Handmade weddings: framing flowers from your bouquet

Image by: Chamonix Thurston-Rattue, Bouquet from: The Real Cut Flower Garden

Flowers are such a beautiful part of a wedding day but often very little thought is given to what to do with them after the day itself. This handmade weddings project is a way to keep and display a few of your beautiful blooms.

The day after our wedding I found myself bundling up little bouquets and giving them to friends and family as they left so that they wouldn't go to waste. However, I kept hold of my bouquet - I loved it. It sat on my knee all the way back to London. We were about to catch the Eurostar to Paris and I hadn't really thought about what I would do with the bouquet.

In a hopeful attempt to preserve a little of it's loveliness I quickly picked out a few of my favourite flowers, laid them out  between sheets of paper and kitchen roll and then placed them between the pages in a pile of heavy recipe books to press them and left them there while we were away (there are slightly more tried and tested ways to press your flowers - Martha Stewart explains how here). 

When we got home I was happily surprised with the results, some flowers didn't work so well but I was left with enough to frame.

   

Creating this display was very simple, I spent a few minutes arranging the pressed flowers, then used a small amount of spray adhesive on the back of each flower to stick them on a piece of brown parcel paper - you could obviously use any paper you like but I rather like the rustic look of brown paper. I put the finished display into a mount and frame. I'm quite pleased with the final result. What do you think?

x

Handmade weddings: ten top tips

All photos are by Chamonix Thurston Rattue

Having spent a large part of the last couple of years planning our handmade wedding - I thought I'd share a little of what I learnt in the hope that it might help some of my readers. So here are my top ten tips for a handmade wedding...

1) Firstly (and probably most importantly) make sure you have a small army of friends and family who are willing and kind enough to help out and don't be afraid to ask for help - In his speech Mr E described our friends as the 'games makers' of our wedding and they really were- we couldn't have done it without them!

2) Make sure you have a willing fiancé – creating a handmade wedding isn’t a one person task, it will take up lots of your free time so make sure you work together. Mr E helped me out so much with all the handmade elements of our wedding - he put up with me spending hours reading wedding blogs and chugging away at my sewing machine, he also spent a whole weekend printing out and tying up invitations and made dozens of gorgeous paper flowers.

3)  Spend some time gathering inspiration before you start – there are so many ideas out there that it can feel a little overwhelming sometimes. Spend some time gathering inspiration so you know the kind of wedding you want and you have an idea of how it will all tie together. Pinterest is such a useful tool and it  is full of beautiful images and ideas. There are also a few blogs I would recommend; 'The Natural Wedding Company' for ideas and wonderful suppliers, 'Junkaholique' for gorgeous vintage styling (and their wedding is one of the loveliest I've ever seen!), and Green Wedding Shoes for a dose of eco-friendly wedding loveliness from the USA.

4) Once you gathered all your ideas, work out what is really important to you and know what you're willing to let go - however hard you work you won’t have time to do everything. I had all sorts of projects and plans for our wedding that I simply didn’t have time to do - at first not getting everything doen really stressed me out but I realised I couldn't do everything and just concentrated on the things that really mattered. Looking back on the day now I wouldn’t change a thing.

5) Invest time in budgeting and sourcing - Handmade doesn't always mean saving money but it will if you do your research and source materials and suppliers wisely. Get quotes from everyone, shop around and asks for discounts if you’re buying in bulk.

This bunting is for sale if anyone would like to buy it!

(please see the p.s. at the bottom of this post)

6)      Set goals for what you need to achieve each month -  this will help to keep you focussed and hopefully save lots of last minute panic. I kept a spreadsheet of goals with things like ‘make 20 metres’ in each month and it really helped to keep things on track.

7)      Scour ebay, charity shops and car boot sales - you can pick up lots of pretty things for a fraction of the price they are in shops  - especially in charities shops and at car boot sales outside of big cities.

8)      If you see something you like give it a go - I didn't really follow instructions with my craft projects- I just looked at photos of how things were made and tried out ideas. Sometimes projects didn't work out quite as I'd hoped but more often than not they did - so just have the confidence to give it a try.

9)Jam jars are your best friends - you can use them for everything from flowers to tea lights to containers for straws and they're free and eco-friendly! You'll be amazed how many you can collect in the months running up to your wedding.  

10)   My final piece of advice is to enjoy it all! You're creating a day that is uniquely yours, a day when all the people you love will be in one place and a day that you'll remember forever. Handmade weddings are definitely not an easy option but can make a limited budget go much further and creating something with the help of your friends and family is lots and lots of fun!

Good luck!

H x

p.s. I'm looking to sell the 100 metres of bunting that I made for our wedding so if anyone is interested please leave me a comment and I'll let you know more.

Handmade weddings: lavender bag favours

I made little lavender bags as favours for all the girls at our wedding. I thought it would be nice for the guests to have something pretty and useful that they could take home as a reminder of the day. Everyone seemed to love them and although making fifty of them took a while they were suprisingly simple to make so I thought I'd share a little tutorial with you.

To start you need two pieces of fabric cut into rectangles - mine were approx 10x12cm but you could make these any size you like. You'll also need some ribbon cut into strips about 15cm long. If you're going to make lots of these I'd suggest cutting all your fabric and ribbon at the same time as it will save time later.

Next you need to pin the fabrics together - good side in and fold the length of ribbon in half and pin the ribbon so that it sits inside the layers of fabric and the ends poke out of the top (and yes my pin cushion is shaped like a mushroom).

Using a sewing machine, sew the pieces of fabric and ribbon together leaving a gap of about an inch so you have a gap to fill the bags with lavender. Once you've finished you can turn the bag right side out and they will look something like this.

I made lots of these little bags in differnt fabrics as I wanted a bit of a mix and match look to our favours. I used lavender grain bought from Shropshire Petals  - it was nice to know that the lavender was grown near by. 

Using a funnel made from paper you can simply fill the bags through the gap you left and once they are full enough tuck in the open edges of the bag. To seal the gap I ran a zig-zag stitch round the edges of the whole bag as I quite like the rustic look it created but you could handstitch the opening if you wanted to.

I still have a few of these left over and they still smell lovely two months after the wedding - I love getting a waft of lavender as I open my sewing box and it's a smell that will always remind me of our wedding.

What do youy think? I've just added these to my Etsy shop so if you'd like some made for your wedding then please do let me know - I can make them in any colour and fabric you would like.

H x