2013

A little bit of afternoon wedding inspiration for you – and this time it’s for the boys.  Floral buttonholes are lovely, but sometimes you want something a bit different, so I love this alternative idea for sweet celebration flags poked into the usher’s or groomsmen’s suit pockets.

They would be really easy to make from fun papers or even fabric wrapped around a cocktail stick, and I like the idea of the little celebratory messages written on them like ‘hooray!’ and ‘yippee!’ – even the thin ribbons are a nice additional touch.  Like this wedding, perhaps you could have a floral buttonhole made for the groom to make him stand out, and make these mini flag buttonholes for his best man and ushers.

I also did this feature on felt buttonholes with some fun ideas including tiny kite buttonholes, so do check out the full feature on cool and quirky buttonholes.

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2013

Happy Bank Holiday Monday everyone!  I hope you’ve had a great weekend so far and are enjoying the extra day off from work and that the sun is shining for you.

You may have read my previous post on this apple farm wedding (if you haven’t, you must go have a look), well there was another idea from that wedding that I really wanted to share.  The couple chose birdseed as their confetti and packaged them up in these dainty little glassine envelopes with a pretty label.

I love the idea of birdseed confetti because like flower petal confetti it either bio-degrades or in the case of birdseed gets eaten up by the local bird population.  With some churches and venues reluctant to have confetti because of the misinterpreted ‘mess’ it will cause (and I completely understand why you wouldn’t want that old kind of plastic confetti blowing about) choosing an option like birdseed of dried flower petals is a great alternative.

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2013

When someone adds one of my blog post links to there’s I get a message about it, so I was delighted when I got this one and discovered that someone had been inspired by my own save the dates.  Quite by surprise the save the dates we made for our wedding have become one of the most popular blog posts I’ve featured and many, many TNWC readers have recreated their own versions – I love seeing them all.

Most often people use the recycled brown card that I myself fell in love with, but these ones created by an American letterpress and stationery company use a white card and are equally beautiful.  The couple were inspired by the ‘tying the knot’ version of my save the dates (another ‘most viewed’ blog post) where a knot is tied in twine as you open the save the date.

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2013

I try not to post ideas on this blog that are too complicated to achieve for your wedding – having done many DIY elements to my own wedding I know how long these things take and often I don’t believe some things are worth it.  Usually I wouldn’t be encouraging you to do something so time-consuming for a place card, especially as you are likely to need 70+ for the average wedding.

But this idea was just so sweet and clever that I couldn’t resist sharing it – perhaps you will use it as inspiration for your table numbers/names as there’s a lot less of them to make than place cards, or maybe you’ll just store it away for a dinner party.

These fun place cards are made using thick watercolour paper and use a template of various animal ears to cut out a silhouette at the top of the place card.  Wouldn’t they be fun for a woodland wedding?

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2013

The Natural Wedding Company is lucky enough to be blessed with some fantastic small and independent businesses, who aren’t only making and selling beautiful things, but they’re also showing you how to do it too.

I’m delighted to welcome back to the blog Sharon Langsdale from TNWC business Razzle Dazzle Rose – she’s going to be showing you how to make recycled seeded paper flowers that are ideal for decorating wedding favours or invitations, and even transforming into alternative buttonholes.

Razzle Dazzle Rose sells a number of fantastic eco-friendly craft materials, specifically in my favourite brown craft card.  A new addition to her shop are these paper flower kits – you can choose from recycled brown kraft paper flowers, cream vintage fleck flowers, or seeded paper flowers.

Once you have your kit, here’s how to make the flowers – over to Sharon who is using the cream vintage fleck flower kit…

Handmade Recycled Seeded Paper Flowers

Step 1 - Unpack your paper flower kit and you’ll see you have a number of die cut pieces of paper, just like these…

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2013

I must say I hadn’t really heard of Simnel cake until a few years ago, and I certainly haven’t ever tried one.  But I do love traditions, and Simnel cake is often eaten over Easter.  I particularly love the way this one, created by TNWC business Eat My Flowers, is decorated – both the colours (yellow and purple), the little pile of chocolate eggs, and those beautiful crystallised edible spring flowers.

Sarah who runs Eat My Flowers shared her recipe for this Simnel cake and I thought it would be a nice thing to share with you all.  Many of us who life making things, often like making sweet treats, so I thought you wouldn’t mind a recipe.  Even if you don’t fancy making a Simnel cake, you could always take inspiration from the way Eat My Flowers decorated it, and use this on an Easter cake of your choice.

According to Sarah from Eat My Flowers, “the cake is made with 11 balls of marzipan icing on top representing the 11 disciples. (Judas is not included.) Traditionally, sugar violets would also be added.  Simnel cake is very easy to make and because of the extra layer of marzipan is very moist and keeps well.”  Her recipe is from Mary Berry.

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2013

I’m hoping this post is ‘better late than never’ today as I realise it’s already quite late into the day. This week leading up to Easter I am spending some time with my family in Gloucestershire and trying to balance having some time off whilst still working a little each day.

With Easter less than a week away, my plan is to try and share some Easter/spring themed ideas – although not too twee! – here on the blog.  I think if you are planning a wedding near Easter then it would be lovely to loosely incorporate some of those elements that are so often associated with Easter.

I thought this idea for a place setting featuring a pretty egg in an egg cup with a tiny slip of paper with your guests name on what a really sweet idea.  This egg is made of papermache and uses découpage to decorate it, but I think you could easily use other ideas such as hollowed out eggs dyed pretty colours.  The egg cups could also double up as wedding favours!

If you’d like to recreate something similar to the above image, you can find a tutorial on how to create this decoupaged patterned egg here.

Image: Polka Dot Bride

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