Yes so I’ve been MIA for months – that’s because I was attempting to work full time and plan a wedding and my little brain couldn’t deal with more than that at once. But I was actually blogging through the wedding process for the wonderful Smashing The Glass Jewish wedding blog. She put a request out for real Jewish or Jew-ish brides who were planning their weddings to write posts in the build up to their Big Day and I was lucky enough to be one of the 5 brides to be picked. Being one half of an inter-faith relationship meant that I was able to write about the process we went though in planning a day that reflected us perfectly (see this post) and also I was able to talk about how we designed our day ensuring to draw on my crafty love (see this post). It was so much fun writing for Karen at STG and am so excited to have her blog about our wedding next year. I am even discussing potential future posts to write about DIY weddings and interfaith marriage… watch that space!
Our handmade chuppah
You can see in this DIY post that I had a distinct image for our day in mind and we did a lot of bits ourselves. The most successful crafty part of our day was the Chuppah (a canopy that is the central part of a Jewish wedding ceremony that often represents the new couple’s first home together, surrounded and supported by their nearest and dearest). As you can see in this picture (taken by the wonderful Photography by Krishanthi) we collected photos of all our friends and family that have been involved throughout our lives and transferred them on to a light fabric. I then sewed the fabric together with a slightly tougher fabric and sewed on some ties at the top. This was tied atop of 4 birch poles (really difficult to source!) that had eye hooks screwed into them. Our florist Lily’s Flowers added fern, ivy and flowers that matched the bridal flowers and decorations that was in the rest of the room. Originally we wanted the structure to be propped up by friends and family, but when we took delivery of the birch poles we realised that they were a bit heavier than we planned. With that in mind we found 4 galvanised buckets in Homebase and filled them with shingle to ensure the whole structure was freestanding.
It was such a beautiful day and really has shown my husband (!!!!) and I just what we are capable of when we combine my creativity and his ‘action taking’ skills together. Now I’m excited to use all the left over props and decorations from the wedding to create lasting items for our home – I am thinking a coffee table made out of the wooden crates we used.
Over the summer I gave up my full time teaching career in an attempt to focus more on interests outside of the classroom. I am still teaching a little bit at the school that I was at previously, but I came to the realisation that full time teaching in a secondary school was becoming slightly detrimental to my physical and mental well being and being a drama teacher, my subject is changing almost beyond recognition. I was finding it more and more difficult to deal with. Now I am freelancing and looking forward to all the opportunities that are already coming my way. I am now properly returning to blogging at laurendloves.com and I am so excited!! I am going to continue attempting to clear out my craft cupboards and keep a track of all the skills I’m teaching myself or using regularly. I may even get my camera out and film the odd ‘how-to’…
Please let me know if you have any feedback on any of my posts or if there is anything particular you may wish to see.
All pictures were from Photos by Krishanthi
LaurenDLoves 
Leave a Reply