What better way to guide your friends and family to your wedding ceremony or reception (or to the summer cocktails!) than with a simple, homemade sign.  There are some fantastic ideas for wedding signs out there, from old planks of wood casually painted, to those painted soft vintage pastels with the text in elegant black lettering.  This is my version which is perfect for popping on a table rather than staking in the ground: perhaps you could write your wedding menu on it, or a fun message to your guests.

Image: The Knot

So here’s what you need to make your own rustic flowerpot sign:

A large-ish flowerpot
A bag of small gravel
Some left-over paint (or a tester pot)
A piece of slate (or a chalkboard)
Two sturdy wooden stakes
Some twine
Chalk
Raffia (optional)

First, clean your flowerpot (if it’s been sat in the garden) and make sure it’s dry before painting it.  Give the pot a good covering – I used some left-over claypaint from Earthborn in ‘Vanilla’, which has a beautiful texture to it and is thick enough for one coat only.  Ordinary paint might require you to do more than one coat.

Next, leave the paint to try.

Once the flowerpot is completely dry you can fill it with gravel.  You could also fill it half full with gravel and top it up with soil and dig in some plants to spill out over the top – pansies or other small flowers would be pretty.  Moss also works well if you want to disguise the gravel.  Whatever you choose to do, make sure you fill it at least half full with small gravel as this will hold the stakes firmly and make sure you sign doesn’t fall over!

Next, push the two wooden stakes well down into the gravel towards the back of the pot.  You want to make a sort of teepee frame out of them.  Tie them securely together at the top with twine.  Raffia can be used to cover the twine if you think it looks a bit ugly.

Finally, take your slate (ours came off an old shed during a storm!) or chalkboard and carefully rest it against your wooden stake frame.  Give the pot a gentle wobble to make sure your signs pretty sturdy.

The only part left is to write your message in chalk.  Include a handy arrow if you’re directing guests somewhere.  I used ordinary kids chalk (use a damp sponge to wipe it clean if you make a mistake), but you could use those liquid chalk pens and you can even buy chalk pencils in the States (great for writing really neatly or illustrating your sign) but I have yet to see if they’re available in the UK.  Hobbycraft or other good art and craft shops are a good place to ask.

My suggestions on where to buy resources would be Nutscene for nice twine and colourful raffia; Earthborn or Farrow & Ball’snew eco friendly range for a great choice of paints (you only need a tester pot); and reclamation yards for old slate.

Other ideas…

Image: The Knot

Image: Funkifolkart

Image: The Knot