hot off the press: my first wedding invitation ideas.

So far I've been doing a lot of scribbling of ideas and designs for our wedding invites, but the other day I sat down and actually took the idea from a scribble to a reality. It's quite a simple design based in warm and natural colours. I bought a stamp kit with a letter set, and a beige ink pad (as the inside of the invite is brown!), a gold pen to write what I don't stamp, and some cardboard that had been recycled from beer labels! (cool huh?). What I don't use out of the materials I've bought I'll definitely be using again later for other projects so nothings going to waste.

I was going for the homemade look (hopefully without going as far as cheap and tacky). It looks like a lot of writing (since I'm going to be making these myself!), but we're having a relatively small guest list of our closest friends, so it's not so much work.

 

For a first draft I think they're pretty cute. Also, I'm not all that caught up in having hugely detailed and perfect invitations as they only get thrown away after the wedding anyway (hopefully recycled!).

x

Back in action!

Hey everyone, it's been a while since my last post (nearly 2 months! oh my gosh!) but the last few months have been very busy!

Not only have I had end of the year uni assessments and exams, but I've also started a new blog, Second Hand Jayne, and it's dedicated to second hand fashion! There's loads of pretty goodies up there already with outfit ideas to match, plus some beautiful vintage finds. Check it out if you're interested.

Anyhow, I will be back to posting regularly now, starting with some pictures of the first few trials at handmaking my wedding invitations, and bunting for our save the dates. It's so exciting to be making things for our wedding!

xx

my first wedding goodies purchase (from a second hand store, of course!)

i have been keeping my eye out for goodies for the wedding, things like possible table decorations (vases, port glasses to be made into votive candles, etc), practical things (plates, glasses, cutlery) and other bits and pieces (material for decorations, table cloths, etc) in second hand stores since i got engaged. here are the first ones i've found that i had to buy. i haven't actually decided what they are going to be yet (i was thinking of maybe making a cookie stand out of them for the dessert table?) but they match the colour theme i am aiming for and really have that vintage feel :)

wow, it's kind of beginning to seriously hit home that i am getting married (you'd think that the ring on my left hand would have tipped me off, but i actually think it made it all the more fairytale-esque in my head). of course i've been doing a lot of day dreaming about all the details, but now that i have something that i can physically touch that has no other purpose than to be used on the day it's making my heart jump a little!

oh, and you'll probably also notice one of my little creatures in the top left of the picture. whenever i get the camera out they seem to do their best to be everywhere i point it!


x

diy wedding invitation ideas

since i'm planning on doing as much of my wedding as diy as possible, i've been trawling the internet for inspiration. at the moment i'm looking at pretty much everything as our date is still over twelve months away and i've already booked the major vendors that were the most important to me, so i don't have any need to rush or focus on anything in particular. in saying that, i came across these beautiful wedding invitations while browsing one of my favourite wedding blogs, Snippet & Ink, and had one of those "that's exactly what i want" moments.

 photo from Snippet & Ink

i think that their simplicity is what makes them so beautiful.
and the best part(s) for me are, a) i love painting, b) watercolours are one of the easiest and quickest mediums to work with, c) i can totally personalise my design and still keep this diy task as reasonable to achieve, and d) i've already got a complete artists (second hand) set of water colour pencils so i'm halfway there for materials already. i was also thinking of having a stamp made to add some fine detail to the design. however i'm still completely unsure of what design the stamp will be haha.

so far the best sources of inspiration for me have been both my and my fiance's personal interests (we both love the beach and nature/natural locations, hence our ceremony and reception venue is an acerage that looks over the ocean), themes that are relevant to us (our wedding arch is going to be japanese torii gates, to represent our meeting through karate, and also torii gates traditionally mark the entrance to a sacred space which i think is a beautiful symbolic representation of entering into marriage), and our personal values (i'm an eco freak hence i am doing as much of the wedding diy as possible, including invitations, table settings, decorations, and the materials i am using are going to be second hand or eco friendly as much as possible). when i first got engaged and started looking at all things wedding just to get an idea of what is involved in planning one, my head nearly exploded with all the details, but once i got those main ideas straight, it's all started to fall into place (and i'm freaking out a lot less about the hugeness of the process!!)

x

an expression of love, organised.

so now that i am wearing a beautiful symbol of my my man and my upcoming (and present) commitment, i have turned my concentration (not to my university work, haha) but to the planning of my wedding!
now that i have been obsessively sifting through website after website of eco, green, environmentally friendly weddings, i have come to the realisation of exactly how much planning is involved!! there is just so much to consider!
i am a planning and organising freak, i love getting fresh stationery and labeling everything, keeping it all alphabetised and in order. it's a little bit extreme if i am honest.
so when it came down to buying a wedding planner, i was super keen to have one, to plan my day right down to the ribbon on my wedding favours. i needed one that was within my budget of course. and i wanted it to look exactly how i wanted, be exactly the right size, and of course be environmentally friendly.
after a few seconds of contemplation i realised that i could be looking the entire length of my engagement and find no success with those kind of expectations. boo for me. so what was my solution? what's the best way to get exactly what you want from something?
make it yourself!

so i did. i searched online for an electronic wedding planner (which i found, for free here, at the smart bride) to get the basics for what i needed in a planner and headed to a stationery store. i found tonnes of recycled and environmentally friendly goodies! have a looky see!

first of all 100% recycled paper to write all my ideas, inspirations, contacts and all the other essential wedding things on.

second of all, a pen made of sawdust, tree resin and recycled plastic to write down all of my ideas and details with.

third, dividers made from recycled pulp to keep all the different ideas seperate.

fourth, an eco 2012 diary for me to keep on top of all the important dates.

last, a folder made from recycled board to keep it all snug and organised.

i can't explain how excited i was when i finally got this all together and wrote out all the tabs, put blank paper in each section and clipped the diary in. it was a reality check that it was actually really happening!

x

life, love, and everything inbetween!

oh it has been some time since i have posted! apologies for my absence, but life happened, and consequently, blog did not. but i have returned, and with such huge news that all my indiscretions will be forgotten!

I AM NOW ENGAGED!!
my man and i were headed for a quick (supposed) business trip to queensland, when we made a wrong turn off the highway, towards the Hunter Valley (for those of you not local, that's a beautiful, scenic winery/holiday getaway location about an hour north of me- soon to be us!!). me, being super intelligent and cluey, said "babe, you're going the wrong way!", to which there was a reply of a pair of furrowed eyebrows, a cheeky smirk and a "happy birthday baby" (my birthday was a few days beforehand, and my birthday present was supposed to be a surprise in QLD on the saturday night).

"oh"

*insert sound of penny dropping*

yeah, i'm clever.

anyhow, we drove into the BEAUTIFUL hunter valley with me smiling and exclaiming at all the scenery and how i was totally surprised and what a beautiful birthday present and don't i have such a wonderful boyfriend. i asked "where are we staying?" and he'd booked an entire villa for the weekend for us! "but before we go there, there's somewhere else i want to take you".
at this point, i'll be honest, some little flags went up in the back of my head, but i was still overwhelmed by the initial surprise. we drove to the hunter valley gardens, and wandering around the beautiful gardens he took both my hands and my heart froze!
then my wonderful man went on bended knee and asked with quiet confidence "will you do me the honour of being my wife?"
i squeaked (in a cute but dignified manner) and stood there grinning like an idiot and mentally frozen, just taking in the moment, before putting him out of his patient misery with a nearly inaudible "yes".

and so, without further ado, i present,

(please excuse the not so pretty hand)

and this is where he proposed

but back to the ring! 

the main diamond is an australian diamond that was repurposed from an antique ring. the gold is also sourced from recycled jewelery as are the rest of the diamonds on the ring. as my man knows that being enviromentally friendly is key for me, it played a huge role in his ring choice, as well as juggling all my other not so obvious hints about what i wanted in an engagement ring (haha).
but he did a perfect job. i love it. it is elegent, beautiful, unique and massive (which i will shamelessly admit, is what i asked for!)

and now for the eco wedding planning to begin!

a little bit more of my wedding crazy...

while indulging myself in some wedding site browsing, i came across a link to Weston Fine Jewelry, and my poor little heart had such a flutter (and continued to do so for so long, that i had to take a few breaths to calm down!). my eyes glazed over with that dewy look that only a girl with the wedding bug can accomplish. but have a look at what i found! i think my excitement is more than justified!

(plus, they are all antique and vintage. so that's an eco choice right there! reduce, reuse, recycle anyone?)

  image from Weston Fine Jewelry

   image from Weston Fine Jewelry

  image from Weston Fine Jewelry

  image from Weston Fine Jewelry

image from Weston Fine Jewelry

  image from Weston Fine Jewelry

  image from Weston Fine Jewelry

   image from Weston Fine Jewelry

image from Weston Fine Jewelry

and my absolute personal favourite...

  image from Weston Fine Jewelry

oh so beautiful!

x