DIY project Archives - Page 5 of 6 - The Natural Wedding Company

Blog: DIY project

Charlie

Get smouldering eyes with Pure Anada Mineral Cosmetics

Charlie

The lovely Clare of Pure Pampering has created a fantastic autumnal look that you can recreate yourself using gorgeous mineral cosmetics.

This look has been created by Clare Bryce, a professional makeup artist, who specialises in bridal styling and has attended 100’s of weddings!

Clare told me “Many brides love to have smoky eyes on their wedding day, this beautiful look is super stylish but will also have your groom captivated when he looks into your eyes!”

Get the look…

Start with sweeping a pale shade of eye shadow all over your eyelid, then work your mid shade shadow into the crease and blend.

To add the smouldering effect, add a black eye shadow into the outside corner. Add black eye liner to the top and lower lash line. Finishing with two coats of black mascara.

Charlie

Making wedding jam

Charlie

I realise that I haven’t spoken much on the blog about my own wedding planning. I’m quite a private person when it comes to my own wedding and I seem to change my mind about things so often that it’s hard to say ‘this is what we’re doing’.

But last weekend, with autumn approaching, Mr Rigg and I went to a local farm to pick autumn raspberries to make into jam. One thing we’re almost certain about is that we want to incorporate an afternoon tea into our wedding day.

This is for a number of reasons:

1) A large part of my childhood was spent at my grandparents house in Devon. Many of my memories are eating homemade scones, with granny’s jam and clotted cream from a family farm up the road.

2) I have a friend who makes the best teeny tiny scones and who is prepared to make enough for our guests.

3) I love the Englishness of it and the connections I have with it.

4) And who doesn’t love scones with clotted cream and jam?

Charlie

Daffodils and brown paper for a pretty spring wedding

Charlie

These pretty little miniature daffodils are making an appearance in local florists at the moment, so I couldn’t resist but make them the centre of attention in this month’s creative project.

There is just something so uplifting about a pot of jolly yellow daffodils after a long, cold, bleak winter. Simply wrapped up with brown paper and tied with pale raffia they make ideal decorations or centrepieces – or just to make your home look nice.

You should be able to pick up these small pots of daffodil bulbs from most florists or garden centres. You will find that some of the pots available have only just sprouted so will take longer before they flower – if you keep them well watered and in a warm room it should encourage them to flower.

Charlie

Recycled homemade bunting for festive New Year wedding

Charlie

Wishing everyone a very happy New Year! This creative project might be short but hopefully sweet as I’m getting ready for a lovely New Year’s eve with my family.

I wanted to do something festive and jolly that would be lovely for anyone having a New Year’s eve wedding (there was one in our village today!).

This bunting is easy to make and uses up any leftover scraps of paper from Christmas – I found some brown paper (my favourite wrapping paper of choice) and some blue crepe paper.

Charlie

Tiny Christmas gifts

Charlie

With Christmas fast approaching I have been busy crafting gifts for friends and family. These tiny bundles of sugary biscuits are perfect for work colleagues, friends or neighbours – a pretty token of Christmassy giving.

I made these quite simply, using small cardboard cake boxes, brown paper, twine, and red bells. The biscuits are designed for dunking – so quite hard and perfect for dunking into tea and other hot drinks because they don’t dissolve or go all mushy. You can find the recipe over here on my other blog. I used a cute bunny rabbit shaped biscuit cutter but you could use any shape you like.

Charlie

Winter berry buttonholes for a cosy Christmas wedding

Charlie

Recently I have seen so many beautiful ideas for buttonholes that I have been inspired to design my own for this month’s *creative project*. Sometime soon I will pull all the images together and showcase them on the blog as they are well worth sharing.

I have created my buttonholes for a cosy Christmas wedding, choosing some of the vibrant red berries that there are in the hedgerows at the moment combined with dark glossy greens.

On Sunday I could be found stuck in hedgerows on the country lanes of Surrey searching for a selection of berries that I could use in this month’s project – with Mr Rigg sat in the car reading the newspaper wondering what on earth I was up to.

Charlie

Pomegranate place name holders

Charlie

I had wanted to make this month’s creative project with those cute miniature pumpkins that start to appear in the shops in the lead up to Halloween, but I was unable to find any. Instead, I have used a pomegranate, which works equally well as a place name holder.

At the bottom of this post you’ll find some other lovely place name holders using fruit. If you’re looking for a low cost creative option for your wedding, this creative project couldn’t be any simpler.

Charlie

A free tutorial from Ruth Singer: Camelia flower corsage

Charlie

The lovely Ruth Singer has provided an exclusive tutorial for visitors to The Natural Wedding Company blog – a ‘how to’ guide to making one of her beautiful Camelia flower corsages.

Ruth will guide you through how to create your own corsages perfect for brides or bridesmaids using fabric remnants – perhaps even left over material from making your own wedding dress! These flowers are really simple to make and work well with heavy weight satin and silk dress fabrics.

Before you start, download your petal templates and print them out.

Charlie

Stylish homemade “save the date” cards

Charlie

September’s creative post is designed to help inspire you to create your own wedding stationery – or at least, your own stylish homemade ‘save the date’ cards. ‘Save the date’ cards seem to be relatively unknown in the UK, but they are popular in the US.

For anyone who’s not sure what a ‘save the date’ card is, you send them out to your guests with the date of your wedding and your names, and perhaps the location of where your wedding will be.

The great thing about ‘save the date’ cards is that you can send them out before you have confirmed all the details of your wedding, such as time and venue, which are needed for invitations. Friends of ours who recently got married sent their ‘save the dates’ out in the form of a magnet, which we stuck on our fridge.

The below images were created using home photographs, and edited on a free online website called Picnik. This website is easy-to-use and allows you to create high quality images with different effects, borders, and text. I see ‘save the date’ cards as an opportunity to be quite fun and lighthearted, or you could tie them in with your wedding stationery if you know what it will look like.

Some design ideas and tips

The photograph of the donkeys was taken on holiday in Menorca, and I thought would make a great ‘save the date’ as the donkeys look like they are kissing. I added a sepia affect to create the two-tone colour so that they text would stand out against it, and used a tool on Picnik to soften the edges of the photo but keep the donkeys in focus. I used all the same font for the text, and used the ‘stickers’ option on Picnik to create the heart by the couples initials.

Charlie

Pretty planted place names

Charlie

These pretty planted place names (what a mouthful!) are really easy to make and would also double as lovely gifts for your guests. For each guest, prepare a small flower pot that you’ve planted up, write your guests name on a plant label and stick it into the soil. Place the flower pots in each persons place setting at their designated table.

I came up with this idea after a recent visit to the RHS Tatton Flower Show. Not only is it a showcase of fabulous plants and gardens, but there are hundreds of retailers selling all kinds of lovely things. I spotted a fantastic little booth selling a huge variety of plant labels. I am always looking out for wooden labels, and they had a great selection. This sparked the idea for this month’s creative project, and I bought a pack of chunky wooden plant labels and a Victorian terracotta pot.

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