DIY Roundup

I've been pulling together a list of the various projects and pieces I want to craft myself, and I know some of these will fall by the wayside as I go (or I might trade them for some other idea). But, in the meantime, here's a somewhat-official list of the homemade elements I'm going to be attempting for the wedding over the coming year.

The big deals: projects I'm most invested in:

• A guestbook covered and painted to look like a copy of The Lord of the Rings
• A "picture tree" - branches gathered up in a vase (probably with wired silk leaves on some of the twigs), hung with some matted sepia versions of our engagement pics
• Really awesome self-designed invitations, probably to be printed through Cards and Pockets
• Making a cake topper that looks like this (have no idea what I'll make it out of):

• Mallorn-leaf boutonniere pins made from Sculpey and metallic paint
• Centerpieces featuring beeswax pillar candles made by my Mom's 6th grade Chandler's Guild. This one is my favorite :) It's a tribute to my Mom, kind of a personal piece of spiritual imagery for both me and Johnny, and they smell awesome. I may see if they/Mom can make our unity candle and tapers as well.

Of lesser importance or things that I haven't thought through thoroughly yet (say that three times...):

• Carved monogram pumpkins outside the church doors - also, Celtic knotwork pumpkins. Would look awesome. Dunno if I'll feel like/have time to do them one week til The Hayes-ening.
• DIY-ing bouquets for my bridesfolk out of silk fall leaves. Would look really neat, could be done waaaaaay in advance, and wouldn't cause anyone's allergies to flare up *cough*Johnny*cough*. I'm trying to find some silk leaves now to do a mock-up before I do any sort of silk leaf ordering so I know if I've got the skillz to pull it off. I've also had a number of other bouquet ideas, involving candles and lanters, none of which have materialized completely in my brain yet. So... jury's still out.
• A veil. Veils are expensive as all get-out, and I have a friend/former coworker who just made one for her own daughter and is willing to lend me her gorgeous pattern -- I would love to take advantage of this to save money, if I can find the time to make it! Will know more after I have a dress, probably in the spring. With or without a veil, I may DIY some sort of hair thingy unless I find something affordable that screams awesomeness at me -- but I may take the time to seek that out, being much more unsure of how to make hair thingies that I like than I am of projects involving paper or clay. You can definitely see my preferred mediums in this list :P
• If I have time, funds, and luck with finding fabric, I'd like to make some table runners to give the fellowship hall some needed color.
• Also, the number of things I stick willow/grapevine twigs and Christmas lights on may vary. It'll probably be in some places, but I just haven't figured out the extent to which I want to use those things yet.
• Programs. According to Mom, she has never ever ever been to a wedding with programs and doesn't understand why you'd have them. I want to recognize our Wedding Partay somehow or another -- either in a program or some kind of cool sign that I put in the vestibule or something. I've thought of maybe making a banner that fits with the theme, or ... some... sort.. of... big... sign. Dunno. Just something to recognize, by name, the folks who're standing with us.
• Flower girl thingies! Johnny tried to ask the Mom and Dad of our prospective flower girls, but they were too busy at the moment to really understand what he was trying to ask... so if we do have flower girls, I'll probably put together something for them to throw and something for them to carry that stuff in. It may be punched-out paper thingies -- who knows. Figuring that out later. I would looooooove to make them pretty flowery-ribbony wreaths to wear out of silk flowers so they can keep them and play dress-up with them.

Am I being overly ambitious? I have a year, and most of these things don't require too awful much moola. The most expensive one is the invitations or flower-related things. I don't really plan to have a lot of fresh flowers, if any -- I did a lot of thinking about that last week, and considering that my fiance has allergies, I don't have cash to drop on a florist, and I want to be able to get things ready as far in advance as possible (which makes DIYing fresh flowers nigh impossible), I think silk is the way to go (Johnny says I should import the most expensive flowers from Asia, but I think he is kidding...... :P).

I know I could do simple, buy at Staples and print 'em yourself on your own printer invites... but I really really want to design some awesome invites. I guess everybody has their one thing that they can't justify but really want -- I may have to just Staples it, and I can still make them look awesome, so I'm not too crazy over it. It's just that if I do have extra money to push around for a project, it'll probably go toward that.