Our Wedding, A DIY Project - Make Your Own Garter

I've always liked the tradition associated with weddings of "something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue" and knew that I would try and stick to it. 

Old was easy, I've always wanted a silver sixpence included in my wedding so I could tick that off the list

New was equally easy;my dress, shoes and accessories.

Borrowed and blue was proving a bit more tricky.

My grandad passed away in September 2000 and had always been someone I looked up to so it made sense to have him with me somehow. My mum has one of his rings so I'm 'borrowing' that for the day and having it attached to my bouquet.

That just left something blue. As our colour scheme is sage green, cream and gold I just couldn't see where blue would fit in, until I stumbled across some garters in a bridal shop.

Hidden under my dress and a bit of fun I immediately knew what my something blue would be.

As complicated as these look they are surprising easy to make.

Mine took about 10 minutes from start to finish.

So whether for your big day or for your hen why not give it a try?!

You will need 

Net or lace

Ribbon

Elastic

Sewing needle

Thread


1. Measure the part of your thigh that you want to wear your garter and cut the elastic 1cm shorter than your leg measurement and the ribbon and net/lace twice the length of your leg measurement (this will give you a nice gather)

2.Pin the ribbon to the net or lace in the desired position and sew a running stitch along the top and bottom of the ribbon making sure there is enough space for the elastic to pass through (don't worry about it being perfect as you won't really see it)

3. Thread the elastic through the garter under the ribbon but on top of the net/lace.  As the material is twice as long as the elastic, once the elastic is halfway through pin the end in place so it doesn't spring back through. Continue threading the elastic through until it's out at the other end.

4. Once the elastic is threaded through, slightly overlap the ends and stitch firmly together.

5. Adjust the material around the elastic until you are happy with the look then stitch the two end of the material together.

If you like you can finish your garter off with an embellishment.
It really is that simple

If you do have a go at making your own garter I'd love to see the finished product.

M xx

Our Wedding - Wedding Bubble Wand Project

With the countdown to our nuptials getting closer and closer we are trying to complete as many projects ahead of time as possible. This time it's our bubble wands.
Many venues are very particular about the type of confetti that can be used after the ceremony, however, due to the gravel in the churchyard we aren't allowed any form of confetti. With that in mind we've opted to do the 'confetti shot' a little later on when we take the official photographs and are going to use bubble wands straight after the ceremony as they will make for some great pictures.

As I am the kind of person who loves making even more work for myself, I decided I wanted to jazz up the plain wands a little so they go from this...

to this ...

To stay in keeping with the rest of our wedding stationary we opted for cream card, backed on gold and finished with sage ribbon.

1. Cut strips of card 6cm wide(you can get 3 strips from an A4 sheet)

2. Set up the paper size and margins in Microsoft word and type out the poem repeating it down the length of the page "Their love will grow,

                   With each bubble you blow

                   So blow warm wishes.

                   To the new Mr & Mrs" and print onto your strips.

3. Cut the strips into small cards so that you have 1 poem per card.

4. Mount the poem onto the card that you are using as backing and then cut them into individual cards(I used double sided tape)

5. Punch a small hole in the the top of the card and using the ribbon attach to the bubble wand.

It really is that simple and it makes a huge difference to the original shop bought wands.

I'd love to see some of your wedding diy projects.

M xx

Our Wedding - Another Project, Drinks Crates

My fiance and I decided that we'd like to use apple crates to put our bottles of homemade ginger beer and elderflower at our reception but were having difficulty finding any that weren't personalised(they cost a bomb) or that were just generally suitable.

Our local shops have started having weekly street markets and I spotted these crates

Although they're not exactly what we wanted, once we've cut them down a little, whitewashed and decorated them they'll be perfect.

Look out for updates on this project, as Sam wants to help I have a feeling it will be interesting!

M xx

Our wedding - A DIY Project, Tears of Joy Packets

Getting engaged is exciting enough but when you actually set a date, well that's when everything seems to go crazy. From spending a small fortune on wedding magazines and attending every possible wedding fair down to spending every waking hour trawling the web for ideas and inspiration and following every wedding blog going, I've done it all.

As great as all of these sources of inspiration are, my goodness they can add to your workload!

One particular idea I came across was on an American website WeddingBee, the tears of joy packets are just the cutest little things.

The idea behind them is quite simple, a small envelope that encompasses a tissue(or two) with the outside of the pack decorated with a poem maybe.

So in typical whirlwind Emma fashion I set about searching for these small envelopes which I found on eBay. Whilst waiting for them to arrive I decided that I wanted the packets to have the same look as the rest of our stationary so I bought all of the materials I needed.

Materials I used:

Glassine envelopes (purchased from here)

Sage green ribbon

Gold card

Cream card blanks (c6 size from hobbycraft) 

Multipack of individual packs of tissues (purchased from poundland)

Gold coloured diamantés 

Double sided tape

Super glue

Paper trimmer or scissors

I started by cutting my card blanks so that they were 8cm wide (you'll get 2 strips from each card blank)

While I was doing that my maid of honour and fiancé had the wonderful task of putting an individual tissue in each envelope( as the tissues were from mini packs they were already folded perfectly). Once they had finished that they began cutting lengths of ribbon long enough to fit around the envelopes, horizontally. 

Using Microsoft word on my laptop I typed the following poem "If you shed a tear or two, Here's a tissue just for you. So wipe away that happy tear, We're so glad that you are here' I set the paper size setting to the custom size of the strips that I had cut so that the poem would be in the middle. Using the size and font that I did, I was able to fit the poem on the strip three times, printing on the strips vertically.

At this point I should point out that a lot of brides have used business cards instead of faffing about with buying card and cutting it to size, printing poems and playing about with layouts, especially as they are also the perfect size for these envelopes but I was just too impatient to order them and wait!

Once I was happy with the layout of the poem I printed 10 strips at a time. Which once cut into business card size would give me 30 cards.

Using my paper cutter, I trimmed each strip into three equal cards with a poem on each.

On the back of the poem cards I stuck two strips of double sided tape so I could back this card onto the gold card with a piece of ribbon sandwiched between the two pieces of card.

Once I had mounted a few of the poem cards onto the gold card I trimmed them all to equal size so that the gold card bordered the cream card a little.

My fiancé, Sam, stuck a strip of double sided tape horizontally in the middle of each envelope ready for me to attach the poem. Once attached we used a small square of double sided tape to seal the ribbon at the back.

As we wanted these to be in keeping with the rest of our stationary, we simply glued a single diamanté onto the ribbon each side of the card.

Yes, quite a fiddly DIY project but we both love them and can't wait for our guests to see them.

M xx