Cute DIY Peg Doll Wedding Cake Toppers

Cake toppers may seem a small extra wedding detail to you, but I know one couple for whom it was almost a relationship-breaker. It seems these little statues can create the strongest of emotions; the groom thought they were irrevocably naff, while the bride-to-be felt her wedding cake would be naked without one. Personally I'm in the pro wedding cake topper camp, but there's no doubt that they require careful choosing to avoid the naff-factor. I've long loved these cute Goose Grease peg doll toppers, and now you can DIY them yourselves! Goose Grease Undone offers paint-your-own peg doll sets, while Goose Grease will custom your cake toppers on your behalf, so it all depends on how crafty you feel.

More posts like this one:

✽ DIY Signature Wedding Cocktail Bar

✽ DIY Drinks Flags

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Easy Wedding DIY Paper Projects

Paper decorations have become a mild obsession for me. It's because they're a wedding DIY project and a cheap and chic wedding decor option all rolled up into one crafty fabulousness. I'm not trying to pretend any of the ideas below are mine - I've never been all that creative with arts and craft, but I'm very good at copying. If you're just like me, then there's two wedding blogs you're going to want to visit. One is Project Wedding, and the other is Oh Happy Day {one of my all time favourite DIY blogs}. If you go there, you'll be able to make gorgeous, feather streamers like these in seconds.......

More posts like this one:
✽ DIY Butterfly Wedding Cake
✽ Amazing Sparkly Tassel Wedding Decorations

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Easy DIY Idea For Your Wedding: Blackboard Paint

Despite starting Before the Big Day before my own wedding, I still missed out on some fabulous wedding ideas. A particular miss was blackboard paint. It's without a doubt the easiest wedding DIY on the planet, and I just wish I'd stumbled on it when I was planning my own DIY wedding. You can buy it online in a huge range of colours {i.e. not just black!}, and paint it on to pretty much anything, from wood to glasses, plant pots and cork. I'm a huge fan of individually labelled jam jars at a rustic wedding, and this wedding back-drop {below} is amazing! Plus a blackboard menu will save you printing individual cards for each table. More chalkboard inspiration on my Pinterest page.

{Photo Credit} Amazing blackboard wedding ceremony backdrop by Jenny Jimenez via Style Me Pretty

{Photo Credit} Amazing hanging blackboard table plan by Michaels

{Photo Credit} Blackboard table plan by Holly's Home Crafts 2. Blackboard menu by Krista Mason Photography - full wedding on Hostess with the Mostess Blog

{Product Credit} Blackboard paint labels by Vintage Blooming

{Photo Credit} Shabby-chic blackboard table number {unknown}

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How To Easy-DIY Your Wedding Stationery

Wedding stationery can easily set you back over £1000, particularly if you go for beautiful letterpress or embossed wedding invitations. Then if you throw in Save the Dates, pretty answering cards, printed instructions, place-makers, menus and the cost of stamps, and you're easily busting your wedding budget on paper! The good news is that DIY-ing your wedding stationery is simple, even if you're creatively challenged like me. I managed to DIY my wedding stationery, and believe me, if I can do it, so can you! If you're not keen on fiddling around on your computer with designs and layouts, how about trying wedding stamps? You can get them specially personalised for you by boutique designers on Etsy, so all you need to do is add ink and paper of your choice. Take a look at some of these fab designs for starters, and click for more wedding stamp ideas. Plus you won't want to miss all of Before the Big Day's DIY ideas.

{Product Credit} Save the Date DIY Stamp by Stamp Couture

{Product Credit} Save the Date DIY Stamp by Stamp Couture

{Product Credit} Lovely favour stamp by Rachel Carl & Company

{Product Credit} Pretty Wedding Logo Stamps by Red Cloud Boutique

{Product Credit} Lovely wedding slogan stamp by The Chatty Press

{Product Credit} Fun wedding favour stamps by Rachel Carl & Company

{Product Credit} Matching Wedding Invitation & Save the Date stamps by Native Bear

{Product Credit} Pretty wedding detail stamps by Paper Sushi

{Product Credit} Wedding Invitations & Save the Date stamps by Modern Art Stamps

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DIY Printable Wedding Favours & Stationery

DIY projects are a sure-fire way to personalise your wedding, without breaking the bank. Fresh from my semi-do-it-yourself stationery success, I'm super-keen on any DIY wedding projects. But what if you're not exactly a dab hand at graphic design? Well a whole bunch of Etsy shops have come to your rescue, with cheap printable template, which you can buy, personalise and....well print! Here's a selection of ideas from one of my favourites - Print Your Party. Loving the sparkler cases and cocktail umbrellas - do you reckon they're easy to make?

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Fantastic DIY Wedding Decoration Ideas

If you've not yet heard of Anthropologie, you're in for a serious treat. It's a US store that's recently set up shop in the UK, and even more recently entered into the wedding market with their new brand BHLDN {pronounced Beholden}. We featured their wedding dresses here on Before the Big Day the moment they launched, with a serious level of enthusiasm {I admit it, I gushed}. Now they've turned their attention to wedding decorations and details, and they've nailed it once again. Not only are the products themselves truly gorgeous, they're some serious DIY wedding inspiration. What do you reckon? I think most of them could be DIY'd?

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Carnival Wedding: DIY Invitation Tickets

Making the Carnival Wedding Tickets was a little bit fiddly, but it's definitely do-able, even if you're not a professional graphic designer. The secret is to be adaptable, and use the computer programmes you understand. For me, that's Picasa, Word and iPhoto. Picasa is a free programme, which you can download from the internet, and it's seriously easy to use. This tutorial will help you adapt any free printable, so it's worth saving!

First of all I downloaded a free printable of a carnival ticket invitation that best resembled the look I wanted. I found this amazing template from The Burk Family Blog via Pinterest {right click, Save As onto your Desktop}. To find your own template, the best search to use is 'free printables' and then any other key word. If you can't find one on Pinterest, then Google Images is a great place to look as well.

Carnival Wedding Theme DIY Invitations

My birthday is fast approaching, and as it's my last one before I become a mother {eek!}, I've decided to go the whole hog, with a Carnival Theme. It's a style I seriously considered for our wedding, so I'm using my 34th as an excuse to use all my carnival wedding inspiration. As ever, my first obsession was styling the invitations - I think it's key to any wedding or party to build anticipation with fabulous stationery, and with the right kit, it's super easy to DIY. Take a look my Circus Bunting invitations below, complete with DIY instructions. And if you're looking for more Carnival Wedding Theme ideas, then definitely check out my Pinterest page.

Making the invitations was a two stage process. First of all I made the bunting cards, and then the carnival tickets to slip inside.

What you need
Hint: I find all my supplies via eBay to get the best prices!
* this Carnival ticket template {published with thanks to The Burk Family Blog}
* white cards 4" x 3"
* striped blue & white paper bags
* washi tape
* star squeeze punch
* A4 red card 220gsm
* white address labels 100mm x 34mm
* plain white sewing cotton
* sharp scissors
* sticky tape
* glue
* a printer with black ink
* a guillotine {or be very good at cutting straight lines}

How To Choose Your Wedding Flowers

Choosing your wedding flowers can be a pretty tricky business; considering most people just send flowers and bouquets, without really knowing the names of any particular blooms. But thanks to Pinterest, I've stumbled across the best wedding flower guides E-V-E-R! It's all thanks to the amazing team over at The Wedding Chicks wedding blog. Along with Krista Jon, they've organised the most popular wedding flowers by colour palette, so you can impress your wedding florist with your knowledge. Of course, if you're getting married abroad {like I did}, then the pictures will help you enormously, although you could always consider international flower delivery instead! To enlarge the pictures below, just double click. More wedding flower guides here.

 

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Message in a Bottle Wedding Favours

Build the sense of intrigue surrounding your big day with a secret message in a bottle. Roll up personalised messages to your guests and leave them as favours at each place setting, or use them to send your save the dates. Perfect if you're planning a nautical or vintage wedding. These sets are from Minature Rhino and include stoppered vials, a charm of your choice, paper and a little cloth bag. If you want to do your own DIY project, then check out Coloured Bottles for a lovely selection.

♥ Click for more wedding favour ideas! ♥ And tonnes of vintage weddings! ♥

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How to be a DIY Bride

Sometimes being a wedding blogger is seriously fabulous! For example...when you get invited to lovely drinks parties to slurp champagne and eat macarons {thank you Maids to Measure & Anges de Sucre}, and when you get sent gorgeous presents in the post! My recent exciting arrival was an amazing book by Willow Crossley. Called 'The Art of Handmade Living' it is hands-down the best DIY book I've ever read. Super-inspiring, it'll encourage even the least crafty bride to get her DIY on, and before you know it you'll be creating gorgeous, personalised wedding decorations and favours. Add it to your Christmas list now, and don't miss Willow's fabulous blog, Willow Rose Boutique.

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Rubber Stamp Your Wedding Stationery

It must be the geek in me that loves the idea with these incredible stamps from Paperwink.  They'll give your invitations a personal touch, and hint to your wedding style long before the actual big day.  Just over £10 each, you'll be able to use it again and again, long after your honeymoon you'll find yourself stamping every letter that crosses your path, including your Amex bill!

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Real Rustic Barn Wedding: Vanessa & Aaron - Part 2

With more fabulous wedding details than you can shake a stick at, plus lots of wonderful DIY ideas, this wedding is a keeper! I'm completely in love with Vanessa and Aaron's quirky vintage style, from Aaron's mismatching socks, Vanessa's happy yellow bridal shoes {from Clark's}, and the bridesmaids elegant sage green gowns. But it's the DIY details you're going to love the most, because they're going to inspire you to create your own. Vanessa designed her own wedding stationery, but she didn't stop there - scroll down for the stunning rustic details, including 'words of wisdom cards' by way of a guestbook, homemade honey, pompoms, striped straws and tonnes of burlap accessories. Don't miss the quintessentially English lawn games, including giant chess and Connect 4, plus a classic old-skool ice-cream van. Vanessa also created fun packs for children, to keep them busy during the wedding reception. Huge thanks to Lawson Photography for their beautiful pictures - don't miss Part 1, and be sure to check out Vanessa's stationery company, Beautiful Ink.

The bridesmaid’s dresses were from Celebration Bridal near my home in Yorkshire and were long chiffon dresses in sage green, which suited my blonde bridesmaids perfectly. They also had flowers in their hair and their bouquets had long trailing yellow ribbons trailing.

My mum loves flowers, so she took the helm in finding the florist, and fell in love with Blossom Flowers in Chorlton, who create really natural and seasonal wedding flowers. Becky from Blossom created all the bouquets and buttonholes using yellow, cream and green flowers and foliage, that looked stunning. My bouquet was tied with tulle to match my dress, and the buttonholes had a hessian bow around them. 

Aaron and I met at University in Huddersfield over 6 years ago. We took a small weekend break to Edinburgh in October 2010 and unbeknownst to me, Aaron had already asked my Dad for permission to marry me. We did lots of sightseeing while in Edinburgh and took a ghost tour late one night. After this we went back to our hotel, where Aaron got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. It was such a lovely surprise, that it didn’t actually sink in until the next morning when the excitement really set in!

Our photographers were Lawson Photography and we just fell in love with their photography style - and how everyone is happy and smiling in such a natural way in all their photos!

Pete and Laura Lawson work as a team and captured every moment and tiny detail of our wedding; they are also lovely, friendly people who really put Aaron and I at ease in all the photos. They live just round the corner from Rivington Hall Barn, so it was meant to be!

Our venue was Rivington Hall Barn in Lancashire near where my parents live and where I’ve grown up.

We chose yellows and greens for our colours, to represent the country garden elements we were trying to achieve. We kept our colours running throughout, from the striped straws to the wedding stationery I designed. It all just felt very natural and personal which was what we wanted.

I really struggled to find personal and unique stationery that could reflect our day, so being creative I designed our own! I got the main invitations letterpressed by the wonderful Ashley Print & Design in Leeds. I enjoyed creating our stationery so much that set up a small business designing stationery called Beautiful Ink. This year, Country Homes & Interiors Magazine awarded us Runner Up in the Country Business of The Year competition, which is really exciting!

We had tonnes of DIY wedding projects! Aaron was very good at putting up with my requests to spend our Saturday’s decoupage or printing. We made so many elements. We made our table plan using a cheap frame, and tying string across it, and pegging tags to it. 

Instead of a guestbook we made 'words of wisdom cards' with sentences leaving spaces for guests to fill in the words/adjectives. It gave our guests an opportunity to pass on their advice to us as a couple - reading them back the next day was very entertaining.

My dad keeps bees in a field near his house so we decided to give mini honey jars as favours. My dad painstakingly retrieved all the honey and jarred it for us so we created labels and nametags so they could double up as place settings. Everyone seemed to love them!

The table flowers were all arranged by my mum and had a very natural 'handpicked' feel to them in vintage looking sweet jars with Hessian wrapped around them. Our table numbers were bought from eBay, and we decoupaged wallpaper samples onto them, and stuck them on tiles so they'd stand up. We also sourced wood cross-sections to act as bases for the flowers. 

I loved planning our wedding, and on the day I felt such an immense sense of achievement that everything looked and went as I’d envisaged. I don’t think I’ve ever taken on anything so demanding and time consuming, yet so much fun. I loved researching ideas, contacting suppliers and coming up with handmade touches and extra details to make our day special. And it was perfect. The sun even shone, if you can believe it!

Aaron and I stumbled across Claire from Just Darling Cakes when walking through Huddersfield one weekend. We went in for a chat and came out with a wedding cake order! She was so lovely and helpful and completely understood our wedding theme.

Our cake was a white-tiered cake in vanilla sponge, lemon cake and carrot cake. It had daisies, roses and other garden flowers cascading down the tiers, with hints of yellow and green. It looked stunning and tasted great!

My wedding shoes were a sneaky bargain. I’d dreamed of having designer wedding shoes but this wasn’t very realistic and then I stumbled across a pair of yellow suede heels in Clarks that were gorgeous and super comfy! In the evening Tom and I swapped our shoes for a pair of comfy Toms so we could dance the night away!

My advice would be to be prepared for different scenarios such as bad weather, so on the day you can relax, knowing everything has been organised, and if it rains you have a back up plan so won’t be disappointed. Everyone does say this but the day flies by, and it's not often you get all your friends and family in one place so enjoy every conversation, special moment and wedding detail, as it will be over so quickly. The other option is to hire good photographers who will capture it all for you!

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