D.I.Y

DIY Devotee

July 23rd, 2010

It’s a quick pretty idea for your tables this week guys and something that I’m seeing popping up everywhere…. DIY Milk glass.

Milk glass is, as with all things vintage, becoming quite fashionable again, but sourcing original vintage pieces can be time consuming and expensive. Why not have a go at recycling charity shop finds and using interesting jam and sauce jars from your own kitchen cupboard to recreate these pretty tablescapes. Best of all the idea works with so many schemes. Keep it simple and all white with white glass and white flowers or make the vases the theme using pastel shades as per the DIY instructions. Mixed up white vases make a perfect backdrop for a brighter flower scheme as in the photos below or mix with mercuried silver and clear glass for a whimsical ethereal look by candle light.

I. LOVE.

For the Full DIY post and how-to (it’s super simple) visit Homelife, found via Elizabeth Ann Designs.

Meanwhile, here are a few more ideas for how you can use your DIY makes :)


Summer Brights on ElseaChelsea via Snippet and Ink.

Pink Milkglass seen on Momental Designs, White milk glass from Elizabeth Anne Designs, mix and match with clear or coloured glass (below) also Elizabeth Anne Designs.

If you’re not fancying your hand at being creative (and shame on you for not trying ;) , ) milk glass can be purchased from ebay and often pops up in charity shops. Ikea also sells lots of small white vases. If you are feeling creative, find interesting thrift pieces to do this with, pressed and cut glass look all the better for it.

Will you be trying out this weeks DIY project?

Yours Truly,

Rebecca
xoxo

DIY Devotee

July 16th, 2010

Today we are sharing a fab little DIY project from this side of the pond, by Sam – one half of Sam and Sequoia at MirrorBox Photography.
I spotted this on their blog a little while ago and Sam actually made these cute as a button buttonholes for the men at her own wedding.

She has taken super fun pictures that illustrate the DIY perfectly, and I’m so happy to share them!

Thanks Sam!

DIY Buttonholes

Arranging all of the flowers for your wedding would perhaps be a daunting task. However buttonholes are super easy to make. You can make them on the morning of the wedding in seconds. Better still, isn’t that what bridesmaids are for?

Get creative, use different fabrics, vintage buttons, sweet smelling herbs. I made the buttonholes for the menfolk at my wedding and here is a step by step guide to how I did it.

Sam – Mirrorbox Photography

Supplies:

1. Ribbon (roughly 25cm) 2. Florist’s wire 3. Three contrasting pieces of fabric 4. Pinking shears 5. Buttonhole pin 6. Florist’s tape 7. Flower stems

Step 1. Cut each piece of fabric into a leaf shape with the pinking shears. Make each one slightly smaller than the other, the biggest will go to the back and the smallest at the front.

Step 2. Arrange your flowers and wrap them securely with the florist’s wire.


Step 3. Place the flowers on top of your fabric and secure tightly with the florist’s tape.

Step 4. Wrap the ribbon tightly around the tape making sure to cover it all. Tie together and cut any excess ribbon, leaving a little flowing free at the end. Use the pin to fasten to the lapel.

The last picture is of Sam’s Dad wearing one of her homemade buttonholes on the day of her own wedding. I love how personal that is – can you imagine making one for your groom to wear and having it delivered from him to you on the morning of your wedding? So romantic! And it looks so easy!

Big thanks to Sam for sharing this with us – do pop over to the Mirrorbox blog and see the whole post.

Yours Truly,

Rebecca
xoxo

P.s Let us know what buttonhole ideas you guys have for W-day!

DIY Devotee

July 9th, 2010

It’s a well known fact that Charlotte and I are big fans of informal photos at weddings and we both had a way of our own to document all our guests… I went for a Polaroid photo book and asked a trusted friend to go around and take a snapshot of each couple/family which they then held onto, to stick next to their message in our guest book. This was no mean feat however and certainly not very cost effective – we borrowed the camera but film for 80 guests still cost us more then £80. I now absolutely love looking at our guest book though and remembering what everyone was wearing, exactly how they were on the day.

Charlottes take on it was slightly different however and she provided a frame for her subjects, plus a ton of fun props to capture her guests having the wicked time that they did.

So when I saw this little DIY project over on Ruffled I was pretty excited! It’s got all the things I love, DIY, a cheap way to make a massive impact, prints and florals and that fun factor we all need. Plus, even better, it’s the perfect project to give your husband-to-be to get him involved and keep him busy in the run up to the big day!

For the Full how to, and loads more helpful pictures, makes sure you check out the full post on Ruffled. The project was actually submitted by a Ruffled reader in their annual DIY contest and I know there must be loads of DIY-tastic readers of our own out there, so if you have something fabulous you think other brides would like to read about and try their hand at, send us your how-to with step by step pictures and we can share it right here on Rock My Wedding!

Fancy giving this one a try? We’d sure love to see the results!

Yours Truly,

Rebecca
xoxo

DIY Devotee

July 2nd, 2010

When we first announced our idea for a weekly post on DIY ideas somebody get in touch and asked me for some invitation ideas. And I have just the thing this week!

Stylish Stripes

I’ve been keeping this stripey number tucked up my sleeve for a few weeks now, first spotted over on i-DIY via J.Bartyn. Available in Cherry Red, as shown below, but also Lemon Yellow, Powder Blue and Citrus-y Lime Green, they are a chic and modern addition to your wedding style.

What I particularly like, typical of the US wedding style is that the suite of down loads includes not only the invitation, but also table numbers, an insert card, favour tags and thank you cards. Genius and totally Free :)

Love and Lavender

Another little find I’ve been waiting to share, again coming via i-DIY are these free invite printables from Love and Lavender. With super cute Save the Date designs, and some super chic Invites, there’s sure to be something to inspire you, and help smooth the way through the budget nightmare that is your wedding!



*Sorbet Number Save the Dates, Fancy Frame chic, Parisian Style and Floral Fancies (in three colourways) all from Love and Lavender.

There’s loads more to check out and did I mention they are free?! :)

Anyone for a free download from this weeks selection or any requests for things to feature on DIY Fridays?

Yours Truly and Happy DIY Friday,

Rebecca
xoxo

DIY Devotee

June 25th, 2010

I don’t know if it’s the weather or just the time of year… that ’school’s out’ feeling is just around the corner and I’m obsessed with summery fun stuff, the great outdoors and a bit of a seaside or garden vibe. With that in mind I have a DIY treat for you all from both Charlotte and I.

Beautiful Bunting

Charlotte spotted this cute-as-a-button Bunting printable over on Ruffled, via Two Brunettes. Head on over to check out the full post and download each letter – some of which have different colourways to mix it up, and the heart spacer flag.

Lemon-aid

Next up some super cute escort cards spotted a while back over on 100 Layer Cake. I’m a massive fan of the concept of an escort card and if you’re none the wiser as to what on earth I’m talking about then read our all about escort cards post here!

People are getting more and more creative with their escort cards these days using them as a whole feature in themselves, to really extend the theme of the day. And if yours is a chilled back yard affair, or garden themed summer event, then I would literally kill for one of you to get making these beauties :)

I’m loving the idea of these filled with pink champagne or for a refreshing idea how about cloudy pink and yellow lemonade – how retro chic!

For the full how-to, make sure you head over to check out the full post and please don’t be put off by the american supplies used in the instructions – these can just as easily be printed out on sticker paper then cut out by hand and if you want to purchase yourself some little bottles, try the Jam Jar Shop.

For a serving idea, line the bottles up on a table as your guests either enter the ceremony if it’s hot day, or as they exit for the drinks reception afterwards. Leave the tops off, finishing each one with a retro waxed straw! Get red, blue or grey striped straws from Pipii.

So do you like my dear readers? Do let us know if you fancy utilising any of these ideas come W-day or in fact just for a get together – I know I’ll be trying out both at a summer party I have planned next month :)

Yours truly, and Happy DIY Friday :)

Rebecca
xoxo

DIY Devotee…

June 18th, 2010

Given that this week is all about celebrating our readers, including bloggers amongst the brides, I think this is a perfect time to announce what is going to become a regular feature and one that I’m pretty excited about.

It’s no secret that we don’t feature other bloggers or blogs here regularly and there are a couple of reasons for that. The first and most important is that we are seriously too busy to keep up with anything other than what we’re getting on with ourselves, so we try and keep our heads down and get on with making Rock My Wedding great! Secondly, we want to bring you new and exciting blog things whether they be inspiration and ideas or real weddings. And thirdly, because we want to bring you stuff we LOVE. The whole reason Rock My Wedding was created was to fill a gap in the market – although the ‘wedding blog’ wasn’t a new concept, it was relatively new to the UK, and the way we did it was certainly new. So we are pretty choosy (like we are in real life,) about what we see and decide to share here.

However for me Rock My Wedding is missing one thing that I would love to share more often and that is DIY. Believe me, if there was one thing I could spend more time on, that would be it. DIY projects to make your wedding completely chic and unique, completely you, completely budget friendly, creative and special. I’m a huge fan of DIY and in an ideal world I’d be sitting here creating little projects for you all from my own fair hands. We have shared the odd idea here and there in the past, some of our own making, and I hope as we get straight around here (who am I kidding?!) I’ll get time to turn my attentions towards creating a few more… but in the mean time, it’s time I got to give some appreciation to the creative bloggers out there who I truly admire and am inspired by on a near daily basis.

So every week on DIY Fridays, you can expect me to bring you one, or sometimes two or three little morsels of creativity from around the web, that you can make or do for your big day (and sometimes just for any day) saving money and getting that amazing feeling of ‘I made that!’

As it’s our first week, I’m going to kick off with a DIY Printable for everyone with a man in their life, married, engaged or not, and an idea to personalise your drinks reception.

Erin Vale Designs

Erin Vale is a Freelance designer/Art Director who started Vale Deisgns in 2006. Based in Indiana, USA, Erin also launched finch&hawk, an online store featuring favor box printables and paper goods. Her blog is a treasure trove of free printables but as a girl with a list making obsession (I blame my Mum) it’s her super cute lists that got me hooked :)

I had to print this one out straight away… (Poor Pete is always asking me (it’s standing joke in our house) “what’s on his list” this weekend, so this Honey Dew list (Via Each Pretty Penny) was such a cute way of making the same list that little bit sweeter!) I couldn’t help but think of all the planning brides, desperate to get their grooms helping out and thought this might be just the ticket. Whether it be a Saturday while you are out at a fitting or in the busy days before the wedding these lists are fun and fresh and useable for any man who needs a little push to get going!

For everyone who like me makes an average of 3 freakin’ lists every day, or dreamy blog topics for our blogging friends, Erin has some free printables for your use too. Be sure to head over to Erin Vale Design to look at the blog and her other free downloadables.

Custom Cocktail Napkins

Just a couple of weeks back I got an email from a bride asking me if she knew anywhere she could find some cocktail napkins she had seen in an image from a photographers gallery. The napkin had printed on it ‘Please, shut up about your wedding!’ which I thought was humorous, albeit not to everyones taste, take on wedding obsessions!

Whilst searching for them online to help her out, I came across a super easy tutorial on how to make your own custom napkins by Julianne Smith aka The Garter Girl via The Landlocked Bride. Julianne makes the tradition of wearing a garter completely stylish and has the most gorgeous collection of modern and pretty garters for those of you who might want to wear one to complete your bridal look.

At her recent launch party Julianne made custom cocktail napkins with just a rubber stamp and I think they would be fabulous for a wedding. Wether you use a floral motif, your own monogram, your name and date, or anything else in fact that ties in with your wedding theme, it’s an easy and quick way of adding some DIY personality to your day.

The how to is so simple – even the most DIY-phobic can manage this!

1. Design a logo (or get a friend who can use publisher, pages or photoshop to do it!)
2. Get the logo made into a rubber stamp… try Speedy Stamps custom circular designer with a nifty tool to help you out, or the English Stamp Company.
3. Purchase your napkins (probably best to allow 2-3 per guest) and contrasting ink pad.
4. Get Stamping!

Check out the full DIY custom napkin post here.

Hope you enjoyed this weeks offerings? Make sure DIY Devotee is a regular stop for you every Friday and if you have any fab DIY projects you made yourself, shoot me an email on rebecca@rockmywedding.co.uk and we’ll see if we can include them!

Yours Truly,

Rebecca
xoxo