DIY Here comes the bride banner and

DIY Here Comes the Bride Banner/ Aisle Runner

July 10th 2015

I looked around for wedding banners and aisle runners and they were not cheap. The ones that you could have custom made with your wedding colors were especially costly. I also had wanted a larger banner because I was having 2 banner carriers. So, again I opted to go the DIY route. The process is pretty much the same for both so you can follow along below for either. You will just skip step 7 if you are doing only the aisle runner.

You can buy stencils from the store. I was looking for something more custom so I created my own.

Items Needed:

For Banner:

Fabric Spray Paint

For Aisle Runner:

Aisle Runner

Fabric Spray Paint

Tools needed (for both):

How to:

Step 1:

Pick a font and decide what you want your banner and/or aisle runner to say. For my banner I wanted the front to say "Here Comes The Bride" and the back to say "Just Married" and for my aisle runner I wanted it to say "And They Lived Happily Ever After". ( I wish I had remembered my aisle runner for the wedding but sadly it didn't make it there) Then create your file. I wanted mine about 3 ft by 3 ft for both so this was my file size:

Step 2:

Print out your template(s) and tape them together. It will be larger than 8.5 x 11 paper in your printer so you will have to break it down to fit. My aisle runner broke down to 6 sheets. You can see it below tapped together:

Step 3:

Use your X-Acto Knife to cut out the letters for your stencil. You may want to use a cutting board like mine to protect the surface under your cutting.

Step 4:

Tape your stencil down to your canvas. The paint I used was perfect paint but didn't spray well so I sprayed it into a paper cup and used a paint brush to paint it on.
*If you are really confident in your free hand paint skills you just paint right on the canvas and skip a stencil all together

Step 5:

Paint your banner/ aisle runner. You will want to leave a couple inches at the top of the banner so you can fold it over across the pole to carry it. I left 2 inches at the top of each side of mine. I did the painting in pieces removing the paper stencil as I went. Then I cleaned up the edges of the letters.
If you use a thinner fabric/ aisle runner you may want to line under your canvas with newspaper to protect your surface underneath from the paint bleeding through.

Step 6:

Let it dry.
*If you are doing a second side on your banner you will want to let it dry about 48 hours before doing the other side as to avoid messing up the first side.
Here you can see mine after I painted the other side.

Step 7:

Insert the shower curtain rod and fold the fabric over top. Sew the shower curtain rod in either by hand or with a sewing machine. We used a sewing machine and pinned where we wanted the rod to go. Then we popped off one of the ends and fed it through the space we made in the top of the banner and put the cap back on. Using a shower curtain rod is perfect because you can adjust it to fit the aisle you are walking down or amount of banner carriers. I don't remember where we bought ours but it looked like this:

Step 8:

Use your banner and aisle runner at the wedding! ( I have no picture of the aisle runner since it was forgotten :( )

Hope this helps someone! Leave any comments or questions below!