Beaded bra straps

Please excuse the picture of my underwear but i'm quite proud of it!

The shape of the back of my wedding dress means that you can see a portion of my bar straps. Since going without any support is not an option i decided that if you can see them i'd better make them pretty!

 

So i used the little bag of spare beads you get with embellished dresses and embellished the part of the bra straps that you'll see. Now they look like theyre supposed to be there - hidden in plain sight!

Seating plan

This definitely means the wedding is nearly here - the seating plan is now fixed!

I just bought some purple mountboard, printed the tables and occupants on some coloured card and fixed them in place with some lovely lacey washi tape i found on ebay

Then i just embellished it with some dried lavender - to keep it in line with the theme!

Its all very real now!!! :)

Emergency kits

Ive put together some emergency kits for the wedding. This one is for the guest and us, it'll be in the toilets at the reception.

Deodrant (mens and womens), suntan lotion, hand wipes, chewing gum, dental floss, hand gel, insect repellent, moisturiser, hairspray, hair grips.

Then i'll have my own emergency kit, for me and lovely BM, just in case.

Iussues, cooling spray, static wipes, oil absorbing sheets, eyedrops, thread (white, grey and black), ibuprofen, paracetamol, hair clip, needle, spare contact lenses, plasters (various sizes), deowipes, mints, antihistamines, hair bands.

Hopefully that covers everything!

Bleach 'dyed' bride tshirt

Ive seen a few of these bleached bride tshirts on the interweb so i thought id make my own to wear on the wedding morning

 

I just used a clorex bleach pen i bought off ebay. If you use one make sure you shake it well first and use it on a test piece first to get rid of the air bubbles - my B is a bit messy because of air bubbles.

Wedding Chalkboard

 

As our guests are arriving at our venue before us i thought id do a cute little blackboard letting them know the plan!

Center pieces - lace and string jars, bottles and cans

 

 

Centerpieces are well underway! I de-labelled a lot of cans, jars and bottles, wrapped them in lace trim (fixed with a glue gun) and then wrapped the lace with purple garden twine (a little bit of glue on the knot fixed it in place). I'll arrange them on the tables and fill them with lavender the day before the big day!!

Wedding prep!

The spare room is gradually filling with wedding shaped items!!! Squeee!!

Imagination!

Can you see the cat in the wood grain?

How about now?

Lovely BM thinks im a crazy person but i love my imagined cat!!

Bottle (or jar) label removal

As im DIYing a lot of the wedding and trying to keep costs down ive been hoarding glass bottles and jars to use in centerpieces and various other stuff. This has led to me having to remove a lot of labels from these bottle and jars. Theres a lot of tips and tricks on the interweb about the best way to do this but i thought i would share my best way of doing it. Although the pics are of a wine bottle the same works on jars etc too

This is the wine bottle im using as a demo, a very nice red valpolicello that lovely BM is partial to!

First off i score the label, some labels have a shiny coating and scoring it lets the water penetrate and makes it quicker to remove

Next get your scored label good and wet. Then you can scrape the top layer of the label off. I alternate between a finger nail and the abrasive side of a washing up sponge. Really youre only trying to get the top papery layer off the label. They will definitely be glue and some of the label left after this step.

Once the top layer is off its time to pull out the big guns! WD40 is one of my favourite things ever (it shines up stainless steel like nothing else!) and its great for getting glue and residue off stuff. Liberally apply it to the label remnants, allow it to soak in and then scrape off a much as you can. Again a finger nail or washing up sponge works well.

If youre lucky the glue will come off as well at this stage and you can just wash your bottle with soap and water. But often theres a residue left on the bottle from the glue.

To take this off i use acetone nail varnish remover. Put some on a cotton wool pad or some tissue and rub the glue residue until its all gone. For particularly stubborn residue you can lay acteone soaked cotton wool over the residue and then wrap it in clingfilm (stops the acetone evaporating) and leave the acetone to work its magic.

Then you can wash your bottle with some soap and water to remove any of the WD40 and acetone.

Hopefully after all these steps you'll have a lovely label and glue free wine bottle (or jar)!

Chocolate wedding cakes make

Wedding cake number 2 (chocolate) is made - eek!
Only six weeks to go now so my blogging might be a bit sporadic from now on!

Groom stubby holder

 

Little hand embroidered stubby holder for lovely BM for the big day! Im hoping he'll try and drink out of a nice glass but i like to plan for all alcohol consumption related situations!

Lace tip wedding shoes

 

 

My proper wedding shoes (the one for the photos, the ones ill be wearing once all that's done are here) are only inexpensive ones from a low cost shoe shop. But they arent exactly the right colour on the tip, theyre a bit too gold, i need them more silver. I though i might try spray painting them but just wasnt feeling it. So i thought id try and embellish them with some lace instead. I figured if i didnt like it i could still paint them. I just used pva glue and stuck the trimmed lace directly on the shoe leather (by leather i mean plastic!). I think theyve turned out pretty well :) i dont think theyd withstand much rain or even much use to be honest but theyll more than do for the big day! Im going to wear them around a bit and check it all stays in, if not i might paint them instead...

Waitressing apron

I help out on my family's lavender farm occasionally as waitress so i decided to make myself a little apron to wear whilst waitressing! Its just a simple one with two deep pockets at the front, very easy so if i make another one i might do a tutorial on it so watch this space!

 

Wedding Card Trunk

 

While Lovely BM is off on his stag do i cracked on with wedding stuff! I spotted my Dad's old boarding school tuck box (off of Enid Blyton!) a little while ago and knew i wanted to use it at the wedding. I was going to line all the sides with fabric but i quite liked some of the ink stains so i decided to leave them uncovered. 

I just cut a piece of thick mount board the same size as the bottom and covered it with some cute purple flower fabric i already had and popped it in the bottom.

Then i made a really simple card banner for the top. I just cut the letters out of grey card, glued them to peach and lilac rectangles and then pegged them to some string. I juts draped that over the top and fixed it with a bit of tape - so easy and so cute!

Lady bird cave man?

The strange things people get you make when they know youre crafty! Its lovely BM's stag do soon and his friends wanted to recreated a notorious ladybird outfit he used to go clubbing in in his youth so they got me to make it! 

Lovely BM wisely threw away the original outfit some years ago so i had to make my own interpretation of it and its turned out slightly more caveman than originally planned but it still makes me laugh whenever i see it in my craft room! Cant wait for the pictures of the man himself in it - although i probably wont be allowed to post them on here!

 

Wedding cake - fruit cake

The first real wedding cake, not a tester, has been made :) This is the one the guests will eat - eeek! 

The fruit cake needs to sit for a few months to develop its flavour and so we can feed it with brandy so ive made it 2 months ahead of the wedding. This is the one im not decorating myself so the caterer also wanted ti made sooner rather than later.

I made a 30cm cake mix but baked it in a 23cm tin as i wanted it tall rather than wide. Just make sure you 23cm tin has tall side or add extra lining paper above the tin height to contain the mixture while its cooking.

I used this recipe but swapped the raisins for dates and apricots as that's what my mum likes :) I also left out the treacle as i prefer a blonder fruit cake. I doesn't look like it from the picture but the middle will be fairly pale in colour for a fruit cake. Its all feeling very real now...

Blackboard Label Milk Bottles

Mini milk bottles now available with blackboard/chalkboard labels over at my ebay shop :)

Story of Us Chalkboard

I turned and old picture frames into a story of us blackboard for the wedding! Even lovely BM thought this was very cool :)
I just painted the glass off the picture frame with chalkboard paint and then got to work with a chalkboard marker-i love how it turned out.
 

Spray paint corner

 

 

I just liked the look of my spray painting corner so i decided to share it! The bottles are going to be a hoopla game for the wedding - more info to follow on that!

Hen do rom com bingo cards

I'm going for champagne sunday brunch for my hen do followed by pizza and chick flicks at home and i wanted a game for us to play, preferable not too hen do esque (ie penis free!). So when i saw these fab rom com bingo cards from eharmony i knew they were perfect. Ive also bought some of those massive bingo dabbers from the pound shop (dont you just the pound shop) to really complete the bingo theme! Im so excited about it!!

Wedding table names

 

 

Diy table name signs! I attached some tiny pegs to regular wooden food skewers with purple florist wire. I printed the table names (lovely BM wants them all named after snakes!) onto card and laminated them. Then gripped the table names in the little tiny pegs. Super easy diy table names!

Confetti match books

 

 

I love confetti! But as we really can only throw organic confetti on the lavender farm i figured that if i wanted to be showered in the stuff on my wedding day then id better provide some for my guests. In addition ive saved every rose lovely BM has ever bought me (never could bring myself to chuck them!) so this seemed like a perfect opportunity to  use them. So i put the rose petals and also some (very local!) lavender in glassine bags, then stapled them to some cute match books i printed up. Im loving making all these little finishing touches for the wedding :)

DIY wedding veil

Continuing my DIY wedding theme i'm also making my own veil. I just bought a nice lace trimmed one, no comb, from etsy and bought some lovely metal combs from ebay - total cost about £12!

First i covered my comb in ribbon. This to make it pretty and so that you have something to sew the actual veil to. The ribbon is just wrapped in between every tooth.

This is the back with the beginning end tucked in

When you come to the end sew that end in place, dont break the thread and then you can attach veil straight away

I didnt want a gathered veil, i wanted a more waterfall style one so i just gathered my veil into a point and folded over the end to make it flat.

I then just sewed it to the ribbon on the comb. Above is the back. Below is the front

And the finished product! Its exactly the effect i was looking for - a cascading waterfall kind of look :)