Bella Nuvia Open Day

Last Sunday, 21st September, I dragged (and I mean dragged as the wheel broke off halfway there and all the springs popped out so now its a death trap!) my owl wheels full of craftiness to Bella Nuvia in Oxton for a day of wedding DIY crafts :)

It was a fab day and I decorated downstairs in just a few ideas for wedding decorations that could be done yourself whilst together look amazing!

It was lovely talking to so many brides who are having a hand crafted element to their wedding from their own flowers to decorations! Definitely the majority!

The biggest constraint on a bride-to-be is time so a fair few had brought their bridesmaids along since for a lot they where taking the crafty reigns!

The most popular items of the day where the rolled paper flowers whilst the slide show provided no end of inspiration and ideas.

If I ever get married I don't know how I'd have my wedding as there are just too many fantastic ideas out there!




I met some lovely local businesses as well from the fantastic hairdressers at Gossip, the lovely ladies from Amberlight Images and the marvellous Victoria Blossom flowers. Between us we had nearly a whole wedding sorted!

Victoria Blossom's flowers photographed by Amberlight Images at Bella Nuvia

I LOVE working with Natalie; even though we are two very different businesses we support each other as much as possible. You'll spot us working together again this Sunday at The Titanic Hotel in Liverpool as I'm giving her a hand whilst her dresses strut their stuff on the catwalk! Hopefully with models inside them or that would just be totally bizarre!

This Sunday!

In the next few weeks I'll be posting tutorials on all the wedding crafts featured on the day including;

* book roses
* rolled roses
* honeycomb pom-poms
* paper pom-poms
* pinwheels
* organza flowers

A big thanks to Natalie's Mum for a lift back to the train station with the bust bag!

Bust wheel & falling apart!

Did you have any handmade elements to your wedding?

The Wedding!

Me & the beautiful bride :)

So on Friday 13th June my beautiful cousin, Jilly-Sue Spencer, became Mrs Dillon and I had the honour and privileged of being a bridesmaid and also the mega responsibility of doing all the decorations. Now do not get me wrong, I volunteered and I was over-the-moon that she said yes (ha ha!).

Vintage themed wedding

Bunting triangles

Bless my folks for helping

I love planning; all the ideas we bounced around over colour, style, measuring the room, ordering fabric, test flowers, wool colours, researching other peoples weddings... : D

It seemed like such a long time of planning and making and then the 2 weeks before the wedding flew by!

However what I didn't anticipate was exactly how long sewing together over 200 ft of bunting would take, even with a sewing machine, or how long 80 pom-poms would take to open out, never mind dividing   over 500 pieces of tissue paper to make them colour coordinated.

Nor how to attach stems to bridal flowers when everything is polystyrene based. A huge thank you here to my long suffering boyfriend Tom for helping me test 4 different types of glue at 4am in the morning after finishing work! Smaller items such as the large crochet bunting, butterflies and fabric love birds where a breeze (hot gluing pearl beads onto a love bird at 2.30am trying to avoid the kitten was fun!).

Bridesmaids flowers

However for all my grumbling, lack of sleep etc etc the most important think to take away from all this is the pride and happiness I felt in my work, the combined effort of everyone else in my family who helped set the room up the night before, finishing it on the day and the following day when we had to take it all down!) and the look on all the other guests faces when they saw the room, especially the bride and groom.

 A wonderful day was had by all, the weather was beautiful, the afternoon tea was amazing and the karaoke was thankfully not too bad!! I also had a future bride to be want to take the bunting off me for her wedding next year! Spreading the wedding love :)

Although according to Tom I'm not allowed to 'get any ideas'! What is he gonna be like when I'm designing baby clothes! :P

Hand knitted/crochet flowers complete with blue butterfly for a beautiful vintage bride

Bridal flowers ready & waiting in a vintage jug

 Let me know what you think of it all!!