How To: Cheap Shabby Chic Table Numbers

One project I am super excited about is my table number project. They will be beautiful, shabby chic, and best of all - CHEAP!

I was about to check out of Michael's and of course walked past the "impulse buy" section in front of the registers. Thrown into a bin was a red acrylic/resin baroque style frame - I had just been researching where I could buy similar ones in bulk on the cheap. I found them for about $2/piece online, but the shipping costs were nuts!

Anyway, the frame did not actually belong there. I tore through every single one of the many bins and had no luck - there was only that one lonely red frame. But I refused to accept that! So I tore through the rest of the store and finally found the lot! And - they were only $2! So I got to skip the shipping costs. Plus I had a coupon for 25% my entire purchase - including sale items! - making them only $1.50 each.

The only issue was they were colors that did not match my wedding of blush, gray. black, and gold. There were white ones, but only 3 of them - I decided to pick up 12 (I am pretty sure that will be enough).

So to fix the color situation, I headed to the paint aisle and found this lovely gem - I thought to myself how beautiful would these frames look in gold?!

Now this is a larger bottle of paint, so it was kind of expensive at $7. However! I had a 40% off coupon (yes, at Michael's, in case you do not already know, you can use two coupons at once as long as they are two different coupons!). With the 40% of of my one regular priced item (my paint) plus the 25% off my entire purchase, this paint turned out to be pretty cheap at only $3 and change.

While there I also decided to get some cute scrapbook paper to place inside of the frames and to make numbers out of. I got a cute gray paper with small white polka dots, cream paper with larger black polka dots, and a blush pink damask paper. For the numbers I got blush pink and gold glittered paper. The paper was on sale for 4/$1 plus again, I had my 25% off coupon for my whole purchase.

Next I brought my stuff home and got to work!

Because the frames are smooth, I knew if I just brushed the paint on that it would not stick and would just streak. I was correct. So I tried sanding the frames to roughen the surface so the paint had something to hold on to. That did not work. Then, I just decided to kind of dab the paint on. Voila! Success! Although, this dabbing technique requires a lot of patience! I dabbed on my first coat and there were missing spots all over the place. But once that coat dried I did it again and the frame started to look better. After two coats, the new paint had something to stick to, so the third coat was much easier. It sounds like it takes a lot of paint, but a little dab really did go a long way. For the finishing touches, I just used a smaller regular paintbrush and used the same dabbing technique.

And here is what my frames looked like after they were painted and I put the scrapbook paper in two of the frames:

I have not yet cut out my numbers, but when I do, I will update :)

There you have it - very inexpensive, but expensive-looking DIY shabby chic vintage-inspired table numbers. For all 12 frames plus the paint and paper was only about $22+ tax! With my decor budget of only $250, this budget-friendly DIY project will help me stay on track.

How Much for a Bouquet?!

As I mentioned in my first post, in order to save some money on our tight budget of $15,000, I have decided that I am going to do all of the flowers at our wedding, including the bouquets. Now I know to many out there, $15,000 is not exactly a "tight budget". However, here in Palm Beach where the wedding industry is an ever-expanding monster, you would be surprised at how little $15,000 gets!

Anyway, I will admit, despite my love for crafting and being creative, I was very intimidated at the idea of making my own bouquet. I thought it would look too homemade and not have the type of bridal quality I was looking for. I have no problem with something looking homemade, as long as it does not look sloppy and cheap. This was my biggest concern.

But despite all of my concerns, I ultimately thought, "Just how hard can it really be?" I then went on YouTube to look for some DIY videos to help me and I found a pretty good one that proved to be very helpful with my creative endeavor. The video I used is above.

After I watched this video that made bouquet-making appear exceedingly simple, I decided to go to my grocery store to buy some stems as I am not aware of any floral shops close by - I also figured the grocery store would be cheaper. And I was right! Publix offers certain varieties of flowers for only 3/$12 - that is only $4 a bunch! I grabbed one hydrangea bunch, one baby's breath bunch (this will be the most used flower at the wedding - I just love those big bunches of it!), and one bunch of blush pink/peach spray roses. The three bunches together gave me a large volume of flowers and again, for only $12!

Considering bridal bouquets can be $100 or more, I was more than happy to spend the $12, even if it was just for practice.

When I got home with my flowers, I pulled up the video again as she does show a bit about how to clean the flowers and trim them before assembling the bouquet. I trimmed my flowers and went for it. I will admit, my first try was not so beautiful. My baby's breath was sticking out in some places and the bouquet looked lopsided. Studying my bouquet, I saw how I needed to place my flowers differently and tried again. And guess what - it came out great! I was totally impressed with myself!

The end result was beautiful with the flowers more evenly dispersed throughout the bouquet and some taming of wild and unruly baby's breath. The bouquet was exactly what I wanted. Hydrangeas are my favorite, I love how casually chic baby's breath is, and the roses were the perfect shade of blush. which is our accent color. I am so happy with my bouquet -- not only was it incredibly cost-effective, but it was also personal, easy to make, and very pretty. If anyone is looking to cut costs somewhere in their wedding, I highly recommend making your own bouquets! Buy some cheap flowers at the market, take them home, and practice. Eventually, you will be sure to create something beautiful and personal to your own taste.

(My kitty, Jane Eyre, wanted to get in on the bouquet-making fun, too!)

Also, with some of the extra roses and baby's breath I had to trim in order to "tame" my bouquet, I made a practice boutonniere for just pennies! I was pricing boutonnieres in the Palm Beach area for $15/piece! $15 x 5 = $75 saved for something else! While the boutonnieres weren't exactly free, they also did not cost me anything extra than the cost of the flowers for the bouquet. So essentially, they will end up being kind of free!

The only thing I was not able to do was make it a little prettier with ribbon -- I only had tape on hand. For the real thing, I will definitely add the finishing touches.

Our Wedding In a Nutshell

So we are getting married in about 10 1/2 months from now on February 1, 2014 -- I cannot believe how quickly the time is already passing by! I wish it would slow down - I am really enjoying wedding planning and am going to be disappointed when it is all over.

We have now been engaged for almost three months (I just had an a-ha moment - it feels like it has only been a few weeks!) and we have gotten a lot accomplished in terms of planning.

We have chosen our ceremony site, reception site (both will be at the Palm Beach Zoo), menu, and photographer. I already have in my closet all of the ordered and paid for Bridesmaid's dresses, and I have ordered my dress. We also had our engagement photos taken last weekend at Dreher Park in West Palm Beach, FL and downtown Lake Worth, FL with our amazing photographer, Monica McGivern (my profile picture is courtesy of her and from that photo shoot). I have also picked up some of our decorations and have begun my crafting! (I will do a separate post for these things).

I am planning on doing my own flowers and have made a practice bouquet (also will be in a separate post) for only $12! I was researching wedding bouquets and found a bridal bouquet can be $100 or more! On our budget of $15,000 in Palm Beach, there was no room to spend that kind of money. I have to say, I am very impressed with my bouquet-making skills! I also made boutonnieres for mere pennies! .

I am also doing all of the centerpieces as I want something very simple - nothing that requires much skill.

The only things left to book are really just the DJ and the cake!

As soon as we get the engagement photos back, we then will order our Save the Dates. I got a Groupon for MyPublisher.com, so they are only going to be $49! That is $1 under budget - woohoo! I will also post some of our favorite photos once we get them back hopefully this week.

Also, I saw on Pinterest how to do "fake" calligraphy, which I have been practicing. That is going to be one heck of a DIY project - one I will be sure to post.

So that is it for now. I will be sure to post my DIYs and any progress we make. Hopefully if there are any other Palm Beach brides our there on limited budgets, I can be of some help and inspiration!