A Spot of DIY

My Personal Touches

Many brides make lots of their elements of their own weddings and I am no different.

I went to a stationary lady to make our wedding invitations and orders of service, because it’s so difficult to get the printing in exactly the right place, and when it comes to the wedding, I’m not very patient.

But I did want to make some elements of the wedding that I was sure I wouldn’t be able to ruin.

I’m also making the table plan but I haven’t started that yet as I’m still waiting for all the RSVP’s to come in.

Favours

I didn’t make but I did buy the favours myself, and I am going to fill them with mini eggs.

We wanted to have a little nod to Easter, as we’re getting married that weekend, so we have chosen mini eggs for the sweets in the favours. I bought the boxes from Confetti in the sale. They were already put together with the ribbon on, and they were cheaper than if I’d bought and assembled them myself!

I really like them, they’re sturdy and pretty.

H2b didn’t want everyone to have a little box, he wanted to alternate the favours and suggested some little bags. He actually spotted them in Hobby Craft.

I really like how they’re the right colour but they’ve also got a little bit of sparkle on them. Sparkle is a theme throughout our wedding, along with lilac, but not too overtly.

Table Confetti

I wanted to have a mix of diamantes and paper confetti.

My little brother spent a few hours cutting out 128 double happiness pieces. My h2b said that 128 was an auspicious number, so that’s how many we cut out using a stamp my friend found on the internet for me. 

I used some thin lilac card from Hobby Craft for the confetti as the colour was on both sides. It was very difficult to find the right paper but I’m really pleased with the effect. There’s a shiny side and a dull side which I think adds to the detail on the tables.

I found the diamantes on Amazon, for a fraction of the place that your typical wedding suppliers were selling them. I’m not sure if that’s enough for an entire table but I can always get another bag of each colour to cover the tables.

I didn’t exactly make the diamantes myself, but I will sort it all into batches for the tables myself.

Place Name Tabs

I made these all by myself on Making Day, and I’m rather pleased with them.

I chose purple and silver ribbon from Hobby Craft as it fitted in with the theme of the wedding, and I thought it looked pretty too.

They look a bit yellow in this picture because of the warm light from my living room, but you can get the idea from the picture.

I put double sided tape on one side of the lilac ribbon as I found that this stuck onto the card labels best. The flowers were self adhesive and this seemed to stick together with the ribbon quite well. The over all effect was this:

I’m really pleased with how they turned out. I bought the silver shimmer place cards from Amazon which I really liked and wrapped the ribbon around them with the flowers on top. I hadn’t copied the idea from anywhere, the design just built itself from the resources I had available. There are probably many other similar designs out there.

The Table Plan

I’m still awaiting a few more RSVP’s before I start to build the seating plan, I’m not sure how many tables I’m going to need and how many people are sitting at each table.

I also don’t have an exact idea of how I’m going to make the table plan, and I’m even tempted to ask someone else to make it for me!

My idea was to use the ribbon

and the diamante flowers

to go down the side of the list. I’ll quickly do an artist’s impression.

frame image from istockphoto.com

I was going to use a silver frame from Wilkinson’s, and some lilac rectangles as a boarder. I was planning on printing the names onto some thin, white card and then place the ribbon to the side. I’m not sure if it’ll work but that’s the idea I’ve got.

I will post some more images of it when I’m closer to finishing it.

Photo Booth Project

As you know from a previous post, my h2b is making our photo booth. That’s a project much bigger than anything I’m making. My h2b is working really hard on the booth with some help from my dad.

While everything I’m making is small and pretty, this booth is going to be big and elegant. H2b chose the wall paper and the design, I helped to choose some of the frames.

He’s working so hard, I can’t wait to see when it’s finished!

Sharing Ideas

I hope I’ve shared some ideas that are helpful. I used Hobby Craft a lot in my designs because it’s the only craft shop that I am aware of in my area and I wanted to be able to see most of the things I wanted before I bought them.

There are many more resources for wedding craft on the internet from:

• Wedding Craft.co.uk  - Quite a good website and well worth a visit. It’s got lots of templates that you do have to pay for but that you can make yourself! It’s got lots of card templates.
  
  
• The Craft Cabin.co.uk – Lovely website with all the crafty bits and pieces you’d use to embellish your craft creations. They sell Swarovski crystals too, and even have tips on how to glue them on! Bonus!
  
  
• Handy Hippo.co.uk – Another nice website with lots of crafty things, all listed by colour and theme.

And, of course, there is Amazon and eBay. Good luck!