The big question has been popped! Now what about the other important people in our lives who we hope will accept our invitation to stand by our sides as we say ‘I do’ in front of loved ones? I have had the opportunity to be a bridesmaid and see friends be bridesmaids and groomsmen and it really is quite a special experience. Beau and I want our wedding to be intimate and a time where love is celebrated and shared. At first we were apprehensive about having a wedding party at all because it seemed like just another thing to have to organise. But the more we thought about it, we realised a wedding party would include the people who know us better than ourselves and have grown with us as a couple and therefore, be the most suitable people to assist us through the planning and the big day.

I’ve chosen to ask my sister, Bethany, to be my maid of honour and my close girlfriend, Kate, as well as Beau’s sister in law, Alysha, to be my bridesmaids. Beau has chosen to ask his twin brother, Andrew, to be his best man and his best mates Ben and Tom to be his groomsmen.

Whilst it is a tradition to give the wedding party their gifts on the wedding day, I was excited by another opportunity to get creative with DIY gifts we could use to officially ask these special people to be in our wedding party. After spending some time browsing Pinterest, Google images and Etsy for wedding party gift ideas, I came up with some inspiration to create my gifts. We decided on paper doll cards for the bridesmaids with a mini bottle of champagne as the gift. And for the groomsmen, personalised boxes with a cigar inside.

Will you be my bridesmaid?

Paper doll cards & bubbly.

I loved this idea, which I just found on Google images. I made it my own by searching through the craft section of my local variety store and was stoked when I found pre-cut paper doll templates, which made the whole project less time consuming. For a wedding dress, I went for paper doilies and then used paper flowers and chipboard alphabet letters to add the finishing touches to each bridesmaid. (P: Pippa, B: Beth, K: Kate and A: Alysha). I stuck the bride doll to the centre of a fold out card and wrapped with a doily, ribbon and craft paper.

I bought three bottles of Jacobs Creek champagne to go with each card and wrapped in chiffon bags with matching finishing touches to the cards.

Dude, will you be my groomsman? I moustache you a question…

I am loving the hype moustaches are getting for DIY projects and products, so couldn’t resist using a template from Google for the boys cards. I edited the image in a Word doc. then printed it onto an off white coloured card just using my home printer. I found the paper mache pencil boxes at Spotlight and the ribbon, paper and alphabet letter stickers at my local variety store. I cut out the paper moustaches freehand and glued the ribbon to the boxes using glue tape runner.

Cigars

Wikipedia sheds light on the popular culture of cigars. It says “in the 1980s and 1990s, major U.S. print media portrayed cigars favourably; they generally framed cigar use as a lucrative business or a trendy habit, rather than as a health risk. Rich people are often caricatured as wearing top hats and tails and smoking cigars”. Most importantly Wiki goes on to state that “cigars are often smoked to celebrate special occasions”. Our wedding is a special occasion. Give the boys a cigar.

P.S. They all said YES!

Photos by Pippa Wiedemann

Ms Gingham says: Cute!! So much time and thought that went into these how could anyone say no?!

Pippa says: I am passionate about dance, teaching, travel and DIY projects. Blessed to be marrying the love of my life, Beau. Our wedding journey is exciting and providing many opportunities to share special experiences with others.