DIY Wedding Decor: The Road You've Tread to Watch Us Wed

I saw this really adorable idea on one of my favorite DIY blogs. It was a map that displays where everyone has traveled from in order to attend the wedding.

In the same blog I saw a really cute idea for state string art here. I've actually made these before as Christmas gifts a couple of years ago, so I already knew I could make them and that they really do turn out awesome.

I decided to combine the two into a really cool nail string art map to acknowledge the people traveling from near and far to watch Jeff and I get married.

Things you will need:
-Piece of wood (I used precut pine from Home Depot)
-Nails
-Hammer
-Paint
-Brushes
-Embroidery Floss in the color of your choice
-Scissors
-Computer
-Printer

Step 1: Cut the wood down to the size you want if its not already precut. I happen to have a father who knows his way around a table saw so he did it for me. If you aren't as lucky I think they'll do it for you at Home Depot.

Step 2: Prime and paint the wood. If there are knots in the wood you will need to use "Stain Resistant" primer so the knots don't bleed through. Allow the primer to dry for at least 3 hours. Paint the wood the color of your choice. I used spray paint but you can use whatever kind you like.

Step 3: Print out the words you would like to have on your wood slab. Since I'm super original I used the same wording as the picture above "The road you've tread to watch us wed." Put the lettering print out on the wood and use a ballpoint pen to really push down hard so that you get an indentation. Paint over the indentation.

This part takes a while. My suggestion is to sit down in front of all those episodes of Dance Moms some very intellectual news program you have recorded and knock em out! (Ok so I may have some trashy TV watching tendencies when I craft).

Step 4: Now you need to find a map that you want to use. I decided to use both one of the US and one of Florida because we will have so many people coming from around the state as well as from all over the country. You can use a map from an atlas or print an outline from Google Images. I did Google Images. I also put a heart over Sarasota on the map. This is where all the pins that go in for each location will end up connecting to.

Step 5: Place your templates on the wood and now its time to get nailed! (Bahahaha.....No? No one?) Use a hammer and nail around the outline of the maps. This is going to take a WHILE and will probably hurt your wrists after a while so take some wine breaks and then keep going! The last picture is the outline of the maps when I finished.

Step 6: Tie the embroidery floss around a nail and then loop around another nail. Keep doing this over and over and over and over again. You'll run out of string and need to tie the end off and then start a new one. There really is no strategy or patten to it, I think it looks better being totally random.

Step 7: Rinse and repeat over and over again until the map looks full.

Step 8: Once I have the RSVPs in I will put a large nail in at each location and tie a big pink string connecting the location to Sarasota. I'll add an update once its finally done. I think I'm also going to add our wedding date at the top in the big blank space. We'll see.


In other news.... You can try to make your fiance help you take pictures of your work but you can't make him stop watching "the game".