My Handmade Wedding: A Crafter's Guide to Making Your Big Day Perfect

(Paperback)

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Publishing Details

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Physical Properties

Description

Ideal for creative, budget-savvy brides and grooms to be, this practical, friendly guide will help couples plan and personalise their big day. It begins with a chapter on organisation: assessing your needs and your budget, selecting a theme and a style and working out what to do when. It then covers every element you might want to consider making, buying or renting, providing money-saving tips throughout. The book is packed with over 20 tried-and-tested projects, from a range of stationery designs, candle favours, wedding cakes, ring pillows and veils, to lanterns, bunting and paper flowers. The book is full of beautiful wedding photographs, which show the reader exactly how the projects work in a real wedding setting. Readers might want to recreate the author Marriannes wedding exactly, or simply pick and choose elements they love to personalise their big day.

Reviews

Wedding Special - August 2016

This book is packed with over 20 tried and tested projects, from a range of stationery designs, candle favours, wedding cakes, ring pillows and veils, to lanterns bunting and paper flowers. The book is full of beautiful wedding photographs, which show the reader exactly how the projects work in a real wedding setting. Readers might want to recreate the author Marrianne's wedding exactly, or simply picks and choose elements they love to personalise on their big day.

* Hot Brands, Cool Places *

Flowers are in abundance in Mercers (Button Jewellery) collection of wedding-themed crafts that are based on items she created for her own festive event held in an English country village. Projects are organized by where they fit within the wedding, allowing couples to easily find projects for a specific occasion (e.g., leaving the ceremony). The chapter on stationery covers invitations, save-the-date cards, and the order of service, with suggestions for developing a style, choosing materials and ornamentation, and producing them in bulk. Several types of announcements are included, from a casual design of a hand-drawn bunting to a more traditional look decorated with lace and ribbon. The Wedding Party chapter features an array of options for using paper flowers in corsages, bouquets, and boutonnieres, with instructions for crafting flowers from paper, fabric, and organza. The Ceremony covers decor for during the event, and The Reception highlights both indoor and outdoor options, plus directions for homemade candles as wedding favors and a DIY fondant-covered cake. Casual and staged photos show many of the projects in action at Mercers own weddinga personal touch that adds further appeal. VERDICT Couples with a taste for cheery, floral wedding decor will appreciate Mercers creativityand her hints for planning are ideal for crafty types.

* The Library Journal *

A fabulous little book with some brilliant inexpensive make for your big day. There is a fair few projects in here I will use for our wedding, especially the paper flowers picture on the front page. Unlike many similar books most of these can be done by a novice. Would recommend. All in all fabulous wedding book!

* Harley Richardson *

Have just received this book and had to sit and read it from cover to cover. It details a bride's journey through the planning and execution of a lovely handmade wedding. Great ideas from Save the Date notices to decorating the church, the hall and the outside spaces and everything inbetween. Truly inspirational and a book that I will be using as a crafter, not only for weddings but also for any party occasion. This book is a great read (makes you feel part of the wedding), has clear and easy tutorials to follow, and has a mass of other ideas and helpful hints.

* Lynne Harvey *

I loved this book, crammed full of to make your wedding very special and unique. All of the projects within the book are achievable I thought for beginners, just follow the easy instructions and you can't go wrong. I also find a lot of the ideas were transferable to other events, my 7 year old I made a lot of the for her birthday which she loved doing. A great book for an individual wedding or indeed any girly party.

* Cathy Franklin *

June/July 2016

Whether you're looking to inject a little colour into a blank space, give your wedding a personal touch or simply save a little cash, this handy guide is packed with tips for how to make various elements of your wedding by hand. Graphic designer Marrianne Mercer went all-out, making stationery, decorations, paper flowers, confetti, cakes, favours and more for her village hall wedding. While she acknowledges that not everyone will be keen to handcraft quite as much as she did her time plans and chartzs are really helpful for those wondering how best to organise their time. Marrianne's tips throughout the book also offer helpful snippets of advice, taken from her own experience, and are sure to help those who are new to event planning and crafting.

* Cakes & Sugarcraft *

From the very first page until the last,this book is bursting with helpful tips,planning and lovely crafty makes. Full of easy to follow instructions for items like paper flowers, home made rose confetti, bunting and many other items. Your special day will be extra special if you use this book. It makes me want to get married again. You will find you come back to this book again and again as many of the makes could be used for parties of all ages. I give this book 10/10

* Debbi Pennington *

From start to finish this book oozes warmth and sentiment as the author shares with you not only the designs and step by step guides on how she made many items she used for her wedding but also beautiful pictures from the day to accompany them. I have taken from it some great ideas and the templates provided are extremely useful.

* Gemma Silver *

Very informative book .Takes you step by step to making all your own wedding sundries....Lots of good ideas.. Could have shown a few more different styles tho to give a wider range of themes ..on the whole it covered all the basics

* Sheeen Boulton *

since attending a vintage themed wedding I always envisioned my wedding to be similar. the book is great with ideas on decorating the venue and you can always change the colours used to what you like. I really like the pages of making paper flowers as I especially love flowers and real ones are costly! I am looking forward to using this book for my own wedding soon as well as lending it out to friends for their weddings.

* Michelle Davis *

Have just received this book and had to sit and read it from cover to cover. It details a bride's journey through the planning and execution of a lovely handmade wedding. Great ideas from Save the Date notices to decorating the church, the hall and the outside spaces and everything inbetween. Truly inspirational and a book that I will be using as a crafter, not only for weddings but also for any party occasion. This book is a great read (makes you feel part of the wedding), has clear and easy tutorials to follow, and has a mass of other ideas and helpful hints.

* Lynne Harvey *

A great book that is full of ideas. Many of which would never have occurred to me. Clear and concise in instructions and bright colourful pictures. I wish I had had this book before I got married! But I do now have SO many different things to make for my sisters in laws wedding! Wonderful personal touches.

* Rebecca Morgan *

This inspirational book charts the journey of author Marrianne Mercer as she went on an 8-month journey, planning and creating her own wedding. Full of loads of crafty tips and ideas for aking everything from the invitations, to the flowers, veil, confetti, cake and decorations saving the couple big bucks for the future, rather than spending it all on one day. Even if you are not getting married, this book still gives you a whole host of ideas that can be used for any occasion. We particularly fell in love with ths story behind this book and the process Marrianne went through to create her day.

* Love to Make *

Content
128 pages:
Marrianne Mercers sharing of everything to do with her own handmade wedding. From the pleases right through to the thank yous. Marrianne incorporates her experience of pre planning and the enjoyable undertaking of what was, largely, a DIY wedding. The writing conveys an idea, it is a feature style presentation. Content falls under 9 main headings ; introduction, Planning the Wedding, The Stationery, The Wedding Party, The Ceremony, The Reception, After The Honeymoon, Templates, Index

Range of information 8/10
Marrianne decides at the planning stage which items she is crafting and which outlay will be shop brought. With a quick flick through the pages readers will see that project ideas are for stationery items in a chosen theme, wearable accessories including paper flowers; natural confetti in paper cones, all of the spacial decorations within the venues hosting both the ceremony and reception; tableware and table top decorations, wedding favours and the wedding cake. Some computer software experience required for the production of wedding invitations, the Order of Service, place settings, and thank you notes. etc. Crafts do not include dressmaking, though some basic sewing skills are required and sewing machine know how to make bunting, other than that projects are mainly 2D paper crafts, and there is a candle making project and a wedding cake project too

Quality of information 9/10

Itd be easy to guess Marrianne is a graphic designer she has her mind focusing on print production and likes to play with typography fonts. When you see the suggestions she presents for stationery design options she is willingly passing on a few tricks of the trade, the Stationery chapter covers 8 pages. What you need for each project is set out at the start of each new project and the materials for almost all of the crafting are widely available from craft suppliers/retailers of this ilk. There are lots of lists and tips to help. If instructions are followed closely everything should be achievable as long as each project is equipped properly. Includes 4 pages of Templates at the back (actual sized)

Layout 8/10

Paperback cover with 9 or so of the projects displayed as a collage on the front and back. Book measures 260 mm x 204 mm (H X W) approx. Feature style presentation using a mix of text, photography, b/w illustration, diagrams, coloured charts etc. Fonts are sometimes fine, sometimes bold. 9 main headings under which various subheadings fall.

Author Bio

Marrianne (Maz) Mercer studied at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University to gain a degree in Graphic Design and Advertising in 2005. From there she moved back to Kent to start her career as a graphic designer. She now works as a designer for a book publisher and enjoys making handmade beaded jewellery at weekends.