Ebb and Flow, and DIY

The thing about having a long engagement is that excitement for the whole thing can wax and wane with the cycles of the moon. Occasionally it can be perked up by the prospect of planning that involves eating (I'm looking at you cake tastings, I can't wait), but can also be brought down by the prospect of anything that may involve any kind of deeper though than "Ooh that's cool let's do that."


I started planning early on with a fair amount of enthusiasm and a paranoid desire to make sure that nothing got inadvertently forgotten in the mix. But things took a break over Christmas and getting back into the saddle is proving trickier than anticipated. I suppose it's true that it couldn't feel like a great big party all the time, but I thought I might maintain at least a consistent level of motivation.

So, in an attempt to at least get something done and re-find my enthusiasm for the project, I gathered together the bits for a project I've been pondering since we decided to have an autumn wedding.

One of the reasons we decided to get married in the autumn was because there are such wonderful rich colours around then. However, I have observed that wedding confetti almost exclusively seems to come in pastels, white and pink and so on. Pastels are nice, but they just aren't us.

On my initial browsing for 'Autumnal Weddings', I found some glorious pictures of people using actual leaves as confetti instead.

image by Bryan and Mae via The Natural Wedding Company

This seemed like a lovely idea until I thought about it a bit more and remembered what Autumn in the UK is usually like:

This was accompanied by a sudden vivid recollection from my childhood where I grabbed fistfuls of autumn leaves and found myself suddenly being much closer than anticipated or desired to a lot of unexpected multi-legged beings who I had just suddenly ripped from their cozy new home on the ground in an attempt to stuff them down the back of my little brother's jumper. I suddenly had visions of being pelted in the face with damp, muddy leaves and finding myself with earwigs down my cleavage on the day when perhaps, even more than any other day ever, I would not want earwigs down my cleavage. (For starters, as I discovered last year whilst moving house, it's not that hard to fish a giant fuck-off spider out of your bra at speed when the situation requires - picture of said spider next to my car keys for size reference, the key is about 3 inches - but when one is trussed into a dress that requires help to get in and out of, and with at least three different types of closure for holding it in place, the situation may become more complicated).

It occurred to me that it might be fun to get some autumnally-coloured tissue paper, some shaped hole punches, and to make my own bug-free leaves. Because why not.

I gathered my tools (and roped in the help of a visiting and agreeable friend)!

Four different colours of tissue paper, four different leaf shapes, and three different colours of organza bags for putting confetti in when it was done, that I bought when I got a bit overexcited the first time I went to Hobbycraft.

You know when you think something will look good, and it looks great in your head, but then when it comes to actually doing it you start panicking that actually it's going to look awful, but you do it anyway and then it turns out that it does look like you imagined it would? That's a great feeling.

Of course I will now be spending basically the whole rest of the year making this so I have enough, but it will keep me off the streets, mugging old ladies, so it's win-win really.



Pee Ess, Happy Valentine's Day y'all!