I'm Back!!!!!!
Hi everyone. I guess you all thought I have disappeared. Well I am here and have been very busy and have lots to fill you in on. This may be a long read!!!
I have had a very busy year. My partner, Cameron, and I bought our first house just over a year ago. So the last year has been filled with the process of settling in and doing those things that always need doing around the house in order to make it our own. Big plans always take time.
But my most exciting news (and the reason for this post) is that Cameron and I got married a month ago. The past few months have been a bit of a whirl wind but It has been full of excitement and lots of fun things....and lots of crafty things.
From the outset of our engagement we were determined to do things our way. We didn't want the big production so commonly associated with weddings these days. Its not really our thing. All we wanted was just something simple and personal, with our closest family and friends. I think in the end we pulled it off :) Anyway, we decided on a very short engagement - by todays standards - just 4.5 months. Plenty of time for us to put together something which was truly a Cameron and Maree kind of wedding.
Me being me I wanted to do a lot of the wedding stuff myself - Invitations, Decorations and even make my bouquet, the boys and dads button holes and corsages my sister and for the mothers. As usual I may have bit off more than I could chew. But I really wanted the day to be something special to us and individual for us.
Picking the place to get married was easy. It was the first place we looked at - Kholo Botanical Gardens. Perfect place for a small outdoor ceremony and modest reception afterwards. Although our plans of an outdoor wedding were interrupted by the weather on the day - but the little house was perfect for both ceremony and reception.
Once the venue and guest list was sorted. The fun began - well the crafty fun began :-)
As you read this you may pick up on the theme for the wedding.
Invitations:
First up was making the invites. I wanted to do something simple but different. you should know that my biggest resource that I drew inspiration from was Pinterest. Most amazing site ever invented.
I discovered a couple of examples of a booklet type invitation and thought 'Thats what we want". The booklet contained all the details for the wedding, reception, venue and also included an RSVP card all in one little package. As we had set our wedding date for April, I decided on a kind of Rustic Autumn theme....sort of. For the invites a chose a selection of Autumn images (sourced from google images of course). Each leaflet featured a different. To bring it all together I put a front and rear cover on the invites made from some old linen fabric Mum had had packed away for many years. I cut the fabric to size, covered it in paper mache glue to add stiffness then frayed the edges for some texture and stenciled our initials on the cover and heart on the back. The cover and leaflet pages were then clasped together with a ribbon and gold pin. I chose recycled paper envelopes to finish off the invitations.
Decorations:
Next was deciding on decorations. We had decided on an afternoon tea type reception, very informal and it meant that people were free to mingle rather than having fixed place settings.
Table Settings: Once again the idea was for something simple. However I was very much interested in the decorations being something that could also be a keep sake for our guests. My big vision was to have very floral table arrangements, with lots of fabric flowers of various shapes, sizes and fabrics contained within painted soup tins. Once the reality of how many flowers (500+) I would need to make sunk in, I decided on a slightly more modest table setting. So I made one fabric flower per guest (45 in total) which, was a much more manageable number.
The flowers were all made from a variety of fabric in a range of colours and textures - ivory, cream, champagne, chiffon, nylon etc. I hunted the internet for DIY fabric flower instructions but in the end I just made it up as I go. My method was to twist fabric around on itself and gluing at regular intervals to hold it all together. Then add wire for a stem and cover with florists tape. Flowers Done.
I went with a rustic looking vase to put the flowers in. I had a crew of people collecting tins for me - mostly 400g canned tomato tins or similar. We sprayed these in a selection of Autumn colours - terracotta, cream, white and copper. When I say we, I really mean my dad (who has recently retired) sprayed all the cans for me. Thanks Dad!! To fill out the vases we made rustic posies with fresh flowers from the market - daisies, roses, lilums, tea tree, gum leaves and babies breath. Renee and I whipped these posies together the day before the wedding. Big thanks to Renee!!! To go with the Rustic Autumn theme, I decided agains the stark white caterers table cloth and went with calico fabric for the table cloths. All rough cut. It gave the tables a much softer informal look. As a bit of colour I had a red floral table runner across the tables which worked well with the tins and calico.
Gifts and Guest Book Table: Nothing Complicated here - in fitting with my theme of course - Simple and Modest! Dad resurrected my Grandfathers old school port which made a perfect cards box. A timber vase, my parents had given me as a graduation present many years ago, made for a nice feature on the table also. I purchased a handmade guest book from the US featuring handmade paper with a leaf motif. A special mention to Cameron who purchased a lovely timber pen whilst in Tasmania on holiday. We used this for signing the registry and for our guest book. A lovely keepsake. In amongst all this I painted some small canvases with blackboard paint to make little signs. Came together nicely!
Cake: Special thanks to my sister who made our lovely and delicious wedding cake. Check out her Facebook Page -
Ginger Sweet Cupcakes Cakes and Figurines and to my dad who made our cake stand from a metal serving tray and glass vase glued together and spray painted. Nice one Dad!! All other decorations were items that we already had in our living room.
Bouquet, Buttonholes and Corsages:
As you may have guessed by now I made my bouquet, buttonholes for the men and corsages for the ladies. I really wanted to make flower arrangements that could be kept. In the beginning progress was slow making all of the flowers for the decorations which meant making the bouquet, buttonholes and corsages was left a bit late - but I work best under pressure. So the flowers for my bouquet and the corsages were made in the the last few weeks leading up to the wedding and then finally assembled in the week before the wedding.
The Bouquet. For the bouquet and corsage flowers I used a stiff synthetic fabric in ivory - I'm not sure exactly what the material was in the end, as I sourced it from the scrap bin at the local fabric shop. The flowers were really simple to make. Cut circles in different sizes, make a few nicks around the edges and then (the fun and slightly dangerous part) hold the fabric over a candle to singe and curl the edges. The nicks in the fabric allow the fabric to curl and make the petals. Much much care is needed when burning synthetic fabric - it catches alight very easily and can melt a bit. Definitely not suitable as a kids activity. I then stacked the curled fabric circles on top of each other (approx ten per flower depending on size) and sewed together. For a bit of bling I sewed some pearls and beads in the centres of the flowers. Stems were then fixed to the black for the bouquet flowers and a ribbon glued on for the corsages. Renee finished off my bouquet stem for me, by wrapping all the individual flower stems in calico and then covering in lace. I am really happy with the result. Plus I can now keep my bouquet forever.
For the button holes, I did a bit of a google search for ideas and decided on a 'make it up as I go along' design. I made rosettes using ivory chiffon as a starting point. Then added a stems. As a backing for the flower I cut some red satin in a leaf shape and burnt the edges similar to the flower (minus making nicks along the edges). A rosette was sewn to the leaf and the edges of the leaf wrapped around the stem. For a bit of bling I added some beads running down the stem and wrapped some thread around the ends. Done! They looked really great on the day.
The End:
I was really happy with how everything turned out. I was really happy to be able to get everything together with the help of my support crew. We had a great Wedding Day. I really enjoyed it - great setting, great group of people, great food, great photographer....oh and great Husband!!!
Some pics from the day.
Very Special thanks to:
Our Parents - helping to organise, arrange and lend a hand.
My sister Renee - best maid of honour, best cake, plus she looked amazing -
Ginger Sweet Cupcakes Cakes and Figurines
Kerri - My cheif organiser/co-ordinator on the day
Daniel - driver, music man, prep photographer
Cuisine on Cue - wonderful food, great staff
Samantha Rowe Photography - Great photos, not too many wonky eyes from me, managed to get some lovely shots even in the wet conditions whilst hobbling around on a bad knee.
Thanks Everyone xox
So Red Robin might branch out into weddings in the near future...maybe????
