...DIY aisle runner...

DG and I have pretty much been managing our wedding like a corporation.  Everything is a branding opportunity, and we are a-ok with that.  To that end, we thought it'd be nice to incorporate our monogram into the ceremony.  The aisle runner seemed like a really appropriate place to do that, so we looked into having a custom runner made.  Sounded like a great idea until I realized that we'd spend anywhere from $100-$300 to do it.  No. Thank you. 

I thought about it for about 30 seconds before I decided I was fully capable of doing it myself!  It took a little time, but I think the money we saved was well worth it!  I purchased the runner itself online for about $20 and bought our four shades of acrylic paint from Michael's for $0.69 a piece.  I like $25 a lot better than $300...and I'm sure you do too.  So I thought I'd share.  Here's what we did...

Step 1:
I utilized DG's mad skills to project the image onto the runner, which we'd taped to the wall. We had access to a video projector, so that's how we chose to do it, but you could go old-school and do it with an overhead projector. You could also achieve the same result if you printed the image onto multiple sheets like a poster (I think you can do this in MS Publisher, maybe even in Word.) which you could trace. Most runners are pretty sheer, so as long as you fix your poster to whatever surface you're working on so it doesn't wiggle, you should be good to go.

Step 2:

I had a fine point Sharpie and traced away, hoping I was at least getting close.

Step 3:

We took a second to admire our handiwork.  I wasn't too concerned about the imperfections because I knew I could smooth it all out when I started painting.  Plus, it's on the floor at a distance.  It's not like our guests are going to be analyzing it in detail.

Step 4:

I spent somewhere between three and four hours watching TV and painting over the weekend (in my PJ's...what's weird?).  I was surprised that it went pretty much according to plan.

Step 5:
I laid it out and let it dry for the rest of the day before I rolled it back up to store until the wedding.

When it was all said and done, I was pretty pleased.  In case any of you are considering taking on this project, here are a couple of lessons learned:

• I suspected that acrylic paint would work well, and it did, but you really do have to lay it on thick, and in some cases, two coats would probably be best.  If I'd had the energy, I'd probably have done two coats on the entire thing, but I just don't care that much.
• The paint will definitely bleed through the fabric, so make sure you're working on a drop cloth or something.  I sort of anticipated that it would bleed, so I was prepared....but let me also add, if you do not move the runner while your paint is still wet, it will dry and adhere to whatever surface is underneath.  I did a major portion of the painting Friday night and was disappointed the next morning to discover that I had to peel the runner off of the sheet I'd been working on.  It's thin, so it tore in a couple of places, but I was able to patch it up with some packing tape from behind and an extra layer of paint on top.  It just would have worked out better if I'd have moved the runner to another position to let it dry completely.  Don't make the same mistake.
• Finally, you'll see in the corner there where I dropped my paintbrush.  Do not drop your paintbrush.  I got lucky in that I dropped it close to the edge, where we'd already planned to crop the runner because the end was torn in shipping.  The moral of the story is, this is sort of a one chance kind of thing.  If I had really screwed it up, we would have had to chop it off and start again from step one, so be careful!