I came across a felt banner on Pinterest that I absolutely loved, so naturally I had to hunt down the artist and order a custom one for our wedding.

She’s based in Manchester and specializes in handmade custom banners, and the finished piece is even more beautiful than I expected. It was definitely one of our pricier splurges at around $300, but the quality is incredible and I know we’ll keep it forever. I can’t wait to hang it on our house after the wedding.

I did accidentally put my name first instead of Evan’s, but after planning and making approximately 900 wedding details, I’m allowing myself this one act of accidental narcissism. 😂

This happened almost three years ago, but the memory is fresh in my mind because our wedding is now just two months away.

Little background: I grew up loving Winnie the Pooh. I had the books, toys, clothes, and watched The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh constantly. I loved him so much that kids teased me for it, but apparently, I did not care. I even have one of the original Pooh illustrations tattooed on my thigh. I may not be as obsessed now, but Pooh still represents a part of myself I never want to lose.

Alright! Well, while traveling through Europe, my boyfriend told me he had a surprise planned during our time in England. I suspected a proposal, but I never could have guessed what he had arranged.

Before our flight out of Gatwick, he rented a car and drove us through little villages and into Ashdown Forest. When he told me it was the real Hundred Acre Wood. Like the actual place that inspired A.A. Milne! I immediately started crying and completely forgot about the possibility of a proposal.

We explored the forest, passing the homes of Piglet, Owl, Eeyore, and Pooh, and played Pooh Sticks on the bridge. Then he drove me to the Enchanted Place and the A.A. Milne Memorial, overlooking the forest.

As we sat holding hands, he told me this magical place inspired A.A. Milne to create a character I had always found magical, and that I was magical to him.

Then he quoted Pooh:

“If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.”

His voice cracked as he reached into his jacket, pulled out a ring, and asked me to marry him.

I shouted yes through tears.

The ring was black titanium with hickory wood inside, chosen because the hickory came from the town where I was born.

It was one thoughtful surprise after another, and the care he put into every detail is exactly why I love him. Three years later, I still think it was the best proposal I have ever heard, and in two months, I get to marry him on the exact day he asked me to marry him.

I wanted those beautiful old vintage wine crates for the wedding, but apparently authentic-looking wooden boxes cost approximately one human kidney.

So I grabbed a few unfinished crates from Michael’s and decided to see what I could come up with instead. Over three days, I painted them brown, sanded them down to make the finish look worn, created a custom “Evan & Alex Trading Co.” stencil with my Cricut, and painted the logo onto each crate.

They are not genuinely vintage, but once they are stacked and styled with the rest of the wedding décor, I think they will give me the same general look without the vintage-crate price tag. I’m honestly pretty happy with how weathered and imperfect they turned out.

For the cost breakdown: I did have to buy an extra gallon of brown paint for another project beforehand, which was $24, but I had plenty left for these. The gray paint for the logos was already lying around, and I bought the crates on sale a while back for $5 each, so the actual cost per crate was still pretty low.

I wanted those beautiful old vintage wine crates for the wedding, but apparently authentic-looking wooden boxes cost approximately one human kidney.

So I grabbed a few unfinished crates from Michael’s and decided to see what I could come up with instead. Over three days, I painted them brown, sanded them down to make the finish look worn, created a custom “Evan & Alex Trading Co.” stencil with my Cricut, and painted the logo onto each crate.

They are not genuinely vintage, but once they are stacked and styled with the rest of the wedding décor, I think they will give me the same general look without the vintage-crate price tag. I’m honestly pretty happy with how weathered and imperfect they turned out.

I had to take down my ceremony program post because I accidentally forgot to censor one tiny piece of information, but I reposted it to my profile for anyone who still wants to see it!

I’ve said this before, but one of my favorite parts of this wedding is that it brings together people from completely different chapters of both of our lives. Since many of our guests have never met, I wanted to give everyone an easy excuse to mingle without forcing some painfully awkward organized icebreaker.

Enter: Find the Guest Bingo.

I originally saw the idea on Pinterest and found several templates on Etsy, but once I looked at them, I realized it would be incredibly easy to design my own and save a few bucks. Guests will walk around and find someone who matches each clue, then have that person initial the square. The first person to get five in a row wins! What do they win you ask? The most valuable prize of all, friendship!

They only took me about an hour or so to design. They were also basically free because I printed them on leftover paper from our invitation inserts. The only thing that was pricey were the personalized golf pencils, but those were $98 for 100 💀

Edit:
Apparently this piece of paper has become wildly controversial. Participation is completely optional, anyone who doesn’t want to play is free to simply… not play. The rest of us will bravely carry on. 😂

Kind of waiting for this to show up on r/subredditdrama

I had to take down my ceremony program post because I accidentally forgot to censor one tiny piece of information, but I have this!

I’ve said this before, but one of my favorite parts of this wedding is that it brings together people from completely different chapters of both of our lives. Since many of our guests have never met, I wanted to give everyone an easy excuse to mingle without forcing some painfully awkward organized icebreaker.

Enter: Find the Guest Bingo.

I originally saw the idea on Pinterest and found several templates on Etsy, but once I looked at them, I realized it would be incredibly easy to design my own and save a few bucks. Guests will walk around and find someone who matches each clue, then have that person initial the square. The first person to get five in a row wins! What do they win you ask? The most valuable prize of all, friendship!

They only took me about an hour or so to design. They were also basically free because I printed them on leftover paper from our invitation inserts. The only thing that was pricey were the personalized golf pencils, but those were $98 for 100 💀

I’m over on the wedding side of Reddit and didn’t even think to post this on the actual subreddit for Cricut crafts!

I wanted our invitations to feel like a little vintage road trip/national park keepsake, so I decided to make them all myself from scratch.

Was this a sane choice? Debatable.
Did I become emotionally attached to tiny paper mountains? Absolutely.

My wedding is all DIY so this Cricut is definitely getting a workout!

I’m over on the wedding side of Reddit and didn’t even think to post this on the actual subreddit for Cricut!

I wanted our invitations to feel like a little vintage road trip/national park keepsake, so I decided to make them all myself from scratch.

Was this a sane choice? Debatable.
Did I become emotionally attached to tiny paper mountains? Absolutely.

My wedding is all DIY so this Cricut is definitely getting a workout!

I seem to bounce back and forth between this subreddit and r/DIYweddings, but this project belongs here too because it was ridiculously inexpensive.
Travel is a major theme of our wedding, so I wanted our ceremony programs to feel more like something you would pick up at an old roadside visitor center than a traditional wedding program.

I designed the entire brochure from scratch around a custom illustrated map of our relationship and the places that have been meaningful to us. Inside, it includes our story, ceremony itinerary, wedding party, and map. The back has a thank-you message, a photo, and a small “Wish You Were Here” tribute to loved ones who are no longer with us.

The front includes the coordinates of the exact spot where we’ll be saying “I do,” so I covered those in the photos, along with a few names for privacy.

The only material I had to buy was the paper, which was $6 for the entire pack, and one pack is enough to print all of our programs. I designed and printed them myself at home, so this ended up being one of the least expensive projects for the wedding.

This was one of those ideas that looked very clear in my head, but I wasn’t sure it would translate once printed and folded. Thankfully, the first test copy came out exactly how I hoped. It fits our slightly nostalgic, family-road-trip-meets-national-park theme without feeling like a standard ceremony program.

A major theme of our wedding is travel, so I wanted our ceremony programs to feel less like traditional programs and more like something you might pick up at an old roadside visitor center.

I designed the entire brochure layout from scratch and built it around a custom illustrated map of our relationship and all the places that have been meaningful to us. Inside, it includes our story, the ceremony itinerary, our wedding party, and the map. The back has a thank-you message, a photo, and a small “Wish You Were Here” tribute to loved ones who are no longer with us.

The front includes the coordinates of the exact spot where we’ll be saying “I do,” which is why they’re covered in the photos. I also censored a few names for privacy.

This was one of those projects that existed very clearly in my head, but I wasn’t entirely sure it would translate once printed and folded. I’m really happy with how the first test copy came out, though. I think it fits our slightly nostalgic, family-road-trip-meets-national-park wedding theme without feeling too much like a standard ceremony program.

Hey again, everyone! Since I’ve been posting so many of my wildly unnecessary wedding projects, I thought I should formally introduce myself and give a little more context about the wedding, the budget, and why I have apparently made this my entire personality.

First off: Hi, I’m Alex!

No, sadly, I do not work in events. I am a lowly office worker in a soul-crushing industry. However, I did work as a promotions coordinator for iHeart nearly a decade ago, and I spent most of my twenties working in hospitality, so both of those experiences definitely sharpened my event-planning and problem-solving skills.

I have also always been like this.

Growing up, I threw enormous birthday parties that no one attended because my birthday fell smack-dab in the middle of summer break. I decorated for every holiday, and still do, and I have become known among my friends and family for hosting parties and constantly trying to one-up myself.

To me, this wedding is the ultimate version of that. It is a chance for all of my friends and family from different parts of my life to mingle with all of his as our lives officially come together. We know how lucky we are to have found each other, and we never take that for granted. We could elope any day, but we want to share the magic with all the people who helped shape our individual stories.

The theme is “vintage family road trip to a national park.”

It originally had no theme at all. Just two colors: beige and sage. Then I started collecting vintage cameras and postcards. After a camping trip we took last summer, some national park elements found their way into the plans. One thing led to another, and now there is a life-size Smokey Bear sign in my house.

My fiancé proposed to me in 2024 outside London, in the real Hundred Acre Wood. Winnie-the-Pooh was my favorite growing up, and I still have a soft spot for that silly little bear, so it was incredibly meaningful.

We sat on the engagement for almost two years. Then, during a trip to Chicago last year, we realized that the anniversary of his proposal would fall on a Saturday in September 2026. We decided that was our date, and I have essentially been working nonstop ever since.

I will fully admit that I got extremely lucky with this wedding. That is why I have been able to put more effort and money into certain areas. Under the subreddit’s updated budget rules (which were raised to account for inflation) I still qualify, even though I sometimes feel like I am cheating.

The truth is that I strategically avoided several enormous wedding expenses through family help, local connections, and an unreasonable amount of DIY labor.

The wedding is being held at my aunt’s home just outside my hometown in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. The property is beautiful, the venue is completely free, and we will not be rushed through setup or cleanup. We will also be able to stay on the property throughout the week and weekend.

My brother is a chef here in Boston and is handling the food. I am paying him, even if he wants to fight me about it.

My cousin got married on the same property about a decade ago and will be our day-of coordinator.

And, without sounding like a pretentious asshole, my family is fairly well-connected in my hometown, so we were also able to receive discounts from a few vendors.

With those major expenses reduced, I had more room to play around in other areas. One of my biggest goals was for the wedding to feel handmade and deeply personal rather than purchased from a catalog.

The funny part is that, when I first started, I considered recording the entire process and turning it into a mini-documentary. I knew I would be working on a lot of interesting projects, but then I told myself, “Nah, nobody will care, Alex.”

Well. Look at me now.

For the record, I did not enter this process knowing how to build all of these things. Before this wedding, I had never used a jigsaw, barely understood what a Dremel was for, and certainly had not constructed anything resembling a life-size national park entrance sign.

I have learned one project at a time through trial, error, YouTube, stubbornness, and an unreasonable belief that I can probably figure it out.

The wedding will have approximately 110–130 guests and will take place entirely on my aunt’s property. The ceremony will be held at a circular fountain at the end of her reflection pool, with the reception under a tent nearby.

I am also trying to subvert some of the usual wedding expectations.

Instead of a formal sit-down reception with assigned courses, a rigid schedule, and everyone waiting for the next announced activity, the entire evening will essentially feel like one giant cocktail hour.

After the ceremony, there will be drinks, a six foot grazing table, and heavy appetizers substantial enough to serve as dinner. Food will continue coming out throughout the evening. Guests will be able to move around, sit wherever they are comfortable, visit different tables, dance, wander over to the fire pit, and actually spend time with one another.

We will still have assigned tables so everyone has a home base, and we will still do the meaningful wedding things like dances, speeches, cake, and all that, but I do not want the evening to feel like a sequence of obligations everyone has to sit through.

The whole point is for our different groups of friends and family to mingle as our lives come together. I want it to feel less like everyone is attending a production and more like we threw the biggest, most personal party of our lives.

Basically, the goal is not “luxury wedding.”

Budget breakdown

● Flowers: $2,965
Lush greenery, ferns, moss, beige roses, a broken ceremony arch, a pipe-and-drape installation with smilax, and more. I am also getting a bouquet that will incorporate a few flowers from a bouquet I once caught at another wedding.
● Rentals: $3,780
Tent, tables, chairs, bathrooms, lighting, linens, a bounce house, and other miscellaneous rentals.
● Photographer: $3,999
● DJ: $350 (absolutely no Bruno Mars or Sam Smith)
● Food: $3,000
● Bar: $1,300
● Decor, DIY materials, and gifts: $1,500

That brings the current total to approximately $16,894.

I did the math, and apparently I only need to charge each guest around $150 for admission. (A joke 😏)

I’ve also included some choice behind-the-scenes photos:

• My enormous Canva inspiration board, which is too big for one screenshot.
• Boxes of wedding supplies from one of our trips down to West Virginia.
• The Smokey Bear blueprints.
• Me with Smokey.
• Various Cricut projects.
• My adventures in Dremeling.
• Me allowing my fiancé to cut one piece of wood so he can claim he helped.
• The fountain circle where we’ll say “I do”
• A drone photo I took of my aunt’s property.

I am genuinely so happy that everyone has been enjoying these posts. I still have one more big project that I cannot quite wrap my head around yet, but I will reveal it once it is finished. I will say that it has something to do with seating. As I typed that I realized I have another one too…

I also have plenty of smaller DIY projects to share, plus a truly unreasonable collection of beautiful décor I have thrifted or found on Etsy.

I am very happy to have found this community, and I am excited to keep showing you everything as it comes together.

And you had better believe I will be spamming this subreddit with the professional wedding photos once everything is said and done.

Had to make an edit because I forgot to include the actual budget breakdown 🤦

Someone commented on one of my other posts that I should make matching directional signs for the wedding and… surprise! Of course I already did.
A few of these will be placed along the road and driveway to help guests find the venue, and the rest will be attached to one big post pointing everyone toward their destination.

This was actually the project where I learned how to use a Dremel. I broke down an old wooden pallet, cut the boards myself, painted each piece, made the lettering stencils with my Cricut, and then Dremeled every letter by hand.

This was also somehow my cheapest wedding project: the wood was completely free, and I already had all the paint. So it only cost me a little bit of my time, patience, and possibly my remaining sanity.
They’re definitely handmade and slightly imperfect, but at this point that is basically the official aesthetic of the wedding.

I’m really glad everyone has been enjoying these posts. I’m slightly afraid I’m spamming the subreddit, but everything is finally starting to come together and I’m too excited not to share it. There are only so many people in my real life who will tolerate this much detailed wedding-sign content. 😂

I also have plenty of smaller DIY projects I haven’t posted yet, if anyone is interested in seeing those too.

I’m back with another wildly unnecessary wedding project.

This is my latest “finished” creation. Since we’re getting married out of state, I won’t be able to fully assemble it until the wedding, but this will eventually be set up in the parking area as guests walk toward the venue.

I cut the lettering stencils with my Cricut and painted everything by hand. The red “EXTREME” section is vinyl.

Cost breakdown:
•Plywood: $18
•8” x 5’ plank: $8
•Smokey decal: $20 from the official National Parks website (support your parks)
•Paint: leftover from my other projects

So altogether, it came to roughly $50, with plenty of supplies already on hand.

This was my last major wedding project, with 86 days left until the wedding. I’m very happy to have everything prepared this far ahead, aside from a few loose ends that still need to be tied up. Now I just have to resist inventing another project.

Hi, it’s me again! You know, the guy who posted the mountain invitations and ceremony signs.

Here’s the welcome sign I made for our wedding! It’ll sit at the very beginning of the driveway, right before guests enter the woods, and I wanted it to match the national park-style save-the-dates we sent out.

I built the whole thing by hand. I traced and cut the shape myself, learned how to use a jigsaw in the process, painted everything, and used my Cricut to make stencils for the lettering.

Is it perfectly straight? Absolutely not. But neither is the wedding.

The wood was about $18, and the brown and yellow paint were $24 each, although I’m using both colors across a bunch of other wedding projects, so the full cost isn’t really going into this one sign.

Diet Coke can included for scale, because apparently this thing is enormous.

I posted this in another wedding subreddit and got absolutely cooked for it. People said it was cringe, which… fair. I may be a little cringe. But I also think it’s sweet, funny, and very us.

This is the opening line I sent my fiancé when we matched on Tinder. As you can see, I was incredibly smooth.

I recreated our original profiles, 3D printed the two phones, and cut m the graphics with my Cricut. The middle piece shows our first conversation.

It’s not meant to be a huge centerpiece, just a small decoration tucked into the corner of our welcome table. Our wedding has a lot of handmade details that tell pieces of our story, and this felt like a fun way to include how the whole thing started.

Cringe or not, it makes me smile, so it’s staying.

Hi, it’s me again! You know, the guy who posted the mountain invitations and ceremony signs.

Here’s the welcome sign I made for our wedding! It’ll sit at the very beginning of the driveway, right before guests enter the woods, and I wanted it to match the national park-style save-the-dates we sent out.

I built the whole thing by hand. I traced and cut the shape myself, learned how to use a jigsaw in the process, painted everything, and used my Cricut to make stencils for the lettering.

Is it perfectly straight? Absolutely not. But neither is the wedding.

The wood was about $18, and the brown and yellow paint were $24 each, although I’m using both colors across a bunch of other wedding projects, so the full cost isn’t really going into this one sign.

Diet Coke can included for scale, because apparently this thing is enormous.

Our wedding theme is “vintage family road trip to a national park,” so I wanted our schedule to resemble one of those old wooden signs you’d see at a park entrance or campground.

I bought four 8-inch-by-5-foot boards for $8 each and cut them in half to create the individual sign panels. I designed and cut the letter stencils with my Cricut, taught myself how to use a Dremel, and carved every letter by hand.

I also researched the official National Park Service sign colors and found the closest brown and yellow paint matches I could. The paint was about $24 per color, although I’m using both colors across several other wedding projects.

Cost breakdown:

Wood: $32
Brown paint: $24
Yellow paint: $24
Total: about $80

We’re getting married out of state, so I can’t fully assemble it until we arrive at the venue. Once it’s there, the boards will be stacked on wooden posts like an actual park sign.

It’s handmade and definitely has a few imperfections, but that honestly gives it the exact rustic, slightly weathered look I wanted. This was a lot of work, but I’m ridiculously happy with how it turned out, and this is still only one of many DIY projects for the wedding. 😂

I said I was going to start sharing some of my DIY wedding projects, so here’s one that’s nearly finished!

Our wedding theme is “vintage family road trip to a national park,” so I wanted the schedule to look like one of those old wooden signs you’d find at a park entrance or campground.

We’re getting married out of state, so I can’t fully assemble it until we’re at the venue, but this is how all the individual boards turned out. Once assembled, they’ll be stacked on wooden posts like the mock-up in the second photo.

It’s definitely handmade and a little imperfect, but honestly, that’s exactly the look I wanted. And if you think this project is cool… you have seen absolutely nothing yet. 😂

Thought I’d edit to share the process:

I cut all the wood myself, taught myself how to use a Dremel, and carved each letter individually using stencils I made with my Cricut. I also looked up the official National Park Service sign colors and found the closest paint matches I possibly could. It was definitely a labor of love, but I’m really happy with how they turned out!

I wanted our invitations to feel like a little vintage road trip/national park keepsake, so I decided to make them all myself from scratch.

Was this a sane choice? Debatable.
Did I become emotionally attached to tiny paper mountains? Absolutely.

I responded to the questions I’ve heard in a comment below ⬇️

I wanted our invitations to feel like a little vintage road trip/national park keepsake, so I decided to make them all myself from scratch.

Was this a sane choice? Debatable.
Did I become emotionally attached to tiny paper mountains? Absolutely.

My wedding is all DIY so you all can expect a lot more posts from me 🫣