The Big Day

Creative Tips for Your Wedding

Papier artists give us crafty ideas for adding a creative touch to your wedding.

Creative Tips for Your Wedding

With all the different elements that go into a wedding, there's no end of opportunities to add fun, creative touches that show your personality. Some can cost the earth but more often than not the ones you make yourself are the best. To help you feel inspired to get crafty for your big day and its preparations, we asked a few Papier artists (and artistic friends) what they did to add a touch of self-made magic when they or their loved ones tied the knot.

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Chiara Perano of Lamplighter London
Along with hand lettering the addresses on all the invitations, we had custom Royal Mail penny black stamps made with a photo of our venue – you can do this with any photo. I also decorated every envelope with added vintage French and floral stamps that I found on Etsy. I tried to make the stamps I chose for each individual's envelope personal to them.


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Jade Fisher, Illustrator
I painted a leather jacket for my best friend to wear on her wedding day. She is bold and colourful, and it was the perfect way to inject a bit of her personality into her wedding look. It was also a perfect pre-wedding day to spend together, getting crafty and talking wedding plans, and it made a great keepsake for her to display at home as a reminder of the day.


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Kate Zumwalt of 1canoe2
My advice for adding a creative touch to your wedding is to pick one or two simple visual elements, and then put them in as many places as possible to create a wedding experience that feels consistently personal. For my wedding, I chose to put an emphasis on hand lettering, since that's what I love to do! I incorporated it everywhere, from the invitations and programs to the menus and signage at our reception, as well as a fun family photograph Wall of Fame.


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Alice Thompson, Illustrator

I wanted the garden to feel as inviting as the inside after dusk, so I filled old jam jars with cheap tea lights. A low-maintenance way to create a memorable atmosphere because it just makes something of what is already there; suddenly you have glowing blossom to sit under. Crucially the candles just bob in the breeze rather than blow out... so you don't have to run around with matches all evening.

A good tree and a collection of old jam jars is helpful. I just soaked the jars overnight to get them clean. I then tied brown string around the top – this is the part that takes a bit more patience. (Roughly 5 minutes of trial, error and creative swearing per jar.)


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Kayleigh Hill, Papier
For my wedding, I wanted something to decorate the chairs that wasn't going to be too expensive. Lots of things I saw on Pinterest had fresh flowers and I couldn't afford that. I also knew I didn't want the covers people use. So I decided to look for some lace that would add some nice delicate details to the chairs instead. In the end it only cost about £10.


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David & Faye Aspinall of Chase & Wonder
We specifically hired a plain marquee so that we could decorate it. We had a vision of creating a forest within so that the guests ate and danced beneath a magical canopy. My father cut down lots of silver birch trees that we transported to our marquee which arrived a week before the wedding. We set about strapping all of the branches to the poles to make it look as forest-like as we could. It turned out this was quite a hard job and we were still doing this with a day to spare. There were only Faye and I doing it and we were up ladders for 12 hours a day for 5 days straight! Within this time-frame we also put up about 500 metres of fairy lights in the trees and (fake) hanging wisteria. My brother Jonathan has a laser cutter as part of his business so we sent him some card and designs for doves that he kindly cut out for us. We then also hung those with fishing wire to make them look like they were floating.

As night fell, the lights came on, tinged with pink, and made the place look like a magical forest – it looked amazing. We were so happy with it but also exhausted! It was an incredible amount of work, so if you are planning anything like this my only advice would be to get as many people to help as possible!


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Bella Verrechia-Wooding of Johnny's Little Sister Florist
As a florist I wanted to incorporate fresh flowers as much as possible within our wedding day. Usually we would create a loose flower garland to hang over the top of an easel. However, I really wanted something a little different. I chose flowers which could be found within the bridal bouquet and delicately placed them between two sheets of perspex, we then hand lettered the table plan with a white marker which came through wonderfully with the colourful flower background. I think this look works especially well outside as the green grass was also visible, creating a very natural background. This is so versatile and can be made up to suit your colour scheme and flowers for the big day!


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Kayleigh Hill of Papier (again!)
I really struggled with ideas for table favours and looked back at weddings I had been at. Some were a mini spirit/shot, I got a scratch card at another, some seeds at another... none of these were particularly me. I was having afternoon tea for the wedding breakfast and wondering about making homemade jam but thought people would leave the pots behind. So I decided I would just make something. I had recently come across a lovely book called Paper to Petal and started playing with tissue and crepe paper making flowers and thought it was a nice personal touch. Most people ended up tying the ribbon and flower round their wrists or pinning them to their clothes which was lovely as they took a long time to make – it was about 85 flowers I made in total!


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MR Studio London, Pressed Flower Designers
We got married six years ago. We wanted our wedding to be very small, casual and hand-crafted so made these cupcakes instead of having one large cake – made especially to cater for a less sweet tooth and certain allergies amongst our guests.


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Hannah, Papier friend and customer
I wanted to do something special for some of my closest girlfriends, and also ensure they could keep dancing all night at the wedding! So I spent a number of evenings in the run up to the wedding (and after long days at work) bejewelling white plimsolls with decorations to reflect each of my friend's personalities – whether that was a pun on their names or a reference to their obsessions. It took a lot of work but they were all so delighted with their shoes that it made it all worth it!

The first thing that will add a creative touch to your wedding will be your Save The Dates and Invitations. Browse our wedding collection and set the tone for your big day.


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