I was over the moon for my little brother Sam when he announced he was marrying the amazing Zara and the fact that they wanted to do it in Vegas was the icing on the cake!
Of course I offered to help in any way I could, especially when it came to the wedding decorations and I'm going to share with you my 5 simple steps to turning any party into a Tiki celebration to remember!
1. Burlap Bunting
I love burlap material as I think it gives a really vintage feel to your decorations, however this time I was looking for a distressed look so made sure I left it a little rough around the edges.
I tried out 2 new styles inspired by my travels to Hawaii (but mostly Pinterest)
White Distressed
Cutting out triangles from my burlap material, I made sure I had enough for the words "Just Married" and made a few extra to split up the words.
I used my Cricut to cut out letters/images on vinyl and stuck them onto the triangles but if you don't have a Cricut you could cut the vinyl with a craft knife or just cut up masking tape.
Then I coated the top of the bunting in white fabric paint. Don't worry about being to precise with this step as you want it to look a little distressed but make sure you go up to the edges so it doesn't fray too much.
Once dried, just peel back the letters and then stitch some twine to the back of your triangles so you can string up your bunting
Personalised Screen Printing
Again I cracked out my Cricut and designed 3 bunting images. This time I personalised them for my brother's wedding by making a Z & S monogram for them both.
Instead of triangles for this one, I cut out large rectangles and then frayed round the edges. To make sure it didn't come apart completely I used some fray stopper which once dried, I was ready to go.
This time when I cut my designs out I had to remember to flip them backwards first as I wanted to practice my screen printing skills.
Taking the cut out vinyl, I stuck it to the outside of my screen and covered any gaps round the edge with masking tape.
Then I put a rectangle under my screen, positioning it toward the bottom of the screen and then pulled the ink over the top until I felt the image was fully covered. Lifting the screen up it relieved the image on the rectangle with a large gap up at the top - NOT TO FEAR there is method behind my madness. The reason for this is so that I can fold it over the twine and then sew on with my sewing machine. Of course remember to leave your bunting flags to dry before stitching them all together
2. Tiki Photo booth
Every wedding should have a photo booth. They are my favourite part about a wedding and a brilliant wedding favour for your friends and family to take away.
This is such a simple way of creating a bit of a buzz at your party.
I made the background by buying lots of 2m pieces of ribbon from Ebay, which were all different widths, and then sewing them all to a 2m piece of ribbon along the top - SIMPLE
Then I made a tiki blackboard with a piece of MDF covered in blackboard vinyl and then glued bamboo round the edges, before sticking a paper flower at the top. This allowed the guest to write their own special message to the happy couple or just something really funny
To finish it all off I bought lots of tiki tat as everyone loves a bit of cheesiness and dressing up for a photo. Stanley the Flamingo was a definite hit of the night
Now you can just let your guests take their own photos but I have my own digital polaroid where you can take picture but choose which ones you want to print out instantly. People love to get their polariod to take home and I've used it for so many parties now that it's definitely been worth it's money
I made the background by buying lots of 2m pieces of ribbon from Ebay, which were all different widths, and then sewing them all to a 2m piece of ribbon along the top - SIMPLEThen I made a tiki blackboard with a piece of MDF covered in blackboard vinyl and then glued bamboo round the edges, before sticking a paper flower at the top. This allowed the guest to write their own special message to the happy couple or just something really funny
To finish it all off I bought lots of tiki tat as everyone loves a bit of cheesiness and dressing up for a photo. Stanley the Flamingo was a definite hit of the night
Now you can just let your guests take their own photos but I have my own digital polaroid where you can take picture but choose which ones you want to print out instantly. People love to get their polariod to take home and I've used it for so many parties now that it's definitely been worth it's money
3. Pompom Bunting
It took me a long time to come up with a colourful way to do some tiki bunting but when i saw this pompom tutorial inspiration smacked me in the face
I bought 5 different coloured balls of £1 wool from poundland and made 15 pompoms in each colours. Then i got a large sewing needle and threaded a long piece of wool through each of the pompoms to make a string of bunting.
Once finished I wrapped it round a piece of cardboard so that it didn't get tangled up when packed in my suitcase, then on the day all i had to do was slowly unravel whilst stringing it up on tress and the outdoor bar
4. Beer Koozies
Our wedding guests had their party Polaroids to take home but I also wanted to create something that people could use on the day - hence the beer koozies.
Now at the time, I knew exactly what I wanted to make but had no idea what it was called so after lots of Googling I found out it was a Koozie I was after, also known as a beer/stubbie holder.
I used my Cricut to cut out the template on foam and then stencilled the personalised wedding design on the front of the koozie, before stitching up both sides. I'll put up my templates on this blog in the coming weeks so that you can make them as well
Now at the time, I knew exactly what I wanted to make but had no idea what it was called so after lots of Googling I found out it was a Koozie I was after, also known as a beer/stubbie holder.
I used my Cricut to cut out the template on foam and then stencilled the personalised wedding design on the front of the koozie, before stitching up both sides. I'll put up my templates on this blog in the coming weeks so that you can make them as well
5. Pool Lights
I did lots of research on floating candle holders but the cost of them didn't really stand up to the fact that we would only be using them for one night as I don't have the luxury of a pool at home so I came up with the idea of using glow sticks.
Originally we had planned to put the glow sticks in balloons and have them floating on the pool, which worked really great in my bath where I could turn off all the lights but because there were other lights outdoors they didn't really shine through the balloons. Instead we ending up putting the glow sticks in the bottom of the pool and leaving the balloons to float on the top. The pack of glow sticks I bought also had connectors to make a glow stick ball which was lots of fun
Just remember to take everything out the pool before you get out so it doesn't get stuck in the filter!
I hope these ideas have sparked your creative streak and if you decide to throw a tiki party of your own, then you have as much fun as we did!
Sam & Zara - I am so proud of you both.
You have grown up to be amazing people and you are both so brave to carry on your life together over the other side of the world, even though I selfishly want you back home with us. I wish you all the happiness for the future & hope every day is better than the last.
I'll be back,
