The DIY Wedding

I think I freaked out our venue, the amazing Rosslea Hall Hotel in Rhu, Scotland, as a bride. I kept bringing projects downstairs and asking if I could please borrow some shears. I spent most of the day on Friday last arranging things we’d brought in gigantic suitcases and making sure that everything was set up. Most brides just show up and let everyone who they’ve hired do the details.

To me, it couldn’t have been any other way. I get tremendous satisfaction out of being able to make things with my own hands. I love to learn new skills. I love to be frugal. I do crafty projects all the time, and aspire to be a full-blown Maker in the future like my teenage idols, the Mythbusters.

There were a lot of DIY projects for the wedding:

• My hair and makeup, which I did myself.
• Our wedding mead! We made it for the ceremony back in January!

• My alterations to the dress, which included shortening the sleeves after they were added by a professional, adding buttons to the top, and installing a French Bustle.
• My bouquet, which I made with my sister the night before.
• My veil, made by hand to match the orange colours of autumn.

• My bridal comb, which I made by hand in September to match the veil.
• The garlands that hung around the hall, and the centrepieces for the tables with crocheted mason jars.
• Our table plan and name signs, which matched.

• Our tree-stamp guestbook.
• My mom and sisters’ hats, which they made according to English tradition!
• Our cake, which we decorated the morning of the wedding.

• Oh yeah, and just a little thing like our CEREMONY. I’ll post a lot longer about that later, but we hand-crafted the ceremony ourselves and were able to have it exactly as we wanted (including an offering to Pachamama, the Earth Mother goddess from the Andes).

  

There were probably other projects that I’m forgetting at the moment. I had so many hands to help me, and it was great to see how everyone was willing to put in a detail or help out with a project. I plan to write about many of those projects to give others an idea of how to make their own.

I know that DIY is really trendy in weddings at the moment, and that there has been some backlash over it because not everyone wants to make things for their wedding, or some people feel obligated to do so even though they aren’t already into crafts and DIY. This is more about who I am and always have been. It’s a continuation, not a departure from my normal.

Check out the photos, and let me know which projects are most interesting. Which would you like to know how to make?