Centrepiece trial run.

So.. this is a trial run of our centrepieces. The pencils in the pots will be cake pops btw ;) Haha! We're not sure quite how we'll end up attaching the pinwheels to the sticks as we HATE the look of them just glued onto the stick. They look so ugly from the back like that. We're also not sure if we're going to keep the bamboo sticks natural or spray paint them a metallic silver. I kind of like the natural bamboo but not 100% sure yet.

The white star shaped thing next to it is a light. We have 2 of those per table, too. We're also going to have a couple of toadstool tea lights (cutting the wicks off so they can't be lit), blue polka dot menus, red polka dot napkins with a blue pom pom napkin ring, tiny wee bottles with pinwheels on sticks and a tag with each name on for the place names, a few ultra mini versions of the pinwheel you can see in the back on my wall (in place of scatter crystals), some lit tea lights and blue chair sashes with red pom poms hanging down from the bow at the back. We want to have quite a busy look to the middle of the table as the setup we're going for leaves a LOT of space in the middle.

All of the pinwheels have been cut, they just have to be assembled and placed on sticks. But that'll need to wait until we've decided how we're going to do the sticks and how we're going to attach them. And for a time when it's not after 4am! I have my sister and nephew over tomorrow (well, today!) and we want to get some photos of the baby so I should probably clean up the resulting mess and get some sleep... Colin and the puppy have been in bed for hours.

Not a lot is happening!

I feel I've neglected here a bit recently but it's no fault of my own! As we're on a super, super tight budget we can only afford to buy on specific dates in the month, when we both get paid. We have a list of months, right up until November, that lists what can be bought on those 2 dates in each month. All wedding things have been bought for March and I've shown you everything that resulted from that!

Coming up in April, we have Colin's shoes, our birth certificates, all the things needed to create our sweetie table backdrop and everything (I think) needed to create our ceremony backdrop. Those aren't huge projects but I've yet to figure out how I'm actually going to go about making them so we'll see!

Although this did come today! I'm so pleased with it.

My bouquet is done!

Finally, my bouquet is done! 100 felt flowers have been cut and sewn and all the buttons assembled and the full stems made. Yikes. I'm sort of sad it's over!
Punching the holes to put the wire through was an absolute nightmare. My hands are still stupidly sore! But we got there in the end and, I have to say, I absolutely love it!

I need to learn how to tie the bow better and I really dislike the white on the underside of the bouquet holder so I'll need to figure out a way to cover that..

As I said, I'm stupidly happy with how it turned out! Can't wait to see what it looks like with my outfit :)

The rings, the veil and leg wear!

Okay, we'll start off with the veil! I knew I wanted a birdcage veil. Right from the start, I just knew. Then the hunt started and I could not find a single thing I liked. I didn't want just the netted material clipped into my hair; I wanted something "wow". Something big, something statement-y, something a bit fun and different. I wanted BOWS! But could I find it? Of course I couldn't. Eventually I found a really, really nice headband I loved with a subtle little bow that I could then attach the veil material too. Did you notice I said "subtle bow"? Yeah, it was small. It wasn't what I wanted but it was as close to it as I could find. Then I found RedBirdMakes on etsy. My veil was ordered and it was made and delivered to me in about 2 weeks, maybe less. It arrived a day or 2 ago and I'm incredibly happy! It's a BIG red bow!

I absolutely love it!

But now onto leg wear... having inkless legs (other than my thigh) is something that doesn't sit well with me at all. I haven't worn dresses, skirts or shorts in a long time because it got me down too much so I decided to think a bit about tights. Here are a couple I've tried so far and love!

These are the winners I think.

Those are my wedding shoes, by the way! My dress will sit between my knee and mid-calf so a decent amount of leg will be showing. I'm hoping to have work done on my legs before the wedding but, if not, I have the above 2 to fall back on!

And now.. the rings! What a journey. They were ordered on February 20th from America. 18 (if my maths are correct!) days ago. Which is nothing really, considering they're coming from way over there! But I had tracking with them. That is where the problems lay! I placed the order in February and they were marked as being handed in on the 21st February.

On the 21st February, they had an arrival scan at Bethpage, New York. Later on that same day, they had a departure scan from Bethpage, New York.

On the 22nd February, they had an arrival scan at Springfield, MA. That's approx. 155 miles from where they started.

On the 23rd February, they had a departure scan from Springfield. I heard nothing for a further 7 days.

On March 2nd, they'd had an arrival scan in Jamaica, New York. That's 148 miles from Springfield but just 21 miles from where they originally started off!

The tracking page tells me my rings are still sitting in Jamaica, New York. But alas, they're here and that's all that matters! I'm so, so incredibly happy with them. For under £65 for the both of them, I'm absolutely amazed. They're stunning.

I'm over the moon.

A good night & a well spent day.

One bridesmaids bouquet is done! This was quite a challenge but I got there in the end. Trying to keep this post short and sweet as I'm exhausted but once a few wee hitches were resolved, it went great and I think it looks amazing.

And today was a good wedding day! Venue had an open day where everywhere is set up how it'll be on the day and it. is. stunning! The room where we're having our meal had the exact amount of tables with the exact amount of chairs around them we'll need! And it just looked so fab. Remember I told you all about the top table backdrop I wanted but it turns out the other wedding reception in the same venue had put their deposit down on it? I don't know if I told you but I got an email a couple of days ago saying they'd pulled out and it was now available. Guess what? Our room had the exact backdrop (from the supplier I was talking to) and my god, it is beautiful! It's very pricey though... £345! I showed it to my mum on the website and she scoffed at the price. She saw it in the venue this morning and couldn't stop going on about how beautiful it is. So she's told us if it's still available, she'll put a desposit down and pay for it for us! I'm so lucky! After that, it was a trip to hobbycraft and I now have all the bits needed for my bouquet :D

Bouquet supplies:

Buttonholes, table names and menus.

I finally put the boys' buttonholes together this afternoon!  I made 2 of the different combinations and let Colin pick which one he wanted. The other boys will be in the other one except the wee ringbearer; he'll be in the same as Colin.

This is the one Colin picked.

And this is the one the other boys, minus the ring bearer, will be in. Only him, his best man, my brother (who's walking me down the aisle), my male bridesmaid and my nephew, the ringbear will be wearing them.

And a photo on me to show the size!

Next, I designed the menus. These'll be printed on cardstock and placed where the plates will go on the tables as we don't want the plates out until dinner is served! I designed the first two and a lady on the Quirky British Brides facebook group I started up suggested a change. That's the 3rd one. We're going to go for that, but with a red-dominant one too so we can still alternate.

Then I moved on to the table names! We got these frames from Ikea. They're doubled sided and cost just 49p each in the sale so these will have set us back just £3.92! These are the backs of them. The front will have a really simple design in our colours (red and blue if you hadn't guessed!) with a frame for the table name itself. We're naming our tables after The Smith's songs.

That's it for today. Some good progress is being made but I'd definitely still rather be working on my bouquet! I'm hoping to get out to hobbycraft withing the next few days for more felt. Saturday was looking good until I realised it's my birthday! I have a bridal fair, tattoo time and a meal taking up the entire day so no time for shopping.

I think the bridesmaids bouquet bits will arrive tomorrow. Well, the key component to making it at least! So I'll have that to do tomorrow. I'll need to look at the to do list I wrote up to see if there's anything else that can be done now!

Maybe I'll spend tomorrow looking at more hair options? Or maybe I'll do that tonight. I want to design the invites, too. Well... I already have but I'm really not sure about them anymore so I'll see what I can get together as a comparison.

More wedding DIY.

Well, I couldn't sleep last night so I decided I was going to finish up the felt flowers for the bouquet. And I did! Well, I finished the felt at least. Once I'd done that, I constructed something of a similar size to the bouquet size I want and pinned the flowers to get it gauge to how many more I'd need and about just under the same amount again will do it! So another trip to hobbycraft will be needed soon for another sheet of each colour. I think I'll get 2 of each just in case ;)

The centres of the flowers aren't as neat as they could be but what does it matter? The buttons will cover them anyway!

More buttons arrived this morning, too! The toadstool ones this time.

So whilst I'm waiting to get more felt, and the rest of the buttons and new bouquet holder, I decided to crack on with something else. This morning, I made the first of 2 pinwheels. We'll have one for Colin, one for his best man, one for my male bridesmaid and one for my brother (he's walking me down the aisle). Then I'll make a mini one for my mini ring bearer! Colin will be in the one combination and the rest of them will be in the other. He can't decide which one he prefers!

And one to show for size!

I love them! I'm not sure where I'm going to store them though. Perhaps we have a small box lying around somewhere? I just moved all bouquet related things into a box that's just the right size but I think I'm going to have to find a smaller one to fit inside that to hold the bouquet pinwheels; they're not faring too well just now!