Oops!

July 1 was my last post. Oh dear! That's what planning a wedding will do to you!

Our wedding has been and gone, and it was (a part from a few bumps) spectacular! I pulled off all the paper flowers which looked great on the tables, and my bouquet was something pretty special if I may say so myself :-)

Our photographers, Love Katie & Sarah  took the most amazingly beautiful photos of the day, which you can check out on their website. But here are some of the less professional shots of the day!

our invites, designed & illustrated by me!

Photo booth shenanigans!

now...off to India for our honeymoon!

xo

Because I haven't been busy enough....

Yes, I am starting my own line of wedding & party invitations, as well as handmade paper products (a paper flower bouquet anyone?). The Paper Pin Wheel will be up and running very soon, so bookmark me and check back soon!


x

Gosh, it's been a while!

I've been super busy the past month, mainly with work (which is good!). It's put my wedding planning on the back burner, but I have been spending time continuing to make my paper flowers. With a massive warehouse space to fill, I have a lot of work to do!

I thought I would share some photos of my creations so far. I love how they are turning out, and am even thinking of selling some on my etsy shop!

lots and lots of styles

blossom

I am still unsure what type of flowers to run with for my bouquet, but I guess I still have time yet...and many, many, many flowers to create until then!

x

Vintage stamps

I am a little obsessed with stamps (of the postage kind) at the moment. More specifically, vintage stamps. How sweet and romantic posting letters used to be...with lots of little stamps all over the envelope, 'air mail' stickers and lovely post marks. I think it's a little sad this has been lost to electronic post marks, and let's face it: ordinary designed stamps. I'd like to come out with my own postage stamp range! Australia Post...are you listening?

Anyway, until that day, I will continue to swoon over lovely old postage stamps.

I just finished making our Save The Date cards for our wedding, and decided it would be lovely to find some old postage stamps to adorn my envelopes. They are a little hard to come by (those not used, that is) but I was lucky to find some cuties...

Oh, and here are our save the dates! I made a rubber stamp for the text and border to give it a nice hand-printed feel. Silly me forgot to put 'invitation to follow' on the cards, so I added this as an extra little embellishment!

 

Rue Cler Market: food tasting!

My boy and I were treated last week, to an amazing tasting session thanks to Rue Cler Market, a boutique catering company in Melbourne run by very experienced and talented chefs. We had almost locked in with another caterer, but these guys were late entrants into the race. Still yet to make a decision, but we were very impressed with Rue Cler Market.

We felt pretty special as they came to our house to cook for us. I was a little embarrassed about our tiny cluttered kitchen, but they were very professional and seemed to not mind the 'rustic' working conditions.

David and I watched in awe as they made us the following little tasting plates:

1. A single lychee topped with shaved foie gras and a micro herb. This was amazing...the combination of the fresh lychee with the rich foie gras (which I had never had before) was awesome.

Bite number one

2. Cherry tomatoes, peeled and de-seeded on a bed of dehydrated prosciutto and toasted brioche crumbs, with a vinaigrette and baby basil. So simple, but these guys made the flavour burst at the seams. Yum!

Mouthful number two

3. I was a little scared at this one, as it involved oysters. Of which I had never tried and never intended to try before. But I held my breath and went with it. Freshly shucked oyster, quickly seared on the pan, topped with cucumber, celery, nori strands, baby radish, the juices of the oyster and amazing little succulents which tasted peppery and lovely! I even liked the oyster! These guys are miracle workers!

Tasting number three

A formal decision is still to be made on the catering, but these guys have blown us away with what they showed us the other night. It's great being able to have such talented people on hand to create fabulous food for our wedding. I'm so excited! Thanks Rue Cler Market.


x

How to make paper flowers


I got the idea to make all the flowers for my wedding after seeing an amazing paper bouquet on the BHLDN website (the website where I bought my wedding dress!).


After finding various tutorials via Martha Stewart's DIY wedding website, I decided it was do-able and proceeded to purchase crazy amounts of crepe paper and started experimenting. However, I found that they were a little too 'faux' looking, and not natural enough for the look I was after.


I dabbled in making flowers out of old maps and fabric which failed miserably, and racked my brains for other ideas on how to make my flowers look a little less naff than what I had come up with already. I knew it was just the colours of the paper that were making them look a bit too fake...not the actual method of the flower making.


Then it hit me over the weekend...TEA STAINING!


So off I went, turning our kitchen into a petal making factory (which I am sure my boy was thrilled about!). 


The result... super gorgeous, natural, vintage looking florals. I was so impressed with my handy work, I just had to share with you. There are lots of tutorials out there on how to make paper flowers, but I think this method is the one that will give you the most natural looking flowers (if I do say so myself!!).

What you will need:

White crepe paper

scissors

black tea or coffee

a wire coat hanger and pegs

black crepe paper (or any colour)

natural green tissue paper (or any colour you like)

florist wire

florist tape (green or brown)

How to:

Follow the above illustration. But here are a few tips: 

1. It's important to leave your crepe paper unfolded. You will be able to make LOTS of petals at the same time, and they will be less likely to rip than if you do them one or a couple at a time.

2. Instead of tea, get creative with watercolours instead. I've used greens and pinks for my flowers and they turned out lovely.

3. Peg your petals onto a wire coat hanger (bottom of petal in contact with the peg). This makes it much easier to put on and take off the clothes line.

4. Because crepe paper is stretchy, you can manipulate your petals to look very realistic by stretching a bit at the top and middle...leaving the base un-stretched.

Here are a few photos of the paper flowers I have done so far!

paper blossom. love how these turned out.

please excuse my un-plastered wall...a work in progress.

x

Will you be my...


It's around week 3 of my wedding planning. And I feel like I am on top of things! Hurrah! We are going to see our potential reception venue this week...a date has been penciled in, and the bridal party is coming together nicely!


Luckily, both my bridesmaid picks said yes to being a special part of our day. One of them is my sister, so she would have been in a world of trouble if she said no (not that I expected either of them to!). How could they say no with these invitations I sent them in the mail? 

Hand painted by me of course. I loved the thought of formally inviting them - it felt a touch more special than just asking on the phone or over coffee.


Now onto the save the date cards!


x

To vintage...or not to vintage...

When organising a wedding, one can get pretty overwhelmed with the various options out there. Even when you have a good idea/clear vision of what you want your day to look like. I seem to be stuck on crockery at the moment. I have trawled through so many blogs, and the weddings that really stand out to me are the ones with lovely vintage pieces, be it little jam jars with drinks in them, or vintage plates.

Oh...vintage plates. How I love thee and want thee at my wedding. But at almost 3 times the price to hire vintage crockery as opposed to plain white crockery, I am not sure I'll be able to stretch our budget to get there. There is always spending the next 10 months trawling op shops and antique stores and collecting a pile of plates, cups and saucers... to be honest, I will probably end up doing that. It may be the only retail therapy I am allowed to have for sometime. If you know of any one getting rid of some vintage plates or cups or cutlery or such...please let me know!

x

Engaged!

Welcome to my new blog! Well, I am still blogging over on 'and now i am broke', but this is my little side blog which will document my journey planning my upcoming wedding.

It all starts with a ring. And what a beautiful ring it is:

My boy has lovely taste.

I love to illustrate day to day things, so this blog will feature illustrations and ideas for flower arrangements, shoes, food etc. that I am considering for my wedding. Feel free to email any ideas (or links) that you have on wedding ideas yourself...if you don't mind me including in this little blog and possibly illustrating!

x