Vintage Wedding Inspiration

Vintage wedding inspiration is still very much sought after, both with bride and grooms currently having to postpone their special days until 2021 due to the current COVID crisis and those planning further ahead. So I thought I’d take the time to share one of my favourite commissions that were part of an incredible vintage wedding a couple of years ago.

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As I’m sure you can imagine from the picture above, I was so excited when Lauren sent me pictures of her dress and her husband-to-be’s suit! I couldn’t wait to get started on them. They looked super on their cake on their big day!

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Photo courtesy of Kate Richards Photography

Firstly, I drew out the details onto the wooden dolls, before woodburning the linework to make it permenant.

Lauren’s vintage wedding dress was gorgeous. I loved working on all the tiny details, which called for the use of the tiniest brush. My favourite brush to use for tiny details is one that I’ve plucked almost all the hairs from to make it as thin as possible! It’s now even thinner than in this picture!

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The delicate polkadot netting around the top of the dress and sleeves was so fun to recreate. I love me a polkadot and this was no exception. I also tried to capture the layers and folds in the fabric around the upper bodice. The navy waistband really makes a gorgeous impact.

The wedding flowers were also totally gorgeous. The bride’s bouquet was a lovely, loose arrangement which is quickly becoming one of my favourite looks to be asked to draw.

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The groom was also a bit gorgeous!

I can’t tell you how much I loved creating his amazing boater jacket. I love it when I get to create something totally different. The stripes were labour-intensive but very much worth the effort!

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Lauren kindly shared some beautiful images of their wedding day with me. I love seeing my wooden cake toppers in action!

Photo courtesy of Kate Richards Photography

Aside from their amazing outfits, how much vintage wedding inspiration is in these photos?! All those gorgeous details – the lace doily under the cake, the cut crystal glass holding the cottage garden flowers and the classic macarons. Beautiful.

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Photo courtesy of Kate Richards Photography
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Whether you’ve had to put your wedding plans on hold, or have a date set for the next couple of years, if I can help create a unique wedding cake topper for you that you can treasure forever, take a look at our Wedding Cake Toppers page here, and get in touch!

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Wedding Table Centrepieces

I cleared my timetable in January to undertake a really special commission for a special set of wedding table centrepieces. It was a welcome break to work on something so personal after the madness of Christmas. However, it was also a bit daunting, as I was tasked to working with wooden dolls around three times bigger than what I am used to!

You may remember this post from a couple of years ago, where a set of my peg dolls was used as part of the romantic wedding proposal of two of my friends.

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Both of them are fans of graphic novels and the superhero movie genre, so naturally they decided to continue both the superhero and peg doll theme throughout their wedding. They asked if I could make their cake toppers, several gifts for family and friends and their table centrepieces.

I’ll save the toppers and gifts for another post, but if you have 3 minutes to spare, here’s a video of the giant peg doll wedding table centrepieces. Enjoy!

If you enjoyed this, then make sure to pop directly to my YouTube channel for more, similar videos. I am gradually building a little library of videos of the techniques and processes I use to create my peg dolls. This gives you a great insight into the work and love that goes into the details of every tiny doll that I create.

Until next time,

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~Peg Dolls ~ An Extended Family!

You might remember this lovely pair of peg dolls I made a few years back if you have a great memory! If – like me – you can’t remember what day it is, here’s a link back to the post where I first shared them.

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The peg dolls were a retirement gift from a daughter to her father to commemorate his career and all the admirable work he had done over those years.

Both her dad and her mum loved them, and it wasn’t too long until she got in touch asking if I could make all the grandchildren to add to the set. Of course!

Here they are, all six of them!

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Four lovely girls in a mixture of pretty patterns. Florals and stripes, always a favourite of mine!

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Not forgetting the handsome boys in their gear! Check out that splattered dotty little shirt! So cute!

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The grandchildren dolls were handed over to their Grandparents, and were very much loved immediately. So much so, that Granddad declared he needed dolls of his own children too, to complete the family.

My lovely customer got in touch to see if I could extend the family set again, this time with her and her brother and sister!

By now she knew my love of working with patterns and colour, and sent me pictures of outfits that didn’t disappoint!

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I love layering up the colours and stripes that make up a checked pattern! It’s time consuming but fun!

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I particularly enjoyed recreating the patterns in this scarf on this little lady peg doll. It was also fun adding the shading to get the “puffa” look to her body warmer.

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I actually captured working on some of these details in a video, which you can see here. I’m working on building more videos of my work and processes, so keep an eye on my YouTube channel. I hope to gradually add lots more of my pyrography stages and colouring of my peg dolls.

My lovely customer kindly shared a picture of them all in their forever home! A peg doll family which has been extended and built up over the past couple of years. They look so lovely together and I’m sure they will be treasured by all the family for years to come!

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Personalised Peg Doll Family – H&N Part One

Earlier this year, I was asked to make a personalised peg doll couple and their pet dogs as a special gift for a lovely pair of in-laws. As always, I was excited by the new commission and couldn’t wait to get started on their peg dolls.

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The couple had great outfits which were bright and distinct. This is always really important as it makes each personalised peg doll immediately recognisable to the recipients when they get them!

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The lady doll had a really vibrant jumper and I loved adding the cute necklace detail too!

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The gentleman had a jumper with really distinctive coloured stripes and a  heavily-cabled pattern. I’d only drawn a cabled pattern once before, here, on a very dark cardigan. There was nowhere to hide or room for error this time though! With the bright colours involved, the cabling pattern would be very clear. But you know me and how much I enjoy a challenge. I loved creating the pattern on the jumper and was pleased with the finished result.

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As well as the humans, I also had 3 dogs to add to the peg doll family. It was a lot of fun catching the individual details and characters of each one!

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It is amazing how they come into their own once you start adding the colour.

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It’s always great to hear back from my customers that the peg dolls went down as a great success! It’s even better when their recipients get in touch themselves too!  H was so pleased with the gift from her daughter in law that she asked if I could possibly create her three sons too, to complete their set. Brilliant!

 

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Pop back next week for Part II, where I will share the rest of this gorgeous peg doll family with you. I’m looking forward to introducing three young men with three very different styles!

Until then, as always,

Cwtch ♥ Mawr

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Personalised Peg Doll Family – A True Gift of Love

My fellow Creativepreneur Jo, of Crafty Jo Designs, contacted me last year in order to ask if I could create a peg doll family for her niece for Christmas.  Jo makes amazing floral creations, from “forever flowers” to beautiful floral necklaces that are definite show stoppers. Take a peep at her gorgeous work in detail on her website.

Here are the beautiful peg doll family themselves:

Mum’s dress was initially a challenge, but I absolutely loved recreating it once I got going! 

She had a gorgeous dress in the photo I was sent to work from, from what I could see of it. But she was slightly obscured in the photo and I couldn’t be sure of a few things, so I got in back in touch with Jo to see if she had any more details. Eventually, after a lot of web searching, we were able to find the dress online for me to work from.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While I pride myself on primarily using coloured pencil for my peg dolls, sometimes I use other materials when the commission calls for it. This was one of those cases.

In order to get the best representation of the swirling galaxy colours of the dress, I used water colours blended directly on the wood. Once dry, I then flicked small flashes of white and black paint on top to create the star-like flecks.

It was great to experiment with a different technique and I think it worked really well for this particular peg doll.

Dad was cool too! With his distinctive hair, glasses and jumper he was great to personalise.

A particular special touch was added here. Jo shared the couple met at Glastonbury, and asked if I could incorporate festival tickets as a nod to this. As always, I’m only too pleased to work in such a special detail on my peg dolls.
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Jo tipped me off that the couple love the band New Order, and asked if I could dress their young toddler in something that reflected this. I searched through the band’s album art and merchandise and we agreed on this:peg doll family, new order,  peg doll family, peg doll couple

Not long after Jo’s niece had received her peg doll family came another call for a new little addition! I was so pleased to arrange this surprise for them on behalf of Jo. A true gift of love! Working together, we decided to link him to the existing peg dolls using blue colours like his mum and brother. Additionally, his initial forms a big red monogram like on dad’s jumper.peg doll family, baby peg doll, tiny peg doll

I was completely delighted to be able to complete this peg doll family with this tiny addition.

Can I make some peg doll magic for you? Drop me a line using the contact form so that we can get chatting about your ideas!

Cwtch ♥ Mawr

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