Wedding Series #19

Tags

Bride to be, DIY Bride, uk bride, wedding, wedding post, Wedding prep

Super late again but as it’s my last official pre-wedding post you have to be nice and not mind. We’ve gone from saying months away, to weeks away and today I said 9 days away!!!! 9!!!!!!

I’m not going to lie we’ve both been feeling a little overwhelmed the last week or so (not helped by hormones doing their thing, lack of sleep, work being manic, brain being on overload and an accidental fall down the stairs) and for the first time in our 18months wedding planning journey we’ve both been feeling a little stressed.

The last few days have been better and I’ve nearly finished with work and the big jobs are getting ticked off… We’re getting there. but I’m not going to lie I’m ready for the wedding now, I want to marry my man and relax with my husband!!!

Maxwell has also been working so hard and we’re both so excited to see our day become a reality, all those hours and hours we’ve spent making and crafting and designing… we’ve utterly poured our hearts and souls into making the 27/7/17 a day we will remember, love and cherish always.

We’ve had our ups obviously… so many ups…. but in this last month we’ve had quite a few downs too… We found out our wedding hotel would be wrapped in scaffolding & opaque wrap, my MUA cancelled, My Uncle had a heart attack and he and my Auntie would be unable to come, I slipped and fell down the stairs and landed on a family heirloom of a cakestand… Fun huh?? We’ve had our fair share of mishaps in the last 30 days but it’s brought us closer and we’re coming out the other side.

We’ve come to terms with people not being able to come, we’ve dealt with delays and missing gifts… we’ve reorganised seating plans, sourced new suppliers, put plasters on cut bums and it’s all ok… A heads up that a DIY wedding is a lot of work, but it’s also wholey rewarding… stick with it. Be prepared, make a lot of lists, make sure you’re kind to yourself, get sleep when you can. Make time to kiss and check in with your other half and celebrate everything thing checked off that to-do list, hell, write down jobs you’ve just done just so you can tick them off!!!

So for the last pre wedding post I thought rather then dwell on the negatives we’ve encountered, I am instead going to be my optimistic self and thought I could share with you a few sneak peeks of things we’ve been working on…. I’m a bit too knackered to do a proper full detailed post but not wanting to miss out on my last wedding post as a Miss here’s some teasers for you….

So there you go… DIY confetti, handmade labels, immaculately put together engines, pre-planned table decor, wedding outfits ready to be returned, Wonderful new MUA’s, trinkets, treasures and hand painted signs….

So…. till next month I guess… I’m going to be missing in action for the next few weeks but I will be back, as Mrs Hyde and I promise I’ll share everything then…. xxxx

 

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Wedding Series #18

Tags

Bride to be, DIY Wedding, wedding, Wedding prep

You’ll have to forgive me for the lateness of this post but on the 27th of last month I was other wise engaged…. on my hen do!!!! Whoooop!!!! More on that later though…It’s also been a busy few weeks leading up to my best friends wedding yesterday (again more on that later)

I can’t believe that this is my second to last pre wedding series ever… how bizarre… where has that time gone?!?!

So…. what have we been up to in the last month? There’s been a lot more crafting and as we’ve entered June a big ol’ firework has been lit under the both our butts and there’s a sudden sense of urgency as our countdown has gone from ‘months away…’ to ‘weeks away…’ ahhhhh

We’ve been busy ensuring the little guests are throughly entertained throughout the day so have been collecting games and making dressing up items for them to enjoy.

We’re gonna make sure there’s a couple of footballs and a frisbee for the sporty ones and Mumma Lo is on the case making butterfly wings! (lets be honest which little girl doesn’t like dressing up) and with that in mind I’ve also made some cute little Native Indian-esq feather headdresses and some twirly whirly ribbon wands! (The photos are going to look adorable)

I also saw a cute idea on Pinterest of giving the littles disposable cameras so with that in mind I set a list of photo challenges and boxed them all up… I can’t wait to see what images they come up with… hopefully there’s some good ones in there amongst the photos of feet and blurry selfies! haha

Another little project I’ve been loving is collecting lots of old photos from our parents and grandparents from their wedding day… We’re going to have a little area in Miss Piggy for our guestbook and put them up in there, with some of our fave photos and some of my favourite love quotes, but for now they’re sat on my mantlepiece & looking gorgeous…

I’m also beyond excited that we have finally booked a few days away for our minimoon. I really wanted to disappear away for a few days after the big day and let everything sink in, away from chores, work, people, distractions etc. We’ve been a fan of Canopy & Stars for some time and we lucked out again with our minimoon.

We’re escaping to France for 5 nights and I cant imagine anything more beautiful & tranquil looking then this gorgeous place….

So in addition to that Maxwell is also plowing on with Kermit, our wedding car. Maxwell’s friend Pieter was over from Rotterdam last week and was able to help Maxwell start putting him back together again… How odd it’ll be to have our dining room back!! (it has resembled a car garage for months now) haha

Next week is my family do, which I’m beyond excited about! We’re off to Limewood for afternoon tea, which’ll be blooming lovely and I’ve given in to the fact that for the next 6 weeks (ahhhhhh) the house will be over taken with wedding stuff…. we have bridesmaid dresses hanging from the doors, petals drying in front of all the windows, boxes of decor being washed, dried and re packed…. it’s all starting to feel very real and quite exciting and having just attended another spectacular wedding the bar has been set even higher and I can’t blooming wait to wallow in my own bubble of ‘wedding’…. I’ll be back soon for our 1 month count down…… WHAT!!?!?!?!?!?!?!/ ❤

 

Wedding Series #15

Tags

Bride to be, creative, DIY Bride, gifts, Making things, making wedding rings, Wedding Blog, wedding blogger, Wedding prep

Well, we’ve made it; officially the year that I marry my love! How very very exciting!!

Ask any 2017 bride-to-be and she’ll tell you that the moment you cheered ‘Happy New Year’ it suddenly feels like you’ve got soooooooo much to do…. Maybe it’s the fact you can now say “we’re getting married this year” that fuels this urge to get stuff done? But what ever the reason… There’s been a huge sense of urgency over the last month… and what a month it’s been!!

So…. What have we been up to…? Well for one, I created the worlds biggest to-do list (Oh… The joys of having a mainly DIY approach) and we’ve been efficiently working our way through it I’m proud to add!!

The boys suits are all sorted! Hurray!!! Not something I predicted would a bit of a headache but getting the perfect mis-matched look was more challenging then I imagined… I’m happy to report that they are all sorted though, all happy with their outfits and they all look blooming gorgeous! yay!

Maxwell has been super busy getting Kermit (our wedding car) looking gorgeous too. Our basement comically looks like a car garage as various car parts are being lovingly stripped back, primed and painted a beautiful forest green! I love that he’s putting so much effort into making sure our wedding ride is perfect… I know boys can sometimes feel a little left out in the whole wedding prep game, but I really think that Maxwell is really interested in playing his part and making sure his input is apparent and evident too! What a lovely man I’ve bagged myself!

We’ve also sorted our evening invites… I’ll share some pics next month so not to ruin the surprise to any guests that are yet to receive one. Like with our day guests we’ve kept the evening guest list small and intimate… I’m so happy we’ve done this as I know everyone there is a true part of our lives. I’m not sure how many will come (being that it’s in the middle of nowhere on a Thursday night) but these extra people have been a part of Maxwell and my lives and I want them to know that. They shall be heading into the postbox tomorrow morning! eekk!!

I’ve also made a start hemming our napkins (no small task trust me) For the last year I have been collecting a variety of vintage fabric to use. My thought was it would add a bit of individuality to the table but also that I would be able to keep them after to use at home and maybe hire out (more on that later) I’m currently half way through and I’m so happy with how they’re looking!

We’ve also been busy sorting gifts for our nearest and dearest. I’m SO excited with my gift for Maxwell, obviously I won’t say what it is on here (on the off chance he pops by to check what I’ve been saying) but it’s PERFECT!!! The rest of the crew are getting a mix of handmade or vintage items! I also got super prepared as I gift wrapped all the mini maids pressies ready to go! How cute do they look??

Finally, the other big thing we’ve done is we made our wedding rings!!!! ekkkkk!!

I’ve been looking forward to doing this for ages and it didn’t disappoint! We spent the day with the awesome Sarah Macrae. I have known Sarah for about 10 years through my work and she’s an amazing designer jeweller. Sarah invited us to her home studio were we spent the most enjoyable day making each others wedding bands. I was a little unsure what I’d go for because of the size and shape of my engagement ring, but after chatting to my bestie and bride-to-be Miss Hayden she suggested why didn’t I go for another finger. So simple!! haha… It’s so easy to get caught up in what you ‘should’ do… it’s sometimes hard to see another simple option which is right in front of your face! So with this in mind I started thinking about what I wanted…. Maxwell had seen a ring (dirty rose-gold beat-up looking thing with grooves round the edges) which he’d kinda decided he wanted. I didn’t really mind which metal my ring was, as long as it matched Maxwell. So rose gold it was… Having said that I also wanted something that would also talk to my engagement ring, so I decided to buy a vintage marcasite eternity band (found on etsy) to sit alongside my wedding ring.

So, decisions made and gold brought it was time to start making. With my job I kinda know the process and have made rings before but for Max it was a first time experience! Sarah was brilliant, she talked us through each step then left us to get on with it which was super lovely too. We started by making sure the wire strips were the right length, Maxwell went for 6x2mm D shape, mine was 2mm square wire. Once we’d got the length right and ends were filed flat, it was time to start bending it round into a as much of a ring shape as possible… when it wouldn’t go any more we annealed the metal to make it more pliable. Ends now touching it was time to solder the join.

After a spot of lunch (with homemade bread I might add) it was time to get the rings to fit…. this was the most time consuming part, using a mandrel and a rawhide mallet we bashed and bashed until the rings were perfectly round and flat!

Then for Maxwell the time to polish had come… He did such a good job and my ring is seamless and so beautiful. It sits perfectly alongside the marcasite eternity ring, I’m pretty proud of my boy… he did good!

I didn’t have it quite so easy! After getting Maxwell’s ring perfect and smooth it was time to create the grooved effect. I did this by making 2 smaller rings with 1.2mm round wire, filing the edges flat and then soldering them all together.

I think the hardest part was ensuring the inside of Maxwell’s ring was as perfect as he’d made mine, luckily, maxwell didn’t mind it looking a little homemade in the middle so after a hell of a lot of polishing I too was done!

Hooray!!! It was quite emotional at times, Something I hadn’t have anticipated. Making something so special, for the person you love most in the world is a very beautiful thing, continually trying rings on all day is also pretty cute! ha ha

So there you have it, after about 5 hours, a delicious lunch and a wonderful day spent with Sarah in her beautiful home & workshop, we headed off… We’d intentionally booked in the ring making for the 27/1/17 which marked our 6month count down. We ditched the diet for the evening and treated ourselves to dinner at Fez, a beautiful little turkish restaurant down a little side road in Petersfield. We shared a selection of starters and enjoyed a non alcoholic drink each (oh hey Dry January)

So there you have it… if you’re a bride to be, who’s not got their wedding bands yet I would 100% recommend making yours own, and if you’re looking for a jeweller then 100% go speak to Sarah, I can’t recommend her enough!!! We had such fun, and we’re both super proud of what we made. I want to wear mine all the time, but for now, it’s living in my engagement ring box with Maxwells where it’ll live for the next 6 months (only occasionally being taken out and tried on! ha ha)

so, till next time, this Bride-to-be is signing off! x

Chop Chop

Tags

Before and After, Getting the chop, Hair Chop, hair cut, Wedding prep

I did my first proper wedding prep last week… In a bid to gain beautiful long healthy wedding hair I was oh-so prepared and had a proper chop… We’re talking like 5-6 inches chop…. Ekk….

With a follow up trim booked in for 10 weeks for once in my life I will be a proper grown up and see if it makes any difference! haha… fingers crossed hey!

So here’s before and after…