When we asked our bridal parties to be part of our wedding day, I gifted everyone on my side a custom, decoupaged bottle of bubbles! In today’s blog post, I’m going to share how I DIYed these for each member of my party. I also gave each of them a monogrammed toiletry bag and a personalized note. You can find all those details in my past post How We “Proposed” to Our Bridal Party.
Now, for the DIY. I’m a big fan of Trader Joe’s wine department, so as soon as I knew that I wanted to include some kind of customized wine bottle I headed to TJ’s! I purchased a few different options to try out, based on fun bottle labels + types of wine that I like. I’m a big fan of bubbles, so I ended up going with a Cava for this project. The next step was to source about a dozen bottles, which required going to a few different locations.
The staff at our TJ’s is the best and helped me put all the bottles that I needed on hold at stores in our area. Once I got all the Cava, I gathered my supplies and got started. Given the number of bottles + the dry time needed, this project took a few weeks to fully execute. That said, be sure to give yourself a few days for this DIY to allow for proper dry time!
Materials // What You Need
Your Desired Wine Bottle(s): I went with La Granja 360 Cava Brut, which I got from Trader Joe’s. I loved the fun, bright blue bird on the label as well as navy and gold accents! The colors worked perfectly with our wedding colors and I’m a big fan of bubbles.
Painter’s Tape: This will be used to cover up the label, foil, and any parts of the bottle you don’t want to get paint on.
Plastic Wrap: To protect the very top of your bottle, especially if the bottle has a Champagne-style cork and cage. More folds in the foil = more nooks and crannies for paint to get in.
X-Acto Knife: I used an X-Acto knife to cut and refine all of the details around the label and foil when I was covering them in painter’s tape.
Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch 2x Ultra Cover Paint and Primer in White Gloss: A key step to giving yourself a clean backdrop to work with.
Scissors: You’ll need scissors to cut out the decorative elements of the paper designs.
Mod Podge Gloss: Mod Podge will be how you adhere and seal all the cut outs onto each bottle.
Foam Brush: I’ve found that a foam brush works best when it comes to not leaving marks or brush strokes rather than a bristled brush! I’ll also sometimes brush out details with my fingertips.
Paper Cocktail Napkins: I ordered these from Amazon, but you can get any cute paper cocktail napkins. Floral prints work really well, or any patterns that have easy lines of separation to cut out around.
Step-by-Step
1. Prep You Bottles: Use your blue painter’s tape to cover up the label of your bottle and any spots that you want to remain unchanged and unpainted. Once you cover the label and foil on the neck of the bottle, you’ll want to use some plastic wrap to cover the gathered foil top of very the bottle. After this, you’ll secure the plastic with a collar of tape.
2. Create the Base for Your Design: After your bottles have been fully prepped and covered with painter’s tape + plastic wrap, you’ll want to set up somewhere outside. I’d suggest doing your painting somewhere that’s well ventilated, but also not windy! The last thing that you want is for particulate, dust, or dirt and such to stick to the wet paint and mess up your base. I ultimately ended up spray-painting all our bottles on the balcony of our old apartment. (Make sure to put some cardboard down to protect the surface that you’re painting on and plan for the paint to travel and spread further than you expect!)
Not 100% necessary, but I’d recommend wearing gloves so that the paint doesn’t get on your hands. If you don’t have gloves, you can use zip lock bags to cover your hands like I did in this case. I sprayed each bottle twice over while rotating it as I sprayed to make sure that I got every angle fully covered. With this Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch 2x Ultra Cover Paint and Primer, I was able to do only one round of painting. I gave each bottle 24-48 hours to dry before I started adding the Mod Podge Gloss and paper design details.
3. Remove the Painter’s Tape: Once your bottles are fully dry, you’ll remove the painter’s tape and plastic wrap. This is a super satisfying step, but be sure to go somewhat slowly to make sure nothing tears. If you’re having trouble getting the edges up, you can always use tweezers to help peel off the tape.
4. Cut Out Your Design Elements: Take your paper cocktail napkins and cut out each of the design elements you want to use. Most paper napkins are 2 or 3 ply, but you’ll only use the top layer of paper with the design on it for this project. As you cut the different pieces, make sure you cut some with straight edges that can be placed along the edges the wine label. The napkins that I used for this project had a floral motif, so on each of the bottles I DIYed I had some decoupaged flowers “growing” out of the label.
5. Attach Your Cutouts to the Bottle: To attach each piece, you’ll want to start with a thin layer of Mod Podge applied directly onto the bottle with your foam brush. After that, you’ll press the paper cutouts on top of the Mod Podge and flatten them along the surface of the bottle. Once you’ve flattened the paper designs onto the the bottle, you’ll follow up with another thin layer of Mod Podge.
6. Seal Your Design: Once you’ve added all of your cutouts onto the bottle, you’ll want to coat the full bottle (except for the foil) with another layer of Mod Podge. This helps make the label blend in with the designs you’ve decoupaged and it all looks much more cohesive.
7. Let Dry & Enjoy! Once your bottle is dry, it’s ready to be gifted or added to your bar cart! Note: I wouldn’t recommend keeping these decoupaged bottles in the fridge unless you’re chilling them right before popping one open! The moisture in your fridge can make the Mod Podge sticky and tacky, even if it’s already fully dried.
I hope that you enjoyed this DIY project! If you decide to make one of these decoupaged bottles yourself, please send me a photo or tag me on social (@megan.michaela.xo), I’d love to see it!
