A DIY Project

I decided to get crafty on us this past week. I wanted to ask my bridesmaid to be in the wedding  in a way that was fun and personal... You know, not just call them up and say, "Hey. Want to be in wedding?" So when I came across this idea on Once Wed, I knew I had to go with it.

The idea was to create paper dolls for each of the bridesmaid I planned on asking to be in the wedding. I made a "practice" set of three and thought to my self... That was so easy... Little did I know.

I have asked nine of my closest friends to be bridesmaids. I couldn't do less than that... and to be honest I could have added a few more. So when I began this DIY project I realized that I would have to make nine sets of nine paper dolls. Once I got the paper (which is a little thinner than poster board) measured and folded, I created a stencil and traced the shape of the doll on to the paper... When I attempted to cut through the folded paper I realized I was in trouble. The paper was too thick... so I could only cut a few at a time.

Finally, after several afternoons/nights of cutting the blank paper dolls I got them all done. Next came the dresses and hair. I hadn't really thought about the fact that I would have to cut out 81 dress and 81 hairs... and might I add that I customized the hair for each person:

Curly:

Blonde: (Deidra has a flower on her because she's the Maid of Honor)

Red Head:

and so forth.

It took me several nights and probably 30 man hours between my mom and I to get this little project completed.

With each set of paper dolls I include an an "invitation" (if you will) with an original poem, written by yours truly, asking for each person to be a part of my big day.

Click to enlarge to read the poem

I then bundled the paper dolls with the invitation, like so:

And off they went... It's been tough waiting to find out when everyone received them. It's hard for me to keep a secret, but I did it.

I hope that everyone loved getting this little surprise in the mail. I thought it was a neat way for each bridesmaid to learn that they were a part of the wedding and at the same time find out the entire wedding party.