DIY I Do : Decor, Quotes and Fun for our Guests

Here's a fun Wedding detail that Robin and I put together for our guests. We all know that the wait between ceremony and dinner can be quite long for the guests so I thought it would be sweet to frame love, marriage, friendship quotes and scatter them around the venue. The guests could then come upon them (or hunt them out if they wished!) and try and guess who said each quote. Answers were written on the backs. 

We had great fun searching for appropriate quotes and gathered up a collection of both romantic and funny (about 20 in total I think). I knew Robin wouldn't be too keen on the overly soppy quotes so I had to keep it balanced…I even managed to include a quote from Star Wars! The frames were all sourced from car boot sales and then painted white, which made this a very frugal Wedding decoration/game (always a bonus!).

Audrey Hepburn

Winnie The Pooh

Bob Marley - read the full quote here

I also thought it would be fun to create a hashtag for our Wedding so that friends and family could share their photos of the day on Instagram. So I made a couple of little signs for it: 

However…my top tip is to check that your venue either has WIFI or is within signal range. Our lovely country Manor House was in the middle of nowhere so no one could get the internet!! Whoops!!

DIY I Do : A Sign for the Ceremony

 

Oh dear, I realise that we are now coming up to 5 months after the wedding, but things have been a bit hectic around here (and I lost the use of the letter 't' on my keyboard - don't ask! lol), but I still have a few more DIY I Do posts that I really want to document before I move on. The biggies are out of the way though, so most of these posts will be short and sweet - feel free to pass if it's not your thing, I realise they won't be very 'sewing' orientated.

So, for this post I just wanted to share a sign that I made for the ceremony. Since I have a very small family and Robin has a very large family I was a bit concerned that the ceremony would be a bit one-sided…literary! Then I happened to see a sign on Pinterest that would pretty much solve the problem. It read: "As two families are becoming one, we asked that you choose a seat and not a side". I thought it was perfect. We really wanted to have a relaxed and informal day, and this sign would also get us out of the issue of not wanting any ushers.

I scoured car boots sales and eventually came upon a large framed 'painting' in a gaudy gold frame. It looks pretty rubbish, and was missing it's glass so I managed to get it for 50p! At home I took out the print, which was on a wooden board and spray painted the frame white and gave it a rubdown to get that 'shabby chic' effect. Next I painted over the painting (don't worry, it wasn't an old master, it was a print reproduction) with navy blue paint from a sample pot (bargain!).

The next part was the tricky part. How to get the writing looking less shabby and more chic! I used the font (which is called Sail by the way) that we had used in all of our wedding stationery and printed out the words across several sheets of A4. I then roughly cut around each word/line and decided on their positions. Then you use a soft pencil and shade the back of the letters, put them carefully into position and use a sharp pencil to go over every line. This leaves a very slight imprint onto the blue and allows you to follow it when painting. I used a medium thickness white paint pen to do the job. It was really relaxing and I loved doing it.

I have to say, we were both really happy with how the sign turned out! And since the frame turned out so nice we have plans to reuse it in our home, perhaps painting inside with chalkboard paint?

 (oh yes - mustn't forget obligatory cat pic!)

DIY I Do : 10 tips for doing your own Wedding make-up

Now I know that this isn't sewing or crafting related, but it is essentially a DIY so I thought I'd add it to my DIY I Do series.

I don't wear a lot of make-up in day-to-day life so I was a bit nervous about getting my make-up done professionally for my wedding and ending up looking nothing like myself. A couple of years a go I was a bridesmaid for a friend and she brought in a make-up artist to do all of us. I ended up looking nothing like myself and feeling very uncomfortable, and in fact, my husband made me promise to not get my make-up done anything like that for our actual wedding as he said he hated it!

But I did get a couple of make-up trials done for my wedding when I was still deciding what to do about the whole make-up thing, and each time, even though I tried my best to explain that I wanted it very soft, I always ended up looking odd. So in the end I did my own make-up. Now, as I mentioned, I don't really wear much make-up so the whole make-up world was a bit foreign to me, but I did my homework and I thought I'd share a few suggestions for anyone else who may be going through the same though process as I did.

 

1. Watch You-Tube videos! This became a bit of an obsession for me once I discovered them! There are millions of videos out there that guide you through from the very basics of foundation application to blending eye shadows and how to get the perfect eyeliner. A few of my favourites are:

-  Jaclyn Hill - especially this video

- Lisa Eldridge

- Tanya Burr

- Goss Makeup Artist

- The Makeup Chair

2. Invest in a few decent brushes - this is so important as the right brush can make applying your make-up so much easier. Through the you-tube videos I discovered Sigma and Blank Canvas Cosmetics brushes, which are similar to, but cheaper than, the infamous MAC brushes. Blank Canvas also have some double ended brushes which save money and space.

3. Invest in a MAC make-up lesson. I was completely new to the world of MAC and assumed it would be like every other make-up counter where you get a free make-up application and then get pressurised into purchasing all their products. Nope - you have to PAY for that service…and in Belfast there is a massive waiting list too!! When I discovered this I was a bit put off and didn't know if it was a good idea or not. But actually, if you know you are likely to buy something from MAC it's not such a bad idea as the cost for the lesson actually gets deducted from a purchase afterwards (but you can't get a refund if you don't' buy anything). So I decided that, because I wasn't going to have a make-up artist on the day, I would spend that potentially saved money and take my Maid of Awesomeness (the new name I gave my Maid of Honour!) along and we would both get a make-up lesson and then purchase some of the products to use on the day. So sort of a win-win situation!  Now make sure you explain that you don't want anything too strong. I don't think my MoA explained that well enough as she ended up looking a bit drag queen (MASSIVO black eyebrows!), but I went on and on about wanting a soft look, and ended up with really lovely make-up. Oh - and don't forget to go out for cocktails afterwards!

4. Practice! Yep, the old saying 'practice makes perfect' - I tried out so many different styles, specifically eyeshadow. The whole eyeshadow blending thing was very new to me so I had to just keep practicing until I found something I liked.

5. Each time you try a new look, try and write down which products you used and how, and then take a photo. Make-up always looks different in a photograph than in real life and you are going to get photographed a LOT on your wedding day, so it's important that it translates well. Having photos of each look you try is also great for deciding which look to go for too.

6. Try and get a foundation without any SPF in it as apparently this reflects back in flash photography and gives you a white face - not a good look!! I used a MAC face and body foundation.

7. Invest in a setting spray. This is like hairspray for your face - it keeps everything in place all day so you don't have to keep running to the bathroom to touch-up! I used an Urban Decay one and it worked really well.

8. The week before your wedding, run through the make-up look you have decided on a few times and make sure you know exactly what you are going to do. Put all of your products in a special bag or box (I used a retro tin lunch box…which I FILLED with my products…yes, I had a LOT!!) and don't take anything out (or at least make sure you put it back if you use it!!!). That way you will know that you definitely have everything you need in the one place.

9. OK, this one may seem a bit OCD, and my photographer laughed at me when she saw it - but I tell you I was so pleased that I did this. Write down a list of every step of your make-up look…even the basic steps, like washing your face and putting on primer. Each time I was running through my chosen make-up look I kept missing out a step, and it was always a different step that I would miss out! So I decided to write every single step down (yes, even washing my face). And it was honestly the best thing because on the day I was pretty nervous and my brain actually went blank and I couldn't remember the steps at all - but I just had to refer to my step-by-step guide and it came back to me!

10. If you are not getting ready at home (my family and I stayed in rented cottages near the wedding venue the night before) make sure you find a spot  to apply your make-up that has really good natural light. It might be a good idea to bring a free standing mirror with you so that you can prop this up on a window sill for example. And make sure you have lots of room to lay out all your products so they are easy to see and you're not rooting through a bulging bag for each item, that will only lead to stress! 

If you were thinking about doing your own make-up for your wedding I say DO! The money I would have spent hiring a make-up artist I invested in products which I'm still enjoying the benefit of now and I learnt a new skill too!

DIY I Do : A Secret Embroidery Project

Well, I've got most of the major sewing and crafting DIY I Do projects blogged, but I actually still have lots of other little projects that I did for my wedding that I'd like to document on my blog. I know post after post after post of wedding related things can be a bit tedious (unless you love weddings or are planning a wedding!) so I'm going to just slowly post these in between regular posts. For anyone coming to my blog specifically for wedding related posts, I've added a page link at the top that will take you straight to all wedding related things - enjoy!

OK, so this was just a fun little extra project that I decided to do as a little surprise for my then Fiancé to see on the day while he was getting ready. I thought it would be a really cute idea to embroider our wedding theme image of the RS rope (see original here) as well as the date on to the inside of his waistcoat. Now, I have never really done any embroidery ever before so I was a bit nervous about just embroidering straight onto his waistcoat and messing it up, so I ended up using a scrap of the silk dupion that I made my wedding dress out of and stitching that onto the lining instead. 

It was just a simple back stitch in navy, with a heart outline in ivory, but I was really happy with the result. It was kind of fun sneaking up to the sewing room to make this and then trying to get hold of his waistcoat while he wasn't looking to sew it in, and then replace it without him finding out. As I said, this was quite last minute and I think I did this one evening about a week or two before the wedding!

I'm really pleased I decided to give it a go as it added a very cute personal touch to his outfit and has also given me a bit of bug for embroidery - I shall be trying it out again soon!

DIY I Do : My Wedding Reception Dress!

Well, we had the inspiration post and the muslin post - and finally here is my big reveal!

As I mentioned in the previous posts, I decided that since I had saved money on my main wedding dress, and because it was hard/near impossible to bustle, I would have a go at making a fun and flirty evening/reception dress for my wedding day. 

I based the dress on the gorgeous Cambie pattern by Sewaholic, but adjusted it to be strapless. This meant that I had to introduce inner construction details such as boning and a waist stay. I used skills that I had learnt from Gerties Craftsy Bombshell Dress course as well as the Susan Khalje Couture Dress course.

Because Gertie is an advocate for the spiral steel boning and I had previously used it in my Bombshell dress (which I still haven't blogged!!) I thought I should stick with what I knew and use it for this dress. It takes a fair bit of force and fiddling to cut the strips…and I had to raid my husbands tools box:

…but it's totally worth it as the freedom of movement you get from them is great.

I decided to bring in the blue theme and used a navy blue grosgrain ribbon for my waist stay. I probably should have sewed it in with matching thread - but I was actually working on this until the day before and I think by that time I was just like "I DON'T CARE JUST GET IT DONE"!!! But that aside, the waist stay was an absolute necessity to get the dress zipped up - it holds the dress in place and takes the weight off the zip.

The main dress was made up of a beautiful ivory silk dupion that my mum picked up at a market in Spain for €5/m - yes you read that right, €5 PER METER for real silk dupion!!! The english lady who ran the stall at the market is a retired bridal dressmaker and was selling off all her stash. I think I got my mum to buy about 5m of the ivory for me because at the time I still thought I might be making my main wedding dress, which would have been full-length. So I have quite a bit left in my stash…what to do with it??!!! I'm contemplating trying to dye some and see what it's like. Anyway, I'm getting off track here.

I added in some couture techniques to this dress, such as underlining the silk dupion with silk organza and also basting on all the sewing lines. This was the first time I had worked with silk organza and I loved it. It's such a lovely fabric to work with and gave a little bit extra body to the dupion, which was quite a thin fabric. The dress was lined in the most gorgeously soft and flow-y lining that I bought online at Truro Fabrics. It was more than I normally spend on lining, but em...I recon you can afford to splurge when it's your wedding dress!

This is a close up shot of the zip guard that I sewed in with a pick stitch. Again, just another little couture feature. The zip itself was actually an invisible zip which I thought would suit the style of dress better due to the tulle overlay I was doing.

I had a lot of deliberation about how I was going to do the asymmetrical polka dot tulle detail. I initially wanted to build it into the dress, but I obviously didn't have a pattern piece for the tulle and would have had to drape it on me, before the bodice was attached to the skirt - and physically it was impossible. So I decided to make a sort of sash/belt with the tulle attached to it. The draping for this took AGES and was really difficult to get right. It also didn't help that I was doing this the week before the wedding - talk about pressure!!!

I also decided to make the sash out of the same coral silk that the bridesmaids sashes were made from. I realised this erred on the side of bridesmaid in itself, but as soon as draped the coral silk around the dress I fell in love and it just had to be! Plus I asked my florist to give me a Coral Charm peony to pin into my hair - so it tied together with the sash colour perfectly. 

The skirt was made by cutting the full style Cambie skirt (minus pockets - I was tempted, but due to the tulle, decided against it…but I do love Wedding dresses with pockets!) out of both the dupion and the tulle and treating as one layer. Under this I had another layer of very fine plain tulle and then to the lining I sewed two rows of stiff gathered tulle to create volume. This is also how I made the flower girl's dresses.

The dress was a lot of fun to wear and to dance in and it was great seeing people's reactions when I came downstairs in a new dress for the evening! The added bonus was that it really showed off my beautiful Jimmy Choo shoes, which up until then had been rather hidden!

I'll leave you with a few professional photos from our mini couples session once I changed dresses (we snuck out during dessert to take these in an abandoned greenhouse/yard at our wedding location) and some of the dancing:

DIY I Do : My Wedding Reception Dress : A Cambie Muslin

In my post earlier in the week I revealed that I had made a dress for my wedding reception. Well, although muslins aren't my favourite thing to do and I have been known not to both with them from time to time, I thought a wedding dress deserved the effort involved in making a muslin! As described in my inspiration post I wanted to make a dress with a full bodied gathered skirt, a sweetheart bodice and a spotty tulle asymmetrical overlay. After searching through my pattern collection I realised that the Sewaholic Cambie dress would be pretty much perfect for this! 

 

I had seen so many beautiful versions of this dress so I was excited to finally make one for myself. There was a gorgeous floral cotton in my stash and although I was nervous to 'waste' it on a muslin that might not work out I decided to just go for it and hope for the best! I'm so glad I did as I absolutely LOVE this dress - definitely one of my favourite makes. 

And Tasia strikes again with her fantastic pattern drafting and instruction writing. What a dream this was to sew up. Every step of the way was a joy, and I'm definitely getting good at putting in an invisible zip. I lined the dress in the softest, butteriest white cotton lawn and it is so beautiful next to the skin. Perhaps a little pricey as linings go, but I think I'm converted! The only thing I would say is that occasionally you can see the lining peeking out past the sleeves, as you can see in the above photo, so perhaps I should have under-stitched that or something?

Now for the blooper! My dress strangely ended up tight at the waist - like, no eating at all while wearing the dress and sit down while holding your breath in tight! I couldn't understand why this had happened because I was sure that I had cut my size. And then I checked what size I had cut out…yes, I had cut my correct waist size, but it was the waist size of the FINISHED garment I had read, rather than the pattern size to cut (which would have included ease)!!! Doh! So it's a bit on the snug side, to say the least.

 

Ironically this turned out for the best because for my actual wedding reception dress I would be needing to get rid of the sleeves and make the dress strapless. That would mean adding boning for support and a tighter fit would be advantageous as well! Everything happens for a reason so it seems.

On a side note, after wearing this dress a couple of times, I noticed that some of the stitches where you attach the sleeves to the bodice had ripped and the corner of the sleeve is peeking out. I do believe that that is mainly because I have made the dress too tight for me, but it is also a place that would come under a bit of day to day strain, so I would recommend reinforcing that line of stitches if you are ever planning on making a version for yourself.

 

So all in all this is a fabulous dress and I am totally in love with it. I feel super girly in it and find myself flouncing around like a fool - but I kind of like that! I see many more Cambies in my life. 

 Oh - and it has pockets! I LOVE POCKETS!!!!!

That is all.

DIY I Do : My Wedding Reception Dress : Inspiration

Yep, you read that correctly, this post is all about the inspiration behind my Wedding Reception Dress, because…I made it!

When I first started looking at wedding dresses I went and tried on a few, including the beautiful Justin Alexander dress above. It was love at first sight, but at £2000*, it was over my budget. My top tip for brides just starting out in their quest to find the perfect wedding dress – don’t try on any dresses that are over your budget…it will only break your heart!

At the same time as trying on dresses I also had a wee thought in the back of my mind that I may try and sew my dress rather than buy one. I mentioned it in this post back in August ‘12, but the majority of comments back were warning me against it, saying I would have enough to worry about without adding to the load. Plus most of my family and close friends and acquaintances also suggested against it. To be honest, do you know how that made me feel? I know this is totally not what they were implying, but I honestly did feel that there was a general consensus that I didn’t have the skills to make my dress. And perhaps that’s true, but doubt fuels my fire and just made me want to prove them wrong! I had a style, the fabric and the franken-pattern all worked out. But I knew it would be a massive undertaking, and I began to doubt myself.

Then I tried on a dress in a bridal shop that gave me the wow feeling – and it was in the sale! At £300 I was sold. It’s the dress I ended up wearing on the day, so you will have already seen some photos of it. BUT – because I had saved so much money on my main wedding dress it was the perfect excuse to have TWO dresses on the day…which meant I could have a go at making the second dress!

Since my main wedding dress had an outer layer of delicate, floaty chiffon that couldn’t be bustled I decided to make a short reception dress that would allow me to bust a move on the dance floor that evening. My mum also told me that she had been able to source some very reasonably priced silk dupion. So, the search began for inspiration (all photo sources can be found on my Pinterest board here):

And then I came across this gorgeous dress by Alexandra King (OMG – check out her work, it is fabulous!):

I just loved all the fabulous spotty tulle and I also loved the sweetheart neckline and the asymmetry of the tulle at the neck. However, I noticed that all my previous inspiration pictures had either a pleated or gathered skirt made out of ‘stiff’ fabric, which I really liked. So I decided to make a hybrid of the two. Again, some more inspiration pics:

I had the silk dupion base fabric, and was able to source the perfect polka-dot tulle from a local fabric shop (for a very reasonable £7/m rather than the crazy price that lace is per meter – another reason for loving the spots!). Next I had to find a suitable pattern – has anyone got any ideas what I might have used? I’ll give you a clue – it’s a pretty recent pattern from a fantastic Indie pattern company. I’ll reveal all in my next post, the muslin!

 

* I know it’s not the ‘done’ thing to talk about costs, but do you know what – it was the MOST frustrating thing when I first started researching my wedding and I couldn’t find any prices for wedding dresses online, so I had no idea how much they would cost…which is one of the reasons I ended up trying on a dress that was way out of my budget. And by the way, when I say out of my budget – I could have afforded to buy the dress, but I would have had to compromised on some other aspect of the wedding. And to be honest, I couldn’t physically bring myself to shell out £2k on a dress that I would only wear once. But that was due to my own personal priorities (honeymoon was top of our list!). Plus, my logic was that by spending only £300 on my dress I had extra to spend on shoes…which I did! I may have treated myself to this pair of gorgeous Jimmy Choos. And guess what – I will definitely get to wear them more than once (and my dress and shoes combined cost less than the Justin Alexander dress)!