skip to main |
skip to sidebar
So, I'm not sure if putting disposable cameras on the reception tables is a dated trend or not. I never hear about anyone doing them on blogs anymore, but I still see the cheesy wedding decorated ones for sale online everywhere. Well, either way, I decided I wanted to do them! I'm also planning to ask everyone to upload their digital pictures for us, but I think enough of my family members still don't have digital cameras to warrant the disposable ones on the table. Plus, I've had some fun with them myself at weddings, and I'm hoping to get some interesting candids that we wouldn't get otherwise.
After making this decision though, I simply couldn't find a disposable wedding camera that I liked, and I didn't want to put ugly undecorated ones on my tables. So it was time for another DIY template!
I started by buying a 10 pack from Amazon of Fuji 400 speed cameras with the built in flash, for $34.75 before shipping, plus 1 extra camera from the drug store. We're hoping to have a total of 12 tables, and the head table doesn't need one, so 11 cameras should be just fine. Worst case we'll have 13 tables, and then the parent's table can sacrifice their camera!
After receiving my cameras, I carefully took the green cardboard sleeve off the camera, and taped it to my cutting mat, so I could photograph it with a reference to its dimensions.
Next, I opened the photo with Illustrator and resized it until it was to scale, with the inches on my cutting mat lined up with the ruler bar in the program, as shown in the purple circle below. You should be able to do this in Word, or any program that has a ruler bar.
I then traced the outline of the camera sleeve on top of the picture in Illustrator (see red lines below).
Next, I deleted the picture from Illustrator, leaving only the red outline of the sleeve, inserted my graphics, and printed the graphics on the front and the outline on the back (and be sure to make sure the printer doesn't scale it when you print, so the sleeve is the exact size you traced it).
I then just cut out the outline of the sleeve with scissors and used my x-acto knife to cut out the shapes in the middle.
Yup, I used the sexy wood grain paper for these too! I wanted to add another element in wood to the tables, and these cameras were the perfect opportunity. Then all that was left to do was glue them to the naked cameras. I used hair bands to hold them while they dried, which seemed to work well.
So there you have it, an easy way to make a template for custom camera sleeves, that will work with any type of disposable camera!
Will you be putting disposable cameras on your reception tables?
The second x-acto knife intensive project I recently completed was a sign that will go on the escort card table, showing guests where to find their table on the deck.
If you remember from my crazy PhotoShop post, the layout of our reception will look very much like this, with the escort card table on the grass next to the two level deck:
At the suggestion of our DOC, I not only will number our tables in order of table placement (not in order of who's more important and sitting at that table), but I also made a diagram to put on the table, so people can look at their table assignment, then look at the diagram to see where to find their table.
Similar to my Bride and Groom chair signs, I started by printing the inverse of all my shapes out on the back of the paper (all pics were taken by me):
Then I spent an entire afternoon using my x-acto knife to cut everything out:
I then glued the table numbers together, using a layer of green paper and an offset second layer of brown (printed on the green paper). These numbers match my table numbers that I finally decided on, and will share soon:
Next, the wood grain paper strips got glued together in layers, to create "steps" on the deck, and the numbers got glued to purple punched flowers, which got glued to the round tables:
Then everything except the tables were glued to the wood "decks" on a 10" x 8" sheet of purple, to show how the tables will be arranged. (And yes, that is the gorgeous paper that Miss Apple Cider used! I spent months looking for the right color of wood grain paper to incorporate into our plans, even toying with the idea of using thin veneer, until I found the answer, on Weddingbee, of course!). For the tables I used double sided tape to attach them to the deck, just in case we need to later add or delete a table for some reason.
You can see the layers and texture a little better from the side:
I then put it in a frame that matches the framed sign with our favor table, and it's done!
Do you plan to make a sign showing how the tables are laid out at your reception, to help guests locate their assigned table?
I posted a couple weeks ago on how we'll decorate our rehearsal dinner location, the San Mateo Garden Center. Here's a reminder of how it will look, with furniture and decor PhotoShopped in:
One of the big lighting aspects we'll have are paper bag luminaries. They've been featured all over the web as a great way to incorporate romantic, soft lighting for cheap. I was lazy and decided to just buy a kit, instead of finding bags, plastic cups, candles and sand from different sources. We got a kit of 72 for $29.99 from Quick Candles, which has everything we needed except the sand.
But once we got them, I decided the bags needed a little something extra to spice them up. I considered stamping them, so everything but the stamped image would glow, but I wasn't able to find a stamp that I really liked of gardenia flowers (the same flowers I have in the centerpieces, and to tie in with the gardenia scented candles on the tables, we will be in a garden center after all). I also thought about doing something like this that I saw on Martha Stewart weddings, gluing doilies inside the paper bags, like this:
{Source}
But those in the picture don't really go with our theme, and I couldn't find anything close-ish to our vine and stylized flower motif (and wasn't going to spend time cutting them out on paper and gluing them inside all the bags). So my next option was to just find a cute boarder punch and decorate the tops.
For $15.95 from Michael's I got this Fiskars Boarder Punch:
{Source}
Mr. Cola was kind enough to help out with this project, because he's the "Punch Master," especially after all the flower punches he did for our STDs.
(I was told to label this photo "Jammy McGruff". Half way through the 40 bags that we needed punched, the metal on the underside of the punch broke, but Mr. Cola didn't realize it for a while, and it kept jamming on him. He even threw it across the room several times in frustration until he realized that it was actually broken. I told him that I'd go get him another punch the next day, and so he gladly took a break and watched football for the rest of the afternoon....not that he wasn't already watching it while punching, LOL!)
(Tip: most lunch bags have a half circle cut out of the top of the bag on the back, to make it easier to open. However, this will interfere with the punch design, so cut off the top inch of the bag, making a clean top to punch)
So now we will have cute paper bag luminaries to decorate our rehearsal dinner location with. All that's left now for the rehearsal dinner is to make the gardenia and LED lantern centerpieces, make signs for the buffet, order food and drinks, and show up and decorate it the day of! I'm so glad these things are getting checked off the list well in advance, because when we start getting closer to crunch time, I'm sure the rehearsal dinner decor would have been the first to drop off the to do list.
Will you be using paper bag luminaries for any of your wedding events? And do you plan to spice them up, or leave them as is?
Posts
