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DIY wedding

Bride Rosie a young white woman with fair shoulder length hair and her groom Femi, a young black man with short hair and glasses stand together smiling outside in the sunshine on their wedding day. Rosie wears a long ivory wedding dress and holds a bouquet of white and lilac flowers. Femi wears a light biscuit coloured tweed suit with a turquoise tie. He rests his arm loosely on Rosie's shoulder. They both look happy and relaxed.
Patchwork CouplesWedding Planning

A British Nigerian Wedding and honeymoon to Iceland

by Rosie Hurwitz
written by Rosie Hurwitz

Today on our blog we meet Patchwork couple Rosie and Femi, both from Gloucestershire. They met during college when Rosie was 18 and Femi was 21. (Femi technically met Rosie’s mum first, because he had booked some Maths tutoring with her to get into university!) Rosie says “we started talking here and there but it wasn’t until we found out we’re both Christian that we started talking regularly. We’d talk first thing in the morning until we went to sleep. It went on like that for a few weeks and long story short, I had to ask him out because he was very oblivious.” Haha, well done Rosie! Femi and Rosie had a wonderful British-Nigerian wedding combining cultural traditions, foods and plenty of outfit changes! Read on to hear about their wedding day and honeymoon to Iceland made possible by friends and family.

How did you get engaged?

Rosie: 5 years after we met Femi proposed on New Year’s Eve during the countdown, in our living room. He got on one knee at midnight, and it was the very first thing he did in the year 2019. 

A perfect way to start the year. What kind of wedding did you plan?

We had planned a British and Nigerian mixed wedding and it was going to be large because of my large family (I’m the youngest of 7) and our large circle of friends. Unfortunately Covid-19 had different plans. So restrictions meant that after rearranging it 3 times, we couldn’t have a first dance or alcohol. The day was amazing though, we still had our British and Nigerian mix. We had outfit changes throughout the day and we had a mixture of Nigerian and British food.

What was your favourite part of the day?

We’re both hugely family orientated and family and friends played a massive part in our day. My mum made all the decorations for the church by hand. (If anyone needs any paper origami flowers, or bunting let me know!) My mum and aunt made our wedding cakes, Femi’s family cooked the Nigerian food, my aunt made our guest ‘tree’, our next door neighbour provided the flowers, and our best friend was our photographer. Then everyone chipped in with decorating the church and hall. So it was really nice that they could have such a personal addition to the day and the gifts too. Patchwork just felt like the perfect touch.

Why was Patchwork the best wedding registry choice for you?

We chose to use Patchwork because we created a website for our wedding, with things like details and layout of the day. We decided Patchwork would be helpful to include, so if people were struggling for gift ideas, they could put money towards some of the things we’d love to do.

Patchwork honeymoon Fund Iceland

What did you want to ask guests to contribute towards and why?

We’d planned a honeymoon to Iceland so we had options for people to contribute to experiences while we were there. Because we’d recently bought our house, we also had the option for money towards renovations. We then had a few fun things that were non-monetary like a games night or promises to help us with decorating. We had patches towards nights out (and our hot chocolate addiction!) We’re quite social people and we wanted to use it as an opportunity to catch up with people we might not have been able to keep in touch with over the past few months. The best bit about Patchwork was being able to say what we want as a couple but also what we want individually. It’s nice to have something for you, but sometimes the groom gets forgotten about!

What did your friends and family think?

Our friends and family really liked that we used Patchwork. A lot of people commented on it and how it gave them ideas of what we wanted. The pastor that did our wedding also mentioned it in his speech.

What have you done so far with the gift money you received?

Quite a few people contributed towards our honeymoon, so we used that money to go to Iceland. I’ve always wanted to go and we had a great time there. The highlight of the trip was getting to see the Northern Lights, and we would definitely recommend it to anyone. We plan on going back in a few years.

Thank you so much Rosie and Femi for sharing your day with us and for using Patchwork in such a beautiful way! If you’ve been inspired to set up your own honeymoon fund to Iceland or anywhere else or a unique cash wedding fund you can customise one of our many gorgeous templates and get started today!

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Bride and Groom dancing outside overlooking forest
Patchwork Couples

Amazing DIY Wedding & Honeymoon adventures

by Rosie Hurwitz
written by Rosie Hurwitz

This is a love story set in the mountains. It’s where our newest Patchwork couple met, and where they now live and play. Matt and Chesa met in the summer of 2015. Chesa had signed up for a week-long Intro to Mountaineering Camp where Matt was working as a Mountain Guide. It didn’t take long for Chesa to develop a little crush on Matt which she did her best to hide. Lucky for Chesa, Matt felt something too! Long story short…when the camp ended, they had dinner, and have been together ever since! They now live just outside of Banff National Park, in Canmore, Alberta. Matt’s work takes him away for long periods of time, so Chesa says “we really cherish the time we have together. We love to be outside, cook meals together and drink too much coffee!” We chat to Chesa to hear more about their DIY wedding and the amazing honeymoon adventures that followed.

B+W image of Bride and Groom kissing while holding coffee
Photo Credit: @ampersandgrey

How did you get engaged?

The year before we got engaged, Matt and I moved out of our home, put all of our stuff into storage and travelled India for 5 months. During that time, we only spent one day apart. While in Rishikesh, he said he was not feeling well and wanted to stay at the hotel to rest. He insisted that I go to yoga and lunch without him. Unbeknownst to me, he snuck out and bought 2 gemstones – a diamond and an emerald. When we got home from India, he worked with our friend Kari Woo to design a one of a kind ring. The actual proposal was perfectly simple and sweet. For my birthday, he surprised me with a night at the iconic Emerald Lake Lodge. We were cozied up in front of the fire in our cabin with a bottle of wine when he proposed.

@ampersandgrey
Bride and groom standing facing each other
Photo Credit: @ampersandgrey

What kind of wedding did you plan?

From the very start we knew we wanted to plan a low-key DIY wedding weekend that would include good food, good wine and lots of quality time with our loved ones. We rented a beautiful house in Fernie, British Columbia and invited all of our favourite people to come celebrate with us! We wanted to get married on the summer solstice, which happened to land on a Friday. Never ones to be afraid to do things a little differently, we planned a small ceremony and dinner on the Friday evening. On the Saturday, we extended an invitation to our wider circle of friends to join for Matt’s “famous” burgers and dancing. The DIY wedding venue was ideal for the type of wedding we wanted because we got to host all of our family and friends, it felt very intimate and we weren’t tied to any particular timeline (which allowed the party to go all night, every night…we were so tired by the end of the weekend!!)

Photo Credit: @ampersandgrey

What was your first dance?

Our first dance was very impromptu. We didn’t include a dance on the night of the actual wedding, but had a DJ for the Saturday night party. I didn’t really care about having a first dance but Matt consulted one of my best friends to pick a song. Together, they picked Superstylin’ by Groove Armada. When the DJ played it, he grabbed my hand, pulled me to the centre of the dance floor and proclaimed it our first dance. It was untraditional and I loved it!

Bride and Groom walking through field of long grass
Photo Credit: @ampersandgrey
Close up of Bride and Groom's hands holding cups of coffee
@ampersandgrey

What was your favourite part of the day?

It’s too hard to pick just one so here’s my top three! We did a first look and photos before the ceremony. In between the photos and the ceremony, Matt and I snuck off to grab a coffee in town, just the two of us. It was hilarious being in a coffee shop in our wedding attire, and also really sweet to just have a moment together before the emotion of the ceremony. At the ceremony, we did a “ring warming” in which both of our rings were passed around to the guests to be “warmed up” and blessed. We loved including everyone in the ceremony in that way and it makes our rings even more special. Finally, the speeches from our friends and family! They had everyone laughing and crying. Their words came straight from the heart and left us feeling so loved and supported.

Bride and Groom facing guests after wedding ceremony
@ampersandgrey
Photo Credit: @ampersandgrey

Beautiful! And what made Patchwork the best gift registry for you?

We chose Patchwork for several reasons. First being, we liked the option for guests to contribute their time and energy to the DIY wedding weekend rather than purchasing us a gift. We had many friends travel for our wedding and we didn’t want them to feel obligated to give us anything other than their love and support. On the other hand, we knew that many guests wanted to give us something. As individuals, and as a couple we aim to fill our lives with experience. We love to travel and explore and we value time spent together. Also, we live in a very small house and can’t really accumulate more stuff, so we wanted to find a platform that guests could contribute to our future adventures!

DIY wedding Patchwork in an iPad

Sounds perfect. So, what did you invite your guests to contribute towards?

As the wedding weekend was very DIY, we gave guests the option to help out over the course of the weekend. We also gave the option to contribute to our honeymoon fund and other adventures such as a first anniversary weekend and ski passes.

What was the best bit about using Patchwork?

I loved the look of our Patchwork page and that it was so easy to personalize! I think our guests could really get a feel for the experience they were contributing to, rather than just giving us cash or writing a cheque. Patchwork was very customizable and didn’t feel generic, like many wedding related websites. It represented us, the wedding and the honeymoon we wanted to create, very well!

What did your friends and family think?

It was very well-received! I think that people appreciated that they were not expected or obligated to give anything at all, and that there were options ranging from donating their time, to giving 5 dollars for beach beers to giving more for bigger ticket items. Many of our friends and family made pledges using the “make” and “do” options on our page. They pitched in over the wedding weekend, helping cook breakfast, prep salads, set-up and clean. We couldn’t have done it without out our crew!

How long were you away on your honeymoon(s) for?

We didn’t book anything before the wedding but had talked about doing a 3-week trip to Portugal and Morocco at the end of the summer. We both share a love of exploring beautiful places, spending time outdoors, being active, and enjoying interesting food! When we started planning, Europe was in the middle of an ongoing heat wave. We soon realized it was much too hot to do the hiking trip we were planning the trip around so we started exploring alternatives. In a matter of a couple hours we had flights booked to Iceland. We spent 12 days camping, hiking, soaking in hot springs and taking in the surreal beauty of the country. Iceland is a truly magical place! Just 6 weeks later, we fulfilled our original plans. We hiked a portion of the Fisherman’s Trail on the rugged west coast of Portugal, enjoying wine and fresh seafood along the way. Following the hike, we relaxed for a few days in the Algarve before hopping over the Alboran Sea into Morocco. Five days in Morocco wasn’t long enough and we definitely wished for more time to explore. We both agree that we will have to go back one day!

How did you feel when you set off on your travels?

Grateful. The love and support we felt so strongly at the wedding extended into these trips!

And finally, would you recommend your honeymoon to other couples?

Absolutely! Iceland is a natural wonder and I highly recommend it! We soaked in natural hot springs everyday and saw more stunning waterfalls than we could count. Portugal has something for everyone and is more laid-back and less expensive than a lot of Western Europe. We spent our days on the beaches, and the evenings enjoying fresh seafood and local wine! As for Morocco, we wished we had more time to venture out of the big cities. Our time in Marrakesh and Fes was overwhelming and fascinating. We wandered through markets and admired the unique architecture.

Thank you so much Chesa and Matt for sharing your lovely story and gorgeous DIY wedding and honeymoon photos with us. Congratulations again from all of us at Patchwork!

If you’ve been inspired to create your own Patchwork honeymoon fund, browse our 100s of readymade templates or get creative and build your own page from scratch.

Here are some of the amazing suppliers who helped make Chesa & Matt’s day even more special:

Venue: Elk View Lodge, Fernie, British Columbia

Photographer: Michel at Ampersand Grey

Dress: Truvelle, Vancouver, British Columbia

Purchased at: Pearl and Dot, Calgary, Alberta

Bridesmaids Dress: Azazie

Day of Wedding Planner: Lush Kootenay, Fernie, British Columbia

Catering: Fork and Farm, Calgary, Alberta

Desserts: Pretty Sweet, Calgary, Alberta

Rentals: Orange Trunk Vintage Rentals, Calgary, Alberta and Special Events Rentals, Calgary, Alberta

P.s. listen to Chesa and Matt’s first dance song on our Spotify playlist, made up of lots of our Patchwork Couples’ first dances.

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colourful diy wedding patchwork
Wedding Planning

5 Super Colourful Wedding DIYs

by Ismay Ozga
written by Ismay Ozga


If you’re planning a super colourful celebration, we salute you. Sure, we love classic pastel shades and glittering metallics, but as you might be able to tell from the Patchwork instagram account, bright and cheerful decor has our hearts. We’ve found five dazzlingly bright DIY projects from around the web that you can get stuck into for your big day. Not so crafty? Get your friends involved for a bit of DIT – Do It Together.

1. Polish Hanging Chandelier

This DIY by Oh Happy Day will definitely make your day happy. These chandeliers are called Pajaki – a traditional Polish folk craft, “Pajaki” means “spider of straw” and traditionally have 8 strings coming down. Hang a few to make a ceremony backdrop or place one over your dessert table. Find out how to make it here.

2. Good Vibes Balloon Backdrop

This is the perfect message to have on the wall of your venue – use it as your photobooth backdrop to spread the good vibes. If you’re really not much of a crafter, this is for you – all it will take is a good set of lungs and a lot of patience. Each balloon has to be just the right size! Here’s how to make it.

3. Confetti Boxes

These colourful confetti boxes double as decor for your ceremony space – just fill them up and hang them from everyone’s chairs so they’re ready to throw when you make your exit. Confetti and decor in one! Double the fun. Find the instructions here.

4. Paper Leaf Tree

This DIY from House That Lars Built is a cheap but impactful way of transforming your space – it’s intended for a child’s nursery but we think it would work perfectly in the right venue to add a touch of fun. All you need to do is head to the park to find some branches, then start cutting those leaves. More instructions here.

5. Ombre Leaf Backdrop

Getting married in Autumn? This DIY is a super eco-friendly, fun way to brighten up your space. Collect some fallen leaves, get painting, then arrange them in a pretty pattern on a spare white wall. It’ll make the perfect backdrop for photos. Find out more details here.

If you’re thinking of planning a full DIY wedding, use our DIY wedding template to make your life easier – this way you can ask friends and family to help with all of the elements of your day and they can choose how to lend a hand. Whether it’s making the cake, doing the DJing or even helping you create one of these brilliant DIY projects.

First image: Patchwork Couple Natalie & Daley by www.claretamim.co.uk

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plan a DIY wedding Patchwork
Wedding Planning

How to Plan a DIY Wedding

by Ismay Ozga
written by Ismay Ozga

If you’ve started planning your wedding day, you will have quickly realised that there are many hidden (and not-so-hidden) costs involved in paying for your big day. From the venue hire to the bridal party gifts, the wedding breakfast to the corkage fees, the costs will really start to mount up. This is inevitable. But one way to cut down on all those costs is to go down the DIY wedding route. Or even better, DIT – Do It Together. Get all of your friends together to help you make, bake, and create all of the little aspects of your wedding day. Not only will planning a DIY wedding save you money, it will mean that you have a truly personal wedding day that your guests will love.

One Flew Over Flowers – © Babb Photo 2016 – www.babbphoto.com

Get wedding decor inspiration from Pinterest, wedding blogs and magazines, but don’t overwhelm yourself. Be realistic – don’t attempt to take too much on yourself. If you love the look of elaborate flower arrangements, know that you’re probably going to need to get a florist involved rather than try and pick them yourself, and arrange them on the morning of your wedding day. If you fall in love with an unusual intricate paper decoration, by all means have a go at making one yourself, but just understand that the creator has probably been honing their skill for years, so you may be better off buying a special piece directly from them, and saving your DIY skills for another wedding project.

Have a think about your friends and family and who out of them has the skills you need to make your day a DIY wedding success. Do you want to plan DIY wedding invitations? Ask a designer friend to help you with your invitation/save the date designs. Do you have your heart set on DIY wedding centrepieces? Ask a green fingered friend to help with the wedding flowers. Does your mother-in-law-to-be make the most delicious lemon drizzle cake? Ask her if she’d mind doing your wedding cake. Your friends will jump at the chance to be involved in your big day, and if you ask them to give you their time and skills rather than spending money on a traditional wedding gift, they will be happy to oblige. The feeling you get when you look around on your wedding day, knowing your friends and family have helped make it possible, will be second to none.

© Babb Photo 2016 – www.babbphoto.com

Once you’ve decided on the decor style for the big day, whether that’s a bright, floral inspired wedding, or a pastel, geometric affair, you can plan which DIY wedding decorations you’d like to make. Host decoration-making evenings at your place and invite all of your super creative friends around to get stuck in to some wedding crafts. Puffing homemade paper pom-poms will take half the time if you have some help, and will cost a fraction of the amount than if you were to buy them readymade. All you need is tissue paper and string, lots of it. If you know someone who’s handy with a paintbrush, get them over to help paint personalised wedding signs – your guests might need a few pointers of where to go for the ceremony, which side to sit on, and what time the speeches will be. Hand painted wedding signs will make things easier for everyone. As long as you supply wine and snacks, your friends will be happy to spend some evenings helping you with wedding DIY.

© Babb Photo 2016 – www.babbphoto.com

It’s a good idea to have everything you plan to make completed at least a month before the wedding day itself. With so many loose ends to tie up in that time, you won’t want to sit around stuffing personalised wedding favours into bags. You should be concentrating on final wedding dress and suit fittings, answering questions from wedding guests and vendors, and finalising all of your plans. If you’ve decided that you are going to tackle the wedding flowers yourself (and you’ve got a friend who’s willing to get up early to go to the flower market with you) remember that there’s no need to pull an all-nighter on the evening before the wedding – fresh flowers can be kept in a refrigerated environment for up to two days, so you can arrange all of your bouquets ahead of time.

Make sure you have a DIY wedding plan of action for the day itself. Whose job it is to decorate the venue in the morning is entirely up to you. Some brides prefer to stay at home and take their time getting ready, with the partner and a few mates doing the installation. If you know you’d get stressed out with too much to do on the morning of the wedding, ask a trusted team to get the venue(s) ready for you, so you can concentrate on staying calm and enjoying the day. However, if you know you couldn’t relax sitting around at home, and you’d much rather get stuck into the decorating, by all means go. Just leave yourself enough time to get home and get into your dress without working up too much of a sweat. Either way, the key is to choose a brilliant team of friends and family to support you. If you’ve got a bossy bridesmaid on hand to organise people, that’s ideal. You’ll find that most people will be willing and eager to lend a hand.

© Babb Photo 2016 – www.babbphoto.com

You will also need to organise a cleanup/teardown crew for the morning after the wedding. If this is a truly DIY wedding, you may not have any venue staff on hand to help with this, and getting up early to tear down all of your lovingly prepared decorations will be the last thing you want to do after all the joy of the day before. So make sure you ask a crew of lovely people (non-drinkers are a good choice for this job) to help you out. It won’t take anywhere near as long as it did to put them up.

So if you want to organise a DIY wedding, get stuck in. Give yourself plenty of time to prepare, and be realistic with your time management and skills – there are some things that are best left to the experts. Asking an amateur photographer friend to take a few snaps on your wedding day may seem like a great idea, for example, but in reality it’s a huge job, your friend won’t be able to relax and enjoy the day, and so many important shots can be easily missed.

© Babb Photo 2016 – www.babbphoto.com

If you would much rather your friends and family gave you their time and skills than bought you a traditional wedding present, contributed to your cash gift list, or donated to a honeymoon fund, you can set up a Patchwork registry showing them all of the elements of your wedding day that you would like some help with. Then your wedding guests can pledge to help you out. Your mother-in-law can commit to making the cake, your mate from school can pledge to do an hour’s DJ set, and your bridesmaids can tell you that they’d love to help you out making decorations. And you can keep track of who’s doing what in your Patchwork account.

We charge a 3% fee on all cash contributions made through our online cash gift list, but if you choose to only include ‘make and do’ items, we won’t charge you anything. We only collect money if you do. Read more about our fees here.

Have a look at our customisable DIY Wedding patchwork and our Festival Wedding patchwork templates for inspiration, or create your own registry from scratch.

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