DIY: Lady Mary Crawley Inspired Wedding Tiara

There is no bones about it, I am a huge Downton Abbey fan. Ever since I first entered the world of the Crawley's I have admired the style and poise of all of the "Lady's". Naturally when their weddings aired earlier this year for all of the world to see, I couldn't resist admiring Lady Mary's bejeweled tiara that weighed in at 45 carats and cost about $200,000. Being a bride on a budget, that tiara was most definitely out of my price range, however I could not shake the lovely laurels from my head. Thankfully I happened to stumble upon this laurel brooch while browsing eBay and I found myself an affordable solution. I ended up ordering 2 brooches and a pack of 10x5 Navettes on eBay, buying myself a comb in a craft store and some super powerful glue (E6000) and seeing what I could do with a little bit of grosgrain. All in all, I think I spent under $20 for my own laurel wedding tiara. While it's not as large or bold as Lady Mary Crawley's I think I still get to have a little touch of Downton on my special day.

The pieces I ordered on eBay were actually brooches, so the first thing I did was snap off the backing by pushing in on the brooch pin and pulling back and forth a couple of times.


My next move was to weave some thin 3/8" grosgrain ribbon through the wire comb to give myself a bit more surface area for the glue to set. I trimmed the ends in a diagonal angle.

Next I applied some glue and allowed it to sit a couple minutes to become really tacky before carefully placing both brooches centered over the comb. I overlapped the end slightly to create a continuous line. There were a few funny gaps where the grosgrain ribbon showed through, so I carefully took one of the navette crystals and glued them to fil in any awkward spaces.

I let my creations sit overnight until the glue secured everything into place.

The next day, I carefully glued down the ends back onto the comb and voila a tiara to call my own. I think to make sure that it's extra secure I'm going to have to use a couple of bobby pins horizontally to make sure it won't fall off my head, but otherwise it's everything that I hoped it would be :) It almost makes me wish I ordered 3 combs instead of 2.

DIY: Custom Wedding Signage

A couple weekends ago I wandered into an art supply store with Jeff because he had a plan to make a Jackson Pollock inspired painting. While looking around the shelves I saw some super affordable wood board panels called "Birch Board", so I picked up a 5 different sized pieces and some acrylic craft paint all for the grand total of $16.89 with the grand ambition to make some cute a cheerful wedding signage the likes of which I've been seeing on Pinterest.

Unfortunately I failed to pick up a decent paint brush and after some failed attempts to paint signs with a terrible paint brush, I decided to help Jeff splatter his painting instead. Fortunately this past weekend I found a couple of better paint brushes at home and I took a second go at painting. I used some nylon bristle size "0" and "4" brushes along with Navy Blue and Silver paints for some signs that I am very excited to have at my wedding.
You'll need:
A couple of decent paintbrushes
Some Birch Board Panels
Acrylic Paint in your wedding colors
Paper Towels to clean up and smears and dry your brushes between colors
A cup of water to rinse your brushes
A plastic plate/tray to mix your paint

First I thought of a few of the types of signs I wanted and then the ways that I wanted to say them. I then Googled a few ideas on the internet for the placement of words and was inspired by the scrolls that were on a stamp that I'll be using for the wedding. I penciled in approximate placement on the boards and I started painting away over the pencil. Don't worry if you don't cover all the pencil because you can erase this later, although you should wait until your paint is completely dry first.

One thing I learned about using the acrylic paint was that if it was too thick it wouldn't spread nicely, but if it was too thin, it would bleed out on the wood. So I experimented by mixing a few drops of water into the paint for a smooth consistency. While my signs didn't turn out perfectly, I am going to sand a few smudges away later and I think it sort of adds to the charm. Don't worry if you make mistakes, because my failed attempt of a board was easily fixed by painting over the whole debacle in black paint and adding letters in a contrast color once the black paint dried. The magic of acrylic!

Another tip is to start at the top corner that is farthest away from where you will end up in the end. Since I am a righty I started in the top left corner and moved right and down as I progressed. This will help prevent smudges on the hand which will inevitably lead to smears on your pretty boards. I also started with the text and then later went back to add pretty swirls where I saw fit.

Anyways I am pretty darn pleased with my efforts and it ended up costing me a lot less than if I were to have bought the signs from someone else. Hurray! I call this a win!