Invitations

Although I finished these ages ago, I wanted to post about them as I am somewhat proud of these! I did originally look around online to see if there were any pre-made invitations that we liked, but nothing was quite right. We foud a few options that were nice, but nothing that was perfectly us.

We ended up deciding we would like some Celtic in the design, for obvious Irish dancing reasons. But most of the celtic invitations available ready-designed were green, cliched, old fashioned or just meh. So I ended up designing some for us.

The design is from one of the many Celtic books I have sitting around from dressmaking. This was used as a feature border to tie everything together and will also be used on menus and placecards. On the main invite, each knot is accented with a Swarovski stone.

The map for the Directions cards was done in Paint Shop Pro. I print screened a map from Google, then traced over it using a pen tool. Once all the required details were in place, the original copied map was deleted from behind.

The invites took a couple of nights to finish, a few at a time to make sure I didn't lose my mind!

I miss my dress...

So my actual dress arrived a couple months ago. Not just a sample but MY dress :-) I went in last Friday for a first fitting. She needs to be taken in down the bust, waist and upper hip. I am due to go back in next Friday to check those alterations, and then have the length shortened.

But I just want to see it NOW! Because I haven't got her here to look at, I keep having little doubts that it's not quite right, or isn't flattering. The only pics of her on me are pretty bad too which doesn't help at all!

Sigh.

Getting there!

I feel like I should have started this earlier, but whatevs, can't change that now. I will probably forget about it in a day anyway! The idea is that I can sumarise thoughts and progress on here over the coming few weeks and it will.. in theory.. help me keep my head straight and organised! lol.

So over the last couple of days I have:

- Cancelled the florist and lost a deposit, after doing some trial runs and
working out that even taking the lost deposit into account, I will be able to
save a good few hundred $$$ by DIYing our flowers. Flowers were never a huge
priority for the wedding anyway - I am not really a flowery person and don't see
the point in spending half a wedding budget just on flowers! But at the same
time, there weren't really any non-flower centrepieces that I was happy to go
with. Oi Vey. The plan is to either buy a load of flowers from the Central
Markets on Thursday before the wedding (which is a Friday), OR join the local
Wholesale Flower Market and buy there. Then spend the day doing the centrepieces
etc. I have already done a trial run and they seem to last ok so it should all
be good :-)

- Had a major crafting spree! I have a had a few projects that I wanted to
start on. In particular, the little silk butterflies. I had seen these online
and realised I could make them for a fraction of the price they were being sold
for. Spent ages working out the origami folds on scrap paper about a week ago,
and then got the silk this week. So I have ended up with about 30 so far, in
various combinations of black, white and blue. Photos to come! These will be
used on hairclips for the flower girl's hair, and on wire for the cake, and as a
cute addition to the centrepieces.

I made my garter. I wasn't happy with any of the cheap chatty ones I had seen on the stereotypical wedding sites. Too boring and cliched. Etsy proved more successful, but the ones I liked were all around $40 - $50 and I knew I could make something cheaper. In the end it cost me no more than $10 in materials and only about an hour or so. Win!

I also made a good amount of progress on my bag. The basis for the fabric was similar to a college project from the Textiles days! Took me back a few years while I was making it. I had a look at a clutch I already have and did a mental deconstruction and basically designed the pattern as I went. Has turned out pretty damn well. I would just say that I wish I could get a stiffer stiffening.. I used dancing costume Vilene and while it has given it a good amount of body, it's just not quite as stiff as a store bought bag. Might have a look into some options to slide inside, as I havne't closed it up yet - it still needs a clasp.

- Decided on Flower girl dresses! Mum and I are making these. I had originally planned on going all blue, after seeing this pic. I went to DK fabrics this week to check out fabric options and ended up with various satins, tulles and chiffons, but nothing was quite right.

I hate to sound like a crazy Bridezilla, but none of the shades of blue worked with the other blues.. too bright or too green! So in the end we have decided to scrap the all-blue, and put them all in Ivory, with tulle overskirts and royal blue sashes around the waist. Just need to get the fabric organised now.

Still loads left to be done though. I need more plain white butterflies (to work in amongst the main bouquets), place cards, menu cards, etc. Lots and lots of crafting to be done over the coming weeks!

I am also still toying with the idea of adding some kind of bling to my heels. The debate continues.

And the secret project is going well so far :-)