Oh, um, where did those 2 months go? Has it really been 2 months since I last posted? I guess so
Work’s been so overwhelmingly busy, whenever I have some time off the last thing I want to be doing is wedding organising!
But it’s now less than 3 months away. Almost all the RSVPs are in. We’re starting to write our ceremony. We need to start working out the finer details of the reception. I know we’ve been super organised since early on, but still I feel a bit overwhelmed about trying to find time and head space to do the things that need to be done!
When I have time to procrastinate doing wedding planning, I like to do honeymoon accommodation and activities booking
Can we skip the wedding and go straight to the honeymoon?
Thank you to everyone for your incredibly helpful suggestions about getting my hands on some Luna Bazaar paper lanterns and daisies.
But inspired by this post in a wedding forum, I stopped in at one of the many cheapie gift store/ $2 shops in Victoria Street, Richmond (aka Little Saigon) and found these paper lanterns pictured above in an assortment of colours and sizes. No paper daisies but that’s fine.
Done and dusted and I can easily pick up more if I need them! Woot!
And now for some inspiration – will be combining lanterns with fairylights:
A friend just sent me a link to this pretty dress, looks a lot like mine! It’s got a week left to go on ebay and is currently sitting at $12! Bargain!
Meanwhile I’m rather upset to find that Luna Bazaar, sellers of of the 50+ colours of paper lanterns, often referred to on Martha Stewart Weddings, DO NOT post to Australia! Or most of the work outside America for that matter. BOOOOOO.
I don’t know about you, but I really loathe spending ridiculous amounts of money on skincare products. So many other things I would prefer to spend my money on! I have found some great budget skincare tips on the Vogue Forums in the past including the aspirin face mask, and just using the basic Cetaphil brand products as a daily face wash and moisturiser. So many basic beauty products you can use without spending a fortune!
This morning I stumbled across this great Youtube Channel with some fantastic budget beauty tips.
There are tutorials on the aspirin face mask and rice water toner,plus olive oil as an eye makeup remover, and who needs to fork out a hundred bucks for a microdermabrasion kit when you can just use an electric toothbrush? AND – clay kitty litter as a clay face mask!
My favourite one though, and very fitting for a pre wedding treatment, is a CHAMPAGNE skin treatment!
I know I sound crazy but watch these, you’ll want to give it a go when you see her complexion.
A couple of weekends ago, I did a one dayBead and Pearl Stringing class at CAE. That’s right people – I am going to knot my very own pearl necklace for the wedding!
Now that I have my dress in at the dressmaker’s getting altered, I’ve been turning my attention to accessories for the wedding.
My dress is a vintage 1920s dress, with delicate gold brocade fabric. It’s quite simple but elegant, though probably not as ornate as traditional wedding getup goes. It’s an outfit where jewellery is definitely going to complete the look.
So far I have an antique bracelet of rice pearls that I found at an Asian antique store whilst looking for Japanese ikebana vases with my Mum.
I also have some handcrafted Balinese silver jewellery from Celuk – a town that is known for their silverwork. AA bought me this incredible bracelet. It reminds me of lacework, the design is so intricate.
I also got these cute little matching earrings from Celuk too.
But seeing my dress is flapper style, I have been looking for the quintessential ‘pearl rope’ or a big multi-strand necklace of pearls. One big criteria for it though is that the pearls need to be naturally oblong shaped – not the perfectly rounded shape. I like the natural freshwater look best, but more significantly… my fiance has a childhood phobia of small round things! I am sure there must be a name for this. It’s not a HUGE phobia, but more like an aversion, a definite unsettling, they make him a little queasy. Doesn’t like marbles, peas, cherry tomatoes… and definitely not round round pearls. It’s been hard to find a suitable length of genuine pearls for starters, and my one experience of going into a jeweller’s to look at their pearls was kinda terrifying. The saleswoman was SO PUSHY I thought – who needs this? I’ll just make some myself!
When looking for freshwater pearl necklaces on the internet I stumbled across suppliers of freshwater pearls for people to make into jewellery themselves. They are surprisingly quite affordable! So when I saw that CAE were offering classes I jumped at the chance. I thought – how hard could it be? I drove across town and braved Chadstone Shopping Centre to inspect the pearls in person but you can buy them locally in Melbourne or online here.
Pearl knotting is an ancient craft, people have been doing it for hundreds of years. It’s definitely fiddly, but the type of activity you can get better at with practise. If you look at a good quality pearl necklace, you will notice that between each pearl is a small knot. This is so that if your beautiful necklace of precious pearls ever breaks all your pearls don’t go crashing to the floor running in all directions. So as the name suggests, pearl knotting is just the technique of getting those knots snug on either side of the pearls and made into a necklace. You usually use silk thread to knot your pearls so it doesn’t damage the pearls rubbing inside them.
I found this great video on youtube describing the process:
It doesn’t include the very handy technique of attaching the pearls to a sturdy clasp, and using a ‘gimp’ or french wire to secure it, that I learnt in my class. A beautiful professional finish.
Anyway, I’m currently waiting for some multistrand clasps that I ordered on etsy to arrive from overseas. Once they do I can start on my pearl knotting extravaganza, I’ll keep you posted!
In the meantime, here’s what I will be channelling in my piece. I have been tossing up whether to make a versatile ‘pearl rope’ piece – ie one massively long necklace with no clasp – just continuous loop, that you can wrap around your neck as many times as you like or knot etc.. I do love the rope style necklace. However I think it works better with slightly larger pearls than the ones I have purchased. So I have decided I’m going to go for a more refined looking multistrand ‘opera’ length pearl necklace. I think it’ll be classier for the wedding, a more polished look. PLUS if I get really good at pearl knotting – I can always knot myself a pearl rope of larger pearls later!
And look, I’m not completely mad. This lady made her own wedding necklace and bracelet. I don’t think she knotted them but it still looks damn impressive I reckon!
[CLICK THE PHOTOS FOR ORIGINAL SOURCE]
VINTAGE INSPIRATION
Coco Chanel
MULTI-STRAND
(these ones above are available to buy for $600AU)
(I like the decorative clasp/ brooch on this one. It’s available to buy from Talbots)
