DIY: This way, That way, Which way?

Decorating the venue is the main focus of our efforts at the minute: we want the whole venue to have a massive visual impact on our guests, and for the wonderland theme to really shine through straight away. Because prop hire is so expensive, we've been looking at DIY ways we can achieve this, and my mum came up with the genius idea of making the classic Alice in Wonderland this way/that way signs. Using a little paint and a sheet of my beloved MDF, this is what i've come up with so far:

This sheet full of signs will make its way to chez mama and papa, where each will be cut out and secured to a large wooden post. I'm going to put it in the venue atrium, so that it will be one of the first things people see when they arrive!

Other prop ideas i'm working on is a white rabbit cut out (complete with pocket watch) and i'm really love an oversized teacup or teapot, but i'm still working out the best way to achieve it. Progress is good though, and the invites go out next week: exciting!!

Love, Tor x

The final invite: Can I get a whoop whoop?!

Hi guys,
Ok so the heading is a little over-excitable, but I can finally show you how the final invite will look when I send them out, and i'm just so glad to have this project done. It was considerably more time consuming, and more expensive than I originally expected. They're all finished, but I just have half of the envelope lining left to do. I cannot wait to send them out and get people's reactions to them! If they didn't know the theme before they definitely will when these come through the letter box:
I also need to address all the envelopes (including the rsvp ones) buy a multitude of stamps, and fill in the guests names on the response card. This sounds like a small task, but I am guesstimating that means there is still a couple of hours work to do.

Still, fashion week starts tomorrow, and to give myself peace of mind to concerntrate on that properly, i'm calling this job finished! We're planning on sending them out in a fortnight.

Love, Tor xx

Invitations done: Well, almost!!

Hi guys,
Saturday saw the day I had been waiting for for a long time: my big invitation making production line/workshop/slave drive (Delete as you see appropriate!) Myself, both of my sisters (Amie and Lucy) and Lucy's new baby Lily all gathered and got down to work. It was a day filled with cutting sticking, and more tea staining than i've ever seen before in my life! Here is the day in pictures:
Obviously I wanted them to look very Alicey. But I also wanted them to have a vintage Victorian feel: like our guests had been invited to the original tea party over 100 years ago, but the invite got lost in the post, and this is how it looks now. All that's left to do is print and insert the main invite detail sheet and line the envelopes (I'm going to line them with vintage style maps to wonderland). Then these beauties are ready to post, way ahead of schedule. I think they look great!

Love, Tor xx

Homemade bunting; The work begins!

The homemade bunting mega-mission has finally begun! This weekend I made approx 20 flags. I toyed with just cutting them and hanging them single-sidedly but decided for quality and longevity to double them up and stitch all around. I then turned them inside out and ironed them flat.

It's time consuming, but it will definitely be worth it in the end. I chose 4 different fabrics: 2 in pink to match the flowers, and 2 in blue to match the bridesmaids dresses and chair ribbons. I'm hoping to produce about 40 meters (gulp) which will be enough to line the room we are getting married in, and the bar.

And here's how it look stitched on to white satin ribbon (Which is leftover ribbon from the stuff I used to wrap my brooch bouquet):
I plan on stitching at least 2 new flags every night after work. My deadline to finish this is the end of the month. Fingers crossed!

Love, Tor xx

Yay! More decisions made!

Hi guys,
This weekend Mike and I headed to Norwich to meet the rest of our potential vendors and make some crucial wedding decisions. The meetings all went so smoothly, and i'm delighted to say that aside from Mike's suit hire and my hairdresser, all our external vendors are booked. Yipppeeee!!

Here are the chair covers and ribbon colours we're chosen. (These are exactly the same ones we will have but that isn't our venue in the background:
The ribbons are the exact same colour as the bridesmaids dresses. Which absolutely made my day, because other vendors have found the colour so hard to match!

Here is the car I will be arriving to the church in with my daddy, and leaving in as a married woman (eek!):
It's a 1952 Triumph Renown Limousine. We will be having silver ribbons. There are only 7 of this car left in the world, and this one was originally built for the editor of the Daily Mail. Although its about a decade older than I was looking for, I fell in love with this car, and its backstory. It also has a big back seat which is important, as i'm wearing a big dress!

After being let down by our original florist, we met another one on Saturday who has agreed to do our wedding on what is, surprisingly, pretty short notice! Here are our inspiration pictures for our floral tabel centrepieces:
We're going for vintage blush pink. The bridesmaids bouquets, the buttonholes and the corsages for the mums will all be in the same colours.

We also met a harpist who played Coldplay, The Beatles, Take That and even Stevie Wonder for us on her harp; we wanted the traditional instrument to play very contempory music to add to the topsy turvy wonderland feel of the event. She's even going to learn some of the Rolling Stones hits, because they're my favourite band. Awesome!!

And finally, before we came home on Sunday afternoon, we did our menu tasting. Oh my god it was amazing!!! So hard to choose, but choose we have. I'm waiting for pictures of the food from the venue. As soon as they arrive i'll post them and leave you all to drool....

All in all, an amazing weekend!
Love, Tor xx