A Bridal Backdrop - VERY CHEAP for a fussy bride =)

My daughter didn’t want to use the bridal backdrop that is in my family, the very nice one my brother made years ago, that has been used for many of my nieces and nephews  weddings, has been repainted and is still looking great! I told her we could make it look cute using her icicle Christmas lights with sheer cloth over them draped over the top. She still didn’t like it. She said it looked like a “fence.” Having looked on about every website possible, trying to think up original ideas or things that you might hang stuff from, and knowing that bridal backdrops cost a fortune (and I really had no budget) I was frustrated… as usual. Really? Typical day living with my very own BRIDZILLA daughter. But come on, she will only get married once! She’s a very beautiful, princessy girl who deserves MUCH love and fuss from her mommy! And may I add that I was SO HAPPY that she found THE GUY and would be able to begin her happily ever after?

We found different ideas for cute things that hang, but I just couldn’t figure out HOW we’d hang them! I even emailed the brother that made the family bridal backdrop to ask if he had any ideas. He didn’t answer, and I wouldn’t have either! I’m not a wood craftsman and couldn’t figure out how to hammer boards together to make a decent looking frame.

I got this idea from looking at a photographer’s site. He used PVC pipe to make a backdrop that he used to hang a curtain from. I also learned that a length of 6 feet is the longest that a joint can support. My daughter wanted her backdrop to be longer than 6 feet, so I decided to put a post in the middle to double it.

If we had more money to spend I would have bought some really big vases and either rocks or marbles to fill them to stand the PVC in. But needing to be super CHEAP, I decided  to use T-joints to make stands on the floor. Not the most stable thing, but it worked! (Just had to stand it back straight a couple of times when kids ran through the fun decorations.)

One more thing I should explain. Instead of having the guy at Lowes cut the pipe into 6 foot pieces, I bought 2 foot pieces that were already cut, along with 2 straight joints to make each 6 foot section. The idea behind that 1) it wouldn’t require a huge truck or trailer to haul the pipes and 2) the backdrop could be easily carried in a bag (not plastic – too heavy. I used a strong T-shirt bag).

Since I don’t have great pictures of the whole thing I’ll explain the best I can.  

I bought 15 2-foot pieces. (I chose 1 inch thick.) Three for each 6 foot section – three posts and two across the top. I bought 2 corners – for the corners (duh!). I bought 4 T-joints. One to join the middle of the backdrop where there would be an extra post to hold it up, and 3 to put at the bottom of the posts to make it stand up. (Also 10 straight joints to help form the straight posts and top - 2 for each 6 foot piece).

Kayli  decided she’d like GOLD for the color – not typical white and weddingy. I spray painted the pipes and joints gold. It was HILARIOUS because I was having a lovely, very crippled kind of day, so I took the PVC, cardboard to spray on(I really should have just let he grass be gold!) and spray paint to the side of our house so hopefully the neighbors wouldn’t see me. I was having a “mumu” kind of day and was also using my cane to hobble around. I managed to get myself and all the stuff to the side of the house. The pipes kept trying to roll all over the cardboard… the bit of wind blowing didn’t help!  I tried my best to get them to sit still long enough to get one side sprayed. Incidentally, my grandson thought it would be fun to take my cane and run away with it! Hilarity ensued, as I tried to “chase” him, even though I was having a crippled, hobbling day, and I couldn’t run at all, or hardly walk. He took my BRAND NEW cane and had banged it against the brick on the next door neighbor’s house several times before I caught up to him. My black handle was all scuffed and ugly. Oh well. He enjoyed it very much! And black marker DOES cover scuffs on black handles. =)

The pipes dried quickly so I sprayed the other side. They didn’t get perfectly covered since I didn’t feel  good enough o make them perfect.

I ordered some gold, sparkly tulleribbon from papermart. My daughter chose some pretty beads that I found onAmazon. She made some small tissue paper flowers in her wedding  colors and attatched them to fishing line. I bought a few silk flowers in her colors that I thought I’d add to the sides. When  we ordered our rental things, I ordered some extra ties for the chairs in case we wanted them for other decorating.

Assembly:

1.       Putting PVC pipe together and adding ribbon. At the church (still feeling VERY crippled) I sat on the floor to put the pieces together – very easy to do when you’re dealing with 2 foot PVC pieces! Assembly was very quick! Then I used the sparkly glitter tulle ribbon, tied (or pinned) it to the bottom of each stand, then I wrapped it around and around, winding the ribbon up, around the corners and continuing until all of the stands and top were covered. Not only was this pretty, but it covered up the not-so-perfectly painted spots and gave me something to pin decorations to.

2.       I spaced the strands of tissue paper flowers by draping them over the top, while I adjusted them evenly. I then pinned the top flower right through the tissue to the tulle ribbon.

3.       The crystal bead came on a roll that was 90 feet long. I cut them in something like 5 foot lengths. As many as I could get out of the roll. I put them in between the flowers and had one left. I cut it in half then put the halves by the pole ends. I pinned these to the back side of the poles, then draped them over so the pins wouldn’t show.

4.       I took the silk flowers, divided them so they’d be the same for each side, put them together, sort of in bouquet form with green floral tape to hold them together. Then I wrapped more gold tulle through the flowers, attaching them to the posts.

5.       I was going to use a couple of the chair ribbons on the corners, but my son-in-law’s brother happened to be better at decorating than I was (seriously!) so he put two colors together to make really pretty bows!

TaDa! I really wish I had better pictures… but hopefully you get the idea from the corners and from the cute picture of my granddaughter, my daugher and her cute husband in front of some of the pretty beads and flowers!

 Oh, and that's me peeking here in the green dress in the corner!