Post Wedding Series #1

Tags

Bride to be, DIY Bride, DIY Wedding, Handmade favours, Making things, Name cards, Oyster shell candles, Oyster Shell Place names, The Oyster Shed, Wedding Blog, wedding decor, Wedding tutorial

The funny thing about planning a wedding and being a blogger is you want to share everything and talk about your DIYing and all the amazing things you’ve made, designed or created, but as a bride, you want to keep all these ideas private so they’re a surprise for your guests.

Because of this I have decided to schedule a load of Post Wedding blog posts which share all the things I have been doing for my (and friends) weddings.

I’m actually writing this post in September 2016 but will schedule it for late June 2017 a few days after the wedding.

Hold on you might be thinking…. You’re not getting married till next month and you’re correct! This first post is for bestfriend B, the new Mrs Baker.  I will be sharing the favours which we made for their wedding which was on 10 June.

Being a bridesmaid is a wonderful thing and I loved helping B make these beautiful favours and place names. I first wrote about this here, but what I didn’t mention in the post was that The Oyster Shed was actually the reception venue for the new Mr & Mrs Baker.

Because of this, and actually it was my mum’s suggestions, we made candles from oyster shells for the favours and used the unsuitable ones as place names (and idea I spotted on Pinterest)

The Oyster Shed kindly kept a load of oyster shells for B to use for this little DIY project… We hysterically carried them home in a big black sack in a slightly drunken state on a balmy night in August last year and chuckled how Becca was like a tipsy oyster santa…. Something we found highly amusing at the time!

Now… Let’s talk how we did it… Candles first.

I should mention first that the Oyster Shed, in addition to collecting the shells, also cleaned and baked them in the oven to remove the little connective thing that attaches the shell to the oyster. This meant when we collected the shells they were ready to go and nice and clean.

If you’re thinking about trying to make some I’d recommend doing the same… No one likes a stinky fishy candle!

Once you have your nice clean shells lay them down and sort out which ones lay flat with a good depth (ie none that have a really low side)

Once you’ve sorted the usable shells from the non usable ones it’s time to get your candle making game going…

Now being an artist I own a batik pot which we used for the activity, If you don’t have one though I recommend visiting this site. It’s where I bought the scents, wicks and bases from. They have everything you’d need and were fast with their delivery too!

We used paraffin wax which despite the name, actually contains no paraffin. It’s made from a bi-product of the oil refining industry – a bi-product that would otherwise be thrown away, which is good but also because I read that paraffin wax is excellent a taking scents and is the ideal choice for most candle making purposes, especially for beginners. yay!

So a big old bag of paraffin wax nuggets came with me to london. I also ordered 10m of wick and some bases…. again all from this site.

I cleaned the batik pot and added the fresh wax and once it had melted added some concentrated scents, Bec wanted clean fresh smells so I bought ‘fresh laundry’ and ‘cut grass’… which were both light and not to stuff/heavy.

At the point Becca and Edwards house smelt amazing.

we popped the bases into the flattest part of the shell and pressed down lightly so the metal moulded to the bottom of the shell. We then threaded the wick through and trimmed with a cm or 2 to spare.

We constructed a tiny ladle from a tea spoon and slowly and carefully poured the hot wax in around the wick which was held upright for a few seconds until the wax began to cool and set a bit. For the first few I’d suggest working together as one can hold the wick upright whist the other is spooning the wax in! Teamwork! We still had to trim the wicks down when this photo was take but you get the general idea!

Once done and set they looked beautiful and I know the guests are going to love them! Such a lovely memento of a special day.

Not wanting to be wasteful and because we knew they’d look beautiful, I used all the empty non flat shells for the place names. I got this pen and just wrote the names on in a delicate script. I think they look great don’t you?

So there you go… My first post wedding post in this new series! (It’s exciting I get to continue the wedding talk after the big day(s) Hooray!

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Wedding Series #16

Tags

Boho Wedding, Bride to be, Bridesmaids, DIY Wedding, Ginger and Peach, mini maids, Vegan, Wedding Blog, Wedding catering, wedding decor, Wedding planning

Another month, another update from this boho bride-to-be… It’s been an eventful month over here, one that’s tested and tried us but as we bid farewell to February, and say hello to March, I’m happy to report we are all good and we are smiling, which is all that matters right?!

The month took an unexpected turn at beginning when our lovely housemate told us he’d be moving out the following week as he’d found the perfect little studio flat. Obviously this was a bit of a shock, both personally and financially, but we understood why he was moving on and we needed to adjust and figure out what to do. We discussed our options as financially having a housemate was helping us out hugely with saving for the wedding but on the flip side, did we want to bring a stranger into our home and have them put up with all our wedding junk everywhere….? The answer was no… Bringing in someone for just the next 6months seemed pointless and honestly we were ready to just have our own home, so we did just that. We briefly looked into mortgages, but have decided for our sanity, that we would instead stay put for the next 6 months and the readdress the situation once we’re husband and wife.

So yeah… a bit weird and it’s been tough, but it’s also been wonderful….We’ve started being even more frugal with our spending and equally are trying to make even more money any way we can; be it through selling artwork / old clothes / working 24/7 to make up for the £2000 which we’ll be down come July. Obviously this also means that paying out for wedding things has become a bit more tricky but our parents have all been wonderful and are continuing to help us where possible. It really does make you realise how lucky are doesn’t it, when you’re in a tight spot, and people are there checking in and helping where they can.

Everyone knows weddings are expensive, but life in general is too, chatting to friends recently and it seems everyone can relate! It’s definitely one of those years where everyone is getting married and everyone has multiple weddings to attend! Fun yes, but expensive too!

We’re continuing to keep costs inline though by doing as much ourselves as possible. Also, I’m just going to put it out there, having our own home is amazing. I feel like I can truly relax 100% in my own home, which after renting with various people over the last 8 years, is an amazing feeling. We have for the first time got a home just us two and we’re loving it. And I’m excited for the next year or so where hopefully we can really start building our own home together!

In the mean time we have wisely transformed our spare room (how grown up does that sound) into ‘wedding HQ’ and as I write I’m sat in front of the window, light flooding in, surrounded by all our wedding treasures and creations! It’s pretty lovely!

So moving on. What else have we been up to? I mentioned last month that I’d created the biggest to-do list you’d ever seen, we’ll we’re still working through that. I also mentioned and promised to share with you some photos of our evening invites so here goes…

Sorry the pics aren’t as nice as my first lot, I just snapped them quickly for this blog post, but hopefully you can see kind of what we did, we created another roll fold to keep all the bits in the middle but put all the top tips in the inside. I’m really proud of them and think the whole invitation design thing was super fun!! Also feedback was lovely! Yay!

So… what else have been up to? I finished all the napkins finally (am so happy with them) they are also all folded, pressed and I have tied these up with place settings and favours…yay! Maxwell wants me to keep the end result a surprise for our guests, so for now I will just show you a sofa full of pressed napkins in all their prettiness!

We (amazing Mumma and I) have also been continuing work on my dress (whoo hoo) and those of the mini maids! For the last year (at least) I have been collecting a hoard of vintage lace and crochet trims, vintage and second hand garments. The mini’s, all 8 of them are all have mismatched cream/white/ivory dresses with a very vintage / boho look. Mumma and I got out all my treasures and matched things up coming up with a design for each little lady. Mumma has been amazing, washing everything and starting to compile all the dresses, we even did our first fitting on my niece the other day and if that’s anything to go by these little ladies are going to be melting everyones hearts!!!

I’ll wait till next month to give you a sneak peek of the dresses as I’ll also scan in my designs!

One more fun thing we did this month was have a tasting for our vegan friends. The wedding is pretty much all vegetarian but as we have quite a few vegans coming we wanted to make sure that no one felt left out when the food came out, especially in relation to the evening buffet which is basically cheese and crackers! haha! So with that in mind we reached out to our dear friends and raw food specialists Ginger and Peach. Tara, the amazing food guru prepared us 3 nut cheeses to sample and they were amazing…

Tara made us a herbed pine nut and cashew log, an aged macadamia nut cheeze and a cashew cheddar cream cheeze. These were amazing and I’m so excited to be able to offer our vegan friends something so unique! We have also decided to ask Tara to make us one of her stunning raw cakes to liven up our evening cake buffet! Yum! So exciting that things are all coming together and I’m loving that we’re involving one of our fave local business!

The last thing I want to tell you about is make up! I’ve been umming and ahhing for ages about what to do… do I DIY, do I have a professional lesson then still DIY or do I bring in someone who knows what they’re doing? Well a couple of weeks back I was staying with my bestie Becca and she had he make up trail when I was there and I was mega impressed… you know sometimes things just align and work out? Karma I like to think of it as, well I started chatting to a MUA friend who I’ve worked with previously and she mentioned she was coming down and with a rare monday off, our diaries clicked and we’re booking in a trial, which is exciting! With that in mind I’ve been pinning Make up ideas and I’m super excited!

I’ll share some pics next month! ekkkk!!

So, I think I’ve rambled on enough for one post (maybe it’s time to start doing 2 a month?!!)

Till next time… x

Hitched Part 2 – Mr & Mrs Reid

Tags

Colour Inspiration, Rosie's, tropical wedding, uk bride, wedding, Wedding Day, wedding decor

As I mentioned before, I offered to set up for my lovely friend Kate & her now hubby Joff’s wedding back in early September.

I wanted to wait a while so the new Mrs Reid could share the pics first…. no one should steal the brides thunder!

But now It’s late October I hope I’m safe to share some of the decor I helped to put out for the big day.

Now I’m taking no real credit for the amazing end results… Kate and Joff had sourced, made or bought all the items which transformed Rosie’s (a traditional french vineyard restaurant) into the tropical wedding haven it became, all I did was send a few pinterest suggestions and arrange everything with my lovely fiancé Maxwell.

Kate and Joff had a clear picture for their big day and this was reflected in everything they brought together which helped make the reception so them. From hiding traditional fireplaces to masking prints and blackboards which weren’t them, the final result looked effortless and absolutely stunning! The handmade lengths of rag bunting, the signs… it’s all the little touches that really made it so special!

On the Friday evening I joined Kate, her mum, Joff and the best man and we made an early start putting up the rag bunting and doing the lights/tablecloths. (a very wise move as we used all 3 hours of time in the morning to do the rest!)

When Saturday morning came around Maxwell and I loaded my car with boxes and boxes of pink and green and rocked up at Rosie’s at 9am on the dot to start doing our work. With the hand dip dyed table cloths already in place the first thing I did was lay out the grey marble paper place mats and place setting/name cards which the couple had screen printed themselves. The little bundle of pink menu, tropical green napkin and tracing paper name was lovely and already gave the tables a fab feel.

After that it was time to start doing the styling and dressing the tables. Kate had put together a box for each table including a mix of candle jars, candle sticks, faux plants and flowers, hand painted table numbers by Joff and tea light holders and mini pineapples.

I knew Kate wasn’t a matchy matchy kinda girl so I just did what I felt worked and was able to creatively put items together which looked good and gave the table more height and colour. The end result was stunning. I checked it looked good from all angles and also added some extra fresh eucalyptus leaves into the mix to get more greenery onto the tables.

After that we set up the drinks table. We fashioned a stand from a yellow wire basket I had at home and laid out cups, straws and a few styling items.

Then it was time for the garden… I cut lengths of ombré dyed fabric to cover the silver tables and dressed the tops with a mix of lanterns, pineapples, flowers and candles. It was lovely as it brought the decor out into the garden and created a little tropical garden paradise!

Apart from a rose gold love balloon and a few black board signs which we did, the next thing on our to-do list was the cake & gift table. Kate and Joff had decorated a woven screen with huge pink flowers and green foliage and in front of that sat the cake table. This would act as a focal point for the room and it looked amazing.

We laid out a huge wooden cake stand which was graced by an amazing grey marble cake from Carl Christian’s Cakes in Southsea and topped with a green posey from Ultraviolet Flowers (who also did the sensational bouquets and flower crown) We placed hexagonal bamboo plates around either side of the cakestand legs. On either side of that I loaded brass plates with huge piles of pink and white sprinkled donuts! AMAZING!

Next to that was the guestbook/gift table. I started by draping a length of daisy adorned fabric which was once destined to be Kate’s veil over the edge of a big woven basket. Also on the table was a lightbox sign (with the best message) a brass pineapple, the guestbook and some flowers and other little bits and bobs.

The end result was a sight for sore eyes… It all looked amazing and I’m happy to share that the amazing newlyweds were over the moon with how it all looked! I’m so thrilled. It was an absolute pleasure to do and I hope photos do it justice!

I have also stolen and shared a couple of pictures of the beautiful Mr & Mrs Reid because well they look so darn gorgeous! If you don’t already you should follow Kate’s awesome blog…. She shared weekly wedding inspiration posts  in the run up to the big day which tell the story of their inspiration and how this tropical theme came to be! Congrats to you both you pair of babes! You can also see Kate’s wedding summary on here blog here.

I should also mention Mr & Mrs Reid utterly spoilt us with the kindest of thank you gifts! I was overwhelmed and she really is such a babe! ❤

Hitched – A tropical Reid wedding

Tags

DIY Bride, tropical wedding, wedding, wedding decor, wedding reception

I mentioned before that my beautiful friend and work buddy Kate was getting married and that many a bride to bride conversation had gone down over the last few months as we exchanged plans and ideas.
Well the date has finally arrived and Kate and her lovely boy Joff are marrying tomorrow.

The future Reid’s have had a fun few months making and DIYing lots of gorgeous tropical decor!

I volunteered to help set up in the morning, to give the bridal party a morning off but mainly because Maxwell and I have done it a few times now and I love a good wedding sneak peak!! 

I won’t give too much away now, but I’m really excited….my lounge is full of boxes of green and pink tropical loveliness!! And I can’t wait to help make the new Reid’s special day… Really special! 

I’ll share a couple of pics from Kate’s Instagram feed to give you a flavour of the day…. It’s going to be amazing!!