Handmade Wedding
Tuesday, December 13, 2011We've been back for a few days now and part of me is really regretting that we didn't have a proper honeymoon break... I'm back at work and all I can think about are the sandy shores of Camps Bay beachfront, the rolling hills of the countryside, and the family and friends we've left behind. Perhaps a little getaway in January is on the cards to appease the homesickness :)
And so, here we are - a right 'handmade wedding' for your eye candy delight. I thought I'd take you on a quick tour of the handmade elements of our garden party wedding, in pictures. Here we go...
The Cake
We made the cake a few days before the wedding. I wanted something delicious, but strictly not traditional. We opted for an amazing moist chocolate cake, layered together with coffee-flavoured icing and covered in buttercream. In the shape of a teapot.
These are the cupcakes that formed the basis of our four-tier cake stand. They were a decadent chocolate, iced with buttercream (iced with a Wilton 1M tip in pink, peach and lavender coloured buttercream, sprinkled with edible glitter).
And here's the cake! A beautiful teapot cake atop three tiers of chocolate cupcakes. Yum. On either side of the cake are cake stands with heart- and teapot-shaped sugar cookies.
We made the top of the cake using plastic icing fondant, rolled out with an embossed paisley pattern and decorated with sugar pearls and buttercream. I made the handle and spout out of solid sugar paste which I shaped and secured with wooden kebab sticks.
We finished the body of the teapot off with sugar roses I made using Squire's sugar paste tinted with fuchsia food colouring.
I also made sugar cookies in simple hearts and teapots, iced with royal icing and topped with buttercream flowers. They disappeared very quickly! Our cake toppers ended up on display on the cake stand rather than on top of the teapot, but they look rather nice here so I was happy with that.
The Venue
We didn't make the venue, of course, but all of our decor was handmade. Here are a few of my favourite bits:
Graeme's mom made the most amazing tiebacks - handpainted, threaded, beaded, ribboned and adorned.
My friend Wendy made hundreds of amazing little windmills which we used to decorate the tables (buckets of sweets, there, with labels - made by us), the garden and the chuppah.
We made favour boxes. They were labelled with 'Tea for Two', the date and a pic of us. Inside we stashed two Twinings teabags (different flavours) and four Herschey's Kisses. It took us about three weeks (working on them every night) to make up all the labels, add on a beaded decal and a teapot charm, and tie these things together.
... and just to add to the 'garden party' thing even more, we hand-tied each napkin with a maroony-purple ribbon and two sprigs of lavender.
Have a look at my Flickr Album here to see more of our venue pics, including the hand-made rose-petal cones (thanks, Wendy!), the windmills around the grounds, the oh-so-pretty bunting and the place settings.
The Dress
Because what hand-made wedding would be complete without a hand-made dress? My aunt Robyn made my dress from scratch as they say, and also her own, my mother's dress, the flower girl's dress and the bridesmaids' 'over tops'.
Robyn, Me, Mom.
The dress! We often joke about us both wearing dresses, but mine is the one in question here :) Graeme's dress is rather lovely too. We had it made here by the Scottish Kilt Outfitters and took it over with us. After the wedding I bought him a wildebeest sporran so now he's got the whole 'South African Scotsman' thing going down quite well.
I'm still uploading pics to our Flickr Albums, they should all be up there by the end of the week. Do pop by and have a look-see if you want more weddingness!
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