Feeling Crafty

Crohn's shenanigans aside, 2017 is the year of the wedding! Best get organising and preparing as a bride-to-be...

First stop of arts and crafts for this mama on mat leave was the Save the Dates. I wanted to make something that wasn't overly time consuming - what with a new baby and all - but was also something I'd be proud to send out to family and friends.

Debated for a good while whether the Save the Dates had to be in the same colour scheme, etc. of the overall wedding stationery - typically they're sent so far in advance that how can you even know what colours you'll have?! But because we had a baby a few months went by (around 9) when all things wedding got parked for the time being. So now we're not actually that far away and have a rough idea of colours and what not...

They're all done and dusted and posted, and I'm really pleased with how they turned out. Should probably point out that I ordered our stamp from The English Stamp Company, along with the maroon/wine coloured inkpad. Dead impressed with the quality of it (also a nice little keepsake as it's got our wedding date on). Will be ordering more stamps from there, for sure - most likely for decorative purposes on other wedding stationery.

But now? It's time to work on the invitations!

I did my research as to what a wedding invitation should include; the actual inviting of the guests, time, date, etc. plus any details and an RSVP. Best route forward (as I wanted to make them all myself still) was to make a wedding bundle; make bits little and often, as again, young baby to look after too. So back to Pinterest for all the inspiration and I think we've finally settled what they'll look like. Give or take creative license.

I'd like to point out that I'm pretty keen for all this stuff; as in bought my own guillotine dedicated. I also feel that I should actually get a loyalty card for Paperchase. So after perusing the internet and deciding 'the look' for our invites, I got my supplies in and started the arts and crafts all over again. Well I say that, all I've been able to physically do thus far is cut the A4 paper into A5; don't actually have any of the main info confirmed yet for our wedding day (!) All in good time, hey...

I have, however, downloaded a font and created the designs for the invites themselves. Took a good while but I think we've got there in the end. Now to find a printers...

Wedding crafting has brought me onto first name terms with our local courier, what with all the paper bits I've been ordering. Very British moments of "Ah yes, me again! I know, so many deliveries" *rolls eyes and commences inane chit chat as you sign for the parcel* But lots of paper brings lots of wedding maths, like if there are 104 guests in the daytime with the wedding on a weekend, what colour envelopes do we need? (FYI, I'm a whizz now at paper/envelope sizes if anyone has any questions.)

But similarly to the Save the Dates, when the invites are complete I shall be sure to show you!

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Going to the chapel

And we're going to get married...

BECAUSE THE CHURCH IS BOOKED AS WELL. Super super exciting. 

We don't have an official timeline as such, because our wedding date isn't until Autumn 2017. But there are naturally a few things we'd like to get ticked off by Summer this year - just to give us a bit of breathing space until we're in the official 12 month countdown.

Those are: wedding date, church and venue, guest list, save the dates and to start the hunt for the dress.

As you know we have secured the wedding date, church and venue now. Well done us being grown ups and sorting that out *mini fist pump* The rest are very much tasks I know need doing, but find them a tad overwhelming for a variety of reasons. And I'll tell you for why...

Re save the dates, in an ideal world I'd like all the stationery for the day to match, which technically means deciding the colour schemes and what not we'll have in 18 months time. THAT'S A YEAR AND A HALF AWAY. So much can change! As I mentioned, I'm a massive Pinterest fan so have already started looking at these things, but it's important to me to have the save the dates/general wedding stationery be something representative of the fiancé and I. There's just so much choice out there! Stationery post to naturally follow as I enter the depths of arts and crafts and templates.

Guest list. Where do you even start? Some of the hints and tips online are brutal; 'Guestlist in 30 seconds', 'The Gueslist Game'. Makes it sound so trivial. Or maybe I'm looking into it too much? At the end of the day we just want to know that we were fortunate enough to spend our day with all the people that we love. How we get to that final list, I'm not yet sure! Any advice?

 Then The Dress. I've had one shopping experience thus far, and it was quite something! I treated it as a process of elimination as I whittled down what sort of styles that had caught my eye, to what works in real life. All things wedding dress will get a post of its own later on. How can it not?!

So as you can see, a few things that still need ticking off the list but all in good time my friends. All in good time.

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