The Wedding Cake Confessions ♥

If you read my previous post, you may know I have been worrying about the wedding cake! In that post, I put that we were thinking of buying three plain tiers from Marks and Spencers, and decorating it ourselves. Ed and I went into M&S over the weekend, and took a little look at the cakes. They had them in stock priced at £56.00 for the Large base tier, £40.00 for the middle and £10.00 for the top, which was tiny. We looked at the birthday cakes, and a similar cake the size of the medium tier, decorated as a birthday cake with intricate flowers etc, was £15.00! It is an absolute rip off, plus I really don't want to be an average joe with three white tiers. What suits some, doesn't suit others and I'm all about bringing the quirk to the table.

So, we put our heads together while we were in the shop and came up with an idea that suits us down to the ground.

You know these little guys? They are the yummiest of the yummy in my opinion! Our table names will all be after Parisian monuments as that is where we got engaged. So what better than French Fancies? They also go along with the vintage theme as they are vintage picnic-esque if that makes sense. 

We are both fans of French fancies, so we thought how could we turn it into a wedding cake. Then I remembered they do these...

Giant French Fancies! A Perfect tier topper, and the cake that we can cut. These retail at £8.00 - an ever so slight difference to the £300.00 for a shop made cake, and from the £106.00 for the plain one from Marks & Spencers.

The plan is to purchase an acrylic square cake stand, ideally with 5 tiers. The giant cake on the top, and all the normal French Fancies on the four other tiers. This is the cake stand, and is £24.99 on Ebay with free P&P, I shall link it under the image. The trouble is, the top tier is 6 inches wide, and I have no idea of the size of the giant French Fancy, so I am going to pop to Sainsbury's with my ruler, and make myself look like a mad woman. The average cost of a pack of 6 Fancies is about £1.00, with a hundred guests that's about £16.00, so maybe a few more for good measure. Say £30.00 for the entire cake, job DONE!

To pretty it up a little I may stick some of the sugar flowers mentioned in the previous post on the giant cake, and a few of the little ones, just to make it look more wedding like, but that's only an extra couple of pounds. 

And there is the quirky, budget-savvy wedding cake, sorted.

Tilly xXx

Making a little Posie Bouquet ♥

After yesterday's post, I was itching to get started on having a go at making a bouquet. I just really wanted to see what it would look like. I hadn't really got suitable brooches to put in it, so I just thought I'd see how it would turn out anyhow. My Mom and I popped down to Hobbycraft (a big craft store in the UK), and we found lots of goodies that could be turned into some pretty creations.

My Mom kindly treated me to all the bits and bobs to have a go with. I have been looking at real floral bouquets this morning, and they appear to be typically £50.00 or more! Daylight robbery yet again. I just can't justify it just to chuck them away. We got enough supplies to make two little Bridesmaid posies, and that came to just under £30.00 for two! I think they will be a nice keepsake for the girls if they wanted to keep them.

So to make them, we got: 

4 Bunches of artificial vintage coloured roses

3 Bunches of diamanté roses / sprigs

Floristry Tape and Floristry wire

Tools needed were scissors, and round nosed pliers if you are going to use brooches. Also, weight watchers chocolate brownie pudding top left - not optional =D

I began to assemble the flowers randomly so there were different colours mixed up. I then loosely wrapped one of the stem wires around all of the stems to keep them in place. It takes a bit of pushing and pulling to get them at the same level but it's worth it! 

I then added some diamanté roses and sprigs to complete it, just wrapping their wires around the base stems of the flowers. To secure, I just wrapped the floristry tape all around the stems to neaten it up. I have ribbon to wrap around the stem base, but it kept on gathering up as I wrapped it around. I'm now thinking of wrapping them in the thick brown vintage looking string - you know the stuff? And then adding the ribbon as a bow at the top. I'll show you once I have got the string.

This is a photo of it in daylight. I think it has turned out quite pretty, and I'm now thinking I may actually use this. I haven't fully assembled the other one, and that is one flower less than this so I might pop a brooch in it. I'm going to go back to Hobbycraft when I return off my holidays and grab the rest of these flowers, because I think I better get them before the Christmas stock starts invading. It will be great to have these done in advance, definitely one less thing to worry about. I've also got to figure out how to do the buttonholes, as they will have to match. I think Hobbycraft will have nothing left by the time I'm finished!

So there we go, a little bouquet for a fraction of the price, and something to keep forever. We're doin' the DIY!

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear! 

Tilly xXx

Little Bridesmaid Dress ♥

I have just purchased my first actual item for the big day. I know, I'm mad but better to do it now so I can pay for things gradually and steadily. So, I've been having a scout round for a bridesmaid dress for my little sister, who will be 8 at the time of the wedding. I wasn't looking for something to neccessarily match the adult bridesmaids, but something that is individual and follows with the vintage theme. After not much scouting really, I came across this gorgeous little dress, that seemed to tick all the right boxes. 

There were three of a similar design, so my Mom showed my little sister which one she liked best and she chose this one! She has good taste! However, we are going to alter it I think because that it one HUGE bow. I love the fabric and everything about it, that is flouncy but not too over the top, which is why we shall probably remove that particular bow. We shall see anyway when it arrives.

How much was it then? Well this blog is all about DIY, bargains and thrift, and it was on Ebay from a Hong Kong shop, so a brand new dress for £11.99, with £3.99 P&P. Ooo we do love a bargain. That is why I have bought it so early, I'd well and truely kick myself if it had been taken off.

This is the back of the dress.

It's so girly and floral OoO I just love it. I think with a nice tousled uppy downy hair do, with some little rosebud clips subtly in it, it would look so pretty.

For example!

So that's that sorted, and little Lucy loves it!

Tilly xXx

Theme - The Beginning Mood Board ♥

Now we've got the venue, and a good idea of what it looks like, we can start building up theme ideas. I can picture little bit's and bob's to go here and there, and what to use to decorate the venue. As for our theme, I love vintage-ness! I am a big fan of quirky, pretty, Parisian Vintage, so that is what I'm aiming to go for. Obviously, everyone has unique tastes, so it's great to sift through websites like Pinterest to pick and personalise little ideas from each image. 

Think Lace, Taffeta and Peonies, oh and not to mention La Tour Eiffel. Suitcases, birdcages, candles, bunting, mason jars, ribbon fairy lights, bows, pearls - are just some of the things that have me inspired. 

So this gives you a general theme on our wedding. The three main colours being a pastel turquoise (to correspond with my hair!), a pastel pink and a light gold/champagne colour. I didn't particularly just want to stick with a general colour because it makes it harder to get items to correspond, or dresses to match etc. Especially when I am getting a lot of things from Ebay, where the exact colours differ, so it makes things a little more lenient when it comes to colour matching.

Do you like the vintage theme, or had it for your own wedding? I'd love to know! The only thing I'm worried about is shifting so much stuff, especially the flowers, 150 miles up the road the day before! Any tips would be handy! Thanks for reading!

Tilly xXx