The fun is in the final touches. Little things that are un-required but, if you have the time and inclination, add an extra flourish to your day. I it is in the little details where we can let our creativity loose.
Here are some ideas, from Pinterest: the font of inspiration, and how they worked for our wedding:
1. Pinecone Name-Holders
Pinterest Version:
Our Version:
The Verdict:
Our loose theme for the wedding was ‘Autumnal Woods’. This was an extremely easy and cheap way to add our theme to the reception. We picked up our pine cones at a garden centre that was selling off left over Christmas stock. It wasn’t until we left the shop that we realised they were ‘Christmas Scented’ which is a bit odd for a wedding happening in September, but once the pinecones were
spread out in the room the scent dissipated quickly. My husband designed the name cards to match our invitations and Order of Services. As a designer he was very pleased that our wedding had its own branding!
The cards sat in the pine cones happily and setting all 100 of them only took 10 minutes the night before the wedding.
2. Book-Lover’s Table Confetti
Pinterest Version:
Our Version:
The Verdict:
I loved our finished result . To do this I bought a heart shaped hole punch from a craft shop and a second hand copy of Wuthering Heights and a book of love poetry. Wuthering Heights is one of my favourite books so it felt a bit blasphemous to destroy it. The pages from the book of poetry were a little bit too white so my husband and I did some old fashioned tea-staining to age the pages.
Then I got completely carried away with the punching. I did the entire book of poetry and about two thirds of Wuthering Heights. A word of caution, a little goes a long way with table confetti. I still have enough paper hearts left over to fill the aisle of Westminster Abbey. Oops!
3. Candle Holders
Pinterst Version:
Our Version:
The Verdict:
Some empty curry sauce jars, pages of the already-abused Wuthering Heights, a bit of twine and a tea light. Job done. These looked really pretty as the evening melted into night and added a little extra magic to our celebrations. After the wedding we donated some to a craft fair and the rest we kept and use still around the house!
4. Sweetie Buffet
Pinterest Version:
Our Version:
The Verdict:
We decided that we wanted to do a sweetie buffet rather than favours. It was a hit with our guests, and most of the goodies had vanished before the photographer had chance to get to it. We had a lot
of fun with this but I cannot lie, this ended up being way more expensive than favours would have been, mainly because buying sweets in bulk online is addictive fun.
The containers that we used were a mixture of what we had at home and some teacups that we collected from charity shops in the months leading up the wedding. On the teacup front I had strict criteria;
1. They had to have a matching saucer
2. They had to have a gold rim
3.They had to be pretty
To incorporate the woodland theme I bought some potpourri from a £1 shop and scattered it over the table, in the hopes that it would resemble a woodland floor. We also bought segments of tree stump to create bases for the sweets. As a finishing touch we added a few handfuls of the left over table confetti.
Whilst everyone else seemed to enjoy it, this is something that I would do differently if I had the chance to do it again. The room the sweetie buffet in had this beautiful wood paneling. I originally wanted the buffet table to be placed up against the wall so that it would have a nice background, but the venue manager insisted that the table be placed in the middle of the room so that guests
could walk around it. I was talked round because I didn’t want people queuing at the wedding. But when I looked back at the photos I knew that it would have looked much more impressive next to the wall, so that the display was facing one way. Also for some reason, I decided not to use all the bags of potpourri, I think I used 2 and half bags out of the five bags that I bought. I should have used
more, to create a more dramatic effect. But this is really just a bride nit-picking at an element that our guests really enjoyed and stuck their teeth into!
5. The Tree Guestbook
Pinterest Version:
Our Version:
The verdict:
All credit for this has to go to my Bridesmaid, Anna. She presented me with the tree poster, a pen and two ink pads at my hen party and explained the idea to me. I loved it! It was such a great way to have our guests leave a mark on our day and fitted with our theme beautifully. Anna had even thought ahead to choose red and gold ink, so that our wedding tree would be an autumnal tree.
The photo above doesn’t really do it justice. Now that it is framed and up on the wall, I love how it looks like some of the leaves are falling. Again our guests seemed to enjoy this activity. One of our friends even turned his fingerprint into a bee! There is always one, who has to be different!
So there were my finishing touches. I would love to hear from anyone who has tried anything similar for their wedding! How did it go for you?