Styling a Vintage Wedding

There are so many ways to add a little vintage style to your wedding and decor, I thought I'd share a little inspiration via the online crafts and vintage shopping emporium that is Etsy.

• Start with the stationery and think vintage stamps or repurposing vintage postcards 

• Use old printing blocks or scrabble letters for table names, and keep names settings in place with an antique key

• Decorate tables with embroidered tablecloths

• Make table runners out of a mix and match bunch of doilys 

• Pop odd stems of wild country flowers in vintage bottles

• Make your own bunting with book pages or music sheets 

• For garlands sew doillys or strands of vintage sheets onto strings of cotton or lace and deck the halls, ceilings, mantle pieces - where ever takes yours fancy

• Make like a pro and style up little areas with old suitcases, collections of books and other props. Little vignettes are lovely for sweet or drinks tables, or for guests to linger over the wedding book

• Don't forget those who can't be there by including photos of loved ones displayed in hanging mix and match frames. Or use these to tell your own love story

To find all the details of the items shown follow the link to the treasury, and bob over to my shop while you're there.    

DIY - Little House Favours

Saw this DIY on Etsy a while ago and thought it was really sweet. If you want to add some home made touches to your wedding tables, you could make your own gift boxes for favours. 

For something a bit different, tweak the box pattern a touch as above and hey presto: itty bity houses or cottages. Decorate as you will. I love the red roof and door on these.

Stuffed with sweeties and a personal message they'd make great wedding favours. Line them up in a row and create your own Coronation Street, or decorate your mantlepiece with a few at Christmas time.  

Images and full instruction via Etsy

Simple Vases - Natural Wrap

Bored of using the same old vase? Looking for a way to add a little rustic touch to your wedding? Wrapping your existing vases with fabric or string, in natural materials like hessian (burlap), linens and cottons is a super quick way to give your tables a country feel.  

You can either cut out a template and glue onto to a cardboard gift box and pop a vase or plastic container inside the box, or glue your fabric directly onto an old straight sided vase.

Would you rather skip the glue? - you could just wrap and secure with string. Stand your vase on your fabric and allow enough fabric all the way around your vase to cover the sides, plus 2 or 3 inches excess. Gather up around the vase, and tie at the neck. 

If you find the string is slipping, you could pop an elastic band over the neck of the vase before you wrap it - this helps avoid slippyness. Also tying on a corner point or just above the neck helps.

Think hessian alone is a bit plain?  Add a band of lace, cotton, wool or ribbon to pretty things up a little. This simple combination works really well, and lightens the rustic fabric.

Another cheap and easy way to DIY your own vases is to wrap them in string. I love brown garden string or twine but you could use wool, yarn, jute, or lovely thick macrame cord.

Knot and leave a long string when you start winding. Once you've built up enough string aim to finish up near your long string and tie firmly in place. Trim the ends and tuck out of sight. Again, if the string is slipping try double sided tape or elastic bands to help things stay in place. 

These are a nice alternative to low wooden container boxes for wedding tables and would work really well for outdoor or woodland decorating schemes. If you're holding your reception in a barn or throwing a posh picnic lunch these natural wrapped vases would be fab. They're just perfect for country bumpkins.

Images: RitzyBee, Elizabeth Anne Designs, Michaels, Apartment Therapy, Style Me Pretty, Justin Marantz, Shelterness

DIY - Embroidery Hoop Display

Does this even need words? Ok, just a few.

You will need

• Embroidery hoops 
• Co-ordinating/contrasting fabrics
• Scissors
• String

Method 

• Cut to size 
• Tuck in edges, or tape to frame for neater finish
• Hang in your preferred arrangement

Ridiculously peasy DIY. Perfect for the craftily challenged.

Simple Vases - Spots and stripes

Just a quick post today - some pretty inspiration for customising old vases, or giving new vases a personal touch.

Washi tape has been massive with crafters everywhere for a while now. Its fab for scrapbook and paper projects but now its time for vases to get the sticky treatment too.

There are loads of different colour-ways and designs out there, so its a great way to tie in a tricky colour, or introduce a little pattern to a tablescape.  Papermash has a good selection, as do Present and Correct, and Jo & Flo on Etsy.

Check em out, but beware, you might just end up wanting them all.

Images sweet paul, elle interior, koyal wholesale

DIY - Petal Confetti Cones

A bit of a different post for me, but I thought I'd share a little idea for all you DIY brides out there.

The notion came to me when we had some hydrangea in the shop that was dropping petals. I tried recutting and dunking but unfortunately this batch had got cold in the chiller before it arrived chez nous and wasn't having any of it. The scattered blue petals looked so sweet, and not being one for waste, I decided to make confetti.  

I am lucky enough to have a good stash of odds and ends of gift wrap and wallpaper remnants from shoots, so I picked some with pretty blue prints - a Sanderson Roman toile and a William Morris pattern. I experimented with a few different sized pieces of paper before settling on using 21 x 25cm, which was deep enough to hold plenty of confetti.

Then starting with a good angle on what would be the front of the cone, so that the back point was a nice height, I rolled the paper in on itself....

...like so. Pinched the end..

And folded it over neatly at the back of the cone, securing with some double sided tape. I attached some more tape to keep the joins at the back in place too. You could use a glue stick if you prefer. 

Then I made another.

And although it felt a bit cruel (as it often does when I cut a long stemmed flower short), I shredded the hydrangea of its petals and filled my cones.  

Make a stack in mixed papers, put them in a basket or zinc bucket with a note asking guests to help themselves. Easy peasy.  

Simple vases - Single stems

This weeks simple vases could not be any simpler so there's really no need to worry if your flower arranging skills aren't up to much! 

If you ever get a bouquet and don't know what to do with it, or are thinking about how to display flowers for a dinner party or a more formal event, rather than trying to arrange them all in one vase, you could try using stems individually with a group of vases.

I feel a bit like Delia Smith teaching everyone how to boil eggs, but here are some tips and tricks for a pretty group of single stems in simple vases.

• An unusual selection of vases will make an interesting display.
• Bottles come in all shapes and sizes. Look out for interesting necks, curves, and waists. 
• Oil and vinegar bottles, mustard and pickle jars are all great makeshift vases. 
• Raid the drinks cabinet for coloured glass and curvy bottles. 
• Wine goblets, whisky tumblers and sherry glasses are perfect for flowers. 
• Keep old cosmetic and perfume bottles - but wash with diluted bleach and rinse thoroughly before use.

If you want to give your display a little personal twist you could:

• add a little food colouring to the water
• try your hand at tinting glass 
• follow this diy to learn how to paint the inside of bottles with enamel paint.

Using single stems shows off both the bottle and the individual flower, but there is still a bit of an art to it. Try out some of the following and see what difference it makes to the overall look of your grouping.

•  Use large, heavy blooms cut short so that the head sits at the mouth of the container.
• Think about proportions and leave some stems longer - suits tall slender vases
• Give your collection of vases a little space, so that you can appreciate each one.
• Vary heights/colours so that the whole grouping is balanced.

Most of all have fun with it, its not rocket science, its only playing with flowers.

Images via- Desire to Inspire, 100 Layer Cake, Debi Treloar, Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart Elizabeth Anne Designs

A dab hand

Just a little collection of snaps to inspire me to dust off my brushes and get a few jobs done round the house tomorrow. I have a cabinet and some freecycled bentwood chairs to rub down and spruce up.

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I'm a bit slow on the uptake when it comes to techie stuff and have just found out about Big Huge Labs, a great site packed chock-a-block with fun photography gadgets and more.  I read about it a while ago on Selina Lake's blog but hadn't got round to trying it out.  I used a 2 x 2 mosaic grid to arrange the pics above, but you can do 3 x 3 or more using your own or pictures around the web.

I was looking for a way of creating moodboards that are easy to share on the blog so that I can post about wedding themes and decorating schemes (just one of a trillion things on my to do list lately).  Glad I popped over and gave it a go as it couldn't be easier.  Lots of other fun stuff on there -  always fancied myself as a bit of a muse, so shall definitely be turning myself into a piece of pop art, Andy Warhol style.  Oh and posing in the vintage photo booth is a must too.