Book Review + Interview: Handmade Weddings

Craft & Design

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These days it’s all about the personal touches you can bring to your wedding. That’s why I love the new book, Handmade Weddings by Eunice Moyle, Sabrina Moyle and Shana Faust. These three ladies have an impeccable design eye and style in my mind. Sisters Sabrina and Eunice are the duo behind Hello Lucky! and Shana now a stylist was a former senior editor at Martha Stewart Weddings. Need I say more? This wedding craft book is a great informative design guide that will help you add your own handmade touch to your big day. The book contains more than fifty projects broken up into six main design themes: Retro Homespun, Girly Romantic, Happy Graphic, Organic Minimal, Modern Classic and Found. From making your own invitations to centerpieces, favors, and more this book is a must have for anyone planning a wedding!
Handmadewedding Interior1
I recently got a chance to chat with the authors, Eunice, Sabrina, and Shana and asked them questions about Handmade Weddings and ask them for special tips to help you DIY for your big day.
Read the interview and download the special project except to make a scalloped cupcake stand, after the jump!


CRAFT: Please tell us more about your new book Handmade Weddings.
Sabrina, Eunice, & Shana: Handmade Weddings is a DIY book that helps brides define a wedding style and achieve it using handmade details from wedding invitations to décor. It contains over 50 projects grouped six very different looks: Retro Homespun, Happy Graphic, Girly Romantic, Organic Minimal, Modern Classic, and Found. Our goal in writing the book was not to just offer an assortment of disparate DIY projects – blogs and magazines do plenty of that – but to help the bride (or groom) select and execute projects to create a unified, polished wedding. Regardless of budget, we firmly believe that DIY is often the best way to personalize a celebration and make it unique. The key, however, is to do so thoughtfully and with a keen curatorial eye – we try to demonstrate how to do this in the book.
CRAFT: What are some of your favorite projects from the book?
Eunice, Sabrina, & Shana: It’s so hard to choose! But if we had to, the Happy Graphic paper link chains (so simple, yet so effective and adaptable to so many styles); the Retro Homespun embroidered welcome hoops (lovely, and a lasting memento of the day); and the Girly Romantic favor crackers (fun and interactive – they were a great hit at Eunice’s own wedding).
CRAFT: What tips do you have for brides who say they are too busy to make something?
Eunice, Sabrina, & Shana: Put your friends to work – you’d be amazed at how much you can get done in one afternoon with advance planning and organization. The key is to give everyone a simple, discrete, repeatable task (think assembly line!) and to ply them with lots of wine and gossip! If you’re hesitant, think of it this way: the wedding is that much more meaningful to people who’ve been personally involved. Crafting is a fun way to bond and get friends and family to feel like they’re making a meaningful contribution to the celebration — it’s a privilege, not an imposition!
Also, DIY needn’t mean making something elaborate, needing to have mad crafting skills, or even doing everything yourself. Our Happy Graphic Decal Table Numbers are a great example. The only thing involved here is picking out a font you love, ordering some inexpensive decals and glass bottles, and then sticking the numbers on (which if you have about 100 guests or so, will only be 15 – 20 bottles, one per table). DIY can be extremely simple and can require almost no skill — and it has a huge payoff in terms of delighting your guests and making your wedding unique.
CRAFT: Any advice to brides on how to set up for their big day, stress-free?
Eunice, Sabrina, & Shana: Make detailed checklist well in advance and use it to pack everything and unload at the ceremony site. If you’re transporting a lot of your own items to the ceremony, pack the items you’ll need last at the back of the truck, and those you’ll need first towards the front. Label every box with the contents. Bring a toolkit of emergency supplies, from scissors to a hot glue gun to a sewing kit and water to avoid wasting precious time running emergency errands. Give everyone clear tasks, and make sure everyone has each other’s cell phone number to stay coordinated (if your venue is no cell phone service, seriously consider renting radios!).
CRAFT: What are some of the favorite things you made for your own wedding?
Eunice Crackers
Eunice Pom Poms
Eunice Crowns From Crackers
Eunice & Sabrina (for Eunice’s wedding): The favor crackers (containing stick-on mustaches, dinner mints, and a tissue paper crown), dyed coffee filter pom-poms, and a glass glitter crown decorated with crepe paper rosettes for the flower girl. (The pom poms and favor crackers are featured in the book. You can find DIY instructions for the glass glitter crown on the Hello!Lucky website.)
Shana Paper Straw Flags
Shana Paper Wrapped Vessels
Shana: Paper straw flags (just xyroned patterned paper to straws to make them look festive) and paper wrapped vessels (wrapping patterned paper around hurricanes using double sided tape).
Handmadeweddings Cupcakestand
Download the PDF below to make this scalloped cupcake stand from Handmade Weddings – perfect for wedding cupcakes!

Download PDF Download the PDF
Right click to save the PDF to your desktop. Directions on downloading PDFs.

1 thought on “Book Review + Interview: Handmade Weddings

  1. Unusual Handmade Bridal Favours | Fancy and Sumptuous Wedding Cakes says:

    […] Book Review + Interview: Handmade Weddings – These days it’s all about the personal touches you can bring to your wedding. That’s why I love the new book, Handmade Weddings by Eunice Moyle … way to personalize a celebration and make it unique. The key, however, is to do so thoughtfully and … […]

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