A DIY Dilemma: Resolved!

I'm not going to lie.  I had every intention of buying as many cans of spray paint as needed to get letter that were 100% ivory.  Until some good sense kicked in, courtesy of my mother.  She praised the cool pastel look and then suggested, brilliantly, that we run over to the church to see how the letters looked against the building.  Once over there, we determined the size was right, but the coloring was a bit incorrect.  The church is made of light tan stone with dark stained glass doors.  Against the walls, the light letters barely showed up.  Against the doors, the letters clashed and competed with the glass design.  Therefore, ivory vs. pastel took a back seat to pondering what to do to get these letters to show up PERIOD.  We brainstormed some solutions before my mom suggested getting some big poster frames and backing the letters in a dark color, so the light letter would pop against the light walls.  The woman's a lifesaver.

I immediately ran to my computer to look for frames.  Thankfully, Michael's decided to run a 40% off poster frame sale PLUS a 20% off entire purchase coupon a mere 12 hours after this issue presented itself.  I grabbed two pewter frames and two sheets of purple textured cardboard for under $20.  After about 15 minutes of labor, here's what we emerged with:

I was a little skeptical of the frame plan, but it turned out beautifully.  The letters pop off the purple background, the purple plays right into our color palette, the frame protects the letters from any nasty weather... the list of reasons why this was the right decision go on and on.  Sure, they aren't 100% ivory, as my original plan dictated. 

But, they're pretty darned close, and the little spots of color give them a little more dimension and personality, at least in my bride brain.  I can't tell you how relieved I feel to see a project through to the end, even though it turned out a bit differently than I originally anticipated.

Now that I'm on the other side of the floral letter project, here are a few tips I picked up along the way that I found to be quite helpful.

• If you're looking to save money, I was really happy with my decision to do cardboard and staples.  Readily available materials!
• I am still confident that the Hawaiian garlands were the most flowers for the lowest price, but the color turned out to be a snag.  Just something to keep in mind if you're very specific about the ultimate hue you want.
• When stapling the flowers onto the letter, definitely have something under the letter if your cardboard isn't super thick.
• If you go the frame route, I'd actually suggest looking for less expensive ones with plastic instead of glass.  We were able to smoosh the flowers into the frames because the "glass" was able to warp and give a little bit, which real glass likely wouldn't do. 

 Did you have any DIY projects go awry, only to be even more pleased with the unexpected outcome?

(all photos personal.)