…which in this case, are part the same package. Doilies are *not* something I’d usually drool over, but when they’re handmade and part of one of the prettiest and most fun wedding dresses I’ve seen this side of an elopement – on 100 Layer Cake, I should add – it’s a different story.

Jillian made her own dress, including the pattern for it. She deconstructed a vintage dress to create a pattern for the bodice (the green part); sewed that, and then crocheted doilies madly for three weeks straight. She used over two miles of crochet yarn.

Two miles! I can sew a bit, but I don’t think I’ve used two miles of anything other than thread in my combined output. Isn’t this wedding dress just amazing? And cute? Every time I look at it, I get a little giggly and a lot jealous!

Images: Gia Caneli Photography

If you’re in the market for a fun, easy DIY bridal bouquet idea, have a look at La Belle Bride’s felt heart bouquet tutorial! You can make one for around $10, which is a helluva lot less than your standard bridal bouquet or anything similar you’ll find on Etsy.

Seriously, it’s easy. You don’t have to be an experienced or talented seamstress (or Ms. Martha) to make this bouquet. It’s one wedding DIY project you won’t have to stress over!

For the bride who sews, here are two reception table DIYs that use cute vintage thread spools to give table numbers and place cards a little more ooph. The first comes from Lauren of Lauren Elise Crafted, who loves all things handmade and vintage.

Putting together a thread spool table number like this one involve a wee bit of hand embroidery, a little sewing, and cutting some cork, but that’s about as difficult as it gets.

The second DIY reception project comes from Tracey of French Larkspur and can be found here. The hardest part of creating thread spool place cards is stamping all those letters of all those names, one by one by one. So not really difficult, but a bit tedious.

The results are quite pretty in both cases, and perfect for a garden wedding or a sewing and crafting themed wedding.

There’s no shortage of information out there concerned with shopping for wedding rings, custom made wedding rings, or choosing the right wedding rings. And there’s no shortage of wedding rings! How about photo wedding rings or profile wedding rings? Then you have skinny wedding rings, engraved wedding rings, silver wedding rings, and wedding rings made out of everything you can imagine, from wood to bone. And meteorites and tattoo ink and techie stuff! It would be easy to say that there’s a wedding ring out there for everyone, but maybe you’ve just read over my little list and there is nothing on it that speaks to you.

Okay, then how about a wedding ring you make yourself, using whatever metals – all recycled – and techniques you want? That’s what the Wedding Ring Workshop is all about. In their classes, over the course of six hours or so, you and your intended make each other’s wedding rings by hand, from scratch, under the tutelage of experienced jewelers. Unless you want stones mounted in your bands (which the jeweler will do for you) you’ll walk away from the Wedding Ring Workshop with your rings in hand, ready for your wedding day.

Interested? While the Wedding Ring Workshop seems like a good bet – they’re in the U.S. and the U.K. and have a lot of participating jewelers – there are other DIY wedding rings opportunities out there. New York Wedding Ring comes to mind, as does The Devil’s Workshop in Toronto. Googling around will help you find one close-ish to you that has the range of service you’re looking for. Keep in mind that some DIY wedding ring classes don’t allow for a lot of customization, while others allow you design custom wedding rings as long as your design can be created in the allotted time.

Manolo says, allow the Manolo to introduce you to the latest addition to the Manolosphere: Crafty Manolo!

The long time readers of the Manolo for the Brides, will immediately recognize the editor of this new venture. It is our own beloved friend, the Twistie, who has been blogging on the weekends here for many years now.

So, please, go now and visit the Crafty Manolo.

Cheesecake? No, cheese cakes. As in big old wedding cakes made of cheese and nothing but cheese. And not just any cheese, but really fancy cheese that yours truly thinks tastes a lot like a dismembered toe that’s been left in the sun too long. But I understand that the world is full of cheese enthusiasts or else why would there be roughly 10000000 varieties of cheese? Anyway, we’ve mentioned cheese wedding cakes here before, but I don’t recall that we’ve ever shown you any and I happened to run across these lovely specimens from The Cheese Shed.

While I’ve read here and there that wedding cheese cakes are a growing trend or trendy or a trend on its way out, nearly all of the shops specializing in them that I’ve found have been in the UK and I don’t know anyone (nor have I heard of anyone through acquaintances) who’s had one. That said, if the idea appeals, I can’t see that it would be too hard to DIY provided you live near a nice cheese shop and are just a bit handy when it comes to decorating things.

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Being that I’ll be performing my mom’s wedding ceremony in October – can I get a squee? – I thought it might be prudent to start collecting tips on how to write a wedding ceremony. What with my never having written one before. In my search, I came across the how-to sneeze page on A Practical Weddingg, which happened to include a tutorial dealing with writing a wedding ceremony. Sweet!

Now this is where I say that I feel for brides-to-be nowadays because there are a lot of wedding planning how-tos out there, many of which deal with DIYing this or that element of the ceremony and reception. It’s not easy to wade through them and truth be told, a lot of them are pure crap, which is why I’m gonna help a girl out and say that if you are thinking of DIYing wedding flowers, reception music, your wedding vows, or your catering… or even DIYing your entire wedding, handling your own wedding photography, and making your wedding dress, check out Meg’s awesome DIY wedding planning how-tos over at A Practical Wedding. You’ll definitely be glad you did!