Brides who DIY are so badass.
Take DIYer and hand-lettering artist Marley, who decided to do something super cool for her wedding : a life-size crossword search that her guests could do! Armed with her amazing artistic skills and some paint, Marley created a super fun wedding activity that will have you headed straight to the hardware store to make your own!
Marley designed the whole thing on her iPad.
Marley, who is a hand lettering artist, was more than capable of designing the whole thing herself! She drew out each area, designed the crossword, and created all the questions in the app Procreate for iPad.
Then, it was time to get to work.
“Then I went to the hardware store to grab all my supplies. I got some eight-foot-tall boards and paint. I used the string method to get the arch shape at the top.”
Cutting along that line was next.
“And then I just cut out the shape that I made and sanded off any awkward edges.” Don’t worry about the edges being perfect — once they’re painted, no one will notice!
She picked a design that would be easy to paint.
“I just laid down my boards in the order they were going to go in and sketched out my design. It was just easy peasy painting.” I love the fall colors!
She then cut out wooden letters to give it a 3D, custom feel.
“I cut out some letters with my laser cutter and then spray painted them white. And then from there I had to superglue those letters onto the middle arch, and it reads ‘Sip & Solve.'”
The finished product is amazing!
She printed out the crossword on a 4 x 3 piece of paper and adhered it to the back of an acrylic board, then used standoffs to mount it to the wood. People wrote on it with whiteboard markers!
The board has a super cool future, too.
Ever sustainable, Marley decided to gift the board to another couple to use on their big day. All they have to do is remove the paper and create their own puzzle!
She made sure to note that she sourced a number of different DIYs to put this together.
Her biggest inspiration was @kateandcompany , who created the original wedding crossword. I think this is SUCH a cute idea, and a great way to give guests something to do at a wedding!
You can watch her TikTok here.
Check out Marley’s full process! From cutting to painting, she used her hands to create something amazing and super personalized for her big day.
What do you think? Would you try this for your wedding?
