Weddings, how we have missed you!! It has been so hard these past 2 years for couples to celebrate their love with friends and family, but hopefully now we are able celebrate properly, whether you are planning a simple, rustic wedding or a big glamorous wedding. Planning a wedding can be incredibly stressful (and expensive!!). An easy way of saving some money is to make some of the decorations yourself. Personal touches at weddings are always the best part. The details that go into the handmade decorations make them so much more special. Whether you are planning your own wedding or helping friends or family plan theirs, we have come up with a few easy DIY crafts that can be adapted to suit every style of day.
Flower ring
Whether you are using this as decoration or as an alternative bouquet for the bridesmaids, this beautiful ring is so easy to make. All you need is a wire ring, some ribbon, trailing ivy and flower heads. First, you need to wrap the ring in your chosen ribbon. I have used velvet ribbon (available in YTC stores only) but you could use bakers’ twine. I have used double sided tape to help keep the ribbon in place. Once the ribbon is on you can then position the ivy and the flowers. The good thing about the ivy is that it is good at wrapping round and staying in position. I managed to wrap it round the ring to see if I was happy with it before I cut it to size and glued it on with a hot glue gun. I then put the flower heads into place. For the flower heads, I used a spray of flowers that I removed the heads off. We also have some flower heads without the stem which will be perfect for a decoration like this. Once you are happy with the position on the flowers, you can glue them on with a hot glue gun. And that’s it, so simple. You can change the ribbon or the flowers to match in with your themes, you could add ‘just married’ to the middle made out of wooden slices, you could add eucalyptus instead of ivy, more flowers or no flowers. This idea is very adaptable.
Place Card
Place cards are a must for a wedding, but they can also be an expensive part of the wedding so why not save some money and make your own. All you need is some white card, a pen, gems and foliage for decoration (and your list of names). I started by measuring out the card to the correct size of name card I wanted. I then cut this out and folded down the middle. You can do whatever shape or size that fits in with your theme. I just went for what I think the standard place card looks like. Once you have the size and style you would like, the next step is decorating. I have used a spray of eucalyptus and cut it down to size. I have glued this on with a glue dot or you could use a glue gun. The gems are good. These come in strips which you can use as single gems to dot around or in lines with the same spacing in between as they are attached to each other. They also come in different colours, so you could match the colour to your theme. Once I got the decoration how I wanted it, I laid the card flat and wrote the name on. I practiced several times on a separate piece of paper before writing it in pen on the card. You can use whatever style of handwriting you feel comfortable doing. You can choose whatever decoration suits your theme the best. You could use coloured card or feathers instead of foliage. You could use wooden slices instead of card.
We have some ready-made wedding invitations and save the date cards available on our website too. Wedding invitation, evening invitation and save the dates. They are all 10 packs and are 49p each.
Seating plans
After you have made your place cards, you will need somewhere to let everyone know which table they are sat on. Welcome seating plans!! Seating plans are a wonderful way of showing off your creativity and they are so versatile to be able to match to your theme. I have made 2 different examples in 2 very different styles, but the base and idea are the same. On both seating plans I have used a strung table runner.
White seating plan
For the white seating plan I have used a white table runner, some battery operated lights, bakers twine, decorative beads and paper. I started off by printing the wording off. I just printed onto white paper and used Microsoft word to write it out. I haven’t included names, but you can type those out too or, if you wanted to make it but haven’t finalised your seating plan yet, you could hand write them on afterwards. Once printed out and cut out to size, I laid the runner down on a table so I could position the bits of paper on the runner to see if they would fit how I wanted them to. I then used a hole punch to make a hole in the top of the wording and cut a length of bakers’ twine. I then threaded the twine through the hole and tied the paper to the runner. When they were in the position I was happy with, I then started to attach the lights. I added lights as I thought it would be a way of been sparkly without lots of glitter. I started at the bottom and worked my way up attaching them to the runner with floristry wire. I tried to space them out evenly and I attached them in a way that the lights weren’t directly pointing outwards, so you didn’t get blinded when searching for you name. Once I was happy with the placement of the lights, I then attached the decorative beads to the top of the seating plan. These beads come wrapped together but they are 3 separate stems. I left them all together, but you could separate them if you wanted to. They are on a piece of wire, so it is easy to wrap them around the twigs to get them in the position you want. Once they were attached, I fanned the 3 bits out, so they weren’t clumped together. And that’s it. This style is perfect for a more glamorous wedding.
Natural seating plan
For the natural seating plan I have used a natural table runner, a vine ring, trailing ivy, natural luggage tags, flower heads, self-adhesive letters and hessian ribbon. I started this one by making the ‘find your seat’ ring. I cut 2 lengths of the hessian ribbon and attached it to the middle of the vine ring with floristry wire. The ribbon is 25mm wide, so I put 2 lengths together to make 50mm which I thought stood out more. I then sorted through the tiles to get the letters I needed. I laid them out in order first to make sure they fitted on the ribbon before sticking them on. They come with a foam pad on the back so you don’t need any extra glue, but you can always use some glue to make sure they stay in place when transporting it to your venue. Now that everything is attached to the ring and secure, it is time to attach the ring to the runner. I did this by using floristry wire. I wanted the ring to be off centre, so it stood out more, so I tied it on in 3 places to the runner. I also attached it so the words were at a slight angle, but you could have them straight across if you’d prefer. Once you are happy with the position of the ring, you can start to do the table tags. I used luggage tags on this seating plan. I think the natural card goes well with the rustic feel of this seating plan. They also have a hole and string already done so it was easy to tie them to the runner without having to use something else. I have handwritten the table numbers onto the tags, and you would follow on with names. Once I was happy with the position of the tags, I added the trailing ivy. I just wrapped it around the ring and let it drape down the side of the runner. To keep it in position, I threaded the stem through the gaps of the twigs. Finally, I added some of the flower heads into the gaps between the tags. If you are having more than 4 tables, you can move the tags closer together or next to each other and have the flowers at the bottom of the seating plan or just in the ring. The flower heads have a little stem, so I poked it through the gap in the twigs. Again, if you wanted to make sure everything stays in position when transporting it to your venue, you can glue the ivy and the flowers to the runner. This style is perfect for a rustic wedding.
Table numbers
You have got your name cards and seating plan, so your guests know where they are sitting, you now need a table number, so they know which table is which. For this table number, you will need a wooden craft mirror, a liquid chalk pen, gems and foliage. I have kept it in the same style as the place cards to create a story, like you would for your wedding. These wooden crafting mirrors as so versatile, you could do lots of different things with them. You could paint them, decoupage, glue beads or gems around the frame like a mosaic. They also come with a stand and a hook so you can decide how you want to display them as part of your table centre. I started off by writing the table number on with a liquid chalk pen. I practised the style of writing I wanted to do on a piece of paper to get the size and style right and then I wrote it on the mirror. The good thing about using liquid chalk is that if you make a mistake, you can rub it off! Once I was happy with the writing, its time to decorate. I started by measuring a length of eucalyptus I want it to be coming off the mirror rather than straight up on the mirror. When I had got the length I wanted, I glued it to the frame of the mirror using a hot glue gun. Next, I stuck the gems to the top corner of the mirror. These gems come in strips, so I cut them to the number I wanted so they were equal with one extra in the middle. And that’s it, another simple wedding make. We have craft frames as well so if you didn’t want to use a mirror you could decorate the inside of the frame with flowers and then add the number of the table. Or you could use a photo frame and add pictures of the couple at the age of the table number. You don’t have to use this idea for a table number, you could create a sign for cards and presents, for your guest book or for your wedding hashtag.
I hope you found these ideas useful or gave you options to adapt them to fit in with your theme and style of day. If you are planning to make anything yourself for your wedding, do make sure you leave yourself plenty of time to get everything done. Take time to enjoy planning and enjoy making bits for your special day. We would love to see things you have made using our products so make sure you tag us in your pictures. Whenever your big day is, have an amazing time.
