[Bill Porter] is a married man now, and evidently his new wife, [Mara], is awesome. They put together one of the geekiest weddings that included custom side-lit LED centerpieces.
Instead of laser engraving the dozens of plastic panels for each centerpiece, [Bill] tricked [Mara]’s Silhouette Cameo home vinyl cutter – the same one they made their invitations with – into engraving acrylic panels. They’re made out of very thin plastic, but the fact that the couple were able to snap apart the engraved plasic after putting sheets though the machine is very impressive for something that’s generally used for scrapbooking.
As for the base of each centerpiece, [Bill] whipped up a few enclosures on his 3D printer and built a few battery packs out of 18650 lithium ion cells. The nine LEDs in each base were leftovers from a previous project involving LED strips, perfectly suited to run for a few hours in a reception hall.
It’s a great build for a wonderful occasion, and we’re really impressed with the plastic cutting ability of the Sihouette Cameo. Very nice work there.
Weding-shweding, I want that on my desck.
I agree – would be nice to add a wall plug too
Yes, that’s one thing I almost added was a hole for a wall plug. I’m going to keep one for my desk and just drill as hole to add the plug.
They’d also make nice trophies for geek-related contests.
Beautiful!
Mass produce these please. I’d have a few of these dotted around my house, possibly in the upper corners of a room for highlights.
I so what that. My wedding is in May.
I know, so much cooler than flowers.
Awesome!
I don’t suppose you’d be willing to sale a few?
Maybe, I think Mara is debating trying out Etsy to sell these to people with their own custom design in the plastic.
I likes it !
Could you simply dremel the acrylic to get the same effect? Just thinking if there’s a cheaper way of doing this, but obviously it may sacrifice the precision.
do you have the settings for the silhouette and would you be willing to share?
All that information is on my blog post about the project, linked in this article.
I really want these for my wedding in may of 2014.. did your wife ever make a site to sell these? Please respond as soon as you can.. I am desperate for an LED blue centerpiece with NO flowers… :)
I loved these from the time I found them last summer. My son’s bar mitzvah is in Oct. and they would be absolutely perfect for him. I’ve got a Cameo and might be game to try the etching part but we don’t have access to a 3D printer. Suggestions?