Lending a Crafting Hand for a Beautiful Wedding

When it comes to Weddings and making the Wedding Day as special as possible, I will stop at practically nothing….including crafting for my couples.

Showcase your Love Story

One of my values is to make sure the Wedding Couple has the very best experience.

For me, it’s about the fine, carefully planned details, from creating the very best Customized Ceremony, (showcasing their Love story) to the Ceremony-within-a-Ceremony, to the words I use that pronounce them married. I go the extra mile to ensure the success of the day from bringing my own PA system so the bride and groom can be heard exchanging their vows, to lending my ceremonial cloth to cover an ugly table that was front and centre and would have been in every wedding picture, to bringing a paper weight to outdoor weddings (you know – so the Marriage License doesn’t fly away in the wind)

I’ve been doing some great, fancy personalized crafting just to make the couple’s special day that much more unique, reflecting them and their love and commitment to each other.

Exceptional value – well worth the fee!

“Jayne was absolutely amazing! She is competent, organized, reliable and professional. She helped us immensely to ensure that our ceremony reflected who we were as a couple. She really went out of her way to create a unique and memorable experience. Feedback from our guests was positive as well, they said they had never witnessed a ceremony like the one we had which included a picture puzzle and also involved our guests. Thank you so much Jayne! Exceptional value for the service you receive, well worth the fee.” ~ Carol U.

Let’s get Crafting

Campfire Wedding:

This couple met during a camping trip and they camp as often as they can.  They take their kids and end up in remote places with nothing to hinder the sight of a thousand stars, except their campfire.

My creativity went into action.  After discussing this with my couple, we decided that building a symbolic Campfire, was the very best Ceremony-within-a-Ceremony, for them.  We wanted to include their children in the ceremony and this was the perfect way.  I went to work, with what I swear, was divine intervention.

The first thing I bought was the votive candles and lighters.  Then I solicited the help of my friend’s husband to drill holes in a log to fit the candles.  I went for several walks in the woods to gather small pieces of wood and a few larger sticks to break down into kindling and, of course, rocks for the fire pit.

Rocks, Kindling and Votive Candles

Once I had my materials in place, I started writing their personalized Campfire Ceremony.  I visualized how each person would symbolically add their pieces to the campfire and how the candles would get lit, in the end.  There were 4 people involved in the ceremony – bride, groom and two children.  The bride and groom built the symbolic fire and then their children joined them.  Each one lit an individual candle and then all 4 lit the centre candle, symbolizing this family lovingly being joined together on their Wedding Day.

Wondering how I would get all this stuff to the ceremony I found a beautiful rustic looking basket to go along with the theme.  It was perfect.

At the end, the bride’s father came to me to tell me how thrilled he was with the ceremony and to ask how on earth I came up with this Campfire idea.  I told him the only thing I could – these ideas just pop into my head!

Candle Ceremony:

A Candle Ceremony, with a twist, united this multi-generational family through Marriage. We wanted to include every family member, our bride’s grandmother and the groom’s son, in the Candle Lighting.  Arrangements were made to Skype Grandma into the ceremony from overseas.  This would symbolically represent the families coming together, through the generations.

I went to work.  I found some white storm candles knowing they would be sturdy enough to survive transport to the ceremony.  I spent tons of time trying to find drip protectors but nothing was pretty enough for this wedding. I decided to make my own.

A skirt to catch the Drips

I folded a piece of tulle in half and sewed a running stitch through the bottom.  Then I gathered it to fit around the candle, tied and glued it on (like an upside-down skirt).  To hide the gathered edge, I used a thin ribbon that matched the bride’s wedding colours.  Then I glued a bead onto the ribbon to create the finished look.  They turned out really nice and although a bit fussy to make, they were so cute and bridal looking.

I made 11 small candles and 1 large one.  To create the large Wedding Candle, I used ribbon of the same colour only thicker.  I actually found a sprig of wired beads to add.  It effectively set the larger candle apart from the smaller ones.

Honouring Grandma, the Matriarch

The best part of this story is that we arranged to deliver one of the hand-crafted candles to Grandma, overseas.  Being the matriarch of the family, it was her privilege to light her candle first.  She got to light the same candle as all the others who were present.  I was delighted to watch this little plan work!

In writing this ceremony, I was careful to speak about all the generations of these two families uniting together.  One-by-one each family member lit their candle.  I watched as Grandma, then parents, then the siblings’ flames, were lit.  Lastly the two mothers, together, lit the young son’s candle.  The bride and groom lit the wedding candle.  The plan worked like clock-work and it was stunning.

Hand-Fasting and Sand Ceremony: 

I was pretty excited to learn that my next couple wanted a traditional Celtic Hand-Fasting as part of their wedding ceremony.  They also wanted a Sand Ceremony as a symbolic way to include their children and unite this family by marriage.

I offered to tie them up a Hand-Fasting Rope and to find 9 small bottles for the Sand Ceremony.  My bride agreed to provide the larger container to pour the individual’s Sand into.

Tie the knot the Celtic way

The bottles were no problem to find but after spending several afternoons scouting my favourite retailers, I ended up at a sewing store and found the perfect cording and ribbon I envisioned, for the Hand-Fasting Rope.  It was just a matter of braiding them together and gluing the ends so they wouldn’t frey.  I also changed the ribbon on the bottles to match the Hand-Fasting Rope.  I kept the heart charms because they matched the larger heart shaped container for the Sand.

Before

After

Picture Puzzle Wedding: