In the world of Pinterest, a bride can dream all she wants. I finished creating our decor inspiration board and now I’m starting to bring it to life. While some brides keep their wedding decor a surprise I’m all for sharing what I have planned!
We are getting married at a venue outside of Ottawa. It’s a rustic barn with classic elements like chandeliers and a huge white tent so I’d like to say our theme is updated/elegant rustic. Think wooden signs with gold accents!
For our welcome table, I pinned this image to our decor board. While I’ve been able to find a few things to rent (cause I really don’t want to DIY too many things) I was having trouble finding specific wooden signs I wanted so I decided to have them made.
There is an abundance of calligraphers so I had reached out to a few to get quotes on making our Welcome Sign, an Order of Ceremony sign, a Sit Where Your Heart Desires & Unplugged Ceremony sign and a Dance Floor Rules sign. While sometimes I value convenience over cost I also wanted to be able to sell or rent the non-personalized signs after our wedding. One calligrapher had a copyright clause in their contract that this wouldn’t be allowed. The cost would be double what we had been quoted and another calligrapher wanted well over $20,000 for these 4 signs if we intended to sell them after which is just not in our budget and to be honest… slightly ridiculous.
So I sought out some free YouTube tutorials, went to Michael’s to purchase some supplies:
Tombow Dual Brush Pen Set – Bright
Tombow Dual Brush Pen Set – Grayscale
Sharpie Oil-Based Paint Marker
and started practicing on an artist sketch pad.
I found several tutorials online and decided to create the board 3 different ways to see which way turned out the best so you don’t have to!
In addition to writing instruments, you’ll need wood, wood stain and this free font, bromello. I used some scrap boards from my fiancé’s wood shop and he stained the boards with Minwax in Espresso. We left them overnight to dry and I started trying different board versions in the morning.
Option 1: Free Hand With Paint Pen – For You If You Mastered Your Practice Sheets
I free handed one with the Sharpie paint pen, which turned out amazing. I filled in the “gifts” letters a bit more to match the thicker cards letters after this picture was taken.
Option 2: Freehand with White Pencil – For You If You’re Fairly Confident With Free Handing But Need Ability To Fix Mistakes
You start exactly as you would with the paint pen but you’re able to erase if you make any mistakes and then fill in with the paint pen. I should’ve started with this option so I’m thankful I lucked out on the first version!
To paint over the pencil, I used the Craft Smart pen and it didn’t fill in as nicely as the Sharpie pen (see below image). So I ran over the letters again with the Sharpie (see second image below).
Final Version!
Here is the YouTube video I watched to teach myself this board version
Option 3: Chalk Outline – For The Complete Newb (Almost Mistake Free)
Print off the word’s on the back of printer paper to the desired size for your board, run chalk over the back of the piece of paper. Then tape the paper to the board and use a pencil to draw the outline.
Then use a paint pen to fill it in. I went back to using the Sharpie paint pen for this version. I also used a board that Mike and died slightly lighter than the other 2.
Here’s a video I watched to teach myself the chalk version
Now I just have to decide which one to keep for our wedding and sell the others! I guess I’ve got a new side hustle! Anyone want a gifts & cards board for their wedding in the Ottawa area!? I’ve got 2 boards up for sale!
I’m excited for Mike to cut the larger boards for me now. I just have to practice my hand lettering for the others!