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09.13.11

Psychedelic Biker Wedding Shoot DIY…

We are back today with some of the DIY projects from our Psychedelic Biker Wedding Shoot that was shared yesterday here, and on Green Wedding Shoes!

Looking back, I wish I would have taken step-by-step photos for each of these, but in the rush of getting everything finished, I totally failed on doing that. Next time, I promise! But, I still want to give a few instructions on how to recreate some of the decor you saw in our shoot, starting with the chalkboard menu…

This one is truly simple! Head to your local hardware store and either pick out a pre-cut piece of wood, or get one cut to size. Prime it with a good primer, I use , and wait for it to dry. Coat with a few layers of , I did 4 layers to make sure the white primer I used was totally covered. Wait 3 days, maybe a bit more if you are painting in damp conditions, then cover the board completely with chalk to get a good dust coating, and erase. Now you are ready to go!

Use it for a menu like we did, for your seating chart, welcome sign, or anything else! I used some mounted deer legs my husband had to prop it up, but can simply lean it against a wall, rail, tree, etc. or come up with your own stand.

We wanted to create a unique table top, and were super inspired by the album cover above.

We pulled elements from this album cover to inspire a lot of our design from the shoot, including the table top. We wanted to emulate the look of the folding screen on the album, so I found an awesome fabric with bright, bold colors and a psychedelic pattern, and Melissa of Pow Wow Vintage Rentals created the super rad custom cut-out panel.

She took a sheet of plastic garden trellis, and used a dremel tool to make the notches that created the pattern we wanted. This would obviously take some skill and time, but I loved that she made something so special out of relatively cheap materials. Afterwards, she spray painted the whole thing a burnished gold.

When putting the table together, we laid down the fabric and attached it under the table edge. The edge of the table was adorned with two layers of white fringe trim, the panel was laid on top, and voila! You could also attach the fabric to the panel if you’re unable to attach to the table directly. Even before the flowers, or plates, or candle sticks were put down, we had a table top overflowing with visual interest.

Next is the dreamy cake set-up (on a transformed gallows of all places)!

The flowing fabric tied around the side beams was simply ripped into strips, and tied on. You could use any kind of fabric you want, it’s incredibly easy! Just cut a little starting point with your scissors to make the fabric rip more easily.

The platform was layered with loose pieces of fabric and white fur rugs. I love the texture it gives, and is a great way to temporarily cover up an area that may be less than pretty looking. Fabric remnants are probably the cheapest way to go about it, and they can be re-used for something else later since they don’t need to be cut. An assortment of rugs would also look awesome!

For the lanterns, I bought a few cheap lampshades in differing shapes/sizes, and found a fabric I wanted to cover them with. I simply cut out the fabric and laid it over the lanterns. I made sure there was enough fabric to tuck under the openings on the top and bottom of the shade. I started by hot gluing the fabric ends in the top opening of the lamp. Once they were secured, I started gluing the bottom ends up, making sure to go slowly and keep the fabric ends pulled taut to avoid creases in the fabric. Once it was all glued, I cut out the trim, and hot glued it around the bottom. Since the fabric I used was sheer, I had to cover the shades in two layers so it would be opaque enough. If you are using an opaque fabric, one layer should be perfect!

Lastly, the giant fringed fabric LOVE letters. These are pretty simple to make, but take a looooong time! I think the result is worth it though:)

I chose to use a gradient of colors that matched the custom fonts on our paper goods. This made it more complicated than making them all one color, but I love how they turned out. First, choose a font you like, type out the letters you want to use in the largest size you can, then print out(I had one large letter printed per page of paper). Take measurements of each part of the letter, than calculate those dimensions to the size you want your letters to end up. The ones I made were about 4 feet tall. Once you have the dimensions, draw the outline of your letters in pencil on large sheets of cardboard. I used a yard stick to make sure my lines were straight, then cut them out with an x-acto knife.

From there you need to figure out your fabric placement on the letters. Depending on how many different fabrics you are using, use a ruler to make marks of where you want each fabric to start and stop on the letters. I cut my fabric out one strip at a time, so I could measure it and be less wasteful since the letters will require different size strips in different parts. Once I had the strip cut out, I used fringe scissors to cut a fringed end. Start from the bottom of each letter going up, and glue the strips down with hot glue. I cut the strips a bit longer so I could glue them down and fold them over the sides. Make sure to overlap each strip a bit so that the cardboard doesn’t show through.Keep gluing until you are done!

I hope these instructions helped for those of you wanting to try some of these DIY projects! Next time, I will have step-by-step photos as a visual aid:)

{All photos by Erin Hearts Court| Album cover via Taste Like Dirt| Florals by Honey & Poppies | Vintage Rentals from Pow Wow Vintage Rentals | Cake by Erica O’Brien Cake Design}

2 COMMENTS

la petite coquine says:

I am beyond overwhelmed by how gorgeous these details are-thank you for putting each one in relief!

Anonymous says:

I am beyond overwhelmed by how gorgeous these details are-thank you for putting each one in relief!

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