A guide to DIY weddings

After the I dos and 'til death do us parts, they're the two little words every bride waits to hear on her wedding day: "How creative!"

At least, that's what I wanted to hear after I got married last September before 90 guests in an outdoor ceremony at an antebellum mansion in downtown Memphis, Tenn.

Artsy to the core, I longed to create the perfect handmade wedding, with clever details that my guests wouldn't see anywhere else. I wanted to highlight my personal style and undying love for being crafty and gluing stuff together.

And with a budget of $10,000, I wanted to save a little cash.

Already an avid shopper at the online artists marketplace Etsy.com, I knew when my beau, John, proposed that it was the first place to start looking for unique items, and to get ideas for what I could make myself.

Etsy sales have risen quickly since it began in 2005, reaching $180 million last year thanks in part to a burgeoning wedding section with thousands of handmade wares, said spokesman Adam Brown.

Brides can peruse everything from typewriter-key cufflinks to a personalized ring-bearer pillow.

Wedding blogs such as 100 Layer Cake, Style Me Pretty and Etsy Wedding also promote handmade wedding fare and artsy style. Online bridal message boards light up with suggestions when brides-to-be ask about how to make their own table numbers, or craft lanterns out of baby food jars and tea light candles.

Do-it-yourself wedding decorations and favors have become so popular that TheKnot.com and Martha Stewart Weddings - the arbiters in all things bridal - now have sections dedicated to brides looking to break out the hot-glue gun.

"In generations past, weddings were very similar, but now people want to put their own unique spin on their wedding," said Rebecca Dolgin, executive editor of TheKnot.com. "They want it to be different from someone else's, and these DIY details really make that happen."

Here's how I crafted my own handmade wedding:

► I hired Etsy artists to create boutonnieres and corsages for the wedding party and our families - something more permanent (and cheaper) than flowers that they could take home with them. The boutonnieres were roses made from folded roadmaps, and the corsages were flowers created from brown and green organza and brown pearls. (Corsages, $15 each, boutonnieres, $8 each).

► I asked a friend who is a graphic artist to design our program based on a wedding invitation I had found online. It read like a story rather than the traditional order of ceremony, and it drew more comments than any other item at our wedding. ("Here's how it's going to go:..." the program read near the top.) We printed the programs at home on recycled card stock and used a paper cutter from a craft store to round off the edges.

► Af

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