Aylee Shares

If you're a DIY bride, then you may be interested in the resources provide by a very talented lady named Aylee. Her Aylee Designs website provides ideas for DIY projects and very detailed instructions, templates, and supply lists to create them. These projects include wedding invitations, program fans, save-the-dates, and more.

She freely offers the information to everyone, and if for some reason, you just don't have the time or desire to DIY, you can engage Aylee to create the project for you. She also does custom monograms. FI and I are using her fan program template as a guideline to create our own.

I recently made a prototype, and it looks great so far. As for the wedding monograms, I love them, but I just wasn't interested in having someone else decorate my name and charge me for it. I started thinking about how I can create my own wedding monograms. First, I tried using PowerPoint, but it wasn't quite right. Then, I used Microsoft Publisher, which worked out perfectly. FI and I are really pleased with our new monogrammed labels. You can truly customize your print project, with the graphics, fonts, and designs you like. You can even save them as commercial print quality JPEG files. These are just of few of the monograms we've made, slightly modified of course.

Don't have the software or don't want to spend alot on it? You can download a free 60-day trial of Microsoft Publisher 2007 from office.microsoft.com!

DIY Programs

I went to Paper Source one afternoon to browse and get a feel for the products available for do-it-yourself projects. I was really into scrap-booking in high school and have always loved putting together invitations and such. There was no Paper Source were I grew up, so we had to go (walking up hill both ways in the snow) to Michaels in my youth. :) Needless to say my jaw hit the floor when I walked in the door and stayed there. Paper Source just has so many cool toys and paper and STUFF! I was a kid in a candy store...or maybe just a bride in a stationary shop.

I'm not 100% sure I'll DIY our invitations, but I will DEFINITELY be DIY-ing the programs and I collected quite few ideas on my visit to Paper Source.

I loved the over size hang tags.

They would make a great backing for a4x6 size program using contrasting text paper and a ribbon or metal brad to fasten the pages to the hang tag.

Program information could be printed on the paper and then cut with an exacto knife or paper trimmer to fit the hang tag.

www.michaels.com

I also liked the book mark card for a similar style program, but in a larger size.

The folded backing is also a cool option. The backing is a little bit heavier (think card stock versus regular paper), so this would be a good way to create a slightly more formal DIY program.

Here are a few examples of the program ideas I had that I found on the knot and knottie bios!

from The Knot and Knottie Bio Mrs.Arego

These two styles can be accomplished with the hang tag or book mark. The brad is attached at the bottom, but I think I'd prefer to to the brad at the top.

from The Knot

I luuuv the super preppy plaid ribbon on this folded backing style program

All images from Paper Source unless otherwise noted