This week we really got stuck into wedding planning. When we got engaged in July of last year, we thought we had plenty of time... November 2013 was AGES away... but January has come round faster than we thought and the panic has set in. We got the big things booked last September - the church for the ceremony, the reception venue, the wedding cars, the venue decorators and the photographer... but it's the little things, the little details that make a wedding day really special and personal to the couple and their family that we have realised will probably take the most time and thought.
I'd heard of this great website called
Pinterest a while ago, but never fully realised what a great tool it is for gathering ideas until I downloaded the app at the start of January. Since then I have made several 'boards' all of which are full of fun, funky and beautiful ideas for our wedding.
It is especially handy given that we are on a particularly tight budget - I have discovered great ideas for home-crafted centrepieces that cost less than £7 each. They are mostly made up of things we already had around the house - now I admit, if I hadn't already been pretty well into crafting and doing little homemade things for our home I wouldn't have had this stuff laying around, but as luck would have it I did.
I have about 100 jars left from the last batch of Cupcakes in Jars I made for a Vintage Fair last year - the jars only come in boxes of 500, so I was lucky to have some leftover, as ordering another box was out of the question.
We have hired a wonderful company called
Sweetheart Vintage Weddings and Events as our venue decorator and they are bringing some fabulous pieces to the church and reception venue to add all the major touches that will make our wedding special to us. Because of our tight budget we had to restrain ourselves (well, more like J had to rein me in) when we selected the pieces for our venues, sticking to the things that we really wanted to have and which would give our wedding the beautifully vintage touches that we are after. I really wanted the birdcage centrepieces, but the reception venue has centrepieces included in the package we booked, so I (eventually) seen J's point of view and decided to go with the ones already included in our reception package. BUT of course, now that I had seen the lovely vintage set-up, I couldn't just give it up completely and J agreed that we could have
the wildflowers in the pretty jars - YAY!
This is the sweet little idea I found on Pinterest that I'm going to use to jazz up my reception centrepieces using the leftover jars
I am also being really thrifty and making my own favours, and they are going to also act as the place settings! Two birds, one cheap-ass stone!
Pinterest has been great for helping me visualise what our wedding cake will look like... I already knew I wanted a two/three tier vanilla sponge cake with vanilla frosting and jam filling - the frosting will (hopefully) be in little rose swirls all over the cake. I had seen this idea before at a Vintage Wedding Fair, but the cake was just to expensive for us. I've also seen it with rainbow coloured layers of sponge inside and an ombre frosting, which were quite pretty. I also really love the idea of having a grooms cake - a very America idea, but also a very cute one. J's cake will be a small single tier, three layer white chocolate cake with raspberry filling and blue white chocolate filling. The toppers are something that is very 'us'... all our friends say we have a Fry and Leela love story, so the groom's cake will be Futurama inspired, but still vintage and elegant.
Fry and Leela
After much debate about it, Turf will not be our ring bearer, simply because we couldn't be absolutely certain that he wouldn't get too nervous/excited and wee in the church... but he will be with me in the morning while the bridal party gets ready wearing a cute little tux.
The bouquets, buttonholes and corsages are being handmade by
Vintage At Heart who does stunning work with foam and silk flowers and vintage broaches. My brother won't be with me on my wedding day, as he passed away in 2009, but I really wanted a way to have something there with me - Pinterest turned up this wonderful idea (below) and so I have found some lovely round picture charms on ebay for £2.49 for five, and they will be incorporated into my bouquet and the bridesmaids bouquets. This is absolutely my favourite find.
I have also found some brilliant ideas for bridesmaid's gifts and fun little things to keep kids entertained at the reception -
If anyone is planning their wedding (or any celebratioin!), decorating/redecorating their home, looking for home-crafted gift ideas or just even looking for some cute new hairstyles, I would definitely recommend Pinterest, it's free to sign up and the app is free to download to you phone/ipad/ipad mini which is super handy for when you are out and about and want to show someone an idea you have found - saves me carrying lots of bits of paper and magazine cutouts in my handbag now!
