DIY Wedding favours/name tags

I Love these and they are so simple to make and at very little cost, they double up as great favours too!
You will need: small luggage tags (always make a few more than you need to), Ribbon or string for tying, a small plate, some tea bags & kitchen roll.

Step 1, Place a couple of tea bags onto your plate and add hot water,
carefully squeeze them with the back of a spoon
 so all the tea stain comes out.



Step 2, Put as many tags in as you can and make sure they are well covered, put the tea bags on top of them and leave for about ten minutes. (You will need to do this in batches). After ten minutes, remove the tags and place on the kitchen towel to dry, place another layer of kitchen towel over them and press down to remove excess moisture.

Step 3, Leave the tags to dry in a warm place over night, if the have curled slightly they may just need putting in a heavy book once dry, although I've never needed to. Once dry, in a pen of your choice, (I like Berol Italic in medium from smiths) carefully write out the names taking care not to smudge the ink. Once the ink is dry, if your not using the string that is already on the tags, snip off string, cut a length of ribbon at least 4", fold in half and with the loop end, thread through till you have a small loop just poking through, then tuck both the ends into this and pull.

Step 4, Collect your flowers into small bundles, I like to use lavender as this can be used dry, even when cut fresh it will stay looking good. You could use other dried flowers, or if making them on the day of your event you could use fresh. I also like to use herbs as they can also be made in advance & smell lovely, this teams up nicely with very small centre pieces of lavender with rosemary and sage. Herbs can be pretty when in flower. ooops look at that... I've been off on a tangent of flowers... where was I?... Oh yes, Tie your tags onto the little bunches of flowers, I forgot to say, if your just using the string provided you could also wrap lace around too for a pretty vintage touch.

P.S If you love this idea but want a short cut, hop over to my facebook page and there is an etsy link there to buy the tags ready made.

Thank you.

Vintage wedding. All in this together!

I am a control freak! and a perfectionist! and possibly a little bit hard to live with at times.... Now throw in a wedding day, my wedding day and if you know me well you may just want to run a mile, thankfully & lucky for me I Have the most lovely & supportive friends and family. I will never forget how at the very last minute, when I was still insisting I didn't need any help...(the day before) they all blissfully ignored me and helped me & my hubby have the best wedding ever. My mother in law offered to make my cake... most brides would of been thrilled, I wanted to make mine myself without any help! My mum wanted to help lay my beautiful china.... you must be kidding, I know what cup looks best with what tea plate. My friend/florist wanted to do the flowers in the hall.... erm I thought I'd do those too. If I could of taken my own photo's I would of. looking back I was an absolute nightmare before my wedding although not until the last week, I had kept my bridezilla under wraps well. I cracked the week before under pressure of doing everything myself as I had insisted. I was sewing bunting till midnight, making cakes 3 days running, making orders of service, tying lace around anything that stood in my way, even the dog got it. Then 2 days before W day my second tier of my cake melted... yes melted, then came my melt down, I rang my friend wailing... (I'm very lucky to have a lovely lady who makes beautiful cakes as a friendwww.Lisasicedgems.co.uk)   Bring it round she insisted, I'll re-ice it now, so at 7.30pm I went walking down the road with my cake hiding under a Cath Kidston tea towel, and a big frown on my face. as soon as I walked in the relief washed over me and I realised I'd been really foolish to not let anyone help. After this I quietly admitted defeat... actually I didn't have to admit anything, one by one our friends & family tactfully took on the little jobs to pull our vintage wedding together, Lisa re-iced my cake for me, my future brother in law ended up doing the flower decorations around the hall, my mother & sister in law did all the table decorations, my sister helped hold me together and my maid of Honor went above and beyond, I even had our best man making the favours out of lavender. Our friends did our bar, another friend lent us bunting. It really is overwhelming when I think of how everyone pulled together for us. Everything went beautifully and if I could give one bit of advice it would be this... trust in your friends and family, they know you, they love you, they will always do what is right by you, relax and enjoy the build up to your day & most of all delegate!!

Pretty as a picture