The rise of shabby chic and vintage weddings has created a surge of interest in hand-crafted wedding details and it’s a trend that offers endless opportunities for personalisation as well as the chance to save money in some areas that you can then apply to other wedding costs. At the Wedding Directory we’ve seen many examples, and here are two of our favourites:
Birdseed wedding favours
We’ve probably all been to a wedding where we were given seed packets or seed bombs, but this project goes a step further in giving your guests a sweet take-home that can benefit local wildlife, it’s a particularly nice touch for winter weddings, which is when birds most need feeding.
You need:
Biscuit cutters in appropriate shapes (hearts, stars, the initials of the bride and groom etc)
large mixing bowl
Vegetable oil
Parchment paper
Raffia or ribbon
Cardboard or labels
Skewer
100 grams white flour
100 ml water
1 packet unflavoured gelatin
3 tablespoons honey
500 grams bird seed
Mix the flour, water, gelatin and honey together in the large bowl, then stir in birdseed and leave for ten minutes.
Wipe the inside of your cutters with oil and lay them on parchment paper. Spoon the seed mix into the cutters with oiled fingers and press down firmly. Use the skewer to make a hole near the top of each shape. Lift the cutter away, re-oil and repeat. You should get 24-26 shapes out of each batch of mixture.
Leave in a cool dry place overnight. While they are setting, you can write out your labels or make gift tags by hand. Cut your raffia or ribbon into lengths and tie them through the hole with a label or gift tag. Best only made a couple of days before your wedding, but also a great way to get little bridesmaids involved in the wedding plans.
DIY pincushion jars
Making pincushion jars is a doddle and best of all, no needles required
You need:
Empty jars and pots
Upholstery foam or fibrefill
Scraps of fabric, ribbon and beads
Thick paper
Glue gun
Place the jar lid upside down on a piece of thickish paper and trace round. Cut out that circle and place it on top of your chosen fabric, leaving at least 4cm all the way round, draw a circle and cut it out too. It doesn’t have to be perfect! Choose some contrasting lace or ribbon and cut it to the length of the jar lid by rolling it around the lid and cutting so that it just overlaps.
Place the fabric with the good side down, and put a little fibrefill or upholstery foam in the middle and sandwich it between the fabric and the paper circle you set aside. Put some glue in the centre of the paper, spreading out so that you can fold the fabric up around the end and trap the firbrefill inside. Fold and glue any edges that stick out.
Use more glue all over the top of the jar lid and press the domed shape down so that the paper side is against the jar lid. Take your ribbon and, after making small dots of glue around the edge of the lid, wrap the ribbon around it. You can use a bead, button or bow to hide the overlap.
Stick some pins in the top and you’re done! You can also fill the jar with wedding favours appropriate to each guest, so a sewer might get bobbins and lace, a cook might get herbs, a fisherman hooks etc.