Category Archives: Hannah & Jon

So here I am two days before the wedding… and my brain has gone to wedding mush! I have ticked off list after list, had crazy wedding dreams…to the point I’m starting to think some of the things I have dreamt are real… and now I’m chasing my tail ringing suppliers, packing up all the wedding ‘stuff’ and having those last minute beauty treatments! But mostly I am just sooooooo excited!!!!

Everything seems to be coming together now, and if I could give any tiny bit of advice to any brides to be out there, I would say do everything as soon as you possibly can…people thought we were mad buying our rings, or sorting out bridesmaid dresses or making the fruitcake 14 months before the wedding… but I’m so pleased we did! The two weeks running up to the big day are just crammed full of appointments and sorting out payments for things or having fittings…not to mention most of your guests will probably start looking at the invites… and then there are millions of questions that flood in after that! So whatever you can do to alleviate that pain… do it!

That’s where the ‘Bible’ has come in…no I haven’t suddenly found God, but I have written a wedding bible… this document is my life at the moment…even today is timetabled! It’s proven to be invaluable for making sure I have everything and trying to minimise the number of questions my suppliers have (I have sent them all a copy too).… View the full post.

So… with just over a month to go it’s full steam ahead with wedding prep and I finally feel like I have worthy things to tell you all about…and to show you!

It seems to all be coming together this month and with not a free weekend in sight, the big day seems to be quickly approaching!

So Jon and I kicked off February with our engagement shoot… the lovely Anna Clarke met us in Solihull’s Breuton Park on what was a pretty miserable and cold day to capture the feel of Jon’s magical proposal… Even though it was a year on and not a crisp Winter’s evening as the engagement had been, Anna really captured the atmosphere and although I felt a bit cringy at times (especially with people all around!) she really put us at ease and by the end of it Jon was pulling out catalogue poses all over the place! (See the great lunge shot).

I was probably a more difficult subject, and although I definitely won’t be giving up my day job to become the UK’s next top model. The shots Anna captured are lovely and will be adorning many of our families living rooms over the next few months. They’re delighted to get a good shot of us together; I think we could count the number we have on one hand which isn’t great after ten years!

So here’s a few… see what you think!

I thought that the day of our e-shoot would be the best time to test out the make up for the big day… so Jodie Hazlewood arrived at my mums with a suitcase of lovely products to paint my face with and get me looking half decent for the pictures in the afternoon!… View the full post.

Hello again all you lovely brides out there, today I’m talking details..starting with favours.

These have proved to be controversial for many… To give or not to give, after all, you are providing people with entertainment and food… So do you really need to give them a gift too? I have decided that to me there’s something special about a favour… It doesn’t have to be extravagant and it doesn’t have to be expensive… It just needs to remind you of the wedding, mean something to the couple and most importantly offer a little thank you to the guests.

This year we have been to six weddings, some had favours others not but there were two that really stood out. The first being a couple who gave a spoon, not just any spoon but a Welsh Love Spoon! If like me, you didn’t know the origins of these hand carved beauties here’s a bit about them courtesy of the classic website wikipedia:

“The lovespoon was given to a young woman by her suitor. It was important for the girl’s father to see that the young man was capable of providing for the family and woodworking.

Sailors would often carve lovespoons during their long journeys, which is why anchors would often be incorporated into the carvings.

Certain symbols came to have specific meanings: a horseshoe for luck, a cross for faith, bells for marriage, hearts for love, a wheel supporting a loved one and a lock for security, among others”

image from curigwelshgifts.co.uk.

This was a lovely little gift to receive.… View the full post.

So this month Jon and I have tried to stick to our ‘to do list’…and you know it’s actually working!
First on the list was to get the wedding invites sorted… as a Graphic Designer there’s so much pressure to get that bit right (!)…especially as they’ll be making their way through my designer friends letter boxes.. I even pondered the idea of asking someone else to design them to avoid the potential embarrassment of them being deemed too ‘twee’, over designed… or the worst… just a complete disaster! However after trawling endless wedding fairs only to be greeted with the same diamante and ribbon adorned designs (completely understand peeps going for this look btw..just doesn’t suit me!) I decided that unless I wanted to spend a fortune (which I could happily on stationery…but Jon wouldn’t get it!) my only option was to design them myself.

From Top Oh SO Beautiful Paper | Print For Love Of Wood | Not On The High Street | Beast Pieces.

So I set about collating inspiration and got pen to paper to come up with some ideas…I finally sent them to print last week and will put some pics up when I have sent them out…don’t want to ruin what I hope will be a nice surprise for the guests …(and no… unfortunately my budget didn’t stretch to letterpress if you’re looking at my inspiration pics with excitement!) In the mean time I have also decided to venture into the world of stationery design to help other brides like me find something that really suits their style without being budget breaking!…I have to thank my fellow Real Brides for being amazing test subjects too!… View the full post.

So as I sit here trying to write down everything that’s happened in the past month my head is buzzing with things to write, bits that will help other brides out there and how to get it all down on paper… but for me it’s all a matter of time, (or lack of it!) why is it that the year just seems to be getting quicker and quicker, and now I find myself nine months after Jon’s proposal hitting a wedding wall.

The first three months were filled with wedding shows, blog scouring and collecting heaps of magazines and samples, I bought my dress, the bridesmaids dresses, designed the stationery, chose the venue, sorted the guest list and hotels, booked a pianist, chose the DJ, went to food tastings and did all sorts of pretty DIY bits and pieces but I now find myself in September panicking that there’s so much still to do with no time to do it…before we know it Christmas will be here! But equally I have hit a bit of a wedding wall…has anyone else got that, where so much is planned and there are so many things left to organise (never mind pay for!) but you’re just wishing the time away not really being very proactive?

I spoke to a friend about it who used to be a wedding planner, then I realised it’s the fact that wedding planning is actually a full time job…So it’s about managing time and putting in deadlines for yourself to hit…so I now have a plan and this is how it looks!… View the full post.