Cupcake delights!

Cupcakes are all the rage nowadays. Whether its in a trendy west london eatery like hummingbird bakery, or at a local fete– these finger-food sized sweet treats have definately made a come back.

Ideal for all kinds of parties, from a kiddie table to a sophisticated soiree, their adaptability means they can look both fun and chic. Cupcakes are also very easy to display and are perfect for large gatherings and buffets, or the back of a village hall.

To top it all off, I just discovered these delightful ‘supercook’ cupcake wraps:

They give a very pretty lace look to your baking, and if you are getting different people to contribute a dozen or so cakes each, would be a perfect way to tie them all together.

Here seen with berry and almond muffins, they come in a pop out flat pack, and wrap around any standard cupcake case.

Best of all they were under £1 for a set of 12 at my local Sainsburys- Bargain!

Combine these with lacy bunting and doily lighting and you have an instant teatime party treat with a pretty delicate feel. Perfect for a garden party or church hall.

And one with icing

Lacy doily bunting

I wish I had made this discovery before our wedding, but it wasn’t until my birthday party in July that I had a total brainwave on how to make pretty bunting easily on a budget. I’d toyed with making bunting before, but fabric bunting can be quite faffy if you need lots of it, so I gave up on the idea.

This method is quick and easy and will make you around 100m of bunting for the grand total of £4.50 (I guarantee you will not find such a good deal buying the stuff!)

You will need:

• 100 doilies (I got mine for £1 from a pound store)
• A ball of string
• Scissors
• Glue

Making the bunting

Fold each doily (see below) to make 8 triangles. Cut these out.

Now, fold the top end over a piece of string and glue down…

Space your triangles a few cm apart and keep folding and gluing. Each doily will make around 1m of bunting. You could experiment with other papers etc, but this is by far and away the quickest and cheapest effect I’ve found to get an effective and pretty look.

If you need tonnes of the stuff, this is quite an easy one to delegate out to friends who want to help out as it really is very simple and should end up with a fairly uniform effect.. or, if you want to make it social, why not have a bunting making party over a few glasses of wine!

Treasurehunting…

After my blog about finding stately home inspired charity shop vintage, I thought I’d showcase a few other treasures you can find if you’re willing to hunt a little.

I love charity shops, partly because you never know what you’ll find and I like a bit of a challenge! You often come across unique and interesting pieces at knock down prices plus it’s a great way to reuse and recycle stuff. Most importantly though, anything you pay is going to charity!

Some examples of charity shop treasure:

Want a sweet table or ‘candy buffet’ like this one from weddingbee?

Candy buffet display- from http://www.weddingbee.com

Why not use random cut glass from second hand shops for your display? These are often much cheaper than newer jars (under 50p-£2 each) sparkle in lights really well and give a lovely unique feel.

These are crying out to be filled with colourful candy!

Or, if you’re inspired by a ‘look’ in trendy homeware/design stores- you might find the same one in a local charity shop. Some charities do new ranges, like the one below from breast cancer care. They might not be quite as cheap as second hand, but the money is still going towards a good cause.

50s polka dots make a great wedding or hen party theme. Above: from Chatsworth house farm shop. Below: Breast cancer charity shop

You can’t guarantee what you’ll get in second hand stores, so if you have very specific ideas and products in mind, then this kind of shopping isn’t for you. But, if you are willing to hunt a bit- there may be all kinds of treasure out there waiting to be snapped up!

Top tips for charity bargains:

• Don’t just shop in trendy areas. Charity shops in Chelsea probably won’t save you money (unless you want designer gear)
• Touristy spots and market towns are often quite good. I’ve found amazing charity bargains on holidays in Buxton (Peaks) Eaglescliff (North East) Cirencester (Cotswolds) and Craignure (Isle of Mull, Scotland)
• If you want lots of items with a specific look (eg cut glass or vintage tea cups) then send your friends example pictures and get them to hunt too. Come to think of it- you could make it part of a hen day treasure hunt!
• When the big day is over, consider re-donating left over table centers or even your dress/shoes back to charity shops ready for another treasure hunting bride to find. Spread the love, hope and charity!

Happy treasure hunting!

Some great UK charities that have shops:

Oxfam; Breast Cancer Care; Cancer Research UK; British Heart foundation; Salvation Army; MIND; Mencap; Scope

More delightful craftiness- A bit of Doily love!

I am sorely tempted to have a go at this wonderful idea from ‘more design please’. Its a variation on old school balloon papier mache but with a delicate twist- using doilies!

From http://www.moredesignplease.com

Instant cheap shades- with a cute vintage look! you could do them in different sizes and maybe even colours. I LOVE the possibilities here and if I’d have seen this before my wedding it would have been high on the ‘must try’ list.

I discovered recently that doilies can also be used to make very effective and pretty bunting. Here seen on greentreegoods, but having made some (slightly more traditional looking) myself recently- watch this space for a step by step bunting ‘how to’.

Doily-bunting from greentreegoods.blogspot.com

Backyard party…

Having just moved into a house with a garden (only other budget buddies in a tight-for-space-city will understand quite what a miracle our house is) I’ve been pretty overwhelmed by what we could do with the space and how best to utilize our new ‘backyard’ complete with plum tree and resident magpie. A promising housewarming BBQ led to not much else in our lovely outdoor space all summer.

A great post on the ‘fabulously wed’ blog touched on how to bond with your new family (and possibly also your other half’s friends too) and gave a gorgeous example of a DIY outdoor movie night.

The details in the photos are just amazing and somewhere I think there is backyard wedding crying out to be themed this way, but since I’ve had my day, I’ll concentrate on the newly wed entertaining opportunities instead.

I have to admit, despite the obvious drawback of the British weather, I am totally in love with the concept. I love a good outdoor movie, and the idea of hosting a stylish comfy showing in our own leafy garden is very tempting! But, from the looks of  things it could get a bit pricy…

Never fear though, I found some great hints and tips from the all american store ‘pottery barn’ on how you can make a DIY movie screen on the cheap. You’ll need to beg borrow or have a projector for this (which could be the expensive part) but otherwise a potentially cost effective fiesta film evening:

I can't wait to try this out!

Getting the look- clown style

I know lots of people have gorgeous delicate decor at their weddings, and in lots of ways, it would have suited me too- but when we came up with the ‘theme’ for our wedding, it was our joint love of fun and laughter that drew us to a colour scheme that would reflect BOTH our personalities.

Taking inspiration from the primary colours in Michael’s froggle suit and my ‘clown and bride’ cake toppers we went for a bright and joyful feel. As one person on the day put it- ‘This is just the essence of fun!’

The 'essence of fun' colour scheme

The service was in our church St Helen’s, a lovely traditional building that needed minimal decorating. We just used the wooden roses to wind around pillars and some paper flowers made by a friend at the end of the pews.

At the reception, we had 150+ guests for a sit down meal, in tables of 10-12 with one very large ‘top table’ (something I will blog about at a later date). We were in another large old church building, but couldn’t fix anything to the  walls or pillars due to venue regulations.

Our decorating solutions?

1. Bright bold colours (using florestry spiders web as table runners) toned down with neutrals and cream

2. Home grown flowers- My auntie’s friend grew tulips in her allotment that flowered around the time of the wedding and she kindly made table decorations for us with these

3. We also used the left over wooden flowers (in 50p vases from Ikea), and helium balloons in blue red and yellow to complete the colourful feel.

4.Homemade paper flowers for the church pews

Total decoration costs for both church and reception? Under £100!

Eco- wedding food?

How can we help you?

Can you be green on a budget? Often it feels like the ethical options come at a premium, so we were delighted to find a wonderful catering company who manage to combine eco with value.

“How can we help you” is run by a lovely man called Darren, and we were attracted to them because

a) They were offering very good value paella options

b) They were (unlike many catering companies) very upfront on their website about their costs and exactly what those costs included (no hidden extras)

c) When Darren came to cook for us it tasted AMAZING

d) They donate 10% of your bill to your chosen charity (added to our red nose day donations, this meant hundreds of pounds of our wedding costs went to good causes)

e) They have a gold eco-award, meaning they’ve been audited and go the extra mile to recycle, use local produce and to invest back into the community.

With all this going for them and for a cut price deal (we got a discount due to our high numbers) per head, we started to wonder what to catch was. Would something go terribly wrong??? Surely this was too good to be true?!

They were, it has to be said, late setting up the night before, but on the day the food and the service were faultless. We’d HIGHLY recommend!

Looking back at the photos even now makes me ravenous!!

Fabulous food!

 

Clowning around

The clown theme

 

So, having decided to go with a fun, circus/clown feel to our wedding, we booked an entertainer from Froggle Parties to wander around the tables.

Dressed in a typical froggle outfit, Ben our entertainer did a sterling job making children of all ages (including the very grown up ones) smile.

From bubbles to balloon hats, the guests had lots of fun, and combined with our red nose favours the entertainment provided some great photo opportunities too!

Froggle: http://www.froggleparties.com

One of my friends, a mum of three said it was “The most child friendly” wedding she’s been too- and was worried the kids would expect all weddings to come complete with clown and comedy swords!

I’d initially thought the entertainer would just be there to keep the kids happy, but actually the way it worked out he ended up keeping everyone happy- and the end result was just as good as having a magician or more ‘grown up’ performer for our guests and really cemented the joyful feel of the day. Very good value for money!

…and noses are red too

which isn’t a comment about colds or alcoholics!

We decided that rather than go for sugared almonds or other kinds of overpriced table favours, we wanted to do something charity related. But a little piece of paper saying “a donation has been made in your name” whilst commendable,  somehow didn’t feel majorly fun.

The solution?

we did something ‘funny for money’ and raided our local Sainsburys for 150 red nose day noses (bought before the March deadline).

We put them into stylish balloon weight boxes (cheaper than ‘official’ favour boxes) along with some colourful pots of bubbles and the all important map to the boat.

On the outside- a nicely presented wedding favour. On the inside- a little box of fun! They provided much laughter and photo opportunities as well as being a charity donation towards a good cause.

Easier to pull off when your other half is a clown- but it could work at any circus themed/carnival wedding.

"something funny for money"

Roses are red…

And if you’re on a budget, and a little bit crafty- they can be wooden too!

Whilst I do adore fresh flowers, I’m also a little bit allergic and asthmatic, and we were on a tight budget, so, as I blogged about before the wedding, I decided to make my own floral decorations/bouquets from wooden roses.

The roses can be bought from numerous suppliers on ebay in a whole range of crazy colours. Unless you are after thousands, they tend to average at around £10-£15 for 100-200 stems.

I bought 100 red, 50 ivory/cream, 50 yellow and 50 blue stems, along with some grasses, ribbon, floristry pins and tape.

I started off making my bouquet and found the wire stems of the wooden roses very easy to manipulate into shape. I went for a small tear-drop shape, and worked on the principle of 3s (which is something I’d read about in flower arranging articles- basically putting three roses at the centre, and working out from there, adding three of each colour as I went.)

I added some curled grasses, secured it with green floristry tape and covered the handle in organza ribbon before adding some pearl headed pins to the centre of some of the roses for added ‘bridal’ effect.  The resulting flowers were bright, fun and looked really nice in photos 🙂

I almost wish I hadn’t thrown them to the single ladies at the end of the night!!

I made button holes using the same flowers, and combined colours to make a bunch for the lectern in church. The remaining stems were wound around archways or put into vases for the reception.

One of the best buys of the whole wedding I think!

Photograph taken by Jonathan Self; all rights reserved 2011. http://www.jonathanself.co.uk