Destination invitation

As a lot of you lovely readers may have already realised, P proposed to me in Indonesia earlier this year in just the most incredible and romantic setting. . .  So much so that we have decided to go back out there next year to get married with our very closest family and friends; I have never been so excited about anything.

Whilst our friends and family have been excitedly planning and booking their holiday's in SE Asia, I have been doing my best to make bits and pieces for the wedding. The first thing on my rather long list was to do the invitations.

I knew immediately what I wanted to do, but how to source all the material and put it all together was a bit more difficult. I wanted to create something fun and exciting for everyone to receive and thought that considering we are getting married on an island "A message in a bottle" would be the perfect way to capture imaginations. I hoped that this would help to fuel their excitement, especially as the colder, darker months are drawing in.

After designing the front and back of the invitations on the computer I coffee stained them along with all the labels and let them all dry before burning the corners and edges to give them a look of antiquity.

Using a calligraphy pen I tried to do my best at writing the labels myself- let met tell you, this was not an easy task! I'm not entirely sure what I think of my attempt at calligraphy-ish writing, but I wanted to personalise the bottles and this seemed to be the best way at doing it!

Once the paper had dried I rolled it as tightly as I could. I do recommend if you are doing this yourself that you don't use paper over 80g as it becomes too hard and thick to roll. As my bottles were long and thin also I needed to make sure that the rolled up map/ invitation would fit down the neck.

Once rolled I tied blue ribbon around it to keep it in position and then slid it down the neck of the bottle and in to the sand. I allowed the ribbon to hang out of the bottle so that it was easier to pull out when received.



My great friend Emma kindly bought me a huge jar of sand up from Bournemouth beach, thank you Emma! We managed to funnel it in to the bottles and I then used a heart hand cutter on some pearl coloured paper to produce tiny little iridescent hearts. I then dropped these in to the bottles and shook them around, leaving little surprise love hearts for the recipient to find embedded in the sand.

Finally I tied the ribbon in to a bow and tied the tag around the neck of the bottle before pushing the cork in to secure it all.

 

On the back of the tag I used this as valuable space to put "useful information" about flights, accommodation etc. Vital bits that the guests might need to know when booking and hopefully saving us from too many questions!

Finally I packaged them in to small brown cardboard boxes covered in bubble wrap and sent them on their merry ways!

The responses (thus far) have been really really wonderful with most thrilled that they have a momento to keep for ever. Although, I have had one or 2 guests not realise that the invitation was in the bottle itself and that they had to open the cork to pull the invite out. Not mentioning any names (Mummy and Daddy of the bride ;) ) two people were sure that the "thing" in the bottle was a cinnamon stick!!! So, do be warned that you might need to add on another little sticker, like "pull me" to the cork top so that people know what to do!

In case you want to know, I bought my bottles from here . They are beautiful, sturdy glass bottles that have survived post men, trains and planes to get to their destinations! Thank you Wares of Knutsford!

Would love to know what other people do for their destination invitations and how any one else getting married abroad is getting on with their preparation!

Emi x

Frit Ta Ta! My skinny pizza....

A healthy, quick dish which can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or supper and served hot or cold. What is this wondrous creation you ask? The Frittata.

 

An Italian dish, seemingly similar to an omelette or quiche- but without the crust! The Frittata is usually packed with a multitude of ingredients such as meats, cheeses, herbs, spices and / or vegetables.

 

The difference from the Frittata to an omelette is that the omelette is usually folded in half, with half the filling on one side whereas the Frittata stays flat and is usually stacked with the ingredients all over it, making it thicker and slightly more indulgent!

 

The great thing about the Frittata is you can literally put whatever you want in to it. We decided to make our Frittata with the following ingredients:

 

2tsps coconut oil

10 eggs

10 large baby tomatoes

1 large onion

1 red pepper

Chorizo (we used about 10cm cut in to cubes of a normal supermarket chorizo)

3 large handfuls of Spinach

1 log of goats cheese (about 100 g)

 

Pepper and rock salt to flavour

 

Pan:

Best to use a deep frying pan, the smaller the pan, the thicker the Frittata etc - depending on how many ingredients you have and how many eggs you want to use. 

 

Oven:

Pre-set oven to 200degrees to bake the Frittata for 10 - 15 minutes once it has set in the pan. 

 

What you need to do:

• In the frying pan allow your coconut oil to heat up, then put in all your vegetables and fry off until softening

 

• Add in your chorizo and fry off for another minute
• In a jug whisk up your 10 medium sized eggs, add a pinch of salt and pepper

• Add your spinach and cover all the vegetables, then mix in. You will find that the spinach wilts very quickly- even though it may look like a lot when you put it in

• Pour in your egg and stir around until it begins to set. Leave for 5 minutes on a low heat to allow to set

• Add in your lumps of goats cheese and allow to melt slightly on top

• Once the goats cheese has melted, place in the oven (or under the grill) and allow to bake for 5 - 10 minutes until golden brown

• Take out of the oven and allow to cool - you will find that it shrinks slightly as it cools

 

• Season with some more pepper and serve hot - or allow to cool and serve cold with some salad. The Frittata can last up to three days in the fridge and as the flavours infuse the more the tastier it gets!

I am going to try this again next week with brocolli, sundried tomatoes, butternut squash and bacon, you can literally try it with anything! The "healthier" pizza, some could say!

Enjoy!

Of recent times....

Long-time no posting, sorry, I've totally seemed to have lost my blogging mojo and feel very out of the loop! Life seems to have been crazy recently, mostly with wedding planning around my ever travelling fiancée, and trying to somehow get my head around my gemmology finals. I thought getting married on an island in Indonesia might mean no stress and no hassle.... unfortunately this isn't so. However, I am- as much as I am moaning- also LOVING a lot of the planning and making. I have set myself some pretty big tasks, but I have a list and am doing my best to be as proactive as possible and get stuff done! I am going to blog asap about some of the things I have been making to see what you guys think. 

I genuinely have spent the last couple of months looking at everything wedding 'y' and genuinely cannot believe how much everything is! It's like put the word "wedding" in front of something and it's therefore socially acceptable to add 2,3,4 zero's!I've even found myself typing into google "white maxi dress" and a host of other "key words" in the hope of finding some beautiful dress that I could wear as a wedding dress- however, it seems even the designers have clocked on to this one and anything remotely white and maxi is a "wedding dress".

Having said that, I am infact on my way - this weekend- to my (hopefully) final viewing of a dress I have tried on -4 times now! The more I've tried it on, the more I love it and think it will fit with a) the humid and hot climate and b) the temple / beach wedding setting. It does worry me slightly however that I have not had that "eureka" moment with any dress and boy have I tried on a fair few!! I've been pricked, prodded and s.t.u.c.k - yep, stuck in dresses. I've sweated my way through so many styles and bridal shops and really have had enough, I just want a dress, the dress! Everywhere I read though, and every one I have spoken to seems to have known straight away that the dress they have tried on was "the one" - I've even had two girls tell me that they burst in to tears on seeing themselves. I don't know where I am going wrong really, maybe it's because I'm being a little un traditional and therefore need something a little less conventional that I'm not going to have some massive over heating issue in, I mean how awful would it be for my hubby to be to see a sweating, sunburnt Emi walking down the aisle- anyway, I cannot let myself start worrying about the "what if's" ... For now I will just let you know how I get on this weekend!

On another note I have made a couple of new pieces for my Emi-Lou Designs range recently which I hope you like. I am almost decided on the dresses for my bridesmaids so I have been doing a bit of trialling with different floral headbands, colours and sizes of flowers. I recently LOVED Millie Mackintosh's bridesmaid's floral garlands, they really complimented their dusky pink gowns and the girls own natural beauty.  

 

I would like to try and make something similar for my bridesmaids, maybe slightly smaller though.

This one particular was for a friend who was off to a festival and in desperate need of something bright, fun and floral for her hair. I was worried that the yellow and pink would look a little "bright" but I think it worked out.

 

The other thing I wanted to share with you were these earrings. I love making earrings more than anything else, you can be so creative with them and I love trying different stones and colours together. Here I have 14k gold wire and beads with a turquoise stone and blue glass beads. 

Anyway, a bit of a rambled post, but thought I should get back in to the zone and give you all a bit of an update.

Emi x