DIY Info-graphic Wedding Programs

For our wedding ceremony, I really wanted to have a unique program.  I am not a big fan of the more formal programs you normally see.  I wanted to have something a bit more us.  I figured, since we are pretty casual and always enjoy a good info-graphic, we should do something incorporating these two things.  Here is what I came up with, hope it makes you smile…

And on the back…

I like the idea of an info-graphic full of fun facts about our relationship.

As for how I made them, I put together a couple documents in PowerPoint(yes, PowerPoint, believe it or not).  I like using PowerPoint for things like this, so I can move text boxes around and not have to mess with margins, spacing and all that jazz.  I also used some of my favorite fonts; I used Villa Didot, Learning Curve and Garamond.  I also found a great site where I pulled all of my icons from, called The Noun Project.  All of the fonts and icons I downloaded were free, which is a bonus.  Once I had everything in place I messed with the colors, knowing I wanted to use yellow and green.  Lastly, I played with the sizing until I found the size I liked, then I hit print.  My finished product ended up being around 5 x 7.  I did print these back and front, which also took some finagling to find the right format.  If you need more info on the back and front thing, I am sorry, but I am not tech savvy, I just mess with spacing and sizes until it works out.   Once I had my program printed correctly, I thought it still needed something.  So, I glued one of these guys on both the front and back…

They are the same paper flowers I used on both my save the dates and my invitations.

After printing, cutting and gluing all 120 of my programs, I realized I didn’t mention anything about the shuttle we were providing, as I had originally wanted to.  There was no going back at this point. My solution…

A welcome tag…

With some shuttle instructions on the back…

The shuttle was mentioned in our guest bags, but I was worried that they may not have seen it. So, this was just an extra reminder.

To attach these little buggers I just punched a hole in the corner…

Slipped some string threw and tied it around the program with a bow..

See what I mean?

The last thing I had to figure out, was how I wanted to get these programs into my guest’s hands.  I considered having them waiting on each guests chair, held down by a rock, or possibly having them passed out.  But, both of these options involved additional set up or additional hands for passing.  We decided the best solution was to have them available on a table as guests arrive, that way they can help themselves.

I picked up this antique basket at The Antique Market, and lined it with some yellow fabric, and then some lace…

Here are the programs hanging out in the basket(prior to the welcome tags).

And their appearance at the wedding…

It worked out well, I believe most people picked up a program on there way in.

I had a lot of fun creating these little programs.

Hope everyone enjoyed reading them as much as I enjoyed making them!

What did you do for your wedding programs?  Anything unique?  Do tell!

Wedding Guest Welcome Bags

Hey, What do you know?  Another wedding post!  This one just so happens to be about the guest bags we put together for our out of towner friends that came to celebrate our big day with us.  I figured I wanted these bags to accomplish two things: show our appreciation to our family and friends for treking their butts all the way FL and also to contain functional items that they may want to use while visiting.  I did some brain storming with Sandy(Justin’s mom) and we decided on a few things to include in these bags.  Here is what we came up with:

• a couple water bottles
• brochures and maps of surrounding towns
• some kind of candy
• sunscreen
• welcome note
• schedule of events

We decided simple white paper bags would be a good option. So we scooped some of those up along with some green ribbon to tie things together.

I started with putting together the welcome note…

Next up was our schedule of events…

Then I put together a transportation schedule, since we had a shuttle going to and from the hotel and the reception.

We gathered some brochures and maps from our local chambers of commerce. Then Sandy used the ribbon to tie everything into a little bundle.

As you can see I also created door hangers for our guests hotel rooms.  Sandy found something similar on etsy which was the inspiration for these.  I decided to give it a go and make my own.  I created a document on our computer with the wording I liked and some clipart.  Then, I bought a large hole punch from Michaels to make a large hole at the top, so our guests were able to hang them on the hotel door knobs.

Boom. Do not disturb door hangers for everyone!

Sandy ordered the sunscreen online.  We went with small individual packets and popped them in little cellophane bags tied with some more ribbon.

As for candy we went with key lime salt water taffy and some regular chocolates.  I figured key lime salt water taffy was a little more Floridian than the usual candy.  We also plopped these into cellophane bags tied with ribbon.

From there everything went into the bags along with a couple bottles of water.

We sort of did an assembly line operation to get all 60 of these bags filled.

We also tied the welcome note along with the two schedules to the front of the bags with the same green ribbon.  

And there you have it, 60 welcome bags.