4 Months today!

All images courtesy of Google Images

Only 4 months until I become Mrs Spillane!

C xx

DIY stationary - Update

The DIY stationary design and assemble process has now reached the end, well thats a slight lie, I have actually only finished the front of 10 'order of services' and none of the inserts, but I do have an excuse for that as the actual service is still waiting to be approved by the priest (he has had it since April)

I figured that it would be best to have at least the front of them finished and then it will only require me to print of the inserts when we have approval, and as we are dealing with Spain I have a feeling that this may be very close to the wedding date!

I was really pleased when I seen all of the stationary laid out together, it was the first time that I have seen how everything works together and follows the same design. Seeing it all together made me smile.

Left to right:

Invitation, Order Of Service, Menu

Seeing it all coming together spurred me onto to start work on the table plan, I wanted to keep the design from the stationary going onto that and I feel that it has worked out really well. The font matches the font from the table place name frames too (OCD kicking in here!)

Once we know who is attending, I have a template set up on the computer which will make it really easy for me to print quickly and then they will just need to be stuck onto the main planner a few days before the wedding.

I also finished the kids bags in the same design. These will double up as their place names and will be filled with things to do to keep them occupied.

C xx

Planning a wedding abroad - update

Today I was asked have I not found it really difficult to plan my wedding as it is abroad. I think that the way that we have planned our wedding has been great for us, yes there are some ups and downs of planning a wedding abroad as there are having a wedding in the UK but overall it has actually been fairly stress free up to this point.

I posted before about The Ups and Downs, here

I have had a few stressful moments, mainly when waiting on suppliers to email me back and sometimes with the language difference I have felt that it some things may be lost in translation slightly.

The others have been the inevitable stresses with making some of the decisions like which supplier to go for but nothing major that I feel would be much different if we were to have the wedding here.

I suppose the major difference is most of the decisions are made from looking at peoples websites and some of our suppliers we have not met in person which I think if my wedding was here I most definitely would not be wanting to happen but due to peoples time constraints it has not always been possible to meet up with everyone on our 2 viewing visits.

We were very lucky to be able to make two visits to Spain in January and April and all the major decisions were made then this has allowed me to have lots of time to spend on my DIY projects which I have really appreciated.

I would not hesitate to recommend a wedding abroad if that is where your heart lies, yes there are so things to get your head around:

• The fact that some people close to you may not be able to make it
• Most Spanish hotels don't do 'contracts'!!! - which is a big thing to get your head around
• The language barrier - wedding planners are a must in my book,
• Booking things from Internet information only - we have been lucky and have only not met our videographer
• The paperwork needed - but again with a wedding planner this has really been easy

Part of me, wonders if this has all been too easy? I put a lot of hours into research at the beginning, before our visits and was really prepared to get the most out of the short time that we were there. We achieved so much in that period of time that I have to keep reminding myself that we have in fact made all the major decisions and most of the small ones too.

With just over four months to go the only decision still left to make is which tartan h2b will be wearing!

Oh and to keep working on all the DIY touches which I am totally loving!

Wedding Party T-Shirts

I have loved diamante wedding party clothing even before I got engaged and really wanted to have some for our wedding, I had looked at dressing gowns but they were quite expensive so I have decided to go with T Shirts instead.

I hope we will be wearing them for a good part of the day as the wedding is not until 4pm so I thought it would be really nice for us all to have t-shirts to wear lounging about our villa on the morning of the wedding.

I found diamante transfers Here and bought some black vest tops for myself and the chief bridesmaid.

I have also ordered a 'Brides Mum' and 'Brides Sister' which I am going to put onto t-shirts rather than vest tops, and I am also planning on making ones for my flowergirls which will go onto pink t-shirts.

I think that it will look great in photos and I am really looking forward to wearing mine! Hope everyone else loves them too.

C xx




Personalised wedding dress hanger

Today I have been working on my personalised wedding dress hanger.

I first saw these on Etsy but thought they were very expensive so I set about trying to figure out how to make my own.

I found a tutorial here weddingbee which was really easy to follow. I did find it hard to find wooden hangers without a trouser hanger but did eventually find some on eBay.

For the wire I used this although it may be easier to use slightly thicker wire possibly 16 or 14 gauge. The important thing to know when choosing your wire is that the lower the gauge number the thicker the wire will be.

This is how my trial run ended up, I need to drill some holes into it and place the wire into that rather than just tie it around the hanger and I also need to twist the wire to make it straighter (this is easier said than done!) but overall I am really happy with it.

First attempt

I followed the instructions above and downloaded the font 'Riddle' here The first letter is size 225 and the others are 110.

The template and hanger.

It took me about 1 hour to twist the letters round and I found taping them to the template the easiest way to keep the flow of the wire going.

I can't wait to see my photos with my dress hanging on it on the big day! And I really must admit that it is making me giggle seeing my married name written out.

C xx

DIY Wedding Monogram

For the inserts in our invitations and also on our wedding menus I loved the idea of having a monogram. As I was printing them all myself I needed to figure out how to go about making one. After a few hours playing around I finally figured it out.

I thought I would share with you all how easy it is to make your own monogram.

(I am using Office for mac, but it should be similar on windows)

This is our finished monogram.

Start by opening a blank document in Microsoft word, you then need to insert text box. Choose the font that you want to use. For the 'C' in ours I have used Edwardian Script (size 200) Once you have chosen your font (This site is great for free font downloads. you need to make sure that you have set up your text box with no lines or fillers.

To do so you double click on the box outline and a 'format text box' will appear. Click on colour - No fill and Line - No line.

This will ensure that you will be able to overlap your monogram.

Complete the above instructions again to make your second letter and also your names and date of the wedding. For the 'M' I used Times New Roman (size 250) I also used a darker purple here to ensure that it stood out.

Once you have all your letters chosen and placed onto your word document you can then line them up over the top of each other and change sizes if necessary.

And again our finished monogram, which I then moved onto to our inserts by copying and pasting, I am sure there may be an easier way to move it over but I wasn't able to figure that bit out. Look here for our finished inserts: Invites>

Hope this helps if you are planning on making your own monogram.

C xx

DIY Projects

Well as my title says, I am planning my wedding with lots of DIY touches:

So far I have:

• Made all the invitations, RSVPS and gift list inserts
• Painted all the table sign holders
• Made all the table signs
• Painted 'Mr & Mrs' sign for top table in our theme colour
• Painted 'I do' letters for the cake table
• Designed an 'Out of town' leaflet
• Photographed and printed a map for instructions to get to the church
• Kids activity bags
• DIY photo guest book
• Personalised unity candle
• Guest book table sign
• Bar sign to show all complimentary drinks

Still to do:

• Kids activity books
• Kids scavenger hunt sheets
• Order of services
• Menus
• Table Plan
• Gift for my mum which requires some hand made work
• T shirts for the morning of the wedding
• 'Mrs' tote bag to hold all my bits and my flats!
• Wedding dress hanger
• I spy cards

I am always on the look out for other things I can be doing to personalise the wedding in the run up to the big day, I am really enjoying being able to do a lot of it myself, although getting it to Spain will be another issue! lol

Some of the sites I have been using for inspiration are:

Weddingbee!

Rock My Wedding!

Bride & Chic!

Are any of you doing a lot of DIY?

C xx