Sprinkled With Love

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Bridal Inspired Cakesicle Tutorial

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We’ve been looking to the world of bridal fashion this week and turning it into something delicious with our wedding ready wedding cakesicles! Our bridal inspired cakesicles showcase the ivory backdrop and delicate lace popular with so many wedding gowns. Finished with a flourish of sprinkles to represent pearls and a bit of sparkle, they’ll be ready for their close up on your Big Day.

If you’ve been around for a while, you know we’re big fans of this bitesize treat and think they’re perfect as an alternative wedding cake, canapés or wedding favours. If you’re tackling them yourself for your wedding, just make sure to give yourself plenty of time as there are a few stages to them with waiting time in between.

You will need:

• Cakesicle mould – UK: https://amzn.to/3y0jt8S* US and Rest of World: https://amzn.to/3excNqX* (*Affiliate links – we receive a small share of any sales made through this link)

• Cake and buttercream/frosting mixture (a ratio of 1:4 buttercream to cake)

• White chocolate (approx 2tbsp melted chocolate per cakesicle)

• Oil based food colouring (we used Colour Mill in the shade Latte

• Sprinkles – We used Happy Ever After sprinkles* by Happy Sprinkles – (*Affiliate link – we receive a small share of any sales made through this link)

• Edible Lace – (can be bought pre-made or make your own with the Cake Lace mix and Lace design mats). For more information about edible lace see https://www.thecakedecoratingcompany.co.uk/blog/cake-lace/

• Edible glue

If you’re looking for even more cakesicle inspiration, check out this video and this one too!

We love to see your creations so don’t forget to tag us over on Instagram if you give them a go.

-Bride Society

Love is Sweet

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How to customise your sweet bags

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This week we’re bringing you a DIY that I did in fact ‘do myself’ for my very own wedding!  After 4 years of running this blog, there’s not many projects left which we took on ourselves that we haven’t already shown you.  This was one of these little extras I found myself doing, wanting to add a little something to every aspect of our wedding.  Know the feeling? Make them with us here!

These sweet bags are a perfect addition to your sweet table / candy station, and you can go one step further, adding your own names & wedding date to really make them your own.  Funnily enough, I didn’t actually have a sweet table at my wedding….I know, I’m a fool, because really, why wouldn’t you (no, really…I have no answer for this, I have no clue why I didn’t have one!)? 

If that’s now got you questioning why the heck I was doing with these bags – fair – well, they were actually so people could take home the wedding cake.  Weddings notoriously have lots of cake left over at the end, especially when guests have also been served dessert with their meal.  So, if you’re skipping the candy but simply having cake, or maybe a dessert table, leave these little bags out with a small sign encouraging people to take a piece for later.  Or, you know, have a sweet table.

What you need:

  • A printer
  • Paper bags (ours are 15cm²)
  • And Microsoft Word – don’t panic, we show you step-by-step how to use it.

Having a go?  Share your designs with us by tagging us in your photos over on Instagram @bridesociety_uk, we’d love to see!

Any questions?  Just ask, we’ll try our best to help.

—Bride Society

Pop!

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How to Make Cake Pops – Perfect Wedding Favours or Alternative Wedding Cake

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If you’re going down the route of wedding favours, then an edible one is definitely up there with one of the best kinds. You won’t find many sweet treats left behind at the end of a wedding day.
Here at Bride Society we’ve shown you how to make quite a few different types of edible favour, from giant marshmallows to cakesicles, but this week we’re going back to a classic.

The original cake pop.

Smaller than the cakesicle, cake pops are bitesize spheres of delicious-ness which your guests will love. And the best bit, you can use up any leftover or offcuts from cakes you’ve baked to create them! Throw any offcuts into the freezer until you’re ready to create your favours and you’re already most of the way there!

Top tip: Dip your cake pop stick into melted chocolate before pushing into the cake ball. This helps secure the stick in place before dipping your cake pops.

Coordinate your pops with your wedding scheme, the technique’s the same for all types of chocolate. And don’t feel limited by the standard chocolate types, use an oil based food colouring to colour white chocolate if you fancy something a bit more colourful!
Add sprinkles/gold leaf or more chocolate for decoration and to add that extra finishing touch, why not tie a ribbon around the stick.

Don’t forget to tag us over on Instagram if you give these a go. We love to see your creations!

-Bride Society

Let’s Go!

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Honeymoon Luggage Tags | Cricut Tutorial

It’s been a long time since any of us even dared to fantasise about beaches, palm trees and lounging in a hammock with a frozen daiquiri in hand – I know that’s a pretty specific fantasy, but I’m trusting I’m not alone with that? 

Sunnier shores never seemed further away, but I’m going to say it…I’m daring to hope…well, I’m whispering it in case C$!$#-*9 hears me!  [Insert ALL the crossed fingered emojis possible!]

What exotic destination are you making plans for?  Share with us in the comments!  This holiday was probably already going to be one of the most special ones of your life, but after everything the past 1.5 years has put us through, you’ll savour it all the more!  With that in mind, we got thinking about the little extra touches for your honeymoon and came up with the idea of customising your luggage tags especially for the trip.  Fear not, all your craft efforts do not end with the wedding!  Hurrah!

Our tutorial is for Cricut users of any level, so beginners, we’ve got you!  Step-by-step instructions with time stamps in the YouTube description box if you want to skip ahead to specific techniques like cropping in Design Space or layering iron-on vinyl, and the design / lettering is totally adaptable to your needs!

Here’s what we used:

• Luggage Tags (Affiliate Link – you won’t be charged anything extra for this product by purchasing through this link, we just get a little something back from Amazon for the product recommendation)
• Cricut Maker (other Cricut machines can also be used):
• Cricut EasyPress 2 (23cm²)
• Cricut EasyPress Mat
• Fine Point Blade (usually included with the Cricut Maker machine)
• Cricut StandardGrip Mat
• Cricut Basic Tool Set
• Cricut Everyday Iron-On “Kelly” (green)
• Cricut Foil Iron-On “Light Gold” – Hobbycraft foil vinyl used in this video is no longer available, this is a close alternative. (Affiliate Link)

If you’re in Canada, you can find the vinyl here and here.
USA here and here.

Having a go?  Share your personalised luggage tags with us by tagging us in your photos over on Instagram @bridesociety_uk, we’d love to see!

Any questions?  Just ask, we’ll try our best to help. Happy Honeymooning!

—Bride Society

In Case of Emergency…

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What’s in Our Wedding Day Emergency Kit

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Your wedding day will obviously be a wonderful day, but no matter how much time and effort you put into planning, there is always the risk of a couple of hiccups on the day itself. BUT, if you’re prepared for that then you can conquer them with ease and no stress! That’s where our Wedding Day Emergency Kit comes in. A bag of tricks that we hope you won’t even have to open on your Big Day, but if you (or your bridal party) do, the emergency kit can be grabbed at a moment’s notice to leave you with concentrating on the main event of the day, getting married!

So what kind of things are we talking about? Unseasonal heatwave? We’ve got you covered with sunscreen and a fan. Buttonholes arrive without anything to attach them? Well here’s some handy pins…the list goes on! And it’s so easy to prep beforehand.

Let us know what you think of our suggestions and if you think we left anything out, tell us in the comments below!

-Bride Society

No Tree Hugging Required

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3 Swaps for a more Sustainable Wedding

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These days we’re all trying to do a bit more to cost the earth less.  If you’re reading this, you’re likely already diligently putting out your recycling every week and packing your tote whenever you step foot outside the front door.  Amazing!  But what next?  Our answer does not involve tree hugging, unless that is what you’re in to, then by all means, please get in there (we’ve all lacked a little physical contact this past year after all…no judgement here)!

We’re helping up your eco warrior princess status with 3 swaps to make your wedding more sustainable, without compromising on your vision.  We’re not here to preach or demand total perfection (as nice as that would be), simply to give some ideas for how to nudge things along in a more environmentally friendly direction.

We’ve picked three areas:

1. Jewellery [AD. Please note this section of our video contains an advertisement for #analuisany.  All opinions expressed in this video are that of Bride Society. Information provided was correct at the time of filming to the best of our knowledge.]

2. Florals

3. Fashion

(see video description box for time stamps.)

Planning an eco-conscious wedding?  Leave your recommendations and tips in the comments!  Don’t forget you can also find us on Instagram here and Pinterest here for more ideas and inspiration!

We know you’ll love your wedding all the more knowing you cost the earth less.

– Bride Society

The Writing’s on the Wall

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DIY String Words Wedding Decor

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If you’ve been following us for a while, you’ll know that we’re big fans of DIY ideas that don’t cost the Earth! Sometimes, aspects of your wedding aren’t as high a priority as others and so, where you have splurged in some areas, you may want to keep a tighter hold of the budget for others. Our DIY idea this week definitely falls into the budget friendly end of the scale. All you’ll need are a few simple ingredients and some creativity. Just one word of warning, it can get messy!

Our string word wedding decor DIY tutorial is perfect for adding some personal touches around your venue. You could create your married name to hang above the top table, shape a ‘Just Married’ or ‘Thank You’ and ask your photographer to include it in your wedding portraits to turn into your thank you cards after the day, or, as we’ve done, turn them into chair backs!

You will need:

  • 1/2 cup PVA Glue/School Glue
  • 1/4 cup Cornflour/Cornstarch
  • 3tbsp Warm Water
  • String/Twine
  • Baking Paper

*These quantities were enough for two short words, scale up the quantities if you want to create longer words.

Once dry (we’d advise at least 12 hours) your word should be rigid enough to hold its shape. The longer the word, the flimsier it will be, so bear that in mind when planning your project.

We’d love to see what you come up with if you give this DIY a go, tag us over on Instagram if you do!

-Bride Society

More is More!

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Chocolate Dipped Marshmallow Treats | Wedding / Party Favour

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The sun is finally shining here in the UK!  Yes, I’m British, it is a necessity to comment on the weather!  I live in a tourist hotspot and this week those British tourists have been trying to gobble down their ice creams on mass before the sun melts them first…which got us thinking…

For this week’s wedding DIY tutorial, we have been melting down chocolate to make some yummy ‘children’s’ wedding / party favours.  We’ve got the chocolate, the ‘mega’ marshmallows, the hundreds & thousands…basically all the things to make the kids, and big kids, happy (we got excited as soon as we saw the word ‘mega’!)!  Our dipped marshmallow treats will be a hit with any guest in my, always correct, opinion.  We’re packaging ours up to be ‘served’ as a favour to take home, but don’t let us stop you there!  Why not create a marshmallow tower to display on a dessert table? 

For the big ‘kids’, use dark chocolate (like ours), to offset the sweetness slightly, and add your toppings of choice such as freeze-dried raspberries, chopped nuts or desiccated coconut.  For the actual kids, switch out the dark chocolate for milk or white and top with 100s & 1000s, sugar sprinkles or even popping candy!  Basically, around here we believe MORE is more!

We hope you have fun making AND devouring them…

Having a go?  Share your yummy favours with us by tagging us in your photos over on Instagram @bridesociety_uk, we’d love to see!

We hope you enjoy this content, let us know what you’d like to see next in the comments!

—Bride Society

Let Love Grow

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How to Make Plantable Seed Paper

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Sustainability has become an important factor in wedding planning (as well as in everyday life!) and so you may be wondering how to include sustainable choices in some of your decision making. In the words of a rather large supermarket chain, ‘every little helps‘. That could mean deciding to use local suppliers (potentially reducing travel and food miles) or going plastic free for the whole day.

Or, as we’re about to show you with this week’s video, you can even make your very own plantable paper to turn into Save the Dates, wedding invitations or even wedding favours! We’ve recycled envelopes from some not very exciting post (read: bills) and thrown in a meadow seed mix to create our bee friendly paper.

So it’s a win win! Give your rubbish a new lease of life and help the bees by asking your guests to plant the paper once they’ve finished with it. If conditions are right, your guests will enjoy a wonderful display of wildflowers and our pollinators will be able to do what they do best.

This technique uses a traditional two piece wooden frame with a mesh stretched across one piece called a mold and deckle. You can find similar frames online.

Top Tips:

  • Although recycling paper to create your bee friendly paper is the name of the game, be selective with what you use. Coloured paper and inks from printing will alter the colour of your new sheets so ensure you’re happy to incorporate those colours if you use them. The grey and blue linings of the white envelopes created a muted bluey-grey final product.
  • Add your seeds after you’ve finished blending your pulp. If you add them too early you could end up with blended, broken seeds!

-Bride Society

Pocket This

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Napkin Cutlery Pocket Folding

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As life starts to resemble something like normal, we’re starting to think about celebrating those major life events…well, let’s be real, we’ve been *thinking* about that for what feels like forever, but finally those thoughts can be put in to motion!  Hooray!  There’s probably quite a few celebrations to catch up on by now too.  With that in mind, it’s got us thinking about allllll those little details to make everything extra special.  So, if you’re having some close friends and family over for a dinner party to celebrate your engagement or maybe you’re hosting an oh-so-sophisticated hen party brunch, try out our latest tutorial on YouTube where we’re showing you two techniques for folding napkins / serviettes to create pockets for your cutlery.  Your utensils never looked so fancy!

We promise it’s easy and quick, plus you can use paper or fabric napkins. Here’s the time stamps if you’d like to jump ahead:

1. Basic cutlery pocket: 0:42

2. Angled cutlery pocket: 1:49

Having a go?  Share your stylish place settings with us by tagging us in your photos over on Instagram @bridesociety_uk, we’d love to see!

We hope you enjoy this content, let us know what you’d like to see next in the comments!

—Bride Society

Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man

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DIY Tambourine Wedding Favours
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Once, twice, three times a tambourine! We love an item you can use in a variety of ways and this week’s DIY is three products in one. Perfect for boho weddings, music lovers or just if you’re a fan of fun, our DIY tambourines can be used for a variety of roles in your wedding.

Not a fan of confetti? How about using them as a jazzy alternative? Let your guests shower you with jingle jangles instead of confetti…. much more fun!

They’re a great keepsake for kids and grown ups alike (although depending on the age of the children – sorry parents!) so work as wedding favours. They’d look great as part of a boho, tipi wedding!

Add some names with a Sharpie and voilà, you’ve sorted your place settings too!

You will need:

  • Embroidery hoops – we used 4″ hoops for some mini tambourines, perfect for place settings
  • Jingle bells – use as many or as few bells as you’d like for each hoop. We opted for 7 around the 4″ hoop.
  • String
  • Fabric of your choice (we used hessian)
  • Ribbon – lengths of ribbon in your chosen colours
  • Glue gun (optional)

Having a go?  Share your homemade musical instruments with us by tagging us in your photos over on Instagram @bridesociety_uk, we’d love to see!

-Bride Society

Just The Tonic

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Tonic Ice Cubes

Just a couple more days until restrictions start to ease here in England and after over a year apart, that’s definitely cause to celebrate!! What’s the first thing you’re going to do? I personally have gotten very lucky that the changes have come in right on time for a special occasion in my life and you can be sure this week’s creation will be featuring in my day!

(NB. This applies to England, for up-to-date COVID-19 guidance in your area, please refer to the government website for your region.)

If you’re beginning to think about planning a small outdoor celebration for your engagement or hen party, then this week we’re right up your street as we’ve been making one of those ‘small but special’ touches that will get noticed by your guests.  We’ve pimped up your ice cubes by switching out water for tonic water and freezing in your drink’s garnish!  We went with raspberries and rosemary…pass me the gin please…but you can change up the fruits to whatever suits your drink trolly best!

We wish you a truly special celebration as we finally start to mark those important life events again with loved ones. You SO deserve it!

Having a go?  Share your pimped ice cube creations with us by tagging us in your photos over on Instagram @bridesociety_uk, we’d love to see!

Love, Bride Society x

Grow Your Own

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How to Make Air Dry Clay Plant Markers

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The age old dilemma of to wedding favour or not to wedding favour. If you do want to give your guests a token on your Big Day, you also want to make sure it will be something they’ll want to keep and take with them. Otherwise it’s a wasted part of the wedding budget which could be spent elsewhere!

If you’re a green-fingered couple and looking for ways to incorporate personal touches into your weddings, our Air Dry Clay Plant Marker DIY may just be the wedding favour idea for you. Include a packet of your favourite flower seeds alongside your personalised plant marker for each guest. A personal, budget and, potential environmentally, friendly option for your favours! Bonus points if you give your guests bee friendly seeds so they can help the planet long after your wedding day.

Or who says you even need to give flower seeds, you could give your guests your favourite vegetable seeds and they’ll soon be growing their own!

All you need is:

  • Air dry clay – we used DAS 1kg Modelling Clay White* (Affiliate link – we receive a small share of any sales made through this link)
  • Alphabet Stamps
  • A clear acrylic spray paint to seal the clay
  • Knife/Cutting tool
  • Seed packets (you could go one step further and have personalised seed packets too)

The markers we made measured approximately 14cm x 2.5cm but make them as large or as small as you prefer. They just need to be large enough to fit your chosen word on!

Tip: Ensure the clay has dried out thoroughly before spraying with the acrylic spray. This is likely to be at least overnight. And remember to spray both sides of your marker to seal the clay ready to be added to a plant pot!

These plant markers can be made well in advance so you can avoid any last minute DIY stress.

Any questions?  Just ask, we’ll try our best to help.

– Bride Society

You’re Very Welcome

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Wedding Welcome Sign – Guest Book – Home Décor

This week I’ve fallen even harder for my Cricut Maker…my only wish is that I’d had this genius machine back when I was prepping for my own wedding!  I assume it’s not the ‘done thing’ to have a vow-renewal mostly so you can flex your Cricut muscles (I do also love my husband)? 

You’ll know by now, here at Bride Society we’re pretty keen on adding a personal touch at every opportunity, and you should see how excited we get when we realise a project can be multi-purposed.  So cue all the excited feels this week for our personalised welcome sign that doubles up as an alternative guest book idea AND triples up (is that a thing?) as home décor!  

We’ve got a step-by-step tutorial for you, suitable for all levels, so if you’re still finding your Cricut feet, fear not…check out the YouTube description box for time stamps to skip ahead to the parts you need.  All the equipment we used to make our sign is listed below to get you started, but you really can apply the same process to a lot of different materials, so let your imagination run wild!

What we used (no affiliate links):

If you’re in Canada, you can find the vinyl here: https://bit.ly/3vxbmP6 and https://bit.ly/2ShApaI

USA: https://bit.ly/3nB58Lh and https://bit.ly/3aTVChr

Having a go?  Share your welcome sign with us by tagging us in your photos over on Instagram @bridesociety_uk, we’d love to see!

Any questions?  Just ask, we’ll try our best to help.

— Bride Society

Light Up, Light Up…

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DIY Light Up, Wire Letter Industrial Style Sign

It can be tricky to figure out how to make an impact with your wedding decor without blowing the budget but this week’s DIY may just tick those boxes. Grab a drill and a few select materials and you can make your very own Industrial Style light up sign. We’ve gone for the word CAKE (because, let’s face it, we’re big fans of cake) which would be perfect as your cake table decor, but choose your own word to create your very own unique sign!

This sign looks great at any time of day but once the sun is going down is when it really comes into it’s own. Just remember to ask a member of your venue staff to switch the lights on when dusk is approaching.

You will need:

  • Stirling Board – approx 18mm thickness. (Size will vary – Use a piece of Stirling board large enough to comfortably fit all your letters for your chosen word)
  • Drill (Safety message – we advise wearing safety goggles when using an electric drill)
  • Drill bits x2 – We used a 2mm and 5mm (for the bulb holes you will need to use a drill bit slightly larger than the bulbs you’re using)
  • Battery powered LED string lights
  • Pencil
  • Thin modelling wire
  • Wire cutters
  • Wire Letters to make the word of your choice (such as these from Oliver Bonas or Hobbycraft )

Tip: Use some tape to secure the battery packs to the reverse of the wooden board.

And if the industrial style isn’t your thing, by changing the type of wood you use for this DIY, it will change the whole look and characteristic of your light up sign!

The best bit about this DIY is that you can keep it afterwards to use in your home. Or you can easily dismantle the pieces and re-use your wire letters and battery powered lights in other ways.

Got any questions or video requests? Leave them in the comments & we’ll do our best to help. Tell us how you got on & tag us in your photos over on Instagram: @bridesociety_uk, we’d love to see what you chose to do with yours!

-Bride Society