Unspoken Conversations are the topics that are often swept under the carpet, whispered amongst the closest of friends and bitched about by many. I want to create awareness about difficult things that people face in life; grief, mental health, money, illnesses, family troubles, relationship difficulties and putting yourself first. I want to tell the truth about things that really matter.

Tuesday 23 July 2013

Don't Tell the Guests; Getting Ya Craft On

I am probably the least crafty person that you will ever meant...in fact, I think I missed the imaginative, patience is a virtue, finicky, time taking gene that comes with crafting.

And that my friends, seems to be a minority amongst the brides that I have spoken to.

When people ask me how the wedding plans are going, I'm at the point where I can now say that I just want to get married because I don't care about all of the little things. In fact, once we'd booked in the photographer, celebrant, venues, I'd bought my dress, we had our caterer, music, alcohol, rings and suits, I was ready to rumble! They were all of the 'big things' in my eyes.

Now we're up to all of the little things...making the centrepieces, designing the invites, RSVP cards, table seating board, table numbers, name tags, bunting, fairy lights, and all of those crafty things that take time, energy and patience and well I lack all three!

Lucky enough for me, I have some little helpers that are keen to get involved so I'm adapting the delegating way of life, and palming off as many of the crafty duties to people who enjoy the challenge and fun of stretching their imagination and bringing their ideas to life with glue, paper, lace, hessian, fancy computer programs and the rest!!!

We are just so grateful for four people in particular, who have gone above and beyond our expectations.

The first goes to my gorgeous bridesmaid, Kiah. Kiah was complaining that she was bored, so I quickly blurted out that I had just the job for her, and set her to the task of making 70 jars for the centrepieces, wrapped and drooped with lace, hessian, chalk board paint, chalk, ribbon and everything in between. Not only has she been collecting jars, but she has also carefully washed and peeled the labels off (which alone, is a challenging task!) And has spent countless hours designing different styles of jars, that will grace our guests tables, lite up with tea light candles in them.

Let me tell you, they look very rustic, provide an amazing atmosphere and glow, and are way better then the crappy newspaper jars that I would've created!!!

The second huge thanks goes to an old work mate of mine, who not only designed our save the dates, but has also had to stalk my Pinterest board, to design our amazing invites. Again, if it was up to Mick and I then our guests might've been lucky to get a Facebook invite or a hand written invite on the back of a napkin, but instead, they're getting invites by a professional, who is amazing at what she does!!!

Not only has Sasha created an invite, but she's also added in a small RSVP slip, with an envelope with our postal address and a prepaid stamp, so that our guests tick a box to say yay or ney to coming to our day, plus any dietary requirements, and pop it into the post box so that we can keep a record of who can and can't attend!

Ingenious!!!

The third little legend is another bridesmaid; Samara. For my 24th birthday I was handed a shoebox. Inside was a piece of string and a little note, telling me that for my birthday present she will make me bunting for our wedding.

Bunting is something that I have always loved, but I knew that I'd never be able to make it myself...me and sewing machines don't seem to see eye to eye...in fact, in year 9 home economics, I was the last in my class to finish a bag bag, that I had managed to sew together so that you couldn't open it up...fail.

Lucky for me, Samara happens to be a genius with a sewing machine, and loves spending her time getting her craft on.

We're so grateful for Samara who has given up her time to go shopping for material, to cut the triangles, carefully sew around them and to attach them to string (well at least I think this is the process!) Not only am I excited to see them at our wedding reception, but I am also excited to have them hanging under our outside area at our house after the big day!!!

Our last big thanks goes to my Aunty (and Uncle). Fortunately for us, they happen to own a wedding business. Without my aunties eye for detail, imagination and craftiness, we'd be having plastic chairs, wooden tables, paper napkins, perhaps a chain of fairy lights and well that's about it at the reception. The other day we managed to peer in through the windows of the venue for our reception, and within minutes my aunty had come up with different ideas to bring the place to life!

What a legend!!! She is a trick of all trades, and has even offered to hand sew hessian table runners for us, as well as hanging lights, covering the chairs with fancy chair covers, sew her own hessian material to gap along the front of the bridal table, and so much more!!!

We're super Dooper lucky to have both of their help! Check out their website here...

We're just so grateful for the girls help! There are so many elements to planning a wedding day, and there's so many people involved to help make it all come together and run smoothly, and we're just stoked to have people in our life who are happy to volunteer their time to help make our day special and less stressful for us!!!

Sooo.. what crafty ideas did you have for your wedding?

Did you try your hand at DIY?

I must admit that while I'm not very crafty, it has been a great bonding experience to have the girls around to make some jars, even if my designs are secretly reinvented later and I'm elected to wash out the jars hahahaha

Look after yourself and those around you,

Kirsty xxxx


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