Karen Kench of Folksy store Kettle of Fish shares her Wedding day with us and why a few handmade touches made it all the more special.

I never thought I’d want to get married and don’t remember ever being a little girl who dreamed of a big white wedding, but when we did decided to tie the knot I knew I wanted it to be handmade and personal to us.

Making and growing things has always given me real pleasure. That sense of achievement, of creating something unique, something special. It’s the same when I buy something handmade. I like to know it’s been made by someone with a passion for what they do, with care and the investment of a part of themselves. Being able to give our wedding such a personal touch was a great feeling.

We love our garden and have lots of bee-friendly plants so one motif for the wedding was drawn from this. I did start to grow some of the flowers but the awful weather made it impossible and we eventually got white peonies and sweetpeas from English flower farms. I made bumble bee bunting and combined handprinted bee buttons with calico and raffia to enhance the buttonholes and decorate my bouquet. I love the fact that the bees looked like they were being attracted by the flowers.

We have wrens nesting in our garden and see many birds on our walks, so I also decided to start collecting bird ornaments from charity shops. Even with eight months to go, they proved harder to find than I’d expected, and some of them stubbornly refused to take the white spray paint, but I eventually got enough!

One of our shared passions is walking, so using a map of our favourite stretch of the Tees for the table plan was perfect, naming each table after one of the wonderfully named parishes. This was enhanced by making tiny strings of map bunting for the table settings. It was lovely that all of these disappeared from the tables after the meal because everyone took them home.

I originally wanted fireworks. This eventually got downgraded to sparklers for practical reasons but produced some magical photographs, taken for us by my stepdad.

I was really pleased with how everything looked. My handmade decorations were fairly minimal, but made a great impact and drew people in for a closer look. The overall investment of time was well worth it and I’m really glad I started preparations months in advance and miraculously avoided any last minute stress!

It was an amazing day, and the sight of all the people that matter most to us together in one place was really special. My ten year old stepson played Here Comes the Bride on the trumpet, before we walked in together to “Feelin’ Good” by Nina Simone, and suddenly we were there, married!

If you’re planning a handmade wedding we have lots of beautifully crafted pieces in our Wedding theme. We also have some great DIY’s on our Project Pinboard. Enjoy!