50 Fab Table Name Ideas

You don't need to use numbers!

I've put together a collection of cool themes and ideas for naming your tables for the reception, as suggested by friends and family and some of my own ideas. Ash and I went to Maui, Hawaii for our first holiday together and fell in love with the island, so we are naming our tables after our favourite places from the trip.

I hope they give you some ideas, I am aiming to get to 50 so any ideas you have, feel free to leave a comment and I'll add them on!

Song titles of  favourite group or singer

From Seventh Moon Wedding Design

Clothes designers

Street names of where you lived

Favourite films

Flower names

Tree names

Names of the houses you have lived in

Book titles

Favourite authors

Wines

Cocktails

Whiskeys

Vintage/classic cars

Cricket grounds

Football grounds

Cities

Countries

Islands

Italian foods

Curries

Cars you've owned

Hollywood stars, past and present

Simpsons characters

Disney films

Precious stones

Beaches

Traditional sweets

Chocolate Bars/treats

Famous chefs

Favourite restaurants

Famous artists, paintings

Famous couples
Sailing knots
US states visited
Herbs and spices
Favourite sports personalities
Types of shoe
Film types e.g. Film Noire, Action, Thriller, Romance etc
Shakespeare plays
Romantic Poems
Historical figures e.g. Sir Francis Drake


Hope these help,
Hannah x

Table Plans with a Difference

Is anyone else totally bored by regular, printed, perfectly framed and orientated table plans? For something that is actually quite important to the organisation of a wedding day, I am disappointed by such designs. I think that a table plan can be something other than dull... it can be a unique feature in itself and yet another opportunity in a wedding to inject a bit of personality. The great thing is, with a bit of imagination, you could make a table plan out of, well.. anything really.

On this post I have put together a small collection of ideas and stockists who are able to offer something a little different. I will be featuring instructions at a later date of how I created my own table plan, inspired by a Cath Kidston design.

Birdcage Table Plan, find at www.theweddingofmydreams.co.uk

Old lined suitcase with each table clipped inside, and adorned with pearl garlands

A small shrub hung with each table makes a lovely table plan

Cath Kidston
Available for hire from www.myvintageteaparty.co.uk

1950's Style... Birdcage Veils

Birdcage veils are hugely popular and are adorning the glossy pages of bridal magazines everywhere. If I was wearing a veil for my own wedding, then I would be opting for one of these fantastic pieces of pure wedding style which are a true throwback to the 50s. Think Grace Kelly and you're on the right track. 

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So what is so great about birdcage veils? They are truly versatile and can be worn with a modern look, equally well as if you're going for pure 1950s style. If you're not a fan of the tiered veils, like me, birdcage veils are a fabulous alternative. I've found some great suppliers and prices to suit different budgets.

Have a look at www.chezbec.com. Their prices range from £36 to £120 for a veil. 

 

Also try www.lilybella.co.uk, prices vary.

Happy hunting!

I got my typewriter!

I have been on quite a search, but after much hunting and bidding wars on Ebay, amongst other places, I found a typewriter! And it works!

'What would you want a typewriter for at a wedding?' I hear you say. Well, ever been slightly bored by the idea of writing in a guestbook at a wedding? Me too. So, here is my way of making it a little bit more fun. My typewriter - retro in style and I think from the 70s - will be the medium for my guests to write their messages on as I am sure they won't be able to resist the temptation to have a go. I will also use the typeface in my table plan and place cards. In some ways, I wish I had found this months ago when I was designing my invitations.

After many bidding wars on Ebay to which I was unsuccessful, I decided to give my local Antiques Market a try. I hunted down the retro/vintage section, which is not full of what could be identified as antique, but certainly full of some great finds. I think I will be heading back that way soon to hunt out some little treasures for my house! I was not disappointed by the price either, it was a bargain price of £24, which worked out at no more expensive that some of the typewriters on Ebay.

So if you are on the hunt for something similar, yes, check out Ebay, but also consider carboot sales, antiques markets and auctions. You may well get lucky. 

My typewriter will be available for hire from September 2011.

Flowers and colour schemes are a potential recipe for disaster

If there is one aspect of this wedding that has so far caused me the most stress, it has to be the colour scheme and the flowers. Don’t ask me why. The only rationalisation that I have been able to come up with is that I am just too damned indecisive and there is just simply too much choice. Either that or I have no taste what-so-ever. Even bridal magazines and Google images haven’t been able to help me on this one. If anything, they have just confused me more. All I knew initially was that I wanted a big splash of colour to lift the whiteness of our huge traditional marquee.

So where does one start when trying to make these kinds of decisions? Going with your favourite colours should work for most, but I like red and purple, and they are not always great friends. In my flower and colour scheme naivety (I had a lime green and dark blue bedroom as a teenage, which says it all really), I thought I would put the two together. Hmmm. It was a very good idea in theory and I had found some great flower arrangements on Google images which I flashed in front of sceptics faces – there were a fair few sceptics – I knew it was what I wanted.

Actually getting further than the pictures I liked was tricky. Finding other aspects of the wedding to match the shades of red and purple I liked was a lost cause. It wasn’t so much the purple that was the issue but could I find a red that wasn’t a scarlet red or burgundy red? I stood in a fabric shop for well over half an hour, staring at the shades of red and trying to find once that didn’t clash with the purple I liked and was not scarlet or burgundy. I was only looking for fabric for my bunting, a task I thought would be easy and fun. I think the shop assistants thought I was rather strange as my behaviour probably looked mildly crazed. My heavily furrowed brow and huffing and puffing out of sheer frustration would have had me avoiding me. So I went home empty handed and feeling more than a little annoyed.

‘Why not just have the purple?’ suggested a friend gently, as we were sitting drinking coffee in the staff room at school one day (which is not all that teachers do by the way!) Then it hit me like a lightning bolt. It was so obvious, why didn’t I think of that? I had been so stupid. Purple. Yes. I could still have variation if I chose different shades and incorporated it with ivory. I realise it is not everyone’s choice, but I’m not brave enough to go with what seems to be the trend at the moment and have all the colours in one go. Google images came into its own after that as I found reams of pictures which reflected the ideas I now had in my head. The rest after that would be easy, surely?

Not when you can’t decide what to put your flowers in. I have probably completely over thought this, but as every bride knows, you just want everything to be perfect. I at one point thought I wanted vintage vases and have different ones for each centre piece. I even started frantically buying them from Ebay. I had a sinking feeling as each vase I’d successfully won arrived through the post that the idea just wasn’t right. When I confessed this notion to my mother, she said she thought the idea was fairly obscure and didn’t think it would work. I hate it when mothers are right! I have even been back and forth over tall glass flute vases and fish bowl vases. Now I am at glass cube vases. I still can’t bring myself to order them and time is now running out. I am hoping that some twist of fate will make that decision for me, but as that is highly unlikely, I guess I’ll probably go with the…. ARGH! Where is a Magic Eight Ball when you need one?!

Make your own... Bunting

adds a certain 'je ne ce quoi' to a room or an event. Forget the plastic stuff you see at village fetes or hanging on the outside of a pub. Think vintage floral and soft fabrics delicately hung from beams or, in my case, the traditional marquee poles. When it is handmade with love, care and attention, bunting is just perfect to lift a room or garden.

You will need:

a selection of plain and patterned fabrics

bias binding

matching cotton to your bias binding

pinking shears

fabric scissors

triangle template made from pattern paper or baking parchment

Bias binding: This is a strip of fabric that has been cut on the bias - diagonally against the grain - where the edges have been pressed under. It is mostly used to bind curved and straight edges, or for making piping. It works brilliantly for making bunting as you don't see and raw edge of the triangles. It comes in different widths, lengths and colours. Most good habidasheries will have it but you will probably find entire rolls on ebay for a fraction of the price. I paid less than £10 for 66m.

Bias Binding

1. A bit of maths is needed to begin with. Draw your triangle template onto your pattern paper or baking parchment. I personally thing slightly longer triangles look better than triangles with a wide base and a short length. Decide on the length of your bunting and calculate roughly how many triangles will fit on your bias binding per metre, depending on the size of the gap you want between each triangle. Just to give you an idea, I had about 1.5cm between each triangle, and I could fit roughly 6 triangles per metre. Now you can calculate how many triangles you will need to cut out.

2. Pin your template to your fabric and use pinking shears to cut around your template. This will mean that your edges won't fray. If you are using patterned fabric, you won't need to use pinking shears, but instead you will need to use 2 pieces of fabric per triangle as 2 must be sewn together to get the pattern on both sides. Add a 1cm seam allowance to the size of your triangles. Pin the right sides together and sew around the two longest sides. Turn the right way out.

3. Cut your bias binding to length, adding 30cm additional length onto each end. This will give you plenty of room to attach your bunting to whatever you are hanging it from.

4. Lay your bias binding with the raw folded edges facing up. Place your triangle onto the bottom half of the bias binding. Fold over the top half of the bias binding and pin in place. Repeat until you have pinned the length of your bunting.

 

5. Sew along the bias binding to finish.

It can be time consuming if you have a lot to make, particularly cutting out the triangles. I needed to make 55m in total, but once I'd cut it all out, putting it all together took no time at all. Watch this space to see pictures of it up for our wedding!

Make your own... Lavender Pouches

I am using lavender a lot for my wedding. I absolutely love it, from its smell to its versatility. I use it in cooking, coffee, sewing projects and all kinds of different things.

Searching online for party favours really didn't inspire me, particularly as they are definitely not good value for money. So I decided to make lavender pouches for my female wedding guests. They are simple to do, and in an afternoon you'd be surprised at how many you can whizz up on  a sewing machine.

You will need:

fabric

matching thread

paper or baking parchment

pinking shears

fabric scissors

30cm matching ribbon

dried lavender

1. Cut out a 10cm x 9cm rectangle from your baking parchment or paper to create a template. Fold your fabric in half so you are cutting out two rectangles simultaneously and pin your template to your fabric, then cut out your rectangles.

2.Ensure the right sides are facing and pin the two rectangles together.

 

3. Sew 3 of the sides using a 1cm seam allowance and leaving one of the shorter sides open. This will make the top of your lavender pouch. If you don't have a sewing machine, you can sew your pouch by hand using a back stitch - see diagram below.

Back stitch

4. Trim the excess fabric from the bottom corners on the diagonal. This will help the corners look less rounded when you turn the pouch the right way out. 

5. Now use the pinking sheers to trim the top of the pouch. This will stop the fabric from fraying and it will give your lavender pouch a good finished look.

6. Now turn the pouch the right side out and fill it approximately half full with dried lavender. 

7. Finally, use the ribbon to tie the pouch up and secure with a bow.

It would be very easy to make larger lavender pouches for other occasions such as birthdays or Christmas, they're so effective and make a great present.

Happy sewing!