Winter lovely's from Coast

Coast have started thier Christmas sale...

Here are some of the top picks

Left: Divianna Dress £95
Middle: Yelena Dress £79
Right: Anna Feather Dress £85

More Winter Wedding Inspiration

I couldn’t resist searching for some more Christmas/winter wonderland inspiration!

There are so many magical ways to create a winter wonderland wedding and an opportunity for something a little more unique to every wedding day favours. There is also the benefit of being able to pick up some bargains in the Christmas sales for your wedding, such as fairy lights, everything sparkly, decorations etc.

Confetti have some beautiful Christmas wedding favours and decorations and they are currently offering free delivery until 22nd December.

These baubles from Celebrations Plus would make a wonderful favour/thank you gift for children!

Unique DIY Favours

Whilst out Christmas shopping I found these lovely little boxes on the craft market – they each contained a penny, a marble, a heart, an eraser, thread, and an elastic band. They also had a little poem in:

Penny- to make sure you're never broke
Marbles - to replace the ones you may loose
Safety pin - to help remind you to be safe
Eraser - to make all those little mistakes disappear
Elastic - to help you stretch beyond your current limits
Thread - to remind you that friendship ties our hearts together
Heart – because you’re always loved

I bought a couple as stocking fillers but thought they would also make lovely wedding favours – obviously you could put in anything you like but a very cheap but personal and unique wedding favour! They came in a little brown box with an embellishment on top so they would be very easy to make yourself. The little brown boxes can be purchased for around 25p and embellishments don’t cost the earth either – usually around £1 for a pack of multiple embellishments.

Here’s some ideas for the boxes – just add embellishments/ribbon to match your colour scheme

Confetti 1/3 Off Christmas Promotion

Confetti are offering 1/3 off their Christmas products.

Great for Christmas cards, wrap etc and also some lovely things for a winter wedding!

DIY Wedding Tags

These can be used for so many things…favours, tags on flower-filled jars, name tags on glasses etc and there are many ways to create your own! You can customize the shape, size, font colour to suit your style.

You can download some free tag templates of all different shapes and sizes from scapbooking mad…print these onto cardstock or patterned paper to create your tags.

Invest in a tag punch –create the text on a word document, punch the tags around the text onto cardstock/patterned paper – voila your own printed tags! There are a million things that you could do with tag punches. Use an ink stamp or create photo tags to add to favours or even create individual photograph tags to hang on wine glasses for place names.

Add embellishments, ribbon and anything that matches your colour scheme/theme!!

£1,999 instead of £5285 for a Wedding Venue Package at the enchanting Kelham Hall!!!

I just thought that I would let you know of this fantastic offer – £1,999 instead of £5285 for a Wedding Venue Package at the enchanting Kelham Hall, Kelham, Newark, Nottinghamshire - a fantastic saving of 62%!!!

This is only available until Wednesday 1st December (evening)

Please click here for the offer

Here's the info...

Get that perfect wedding package without the hassle and expense. Why wait, you could have a white winter wedding in a few months time, at a fraction of the price?

Use of the Drawing Room for your Wedding Ceremony

Set up and hire from 12 noon until midnight with all necessary white linen, crockery, cutlery and glassware for your Wedding Breakfast
 Welcome drink & Sparkling Wine for the speeches for your 50 guests
A lavish three course meal for 50 guests in the Music Room including a starter, main and dessert with tea and coffee provided (Please see Breakfast Menu)
Still water on tables
Use of silver cake stand and knife
Chair covers with a choice of coloured sash to match your colour theme
 Hot Evening Snacks for 70 guests
Private Bar & Dance floor
A team of planners to ensure your special day runs perfectly.

Hot Pink and Black Inspiration...

This weeks' wedding inspiration is hot pink and black with a few pearls and diamantes thrown in for a glamorous feel….

Images from google images - please let me know if your image is here and I will post a link

More Free Downloads

We all love a freebie so here’s some more of the best free downloadable wedding goodies…

My all time fave…..Eat Drink Chic some fabulous templates on this site. Well worth checking out on a regular basis for any new templates that have been added.

 Buy a Gift offer free downloads for invitations, menu cards, wedding favour scrolls etc



  

Bliss Weddings have some fantastic free downloads – from a printable wedding planner, questions to ask suppliers, a bridesmaids guide – lots of great downloads in one place.  

Any Brides out there with some ideas to share?

If so, please feel free to send your DIY images to me and I will include them on the blog!

Inspiration...Pink and Gold

Here's some more wedding inspiration showing a modern and vintage twist with pink and gold - the colours together are soft and romantic. They fit perfectly with a vintage theme...think pearls, lace - classic elegance. Pink and gold are timeless versatile colours that can be easily adapted to fit any theme...

These seperate images are from google images - please let me know if your image is here and I will post a link :-)

Sweetie bar on a budget...

Sweetie bars are becoming more and more popular at weddings – they’re a great alternative to favours and a creative way to tie in your colour scheme/theme and they don’t always have to cost a bomb!


Here are a few ideas courtesy of Google images…

Why not get creative and make your own sweetie cones, lables and sweetie bar sign? I made our cones using card stock – simply rolled them into a cone shape and secured them with double-sided tape.

You could create your own designs for cones and labels and print onto card. I also bought some personalised stickers and stuck these onto some plain white paper bags and little paper saucepots. This gives more ways of tying in your colour scheme.

What about jars of retro sweets? Or create an old-fashioned sweetshop feel with old-fashioned jars and scoops. Sweets can be bought in bulk at your local cash and carry, Makro or eBay or look out for pound shop bargains and 3-for-2 offers etc.
The only problem is having the will power not to eat them all before the wedding…!

Wedding Inspiration

Winter Weddings…

Now although I got married abroad and loved every minute of having our wedding in the hot sunshine, I think a winter wedding would be just magical! (hmmm, think I must be ready for Christmas!!) Think ‘winter wonderland’ with icy blues, silver and whites; elegant Christmas with reds, purples and golds….there is such a range of colour themes to go for with winter weddings.

A winter wedding also offers endless opportunities for the creative crafty bride....from homemade personalised Christmas name cards or baubles as place names, sparkly centrepieces made from cones, luxurious ribbon and fairy lights. Also, favours that couldn’t be used at any other wedding making them more unique (well they could but may appear a little odd mid-August!) ….personalised hot choc sachets, mini shaped hand warmer, baubles…

Oooh it makes me feel warm inside!!

DIY Favours for under £1...

Like the sound of favours for under £1? Take a look at this simple DIY favour box...simple yet effective!

This favour box was made by wiring the crystal flowers around the paper roses, stiking on the bow and attaching it to the box. Voila!

There are lots of great wedding craft items on the Celebrations Plus website so you won't be short of something to fit in with your colour scheme or theme.

25% off Coast!

Coast have an amazing 25% off all their full price items....great for bridesmaid dresses but also for those Christmas parties!

As always, there are some beautiful dresses in stock.

The discount code is grazia348 which is valid until midnight on Friday 29th October.

Charity Wedding Favours

Charity wedding favours are a great idea....they dont cost a bomb and the money goes to a good cause.
If I were a guest at a wedding, I would be very pleased knowing that the money had gone to a charity and not cost the bride and groom lots of money. The suggested donation is £1.50

Cancer Research UK have a variety of pins. Wedding dress designer Jenny Packham created the exclusive cupcake pin badge for Cancer Research UK.

Tips for DIY Brides...

...*sigh* that I no longer am!!

I’ve learnt lots of do’s and don’ts along the way but all the fun is in the learning!

Anyhow, I thought I’d share some tips that I learnt whilst being a DIY bride:

•  Inspiration, inspiration, inspiration! Get as much as you can by using Google images, checking out wedding blogs, magazines, wedding stationary sites etc to get together some ideas
• Create a theme and colour scheme and stick to this throughout
• Invest in some good wedding craft books; you’ll find some recommendations in posts within the ‘Inspiration’ label
• Go to as many wedding shows as you can to get ideas of things that you could recreate yourself such as flower displays, stationary, favours etc

•  Try to let your personality and interests shine through in your projects
• Shop around for craft items; I got bits from all over the place and found it to be much more cost effective. You’ll find plenty of online craft websites and eBay is fantastic for all sorts of wedding crafts but don’t skimp on quality

• Give yourself plenty of time for your projects – other aspects of your wedding can also take up a lot of time so make sure you don’t end up having to rush things
• Have a helping hand if you need it! Have friends or family round and make a day of it! I roped in a couple of friends, some wine and chocolate and had a great time getting stuck into making bits and bobs – get a little production line going!

• DO remember how many guests you are making for and make a few spare, just in case
• Remember, not everything has to be 100% perfect!! You’ve made it yourself and that s the main thing – people will be thinking about how nice and personal that is, they won’t notice the little flaws here and there!
• Lastly, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!! That’s what it’s all about after all!

Free Book Preview

I just wanted to share the link to this fabulous book preview of 'The DIY Bride: 40 Fun Projects for Your Ultimate One-Of-A-Kind Wedding' By Khris Cochran available from this link at Google Books.

It shares some wonderful wedding craft tips and projects as well as a project planner - I wish I had this book when I was planning my wedding!

The book gives step by step guides for save the dates, invitations, table planners, favours and lots more!

Its also available from Amazon at a really good price

Final Centrepieces & Sweetie Bar...

Here are our final DIY centrepieces, sweetie table and decorations from our UK reception (you may have seen the 'practice' ones a few months ago in the blog).  We used the mini topiary trees as balloon weights.

Much to my disappointment, the photographer didn't take any professional pictures of these so please forgive the not-so-great images!!!!

Here's the kiddie's table, which kept them all occupied - although they did spend more time in the sumo suits and bouncy castle!! We had balloons on the table too.

The sweetie bar...unfortunately these pictures don't show the 'final' table, which had a voile backdrop, tealights and table jewels to finish it off

Thank You Cards!

I couldn't resist making our thank you cards....now the wedding is over I still need to keep myself occupied with craft DIY projects!!



I was going to do them all the same but decided it would be more creative (and fun!) to make each one different. It also meant that I could use left over bits and bobs from the wedding such as ribbon, self-adhisive pearls and gems, and the hearts and  fabric ribbon that I used for the sweetie dispenser for our sweetie bar.  So this way worked out much cheaper than going out and buying a shed load of new bits!

Thank you cards...

So I finally got round to making our thank you cards. Feeling a bit lost after all the wedding preparations being over, I decided I wanted to make the cards myself. It also adds that personal touch!!

I was going to make all the cards the same but I decided to be more creative and make them all slightly different.  This meant that I could use left over wedding craft bits and bobs such as ribbon, pearls, gems, and the fabric ribbon and hearts that I used for our sweetie bar.  Worked out a lot cheaper than buying everything again!

Here's a small selection...I made 50 similar variations.

More bargains and money off codes!

Just to let you know of some great offers that may help whether your the bride or a guest!!


TONI&GUY
20% Off Cut and/or Colour
http://www.vouchercodes.co.uk/go/f0348/8CAB-toniandguy

Debenhams
Up to 50% Off Plus *Exclusive* Free Delivery
http://www.vouchercodes.co.uk/go/f0348/8C7F-debenhams

New Look
Up to 50% Off in the Sale
http://www.vouchercodes.co.uk/go/f0348/8C91-new-look

Wallis
18% Off and Free Delivery - Including Items in the Up to 50% Off Sale
http://www.vouchercodes.co.uk/go/f0348/8C81-wallis

Figleaves
10% Off and Free Delivery on Figleaves Brand Items
http://www.vouchercodes.co.uk/go/f0348/8C89-figleaves

Coast
Free Delivery - Including Items in the Mid Season Sale
http://www.vouchercodes.co.uk/go/f0348/8C8D-coast

Ann Summers
Up to 90% Off in the Sale
http://www.vouchercodes.co.uk/go/f0348/8C99-ann-summers

NEXT
50% Or More Off in the Sale
http://www.vouchercodes.co.uk/go/f0348/8C9F-next

Office Shoes
Up to 50% Off in the Sale
http://www.vouchercodes.co.uk/go/f0348/8CA1-office-shoes


Get shopping and grab yourself a bargain!!

Fab Bargain!

Had to let you know about this wonderful bargain.....!

Pearl headband from Coast that was £45 and now is a bargain £22!

Apologies for the big gap in posts on here but I've been off getting married! Now back to reality and really don't know what to do with myself, and I'm sure most of you newly weds out there know what that feels like!  Anyway, I will try to keep myself busy by finding lots of bargains, money saving tips, freebies and of course anything to do with wedding DIY to keep posting on here!

So for today....

For some free samples of wedding invitations (try before you buy!) check out these lovely sites..

Fairy God Mother

Special Day Direct

Wedding Stationary by Debbie Jenkins

We collected lots of lovely samples before deciding to make our own but its also a great way of getting some ideas together if you do make your own!

Sweetie Bar!

Here's a trial run of our sweetie bar!!! This is kind of how it will look on the day, only we're going to get some big swirly lollipops and a couple more jars as I cant imagine the sweets will last that long! 

Compared to how much some sweetie bars can cost, we managed to keep costs down by getting the jars from the Poundshop, Poundstretcher, B&M Stores etc and sweets are from Makro.  The wooden sweetie dispenser was made by my Father in Law to be, which I decorated with fabric strips and hearts that coordinate with the candy cones (kindly made by my Mum!).  I bought some plain white paper bags from eBay and put a personlised sticker on half and heart ink stamped the other half.  I also put the stickers in some paper pots as another option for holding the sweets.

The wooden heart was made again by FIL to be and I decorated it to coordinate with the rest of the sweetie bar.

Excuse my garden background!!! Will upload some pics from the 'real' sweetie bar after the (second!) big day.....