DIY Cupcake Bar Idea

When we first started planning, I really wanted a sweetie buffet (or Candy Bar, if you're reading from across the pond!). Now I've sort of gone off the idea. I don't know if it's because every wedding on the internet seems to have one at the moment, or because we decided to go down the 3 course meal route instead of a buffet or BBQ, meaning that we'd have dessert, wedding cake AND sweets. Too much sugar, even for me!

Anyway, when I was researching them, I realised that they wouldn't be as cheap as I originally thought - even if you get all the containers and things for next to nothing, you still have to buy a shed load of sweets - and that can end up being really expensive!

I saw this on Style Me Pretty - wouldn't it be a a really cute alternative to a sweetie buffet?
It's a Make Your Own Cupcake Bar - you provide plain cupcakes, several different kinds of frosting (buttercream? Vanilla? Chocolate? One in your wedding colours?)  and a couple of different toppings (hundreds and thousands? Chopped nuts? Chocolate chips?) and your guests can frost and top their own cakes!

 

I really love this idea - although we probably wont be having it at our wedding because, like I said earlier, we already have dessert and wedding cake. 

I suppose you could use it as a favour idea - that would be quite fun. Or maybe even as the dessert for any children that attend?

[all photos from Stylemepretty.com]

DIY: Flowchart and Favours

I posted about the "should I invite them?" flowchart a while back, and today I found another one! Hurray!

I do love flowcharts! They remind me of those quizzes that I used to do in magazines when I was little. The always had topics like "Which Spice Girl are you?" or "Which flavour lip gloss are you?". (Baby Spice and Cherry, if you're interested!)

Anyway, I love a good flowchart, so this one, which helps you decide whether you should take on a wedding DIY project or not, is right up my street.

DIY Reality Check Flowchart

Very helpful, especially when I start thinking things like "I could make the bridesmaid dresses, how hard could that be?". The answer is "very hard".

On a slightly related note - I appear to be dragging my dad into the wedding DIYness alot recently. It's my mums fault really - everytime I mention something, she says that my dad would be able to make it.

"You need 10 wooden boxes for the centrepieces? Your dad could make those!"

"You want some speech bubble shaped black boards for the photobooth? Your dad could make those!"

"Table number holders? You're dad could make those!"

"A limo to take you to the ceremony? Your dad could make that!"

(Ok, so maybe that last one is a slight exageration, but you get the idea!)

Anyway, my dad has been volunteered to make pretty much anything that I probably wouldn't be able to make myself. The good thing is that he probably would be able to make the centrepiece boxes and the black board shapes, and he would have a go at table number holders. It's very helpful and generous, and I think it adds a nice, personal touch to the wedding when you know that things have been made my family members or friends.

I think it's really lovely to get people involved in your big day, and it's a great way to save money. Every article or blog post you will ever read about having a budget wedding will say that the best way to save money is to call in favours from friends and family.
This used to really annoy me, as not everyone has an auntie that is a cake baker, or a cousin that is a make-up artist, or a friend that is a graphic designer and can make your invitations for free!

I am lucky enough to have a friend who is a hairdresser and has offered to do my hair on the day, but I don't have any other friends or family that can get me a discount on wedding things.

Sometimes you have to think outside the box when calling in favours - your cousin might not be a make-up artist, but she might have a really good collection of beauty products that you could raid for the day. Your auntie might not be a baker, but she might make a pretty sugar flower anyway. You might not have a friend that is a graphic designer, but they might have a fairly decent printer and a discount at Hobbycraft!

In my case, I don't have anyone with convenient jobs in a wedding related industry, but I do have a dad who is pretty nifty with a power saw, and also a sister-in-law who is a bloody good artist. I plan to take full advantage of their superior skills to save myself money and stress!

Avast ye scurvy dogs!

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Slightly off topic for a wedding blog, I know, but I do have a tedious link!

When we lived in Brighton, we went the the wedding reception of some friends of ours and it was pirate themed! It was actually amazing - held in this little pub in the lanes, with a live band and everyone was dresses as pirates. So much fun!

Here's a pic of Karl at the wedding!

Anyway, my point is that a wedding doesn't have to be a traditional dinner and dancing affair. After the ceremony it is, after all, basically just a party, so you might as well enjoy it! I love the idea of fancy dress weddings (I would love a halloween one!) and I think that if your guests are willing to make an effort and really get into it, then it would be amazing!

See? Very tedious link! Basically I just like talking about pirates! 

Bridesmaids fabric swatches

You may recall my post a while back about the bridesmaid dresses that each girl had designed on Style Shake. Well I asked them for some fabric swatches so that I could check the colour, and they arrived today.

I asked for a sample of the Violet Silk, the Purple Cotton and the Matt Silver Cotton. My plan was to have the dresses in purple cotton with silver sashes. However, when the samples came, I think I prefer the violet silk!

 

You can't really see the colours properly on this photo, but the violet silk is more of a bright, cadburys purple, which is what I wanted.  The purple cotton looks more like burgundy to me and the more I look at it, the more I don't like it! 

It's a shame, because I wanted the dresses to be cotton because it will probably be hot and I just thought that cotton would be more comfortable than silk. 

There is also the price to consider. The dresses in cotton were around £54 each, which I though was a pretty decent price. The dresses in silk are about £80. Now this might not be too bad in the (ridiculously overpriced) world of bridesmaid dresses, but to me, that is a lot of money for a dress. I have never spent £80 on a dress in my life. My wedding dress will not even cost double that! As much as I've prattled on about letting the girls design their own dress so that they have one they really love, at the end of the day, I am making them buy a dress in a certain colour, fabric and general style. The least I can do is let them save some money!

So at the moment I am unsure what we will be doing for bridesmaid dresses. :-(

I really want the Style Shake dresses (who wouldn't want to do business with a company that starts their letters with "Hellooooooooo" ?!)  so maybe I will have to discuss with the bridesmaids how much they are willing to spend. I will also keep an eye out for any high street dresses that fit the bill.

'Welcome' Door hangers

I talked about the cottages that we will be staying at for Wedfest in my last post. I was thinking about them, and decided that it would be nice to have something to welcome the guests to the cottages when they arrive.

I have seen some really gorgeous welcome bags and 'Out of Town Guest' welcome packs on the internet - full of homemade cookies and water bottles with personalised labels. I love the idea of making welcome bags/boxes/baskets for everyone, but I would have to make one for everyone, not just the out of town guests. I think they are really thoughtful, but a lot of work. Especially for 34 people. Far too much work, and likely to end up being really expensive. So that idea was out - I needed to think on a smaller scale.

So I was trying to think of something really simple and easy I could do, just to let the guests know that we are happy they are staying with us. I found this blog  a while back and the bride had made door hangers to put on the hotel room doors, which welcome the guests on one side, and say "do not disturb" on the other. How cute?

So anyway, I shamelessly stole the idea and design from her and changed it around a bit to fit our needs.

Here's the design for our door hangers:

The front

The back

I just made a quick template in Powerpoint ( I use powerpoint for most things instead of Word because I find it alot easier to move things around). I took the other brides advice of not having the dotted lines on the back so that you don't have to worry about the lines matching up when you cut them out.

I'm just going to print them out onto lime green card and then cut them out. Hopefully it will be really simple. I'll hang one on each bedroom door, with the welcome side showing and then the guests can either remove them completely, or turn them to the do not disturb side.

I realise that this is one of those projects that is completely unecessary, but I like to think that it's the little things that make a difference.

I also thought that we could have out own door hanger for our room, which would say "Mr and Mrs X's room" on one side and then, on the back:

The back

 I really like these, and I hope the guests will think they are cute and use them. If not, it probably wont take me too long to make them, so it wouldn't be the end of the world if no-one noticed them!

Song of the day

I literally can not stop listening to this song - I love it so much!

You Make My Dreams Come True by Hall and Oates

The video shows the scene in the film '500 days of summer'. I wish real life was like that!

Anyway, this is one of my favourite songs and I have just re-discovered it. I forgot all about it when I was thinking of songs for the wedding!
Where could I fit this in? Possibly as the recessional, but do I love this more than Train? Hmmm...

I'd love to be able to do a first dance to this, but I am just not a very good dancer! lol

Holy Cow!

Have you heard of ArtsCow? I hadn't until a few days ago - but it is a site that prints your photos onto all sorts of products (such as bags, umbrellas, playing cards, keyrings etc ).

Very cool, but a little bit pricey. Especially when you consider the fact that it is an American site and so the shipping to the UK is about £25. Anyway, the best thing about ArtsCow is that it is similar to Vistaprint in that you can sign up to the news letter and they will send you deals.

Today I received an email from them, offering 3 cosmetic bags for $8, with free shipping when you use the code 3COSMETIC8 before the 2nd of October 2010.

You can have anysize cosmetics bag (small, medium, large or extra large) and you can customise them however you want with photos, colours, text, patterns etc.

So I thought they would work well to hold the bridesmaid gifts I'm planning (I won't go into detail incase any of them are lurking...). I decided on the large cosmetic bags, which are $11.99 each, so 3 for $8 is a massive bargain.

I chose a different background pattern for each bridesmaid and put their names on one side. Since I have 4 bridesmaids and the offer is 3 for $8, I also designed one for myself and one as a "Grooms Survival Kit" which I'm going to put things like breathmints, spare socks, cufflinks etc in for Karl on the morning of the wedding.

Here's the one for me to keep bits of makeup, hair grips and probably chocolate in:

I was trying to keep it simple, and I wanted it bright green so I wouldn't lose it! You can make them as detailed as you like, with as many photos or embelishments as you can fit.

Anywho, so I had 6 bags at $11.99 each, plus about $25 minimum for shipping. I put in the code and got it all for $16 (which was just under £10.62) and free shipping. According to the website, that was a discount of over $80. Bargain!

I imagine you could use ArtsCow for lots of things, maybe favours (I love the playing cards with your picture on them, or the keyrings) or even Save The Date's or invitations. At the very least, you could get your wedding photo's printed on pretty much whatever you like!

Just sign up to the news letter and wait for the offers to come through. If you are in the UK then I would reccommend waiting for one that offers free shipping, as that costs more than the products do!

 [all pictures from www.artscow.com]