For our Wedding we decided to make our own stationary. Initially I didn’t think there was that much too it – few ‘save the date’s, the invites, orders of service, table plan, place settings, table names and thank you cards. Actually this is quite a lot after some consideration, but seeing as I already had the guillotine and plenty of blank white cards, we decided to add the personal touch to our wedding stationary!
Hand Made Order of Services - silver embossing on white card with silver and red background card topper (www.weddingsbymichael.co.uk)
For consistency and to break down the process of making, card toppers were made – white card stamped with a clear ink pad, silver embossing dusted over the top with the excess shaken off then heated with a heat tool to create the raised heart pattern. This was stuck onto the silver and then the red. All the card was pre-cut to size again to make the overall process easier. These toppers were left with a strip of double sided on the back so they could be stuck to any of the appropriate stationary when required. These were then used on the ‘Save the Date’s, the Invitations, Order of Service and the Thank You cards with the added peel-off letter which just stuck on too.
Hand Made Table Plan - Table seating arrangements printed out onto white card, mounted onto silver, then red. All of them, with a couple of card toppers arranged on a white A1 board (www.weddingsbymichael.co.uk)
Similar techniques were used for our table plan board – an A1 piece of mount board was used as the basis for this. Initially I had problems with doing the table layouts using Photoshop – the design software which I know the best! My husband had the better idea of using Excel or an alternative spreadsheet software as the rows and columns can be spaced to 0.1mm! So the tables were printed out onto white card, matching the same font as previously used, and mounted as the card toppers to the board.
Hand Made Table Names (www.weddingsbymichael.co.uk)
In the same way, the table names were made to an A5 landscape size. The wedding coordinator at the Red Hall Hotel was very helpful and gave sizing idea for both the table plan and the table names which helped greatly. Before making anything like this for the Wedding Breakfast venue, I asked what accessories were included – for us the stand for the table plan and tall holders for the tables were included in the venue hire, so a couple things less to think about!
Home Printed Table Place Settings Hand Made Table Names (www.weddingsbymichael.co.uk)
For the place name settings, I did a bit of research into these. One idea was to completely make them from scratch – layering up as with the other stationary, but I felt this was a big task and found these which had a template for Word, printed out straight onto the card, and pushed out ready to be folded. The idea was brilliant, but the proof was in the printing – the card didn’t really agree with my printer, so a good job I got 3 packets when we only needed too, and a few got bent in going through the printer. After about 3 hours of trying we eventually got there!
Home Printed Table Place Settings Hand Made Table Names (www.weddingsbymichael.co.uk)
To help the Red Hall Hotel set the tables for us, I labelled up an envelope with the table name on the front, and the name place settings for that table to make the tables. This level of organization enabled them to set the room up in about 20 minutes.
White Wicker Heart Chair / Pew End Decorations Customized with Red Ribbon and Red Bow (www.weddingsbymichael.co.uk)
As for the church we were married in, Trinity Baptist Church in Bacup, it has a modern interior, so I wanted to add some decorations in here to make it different from a Sunday morning service. Whilst our shopping in the Christmas Sales, I can across two sizes of the above white wicker heart which I thought would make good decorations around the balcony and chair ends. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough of the larger ones to cover all the way round the balcony, and there were some cream wire hearts which I customized with red wired ribbon to all match in. All were tied on with thinner matching red or silver ribbon to carry on the colour theme throughout.
Hand Knitted Favor Bags Filled With Treats and Thanks You Tag Hand Made Using The Card Toppers (www.weddingsbymichael.co.uk)
For the Wedding Breakfast favors I really wanted to make my own way on containing them and I knew I could make my own little boxes out of card to match in, but the paper craft I find a bit more of a chore. So this got me thinking about knitting as I use this as a way of relaxing in my spare time, as I find it really hard to sit and do nothing! I flicked through a knitting book with patterns in, and came across this bag. I got my Mum to have a look at the pattern, to check how easy it was to knit and the next time I saw her she produced a rather large knitted pouch which looked really nice and just needed some buttons to customize along with ribbon through the top to tie the bag. Brilliant I thought, something unique for our Wedding and something which definitely related to me, along with my Mum and Grandma whom we sadly lost last July. I sourced the wool from a local supplier – two bargain bags I found with over a kilo of wool between the tho which I thought would be plenty to make approximately 70 bags. I ended up knitting the majority of the bags and my Mum added the buttons and sewing them up – great team work! The the next thing was to decide what to put in them! After a lot of deliberation over sweets and chocolates we decided upon wrapped Throntons champagne truffles and a wrapped mint from a local old fashioned sweet shop.
All the above images were taken by our Wedding Photographers – Michael and Anne Sewell.