We are thrilled to be joining the iconic IKEA today to share with you, just why they are the perfect store to visit to enable you to craft your dream DIY wedding. Now I know that many of you will be looking to DIY different elements of your wedding, no matter your budget, because quite frankly you wish to add your own style, your own personality and your own stamp to your wedding day. IKEA is a perfect destination to shop for all of those brilliant multifunctional items, all under one roof.
It’s best to browse on their brilliant website first to get a feel for the items you will need to craft whichever DIY wedding projects you have in mind. Bare in mind all of those little bits and pieces you may not have already thought of which IKEA are brilliant for. If you are super organised you can also ensure you stay on budget and locate all your items before your visit so you know exactly where to find them. What’s more there are so many great show room set ups that you’ll also find other products that may just fit the bill or inspire you further. Do be sure to head to the textile department too if you are planning on any sewing projects, they have a great range of fabrics.
I am going to pass you over to Rachel now, and you may have spotted on our Instagram stories last week that she headed to IKEA in London to deliver a talk at a wedding workshop they held for wedding and craft influencers. How exciting is that?!
The Event
Last week, IKEA invited me to attend an event showcasing their recently launched wedding area. We were really pleased to be asked to give a talk about three key trends that we were seeing in 2019 and take part in the fun workshops the team had planned.
Lots of the attendees were engaged so it was really exciting discovering ways in which IKEA products can be used for wedding décor, something that I had already discovered in planning my own wedding!
After the talk we all took part in three workshops; putting our home furnishing skills to the test building a wooden crate that we could use for flip flops, blankets or favours, creating our own beautiful floral arrangements with the IKEA range of artificial flowers and decorating KORKEN jars and filling them with sweets for a place name/favour. It was so inspiring to see the way that everyday items can be used to create beautiful wedding décor and I had a fab evening meeting wedding bloggers and crafty brides to be!
Let me share all about those key trends I spoke about at the IKEA event.
Tropical Luxe
As with a lot of trends, we’re seeing the Tropical Luxe trend come over from Australia and America. We love it as it works well in modern or industrial settings and is great for brightening up darker spaces. It offers complete freedom from a strict colour scheme with tones that include Pantone’s colour of the year, Living Coral, plus bright blues, pinks, oranges and greens. We’re seeing flowers like Bird of Paradise, Orchids, Calla Lilies, Gardenias and even Hydrangeas as well as palms, grasses and ferns incorporated too. IKEA have a great range of succulents and artificial plants, which are wonderful as real tropical flowers can be difficult and expensive to grow in the UK.
SMYCKA Artificial leaf | FEJKA Artificial potted plant with pot
Transitional Style
Increasingly couples are much more aware of how their wedding choices affect the environment. Unfortunately weddings can be inherently wasteful and a lot of couples are now really trying to reduce the environmental impact their wedding has as much as possible. A great way to do this is reusing décor throughout the day and also after the wedding. Here are a few ideas:
Use of potted plants over cut flowers
Cut flowers are beautiful but they have a short life and are not always the most environmentally friendly décor. Potted plants have a much longer life and can be given to guests as gifts or favours or even reused at home. Plants like herbs are especially good as they are useful and smell great.
Artificial flowers & foliage
Artificial flowers and foliage can be reused after the wedding, whether this is being used for another event, given away as a gift or decorating your home. There are also companies who hire artificial large plants and foliage garlands, which really minimise waste. IKEA have a great selection of artificial flowers, which can be used in arrangements or to add interest in foliage. On the day we made full centrepiece floral arrangements with the blooms on sale.
Clever use of home & everyday items which will be useful afterwards
IKEA have picked out a wide selection of items from their range which double as excellent wedding décor items. My particular favourite is their use of the sides of the wooden storage unit as decorative hanging ladders. We also showed the attendees how the SAMMANHANG display stand could be used for a dessert, grazing or guest book table and this would be great in the home afterwards. During the workshop we decorated KORKEN jars with chalk pen and tags, filling them with sweets and showing that one item can be used as a place name, favour and table décor.
Non-flower centrepieces
Increasingly, couples are exploring using items other than flowers for their centrepieces. We talked about how brilliant the IKEA BEGÅVNING and LINDRANDE are for this. They can be filled with fairy lights, the table name or items which are meaningful to the couple. IKEA also has a huge range of photo frames and we explored how they can be used on family photo tables, for table numbers and names or for table plans. The team had even removed the back from one of the more elaborate frames and written a wedding welcome message on the glass. Brilliant!
This isn’t necessarily a trend that’s informed by fads and instead is a wonderful opportunity for couples to inject some personality into their décor as well as reduce wastage.
Thanks so much Rachel for sharing with us all about the wedding showcase, it really sounded and looked like a brilliant evening was had. We’ve only covered an extremely small selection of brilliant products by here today and there are so many more fantastic items with which you can really get creative. The options are endless! xo Lou
Adore that forest idea captured in the first image. Inspired!