14 replies to this topic

[sammy]

I'm new to this whole wedding planning thing, but money is tight so before I get to carried away I want to try and think of a few things we can do ourselves. I've just been having a read through the other topics in the DIY section here, but I was wondering whether you ladies could help me think up other ideas!!

I'm not the most artistic person in the world but I'm willing to roll up my sleeves and have a go!

I reckon I could do invites, but there seem to be a lot of different things that need to be made. I've never heard of save the dates before I started looking into this!!

Other things on my list:

Favours (maybe something sweet cos I love baking)
Seating plan
Box for cards
Decorations for venue (not picked it yet so I dunno what I'll need yet though)
Cake

Any other ideas??! We might be picking a venue that needs lots of decorations, so if anyone has got any thoughts on cheap decorations that look good I'll be a happy bunny

[lauriex]

Hey Sammy.... Just read your post..You love baking?? Me too! I am in the middle of setting up my own little cake/cupcake business!


Why not have handmade cupcakes as favours? That way if there are people who don't manage to get a piece of wedding cake, they'll still have a little cupcake o enjoy!

[Becky]

You can do as much or as little as you want really! There have been members on here who even made their own wedding dresses!

Most venues will let you put up whatever decorations you want, and lots of money can be saved here by doing your own. Have you thought about doing your own flowers too? It might be a lot of work to do table centres, but you could have non-flower table centres which could be done in advance and then all you have to do is bouquets and buttonholes.

Hope this helps!

[SeptemberBride]

Another thing people have been making themselves is bouquets??? xx

[Becky]

SeptemberBride, on 05 October 2011 - 11:50 AM, said:

Another thing people have been making themselves is bouquets??? xx

Yep - check out these made by MrsT2B (Kel)!

http://www.bigday.co.uk/topic/636-our-wedding-day/

[sammy]

lauriex, on 04 October 2011 - 09:11 PM, said:

Hey Sammy.... Just read your post..You love baking?? Me too! I am in the middle of setting up my own little cake/cupcake business!


Why not have handmade cupcakes as favours? That way if there are people who don't manage to get a piece of wedding cake, they'll still have a little cupcake o enjoy!

Thats a really good idea, thanks!! I found a shop recently which did tiny weeny little cupcakes which looked sooooo cute, that might be an option if my decorating skills were a bit better. My cakes always taste good, but the decoration leaves a lot to be desired!!

Becky, on 05 October 2011 - 12:20 PM, said:

Yep - check out these made by MrsT2B (Kel)!

http://www.bigday.co.uk/topic/636-our-wedding-day/

How clever, those bouquets look great!! I'd not thought about doing my own flowers, there must be somewhere near by where I could get cheap flowers from. The only thing I'd worry about is getting a bit stressed about it before the wedding, if it didn't go well there would definitely be tears and tantrums!!

[MrsBoucher2B2012]

I am making cupcakes decorated with edible hydrangea flowers for my table centres.

There is no law that says you have to do save the dates and i find invites are really easy to make. I am in the middle of setting up a wedding stationery business so if you need any help or advice feel free to message me hun.

If you are creative you could try making your own headwear and your bridesmaids dresses if you are having bridesmaids of course.

[lauriex]

Some really good ideas here It is amazing how much money can be saved with a little bit of imagination and handy work! Im planning on doing my own table centres, favours, invites and save the dates - I must admit, I never thought about doing my own flowers though! Its a brilliant idea! A friend of my mum's is a florist though, she was going to do the flowers for us...Im thinking that taking on flowers myself in addition to all the other things I plan to do myself might be too much workies for mee!

[Helen]

Make sure you allow yourself plenty on time to do whatever you take on. Other than that the sky (and your imagination) is the limit as to the things you can do yourself.

As a guide I did all the flowers for our UK reception, table centres and other decorations, and it took me about 8 hours I think! That included unpacking and conditioning the flowers.

I also made my own cake, that took 4 whole days plus nearly 3 hours on the morning of the reception to set it up and finish the decoration.

Hope that gives you a bit of idea on the amount of time to allow

[Mrs T2B (Kel)]

sammy, on 05 October 2011 - 04:47 PM, said:

How clever, those bouquets look great!! I'd not thought about doing my own flowers, there must be somewhere near by where I could get cheap flowers from. The only thing I'd worry about is getting a bit stressed about it before the wedding, if it didn't go well there would definitely be tears and tantrums!!

Thanks Sammy I got the flowers from Asda (of all places!) the day before the wedding, I got up and was there the minute the doors opened so I'd have a good choice, but I was prepared to go to Tescos, Sainsburys and Morrisons if the right flowers weren't there!
For me it was actually quite a relaxing thing to do; but then my theme was vintage tea party come Alice in Wonderland with some shabby chic thrown in! so perfection wasn't what I was aiming for
To hold my mini bouquet & button holes together I bought a small reel of green florists tape off eBay; depending on the flowers you use it might be worth getting some wire too.

Hope that helps some

[sammy]

Hi everyone, sorry it's been a while since I've been around I've had a manic month! Work has been rubbish and really busy, but it's calmed down a lot now. Phew! So I'm back on track with the wedding planning now.

MrsBoucher2B2012, on 06 October 2011 - 07:52 AM, said:

I am making cupcakes decorated with edible hydrangea flowers for my table centres.

There is no law that says you have to do save the dates and i find invites are really easy to make. I am in the middle of setting up a wedding stationery business so if you need any help or advice feel free to message me hun.

If you are creative you could try making your own headwear and your bridesmaids dresses if you are having bridesmaids of course.

I love the idea of cupcakes as table centres, although knowing my other half's family they wouldn't last until then end of the meal!!

I'd not thought about making my own headware, that's an interesting idea. I wonder what kit I'd need? Might need to look into that one... my other half is into electronics, so he might have all the pliers etc (and soldering iron if I need it!! that sounds a little too much though) which would mean I'd just have to buy the beads etc. You've got me thinking now!!

lauriex, on 06 October 2011 - 10:03 AM, said:

Some really good ideas here It is amazing how much money can be saved with a little bit of imagination and handy work! Im planning on doing my own table centres, favours, invites and save the dates - I must admit, I never thought about doing my own flowers though! Its a brilliant idea! A friend of my mum's is a florist though, she was going to do the flowers for us...Im thinking that taking on flowers myself in addition to all the other things I plan to do myself might be too much workies for mee!

I know exactly what you mean! If we weren't doing some of the stuff ourselves I dread to think when we'd be getting married... it would probably take us until 2020 to save enough for it all!!

Mrs T2B (Kel), on 23 October 2011 - 09:27 PM, said:

Thanks Sammy I got the flowers from Asda (of all places!) the day before the wedding, I got up and was there the minute the doors opened so I'd have a good choice, but I was prepared to go to Tescos, Sainsburys and Morrisons if the right flowers weren't there!
For me it was actually quite a relaxing thing to do; but then my theme was vintage tea party come Alice in Wonderland with some shabby chic thrown in! so perfection wasn't what I was aiming for
To hold my mini bouquet & button holes together I bought a small reel of green florists tape off eBay; depending on the flowers you use it might be worth getting some wire too.

Hope that helps some

You are so clever, they look amazing!! There's no way I'd be able to do anything that looks half as nice as those. Saying that I could go for a country-style thrown together look so that if it looks a bit rough then I can claim it's meant to be that way I'll check out what the local supermarkets stock (I wonder if there are any proper flower markets nearby? Hmmm...) and I might be able to persuade my mum to help, muh ha ha

Helen, you are definitely right about leaving plenty of time. I'm hoping to get most things done in advance, but I'll also be taking off plenty of time before the wedding day so that I've got time to finish things that have to be done closer to the time. I've decided to do cupcakes instead of a wedding cake. I've just got to decide on what colours and design for the top!! That could take me months... out of curiosity, have you got a picture of your wedding cake? If it took over 4 days I'll bet it was amazing!

Thanks again everyone for all your help, I love this forum! So much nicer than the other ones I've looked at before

[Helen]

I ordered my flowers from the Amsterdam flower markets using flowers4florists.com they were very good quality.

Flowers


Cake


There are a few more photos of my flowers in my wedding report part two...
http://www.bigday.co...g-day-part-two/

[MrsT_2be]

Balloons!!

cause I'm going to buy some off ebay I've seen ones sell them as a kit, I'm 100% sure that Asda sell helium (for 30 balloons) around £20. If you don't have an account maybe a friend who has may be able to help. Another thing I do is make sure I buy from a shop that is "top rated" so that you'll know you will receive your goods.

Table confetti!! also off ebay

To be honest ebay is a good place to find table/venue decorations because i'll be shopping off there for my wedding stuff.

Tea lights..

Table ribbons..

[mrsowentobe]

wow some great ideas for me to think about. I am making my own button bouquet - looking on the net for ideas

[Sarsaparilla]

I'm going to do my own flowers, corsages and button holes in silk flowers