Wedding DIY: Crochet Bouquet and other flowers

When we were planning our wedding, I was conscious to try and avoid some of the wasteful elements that are deemed 'essential'. Especially since everything for a wedding is so incredibly expensive already. For flowers, I knew what aesthetic I was going for, having a clear memory of loving the flowers that my friend Anita had at her wedding [in August 2015]. 

Some thoughts I had about flowers and waste, was the possibility of 'resusable' flowers out of felt. There were a few places where I found templates for felt flowers: a thistle, a rose, some eucalyptus. Cutting these by hand with scissors, was possible but took SO LONG that it wasn't going to be feasible to do this for the table arrangements. I did try and invest in a (second hand) cricut machine to help with this, but in the end the version I bought wasn't able to cut felt and I just couldn't justify the most expensive version which would do the job just for the flowers. 

On my internet search quest for felt bouquets, I saw a few crocheted flowers which I thought I'd give a go. I bought a pattern from etsy that turned out to be far too difficult for a beginner, but I came across these videos where the lady takes you through the entire process. This I could copy and after a few tries, I got the hang of it. Also her voice was very soft and soothing which was good for all the times when mistakes got frustrating!

Since all the wedding planning was happening during lockdown(s), I had plenty of time every evening in front of the TV to crochet rose petals. Each rose takes 9 petals, plus a sepal and stem. I decided to just crochet for my own bouquet since it was going to take quite a while to make enough stems. I was so pleased with the end result, and glad that this is something I can keep forever. On the day I added some soft ruscus greenery and baby's breath alongside the roses and bound everything with jute string.

Another potentially wasteful element (and unnecessary expense) was confetti. We were actually not allowed to throw anything outside our church, and could use only natural confetti at the venue. So over the year until the big day, I saved petals whenever I had cut flowers in the house - and so did my mum, her neighbours and anyone else we could cajole! We had a huge basketful for the wedding day, plenty for all guests and it didn't cost us anything additional! I'm still not out of the habit of wanting to save petals from any flowers we have in the house since the wedding.

And for the table decorations, I couldn't manage the felt flowers but I still went with DIY and collected lots of jars of various sizes and some tonic bottles - which my mum spray painted blue. These were all wrapped around with tartan ribbon for decoration. I bought the DIY flower box in blue and lilac from triangle nursery which was great value. They offered an online consultation which was immensely helpful for planning how each table arrangement would look and how to organise the preparation. I would really recommend their service for anyone brave enough to DIY!

It was so easy to dry the petals, and a good money saver. Probably not a huge saving but every little helps!

I was pleased with these thistles but they were just far too labour intensive to be worthwhile.

Crochet practise, total beginner...

This was the first rose I made, which wasn't make properly to plan and had a lot more petals than later versions. Plus I didn't bother to make the leaves for the bouquet because they were a big faff, and actually the leaves are removed anyway from fresh roses.

Once I got into the flow, it became quite a therapeutic activity in the evenings and the finished roses were quite impressive.

Making the final white roses; all the petals, floristry tape and a glue gun!

The bouquet on the day - some people didn't even realise these were not fresh!

I was pleased with how the table decorations turned out; a handmade effort which was pretty and added nice touches without being over the top. 

Wonderings Lately :: January & February

Well the year begun with that usual sense of anticipation and excitement. New Year is a celebration I prefer low-key in normal times so I was quite happy with a nice meal at home and fireworks on the TV. It's a shame that the tele-visual offerings were so dire - especially with such a captive audience - but thankful for surprise fireworks anyway.

So January began, and we all kept our optimism for a few days, remembering that there was a vaccine now, surely things will be getting better from now on? Unfortunately, the reality was that things were pretty much the same (or slightly worse) than before and we were back fairly quickly in a national lockdown once more.

So what is there to update each month? We've not really done much of anything. We are lucky, very much so, and we still have jobs and these lockdowns allow us to save money, which we really need to pay for our wedding. But that's so hard to plan for when things are so unknown, and life becomes so boring when it's so monotonous. The weather is grim, the days are short and I'm basically hibernating at home.

So I've not taken a lot of pictures, and I don't have a lot to write about as wanderings or wonderings.

As we move through March, the government's plans for easing are starting to be implemented and I am glad these are being done slowly and cautiously. Hopefully it is for the long term this time; third time lucky? I'm also anxious about returning to 'normality', life is very boring but it's also very easy at the moment. I have no plans and I need to go nowhere but home. What is life like post-COVID? Are we ready to find out?

As March starts to bloom, spring is in the air, days are longer, and the sun shows up a bit more. There is much optimism, and a little bit of trepidation is probably wise. We proceed with caution.

Lately...

I bought a new (to me) phone. Snazzier than my old one, which will soon be recycled.

Got this new tea pot for my birthday and absolutely love it! So much joy!

Here's Boris announcing the 'road map' out of lockdown. I really wish he'd brush his hair.

I went for a long bike ride on a nice day in Feb back to my old neighbourhood in Canada Water. Loved a change of scenery and revisiting somewhere familiar.

I enjoyed my birthday, despite the lockdown. I never expected that we would still be under such tight restrictions on my birthday but alas we were. I enjoyed a walk in the park with a friend, although less impressed with her sellotape (!) and Friday fish and chips. Since it was Valentines weekend Victor and I also enjoyed a fancy waitrose 3 course meal deal dinner. <3

Got a tiny bit of snow and it was very exciting!

And the majority of the past few months have been wedding prep. I'm crocheting and creating felt flowers plus drying rose petals for confetti. What else can you do with every evening in front of the TV?!

Victor's Christmas chocolates lasted about 2 weeks and I ate only about 3 or 4 of these.

Took a long walk along a new to us bit of the Wandle trail. Unfortunately not a particularly attractive outer London walk but nice to visit somewhere a bit different still within walking distance. This was probably the nicest part of the walk.

These photos are in the wrong order, so these last two are from our New Year's Day visit to Whitstable. Not too busy (unlike the parks in London), we had a lovely but chilly walk along the sea, blowing away the cobwebs and starting the new year fresh.