Wedding Stitches

A close friend of mine recently got married to another good friend.  I've known her since she was born (we were at the same church) - she's about 10 years younger than me and has always been like a little sister.  Him I did Little Theatre with for a number of years with all the usual shenanigans.

Their wedding was beautiful - such love and celebration.  They're both committed Christians which gave the whole ceremony a loving feel - lots of thanksgiving and worship intermingled throughout.

As a wedding gift, I cross-stitched "Tandem Wedding", a pattern from an old issue of the World of Cross Stitch magazine.  It's one I've stitched before when another friend got married in 2010.  This time I changed the colours to suit their wedding theme - rather than strong pinks and blues throughout, I changed them to soft greens and peach.  I also changed the colour of the groom's hair to match.

Tandem Wedding, stitched in 2015

 The first time I stitched this pattern, I changed the colour of the hearts to match that friend's theme, and used metallic threads to add some extra sparkle.

Stitched in 2010

I've put together a bit of a time-lapse video of the stitch as it progressed.  I had 8 days to stitch and frame the gift, so was doing a bit of a count-down on Instagram as I went.  It's the first time I've done one of these so I hope it works!

Otherwise it'll just have to be the still version

The only other time I have stitched a wedding present for a friend (not too many of my close friends have gotten married (or I just haven't been invited)) was in 2011 when another close Theatre friend got married.  I'd loved this pattern for years, so was very excited to finally have a reason to stitch it.  The classic style of this really suited my friend and her husband and was the perfect pattern.

To Have and To Hold - Verachtert
Stitched in 2011

Do you stitch wedding presents for friends?  How do you choose the right pattern to stitch, given the plethora of wedding cross-stitch patterns available?

Happy Stitching!