A great way to make a statement and stand out from the rest of your wedding guests is to adorn yours and your new husband’s chair at your wedding reception with something fun. These cute and simple signs will add a touch of rustic elegance to your wedding decor also. And why stop at just chair bunting? You can make a ‘thank-you’ banner to hold in photos and use for your thank-you cards, or ‘just married’ bunting for your car or bunting banners to hang throughout your wedding.

You will need:

- hessian
- fabric paint (I chose white, but you could use any co-ordinating colour to go with your wedding theme)
- stencil brush
- alphabet stencil (I used a wool bale stencil as I’m an almost-farmers-wife! But alphabet stencils are available at craft stores)
- twine
- scissors or rotary cutter
- safety pin
- sewing machine
- iron

Step 1

Iron your hessian out to make it nice and flat. Cut your hessian into rectangles, slightly longer on one side as we are going to fold over the tops, as you will see soon. I cut my rectangles approx. 13 x 16 cm, when I fold over the tops I will end up with 13 x 13 cm squares. You will need 5 rectangles. I cut mine with a rotary cutter to make it precise and the hessian won’t fray as much if the cuts are clean and neat.

Step 2

Now position the alphabet stencil roughly in the centre of the hessian rectangle. You might want to position it towards the bottom a bit more as the top will be folded over soon. We are going to make two M’s, two R’s and one S. As the hessian is quite loosely woven some of your paint will bleed through the fabric, so make sure the hessian is on a suitable surface. I put mine on a plastic lid rather than cardboard or newspaper which could stick to the hessian.

Step 3

With your stencil brush loaded with your paint lightly ‘stab’ in a dabbing motion onto the hessian. When stencilling don’t use brush strokes like you are painting, just lightly stab, stab, stab until the letter shape is filled. Carefully peel away your stencil. Hopefully the paint hasn’t bled through and made your letter a little wonky! You want clean crisp edges. Let the hessian dry, still on the plastic lid.

Step 4

Repeat for all letters, careful to wash your stencil off back and front between letters as to not get paint on the hessian other than inside the letter shapes. You should end up with five hessian rectangles that look a little like this …

Step 5

Now fold the tops over about 2cm and press down with your iron. This is to create a casing which your twine will go through. Your rectangles should now look like this …

Step 6

Head to your sewing machine and sew a basic stitch along the tops of your rectangles, sewing your casing shut. I used white thread and it was hardly noticeable, but you could use more hessian coloured thread if you wish. Do the same for all of your hessian rectangles.

Step 7

Cut a piece of twine roughly the length you need to attach to the back of your chairs, add a bit more just to be sure and to allow room to tie a knot to the chair. Unlike ribbon we can’t put our safety pin through the twine, instead clip it in to the handy top bit like this …

Step 8

Now thread your rectangles onto the twine, slowly pushing the safety pin through the casing you just made and bringing the attached twine with it. This can be a bit tricky! Once you’re finished your ‘Mrs’ you can do your ‘Mr’ and should have two bunting banners ready to go!

We are having a marquee wedding here on our farm – and I am madly collecting vintage chairs to use on our bridal table, so I have our chairs at the ready. Here they are with bunting attached …

You can make triangle bunting also if you want, or bunting with lots of different words, your wedding date – the possibilities are endless! Happy bunting.

Photos by Emma Durkin Photographics

Ms Gingham says: Now you could always do it like the Beckhams and just sit in ostentatious, tacky thrones but personally I like this idea much more. Thanks to our amazing bride-to-be Emma for this lovely tutorial.

Emma says: I am a 24 year old country girl who lives on a sheep and potato farm in the beautiful green Gippsland hills, Victoria. My hubby-to-be and I are high school sweethearts and are planning an early summer 2011 wedding on our farm, full of rustic elegant touches, hay bales, lace, kraft paper and logistical nightmares of having a marquee wedding in the middle of a paddock! I share all our adventures on my blog Cinderella at Brindabella.

Read more posts by Emma here.

Want More? Check Out These Posts:

1. Washi Tape Bunting Monogram Letter Tutorial
2. Stencilled Bunting Napkin – Tutorial
3. Rope Wreath With ‘Just Married’ Bunting – Tutorial

I love ribbon wands! They’re always such a fun touch at a wedding and I love how Mel made them her own! Here’s her tutorial for making your own ribbon wands!

What you need:
Dowel cut into 30cm lengths
Acrylic paint
Glue gun
Sandpaper
24mm wide stain backed ribbon in 3 different colours (I used 27 metres of each colour for 65 wands)

What to do:

Cut your dowel into 30cm lengths and sand the edges, then paint the dowels or just leave them as is. I painted mine ivory using kaisercraft acrylic paint.

Cut the ribbon into 40cm lengths and using the glue gun, attach three colours together at one end.

Apply glue to the dowel and wrap the ribbons around and secure with more glue.

To finish, heat-seal the edges of the ribbon so they don’t fray. To do this, carefully wave the edge near a candle flame so that the heat of the flame slightly melts, but doesn’t burn the ribbon.

Flatten with your fingers if it curls up.

For a touch of glam, add a little rhinestone to the top of the wand.

We’ll have even more of Mel’s fantastic Australian DIY projects in a few weeks, but in the mean time you can find our brilliant DIY’er at The Crafty DIY Bride and Paper & Ribbons! Thank you for sharing your brilliant projects with us Mel!

Want More? Check Out These Posts:

1. DIY Moss Letters Project
2. DIY Project Bird’s Nest Cake Topper
3. DIY Project Birdseed Favors

The lovely and talented Mel from The Crafty DIY Bride and Paper & Ribbons is back today with two more fantastic DIY projects she’s written herself. First up this morning is something that fits right into Mel’s quirky theme- her DIY Bird’s Nest Cake topper!

What you need:
Bird’s nest, or nest makings
Little birdies
Tiny paper flowers
A small piece of felt
PVA glue or glue gun
Dried moss

What to do:
Start by shaping the nest so that it is the right size for your cake and has enough space for your birdies to sit comfortably.

Start filling the nest with some dried moss and secure using PVA glue. Note: You can use a glue gun here, but I find the “glue strings” hard to avoid.

Once dried, sit your birdies in the nest. It’s up to you whether you glue them in or not.

Pretty the nest up with some tiny paper flowers and finish by gluing a piece of felt on the bottom of the nest to avoid sneaky bits of nest ending up on mum and dad’s piece of cake!

Mel will be back this afternoon with another of her DIY tutorials- this is one she tells me she’s already had requests for so I can’t wait to share it!

Want More? Check Out These Posts:

1. DIY Moss Letters Project
2. DIY Project Ribbon Wands
3. DIY Project Birdseed Favors

Katie and Morgan

I’m so excited today! I have Katie of A Little Bird Told Me. So. sharing her gorgeous engagement party photos with us! Katie and Morgan decided to have their engagement party in their backyard in Sydney and the details were so much fun, so thought out and so beautifully crafted I asked Katie if we could share them on Polka Dot Bride today!

There are so many fun details of this party, so let’s start at the beginning! Katie and Morgan made their invitations to fit with the relaxed and fun style they wanted.

Their words for their style?

“simple
a little country
picnic style
a red & orange colour theme
and a M+K= <3 theme (which many of our guests cleverly used too!)”

Katie and Morgan set up games around the yard with chalkboard signs.

Katie designed and made her own Twister game using fun and bright fabrics. The playing mat was actually a quilt- backed in squares of the same fabrics, Katie’s intention is to use the mat in the future for picnics together!

Amongst the other games were boules, a relationship quiz (written by Morgan) and hopscotch.

Instead of a traditional guest book, Katie and Morgan setup a guestbook display. Guests wrote messages on brightly coloured squares of paper and pegged them to string hung between two palm trees. Already pegged to the string were some of Katie and Morgan’s favourite shots from their engagement shoot.

Deciding to get in on the fun DIY guestbook trend, Katie headed to Spotlight and found some cheap and cheerful fabric. The fabric was hung and pinned between two tees and Katie made moustaches on sticks for guests to pose with.

The food! Katie and Morgan served chicken Caesar salad and lamb salad in paper noodle boxes. Guests were treated to homemade red punch, champagne, homemade lemonade and a tea & coffee bar. Jars tied with ribbon and a paper label were filled with lollies and strategically placed around the garden for guests to feast on.

Guests were invited to write their name on a paper flag to keep track of their drinks.

Clean jam jars made great glasses for the bride and groom!

Katie made over 200 cupcakes with her family in the days leading up to the party, Each was iced and decorated with red or yellow sprinkles. Homemade paper tokens with m+k+E> (In keeping with the rest of the stationery). Guests also enjoyed homemade peach and berry pies made by Morgan’s mother and fresh rockmelon and watermelon cut into stars and love hearts by Katie’s aunt.

Katie made the thank you notes with paper left over paper from the guestbook.

Visit Katie at A Little Bird Told Me. So to find out more of her plans as she goes along!

Want More? Check Out These Posts:

1. Katie and Morgan
2. Ten Engagement Party Tips
3. Becky and Simon’s Engagement Party

This afternoon, we have Mel’s sweet birdseed favors! Mel originally found these for sale on Etsy by a US seller, but knew they wouldn’t clear customs into Australia so she set out to make them herself!

I made these to use as wedding favours for my upcoming wedding. They’re super easy to make and super cheap!

What you’ll need:
Silicon molds (I used heart shaped cupcake molds)
Edible gelatine powder
Wild birdseed (Find a mix for your local birds – I used a mix for Aussie parrots)
Metal bowl
Twine and Scissors

What to do:

Boil up some water – put about 100mL in a metal bowl and sprinkle in 25g of gelatin and stir until it’s completely dissolved.

Let it cool for a few minutes (don’t let it set – if it does just heat it over the stove again) then mix through 400g of birdseed.

Press a heaped teaspoon of the mix in the mold and flatten.

Place a knotted loop of twine on so the loop sticks out the top and cover with more birdseed mix and press in to push out all the air bubbles.

Place in the fridge overnight to set, then carefully push out of the molds and hang in a dry place so the gelatin completely dries out and hardens. Whalla!

To display, hang some on a branch in a pot and bag the rest in little stamped muslin bags. Perfect!

Mel also made this sweet little sign for the favor table

Thank you for sharing your favors on Polka Dot Bride Mel! You can check out Mel’s blog The Crafty DIY Bride for more treats and her Etsy store Paper & Ribbons! Mel will be back to visit us again soon!

Want More? Check Out These Posts:

1. DIY Moss Letters Project
2. DIY Project Ribbon Wands
3. DIY Project Bird’s Nest Cake Topper