Crafting a Wedding

I'm finding that having tried my hand at almost every craft so far has been a blessing in disguise as it means I can turn my hand to having a go at making lots of things for the wedding.  I'm not sure if I've said it here before but I'm not having real flowers at the wedding as although I love them, they're expensive and I have the issue of a couple of hay fever sufferers coming to the wedding and I don't want the issue of pollen staining clothes or risk them drooping if it's a scorching hot day (finger's and toes crossed everyone for a fine day!) so I thought, if I'm not having a real flower bouquet or decorations why should the button holes be real flowers?

I talked to J about this and asked him what sort of thing he'd like to wear, I'm nice like that sometimes and consult him on something to do with our wedding! I gave him a few different options and he chose to have a needle felted flower in the same colours as my outfit.  It was the first time I'd needle felted a stem for a flower, but think it's turned out well.

Dark purple petals with a jade green silk self covered button as the centre and mid green felt for the stem and leaf with a light green for the veining on the leaf

I'm really chuffed with it, so chuffed in fact that I thought I'd make everyone at the wedding a button hole if they wanted one...I know I know what on earth was I thinking?  It must be the endorphins...

So with this rod for my own back I made my three nieces a pink felt flower each and I've been told they want them on hair clips.  I'm under strict instructions you understand, they've all got very specific ideas, my eldest niece (8 years old) on hearing the news that we are getting married announced 'I know the exact dress I'm going to wear!' THEN said congratulations.  Fashionista in the making methinks.  So all three are wearing the same dress, I did wonder whether there would be fights over who looks best in it but apparently they're having different shoes and cardigans to differentiate themselves from each other and that it's not a problem.  So nice to be told off by an 8 year old, 5 year old and 3 year old...

Three little button holes all in a row. They're a light sparkly pink, each with white stamen and self cover buttons in white and pink but each button is different.

Alas I cannot acclaim fame for the crocus in the background of the photo, this was taken in my soon to be mother-in-law's garden.  No one else has decided on an outfit yet so I don't know what colours to make them.  I get the sinking feeling that they may all want one at once...

I've also made good progress on my bouquet.  J and I sat round the table one day me wrapping the wire round the brooches, him wrapping florist tape round the wire; it was all very romantic...and then gathered them all together and popped them in a vase for safekeeping until I get the rest of the brooches and wire and tape them up, here's a sneaky peaky!

A mass of big shiny sparkly brooches in a vase

If nothing else it's a good discipline keeper as if anyone gets out of line they're getting a knock on the head from this baby and take it from me it's a fair weight!  I'm pleased with the overall effect, I've just got to get the last few pieces in and then tie a ribbon round the stems to keep them all in place and give me something non slip to hold as the tape is quite shiny.

If anyone wants a photo tutorial on how to do this bouquet I can make one or you can check out the ones on Pinterest. There's a few different options you can go for. I've probably chosen the most time hungry method but that was because I wanted the brooches on individual stems, you could get a Styrofoam ball and cover it in wadding and fabric and pin the brooches to it or ball up some wadding and do the same but at the risk of it being a funny shape if you don't evenly distribute the weight of the brooches. I've also seen people intermix real or faux flowers with brooches which is really pretty too.

I've started to think about the finer grooming details and had my nails done professionally for only the second time in my life yesterday.  I'm a wuss, the first time I had my nails done the girl sliced my finger open with the nail file and I bled all over the table and the polish smudged before I'd even left the shop so didn't want a repeat performance. I also find it hard to talk to hairdressers and beauticians as I find it just so weird to have someone doing something rather intimate like washing my hair or holding my hand and asking me questions that normally someone doing something so intimate would know.  It's also that I can sometimes tell they're bored with what they're asking me about and don't want the answers and I know I would bore them with things I'm interested in as hair and nails aren't something I usually take a great deal of care over and feel a bit of a fraud.  I also have this thing that when I have my hair washed by someone else I find it so relaxing that I'm on the brink of falling asleep at the sink. 

Take yesterday for example, I end up in the back room of the nail bar as that's the only free space with the young nail technician and she's perfectly pleasant and polite but can tell she's just going through the motions and answering almost every answer I give her to her questions about the wedding with "that's nice" in that sort of high sing song voice you only reserve for when you're doing something else and not really paying attention.  I almost laugh out loud!  I'm slightly nervous as we're one on one with no other distractions and I'm dying of embarrassment as I'm 30 and this is only the second time I'm getting my nails done and I have no idea about what I should ask for or anything. I am umming and ahhing about explaining that I'm perfectly happy to sit in silence if she wants, until she asks me whether I have my dress.  I tell her it's purple. I tell her it's 1950s and it's got a lighter purple underskirt.  Her face is amazing! She's suddenly giving me all her attention and realises that I'm not going to be some bridezilla telling her my nails have to be done in this specific colour because it won't match the groomsmen's sashes or that it won't match the table decorations and things go on well from there, here's the result

Grey green sparkly nails

 It's a gel nail treatment thingy they tell me will last 2-3 weeks, the girl even explained I could go to the chemist and get the chemical myself to soak it off, she was so nice to me and my nails are perfect!  I booked to have them done again the day before the wedding!  I'm so glad I got over my little phobia with small chat and found a common ground!  I may even be brave enough to go and have my eyebrows threaded...wish me luck!

And just so that you don't think that all I talk about is the wedding, I've knitted some wrist warmers from a book my lovely friend in work gave me as a present 'for putting up with her' she said. It's a really comprehensive knitting book for beginners, although there are a couple of instructions on bobbling when knitting that I think I may need to have someone show me as even with the idiot proof instructions I can't get my head around it!

Two tone purple wrist warmers

Knitting with smaller needles now doesn't frighten me like it did at first and I've learnt how to do a rib stitch and they match and fit and everything!!!  I'm working on another pair for my soon to be mother-in-law but think I've knitted the colours the wrong way round to what she wanted so I'm going to knit another lot up and give her the choice.

My other non wedding related make was paper related. I was told once by my sister that if someone makes 365 paper origami stars and gives them as a present, the receiver gets a year of good luck according to Chinese culture.  As she's in desperate need of good luck I sat down last Sunday whilst watching two films and made 365 paper stars after getting a refresher on how to fold them off the internet.  I had sore thumbs from pushing the paper out I can tell you!  Especially since I started off using a rather thick white paper. I soon learned my lesson and found the thinnest paper I had in the house that wasn't tissue paper and carried on from there. At this point I will mention that I didn't cut the strips by hand, I used a guillotine and could cut five sheets of paper at a time.  Otherwise I would still be cutting them out now!

Here's the jar of good luck

multicoloured fluorescent stars in a jar

 It reduced her to tears which wasn't what it was for, but I've heard tell that she's very happy with it and my niece has made it very clear that she would like sole ownership of it because it's pretty!!

Today I shall be hand delivering the wedding invites that are too close to post, saves money and would be silly sending our parents their invites in the post when they only live up the road.  I'll probably get told off for wasting time and paper giving them one anyway...can't do right for doing wrong I guess!  The only things left now you'll all be glad to hear is getting the final quote for the food, doing a trial run of setting up the flowers for the background for photos, going through a trial run with my hair and make up and then paying for everything...boo hiss!  And of course the big day itself. So things should be getting back to normal round here pretty soon and I can show you more sewing and knitting things that aren't wedding related.  Hurray!