MAKE THIS: Wedding Hall of Fame

***Quick break from baby gifts, to share this project that I LOOOOOOOVE:

One of my favorite projects from my wedding was the "Wedding Hall of Fame". Super simple... but really special to me.
Our reception venue had this really long and wide hallway that we used for a 'cocktail' area. We placed little round tables down one side of the hallway, and a few chairs. Each table had just a few votives on it, and above each table we hung a picture. I wanted the frames to look like they all belonged in the same collection of things... but not 'match'. I also kind of wanted a vintage feel, and to tie in the feel and colors from our wedding and the pictures in the frames. AND like every other project for my wedding I didn't want to spend a lot of money on this project. SOOOOOO...

I bought 8 $2 wood frames from Walmart. I had 3 that were a dark cherry-stain, three that were a light oak stain, and three that were a platinum metallic finish already (they didn't have enough of the plain wood, but it looked cool in the end) I pulled them all apart (well, took out the glass, backing, etc.) and laid them out over newspaper to paint.

I had some paint from other wedding projects... one was a brilliant gold, and the other was a satin finish champagne gold color:

I sprayed the frames with a light coat of the satin champagne gold first, let that dry, then just a 'dusting' of the brilliant gold paint.

After they were dry I re-assembled, and used some purple ribbon (leftover from invitations) to make ties. I simply hot glued the ribbon to the top inside of the frames.

Then... I placed the pictures inside the frames, each with an ivory mat (came with the frames) that we wrote the couple's name and date of their wedding on... handwritten in gold. My mom wanted to print name plates on the computer, but i liked it handwritten, look more personal--and that's what this project was about for me!

We hung the frames as usual (used 3M Velcro picture hangers so as not to damage the venue's walls) then tied the ribbons in a bow and tacked them above, so it appeared as though the pictures were hanging from the ribbons. I just have pictures of individual pics hanging, not of the whole look going down the hallway... but I promise you it looked cool. Pictured here are my sister and brother in law, my parents, and my dad's parents on their wedding day. (3 generations, cool, huh?) Not pictured here, but included in the display are my mother's parents, and Z's family on the other side of the hallway... parents and 2 sets of grandparents.

 

And then for those of you keeping track... that's only 7 frames, and I made 8. Hmmm... well my mom arranged with my photographer to take a picture of us early in the day on the wedding day, then they quickly transfered that to a jump drive that our coordinator ran to the one hour photo... so at our reception, as a part of the photo hall of fame, we had a picture of ourselves on display as well:

And my mom still has this one proudly displayed in the place of honor on her piano at home.

The rest of the 'leftover' frames have taken up residence in my spare bedroom... which just so happens to be purple so it looks great!

Total cost for this project:Walmart frames/mats: $16.00

Paint/glue/ribbon: already had

Old pictures of my new family: Priceless

(sorry, I couldn't resist the visa commercial...)

But sixteen bucks ain't bad!

Anyway... I hope this has inspired you to create your own 'hall of fame', or at the very least unify a group of frames for a display in your house (shrug, who knows?)-- it's really so much fun, and was a special way to honor our families at our wedding. But it can also be a cool keepsake. Just the other day I was perusing some crafty blogs, when I came across THIS from one of my new favorite bloggers! What are the odds that across space and time and the interwebsss...  Jessica and I had such a similar vision... I just love the internet! ha!