Finished at last

Finally, almost a month later, I have finished the invitations. What with a full work schedule, in-laws visiting and plain old falling asleep in the evenings, our plans have fallen behind a bit.

Well, I say that. A friend asked me the other day whether it's not too little time, marrying this autumn and only starting to plan now. I just think, it's still more than half a year and all the big decisions have been made.

Back to the invitations, there have been a few additions to the original design.
I've printed the text onto tracing paper as planned and, surprisingly, with enough drying time it worked really well. I can fit two invitations' worth of printing onto the paper, which saves resources, too.
In addition, I've purchased a few postcards depicting the castle and we will use the back to write a personal note to people and to stick on a map, with some travelling directions.

All that remains is to send them off :-)

In Search of the Perfect Dress

In my search for the perfect dress, I have come across this blog.

Sugardale's instructions are amazingly easy to understand for any sewing novice and I will try to make the petticoat as a first attempt at getting my dress sorted. It will form the underskirt to the dress - lacking a hoop - and I like the look of the ruffles rather than the pretence of them. I suppose as the dresses I tried on were so heavy, the petticoat wouldn't have made much sense, but with just some silk as a top layer the dress should be workable, lightweight and as non-restrictive as it can get.
In theory at least.

I will make a dress rehearsal (geddit?) for my daughter, who will be a bridesmaid. Of course, the measurements will have to be adjusted. I wonder whether proportions would work?

Tiara time

After a few hours of inventing new swear words to suit my situation - namely, that my first attempt at making a tiara ended up in a huge crown and my second was still way too massive - I finally managed to pull off a small, understating tiara, from pearl beads, tiara-making flowers, diamond beads, silver-plated wire and a few other beads I found in my jewellery making box.





The glue gun, which has already become my best friend in the card-making process lately, was useful in ensuring the wire ends did not end up getting stuck in and ultimately damaging my hair.

Oops, looks like the in-laws just arrived. Future Mr is sleeping on the sofa next to me, better stop writing and waking him up.

Edited:
What did I do?
I bought a plain silver-plated hairband, used 4mm silver-plated wire to stick on 1 large bead or up to 5 smaller ones at a time and simply attached them by wrapping the wire around the hairband as tightly as I could. I started with the flowers and spaced them out fairly evenly, then added the large pearls and used ever smaller beads to hide the wiring at the top - no-one will see the bottom, so that doesn't really matter.
I have fine hair and it gets caught in things really easily, so after trying the tiara on once I decided that, despite my best efforts, the wire still stuck out at the ends, potentially leading to pain and torn hair. That's when I used the glue gun to smooth the bottom bits out. It worked a treat, as long as I made sure that it didn't dry too thickly.

Dress Woes

Today, I was wearing a curtain. Several, in fact. In search of my perfect dress - the only thing, other than actually getting married, that I truly care about in this process - I went to a bridal shop today to try on some styles and see which suited me best. I was also hoping to get a sneak peek at how the dresses are sewn together.

My plans were flawed. I did not expect not to be left alone, even during the process of getting dressed. There I was, stripped bare down to my underwear, having a complete stranger with me helping me into and out of various dresses. it's NOT a great feeling.

Honestly, I didn't like most of the dresses. I was looking for variety and found that almost every dress was sleeveless, A-line and the only thing that really differed were the decorations. Now, I like A-line. With a protruding post-op belly I will never fully get rid off no matter how many pounds I shed, A-line is my saviour when it comes to hiding any extra flab. The problem is the top. I am not one who can pull off pure corset-style. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of boob. It's the arms that are the problem, where they overlap with the corset.

The few sleeved dresses the shopkeeper had were not that brilliant. I was astonished how cheap they felt. For me, even though it's tradition, the netting took the elegance away from the dress and put the tack on.

Worst of all, she wouldn't let me leave again! I honestly felt that unless I had tried on every dress in the shop I was forced to stay and make polite conversation whilst trying desperately to get a closer look at seams and dress parts. Feigning that my far-away mum would want a say (not too far off the truth, but I wouldn't listen), I managed to convince her to take some pictures of me in what appeared to be the least offensive curtain.

It looks quite nice, don't get me wrong, though in this picture not only have I gone up from an 8 to a 12, but my head is also 3 times bigger than normal. I just felt so uncomfortable. The dress was heavy, which I expected, but I didn't think walking in it would become a new art. Knowing me, I'd stumble, fall and expose my underwear in front of the altar. Not the way I wish to go about this.

The lady showed me a loop I could use to hold the dress on my wrist whilst dancing. Nice idea, but not for me.

I asked to have a look at accessories and decided that making a tiara would be easy enough and far undercut the £75 asking price. I got the beads, wire and hairband and spent, maybe, £12.

So far, I have gathered the materials for the dress and tiara, spending around £150. Together with the corset I will need to buy, I am hoping to spend around £200-£250 altogether. And time. Lots of time.

Wedding dress preparations

As I am sitting down after a morning of household chores to mask the state the house was in up until about three hours ago, and waiting for a new piece of furniture to materialise, I am thinking about how I can make that dress happen.
I am okay at sewing. I can repair a torn seam, sew on some decorations to plain Christmas stockings to make them special and put together some crude felt food.
I am not very good at making clothes. However, that might be due to the fact that up until now I have never used a sewing pattern. So I guess my next step is to learn how to read and alter these to fit my shape.

After the cabinet has arrived, I thought about popping into the local bridal wear shop and having a nosey around. This is less to do with lack of ideas and more with trying to find out how on earth these things are put together. I am not too worried about a corset - I either learn how to make one of those or I buy a cheap, plain white one and decorate it.

I am more in awe of those skirts - how do people manage to create that many layers and not make the hips look 4 sizes bigger than they are?


In a premature retail rush I decided to buy the material I will ultimately use to make my dress:
We have some white silk, silver fabric, white silk ribbon, sew simple glue, button-hole making things and a tiny white feather boa, which will form the collar, wrist bits and the bottom of the skirt. For decorative purposes I also added white bows, roses, mini-pearls and sequins. I am sure they will come in handy somehow.

The next step will be to find some literature on making clothes. I will need to know how to make sleeves, shirts, skirts and possibly a fabric corset.
Have I bitten off more than I can chew? Well, I am stubborn.

Invitations again

I have finally managed to take a picture which shows the cards in true colour.



After securing the wedding and reception venues later I will type the actual invitations onto translucent paper and bind it to the card with silk ribbon and a bell. Some loose sequins will be added to the card, too. Of course the results will be shared later.

Invitations 2

And here they are... the invitations.


The picture is a bit dark, but essentially I have used black marker for the outline, glitter glue to add some sparkle, heart confetti (white, colour changing), one of a bunch of silver flowers, a white silk bow, 3 small silver sequins and a set of wedding invitation stickers.

I drew the outline first, then added the glitter and used a glue gun to affix the confetti, flower and bow. The sequins were self-adhesive, as were the stickers.

My partner's comment was that it was in line with previous invitations he'd received. I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to weddings, so will have to take his word for it.

Eek!

It's done. The date is set!!!

We'll get married in autumn this year, which leaves 9-10 months to get everything set up and in order. We have sorted out a place to get married (to be confirmed tomorrow), the registrar (done) and a place to party (provisionally booked, to be confirmed tomorrow).

We'll get married in a castle!


It is a strange system by which the ceremony has to be booked with a non-refundable deposit, but you also need to confirm a registrar for the same time, who will also take a non-refundable fee for booking. I found the best system is to have the registrar on the phone as you book the venue, but it didn't work out that way. We've let the place know our date and preferred time and will confirm with the venue tomorrow. At least that way, it's only £75 lost instead of £150 for the venue.

We saw two very different places today. A farm/ hotel and a simple hotel, both with different options and very different ideas of how much they should charge for food. It does pay to look around as the place we have provisionally confirmed will charge us half of the sum we got quoted by the other place.

I'll sleep better tomorrow when all deposits have been paid and we only have to sort out people and accommodation...

That said, it wasn't half as stressful as people make it out to be. Maybe it helps that future hubby and I are actually on one page when it comes to what we want. We even had the same idea for a cake topper - we will get a Lego figure wedding set :-)

Dividing the Plans

Thankfully, we're both uncomplicated people. We have both decided that we're not wedding fayre people - frankly, the thought of spending hours discussing flower arrangements would make me just want to get the whole thing over with, and that is not the sentiment I would like to have attached to the big day.

We're both deciding on the venue together. We have separate guest lists, but we do talk about who we'd like to invite to which bit of the wedding. There are, however, some areas we're in charge of ourselves.

'I sort out music. You can be in charge of flowers and stuff', were the words he said. He does have a wider taste in music than I do, although I don't find much of what he listens to objectionable. When going through his playlists he asked me yesterday whether I'd like to pre-approve what we listen to. For a moment I was tempted, but I decided that it would be unfair as he had given me pretty much free reign with the invitations and decorations. So, instead, I told him I trust his choice. Plus, his mum will be there.

I may sort out some of the food. For the most part we will probably end up with catering as our oven is small and the landlord still hasn't got the grill fixed, but I am seriously considering making the cake. I am a good baker and it's really not that difficult to shape some icing. The real issue is the time. The dress won't need to be fitted, my hair doesn't take that long as I have the advantage of natural curls and I don't wear too much make-up anyway. But we'll get married on a Saturday by the look of it and it's likely we'll be up to our eyeballs in work during the week. So when would I find the time to bake? Having said that, I'm not a big sleeper at the best of times and may be too nervous. It's yet to be decided.

I wonder how many people make all decisions together and how many divide things up and just trust each other? I once had a colleague who got dragged to different fayres, shops and markets every weekend for months on end. My worst nightmare, really; I like quick decisions and let's face it, they're quicker when you don't have to compromise.

It does help we're not too fussed about the details. We are looking at life beyond the wedding day and what really counts is how we spend that time. Not so much the party itself. Over-planning can only end in disappointment.

The Invitations

It took me a while to decide what to do with the invitations. They will be sent via post to at least 4 different countries, so postage is a concern on top of what they should actually look like. And then there is the temptation to make them big and 3D, but the concern about the state they'd be in when they eventually arrive.

So last week I went into Hobbycraft - my new best friend - with the intention to get inspired. What actually happened was that I came out with about £55 worth of materials. I don't mind too much - I budgeted for about £150 including postage.

Here's the haul:

There are the cards themselves - white perlescent blanks with envelopes. Whilst I haven't had too good an experience with perlescence in the past (smeared ink on party invitations) these ones just seemed to scream glamour so much more than any decoration I could possibly add.

I have terrible handwriting - many people have told me I should have become a doctor instead - and so I have decided to buy some 'Wedding Invitation' stickers.

There are bells, which were flogged after Christmas and some white thin ribbon - an idea which I have stolen from my cousin's wedding, though hers was red and I try to stick to silver and white with little accents of black only. It appears to be a fashion now, I've noticed, purely through the absence of silver decorative elements every time I look.

The centrepiece are some silver flowers. I bought a fair few bunches, which I will take apart and then use to decorate each card. I also have some tiny white ribbons, gemstones and bits of non-tacky confetti.

Glitter glue and my trusted mini-glue gun will be used to add details.

The only things missing are black marker and the translucent paper which will go on the inside and which will be typed on with details of our impending date.

I have bought extras to practice and in case of likely mess-ups (and because I forgot to take into account that we won't really have to send out 60 cards. More, like, 30 to couples with children and the few singles we know).

I will start crafting tomorrow as I expect the card-making to take a few days. Will keep you posted with pictures.

It's beginning to look a lot like Marriage

This is it. The big weekend. This is the weekend we are going to set a definite date for our wedding.

He popped the question last summer, much to my and everyone else's surprise. After all, we didn't even live together at the time. But he did it all the same, in the middle of a road, and here we are, 6 months later, busy planning our big day.

We have almost decided on a venue, almost decided on how many guests we will have, and we will make our final decision by Sunday.

Now, we're not exactly poor, but we haven't got a lot of cash either. We both made a vow to save as much as we can afford, but it will still not be half as much as the average big wedding is in the UK these days. So much as we both like a reasonably comfortable life, we won't be able to outsource everything. Which means, really, cutting back. Then again, we don't want it to feel cheap. So the only option I see is applying some serious craft to make as much as possible myself. He won't join in, but we have clearly divided roles in this and he lets me do whatever floats my boat. It is lovely, being supported.

To get a few things clear: I work. Sometimes, full-time, sometimes part-time (I am a temp at present), but there are times when I feel so snowed under by everything there is to do that I am considering tearing myself into quarters, if only so that a part of me can sleep! So, little time, little money.

I have some experience crafting around. I make cards, though by far not as well as shown in any Hobbycraft magazine. I draw quite well and I paint occasionally. I bake. I sew - sort of, by hand. I have been given a sewing machine by the future mother-in-law, but it's scaring me and I haven't touched it yet.

However, the objective is to learn everything there is to learn in the next few months and make at least the following things:

• invitations
• some food (maybe the cake?)
• my wedding dress
• my jewellery
• bridesmaids accessories

Reading my blog will mean accompanying me on this scary trip through sewing patterns and craft shops. I have little idea where to start, but I trust that everything will turn out fine :-)