Victorian Wedding Crafts to Make Yourself

It's the wedding season, and if you're helping to plan decorations on a budget, I'd like to suggest you look to the romantic Victorians for inspiration.

The Victorians loved decoration, particularly anything with lace, including paper lace,romance and flowers. There are some lovely wedding craft ideas that reflect that time and that love of beauty, and they are easy and inexpensive to make. In this article, I'd like to share a couple of my favorites with you.

Favors are a thoughtful touch at your celebration, but there's no need to spend a fortune to buy them from catalogues or bridal specialty shops. The idea is to give your friends something to remember your special day. Make pretty favors by rolling paper doilies into cones, gluing them along the seams, and stuffing tulle rounds into them. You can then fill the cones with candy,wedding rice, potpourri, or whatever you like. Decorate them with ribbons, charms,or stickers, You can adapt this idea by using pretty colored or patterned papers to make the cones. Even wallpaper samples in pretty floral patterns will do.

For a variation on the cones, make traditional Victorian "crackers," usually found at English Christmas parties and birthdays, etc. Use paper Wedding napkins to match your colors. Cut tissue paper rolls to about 10". Put a gift inside the roll, and wrap it with the napkin. It's a good idea to secure the ends with a little bit of craft glue. Twist the ends gently and tie them with ribbon. Cut the paper doilies and apply them to the crackers in various ways. if you want your crackers to pop when they are opened, you can buy the cracker inserts online, but these make lovely favors even if they don't pop.

Another use for paper doilies, and my favorite wedding craft, involves making Tussy Mussies, which can replace floral bouquets for the braidesmaids or even for the bride, and look absolutely charming. This is done exactly the same way you make the favors. Attach five or six ribbon streamers in your wedding colors to the cones at the point where they are glued together. Let the ribbons hang down from the front. Insert tulle rounds into the bottom of the cones, and fill the cones with real, silk, or dried flowers.

A beloved traditional craft that is perfect for placing on tables and at place settings at weddings is the paper rose. You can use any kind of paper to make these roses, and make them any color that suits your theme. The only requirement is that the paper must be square. You might want to consider investing in origami paper, which is inexpensive and comes in many colors. Since it is better to do this with an illustrated guide until you learn the way it goes, do a Google search for paper roses and you will find several websites that offer these illustrations.

Remember, the important thing about your wedding is that you and your guests have fun, and that it reflects your personality. These things, which you or your friends can make, do a much better job of that, I think, than the mass-produced favors and decorations in catalogs.