Wedding Gift Idea :: Cheongsam Inspiration

:: Cheongsam-inspired earrings made for my friend ::

As you may know, I have been busy working on a couple of cheongsam inspired pieces of jewelry for the National Museum of Singapore. (see this post here.) This inspired me to create a gift for a friend who recently got married. For her tea ceremony, she had chosen a salmon pink cheongsam with red floral prints. She looked stunning and I thought it would be fun to make her earrings to match them or remind her of that day cos honestly, there aren't that many occasions to don a cheongsam.  

This is how you can do it too:

Step 1: Obtain photos of the printed dress - I downloaded photos from my friend's Facebook account

Step 2: Print out the photos - I did this on my laser printer

Step 3: Glue on the glass pebbles and leave it to dry. I let it dry overnight.

Step 4: Cut around the glass pebble and then simply adhere to the earring backing.

And that's it! You have made a meaningful wedding gift that your friend will appreciate for the years to come. 

* The diy earring gift kit can be found at the Gift Wrapsody store.

DIY :: Daisy Cone Pew Decoration

:: Daisy Cone Decorations ::

Weddings can be expensive affairs. By the time it comes to flower decorations, it can be a source of tension for the bride and groom. Particularly as grooms tend to regard flowers as a non-essential. Brides however, can't imagine a wedding without flowers.

Hence, I am truly excited about sharing this Daisy Cone DIY. Because I think it will provide a solution to the bride and groom who desires simple wedding aisle pizzaz without burning a hole in their pocket.

Daisies are a really affordable option and are extremely long lasting too.

Step 1: First, purchase your daisies. You can head to a wholesaler like Far East Flora or just purchase them from the wet market. 

Step 2: Remove the leaves on the stem by plucking them off by hand. 

This will remove any leaves that will compete with the flower for water. 

Step 3 : You can now transport the flowers to the venue

Step 4 : Insert the flowers into the paper cones (no water is necessary) and trim appropriately. I prefer to trim the stems so that only the flower heads can be seen.

Step 5: Using a spray, spray some water onto the flower and leave overnight. 

The wedding seen here was held at 2pm and the flowers were arranged the night before from 8pm till 10pm.

Hope you find this useful!

Wedding Favours :: Yellow and Turquoise Paper Fasteners

:: Wedding Favours ::

I've been wanting to show you these happy, smile-worthy paper fasteners that were personalized by a bride and groom to thank their guests. 

Both the bride and groom are christian ministry workers and the bible certainly is a key part of their lives. So it wasn't surprising that they chose to include the bible reference to the bible passage that was preached at their wedding as a key part of the final design. To tie in with their gorgeous wedding colors, they chose designs in sunshine yellow and shades of blue.

I thought you might like to know how they managed to hand-make all these paper fasteners. They made 300 wedding favors for their guests in all. Sounds like a lot but the bride tells me she was surprised at how quick it was to make them.

 

This is how she did it:

First, the bride asked a couple of girlfriends to help her with gluing the glass pebbles onto the paper. It took 5-6 girlfriends less than an hour to glue on the 300 glass pebbles. 

Secondly, she organized for another group of friends to help her with cutting and sticking on the glass pebbles. Although she was apprehensive about asking, her friends turned out to be really happy to be involved in the wedding prep. So she arranged an afternoon where they met and quickly finished gluing them on. (Now they were meant to cut the glass pebbles out but being the ever-efficient bride, she had cut out all the glass pebbles with her groom-to-be one one morning.) Even the groom was surprised at how easy it was!

p/s Favour kits will be available from my shop from 1 May 2012. Check it out then!

Meaningful Weddings :: Yellow & Turquoise Theme

:: The Welcome Table ::

The wedding that I am sharing today is an extra special one. Not only because, the bride, Chew Chern is an extra special lady friend of mine but the groom is from my church community group. He is a real gentleman who is thoughtful and sensitive to the people around him.   I couldn't be happier for Chew Chern who truly deserves the best! 

When Chew Chern asked if I could help out with the wedding decor, I told her that I would have been offended if she didn't ask me. Okay, I was kidding but suffice to say, I was really excited to be involved. She had chosen yellow and blue as her wedding theme colors. Yellow certainly matched her cheery personality and Blue was Stuart's favorite color. She asked me to help decorate the pews and the welcome table so I focused on those two areas. 

  

:: The Ladies at the Welcome Table ::

The angbao box and the guest book were purchased and I embellished them with a personalized pushpin. Sorry, I forgot to take a close up photo of that. Behind the angbao box is a basket simply tied with yellow ribbons where the wedding favors lay. (More on that in another post). I tied the ginormous blue balloon to the basket full of daisies and added gold streamers for that glittery effect. I must say I love it when helpers are dressed in matching colors!

Pew Decor :: Daisy Cones

For the pews, I decided to make daisy cones which were incredibly cost-effective. We reused the turquoise organza from another friend's wedding. and attached the daisy cones to the pews. 

Pew Decor :: Personalised Pushpins

We alternated this with yellow ribbons and pressed a personalized pushpin into each one for that extra special touch. 

:: Church Pew Decorations :: 

So there we go, a quick look at the decorations. Did you like it? To be honest, it all came together at the last moment. I had a really excellent team of helpers who were Chew Chern's friends and we put it all together the night before the wedding. I really loved the final effect, especially with the rose petals strewn down the aisle. 

If you wanna find out how to create your own rose petals, stay tuned for a diy coming up next.

DIY :: How to Make a Bunting

I am sure you have seen buntings all over the blog space and often, they are made out of fabric. For my friend's wedding, I decided to use scrapbook paper (which I printed off my laser printer). Okay, so it doesn't have the same fluttering effect but these were gonna be used indoors along the pew aisle and would not be fluttering anyway.

This DIY is super easy.

Materials:

- patterned paper (printed or purchased)

- ribbon

- hot glue gun

Instructions:

1. Cut the paper into triangles. I measured and drew lines in pencil on the back of the paper and roped loads of helpers to help with this step.

2. Lay out the patterned paper in stacks in a line 

3. Apply hot glue to the top of the triangle and press the ribbon on to the edge. 

4. Continue with the next triangle until you have none left!

I found working with paper to be much easier than with fabric and cheaper too. 

Try it and let me know how it goes!

DIY :: How to Make a Pinwheel

pinwheels to line the church aisle

Pinwheels are such a fun and inexpensive way to decorate with color. 

My secret tip for keeping it inexpensive is to purchase digital scrapbook paper that matches the wedding theme and then print away. 

I had loads of fun coming up with different double-sided combinations.

Creating a pinwheel is super easy.

Materials:

- a square piece of patterned paper

- brad fastener

- balloon sticks (optional)

* You can purchase scrapbook paper but I prefer to print it out as I need.

Instructions:

1. Fold the paper across diagonally such that it creates an X.

2. Cut 1/4 way along the diagonal line from each corner.

3. Using the brad, poke it through one corner.

4. Then poke it through another corner until you have poked through 4 corners.

5. Then insert it into the middle of the square piece of paper.

6. Flatten the legs of the brad to hold the pinwheel shape in place.

7. Fasten it to a balloon stick or ribbon and that's it!

corsages for the bridesmaids

boutonnieres for the groomsmen

close up of the pinwheel corsage

Real Weddings :: Vintage Carnival Theme

Working with two little boys running all around is not an easy task but thankfully, with my husband's help, we managed to pull everything together before the guests arrived. Apologies in advance for the poor photography.

Colourful pinwheels and flowers in vintage tins

Carnival-themed guestcards & pink rose-topped pens for guests 

to pen down their well-wishes to the couple.

More floral arrangements in vintage tea tins placed

alongside a musical carousel to create a truly whimsical look 

Guests posing at the Photobooth

(set up by the husband)

Real Weddings :: Vintage Carnival Theme

pinwheels to line the church aisle

Last July, I was roped in to help a good friend create decorations for her church wedding ceremony. 

She wanted a vintage carnival feel to the wedding and so I tried to incorporate pinwheels, buntings and i also designed a number of images that were used on the guestcards, powerpoint slides and the wedding programme. 

The theme was such fun to work on and I also won't pretend that I didn't LOVE the colours that they chose - fuschia pink, orange and lime green. The palate just seemed to shout spring and all things happy and vibrant. 

I had a great time working on this wedding project, can you tell?  really had to reign myself in on this one.

Here are some snapshots at the wedding decor that I helped prep.

guest cards for guests to write well-wishes on

corsages for the bridesmaids

creating the bunting that is to be draped down the church aisles

boutonnieres for the groomsmen

close up of the pinwheel corsage