In recent years the average cost of a wedding, based on Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, has been around $28,000. Couples often invite 100 or so guests to the big day and pay caterers $100 a head for the privilege. The cost of dresses, cars, flowers and rings still has to be considered. No wonder then that in a world that’s fast learning to tighten its belt, and a generation keen to express its individuality, weddings are becoming the new frontier for those handy with a glue gun.
A number of websites, blogs and books have come onto the market in recent times guiding crafty brides through a swathe of ideas for adding bespoke elements to the big day. ‘Wedding Crafts’ by Catherine Risling is a book inspired by the author’s own nuptials. Once the Managing Editor of USA magazines, ‘Romantic Homes’ and ‘Victoria Homes’, Catherine says writing about “fabulous ideas” got her creative juices flowing. “By the time my own wedding came along, I had all sorts of fun ideas for personalising the event,” she explains.
Her first book, ‘Pretty Weddings for Practically Pennies’, highlighted a lot of the ideas that Catherine had used at her own wedding. “There are just not that many really original items out there to buy,” she says. “I believe a wedding isn’t just about the bride and groom, it’s about celebrating those people in your lives who got you to that point. Also, just as it’s very sentimental to wear your Mum’s pearls on the big day, or carry your Grandmother’s handkerchief, I think personal touches you come up with and make yourself make you and your guests feel really special."
One of those “great” ideas Catherine came up with was photo cards as table decorations. “I had asked every guest for a copy of their wedding photo... I trimmed the photo to 3x5 inches using decorative-edge scissors and then mounted it on a piece of cardstock. Then I grouped them together by table in a wire photo holder. This way, everyone at the table could share their own wedding tales - and dated dresses! Also, the place cards were actually little envelopesand, inside, each had a note from my husband and me thanking every guest for sharing our day.”
But surely the wedding, a traditionally stressful event, is the last moment a bride needs extra, time consuming jobs? “Not when you have a room full of close friends and family to help,” says Catherine. “Those nights really turned into some of the best memories for me. Everyone would laugh at how detailed I was but they helped and that really meant a lot to me.”
Ariel Meadow Stallings, the scribe behind the book, ‘Offbeat Bride: Taffeta-Free Alternatives for Independent Brides’, and her Offbeat Bride website, has written for Disney, Microsoft, Amazon.com [amazon.com], and ‘ReadyMade’ magazine but, she says, has focused on subcultures and “fabulous freaks doing beautiful things... These days, that means wonderfully weird people having wonderfully weird weddings.”
Although Ariel warns brides away from becoming too obsessed on everything being perfect and handmade (“Those that think they’re a failure if they don’t letterpress every invitation!”) she does believe personalised weddings are “the best way to start your very personal marriage off on the right foot”.
“Unless you and your partner plan to have a marriage just like everyone else’s, why should your wedding look like everyone else’s?” she asks. “I’m all for the de-templatisation of relationships and since weddings are the ultimate reflection of your partnership, it’s great to have your wedding embody your unique relationship.”
A favourite component of her own offbeat wedding was the Muglies. “Instead of renting glassware or using disposable cups, we enlisted the help of a few friends and collected dozens and dozens of ugly mugs from second hand shops,” says Ariel. “We’d had vinyl wedding stickers made for our invitations and we stuck these stickers onto the ugly mugs and distributed them to guests. Guests were encouraged to take their muglies home with them... and I love that four years later I still see muglies in our friends’ kitchen cabinets.”
Both Ariel and Catherine feel there are a few areas that perfectly lend themselves to the DIY touch. For Catherine that’s place cards, party favours and just about anything for the guest tables. Ariel, on the other hand, says it depends on each “craftster’s personal tendencies” and so she says graphic designers might love to do invitations, programs, save the date cards, and thank you notes while “fashionistas will obsess over handmade, indie-designed attire. Hands-on crafters will take décor details like centrepieces and bouquets over the edge of awesomeness... it totally depends on your personal creative proclivities,” she adds.
For Ariel, the primary message is mostly one of empowerment... “that whatever odd ideas you have, your wedding is awesome, as long as it truly and authentically reflects you and your partner”. And as to the most impressive things she’s seen people make for their weddings?
“I originally made offbeatbride.com as a way to support the book but the blog has totally taken on a life of its own,” says Ariel. “It is now much more popular (and lucrative!) than the book. I’ve got an online community of over 6,000 offbeat brides, and it just keeps growing. I’ve featured several brides who’ve made their own wedding dresses - that’s probably the most impressive.”
In 2009 Ariel launches a new partnership where brides and grooms can have their own websites. “There’ll be custom templates catering for offbeat wedding themes like rockabilly, steampunk, goth and more!” she says.
For Catherine the most impressive thing she’s seen is the bride who did all her own flowers but the most eccentric in recent times was friends who got married in October so, in observance of Halloween, they spared no expense. Not only were the party favours handmade - candied apples, cellophane bags of candies - so were the spooky decorations. That was a fun wedding,” she says.
Whatever you choose to do, Catherine suggests sticking to this advice: “They have to be projects that can be done en mass and not take hours for each one.” And Ariel adds: “I believe very firmly that weddings are a game of prioritisation, figuring out which details are truly important to you and delegating the rest. Pick a few key projects that you want to focus on and let your crafty friends, enthusiastic mother-in-law or a hired vendor take care of the stuff you don’t feel as strongly about.”
More information:
Ariel Meadow Stallings
www.offbeatbride.com [offbeatbride.com]
www.arielmeadow.com [arielmeadow.com]
Catherine Risling
Director of Editorial
www.redlips4courage.com [redlips4courage.com]
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