Here are some of the signs I made for the wedding. I love signs. They are such a fun way to add a little personal touch. I cut the above "Here Comes Your Bride" sign out of 1/4" mdf. Mdf plywood is a great wood choice for a light, sliver free sign. It is fabulous for when small hands will be carrying it.
After the ceremony was over we had Mr. Ring Bearer {Johnathon} flip the sign over to show the "Just Married" sign on the backside. The total size of the sign was about 10x15". I actually just used wood I already had to make this sign, so it didn't cost me much of anything to make it, but I would guess a $5 bill would cover your costs.
I have included prices for all the other projects below. I figure if you are looking at making any of these things rather than buying them, you must be at least a little cost conscious.
Next are the wedding favors I made for the reception. Remember these? I have to tell you, typing up and printing the name cards that go inside took WAY more time than I thought. I guessed I could get them all ready in about an hour. Nope. It took more like 6 hours to copy and paste all 240 guest names onto the cards. It was only that fast because Shelby had sent me a file that had the names and table numbers already typed and assigned. I can't even imagine how long it would take to type them in from scratch too!
The favors were so cute sitting there on the barrels. They were rustic, but so elegant. Great choice Shelby and Chris!
As far as cost on this project, the tree branches were free, but I burned up a whole tank of gas driving around and collecting them after the ice storm. So, $70 tank of gas, $25 for clippers and a hand saw to cut those branches so they would fit in the car, then 3 saw blades to get them cut down to size, $75. I spent about $40 on Dremel blades to make 300+ of these, and about $50 on the wire for the love and the picture holder.
Total, $260 for 300, about $0.87 each {the printed cards were a separate charge-not included in this price breakdown}. Buying them would have cost closer to $6 each with the wire. Don't you wish you had a crafter in your pocket to make some for you ;0}
We had a photo booth set up in one corner. My brother Chris found instructions for building your own HERE from Instructables. He did a fabulous job. We had to grab a couple of extra lights for inside, but other than that the instructions were spot on. I take no credit for the making. He said the cost to make the photo booth from that link was about $50 for all the pipe and the fabric. The extra lamps were about $20. Chris did buy the program mentioned in the link and I want to say it cost him about $60. He had a laptop, monitor, and a dslr camera, so all he had left to purchase was the printer and a button, running about $100 for both. Oh, and he purchased the ink and paper cartridges. I believe THIS is the printer he used. The ink and paper ran about $30 for 108 photos. We used two of those packs.
I did find some fun wedding themed props for only $3 at Walmart, some goofy glasses at the dollar store, another $3, and made this little sign to go on the table, $3 for frame from Walmart and $.25 for the print.
Total for my portion of the photo booth, $9.25.
Photo booth all together, $300
To rent a photo booth runs $1,000 or more.
How is all that for a tidbit of information :0}
These are my darling cousins modeling the sign. I have to say I was pretty proud of myself in making this sign. I was so excited to get some of the clips to come together to look like the wedding favor.
And here was an authentic photo booth print in the fiber. SO FUN! Yes Kallie, It's you!
This bad boy sign gave me a little bit of angst when I was trying to guess how big to make it. We wanted it to be seen from anywhere in the reception hall, but not too big. Finally, I broke it down into how big it could be to get either 2 or 4 out of one handy panel of plywood. I used 1/8" hardboard {smooth on one side, bumpy on the back} because it is lighter and totally the cheapest plywood you can find. Knowing how big the sign would end up, I didn't want to have it weigh too much or be too expensive to make. Long story short, the pieces ended up being 16" wide and about 21" tall. I bought 4 pieces of the wood, got three signs from each 2 ft x 4 ft segment, coming to about $22 total for wood cost.
Here is my darling brother David, sitting next to Shelby's brother Spencer. Ahhhhh. Family at last :0}
This is what the menu finally ended up looking like. I cut out a sculpted top and bottom, then just stuck a board on the back as a support. I had the menu printed out. If you look close enough you can see it ended up just short {tee-hee}. This is why my services are free LOL. The poor guy at Office Max will live a long and happy life as long as he never has to look into my bloodshot eyes ever again.
Cost: I used four 1x4's, one 1x8 and one handy panel of the hardboard for the back. That makes the wood total about $25 plus some pocket screws. The print was $6 at Office Max. $32 for the menu. Not bad. We looked at buying one half the size from Hobby Lobby on clearance for $36. I consider our outcome a success.
These signs were some of my favorites. Shelby had asked if there was some way to mark what the foods were. I cut these black signs out of 1/8" mdf plywood, painted them black, cut some of the extra logs with a "V" shaped notch in the top, then cut the names of the foods out of silver vinyl.
I am not sure what anyone else thought of these food markers, but I thought they looked awesome. I might have to make a set for me :0} I used scraps to cut out the whole project, so the only cost was about $5 for the vinyl. Without a personal stash of wood, you could end up spending $20 or so on a set.
One last print for the bar sign. Again, $3 for the Walmart frame, $.25 for the print.
OK, Last but not least, the yard signs. I didn't get a picture of them in the daylight. I was too busy running around like a crazy lady. I did make my husband drag the driveway in the dead of night so we could see the signs before they were taken down though.
This was on the way to the reception...
And THIS was on the way home after leaving the reception...
Sorry about all the blurry pictures. Just remember, I warned you like a week ago that you were gonna see some.
And one last sign outside...
This arrow pointed up the driveway so you could see the turn from the road and not drive past the remote location of the reception. I was so grateful for my husband for mounting this sign for me while I frosted cakes. That was until I saw it. I didn't want any of the pole to show above the sign...he wanted enough board above the sign so he could hammer the stake into the ground. ALSO, he didn't want to use two poles. This sign, small as it looked from the road, was a full 4 feet long and at certain spots, 24" tall {not counting the poles}. I thought it would be too long for just one pole, but apparently pounding two poles into the ground on one sign is slightly impossible. I am sure you don't want to hear the whole drama of the story. To spare the rest of you, just email me at vanessa.cam5@gmail.com or leave me a comment down below with your questions and I will advise your further. I will say this, if I were to make these yard stakes again, I would not use 1x2 firring strips as poles. I would either use pipes as the pole, hammer rebar into the ground and slide the pipe over the top {husband's suggestion} or I would pick a hard wood to use as the pole. The 1x2 wood totally splintered at the top making them very hard to use a second time.
Cost of the yard signs I showed you here, 1 piece of hardboard {long sign} and 4 2ft x 4ft pieces of 1/4" mdf {12 small signs}, $30, and about $12 for the poles made from 1x2 firring strips {which I would not use again}. That made the wood about $42 for these signs.
OK, so let's recap the above prices:
Here comes the bride sign- $5 {free for me with scraps}
Wedding Favors- $260
Photo Booth- $300
Mr&Mrs sign- $22
Menu Board- $32
Food Markers- about $20 {but free to us with scrap wood}
Bar Sign- $3
Yard Stakes and Arrow Sign- $42
I used just less than two 20 foot rolls of black vinyl on all of the signs making the vinyl total for all of the signs $45. Spraypaint...I went through 5 cans of ivory, 2 cans of black {food signs and base coating a couple of the other signs for effect}, all about $4 a can if you average them out. That makes a total of $28 for spray paint for these projects.
So, let's say you don't have hoards of wood just sitting around begging to be sliced into pieces, the above projects would cost around $750 altogether {totally rounded off that number}. I feel silly putting the prices on here, but I sure would have loved to know what to expect before I started. $750 is a lot of money to me, and probably most of you, but the impact of each one of these projects individually made spending the money totally worth it. In the long run, weddings are very spendy. These are a couple projects you can whip up to save some bucks and still really add some dazzle to your reception. Let me know if you have any questions. I do cut custom vinyl, so if you think you want to make some signs and don't know where to get the vinyl, I can probably help you out. I can cut the signs too, but we would want to check into the shipping from Minnesota to where you are before we dive into making up an order ;0}
Have a great night everyone. Tomorrow starts a new week. I hope it is full of crafting :0}
No comments:
Post a Comment