DIY Wedding Details

I love making things. There is something incredibly relaxing about making something, whether it's food, a piece of art or a gift for someone.

It's been 9 months since I got married.......and I realized that I had quite a few DIYs for my wedding that I wanted to share with you!

First up- flowers and bouttinieres.

I knew that I didn't want to go with anything traditional for the wedding and my biggest DIY surprise for myself was that I made my flowers from crepe paper! Once I knew what I was going to do for flowers it just made complete sense for me-I'd get to customize the sizes, colours and even the quantity.

Using this blog post from Studio DIY, a couple of my bridesmaids and I were able to put together all of  flowers over the course of a couple of evenings. One evening was spent cutting out everything, the other was spent making them.

Gorgeous flowers for my gorgeous gals!

 Just look at how vibrant those colours are









I hired Wildfell Florals to make some simple herb bouttinieres for the men. For my groom's bout, I added a special touch- a succulent that I had kept growing from my Feb 2015 photoshoot with Arynn Photography. While this may not count as a complete DIY, as someone with a notorious black thumb  I'm extremely proud of myself for keeping the succulent alive.
 

The succulent is still alive and well, and I've managed to propogate two more baby plants from its leaves


Wedding Favours- Tea Sachets

This is the DIY that took up the most of my time...but was the most fun to do! I looooove tea. It's my go-to beverage, with coffee being a close second. These bags were my pride and joy, but took a lot of effort to make. I'd say they took about two evenings of work but were well worth it.

I had five types of tea hidden amongst all the sachets.

1. Chai
2. Earl Grey
3. Pomegranate Green
4. Genmaicha
5. Tropical Black Tea

First off- those tags took an entire evening of taping (there's a washi tape strip on the other side for colour) writing and threading. I put 2-3 servings of tea into teabags to seal up so they didn't lose their flavour, then put them into the little burlap bags.

It was a fun couple of nights to hangout with bridesmaids and put them to work...but when you've got 250 to make it was awesome to be able to split up the work.


Have you tackled any DIYs lately, wedding or day-to-day life?

Thrift Store Finds-The time I went to Black Market

Whenever I'm downtown Toronto, I always make a point to go to two stores-Black Market and Tribal Rhythms on Queen West. For some reason, I've always had really good luck at both of these stores, and Tribal Rhythms was the first store I ever bought a thrifted item at, so it holds a special place in my heart.

But today's post is about a time I went to Black Market and walked out with a jacket....in the middle of summer.

I swear I'm not crazy, I just like thinking ahead!

Black Market is a great store, but it's located underground. To get there you go down a set of really cool steps and you're in the store. The store also leases some property to a CD/record place, and to a barber shop. Excluding those two places, everything in the store is $10 or less.
I was browsing the racks of Black Market when I came upon this beautiful jacket. It was plain black, and made of a heavier material, which I knew would be perfect for fall. It also fit perfectly, which I wasn't expecting at all! Most times when I go thrifting, I have to take stuff in, or shorten something. This fit like a dream. However, it was a bit too basic, even for me and my all-black wardrobe (okay, there's stripes in there too) . I wasn't going to pass up that jacket though, especially not for $10! You can't get a good quality jacket at those prices anyone. I decided that I was going to jazz up the jacket, just to add a touch of 'me' to it.

I continued down Queen West until I got to a craft store. This store sells the most amazing buttons! I've gotten so many good ones from there before to update other jackets as well. My eyes settled on some beautiful black buttons with a gold rim. I decided that I was going to buy those buttons and add them to my jacket.

Going home, I realized that there was only one buttonhole on my jacket, so I made my own. I didn't worry too much about the stitching because I knew it would end up being covered by the buttons. It took me about an hour of patiently cutting and sewing, but my jacket ended up looking beautiful!

The jacket in all its glory!

The total cost of this project- $10 for the jacket, $12 for buttons= $22 in total for a brand new jacket that no one else will have!

It still is a bit basic, but it's a basic that I can wear with anything and that will last in my wardrobe for a long time.

DIY jewellery hanger

I can't believe it's been over a year since my last update. Between family, travelling and teacher's college, I've had no time.

However, I have been upto many things, including this DIY.

I haves lot of jewellery. I mean, a LOT. People give me jewellery as gifts, especially necklaces, and because they were never hung up properly, I occupied never remember which ones I had.

I came across this deceptively simple jewellery hanger from Lovelieshares, and just knew it would fit perfectly into my room. It's subtle enough that it would go with my wood decor and showcase my necklaces, but still adds a touch of glam to my dull, un-painted bedroom.

I knew I had paint, but I wasn't sure if I had primer, or even a wooden hanger. I definitely did not have hooks. I ended up making a trip down to Canadian Tire where I got a two-pack of wooden hangers for $1, and Walmart where I got two 8-packs of 1/2" bronze cup hooks.

Instead of using primer, I used 3 coats of a spray-on gold paint. I laid the hangers on big plastic bags in my backyard, and let them air-dry for an hour in between coats.

I then drilled small holes into my hanger, and screwed my cup hooks into the holes.

After the hangers were painted, dried and screwed, I layered my necklaces onto my hanger.

The finished product!