button for the bud. (You can also use a different coloured crepe paper and cut a small section and glue it to the skewer then wrap it around so the top 2cm of the skewer is covered.)

To add the button I take about 15 cm of wire and thread the wire through like you were sowing on a button on a shirt. (you will need the pair of pliers as this can be a little fiddly).

Wrap the wire around the skewer so the button is attached.

Place your skewer like the picture below and add a small bit of glue.

Cinch it around the skewer

So it looks like this or something similar. :)

My original instructions that I gathered when I was doing the research for this was to glue all the petals to the skewer. Well this just ended up in a sticky and soggy situation and my flower looked a little sad! So this is the only part that you will use glue to secure the first petal. From now on in I reccommend using floral tape.

Start adding your petals around your bud.

Then secure it with your floral tape by wrapping it around the base. (Now you wont need glue with the floral tape, as floral tape stretches and secures it itself. I admit I sat there for about 30 seconds when I first started going.. Whattttt.... as I had never used floral tape before. I may be the only person ever in history to do this tho.)

Add more petals if you want to make it bigger, using the same process with the floral tape. I usually use three pieces of floral tape in my creations.

End Product :)

If you have any queries on the above, just leave me a comment and I will clarify or alter my instructions.

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Save The Dates - Template Included!

Most of you probably have visited the weddingchicks.com website and seen that they have some pretty awesome stuff and freebies! I downloaded this freebie below...(in case you like the design, you can go get it yourself i have included the link)

http://www.weddingchicks.com/sweet-deals/5241/free-dahalia-wedding-invitation/

I decided to use the dahlia response card as my template, using photo shop I changed the color to red instead of yellow and also erased the wording they had so it was blank template :) Because weddingchicks.com own the template I am not able to provide you with the red template because I created it for my own personal use and it would be an infringement on copyright if I gave it out. Pity I know!

1. Printed the design on some white gold paper I found in K-mart (like the local walmart)for 4 AUD dollars for 25 sheets and printed the design out on the home printer.
2. I had some packets of blank cards that I had saved for cardmaking. I decided to cut these cards in half and use them as my backing card for the wording to be glued on to add a bit of contrast. These cards a plain beige.
3. Using my hole punch I punched holes in the corners and threaded red ribbon through and secured with a knot at the back so the ribbon wouldn't fall through
   

The ribbon is purposefully done loose so it can be hung from anyone's fridge or memo board... FH idea!

It is really easy, it took me 3 days after work to complete these with help from FH. I have done 95 in total.

All they need to do is just the envelope to be addressed.. I am feeding them through the printer and using fonts from www.dafont.com (because my handwriting is shocking!) They are due for posting mid january.

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx