DIY Wedding: My Learnings And Tips

Good Day Everyone,

This is going to be the last of my DIY Wedding mini-series. If you've missed the first four posts then click on the following; first, second, third and fourth post.

To wrap this up, I’m going to touch upon some of the learnings from my experience of getting married and what I’d suggest to one of my girlfriends about to take the plunge. Now there’s lots of advice and tips I could give, in fact I think I could write a whole book on it as there’s so much that goes into planning a wedding, but for the purpose of this blog post I’m just going to focus on a few key ones that stood out the most for me.

Leverage Contacts:

Do ask for help and sound people out for you never know who might know someone/something that could help you out and save you money. For example, I was on the phone to my best friend (who happens to own a wedding dress shop in the North of England (website), although I didn't wear one of her dresses) about how expensive hiring chair covers through the wedding hotel was. I was having a bit of a grumble about not having time to shop around when my friend reminded me that her sister had a wedding chair cover business (how I did not recall this myself I do not know! Clearly my mind was over flowing with too much information!) and that she would probably do me a mates rate, which she did – Thank you Josephine (website). Not only did Josephine provide us with the chair covers and organza bows, she also lent us a runner which we used for the aisle with pink rose petals lining the edges and it looked stunning! It was also my best friend that told me about a wedding and floristry wholesale suppliers called Country Baskets (website) where I was able to get all the little bits and bob that I needed for our wedding e.g. wedding cake boxes, organza bags for wedding favours, diamante pins for the bridal bouquet, helium canister for the balloons, vases for the table flowers and so much more. I'd definitely recommend checking that place out if ever you're planning an event.

Shopping Around:

Make sure you shop around! If someone you trust makes a recommendation, even when you think you've found what you’re looking for, check it out. My hubby and I had actually decided on a wedding cake maker, about a year before our wedding and then several months later a friend suggested a local baker that she had used and so we explored this option and ended up saving £150 on our wedding cake.

Sleeping Before The Wedding:

If you’re getting married at a hotel and spending the night before your wedding there then I would recommend spending at least two nights before your big day there rather than one. This is because, if you’re anything like me, you’ll struggle to sleep that first night in a new place as the surroundings are all unfamiliar, as is the bed. You don’t want to wake up on your big day with huge bags under your eyes because you didn't get a good night’s sleep. Therefore I recommend you check into your hotel at least two nights before the wedding day itself, so that your body and mind has time to get used to your new surroundings.

Get Some Space:

If possible, book yourself a suite (rather than a room) at the hotel because trust me you are going to need the space when you’re getting ready, especially if bridesmaids/friends are getting ready with you. Even better, would be to book somewhere with a bit of outdoor space just so that you can get some air, if you need to. We booked a suite with an alfresco balcony which was amazing! The balcony gave us out door space to store the flowers and that’s where we made the table flowers and bridal bouquet. It was also great to have the patio doors open for a bit of fresh air whilst I was getting ready on the day of the wedding and just that bit of outdoor space meant that when there were several of us in the room it never felt too crowded.

Delegate And Ask For Help:

Now I’m a bit of a control freak who loves to organise (just a bit!) but even I realised that I could not be in more than one place at a time on the wedding day to oversee the decorations of the wedding room and the layout changes. So I delegated and explained to a couple of close friend’s as well as my hubby (who understand and are sympathetic of my control freak nature) of how I would like the room and tables to look in terms of decoration, and how I imagined the space working when the room was transformed from the wedding ceremony layout to the wedding breakfast and reception layout. This meant that I could relax with confidence knowing that this was being taken care of. We also had friends on the morning of the wedding helping with the helium balloons, arranging the aisle runner and music.In addition, we had one of my best friends help with the flowers and she even wrote the place cards for us.

A Bride’s Right Hand Woman:

Make sure if you’re the bride that you have a great right hand women. Someone who works well under pressure, is resourceful, trustworthy and detail orientated... gosh that sounds a bit like a job interview! I had one my dearest girlfriends come over from the US for my wedding and she was my right hand women. She thought of all the little details that I just didn't have time to think about. For example, whilst my hubby and I were mingling with our guests at the wedding reception, she arranged for housekeeping to come and tidy our suite, she cleared away all my makeup clutter, hair tools, ironing board, clothes steamer and everything else that was used in the process of getting me ready that morning. She made sure that at the end of the wedding day, the table flowers, cards and gifts were moved from the wedding reception into our hotel suite, our bed was scattered with rose petals and she even made sure we had a fresh bucket of ice. What a gem! I love you M :o)

Everyone's A Cameraman/woman:
Get anyone and everyone to take lots of photos for you as you or your designated camera person cannot be everywhere all of the time. You never quite know when someone might take that gem of a shot!

Lastly, just remember to breathe and enjoy the day. Don’t worry if there are little hiccups along the way, just focus on the reason why the day is taking place... to celebrate and unite you and your partner. Everything else is just the icing on the cake :o)

Love Sheen xxx

P.S. What tips / advice would you give to someone getting married?

DIY Wedding: Bridal Bouquet

Good Day Everyone,

As much as my hubby and I wanted the ‘perfect’ wedding day we didn't want to spend the best part of £20,000 on just one day of our life. So, in order to save costs I made my own bridal bouquet the evening before the wedding.  

Saving money wasn’t the only reason we did our own flowers, I absolutely love colour and really wanted to have a go at doing my own flowers because working with such pretty, colourful things makes me really really happy! Now, the sensible voice inside me would say to you that if you ever intend on doing your own wedding flowers (or make up etc) then you must practice beforehand! And that is indeed the advice I would give to others. But how often do we take our own advice? Not very often, let me tell you. So no, I didn't practice making my own bridal bouquet or table flowers beforehand. In fact, we didn't even know which flowers we were going to use for the table flowers until we went out and bought them the day before the wedding!

From my previous wedding post (read here) you’ll know that I wanted a bridal bouquet of pink roses with a few white ones. I had originally planned to buy the flowers from Marks and Spencers online and turn them into my own bouquet but a week before the wedding, whilst shopping in Manchester city centre, we came across a street florist and got chatting to him. He had had the same flower stall in Manchester city centre, by St. Ann’s church,  for the past 14 years. We had a look at the types of flowers he had and agreed that we would be back a week later to purchase pink and white roses from him, as we’d much prefer to support a small local business.

The street florist stall

For all the things that I needed to make my own bridal bouquet, my best friend who has a bridal shop in Leeds, recommended a store called Country Baskets (website) which is a kind of wholesale store for floristry, bridal and party supplies. You have to become a member in order to shop there but membership is free and open to the public and the prices are very good. This store was amazing! I was like a child in a sweet shop! Somebody like me, who likes to make colourful, pretty things could sooo easily get carried away in there that I had to force myself to go in with a list of things to buy and stick to the list.

The morning before the wedding we were at the flower stall in Manchester where we purchased 3 bunches of white roses and 6 bunches of pink roses giving us 15 white roses and 30 pink. We knew that if we ran out we could always pop back the next morning as the wedding was in the afternoon.

What I used to make the bridal bouquet:

·         Flowers – I used 25 pink and 11 white roses

·         Ribbon - I bought ivory organza ribbon with gold glitter

·         Steel scissors

·         Green cloth tape

·         Diamante pins

·         Pearl headed pins – I used white and cream coloured ones

The pink & white roses we used

Tools needed to make the bouquet

Before I get into how I made my bridal bouquet, a couple of tips for storing flowers. As soon as we got the flowers back to our hotel we put them in a bucket of warm (not cold) tap water and kept them outside (not inside) in order to keep them in optimal condition. We purposefully booked a hotel room with an outdoor area for this reason. We left the flowers sat in water for most of the day so that they were well hydrated and I started to make my bridal bouquet in the evening.

How I made the bridal bouquet:

1.       I carefully stripped the thorns and leaves off the rose stems.

2.        I picked the most perfect pink rose as my central rose and I then took 6 white roses (the white roses were smaller than the pink) and arranged them around the central pink rose but just marginally lower height wise to create a kind of dome effect.

3.       Using the green tape I taped the seven roses together towards the top of the stems. If you tape them too low down, the stems become floppy and it’s difficult to build the next circle of roses around them.

4.        Next, I arranged a circle of pink roses around the tied bouquet, again just a little lower in height to maintain the dome effect and taped them together. I stopped at this stage, admired my own work, and felt happy with the bouquet. I showed it to my hubby whose first response was, ‘Isn't it a bit small?’ but I’m a small person and I didn’t want it to look too big for me. Just then my friend came over who concurred with my hubby and so she helped me build another circle of pink roses around the bouquet.

5.       After this second circle of pink roses we reviewed our work and all three of us came to the consensus that the bouquet now looked too pink and so we added five white roses, intermittently, within the two outer circles of pink roses and voila we were happy with the result.

6.       Having made sure all the stems were taped together tightly, we then proceeded to cut the stems down (at a slight angle) to achieve the length that I wanted.

7.        Next we wrapped the beautiful organza ribbon starting from near the bottom of the stems, leaving a little bit of the green stems showing. We secured the ribbon in place using a couple of pins – inserting them at a slight angle instead of straight on

8.       We wrapped the ribbon up towards the top off the stems and then worked it back down thus wrapping the stems twice as the ribbon was quite sheer.

9.       When we got the ribbon back down towards the bottom of the stems we cut it at an angle and folded the edge under itself and secured it with the pins so that there would be no fraying.

10.   We then left the bridal bouquet in some warm tap water outside overnight.

Storing the bouquet outside over night

The next morning I inserted a few diamante pins in the centre of some of the roses for a bit of extra sparkle and voila I had made my own bridal bouquet with a little help from my hubby and friend :o) All for the fraction of the price a professional florist would charge and had a lot of fun making it :o)

The finished bouquet

A close up

The finished bouquet

What do you think of our efforts? Have you ever made your own bridal bouquet? Would you be brave enough?

Love Sheen xxx