Pins for Guests to Wear: Ralph and Rebekka

In my previous post I've shared the hearts that I've made for Ralph and Rebekka. Today I wanted to share a few photographs from their lovely wedding:

It was lovely to work with Rebekka. Ralph and Rebekka did a lot of DIY for their wedding, but their hard work certainly paid off and made their special day even more special. They had an idea to make a little brooch pin for every guest to wear at the wedding and Rebekka approached me to design, cut and engrave the hearts for the pins for them. They then sat down to turn every heart into a brooch for a guest to wear. I just love the end result!

What a beautiful couple! 

All the photographs in this post were taken by professional wedding photographers You Are Beloved, based in Lelystad, here in the Netherlands. "Van harte bedankt" Rebekka and Ralph, and Serah and Ruchama from You Are Beloved, for allowing me to share this amazing wedding day here on my blog!

More photos of the wedding can be seen on the You Are Beloved blog, as well as over here. 

Love is in the (ai)R

Today I thought I'll share some images of some fun wooden heart embellishments that I;ve made for the lovely Rebekka and Ralph. They've designed their wedding invitations themselves, but approached me about making little custom hearts for them.  I made hearts in two sizes: the smaller ones were used as decoration on their handmade invitations, while the slightly bigger hearts were turned into pins that guests could wear on the wedding day!

Source: Rebekka

 Next time I will share some of the lovely images from the beautiful wedding!

New in my Etsy Shop

These little deer heads are now available in my Etsy shop. They are laser-cut from a special FSC approved plywood that does not burn so dark in the cutting process that the burnt edges of the wood will mess up your paper. This makes them perfect for decorating invitations, favour boxes, napkins and so forth.  The dimensions are as follows:

Height: 50 mm

Width: 30 mm

Thickness:  approximately 3 mm

The deer embellishments will add a special touch to any nature-inspired, woodland,vintage, rustic or hipster wedding or event! You can order them here, or by e-mailing me at almostamsterdam{at!}gmail.com.

Love Actually

It's been a while, since I've been here on the blog and it is really great to be back! It's been a tough few months. I had complications during my surgery and needed much more recovery time than I expected. In fact, I am still taking things a bit slow, but I am getting back to normal, which is awesome!

To be honest I am quite sick and tired of being sick and tired, so I don't want to dwell on the last few months too much, but I do want to take a moment to say thank you to everyone who has been so incredibly supportive during my hospital stay and recovery at home. You guys were amazing! My friends and family made me feel loved by the way they took care of me - even when it had to be done through Skype! There was just always someone available to help me take my mind off things when I felt miserable and needed a bit of distraction from my discomfort and pain. Thank you so much to every single one of you for your patience and encouragement!

But support and encouragement did not only come from the people who know me personally. I was completely overwhelmed by the kind messages from clients and my Etsy followers from around the world. So many people that I've never met before and only know from our online interaction, took the time to write a few words of encouragement and to wish me well. It meant so much to me to know that strangers on the other side of the world cared enough to take a few minutes out of their busy lives to say hello and wish me a speedy recovery. Thank you for that!

The kindness bestowed upon me, reminded me a little of one of my favourite movies of all time: Love Actually. I'll leave you with a quote from the beginning of the movie:

Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow airport. General opinion started to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. Seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy but it's always there. Fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from people on board were messages of hate or revenge, they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling, you'll find that love actually is all around.