Handmade Wedding...
Hey Everyone...
I really hope you have been enjoying my wedding related posts! I promise you that I am almost done, but today I wanted to share all the handmade touches we added to the wedding, to make it really personal!
When I first started looking for wedding inspiration, I found some beautiful table plans using vintage mirrors and I knew it was something I wanted to do. I looked for professionally made ones but they were so expensive that I decided to do it myself. I used a mirror from Wilkinsons and printed the table plan onto pearlescent card, before adding ribbon that matched our colour scheme, and pear buckles from ebay. We have kept the cards and plan to hang the mirror in our bathroom!
When it came to confetti - I knew I wanted one of those lovely shots of it being thrown! I had seen beautiful confetti cones online, but again the expense was ridiculous! As I was going for a vintage theme, I decided to use doilies to make the cones! Then whilst car booting, I saw a this lovely picnic basket. I had seen people use old suitcases to hold cards and I though this would be perfect for the cones. I printed a little sign - attached it with mini pegs and some rustic string, and the fiance cut holes in a piece of stiff card to hold the cones!
My use of doilies didn't stop there! We used them on the place settings, but I also cut them into cupcake wrappers! I had lusted over some beautiful wrappers online (guess what? They were really expensive too) and decided I wanted to make my own - just using a printable template and some double sided tape - super easy and very effective - especially when we knew they would be thrown away!
My use of doilies was a bit of an obsession - back when we first got engaged, we had some lovely 'save the date' magnets printed from vistaprint.co.uk - I wrapped them in little doilies - using a tutorial from a magazine - to post them out to people!
Early on in the planning I saw some beautiful post boxes for cards! This was something I knew I could make myself - so with over a year and a half until the wedding I made this beauty. I used a set of three storage boxes which I found reduced - cut in holes, stuck them together, and wrapped in pretty pink paper. I added white ribbon and some old strings of pearl beads found in charity shops.
Instead of paying for impersonal professional stationary we decided to make our own. We had an acquaintance design our invitations, which we then printed ourselves and decorated with stick on pearls and tied with lace.
This led us to design and print our own order of ceremony. We used a layout we found online and changed it to included our names and wedding date. Then we used an old typewriter font for the inserts, printing them all ourselves and tying with matching ribbon.
Whilst at a wedding fair, the fiance and I had tried out a wedding photobooth - it was so much fun - but at a minimum of Ā£500 we just couldn't justify it. After searching on the web we decided to do our own, so we printed and cut out lots of props attaching them to kebab skewers. We used printables online to make personalised signs, and even little tickets. I found the little chalkboard in a craft shop, and I decorated jars to hold the props using lace, ribbon and (you guesses it) doilies!
I also used some online printables to make this little 'Almost Married' banner which I hung in the bedroom, whilst we were getting ready on the morning of the wedding!
I had seen lots of lovely white wooden 'Mr & Mrs' signs and really wanted one for our top table - however, I knew it would only get used once. So the fiance made this card one which I attached to baker's twine!
For the flower girls baskets I found some old baskets in charity shops, and used white spray paint to cover them - then I added some paper flowers in our colour theme and some ribbon to the handles.
I also wanted to add something handmade to the gifts. We printed 'Thank You' signs in our typewriter print, and I hand stamped some little tags for the boxes. For the boys, inside where some handmade scrabble cufflinks with their initials!
For the girls there were handmade pearl stud earrings (as well as some other non-handmade gifts)
For the flowergirls gifts I bought some basic jewellery boxes from Hobbycraft and then used decoupage papers to cover them. We cut their names from thick card and painted them before adding these to the lids.
The favours were also handmade - for the women - there were sets of vintage afternoon tea recipes cards. Hand printed and wrapped in lace and pearl string!
Everyone also had a little jar - inside we put some seeds in a little envelope. I made some Cath Kidston and gingham jar covers (which took the longest of everything) which he secured with ribbon. Then I made some tags with vintage papers and buttons, and a stamped sentiment on the reverse.
On each of the tables, the sugar bowl was filled with handmade pink heart shaped sugar, that I made the day before using food colouring and a heart shaped cutter.
We used more tags for our 'wish tree' instead of a guestbook. We simply stamped our names and date (using a vistaprint stamp) on to the reverse! We added a frame with instructions on how to 'use' it.
The week before the wedding in Brighton I picked up these two pebbles and decided to write 'Bride' and 'Groom' on them for the top table - and placed them next to our place settings.
To decorate the gift table I made a red and pink button heart frame using vintage buttons.
Although not really handmade, we added a pile of romantic & personal books to the gift table, wrapped in Lace.
For the centrepieces we collected lots of vintage tea cups and saucers and glued them together in towers. In the flowers we added fake polaroids of us in places that are special to us, holding a large silver number - to mark our table numbers!
Finally we handmade some thank you cards using ribbon to make bunting and hand stamping the words 'Thank You'
As you can see a lot of time and effort went into making our day not only special but affordable - I was frequently annoyed at how expensive 'wedding' items were and decided to show that you can have a beautiful wedding without spending more than you can afford. Everyone commented on how special the day was, and how personal all the touches were. Most were very surprised to know things were handmade and remarked how unique it made the day.
Well that's it for all my wedding posts! I can't quite believe it! Next time I will post about our honeymoon, and when our wedding video is finished I will try to post that too! I will be sad to stop reliving it, but so much has happened since, that I have plenty to catch up on and blog about!
Love Jewel xXx
Julie you are so clever and everything is so beautiful and thoughtful.
ReplyDeleteIf I were you I`d get a table at a wedding fayre booked and sell your beautiful creations.
Dx
You're in the wrong job! I don't know what you work at but you really should try getting yourself into this wedding game, mrs! Your ideas are brilliant and the attention to detail is fantastic. I really mean it, you ought to be a wedding planner for people who want that vintage look.
ReplyDeleteYou should have a think about at least having a dabble to see how you get on.
xx
There are so many things you have done that I have said I would love to do for my own wedding. Not only does it make it more affordable it is so much more personal and knowing the time, love and care that went into making and organising it is something you will always remember :) x x x x
ReplyDeleteLove all of the handmade touches, really made it unique! Doilies are a firm favourite with me too :)
ReplyDeleteEstelle xx
Everything was so beautiful. I think the fact that you handmade a lot of the things will have added a very personal touch to your wedding day that money just can't buy. It is so lovely that you both put in so much effort and it demonstrated a real commitment to each other. Linda xxx
ReplyDeleteYou've certainly put a lot of effort into your wedding and the result is spectacular! Everything is so special, well thought out and beautiful!
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Veronica.
I've really enjoyed seeing what you made, its all so gorgeous.
ReplyDelete