A cross stitch progression

What do you do when you've been crafting for almost a year for the wedding and it's now all over? You start an epic cross stitch pattern. Admittedly I didn't realise it was quite so large or complicated as it turned out to be (I thought it was all black!).

10th of May:

15th of May:

28th of May:

13th of June:

7th of August:

This was a surprise birthday present for a friend and (thankfully) she loved it. It measures 40 x 40cm so it's quite a large one and it's been framed in a cream frame.

Next project? A kitchen wall mosaic.

A few photos

Professional photos are yet to come from the lovely Elly Mac Photos but here are a few to whet your appetite...

The bride and groom (3 piece suit from ebay and dress from charity shop):

The shoes:

The reception venue after 3 hours of decorating (all handmade decorations):

Part of the cake table (all cakes and cookies made by friends and family):

Thank you to everyone who made our day so perfect.

Sweet trees

The second generation (started by friends, completed by family):

More crafting help

A hen weekend is never complete without some serious crafting:

The veil

I had tried for weeks (with much procrastination) to construct a birdcage veil. I had experimented on a good few metres of veiling, following a number of different tutorials but nothing felt right.

I was resigned to the fact it was never going to work and the morning of my hair trial, in desperation, I turned towards a visor veil. Winner.

I took the basic steps from this tutorial and here is the detail of the comb end:

The countdown begins

Less than two weeks to the wedding now and our house is overflowing with wedding bits and pieces.

Stacks of pieces for the Order of Service, ready to be delegated as a 'wedding chore':

Completed table numbers:

Quilt blocks, backed with freezer paper and with the seam allowance taped off:

Table numbers

I struggled for some inspiration for the table numbers. Then I saw something I really liked and set about making my own version.

A long plank of wood was cut into blocks and sanded:

The blocks were painted:

Each number was drawn on paper and placed on top of each block. This provided a template for the nails:

The paper was ripped off leaving the nails in the wood:

Wool was wrapped around each nail to provide definition. Voila:

Wedding gifts

It is lovely having such generous, talented friends. One has made me a beautiful shawl from Rowan kid silk haze (knitted centre with crocheted edge):

and tiny crocheted flowers for hair decoration:

Leaves

I decided that leaves needed to be added to all the bouquets. The leaves consist of two or three pieces of felt which were sewn together with blanket stitch:

A piece of wire was cut and inserted into the leaves to make them malleable:

Each leaf was put in place before a hot glue gun cemented their home.

Alfie got bored watching on...

A strip of brown felt was glued in place around the handle: 

I think I can finally cross these off the list!

The Invitation

By now wedding guests should have received (and possibly been baffled?) by their invitations. They were sent an A4 sheet of paper with the following instructions on the bottom:

Correct folding should have resulted in this (as modelled by my bridesmaid):

If you are my father, they apparently resulted in this:

Order of Service

This is the Order of Service prototype:

 I foresee lots of cutting.

Table plan

Testing the 'sag' factor.

Zipper flower

I had a large amount of open white zipper left over from my wedding dress so I stitched together a flower while searching for some veil inspiration. Recycling craft materials is very satisfying and, who knows, it could be incorporated into the headpiece??

A Guest 'Book'

Rather than a guest book, we will (fingers crossed) have a guest quilt.

Thankfully I have borrowed a Grand Calibur from a friend which has saved me some cutting time. Alfie sleeps while I cut squares:

Two sizes are cut in separate colours:

The smaller squares are halved and then pinned to either side of the larger square:

These are stitched and the seams pressed. The edges are trimmed so that it is completely square:

Freezer paper is ironed to the back of the square which makes it easier to write on the front (I tested this theory on a corner):

Masking tape around the edges will stop guests writing/drawing on the seam allowance. One down, another 80 to go... Pictures of the finished product will appear after the wedding!

Cross it off the list

A few finishing touches and it's now complete:

A bouquet for a bridesmaid

My bouquets have been quite a process, it started with the thought I didn't want a "traditional" bouquet combined with my housemate in London and his vintage button collection.

I started by painting three polystyrene balls (the one for me is slightly bigger than the other two). The stems are made from an old wooden broom handle, sawed and sanded, and I've glued them into the base of the balls:

A lace bouquet holder was stripped back to the plastic base. I then covered the top with 'leaves' and the bottom with 'stems':

Many hours of cutting felt flowers produced this bounty:

Which then needed sewing together:

After some experimentation (with hidden pins), I chose to use my hot glue gun to attach the flowers to the ball:

I think the base still needs some leaves which overhang so my brain is running overtime. The flowers also seemed a bit flat to me so I added some wired pearls. What do you think? 

Letterbox

Who wants an ivory letterbox when you could have an orange one? Two coats of paint later:

Plywood letters were covered with gold glitter and attached to the front of my box with a hot glue gun:

In hindsight, I think the 'D' is back-to-front but it just provides a bit of added character :-)

There are a few finishing touches to be made but this project is nearly finished.