Wedding Bonbonnieres - Lavender Sachets

Personalising your wedding with handmade touches is a fabulous way to make your special day a day to remember. For my daughter Michaela's recent wedding, there were many handmade details - each one of them was a labour of love and took many hours to complete but they added an elegant, understated touch to her day and were a talking point amongst the guests. Today, we begin the "Wedding Collection" - a series of posts showcasing those details.

This is the final instalment for the wedding bonbonnieres: boxed Lavender Sachets. Take a look at Part 1 and Part 2 for more details.

The bonbonnieres consisted of a simple piece of cotton fabric filled with lavender. Michaela cut the fabric into a square, folded it in half and then stitched it on two sides to form a sleeve.

Even kitty Kitty Kat wanted to get in on the act.

 One hundred sleeves later and the pile looks like this.

A project of this size necessitates you work production-line style and that you employ as many extra hands as you can so at this point, a group of friends was enlisted to help. There were stations set up for filling the bags with lavender, tying the bows, attaching the charms and hot gluing the gold leaves, none of which I remembered to photograph. But with nibblies and drinks provided, there was plenty of fun and laughter around the table.

The thank you tags were attached to a ribbon with a wedding band charm and then tied around the sachets.

Using a wedding band trinket as a jump ring was a clever touch!

Once wrapped with ribbon and decorated, the sachets were ready for boxing.

We sat in front of TV one night to fold the acetate boxes that would hold the sachets and then they were lined with a square of burgundy crushed velvet to add a luxe look.

A little note was included with each one. On the front, it read: "Smell me, I'm fabulous" and on the back was a heartfelt thank you note from the Bride and Groom.

With a production-line set up, one of the bridesmaids was on hand to place the sachets in the acetate boxes. It's lucky we have an eight foot dining table to spread out on. No meals were eaten here for days!

The dining room buffet became their home for the next few days before the boxes were tied with the finishing cord.

A closer look at the production line.

A closer look at the lavender sachets before the boxes were closed.

It was nice that the final touch was added by the Bride and Groom - a gold cord tied around the boxes giving them a very professional finish.

The bonbonnieres were quite a community project with more than a dozen different helpers over a period of weeks - I'm sorry not to have photos of everyone who pitched in to help, but thank you to each and every one of you - your help was invaluable. 

I'll be sharing more personal touches in future posts so don't forget to check back to see what other ideas this very crafty bride came up with to make her wedding a day to remember!

'Til next time.....

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