The last labour of love

Today, as I recover from my cold, I have devoted myself to a last push on the craft front. Another bouquet of silk roses has been made up. Ten pew ends have been made. Three more pots of silk roses have been assembled. Lastly the presents for the bridal party have all be wrapped. This represents hours of work at the end of many months of beavering away in the evenings. I can't believe it all seems to have come together. Yes there's plenty of ribbon left over but who knows when and how that might come in handy...

6 days left... 

The invites

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I had delegated the hand-making of the invitations to my mum. Since then she has been beavering away admirably and has made massive inroads into the task. The result is that this week I will be able to had out the first invitation. The big send will not happen for a while yet but as I'm seeing a close friend on Friday I thought hand-delivering the first one would be a nice touch. 

In doing so I can only hope that James will not do a Rory McElroy. I can't imagine the humiliation and pain that would ensue if James called off our wedding at this stage. Thankfully I am secure enough with our relationship to not be fearful that this eventuality will befall me. If it were to I could only say 'hell hath no fury... '

While the majority of the invites are at the finishing touch stage we are yet to give mum the final guest list with addresses. I am also yet to complete the insert to the invitation which will add the extra bits of 'need to know' information. I guess of better get busy. 

124 days and counting. 

Getting crafty

Following on from by mini meltdown at the weekend I decided to immerse myself in creativity. The result was what I believe to be a simple and yet effective design for invitations with a theme that can be carried through the order of service, table name cards, place cards and menus. Best of all it easy to handmake, for a personal touch, and very economical. Result! The ideas were taken down to see my mum yesterday where they received her all important seal of approval given she is to make them all. 

The great stationery debate

Today the stress has finally got to me. The financial pressure we are now under with the house, the wedding and the honeymoon manifested in a mini breakdown which has caused me to have a face like a 'slapped haddock' for most of the day. Irritatingly I quite liked James' turn of phrase when he described me thus. The upshot is that when I came home I decided I needed to bury myself in the fairytale world of weddings. My chosen topic for tonight was stationery. In comparison to the Save the Dates which were easily sorted and are standalone the rest of the stationery is set to be far more complicated as Bridezilla-to-be here is intent on co-ordinating. In plain speak I want the invitations, the order of services and the menu cards to tie in. I also wouldn't be averse to having a matching guest book. When it comes to the place cards and the table plan though, I have something else up my sleeve.

The easy bit is the colour. Without a doubt purple must predominate, but at the same time I want the invites to look clean and feminine (sorry James). Tonight I have immersed myself in the websites of everyone from bespoke stationers, to personisable cards, to hobbycraft and I am precisely no further forward in my quest to source the perfect products. I haven't even decided if I want to make the cards (by 'I' read 'Mum', as I have far too much in the way of craft on my plate at the moment) or have them made. The easy, but expensive option, is to have them made. I say that option is easy, in fact it's remarkably difficult as it relies upon us finding stationery we like, at a price we can afford (currently that would be the stationer paying us for our custom!). As yet I've not seen anything that stands out to me as a must-have design.

Perhaps the obvious answer then is to create my own. Unfortunately I have never been blessed with creativity. I have mocked up a couple of invitations but I worry that they will look fussy and/ or budget. It's not even as though they are the inexpensive option when the cards and envelopes I like could set us back £13 for 8 and that's before adding on extra for the embellishments, not to mention the time that would be involved creating the many tens of invitations that will be required. The invite is the first impression most people will get of the wedding and I want it to be a good one. It's not about having the best or the most novel, it's about having an invite that will reflect our personalities and the theme of our day. Who knows what I'll decide on but whatever it is I think it needs to be soon!

Crafting crisis

There are still 200 days to go. This sounds like a lot but in pales into insignificance when I look at the magnitude of the task I am facing. What you see in the picture is the product of two months labours. Initially I was intending to handmake silk roses for my bridesmaids bouquets. I thought the keepsake value would be a nice touch, but my bridesmaids all agree that they would prefer real flowers. However I have decided it is still worthwhile churning out hundreds of flowers in the coming months. The reasons for this are twofold - the first is that I will make a throwing bouquet out of them, the second is only for those who are privileged enough to have seen my scrapbook to know...