Invitations.

I think when I'm described by my friends most of them would say I am "crafty". I play at it really, I'm always dipping my toes into some new (to me) craft and am regularly making jewellery/cards/trying to crochet oh and that photography thing I do sometimes. Having a wedding to decorate is a great way to get your creative juices flowing and put your personality on display for all to see. Although noone has seen the whole shebang yet I've already be told that it's all very "me", whatever that means. And many of my guests seem to have been very impressed with my invitations, commenting that they look quite professional. I'm not so sure, but I reckon you'd like me to shut up and show you huh?

The plan I had for these was that I was going to have a rubber stamp made (as you can see I did), and the rest I made up pretty much on the spot, tried it a few times on plain paper and then proceeded to make 80 or so of them. The flowers were originally going to be made out of my fingerprints but I ended up playing a very complicated game of twister with myself. No fun when ink is involved. 

Whilst washing said ink off my fingers in a bit of a huff my eyes stumbled across some scrummy Jersey royals I had in the kitchen and Voila! Effing potato stamps (possibly the smallest ones in the world but totally fit for purpose)! 

A rubber stamp, 3 potato stamps and about 3 hours later I was all decorated out and very chuffed with myself! What I love about these invitations, despite my describing them as "somefink what a 3 year old could do" is that not a single one is like another, why people spend days getting each one exactly the same I'll never know but whatever floats your boat I guess...

How much did they cost you ask? Well, they're a lot cheaper than buying them from someone else but they're possibly one of the most expensive things about the wedding, despite buying the smallest possible card I could get away with. (6"x6") I also printed the insides and printer ink is a dear do!

All in all for the 3 inks, rubber stamp (which is also a keepsake), cards, envelopes and printer ink (which will be used multiple times) they've cost £52.54 to make! 

Huzzah!

Samantha

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Why "My Paper Wedding"?

This one's for Amy ;) 

So some of you maybe wondering why I have chosen to name this blog "My Paper Wedding". The answer is that quite a large chunk of the handmade decorations will be made out of paper. About £14 worth of A4 to be precise. Whilst flowers are great if you can afford them I am choosing a much cheaper alternative for my bouquets, centerpieces and buttonholes, and they're all made out of paper! I feel a bit smug saying that, but then I can't very well be writing about my (hopefully) lovely cheap wedding and then say that I'll be spending hundreds of pounds on fresh flower's because that would just be stupid! 

Okay so now I may have insulted you, you want to know what kind of decorations I will be making with my lovely paper... origami cranes (they're going to be everywhere, about 1,200 of them) and paper fans. Why cranes? Ancient Japanese folklore says that anyone who makes one thousand paper cranes will be given a wish or granted eternal good luck, so in some circles it's a great wedding gift/decoration idea. Whilst I'm not superstitious about it all (it's not just me making the cranes, I don;t have that much time) I do think it's a great little story. Though that's not the reason I chose cranes. My fiance became quite obsessed with making them a few years ago, so they're always around the house in some way and they really remind me of him, he taught me to make them. But here's a youtube video for you... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux1ECrNDZl4

Here's a sneak peek of what's to come at my paper wedding...

(Excuse the poor quality phone photos.)

Example of a paper fan, for the day I'm going to make them slightly bigger.

My origami crane bouquet.

I'd love to hear your thoughts! :)

Samantha

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Welcome

Hello and welcome to my blog!

 I'm Samantha, 27 year old mum of The Dog who is 16months. I'm engaged to my best friend Phil and we're getting married on October 26th of this year (2013). After going to 4 weddings in the space of 3 months I decided it was time we set the date for our own wedding, the date was set in May so I'd only given us 5 months to get ready, throw in a demanding toddler and a part time evening job and I've definitely got my work cut out for me! I thrive under pressure though and even though I feel a little stressed at times when I look at my to do list I've been told I'm well on top of everything! So as you do, I've decided to throw a blog in the mix too!

 Phil and I have an extremely tight budget as do a lot people these days. I'm making a large portion of our decorations etc and I love a good eBay bargain hunt so stay tuned as I go through all our wedding plans and creations. 

Whilst this blog is to serve as a "scrapbook" for me I hope that someone may find elements of it useful! :)

Samantha
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