If you’ve spent any time reading wedding blogs or delved into the black hole of Pinterest wedding inspiration, you’ll be familiar with the images of bridesmaid dresses, hung in a row on beautiful personalised hangers. I think these small details add a lovely personal touch to photos, and they also make for a simple, practical gift to give your bridesmaids on the day.
While there are a myriad of these hangers available on Etsy, this was something I knew I could do myself. They were very simple and I’m pretty pleased with how they turned out, so I thought I’d share the process with you.
I used white wooden coat hangers from Ikea. These were $9.99 for a pack of 8. Considering a single hanger will cost at least $8 on Etsy it’s definitely much less expensive to do it yourself! This is a really simple DIY too so if you have a little time I’d recommend giving it a go!
Supplies:
1. Wooden coat hangers
2. Computer and printer
3. A lead pencil
4. A nice pen – I used a permanent felt tip pen
5. Clear nail polish (possibly... depending on the pen!)
Step 1:
Find a font you like and print out your bridesmaid’s names. I used a font called “Modesty”. This is a paid for font that I already had and is available here on Creative Market. There are plenty of free fonts available online though. I recommend searching “Free wedding fonts” on Pinterest.
Step 2:
Cut out the names and using the lead pencil, lightly shade on the back of them
Step 3:
Position the name on the hanger and again using the pencil, trace over the text. This will leave a faint outline on the hanger
Step 4:
Using your pen (I used a very fine felt tip pen in black) trace over the name. The first time it won’t look the best, but you can go back in and thicken the lines to give it more of that “calligraphy” feel.
Step 5:
Depending on the pen you use this may not be necessary, but I found that even after letting it dry, the ink was still a little smudgy (should've used a better pen Lauren!). To solve this I just painted over the writing with a coat of clear nail polish - problem solved!
The finished product:
You could then tie a ribbon around the top for an extra touch. I haven’t decided if I’m going to do this yet, I kinda like the simplicity without it :)
Let me know if you give this a try! If you do make them tag me on Instagram @laurennatalia29 so I can see!