Satomi Wellard: Flowering Flourishes

In Japan we give money as a gift when someone gets married. The money will help newly wedded couples to pay their bills for the wedding and reception and buy necessities for their new life.

Traditionally the groom's family pay for the wedding ceremony and reception. The bride's' family pay for the dresses and all other stuff. The custom is slightly different from each region, some regions have more extravagant wedding than others. Nagoya area, where I'm from, is famous for its extravagance in wedding ritual. People from other areas used to say that never let your daughters get married with guys from Nagoya. A bride is expected to bring brand new furniture, white goods, electrical appliances, every Kimono necessary for different occasions and a car. (A Kimono could cost as much as a small car.) When I was a child, I often saw a couple trucks full of new stuff on the road and the back of the trucks were covered with red and white stripped cloth. That's the sign that those trucks were carrying wedding furniture. Red and white stripes represent luck in Japan.

Anyway, when we are invited to a wedding ceremony or a reception, we bring a money gift in a special envelope. The envelope is closed with a cord called Mizuhiki. Mizuhiki can't be untied.

a Mizuhiki cord

These days not many people have a traditional ceremony so using a special wedding envelope for non-traditional casual wedding doesn't seem to be fashionable. Here is a beautiful money holder for modern weddings in Japan.

I heat-embossed flourishes from Flowering Flourishes stamp set with Iridescent Ice Emboss Powder.

I've made a You Tube for the tutorial. I made this video for my customers in Japan so it's in Japanese but you can probably guess what's going on. The paper size to make the envelope is 21 cm x 21 cm and it's for 7.6 cm x 17.8 cm card. In this video Flowering Flourish stamp set is photopolymer but when you get it in Australia, it's rubber stamp. All the Stampin'Up! Japan stamps are photopolymer !