Making my own wedding items for my wedding..

[IndiePrincess]

Hey
Im getting married next year ( 21st Aug 2010 ) We are having an Indie themed wedding .. ( LOVE Indie music )

I am making my own Save The Date cards , Invites , Place Settings , Table Chart , Favours , Jewellery , Boquets , Cakes and Gooddies .. Etc

Just wondering if there are any other crafting brides out there that i can share inspirations and ideas with ? xxxxxx

[woodtattoos]

You'll get loads of ideas here. I've made wedding favour/placenames before, and countless wedding photo frames for unique personalised mementoes. Good luck with your planning, sounds like a lot of work if you're doing it all yourself!

Si (ahem, an indie groom who made all his own invites and table names etc). ;)

[craftsensations]

wow - congrats on the wedding and that's really cool that you're doing your own stuff!!

There are plenty of us who sell wedding-y type stuff and I'm not getting married myself (other half and I have deicded not to) but I'm throwing him a hige party for his 40th Birthday this year and am handmaking all the decorations and favours etc etc myself (it's a winter wonderland theme so what I don't know about snoflakes isn't worth knowing :D).

When is the big day? How much stuff have you done so far - come on details please!!!

[beadsbydesign]

I love weddings and can't wait to see all the things you come up with.

[Pauline@weddingtreasures]

There are loads and loads of ideas flouting around and good on you for making your own! Not only do you save loads of money but you get a great deal of satisfaction knowing you have made them yourself!

Look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Pauline :mf::mf::mf:

[indri]

enjoy making it all. you'll be really busy with it all! i made my wedding invites and that took me long enough!

[ldw]

Hi,

I got married in January and did a lot of things myself including making crystal hair pins and crystal bouquets for myself and my 2 bridesmaids. Looking back now I did a bit too much myself and wish I could have let other people do some things (leaving me to do the fun little things :)) but I'm too controlling lol!

It's very exciting though and I am pleased I did it my way and I'm sure you'll be a lot more organised than me! Good luck with it all and ask away if you've any questions

Lorna x

[your theme]

Hi Indie Princess

I married in 2007 and wanted to save money and have everything matching so taught myself how to make things.
We made save the date cards,invitations,place cards,menu,seating plan,wine glass charms,bridesmaids jewellery (necklaces bracelets and earrings) but the hardest thing we did was to make the chair covers.
I never knew I was able to make things before I tried.

[bynicki]

Sounds like your're going to be really busy - what a lovely idea to make everything yourself, everything will be so special. I sell quite a few wedding things and brides do seem to love to 'make their own' these days.

Have fun !. :D

[chickab]

Good for you and I know you will find a real sense of achievement and satisfaction from making bits and pieces for your wedding!

I made absolutely everything for ours. I took sugarcraft lessions so I could make the flower displays for the cake. I made a seperate sponge cake and a 3 tier wedding cake, iced these and decorated them with sugarcraft roses, lillies and orchids which took months to prepare.

I designed and made 6 bridesmaid dresses, tiaras, bags, bracelets and necklaces for them. I didnt want one mad rush with everything towards the last few months leading up to our wedding so I cut out the bridesmaid dresses at least 5 months before and started to make these up. Whilst making these, my sister who was one of our bridesmaids, became pregnant and another bridesmaid friend became ill. The friend ended up drastically loosing weight whilst my sister put it on so they ended up swapping dresses which was quite a relief!!

As both sisters and 2 of my nieces were not living locally at the time I couldnt finish off their dresses until the week before our wedding so I ended up completing 4 bridesmaid dresses literally 6 days before.

I made all the stationery, bought and arranged all the flowers for the reception tables and for the Church. I particularly wanted to make up an arrangement for the Church, containing a rose for each Grandparent and family member who was no longer with us. No one knew the reason behind this as I didnt want to upset any family members but throughout the service it was constantly in my sight so the Church lady who put these arrangements out must have sensed something!

I then made bouquets the day/evening before our wedding, along with all the buttonholes and the basket bouquets for the Mums.....I dont think there are many brides doing that in the early hours of the morning on the day of their wedding at 12.45a.m.!!

My advise to you would be to start as early as you possibly can with making things. I didnt feel under any pressure at all whilst making our bits and pieces but straight after our wedding meal in the afternoon I had terrible stomach pains which were very painful and I ended up having to sit outside and unfortunately I didnt get to spend that much time with our evening guests. I think it was just the relief of having worked on everything for so long and now it was all finished that unfortunately this relief came out as terrible stomach pains which lasted 2 days.

I concentrated on making all our things that I didnt even have a hen night and my wedding dress I bought in the October, I didnt have the chance to try on again until the Thursday before our wedding!! A bit silly now when I look back on it but I just felt it wouldnt be a problem if it needed taking in or letting out as I could do it!

Dont neglect yourself though. Although its a great sense of achievement to make all these things, it is your day so concentrate on yourself too. I wished I had. Im not really one for fuss or pampering but looking back now it would have been nice to go to a hairdressers and try out different styles or maybe to have had my make-up done proffessionally......hope I didnt look too bad anyway......my husband still married me!!????

I like to be kept busy and after the wedding I felt so lost having worked on these crafts for so long I just wanted to carry on making these things! As I received lots of interest on the big day for my wedding items, I then started to make these for family and friends and Im still making them 10 years later! Im now putting together a website which will contain all my wedding veils and accessories so Im really pleased I put so much time and effect into our day as it certainly made me realise I have a real love and interest for making these wedding items and Im sure you will too.

Even for a bride getting married in July (as with myself), once January comes round that corner the time just absolutely flies past and Im sure most brides will tell you the same. I would say the last month and definately the last 2 weeks are really taken up with appointments finalising everything so if you can, make sure you leave the last month free for this. I felt I still had one more month to work on things but due to appointmens, it meant I was getting up really early to work on these but still going to bed late and after a while you realise you just cant do this as it catches up with you.

Good luck with all your wedding crafts and Im sure you will have a real sense of achievement on the day knowing what you have done. I would so love to see your work and crafts you are working on.

[Leahlewi]

I'm with you all the way! What a cool wedding theme. Are we talking original indie (i.e. My Bloody Valentine, The Cure etc) or more mainstream indie or just everything in the indie bracket?

We've got a webesite specifically set up for brides making their own wedding stationery. It's called Imagine Doing It Yourself (you can Google it).
I have to admit to it all being a bit girly at the moment...........nothing really but the ideas gallery is growing and if there is anything specific you would like, we can probably source it or have it made for you.

Let us all know about your plans. I'm itching to know how everything looks when you've finished.

Leah

[Ifor-Jones]

Leah - that is the fourth thread I have seen you "advertising" on. Welcome to the forum!!

[Leahlewi]

Hi again.

I was thinking about your idea over the weekend.
In our last house, we had a kind of music room that we never really decorated. One Xmas, we spend ages and ages cutting pictures of bands and fils (and shoes I loved) from the magazine and pasted them all over one wall. It was brilliant. The rest of the house was really posh and then we had this one way-out room.

It just struck me that you could do something like that for your invitations and stationery. If you have any images that you love, you could scan them in and have them printed so that you could cut them out and make a collage out of them.

Just an idea.

You could also have a look at the website "Lovely Favours". Her work is absolutely stunning and I'm sure that you'll find some inspration there. (She's also got a 50% sale at the moment)

I'll let you know if anythign else pops in to my head.

[serz]

Im getting married 2nd oct 2010 and i didnt even think if making anything myself. How did you make the hair pins and stuff??

The only think that i did have a go and making the other day is the gater but didnt really turn out how i wanted it :(

Has anyone got any pics of what they made??

[Dizzydiza]

Im getting married 2nd oct 2010 and i didnt even think if making anything myself. How did you make the hair pins and stuff??

Has anyone got any pics of what they made??

HI serz
Hair pins are very simple to make. Take a length of wire 0.4mm and thread 6 or 8 crystals or beads onto it. Take the two end of wire together bringing the beads into the shape of a circle and twist the wire around each other so the one wire is on top of the circle of beads and one underneath. Then thread another bead on to the top wire and bring the wire down between the 3rd and 4th bead/crystal. Then bring both wires together and twist a couple of times. Your flower head of beads are now ready to wrap onto an open kirby
See what the final hairpin should look like here http://www.dizatiaras.co.uk/jewellerypages/Hairpin2.html

[Extra Special Touch Gifts]

Hi,

You'll love it!

I mad everything I possibly could for our wedding last year! I was going to make my dress.... but then decided to have a luxury of a bespoke dress!

I did all the stationery, favours, monogrammed napkins and free machine embroidery corsages for all the men and made mine, my mums and briodemaids fascinators!

Thats why I started my business! I now create personalised monogrammed stationery and matching napkins for the wedding breakfast!!

You never know where it will end!

Congratulations and good luck with the making!!!

XXX