DIY project Archives - Page 2 of 6 - The Natural Wedding Company

Blog: DIY project

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Fern’s ‘how to’ guide for the pretty envelopes she made for her bird and wildflower inspired wedding stationery

Charlie

I have just the loveliest post today from TNWC Real Bride Fern, who has not only made the most heavenly bird and wildflower inspired wedding stationery (and with my favourite brown craft card featuring!), but she has put together an easy-to-follow ‘how to’ guide for how she made the pretty envelopes. Plus she’s also shared details of how she created her different wedding stationery items.

I just know you are going to love this wedding stationery and it’s beautiful little details. If you are on the hunt for eco-friendly materials to make items for your wedding, do check out our DIY Resources section of the directory for a great selection of businesses that we love.

>> View Fern and Dominic’s woodland bird and country flower inspired wedding here <<

How to guide for pretty envelopes

It is always lovely to receive special parcels and post by mail, and wedding invitations can tell you so much about a wedding. Most of the weddings we have been to, couples have handmade their invitations and I never considered doing my invites any other way, but I really wanted my wedding invitations to have a wow factor as soon as they land through the letter box. So it was clear very quickly that I was going to make my envelopes as well.

I have included a ‘how to’ guide for making envelopes below, but I will tell you about my other stationary first.

DIY Floral Envelopes

Full ‘how to’ guide below!

Invitations, save the dates and RSVPs

I designed all the stationary myself in Microsoft Publisher and Microsoft Word, inspired by my finds on Pinterest. As I had decided that my envelopes would hold lots of colour it meant that I could keep my invitations more simple.

The fonts were Segeo Script used for our names on the save the dates and the rest of stationary we only used Traditional Arabic but varied use in all capitals or italics. The save the dates I made in Publisher by using the layout guides to divide the page into 8. I did for the RSVPs in Word; it is do-able but a lot fiddlier. I printed them on A4 and then cut them up with a guillotine.

The card for the invitations I found in a local shop with 10 brown kraft and 10 white sheets in. The design of my invites was dictated by this and its size. These were designed in Microsoft Word by customising the page size, even the map on the details.

We decided to trim all the corners to tie in with the envelopes, hole punch and tie together with ribbon. I then also made an afternoon invitation in the same way by customising the page size to A5 and then putting amended details inside. I printed everything at home on my own printer. It has cost around £35 for everything, not including postage, but I still have things left over for other projects.

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Ellie and Jon’s DIY guide to making your own giant light-up letters

Charlie

DIY guide to making your own giant light up letters

It is so lovely to be back with TNWC Real Bride Ellie today after a bit of a gap in posts. I have just this week been contacting a handful of (hopefully!) new TNWC Real Brides to introduce you to. Today we have a Real Brides first – a groom-to-be has written this fab post (thanks Jon!), which details how him and Ellie created a set of giant light-up letters for their up-coming wedding.

Over to Jon to tell you how to create them…

A how to guide for making giant light up letters

We were looking for giant light-up letters that we want to hang at the end of the field when we get married in May – a huge ‘J & E’ to welcome everyone to the party. However, each letter cost nearly £200 each to buy – and not much less to rent. This was way out of our budget. However, I was a bloke looking for a blokey wedding job – and confidently proclaimed that they’d be easy enough to make. It turns out (fortunately) that it was actually quite simple!

I’ve included a step-by-step on how to do it below. It is significantly cheaper to build them yourself – all three letters’ raw materials came to about £150 (mostly electrics), and they take a bit of time to put together, but if you’re like me and enjoy pottering around outside with a cup of tea and some power tools, then read on!

Charlie

A guide to making pretty floral dressing gowns as for gifts for your bridesmaids from Lucy Says I Do

Charlie

Can you imagine making your bridesmaids a beautiful floral dressing gown as a wedding gift to them? Personally my sewing skills don’t stretch that far, but if yours do then read on to find out how Lucy from Lucy Says I Do created them for her wedding in today’s guest post.

If you’re inspired by Lucy’s handmade wedding, then check out her other guest blog posts for us on her bridesmaids dresses, growing your own wedding flowers, her Edwardian wedding dress, and personalised wedding stationery.

Over to Lucy…

When we got married I wanted to give my bridesmaids something special, something they could keep, something personal to say thank you. Together with my mum’s help we made each of them their own dressing gown/robe that I gave them the evening before the wedding. It was a great surprise and they absolutely loved them!

First we bought a simple dressing gown pattern online (from here). Then when we knew how much fabric we needed for each dressing gown, we bought the fabric. I decided to make each one different, as a way of showing each bridesmaid’s different personality, so I spent a long time choosing the different fabrics. I bought the fabric from a variety of places: Shepherds Bush Market and the fabric shops on Goldhawk Road, Etsy, ebay and Liberty.

Charlie

A DIY guide to decorating your wedding cheeses with edible flowers and petals from The Edible Flower Shop

Charlie

It’s so nice to hand the blog over to guest writers once in a while, so today we are joined by Rachael who runs The Edible Flower Shop to teach us how we can decorate cheeses with edible flowers and petals to make a unique addition to your wedding feast.

Cheese wedding cakes are increasingly popular so why not make them even more beautiful with edible flowers. I particularly love these soft goat’s cheeses above that have been decorated with edible calendula and cornflower petals – such a riot of beautiful colours! I so want to try this out this summer.

Over to Rachael…

Wedding cheeses are becoming ever more popular and are often the centrepiece at a wedding breakfast. To personalise your wedding cheese and add stunning colour and beauty, why not have a go at decorating them with your own home grown edible flowers?

Using edible flowers is a wonderful way to incorporate any colour theme from your wedding in to your food, and adds a really personal touch to your wedding breakfast. Not only that, but if you grow edible flowers for your wedding you can also use them for table decorations, button holes and to decorate cakes. The possibilities really are endless…

Base of Brie decorated with violas and goat’s cheese on top decorated with dianthus

Edible flowers can be used to decorate either hard or soft cheeses but the methods used are quite different. Popular edible flowers for decorating cheeses are nasturtiums (flowers and leaves), chive flowers, calendula, violas, pansies, dianthus, borage, primulas, rocket, mustard, radish, sunflowers and cornflower petals to name but a few.

Viola ‘Sorbet Raspberry’

Charlie

Pen and ink style mini calendar save the date cards that you can print and customise yourself

Charlie

When I spotted this mini calendar style save the date, I loved it’s simplicity and thought that the pen and ink style would be popular with my blog readers as my own save the dates have been so popular.

So you can imagine how delighted I was when I discovered that this is in fact a free printable save the date, created by Bells & Whistles for The Pretty Blog – so you can actually go and download the design, print it off on your choice of recycled card, and add your own names and date.

Charlie

Create your own DIY paper leaf wreath perfect for Christmas decorations and winter weddings

Charlie

We haven’t had much of a chance to get that Christmassy here at The Natural Wedding Company, but today we have a great DIY project to inspire you all to get into the festive spirit. The lovely Julie from Hollyhock Lane has put together this ‘how to’ guide on creating a simple wreath made from paper leaves – ideal for hanging in your home or equally nice to be incorporated into a winter wedding.

Over to Julie to tell you how to get crafting…

So it’s that time of year to adorn our houses with pretty ornaments and festive decorations and if you have even the smallest urge to make something, now is as good a time as any to get crafty.

Of course, if you’re getting married, then you probably have even more reasons to get those hands busy, so here’s a tutorial for a wintry wreath which can work as a Christmas decoration, but it’s not so obviously Christmassy that it could also work as an elegant wedding decoration. Think over the front of a church door or, perhaps, adorning a table or the back of an important chair or pew.

Materials Needed

Paintbrush
Scissors
Wreath base, mine was 30cm diameter (or you could make your own by winding together some hazel/willow twigs)
Decorative fake berries
Craft knife (not pictured)
Cardboard cereal pack (not pictured)
Super glue / hot glue gun / contact glue
Acrylic paint – white and brown (I used raw umber for my brown)

Izzy

A how to guide to make your own pretty linen and lace pocket wedding favours filled with dried petals from The Brides Table

Izzy

We are really getting spoilt at the moment with lovely guest posts from some of our recommended wedding suppliers, and today we have another DIY project to inspire all you crafty brides. If you are looking for wedding favour ideas to make, then Katy and Kath at The Brides Table have a great step-by-step guide to making these pretty petal pockets.

If you love the look of these petal pocket wedding favours but don’t feel crafty enough to have a go making them yourself, or if you already have a wedding ‘to do’ list as long as your arm, then visit The Brides Table website where you can buy them instead. They would also make beautiful bridesmaid gifts.

Over to Katy and Kath…

These petal pocket favours are filled with dried petals or lavender and not only do they smell divine, they look so pretty too!

You could ask your family and friends to save flowers from their gardens for you to use (roses work particularly well). Just before the petals drop, collect them on a tray and leave to dry in the sun or on a very low heat in your oven.

Izzy

DIY guide to creating painted clothes peg name cards for your homemade wedding from A Alicia Handmade

Izzy

Today’s guest blog post is another fab DIY guide, this time from the lovely Anna who is the designer behind A Alicia Handmade. She has put together this ‘how to’ guide for making peg name cards, and also has lots of advice on how to give them your own style!

Without further ado, it’s over to Anna…

Hi, I’m Anna and I’m a designer-maker and author of craft/interiors how-to book Make it Your Own. The idea behind the book was to encourage anyone trying the projects to explore and develop their own design style, to literally make the projects their own, and I think this principle couldn’t be more important in planning your wedding.

Whatever kind of day you’re planning – from a big do with loads of guests to a tiny ceremony followed by chips and champagne in a lovely old pub (mine was the latter option!) – it’s such a beautiful opportunity to explore who the two of you are.

Izzy

DIY guide to making pretty paper flower place settings and wedding favours from Hollyhock Lane

Izzy

We have such a lovely DIY guest post today from Julie at Hollyhock Lane – she’s put together an exclusive ‘how to’ guide for our readers on how to create these gorgeous paper flowers that can be used both as place settings and/or wedding favours. They are a perfect project for all you crafty and creative brides out there.

Over to Julie to get you started on making your own pretty paper flowers…

So here’s a DIY for those brides that like to make stuff. Paper flowers can be used for anything really, but in this example I decided to make them into place settings which can be taken away as favours for the guests as well.

Admittedly, these could take some time if you’re planning on a wedding for a hundred guests or more, but when you get into the flow of it, they only take about 10-20 minutes each. The good thing about them is that they can easily be made in front of the TV, and unlike fresh flowers, they can be finished well in advance of the big day.

You could always make it part of your hen party activities and get crafting with a group of your best friends. There’s nothing like bonding over a creative project and a good cup of tea to while away the hours.

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Myfanwy tells us about her embroidered napkins, personalised vintage hankies and knitted napkin rings

Charlie

The one thing all our TNWC Real Brides have in common is that they are all creating handmade or homemade weddings to some extent, whether it be designing wedding invitations, sowing wildflower seeds around their ceremony site, making bridesmaid gifts, or brewing up elderflower champagne.

One things for sure, of all our brides-to-be Myfawny is the one whipping up a sewing storm of beautiful items for her autumn wedding to Tom. Today she shares some of her many wedding related sewing projects – from embroidering motifs onto their napkins, to personalising vintage hankies – and I’m sure that you’ll find some inspiration here for your own wedding.

Over to Myfanwy…

Vintage Tablecloths

Over the winter we did a lot of our planing and preparations including a lot of collecting. This is something we have done ever since we set the wedding date and decided on the venue.

We are not white tablecloth people! Mainly because one of us will spill something on them before the big day! We did not want round tables covered in perfect white tablecloths, at some weddings it looks great, just not ours.

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