We finally have a kitchen top!! Hooray! And the plumber even came round and hooked up the dishwasher AND the sink. How nice is it not to have to do the dishes in the bathroom!? And Im loving the look of the new smeg appliances, cant wait for the cook top to be hooked up. We've been getting stuck into the painting this weekend, and despite a major drama at one point when the enamal paint spilt all over the new bench and dishwasher, its all ok, and all coming together now.
Few! What a month in the 'i do' it yourself office. We've been busy knocking out walls and putting a new kitchen in, things have been pretty chaotic but we got there in the end. (And I hate to say, but that was a much more stressful than organising a wedding!) Someone recently asked me what I think the one thing is that brides 'think' they need at their wedding, but they really don't? And I'm going to say perfection. At the end of the day don't loose sight of the fact that a wedding is all about the love of two people - not that the roses you picked out are exactly the right shade of pink. Don't sweat the small stuff as the say. The whole point of a DIY wedding is to enjoy the process. You're adding your special touch to the day, so have fun and be yourself!
We hope you enjoyed this months romantic winter Aussie bush wedding. Above are a few things we fell in love with this month. Getting back to the classics with beautiful veils (model pic via It's a Jamie Thing) Circular Veil With Fresh Water Pearl Comb, US$195 from I Do Wedding Veils in Sydney. The cutest little handmade custom wedding cake toppers made by the very talented Blue Butterfly Design.
Add some beautiful bling to your wedding day with simple spray painted gum leaves. Great for decorations, scatter them on tables or use them as gorgeous place cards with guests names written on. It's so easy. Collect fallen gum leaves and spray paint with a white undercoat. (You can leave some leaves like this is you want to mix colours up a bit.) Once dry spray paint with a top coat of either silver or glitter silver spray paint.
You can finish off by painting or use a gel pen to write guests names on each leaf to use as a beautiful alternative to tradition tented place cards.
As our printable guestbook fingerprint tree is proving so popular, we've designed a new one for the winter months! A fantastic alternative to the traditional wedding guest book. Guests leave a fingerprint to act as a leaf on your tree, so cute to hang on your wall after the wedding! Supplied as a digital file, just take it to your local print shop for a quick and easy poster print.
One big job down, all the floors are now done. Hooray! Just a little more work to finish the wall off and the kitchen bench top is in production. Getting there.
If you're trying to find a use for those old winter woolies then check out this gorgeous DIY wedding project from Grey Likes Weddings. Follow their easy step by step and make these amazing favour wraps to keep bottles of wine snug and secure. So cute!
The new flooring has gone down today which should make a huge difference. Most of the plastering work is done, just a bit to finish off. Now we're just waiting for our kitchen bench top to be fitted, probably next week.
Earlier we looked at professional printing options for adding beautiful metallic effects to your wedding stationery. But what are your DIY at home options?
At home options
Metallic paper.
One of the easiest ways to add a metallic effect at home is to print on metallic paper or card. Rather than specific areas of the design being metallic, the whole print will be left with a beautiful sheen. Some metallic papers even have bits of glitter and textures.
Just remember areas that are white in your design are not printed white, they are just left blank. So if you choose to print on coloured paper such as silver, those blank areas will appear silver, if you choose a sparkly red card - they will be sparkly red. But there are plenty of shimming white and off white paper options available if you'd rather not alter the appearance of your design too much.
Gel pens.
Available in a huge variety of colours including metallics, glitters and white. A great tool for adding that extra something, especially on dark card. Perfect for personalising place or escort cards.
Glitter spray.
Use over stationery that has already been printed as either a light dusting or mask areas off and spray more heavily to add dramatic sparkle.
Embellishments.
From gems, buckles and diamantes to stick-on shiny hearts, your local craft shop should be bursting at the seems with pretty metallic card embellishments for the perfect dazzling finishing touches.
Envelopes.
Seal it with a sparkle and use metallic envelopes or pockets!
This month to help with your winter wedding we've created this cute 'you warm our hearts' design. Free to download, use them as gift tags or print onto sticker paper to use as labels.
Candles are a popular choice for winter wedding bombonieres and these make great labels to stick on travel candle tins.
Click here to visit our website and download for free.
I thought we'd do a slightly different post today, not technical as such, but go into a bit more detail than usual. Lets take a look at the different ways you can add a metallic effect to your wedding stationery.
What people sometimes forget is that you can't print true metallic colours on a home printer. They can be mimicked, but they wont have that same shine or sparkle as professional printing. Shown above is our eastern promise invitation with a beautiful professional metallic print.
So what are the options?
Professional
Professional printers have a wide variety of tricks and techniques at their disposal. The results can be stunning. The downside is of course they can often be expensive, and nothing is quite as pricey as foiling. It is however a beautiful option, incredibly shiny, strong and rich metallics can be achieved.
In foiling, a plate is heated to a very high temperature and a sheet of foil placed in between the plate and the paper. Under pressure the foil sticks to the paper and there is also a slight indentation left on the paper which often adds to the beauty of this process.
For a large print run (lots of invitations) the costs may not be that prohibitive. So if you are looking for a really striking metallic effect, talk to your local printer and ask for a quote. The results can be amazing.
Embossing presses into the paper creating a raised surface and is most often used for large monograms or borders. It can use flat, metallic or no ink at all (which is called blind embossing) above are some examples using metallics.
Spot metallics are a slightly cheaper professional option. Not as bright and shiny as foil or embossing but they can still be very pretty. Most professional printing is a combination of four colours - cyan, magenta, yellow and black. A spot is the addition of a specific fifth colour, and in some cases this can be a metallic one. They can seem a little dull, especially in comparison to a foil, but they are far more metallic than your home printer can achieve.
Remember 'i do' it yourself can supply all of our stationery designs for professional printing at no extra cost. And most files will work with metallic printing, so just ask.
After a completely disastrous start to the week with the builder not showing up and the kitchen company trying to change install dates. The wall between the kitchen and lounge is now gone. One big job done, two to go!
Our latest stationery design was influenced by this months idea of a beautiful winter wedding in the Australian bush and the smooth barked ghost gum tree, often a feature in Aboriginal Dreamtime stories. In this design we have taken inspiration from traditional Aboriginal paintings and combined it with a lovely gum leaf and gum nut illustration.
I hope we have captured some of the spirit of the Australian landscape with this design to help create a romantic and magical wedding.
A bit of a team effort for this stunning DIY centerpiece project today, inspired by this lovely tablescape of white orchids and striking silver vases.
A while ago the very clever Erica Domeseks of p.s. I made this came up with a fabulous faux porcelain effect using old glass bottles and some puff paint (seen here). Rather than finishing off with a coat of matt white spray paint, why not use high gloss silver for a shiny metal look? Beautiful!
Drum roll please, it's time to announce the winner of last months blog competition! Congratulations to Julia from NY who has won this stunning freshwater pearl necklace worth over $100 from the lovely RTISAN and a wedding stationery voucher from the 'i do' it yourself shop to the value of $50! Thanks to everyone else who entered, a special offer coming to you soon. And keep your eyes open for the next fabulous blog giveaway.
If you were inspired by our pervious post about button and beaded bouquets, head on over to Offbeat Bride for a fabulous DIY tutorial and have a go at making one yourself!
Using beads, buttons and antique brooches is fast becoming the new trend for bridal bouquets.
Imagine shimmering and sparkling down the aisle with these exquisite designs which are not only unique, but will last a lifetime and become and incredible heirloom to pass on.
When I first saw Collette Dinnigans new bridal collection a few months ago I knew it would fit in perfectly with our magically romantic wedding in the Aussie bush. Called 'snow white' the collection uses a gorgeous mix of dreamy fabrics - tulle, lace and plenty of pretty sequins.
We've been getting a few nice little mentions around the place for 'i do' it yourself at the moment that I want to share. Etsy featured our tie the knot save the date in their weekly newsletter and on their blog. Madeit added our hummingbird invitation to their newsletter, and the Indie Bride featured a few products on their blog. Thanks everyone.
With the temperatures outside hitting record lows, I think it's about time we got really wintry on the blog. But unless your hitting the snow in Perisher on your big day, a winter wedding in Australia isn't really about ice and snow flakes. A quick google of winter weddings and you can see there aren't a lot of ideas out there that don't involve Christmas! So lets see what winter wedding ideas we can come up with that are uniquely Australian. And what's more Aussie than the bush and a gum tree?
This month we're going to take our inspiration from the beautiful ghost gum with its smooth white trunk. A colour palette of soft grey, white and silver for a dreamy and romantic Australian winter wedding.
Credits: Create your own Australian winter wonderland.
Model pic unknown, contemporary tree wallpaper by Cole & Son. Delicious white chocolate coated cakes and pretty paper centerpieces from Martha Stewart. The stunning ghost gum, photo by Gregor T. Fill pretty white cups and plates with sweet treats, photo by David Prince. Add a hint of ice with paper snowflakes. Stunning grey and white bouquet via the knot. Lovely lemonade by the amazing Amy Atlas. Simple but beautiful white on white tablescape.
Lets kick the new month off with some new designs. We've been pretty busy this past week producing some gorgeous new boarding pass invitations, just perfect for destination or travel themed weddings. Shown above is the magically romantic pink travel ticket, and our lovely vintage inspired antique chic design. (I just love the old paper texture effect and the handwritten font on this one.) At $30, the file fits two invites to a standard A4 page for easy at home printing.
The new flooring has gone down today which should make a huge difference. Most of the plastering work is done, just a bit to finish off. Now we're just waiting for our kitchen bench top to be fitted, probably next week.
