Wedding

From being very small I can remember holidays being used to make things - pictures and cakes and cushion covers then quilts and the odd dress. So when it came to my wedding I wanted to make as many things as I could - not to save money but because I love the personal and uniques touch homemade items gave to the occasion. Here are some pictures and descriptions of the things that we made (yes I had help from family, friends and on some rare occasions my finance (now husband)). I hope that it inspires more people to give it a try as it really was worth all the effort. 

Dresses

So, I did go and try on some wedding dresses in actual shops - I couldn't resist experiencing that part of being a bride. However, I was always going to have a homemade dress. My wonderful Mum made my dress and it was perfect. The pattern was Vogue 2842 and the material, a beautiful silk was from Sharma's market stall in Nottingham. We chose a beaded contrasting fabric to make the godet and it came out fantastically. 

The bridesmaids' dresses (Butterick B6094)  were a joint effort between myself, my Mum and the bridesmaids and we had so much fun making them - there is a separate post about this here.

Decorations 

I spent an entire year making bunting for the marquee - sewing over 400 triangles on to 10 strips of cotton twill tape. I had a lot of fun going to market stalls and getting people to donate scraps of blue fabric to the cause. Although I now have a lot of bunting to find a new use for! I am thinking of making a memory quilt out of the triangles - if I ever get around to it.

The table decorations and favours were also homemade. The table names written on the wooden spoons were pubs that my husband and I had played darts in as this was how we met. 

The favours which completed the table settings were a "drink me" miniature coke bottle of homemade sloe gin and "eat me" jar of smarties and here is a picture to prove that David helped me with this!

Instead of a guest book we got people to take "selfies" on an instax camera (like polaroids). The pictures were signed and pegged on to a chalk board which we now have in our living room as a beautiful memory of the day.

Cake

I can't leave out a picture of my lovely three-tiered wedding cake which my Mum made. It even came complete with it's own bunting. It was delicious!

I hope you have enjoyed these few pictures of my homemade wedding. These are just a few of the key elements we also made our own wedding invitations and decorated the church with pot plants rather than having cut flowers that would die. It was such a fantastic day made even more special by the uniqueness of doing so much ourselves. 

The beautiful pictures are courtesy of Michael Molloy and Mark Allen.