The DIY Wedding

More wedding.... it consumed our lives in a good way for the last few months so I thought I'd share with you what we made and did.  You have already seen the bouquet and an overview of the day.

What did we do?

Firstly, we purchased from the local pub when it changed hands, some of the furniture - 8 tables and 18 chairs. Those chairs had to be rubbed down and painted, along with 4 spares Rachel had, plus whilst we were doing it, we painted 4 for her house too. We just love painting chairs!!

We didn't bother doing the tables as these would be covered with cloths.

End result....

Next on the agenda was the bar which started life as wooden palettes.  Stu and Peter made this over the Easter weekend and Rachel and I painted it - cost nothing as we had leftover paint

End result....

by Cara Clements

If you are wondering why Carpenters Arms - Stu is a carpenter and its a good pub name

The bar has now been moved to the end of the garden, been roofed with corrugated steel and is doing duty as a shed for the grandchildren's ride-on tractors, waste not want not!

Then the various bunting - on the bar, knitted hearts on a crochet chain, the pattern was Be Mine Heart Garland, I also made another which actually didn't get used, these were made using the pattern Heart Card again sewn onto a crochet chain. Most yarn came from stash

Next up were pom pom garlands - Rachel spent many an evening producing pom poms in various sizes, you can see some of them here, they were also used on the children's' gazebo too but I don't seem to have a photo of those.

Next up were the signs, we spent an enjoyable Sunday afternoon doing these - wood and paint, slate and chalk pen, these were dotted around the property directing guests where necessary. Only cost was the chalk pen, as the slates were leftover from when we had the stable re-roofed.

 

There were also signs on all the drinks, cakes and snacks

What next? Oh yes, the ring cushion and hair piece.  Rufus was the ring bearer and decided that he wanted his cushion to be red (it could well have been orange).  Well it was to be a bright and colourful wedding so why not.  I couldn't find a pattern for a cushion that I liked so I used dishcloth pattern - Heart Dishcloth and knitted a moss stitch back.  I lined the underside of the front and stuff it.  I think it worked fine. Yarn from stash

Then the knitted hair piece not the best photograph - the pattern was Birdcage Veil which I found in an old Simply Knitting magazine.  I used some ribbon as Rachel didn't want a veil. Yarn also from stash

You can see it in her hair here

by Gemma Powell

She also wore the Holden Shawl but I don't have any photographs of her wearing it.

There were the favours, which Rebecca made - flower seeds.  She got a stamp made up and decorated small white envelopes with the stamp and washi tape, she then hung them on ribbon using little pegs, to the sign that Rachel made for them

As previously mentioned Rebecca did all the flowers.  We all baked cakes for the dessert table, and we had contributions from Gemma and Jan (Stu's mum) too, all delicious.

Of course during all this there was still the garden to be kept on top of.  We changed the vegetable garden making a play area for the kids and a smaller veg patch and then Peter built a fence to keep the chicken off the main garden when they come out of their enclosure.  This still needs to be painted and a gate to be hung but we ran out of time.  The fence was again made from palettes and cost nothing. Laid a patio area with some free slabs I got from the garden makeover at work. Dug and planted a new border, filled and planted up my tubs and pots..... phew I feel exhausted just reading all this.

As weddings go, this was low on cost, but it meant doing lots ourselves, but it was a great achievement, very personal and we were all more than happy with the end result.  Lots of the items we purchased we plan to sell on, anyone want any tables and chairs?