After many months of silence, I'm excited to say I'm back!
And there's something different... haircut?...new tattoo?...new piercing?
Well... all of the above! BUT I'm now Mrs Helyer! HELLYEAH!
We're married, honeymooned and back to normal life. The next step being to get our first home - at that point I'm sure my blog will become very DIY orientated, but alas, for now I shall have to continue bombarding you with cards and the likes!
So... I want to start by sharing my favourite snaps!
Photobombed by a bust! :O
Now let's talk creativity, I'm happy to say that I put my own stamp on the big day and I was thrilled with the way it all turned out!
The Centrepieces - In a previous post I went into the ins and outs of how I made the embroidery table numbers, the rest came together with a little help from my friends! My friend [marketing exec] Hannah sourced the tree stumps for me, my Pops screwed handmade feet onto the bottom of each stump so that I could feed fairy lights around the bottom [IKEA]. We ate what felt like a lifetime supply of gherkins [ALDI] to save the jars - i spray painted the bottoms of each jar and bought the milk bottles and candles from IKEA too. The amazing flowers we done by our local florists - Blue Door Flowers. I was over the moon with the way the centrepieces turned out - understated, classic and colourful.
The Welcome Sign - I wanted to welcome out guests to the main room with a fun sign. With the help of my Pops, we sprayed a cheap framed picture into a chalkboard and my uber talented [designer] friend Vicky wrote the message for me with a chalkboard pen! [in about 10 mins - there's nothing that girl can't do!]
The Ring Book - I wanted something special to present our rings - and given that the fantastic location was a university and a library I thought what could be better than a book? I used a square die as a template, secured with Washi tape and cut using a craft knife until the depth was right. I freehand cut the gaps for the rings by process of trial and error! I also cut them at different heights so that the book could close without the rings touching. I glued the pages together with PVA and adhered a length of ribbon to the front and back pages with a hot-glue gun.
Other than the registrar thinking that we destroyed a Bible [we didn't - it was a thrifty charity shop purchase!] I think it looked very effective, and makes a stunning picture!
The Guestbook - This was quite a quick fix, a cheap and cheerful 12x12" scrapbook with die-cut letters. I used black glitter cardstock for impact! Our guests wrote lovely messages with big sharpie markers too! In the background you can see big letters, I picked the initials up from a cute cafe in St Ives and spray painted a Heidi Swapp Marquee Ampersand - the only downfall is that the cardboard shape didn't really hold its own and ended up on the floor a couple of times!
The Cake Topper / Flower Baskets / Favours - We wanted a little something different for the top of the cake... I toyed with the idea of figurines or laser cut lettering but decided on a Polaroid picture to co-ordinate with our favours! The cake itself was amazing, made by a super talented friend of a friend Anjali, it consisted of lemon drizzle sponge tiers, with layers of blackberry jam and buttercream filling topped with fresh fruit! If only someone would've warned me that the fruit would tumble onto my white dress when we cut into the cake... my panicked expression was a picture!
My adorable flower girls did the honour of welcoming the bridal party - I wanted the petals to match the colour scheme, they were a quick buy from Amazon. And my best buddy Amy [designer] created the floral baskets using her Cricut Explore machine from coral cardstock [used for the invites]. I love how easy the die-cuts came together and the girls had so much fun throwing petals down the aisle!
My first plan for favours was to create our own damson / sloe gin - after a lot of research into tiny bottles and bulk brewing processes, I decided to give up! Instead we opted for fabulous personalised Polaroids from PhotoBox, it meant a lot of snooping through Facebook [tricky for the older non-savvy guests who don't have an online presence] but worth it! Everyone seemed to enjoy taking a little something away.
I had planned to make my own birdcage veil and do my own flower arrangements but in the end decided to leave it in the capable hands of professionals! Tumbling flowers and hairpieces wouldn't have been a good look...
I did however work with our florists at Blue Door Flowers to get the look I wanted including spray painting the gherkin jars I collected, and had the veil custom made with a mood board of ideas!
Photography was a big deal to me, [having studied Photography at uni myself] we felt it was important to ask someone who understood that we didn't want posed shots and awkward cliche pictures. I asked a friend from university - Jessica Lang, whom I always had in my for the job! Jess is amazing at putting her subjects at ease, capturing candid moments and putting together a stunning album!
If you want to see the full album, or to see more of Jess' fantastic work, click
here!
As you can tell, the entire wedding was made possible by my wonderfully thrifty and creative friends and family. I just got round to ordering our Thank You cards too! It was a combination of laziness / waiting for a discount code at PhotoBox! I can't wait to send them out in the next week!
Well, it's fair to say that I may have gone a big picture mad.. and with that I will sign off!
I promise to post some pics of sunny Cuba ASAP!
Peace out,
Mrs Helyer <3
