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What Jo Did… Toes And Teeth.

January 19th, 2012

Happy New Year lovely RMW-ers! I’m still trying to fit back into my work trousers properly after much festive indulging. At the moment they feel a bit like jeggings. No offence to jeggings fans, but they REALLY aren’t flattering on me!

Anyhoo, 147 days to go. I just had a little look at my last post and realised that, of the five things we’d hoped to have sorted by now, we’ve only sorted… ONE! That’s better than none though, right?!

Thanks to two very lovely chaps, our ceremony details are almost finalised. The first very lovely chap is Reverend Jackson (Rev J), our Chaplain, who popped over for dinner this week to discuss readings, vows and general wedding-y bits. As we are a RIDICULOUSLY indecisive couple, we’re still to-ing and fro-ing with regards to readings. Sensing our inability to make up our minds about it, Rev J directed us to Your Church Wedding a brilliant resource!

The other thoroughly lovely chap, Simon, is our organist. He has been playing at weddings for 37 years, since he was 13, and we will be number 3728! Despite this, he is still VERY excited (or, at least, appears to be!) We met in the organ loft of the chapel – very small, very cold, VERY loud – and he played lots of options for the processional and recessional music. We also discussed hymns, and have (almost) reached a final decision… The two definite are: Love Divine, All Loves Excelling and Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer. The other will be either: I Vow to Thee, My Country, Be Thou My Vision, or How Great Thou Art. Should have asked Santa for the power of decisiveness for Christmas ;)

To get to the organ loft we had to walk up the aisle! It seems to get longer every time!

I almost slipped over three times – they’d just ruddy well polished it! Mental note to self: ask them NOT to polish it for at least a week before June 7th. God only knows how K-Midd managed the Westminster Abbey aisle, but I’m pretty sure she wasn’t white-knuckling her father’s arm! Bit worried about cutting off my lovely dad’s circulation! Blu-tac on the soles is still an option, although fellow RMW-reader Anita suggested these beauties.

Oooh, that brings me to my next piece of news… My gorgeous girlfriends clubbed together to pay for my W-day shoes (thank you ladies!), and we went to Westfield (man alive, that place is VAST!) earlier this month to check out what was on offer. The answer? Not a huge amount. I mean, I tried on A LOT of shoes, but almost every pair had a massive heel and platform.

I a) cannot walk in anything over 4 inches, b) don’t want to b taller than Mr A and c) need 3.5 inch heels with my dress. However, I know that lots of you can walk in very high heels, and lots of you want to show off your shoes in shorter dresses, so here is a selection of the foot candy I tried on…

Please excuse the sock lines, the fact a have very wide frog-like feet (squeeeeeeeze!), and the fact that some of the pictures don’t show the whole shoe very clearly.

Number 1: Gorgeous, but I can’t be trusted in slingbacks (currently £25.00 in the Debenhams sale)

Number 2: Love the traditional elegance of these. (£50.00 – Roland Cartier at Debenhams)

Number 3: Pretty, but too low for my dress (also in Debenhams)

Number 4: Glitter-tastic, but MUCH too high. (Dune: £90.00, with £50.00 going to the Teenage Cancer Trust)

Number 5: I LOVE these Grecian beauties (£135, Dune)

Number 6: Seriously funky heels – I adore this colour, and the bow! (Topshop – now sold out)

Number 7: Look at the angle of my foot! How does ANYONE walk in shoes this high? I blame Lady Gaga. (£70.00, Schuh) Kudos to any bride who can wear these and not end up on the floor!

Number 8: Low heel and lacy silver numbers (Stuart Weitzman for Russell & Bromley, in the sale)

Number 9: More Grecian-style beauties (Coast, £75.00)

Number 10: I ADORE these champagne coloured heels – look at the detail!! Alas – too high for me! (Coast, reduced to £75.00)

Numbers 11 & 12: Both by LK Bennett, and both now sold out BUT they do have the black version of the orange shoe, which would look stunning at a monochromatic W-day (reduced to £75.00)

So, which ones did I go for? Two pairs actually (Shocker!) First up, the turquoise Topshop bad boys. Not only did my friend say they looked like Valentino shoes (sold!), but they fitted my frog feet AND, when I got them to the till they were reduced to £20.00! Deduct 10% student discount and *BOOM*… 18 squid!

I also couldn’t stop thinking about the lacy Roland Cartier ones, so went to buy them on line a few days later. Couldn’t find them… massive panic… my lovely friend picked me up a pair from Oxford Street.

I’m not sure when I’ll wear the Topshop ones – hen do? Wedding rehearsal? Evening of the wedding? But they will DEFINITELY be worn at some point. I have added some blue shoe clips from The Vanilla Tree to the ivory shoes, to make them a bit unique – thoughts?

OK, so now you’ve seen many, many pictures of my feet(!), I thought I’d give you an update on another of my ‘hang-up’ areas… le gnashers.

As the regular Real Bride readers amongst you will know, I started a course of Invisalign at The Gallery Dental Practice back in August. I am now on my penultimate set of aligners (number 10 of 11) and thought I would show you the difference it has made so far. I may have to have a twelfth set, as there is still too much gum on show when I smile. The aligners can push your teeth upwards, taking the gum with them, so the gumline is reduced. Very clever (still not 100% sure how this works, but it has moved, and can apparently be moved by about 2 more inches).

Again, excuse the dodgy picture quality – poor lighting for photos at Chez HarrisArnold!

Top:
Taken at a wedding in July, before treatment. I seriously LOATHE this picture – I think I look like some weird feral cat/other type of creature. Obviously a reportage shot, which is what our lovely photographer Guy Hearn specialises in, but if I look like this in any W-day shot, I would be gutted!

Bottom Left:
Taken today, and without the brace in. The gap has almost closed, and I’ll be having the funny little muscle that runs from the inside of the top lip to the gum cut in two weeks, as mine runs between my two front teeth. After that, the final set will close the gap completely, before my dentist caps the concave front tooth (already capped from when I nose-dived into a swimming pool aged 9 and broke the tooth in half).

Bottom Right:
With the aligners in – almost invisible, apart from the little nodules they attach to some teeth to allow the brace to grip.

I anyone else having any ‘work’ done before W-day? I hadn’t even considered it until a friend mentioned she was thinking about it, and then I couldn’t shake off the thought of not being able to smile naturally in our wedding pictures, or laugh without covering my mouth.

At almost £4000.00, I regularly have pangs of guilt about having them done too. In fact, the M-word (money) has really started to concern me. I COMPLETELY empathised with Vix’s Little Miss Worry post earlier this month. I seem to fluctuate daily (sometimes hourly) between thinking, “it’s the ONLY time we’re doing this, and probably the only time we’ll have all our loved ones together EVER”, and “how on earth can we justify spending so much money on one day?!”.

Usually, the latter stems from having a ‘moment’ about a) being on a student teacher salary, b) the fact our boiler is broken (£££), c) the fact the car keeps breaking (£££), d) the fact that Elvis (our cat) got a piece of grass lodged in his nasal passage and had to have it surgically removed (£££) etc etc *moan moan moan bore bore bore*

I guess everyone feels like this though, yes?!?

Well, we spoke to the wonderful aforementioned Rev J about this, and he said that this is a common feeling amongst couples before their wedding. Interestingly, and helpfully, he said that if we allow the wedding to become all about the amount it is costing, it then becomes defined by the money. Yes, all that money, however much you are spending, could (easily) be spent elsewhere, or saved, or given to a worthy cause BUT why not spend it on celebrating your love for the person you have just vowed to spend the rest of your life with?

Aaaaaaaand breathe.

See you in six weeks (which fly by, by the way!) for stationery sneak peeks and (hopefully) some catering news! I would write a to do list, but it would be almost the same as my last one ;)

Lovelovelove,

MrsA-to-be

Xxx

PS: Dress fitting (and BM dress fittings) THIS SATURDAY J

31 comments »

Posted in Jo - Rustic Romance

Under My Umbrella.

January 19th, 2012

If you are a super talented W-day photographer then who do you choose to take your W-day pics? Tough one eh?… But of course the answer is – you find yourself another super talented W-day photographer…

And so that is how it came to be that Debs Ivelja shot the Wedding of Caro Hutchings. Or, as I should really say, the wedding of Caro and Simon.

We have a lot of love for Caro at RMW and I must admit, there are some newly emerging emotions flying around for Debs too after looking though this trove of beauty. Seriously folks you are in for a treat today.

Charlotte was in raptures over the bouquet (a little bit roadside chic actually!) and the dress and the cake and the veil.

Wait I’m not done… And the menu’s, the lampshades, the upside down hanging umbrellas. The streamers, the portraits…

Let me put it another way. She LOVES this wedding. So do I. So, get ready to fall in love as well.

Our Wedding was at St Peters Church. We then got a boat from Marlow to the reception venue, Monks Barn in Hurley.

Simple Lace.

My dress was from Phase Eight. I always knew I didn’t want a big extravagant dress so started going down the bespoke route but soon realised how much it was going to cost. I was talking to a friend describing my perfect dress and within in a week she had called me and told me she was sure she had just seen ‘my dress’ in the John Lewis window. I investigated and soon found out it was by Phase Eight. One of my bridesmaids and I went up the following Sunday and I bought it 18 months before the wedding. For me it was the perfect, simple, lace dress I had always wanted and completely affordable at £350.

The Veil Of My Dreams.

My earrings were a gift from my mum, I wore my mums sapphire ring (borrowed and blue) my hair piece was from etsy and my veil was purchased during a holiday to Spain with my girlfriends… I saw it in the window of a tiny little random shoe shop which had two wedding dresses and two veils. it was so beautifully made and I knew it was the veil I had always dreamed about. My granddad had told me during my first communion to ‘wear my veil’ as he was too ill to make it to that. He died not long after, so I had always known I had to have a proper ‘catholic’ veil in his memory and finding it with my girlfriends was a really special moment.

Three Pairs Of Shoes.

Shoes were the biggest problem!!! I didn’t want bridal shoes as I wanted to wear them again.. I knew I wanted something a bit different but just couldn’t find anything that wasn’t peep toe (I HATE my toes!!) or with a huge platform. I love the shoes in Irregular Choice but the pair that I loved were ridiculously high. So after many many searches I opted for the ridiculously high ones (4.5 inches). I loved them and thought I would see how it went. I bought a back up pair also from irregular choice for when the pain was too much. I also ended up wearing a pair of sandals for the evening when my feet just couldn’t cope anymore. I did end up wearing 3 pairs throughout the day.

Keep It Simple.

I knew I wanted my hair and makeup to be really simple with the veil and maybe have an up do for the evening. I am really lucky that my cousin is a professional hair and make up artist so she did a fantastic job of making me look good and the best bit of all was she was there all day for touch ups and in the evening a total hair transformation.

Pick Your Own Blooms.

The flowers I found one of the most difficult aspects. Given the option I would have been in Covent Garden market the morning of the wedding buying my flowers to make my own bouquets etc. But I knew this was not very viable. After speaking to many florists who either were way out my budget or were over complicating what I wanted I had lost hope until weeks before the wedding I found Rachel at Green and Gorgeous in Oxfordshire. Green and Gorgeous own a picking field on a farm. Rachel was able to make the bouquets and buttonholes for me and also pick all the other flowers I wanted from her field and deliver them 2 days before the weddings for us to arrange into vases. I walked with her around her field pointing at the flowers I liked and disliked (no roses allowed) and she got them altogether for delivery. It really is the best concept for someone who doesn’t want the fancy displays and it keeps the costs down massively.

Colour Is The Key.

Having 6 bridesmaids means that the outfits could have easily spiralled out of control. Something I suggest you think about if you are contemplating a lot of maids!! We ended up organising a shopping trip to London but I wasn’t overly hopeful we would find anything. We were all amazed at the options on the high street… We settled for a dress from Matthew Williamson at Debenhams and my mother in law made sashes that matched the colour of each maids shoes. The groom and best man got there suits from Ben Sherman and the ushers all had suits from Marks & Spencer. The ties and all the accessories were left to the groom to sort out with a few colour guides but obviously nothing that he stuck to but it all looked great with the bridesmaids. From the outset we knew we didn’t want a colour scheme and tried to tie it all together with the yellow, purple and blue variations but colour was the main theme of the day.

The Right Man.

Simon looked amazing and although I really didn’t have any say in his outfit I honestly couldn’t have pictured it any more perfect. He showed me what he was wearing a week before the wedding and when he tried it all on for me I got such a feeling of calm and I just knew he was the right man for me. I bought him some customised cufflinks to open in the morning. They were handmade with a map in them of where he proposed to me in Moss Landing, America.

Relaxed And Laid Back.

As a wedding photographer myself this was the hardest decision. Not because I couldn’t find anyone that lived up to my expectations but simply because I love so many other photographers that I wanted them all!!!! I knew Debs previously and after a few emails and a coffee I knew she would be amazing and fit in with the relaxed and laid back nature of the day. She was so incredible throughout the day and captured the memories that we really will treasure for the rest of our lives . Some of my favourite shots that she captured were of my dad and I in the morning as this was all a bit of a blur but looking back at these pictures always makes me smile.

Three Flavours.

My cake was an absolute triumph!!! A really dear friend of the family Pat Bridges has always made cakes for friends and family and when asked she was more than happy to help. I gave her no real direction except I wanted three different flavour sponges and something really simple. It really was the most beautiful work of art and I spent ages just looking and admiring it. It also tasted absolutely amazing.

Ready To Rock.

Simon always wanted a live band for the evening and after much deliberation we chose After Dark. My brother is a guitarist and a few days before the wedding he approached them to see if he could play with them. This was one of the bests bits from the evening and everyone was dancing and rocking out.. even my 90 year old nana.

The Sweetest Feeling.

We choose ‘I get the sweetest feeling’ by Jackie Wilson. Simon is rubbish at leaning song lyrics and during a car journey to the Alps I taught him every line to this song until he learnt them. So for us it was a great choice that held happy memories and wasn’t too slow and gushy.

Umbrella Theme.

After so much deliberation we opted not to really have favours but something that could double up as the place name and a sort of favour. To keep with the umbrella theme we bought lot’s of cocktail umbrellas and wrapped a piece of paper around the stick so they could double up as place names. What was really fun was that everyone ended up wearing them in their hair.

The Best Find Ever.

We had always wanted a blank canvas venue that we could dress our own way. This was one of the most important sides of it for me – Simon’s being a free bar. We came up with a very loose theme of umbrellas while we were travelling. We were in a restaurant in Vietnam and they had hung umbrellas from string to create a ceiling… We thought is was so cool and wanted to replicate it at the barn. I have a really good friend Barty who really did ‘get’ my ideas… With Simon helping they hung about 30 umbrellas that I had collected from the ceiling, suspended over the dance floor. It looked amazing!

One of my bridesmaids, Sophie, then found the beautiful umbrella centrepieces in a shop on Hayling Island. These literally were the best find ever and without them I really don’t think the umbrella thing would have made any sense.

Other key details were the drapes I made to cover the black doors that acted as a lovely backdrop for the speeches. The suitcases I found in my nanas loft that we used to house pot plants from the mums’ gardens. A really special suitcase that belonged to my Bampa which had his initials on… This housed all the presents and cards. We put a marquee up in case it rained and this acted as the coffee, cake and sweet tent. I love old lampshades and hung them above the sweet table with coloured pom poms to dress the marquee up a bit. Photos were also hung around the marquee of family and friends.

As it was a dry hire venue we built our own bar and bought copious amounts of alcohol including ‘Fort Simon’ and ‘Chateau Caroline’ wine. I then customised it as a ‘Pompey’ bar, which is the football team Simon supports, we also met in Portsmouth so it is a special place to both of us. I found loads of Pompey memorabilia on ebay and decorated it for him as a surprise.

Completely Us.

It is so hard to put into words how special our day was to us and I think the fundamental thing everyone kept saying was that it was completely ‘us’. So many special moments from my dad driving me down to the church in his beloved Porsche to walking down the tiny isle in the same church as my confirmation and seeing Simon’s face at the end of it. Having a boat party to the venue and seeing everyone’s reactions as they walked in to the barn.

What also stands out is the week before the day, which we spent in the barn, setting up with all our friends and family rallying to help. The experience as a whole made me realise how lucky we are to have such amazing friends, family and best of all each other – and that’s what a wedding should be completely about in my opinion.

Venue Monks Barn

Dress Phase Eight

Hair piece etsy

Shoes Irregular Choice

Blooms Green and Gorgeous

Photography Debs Ivelja

If you are thinking about having a wedding in the UK then ‘Umbrella’s’ is a pretty safe theme to go with I reckon – So why has no-one done this before?

I don’t know what to say for fear of repeating Charlottes stream of consciousness from earlier.. I too seriously love all the stationery, I’m loving line drawings at the moment – and that umbrella ceiling? Words properly fail me.

Also – serious car envy over here – a camper van and a porsche for wedding vehicles? Very snazzy indeed! Mahoosive thanks to Caro and Simon for sharing this groundbreaking and seriously imaginative colour feast of a wedding.

Adam.

37 comments »

Posted in Contemporary Cool

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The Garden Of D.I.Y Delight.

January 18th, 2012

I really like back garden weddings – not only are they a good budget friendly option, but they are also a blank canvas. There are endless possibilities and if, like Tom and Esme, you like to get stuck in with a bit of D.I.Y then world is your oyster. Well, ok – your friends back garden is you oyster, but you get the idea!

Tom and Esme married in August 2011 in Brigstock, Northamptonshire and decided to employee the services of Martmari Photography to document the occasion. Good choice guys, looks like they did you proud.

Stress Free.

I know how lucky I am when I say that choosing my w-day dress was a pretty stress free experience. I enjoyed a lovely day with my Mum and sisters trying on stunning dresses in two bridal boutiques and I couldn’t fault the service in Quello, Kenilworth. Then I had a not-so-nice afternoon trying on dresses at various high street places. I lined up an appointment in a shop just outside Birmingham (which has now closed down) that was having a sample sale. I did the usual sift through the dresses on offer, picking out a couple to try on when I saw my dress: Mori Lee, style number 2510. I knew that it was the dress that I would be getting married in the second I noticed it. Please don’t hate me fellow brides!

My amazing Mum haggled down the price and after a celebratory large glass of wine in a cafe next door, I was on my way home with my dress! I loved the shape and how it accentuated all of my best bits and the fact that it was simple but with a bit of sparkle, but the main reason I fell for it was because I knew my now husband would love it. And he did.

My Usual Style.

My something borrowed were earrings from my Mum, who also gave me a grey beaded bracelet that she had made. My very talented sister made me and my bridesmaids butterflies for our hair, which was the perfect surprise because despite collecting various clips and slides, I couldn’t find the ideal hair accessory anywhere. I decided early on that I wouldn’t wear a veil because it didn’t fit into the ‘look’ I had in mind and I’m glad I stuck with my decision. I was really pleased that everything went together, and how I would wear/use everything again because they’re very much in fitting with my usual style.

Grey-Loving Bride.

I found my shoes in the Phase Eight sale just after buying my dress and they were the perfect choice for this grey-loving bride. I had always known that I would wear coloured shoes (in fact, it was seeing brides wearing non-ivory shoes that got me addicted to RMW), despite hearing many protestations from friends and family members.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions.

Hair and make-up – What to do… Who to have doing it… What to have – were really difficult decisions for me. After finding pictures of the hair style I wanted, I knew that it would be best done by a professional, however finding someone to do it was a very different question! We were on a strict budget and although my dress was a bargain, I didn’t want to spend loads on ‘just one day’.

I went through every option: teaching a friend to do my hair how I wanted it, going to a local salon in the morning and finding a mobile hairdresser to come out to the hotel. We got married in my husband’s parents’ village, which is not close to where we live, so asking my regular hairdresser wasn’t possible. I felt so frustrated with the lack of options – either the hotel where we were getting ready was too far away, or salons wouldn’t take me on a Saturday (er, what?) or the people who would come out specialised in ‘traditional bridal hair’ (read hair scraped back into a huge bun of tight curls, you know what I mean…). Argh!

Finally, I remembered that a school friend’s sister had got married the year before and someone had come out to do her hair. After one phone call it was all sorted and Matt from M&Arc Hair & Beauty, Peterborough, aka my knight in shining armour, was booked. I had a quick trial that was perfect and on the day he wizzed through me, my bridesmaids, my Mum and my husband’s God Mother.

Make-up was a similarly difficult to arrange. I umm-ed and ahh-ed for weeks over whether to buy new make-up and do it myself, or to find a make-up artist. In the end my husband decided for me – he hates it when we’re getting ready for a night out and I get all flustered because my eyeliner goes wrong/the shoes just aren’t right/my hair’s just not wavy enough, so he declared that I would be getting a professional in, no matter what the cost. Bless him! He was completely right and although it was expensive, choosing Sheelagh was one of the best decisions I (he) made – I was able to pamper my bridesmaids, our make-up stayed perfect ALL day, she was a true professional and ultimately gave me a peace of mind that was priceless. I couldn’t recommend her enough.

A Dab Hand With Blooms.

I have a confession to make: flowers were low on our list of wedding priorities. Don’t get me wrong, we wanted pretty flowers and I had my favourites, but I knew that we wouldn’t be spending hundreds and that other things had priority budget-wise. Luckily for us, my Mother-in-Law, a family friend and my sister are all a dab hand with blooms and so took over the task for us. I sent them pictures of a bouquet I liked, a bridesmaid bouquet and several images of table flowers with these instructions: hydrangeas, pink roses, pinks, whites, pale green, light yellow, soft colours. Jars and bottles with individual or a couple of stems of all different heights.

We were blown away on the day – they did the most fantastic job. My bouquet was so stunning and the flowers on the table were EXACTLY how we had imagined them. They ordered the flowers from a local florist who gave them near wholesale prices, with a few extra roses bought from Asda and Sainsburys at the eleventh hour. I still can’t believe that they were able to turn my ideas into reality!

My Mum snuck out of the hotel on the morning of the wedding to decorate our ceremony area with wild flowers, sage and lavender. It was a lovely surprise for me and it was just enough to compliment the already beautiful setting. My ‘flower team’ also made a large hydrangea display for the ceremony and later for the dinner marquee. We also had a hanging basket with gypsophila at the entrance to the garden.

Highstreet Maids.

I knew that I didn’t want the bridesmaids or the groomsmen to all look exactly the same, mainly because I knew that I wouldn’t get my two sisters, best friend and 12-year old family friend in the same dress. My Maid of Honour and I went shopping a while before the wedding and fell in love with a purple one-shoulder dress from Coast and were able to find two in the exact same colour but different styles in Monsoon, with the fourth made by my Mother-in-Law. I loved how the four of them looked!

We bought ties for the groomsmen and our Dads, and asked them to wear white shirts and grey suits. Coincidently quite a few other guests turned up with lilac ties or wearing purple dresses, so it all tied in quite nicely!

Geek Chic.

Another bargain was Tom’s suit, bought from Charles Tyrwhitt just after we got engaged in the summer sale. He needs extra long sleeves and this is one of the only places that sells well-cut shirts in different lengths, so he got himself a white shirt from there too. Easy. Unlike his tie, which took around 8 months to find! In the end we found the perfect Ted Baker one on Ebay, the only one we both agreed on! His shoes were more expensive than mine from Loake.

As a present, I had some cufflinks made for him through the excellent website Sonia Spencer. Tom is a Research Chemist and a bit of a geek, so I designed (with help!) periodic table cufflinks – ES for Esme (Einsteinium) and TM for Tom (Thulium). I don’t know if anyone else got the joke, but he liked them!

An Easy Decision.

After Googling ‘Photography Northamptonshire’ we came across Martmari and wow, were we glad we did! It was a really easy decision because Martin and Marina lived near to where the wedding was going to be, we loved their style (I would describe it as detailed reportage, but with a classic edge) and they were offering a really good deal.

A pre-wedding shoot made us confident that we had chosen well and on the day they were absolutely amazing. They were so professional and interested in getting the best shots of all the details, not in-our-faces, but always close by when we wanted a photo taken. Plus, we couldn’t be more in love with the results – the photos are just beautiful. All of our family and friends have been raving about them and their work since the wedding and I really hope that they become more widely known and as successful as they deserve to be. Please book them!

Man Cake.

My wonderful husband made our wedding cake! After a few practices and some complicated sketches (what can I say? He’s a scientist!), he designed a three-tier square cake: bottom layer his signature fruit cake, second layer my favourite date and walnut and the top layer of my Mum’s chocolate cake, all covered in pale blue/green buttercream and handmade icing roses and petals. It was perfect – well done Tom!

Art School Hero.

We had a jazz band all lined up to play at various points during the day, who cancelled on us six weeks before the wedding. What a nightmare. With no more money in the budget we called on Tom’s old Art teacher, who we knew used to be in a band. Thankfully he agreed to reunite his Rhythm and Blues band and they did an amazing set that got everyone on the dance floor, so much so that our carefully put-together playlist didn’t get a look in.

Throughout the day we had music playing from an iPod and various leads and speakers that I won’t even try to describe because I had no part in setting it up.

Please Forgive Me.

We chose our first dance song after a romantic meal on New Year’s Eve. In fact, Tom suggested it as he said that he used to listen to it a lot when we first got together (we were 16) because it summed up the way he felt about me. Can I have a collective ‘awww’? It was David Gray’s Please Forgive Me. We followed it with Barry White My First, My Last, My Everything, because that song always gets me dancing!

Crafty Favours.

My Mum is a stained glass artist and she, along with her husband, very generously made us some Rennie Mackintosh inspired glass roses for our guests to take away and hang in their homes. We weren’t too bothered about favours, but these looked lovely hanging in the tree and we were happy to take any leftover home with us. We also made ceramic name plates for everyone, all of which were taken by our guests, so I guess they were the favours really.

Reduce, Re-use Recycle.

We wanted to spend as little as possible on decorations, partly because we were cheap-skates who didn’t want boxes of wedding only paraphernalia in the house afterwards and partly because we didn’t think the beautiful garden needed much decorating. So everything that you can see we already owned, borrowed from friends, made ourselves or bought after hours searching on the internet for the cheapest option.

We used fabric (aptly named ‘Esme’ and bought in the sale) from Laura Ashley kids’ department for decorations in the form of bunting, the table plan and our ‘lovers’ seat’ during the ceremony. Fairy lights were borrowed or bought cheaply from Ikea and strung liberally around the garden (battery or solar powered ones for outside) and we clipped loads of photos (all ordered through various photo-printing websites using discount codes/free print vouchers etc) of us with our friends and family in our ‘tea tent’. My Maid of Honour made a frame out of cardboard, which was a huge hit (I know that no-one reading this will think that a frame for posing opportunities is original, but none of our guests had ever seen it before, so I would definitely recommend giving it a go).

Tom made a map of the venue on Photoshop which we displayed on an easel. Signs to direct our guests were stencilled and painted on old bits of wood, and we made some letters from plywood that we decorated ourselves to spell either ‘TEA’ (for during the afternoon tea part of the day) and ‘T&E’ later. (Those are now on our kitchen wall, spelling ‘EAT’.) Random bits of ribbon were tied around trees, lights and anything else that stayed still long enough and we had candles wherever we could – simple and cheap, but effective.

The biggest DIY project we did was to collect boxes and boxes of glass jars and etch them with designs of butterflies, bows, teapots, martini glasses etc. It took a whole weekend for me and my Maid of Honour to do these, but it wasn’t difficult to do or expensive (you can buy a whole bottle of etching fluid online for around £8 and we didn’t even use half) and it was so worth it because they looked lovely.

When I look at all that written out, it looks like we did loads! I suppose we did, but because we spread everything out over the whole of our engagement – buying candles whenever we saw cheap ones, printing the photos whenever there was an offer and doing the DIY projects over several months – it didn’t feel like too much. Tom is very creative so this was a really good excuse to do something together and for me to learn to enjoy making something. Making things for our wedding gave me confidence in my creative and design skills and I’ve now got loads of ideas for ways to use some of our leftover wedding bits in our home.

Make The Most Of It.

Our wedding ceremony was incredibly personal because we had a Humanist ceremony outside with our own vows. We got legally married a couple of days before in a registry office nearer to home, but this was our REAL wedding. We knew that there were quite were concerns about what the ceremony would be like, but in the end a lot of people found it very moving and we absolutely loved it. We were also lucky enough to be offered the use of a family friends’ garden for our wedding so we could personalise it exactly how we wanted to.

My advice to future brides is this: put your money into the things that matter to you. For us, it was food and drink, which were both perfect for us on the day. Enjoy planning and make sure you really make the most of it, by which I don’t just mean spending hours talking to your girlfriends about dresses and shoes (although you should also do that!) but also involving people and making fun weekends out of DIY projects or boring wedding related tasks. For example, we held a wine tasting with our Maid of Honour, Best Man and their partners where we blind tasted about 14 wines and we invited all of our parents to try our wedding meal a few months before. People really DO want to help with your wedding, so let them in whichever way they can (financially, practically or emotionally) and you will be pleasantly surprised by the secret skills your friends and family have.

Our wedding was incredible, not because it was perfect, but because it was OUR day and I got to marry the man I love. But I never want to do it again!

Venue Backgarden!

Dress Mori Lee, style number 2510

Hair M&Arc Hair & Beauty

Make-up Sheelagh Powell

Shoes Phase Eight

Tailor Charles Tyrwhitt

Cufflinks Sonia Spencer

Photography Martmari

Well, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of the groom making the cake before – another Rock My Wedding first for you today folks!

Lots of details that I really love here – from the so-geeky-they’re-cool cufflinks though to the hanging stained glass, in fact all the little D.I.Y projects… Even the first dance song really strikes a chord with me – brilliant choices all round.

Tom and Esme did so much by themselves and with the help of friends and family. We have here a wedding without the cost of reception venue hire, no florist, no cost for evening entertainment and with the help of old ‘Heston Blumenthal’ with his bunsen burner and testube – no expensive cake costs… and does it show? No. It. Does. Not. And all this saving allowed Tom and Esme to really splash out on the food and drink and give their loved ones the party of their lives!

Tom, Esme (and of course all of your talented friends and family), we salute you.

Adam.

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Sometimes Love Knocks You Sideways.

January 17th, 2012

There are a hundred and one details I love about Lizzie and Nick’s wedding in Kent (I say a hundred and one but there are probably even more than that)….from the stunning back flash frock and the loveliest maids in print to the perfect portraits and genius group shots (yes you heard me correctly folks, group shots.)

But most of all I love the laughter, from when they woke up to the point at which they all said goodnight, the bride, the groom and all of the guests had an absolute ruddy riot. One of the groomsmen even ripped his trousers right up to the erm… crotch so enthusiastic was he to get the highest “jump” in for his photo opportunity (and yes I have included some of that action and I promise it’s not too rude….)

All of the pretty (and naughty) was captured by Christine and Xander at Navyblur.

A Sophisticated Up-Do

My hair was done by a family friend who lived locally. When I tried on the dress having my hair up showed the back of the dress off at its best. I found some inspiring pictures of updos on some wedding websites/blogs and the hairdresser was brilliant at creating what I had asked – it was so much better than the pictures I had given her and stayed in place all day.

For make up I wanted to be able to do my own on the day and so went to Clinique at Harvey Nichols where they showed me how to do ‘wedding make up’ and then I bought their products. My bridesmaids were so brilliant at helping me on the day, they carried my make-up around and reminded me just before the photos to touch up!

Darling Dresses

The bridesmaids dresses I fell in love with as soon as I saw and wanted one myself! They were called ‘Darling’ and were from very.co.uk. I loved the country girly feel they had. They looked exactly how I wanted the wedding to look! Their shoes were plain blue mock suede from asos. The girls also had powder blue pashminas incase it got cold. Their hair pieces were the same as mine – hairbands from Monsoon cut off and put onto hair clips!

My sister was pregnant on the wedding day and 10 days overdue so prior to the wedding we didn’t even think she would be coming at all! So for obvious reasons she did not wear the same dress or shoes as the other bridesmaids – it was all very last minute and had to be comfy! She had the same hair pieces and pashmina as the others. (She went into labour when she got home form the wedding and had a gorgeous girl on the Monday morning called Beatrice Emma!)

DIY Accessories

I chose a long floor length veil from Wedding Belles. I love the vintage lace veils but felt it was too fussy for the dress. The plain veil didn’t take away from the details of the dress and you could see the open back of the dress through the veil.

I wanted flowers as opposed to a tiara as I wanted a country vintage look. I found these flowers on a hairband from Monsoon and did a little DIY – cutting them off the hairband and gluing on some little clips so that they could be clipped into my hair. For shoes I went for cream suede heels with round toe and gold straps, they were from Monsoon (in the sale!!).

Bride Knows Best

My dress was from ‘Tlysau’r Briodas’ (Wedding Belles) in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (!!)… LlanfairPG for short! Maggie Sottero was the designer and the dress was called ‘Bernadette’.

I knew what I wanted my dress to look like before I went looking – lace vintage looking and not strapless. However Nick told me that he didn’t want me to wear a dress that had shoulders or was made from lace (turns out he loved it and I knew best after all!)

I tried on so many dresses that were lovely but nothing was what I was looking for. Then I found my dress and knew as soon as I saw it – it was exactly what I had wanted and then when I tried it on it looked even better than I imagined and felt very ‘me’. The cutaway detail back of the dress made it extra special.

Side Splitting

Nick and his ushers and best men wore morning suits hired from Moss Bros. We were a little worried about hiring incase anything happened to them and one of our ushers even managed to split his trousers when jumping for a photo! One of my amazing bridesmaids stitched it up after the wedding and it wasn’t even noticed!

Seasonal Blooms

Nick’s friend from school and University, Robyn Trainer had just set up her own business for photography, illustrating and floristry called Floral Footsteps when we had got engaged so we asked if she could do our wedding flowers.

She was brilliant. I talked her through my ideas for the day-colours/themes etc and she totally ‘got’ it. She used Amnesia Roses, Avalanche Roses, Delphiniums, Pale Green Eustoma, English Dahlias, Spray Roses of various shades of Pink-Red and seasonal garden cut flowers.

Creative Energy

Our photographers were a couple who work in Ireland called Navyblur (Xander and Christine). A couple had recently got married and Navyblur were their photographers and we really loved their wedding photos – they were so fun and different. When we met them they were exactly who we wanted to capture our day for us. They are both so creative and energetic, we had so much fun with them shooting engagement photos in central London! They were so sweet and really calming on the day too, Xander helped the grooms party tie their cravats and calmed Nick at the alter when I was 30 minutes late to the church!

We loved how fun their photos looked and how innovative they were. We knew we wanted photos that were different and we would love to look at for the rest of our lives instead of your traditional set of photos!

The poses and things they got us to do added even more fun to the day, especially when one of the ushers ripped his trousers from energetically jumping whilst having the ‘formal’ photos!

Tea-Bag Treats

We got our cake from M&S! We ordered it online and picked it up 2 days prior to the day! It was a white chocolate ribbons cake.

Nick’s Dad and his wife sorted out our favours for us from Canada (where they live). We had personalised tea bags with the date of the wedding on.

An Acoustic Accompaniment

For entertainment we had an ‘acoustic duo with a bit of Umph!’ as described by the guitarist Tom Copson! They were brilliant and got everyone up dancing. We then had my brother DJ’ing in between sets using his iPad and DJ App!!

Sideways

For our first dance we had Citizen Cope ‘Sideways’. After a year of going out Nick made me listen to this song as some of the lyrics are ‘these feelings don’t go away, they’ve been knocking me sideways’, and so had always been a rather special song for us both.

Make, Do and Do Some More

My bridesmaids and I had a bunting making day where we started making bunting and then my amazing mum finished it all for us. We put it up outside the marquee. My mum also made tablecloths for the reception venue out of some material sourced from Shepherds Bush. I bought an assortment of Cath Kidston paper napkins for the tables to add colour to the tables that did not have a table cloth on. We also bought some old frames from a charity shop and printed out the letters N&L and put them above the top table.

For the table centre pieces our florist made us some amazing flower arrangements using old containers I had bought and collected including bird cages, old vintage tea pots and jugs. We also sourced vintage tea cups and saucers from charity shops and had small flower arrangements also on the table.

A Very Special Service

Our wedding day was special to us because we had everyone we loved involved. Nick’s Grandad married us, my friend danced for us during the signing of the register and another friend gave the address at the service.

The service was the most important part of our day, to get married before God and in front of everyone we love was the most special part.

Advice From Both The Bride AND Groom

Lizzie- Friends and family love being a part of your day and so involve them and their talents as much as possible. It takes the strain off organising if you can hand certain tasks over to people, and they so enjoy being able to do it for you.

Nick – Make the wedding service the most important part of your day because the wedding day is all celebration of the actual marriage.

Nick and Lizzie - The wedding day is so special, but marriage is so much better!

Photography – Navyblur

Venue – Nurstead Court

Brides Gown – Maggie Sotterro at Wedding Belles

Brides Shoes – Monsoon

Brides Hair Flowers – Monsoon

Maids Dresses – Very

Grooms Suit – Moss Bros

Cake – M&S

Blooms – Floral Footsteps

I forgot to mention the gorgeous side plait up-do Lizzie had going on – LOVE that look, especially when you really need to show off any detail at the back of your bridal gown.

Oh and if you are in bit of a last minute cake pickle then you can’t beat a plain M&S design (at least you know it will taste great) decorated with fresh fruits or florals in keeping with your colour scheme or theme.

Just wait until you see what we have coming up later – when the images fell into my inbox I actually applauded.

Big Sideways Love

Charlotte xxx

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A Raspberry Red And Apple Green Wedding.

January 16th, 2012

Sonja and Shane married in September 2011 at Hellens Manor in Much Marcle, Herefordshire.

They chose Hellens Manor for its countryside setting and gorgeous amenities – a medieval manor house with party barns in the beautiful countryside of Herefordshire. The venue allowed Sonja and Shane to decorate and do pretty much anything and everything they wanted, they even rigged up a whole new lantern based lighting system for the day (all conceived and created by Shane and his helpers).

Today then, we are off to the cider county, and to document this dreamy rustic day we have Gemma from Gemma Williams Photography, and may I say you are in for a visual treat that is good enough to eat.

Lovely Memories.

From the word go we knew we wanted to stay local to our Herefordshire home and keep it a very relaxed and country wedding, full of personal touches and fun. We wanted to make it not only an amazing day for us, but for all our guests to enjoy and leave with lovely memories.

Living in the heart of the Apple and Cider County we went for a country apple theme. From the invitations to the favours right up to the flower arrangements, apples galore!

We decorated the barn the day before with all sorts of things I found on ebay over the last year – lots of candles, lanterns, wicker hearts, metal buckets and paper lanterns for our ceiling lighting. I had my heart set on bunting in our colour scheme and my dad offered to help us. He spent weeks sewing our gorgeous bunting – 150m of it! This lovely splash of colour welcomed the guests to the barns and was a major part of our decoration.

The colour scheme was a gorgeous raspberry red and apple green. My bridesmaids Tina and Simone (my best friends from Germany) were wearing the Allure dress from Coast in sage green. For contrast and to carry through the colour scheme I asked my florist to make raspberry red bouquets for them – which looked absolutely stunning.

Shane and his best man had beige linen suits from Moss Bros. I loved the relaxed and ‘sunny’ look of these suits, very laid back. The ties (rented from Moss Bros) mirrored the sage green of the girls’ dresses.

Rose Detailing.

The dress, well, that was one of the first worries I had. I am not a very girlie girl and don’t really do dresses. So knowing what to go for was rather tricky. I’d decided to go to the National Wedding Show last March. I hate shopping at the best of times and it was all a bit over whelming for me. I tried the odd dress on, just to make an effort.

After 4 hours I still wasn’t any closer to finding my dress and saw myself leaving without one. About to go for a late lunch, a strapless ivory dress caught my eye. I tried it on and my friend who joined me for the day thought it was lovely. I still felt really awkward, not being used to wearing a massive dress. As I took the dress off and put it back on the hanger I could feel some tears coming up and felt rather emotional about the dress… it felt like I was putting MY dress back onto the hanger… that was the sign.

The dress was a gorgeous strapless design with rose detailing at the bust, layers in the skirt part and the best bit was – it held my tummy in nicely! It was from Grace Couture in Nottingham, from their Art Couture collection.

I had it altered a couple of times, the train shortened, the layers of netting taken up, all just to make me feel a bit more comfortable. The outcome was the most gorgeous dress I could have hoped for, it made me feel like a million dollars and I enjoyed wearing it every second of the day.

Elegant Simplicity.

I chose quite simple but elegant jewellery from Pia in Cheltenham. A lovely freshwater pearl necklace and bracelet.

For my hair I bought some little diamond and a small feathery, ivory fascinator from Hat Trick in Hereford.

Something Old, Something New…. Something Missing?

I have to admit, I was missing one of them. My shoes were my ‘something old’ (advantage being: nicely worn in and comfy!) Ivory closed toe sling backs, bought a few years ago at BHS. My ‘something blue’ was a pair of knickers Tina bought me, as a joke! She asked me to wear them (with a smile on her face), but after spending a small fortune on my bridal lingerie in Montpellier, Cheltenham, I decided not to wear them but to keep them in my little make up bag instead. My ‘something new’ was a surprise present from Shane…we agreed on not buying each other presents, but on the morning of the wedding our son Bayon walked in with a little bag labelled ‘Something new…I love you’. A gorgeous pair of diamond earrings (to go with my engagement ring) that nearly made me burst into tears! The one thing I was missing was the ‘something borrowed

…hmmm, I did borrow Simone’s hairspray, does that count?!

Me… Naturally.

My hair was done by my friend and professional hairdresser Debbie. With years of experience and running her own salon in Ledbury, I couldn’t have been more confident in letting Debs loose on my hair. We went for a relaxed hair up-do. By curling my hair and giving it more volume, Debs managed to get even my short hair up. It looked gorgeous – everybody commented on my hair and I loved it! Big thanks to Debs. xxx

I did my own make up, as I wanted to be me on the big day. My new Dior foundation and lipstick finished the natural look off nicely.

Only Time.

Lots of tea lights were lit along the barn walls for the ceremony, lanterns lined the aisle either side – Enya’s ‘Only Time’ was my entrance song. One of the most important decorative parts of the ceremony was our ceremony arch.

Thanks to my bridesmaid Simone and best man Justin, it all came together at the end and looked absolutely stunning on the day. To make it a personal ceremony we had a German and an English reading and some gorgeous music performed by Hannah and Rob (Hannah plays the sax, how cool is that?!) and to make it a little bit more special for the German guests, I said my ring vows in German.

A Country Cottage Feel…

I fell in love with Dawn Horsted Flowers, I loved her style of using country and cottagey flowers and herbs. Using just some hydrangeas, Dawn made simple and stunning bouquets for the bridesmaids. My posy had roses, herbs and hydrangeas in pink and greens. The centre pieces and two other arrangements were designed to go with our colour and wedding theme – raspberry red and apple green and of course apples were part of all of the flower arrangements – eye catching, different and earning plenty of praise from our guests.

Shane’s dad supplied a load of green/pinky hydrangea heads from his garden. We used them throughout the venue, we dotted little jam jars with ribbon around the barn and filled them with the hydrangeas. I tied a few of them into our ceremony arch and decorated our cheese cake with them too.

Remembering…

As well as having a selection of family wedding photos on our cake table, we arranged some photos of loved ones who sadly are no longer with us, next to the guest book. This was a lovely way of remembering our family members and friend who couldn’t share this special time with us.

Quirky And A Little Different.

Instead of favours and a traditional table plan, we brought in a miniature apple tree that we were given by friends for the birth of our son Bayon. I bought some chalkboard apple tags on ebay. These were used as name/escort cards, hung with jute twine off the branches. Guests had to find their apple (which they kept as a favour) and find their table. We let them chose their own seat at their table, which was a lot less hassle than trying to figure out, who should sit next to whom.

Best of Taste catering served fantastic canapés during our drinks reception. Our wedding breakfast was a three course meal including pork with cider sauce (to go with the theme). For the evening snack they served fish and chips in cones – a massive hit with all our guests!

Traditional Fun.

Being German meant my family and friends planned a few little traditional surprises for us. Wedding traditions are big in Germany. During our reception drinks and canapés my mum presented us with our ‘wedding candle’ and read out a beautiful poem for the candle ceremony. Very touching, very moving, many guests mentioned how lovely it was. Next we had to cut a big heart out of a sheet – with the worst possible nail scissors! My favourite of all and probably the most well known German wedding tradition is the ‘sawing of the log’. As a sign of ‘working together’ and ‘getting through difficult times’ we had to saw through a (thankfully rather skinny) log with a double handed saw. Great fun and the Brits could probably not believe what was happening! :)

Helium balloons with little address labels attached were released after dinner. We had two replies, one from a couple just 20miles down the road in Tewkesbury and the other one from a Belgian couple who found one of our balloons on a beach in France!

All Good Things Come In Threes…

Although we invested in a rather nice leather guestbook, we also wanted something a little different. We arranged some curly willow branches in a hurricane vase as a Wish Tree. Guests wrote wishes on to little cards and hung them from the branches. I also found this gorgeous idea of a guestbook thumbprint tree on the internet. Shane luckily is arty enough to draw a nice tree. We bought some ink pads from ebay for guests to ‘leaf’ their thumbprints and sign their name. This idea went down a storm and everybody commented on it. The finished art work is now on our wall for us to enjoy. ;-)

The Cutting Of The Cheese…

We both aren’t the biggest fans of traditional wedding cakes especially the icing. Cup cakes and muffins, individual fruit tarts and a cake buffet had all been discussed in detail, but didn’t really tickle our fancy. We finally decided on a ‘cheese cake’, basically three tiers of whole cheese wheels. Mouse Trap in Hereford helped me chose the right cheeses – it had to stack nicely. In the end the three tiers were: Little Hereford (bottom), Vignotte (middle) and a Welsh goat cheese as top tier.

Having spent months looking for cake tops, a friend of mine recommended Sunfish Handmade Caketops up in Scotland. And what a find! Fantastic attention to detail, superb understanding of what we wanted and fast turnaround. Helen made ‘us’ and told ‘our little story’ on a cake. The cake top shows Shane and myself, our son Bayon is waving our country flags. As additional details we had a backpack made (we went travelling around the world for a year) with a little Swiss flag on it (Shane and I met in Switzerland). The stack of books represents our jobs: antiquarian book dealers and if you look closely enough, you can even read the title ‘Beau Rivage, Room 101’ – this is the hotel I used to work at in Geneva and Shane was one of our VIP guests in room 101!

This little cake top means a lot to us – it is our story! It’s now standing on our mantelpiece.

Greatest Day.

Herefordshire’s top DJ Roddy Hankins did the evening entertainment for us. We briefed him on what style of music we liked, gave him our first and last dance and some of our favourites.

Neither of us likes to dance – well I do, but need a good drink before I get on the dance floor. Shane didn’t want to do a first dance at all, but best man Justin had us make a decision two days before the big day. I would have gone for ‘Cotton Eye Joe’ doing a barn dance style routine. It would have been hilarious and gone so well with our country theme. Shane wasn’t impressed in the slightest. In the end, we decided on Take That’s Greatest Day and no dance routine. We actually asked all our lovely village friends to not leave us on the dance floor for too long by ourselves. They were fab and followed suit, joining us after about 10 seconds into the song. Thanks girls!

After not wanting to have a first dance at all, we actually spent quite a lot of time on the dance floor together and I really enjoyed dancing with my hubby. Our last dance didn’t go to plan though, as we forgot to give Roddy the CD for it. In the end, knowing that I am a Take That/Robbie Williams fan, he played ‘Angels’ instead. Nobody minds a bit of Robbie, eh!

Untraditional Fun.

Well what can I say?! We nearly didn’t go for a photographer, just to keep our costs down… but I am so glad, we didn’t! Shane came across Gemma Williams Photography on the internet and we both fell in love with her style and attitude towards weddings straight away. We met up with her to discuss a few things and signed her up. A few weeks before the wedding we sat down for a final chat with Gemma and went through some details and ideas of what we were planning, hoping and looking for.

We believed Gemma would get us the images we wanted, the style and untraditional fun shots, which would document our special day beautifully. Due to the weather we only had a very short portrait session during the meal, when the sun came back out for a moment we went for it, Gemma ran from A to B and was so excited about finally doing all our fun and personal shots. We had a right laugh with the donkey, our wooden signs and of course our moustaches – we couldn’t stop laughing, we had such a ball.

Gemma was probably one of our best, if not the best, investments for our day… the images are exactly what we were looking for. Every single shot was cleverly taken. We love every single one of them… and I have to admit, I still look at them every single day – they just make me happy! Thank you Gemma for being such a fantastic and professional photographer and wonderful person!

Stick To What You Love.

Make it your day, make it personal. Don’t do what others tell you to do and don’t do things to make others happy. Stick to what you love, fancy and believe in. Don’t think about what others may say! Add personal and loving touches here and there, something different and something funny, to reflect the true you. Guests will highly appreciated your thoughtfulness, attention to detail and ideas – and they will love thinking back to the special day they were able to share with you.

The things that everybody commented on were our flowers, the ceremony, fish and chips, all our German traditions, our guestbook thumbprint tree and of course the moustache bar.

My favourite part was walking down the aisle and finally looking up at my hubby-to-be for the first time – gosh I was a nervous wreck – I’ve been waiting for this day for nearly 9 years! We both really enjoyed all the German games and had great fun cutting our cheese cake. I can’t really pick out, what I enjoyed most, every minute of it was special.

The year leading up to the wedding was very stressful indeed. Planning, organising and purchasing everything on my own (Shane was busy renovating the cottage, landscaping our garden and running our antiquarian book business all on his own!)… but would I do it all again! Oh Yes, I can’t wait for our first big anniversary party…

Without the help from families and friends, we couldn’t have pulled this off. Our biggest thanks to our friends and family who helped made this day happen and made it so special. xxx

Venue Hellens Manor

Dress Art Couture

Boutique Grace Couture

Shoes BHS

Jewellery Pia

Fascinator Hat Trick

Blooms Dawn Horsted Flowers

Catering Best of Taste

Cheese cake Mouse Trap

Cake Topper Sunfish Handmade Caketops

Photogrpaher Gemma Williams Photography

That cake topper really is something else, and what about those laneterns?

A great bit of rigging there by Shane and his crew.

We talk about colour pop a lot here at Rock My Wedding, and today you have an absolutely classic example of colour pop perfection. The Rasberry and Apple zing off each other and give the whole event a fresh fruity vibe.

Thanks to Sonja and Shane for sharing this one with us.

Adam.

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What Shirley Did… Stationery, Shoes And Dresses.

January 12th, 2012

We got engaged 11 months ago and I officially get married in 3 months and 2 days. I can’t actually believe where the time has gone. Suddenly it all feels very *real* and like there really isn’t much time left to get the rather long list of remaining jobs done. Panic!

Stationery.

Stationery was one area that we were determined not to spend very much money on – mostly on the basis that it all gets thrown away after the day. Shortly after we were engaged, I rushed off and ordered some charcoal grey & green invites from VistaPrint. I have to say they were very efficient, nice quality and extremely good value so if this is an area you don’t want to spend much on, then Vistaprint are definitely worth a look. However, I then changed my mind about the colour scheme and so they all went in the bin – not quite the cheap option I was aiming for! I then trawled google images to find something clean cut and contemporary in turquoise or orange that met my new set of criteria – not as easy as I thought it would be.

Everything was flowery or swirly or had images that just weren’t me. The typographical ones that I loved were seriously expensive. I looked at doing it myself but I’m not gifted in the graphical design capacity so that wasn’t a viable option either. Then one day I was idly browsing Etsy trying to work out what all the fuss was about (I was not sold on Etsy in the beginning!) and I found a design I liked but in the wrong colours.

I thought it was worth asking so emailed the seller Amy Adams to see if she could do this design in our colours, and also whether she had a suite of stationery to match the invites. I got the nicest email back from her saying that she would be delighted to design the invites in our colours, and while she didn’t have a range of matching stationery she would be thrilled to design whatever we wanted. Now that’s what I call service! I almost cried at how nice she was and how excited she was about *my* wedding!

We agreed on 12 stationery items ranging from day & evening invites, to menus, order of service programs to table plans and everything in between. *Nothing* has been too much trouble for Amy and she has emailed me mood boards, design options & ideas and endless revisions of each item. She has also put up with me emailing her random images I’ve seen online with notes saying ‘can we do this?!’ like a small excited child! Every email I’ve had from her has been chatty, interested, and striving to produce exactly what I want. If she didn’t live in Canada then I’d pop round and give her a massive hug because she’s been so brilliant and I really can’t recommend her highly enough.

We got the first part of our stationery order delivered this week after a bit of a disaster with the original printer, who basically just didn’t return our calls! In the end, we had to ditch him and find another printer shortly before Christmas. I thought that would be quite easy but no-one wanted to take on a small print run so we ended up using the husband of someone Rog used to work with who happens to work for a printing company and who got it all done as a favour for us. Anyway, it all arrived finally and looks rather gorgeous. It’s fantastic to see the designs that Amy worked so hard to produce actually in the flesh:

At first our venue wouldn’t let us have confetti but after some negotiation, they agreed we could have biodegradable colour-fast confetti. It’s surprisingly difficult to find biodegradable confetti but I managed to find some in the end from good old eBay from a seller called The Wedding Web Store. They produced me some biodegradable heart shaped confetti in turquoise and orange and were really patient answering all my questions. I spent ages last weekend stuffing it all into 50 little tins that I found on eBay too (though they’re originally from Confetti) and then put one of the round stickers on each lid. The heart logo reappears on most of our stationery items, and is a recurring theme in many of our decorations.

Wedding Ceremony.

We’ve finally filled in our official form and sent it off to the Registrar with all the wording, readings and music we want included in the ceremony. We’ve also written our own vows. I’ve found sorting out the ceremony details one of the most difficult and stressful parts of planning a wedding so far. We spent ages looking at the lyrics to songs to make sure that they didn’t have religious references and then the registrar never even checked them. They rang and said it was all fine the very next day after we emailed it, and when I queried the music they said that so long as we hadn’t chosen obvious hymns like Jersusalem then they were all fine! Trying to narrow down readings, which have the sentiment and meaning you like, and especially working out what to write in our vows has been difficult and taken a long long time.

Dresses.

Believe it or not, my wedding dress was an item I was convinced I didn’t need to spend money on. My mum made my previous dress for a grand total of £125 using silk from a posh department store in Edinburgh, and while I wanted a shop made dress this time, I was sure it didn’t have to cost much. I didn’t really know what style I wanted, so I decided to head off to Berkshire Brides, a second hand wedding dress place in Reading with my friend for a trying on session. I tried on about 10 dresses in total, and loved the first one. I was debating whether or not to buy that dress when the assistant pulled out another dress and said “you could try this one if you like”. 5 minutes later, I’m standing in the dress, practically in tears because it’s just so gorgeous. Cue HUGE a dilemma because I hadn’t actually come out with the intention of actually buying a dress, I just wanted to try some on to get an idea of what suited me. The downside of buying second hand is that if you love it, you don’t have time to go away and think about it as someone else could come along, love the same dress and buy it before you go back. The upside is that they are significantly cheaper than buying new. In the end, I decided to buy the dress as it was about 40% of the original ‘new’ price and Berkshire Brides will take it back after our wedding and sell it on for me. I get 60% of whatever they sell it for, which justifies spending a lot more on a dress than I’d intended and makes it a reasonable overall price.

Dance is a huge part of my life and many of our guests are dancers, so the thought of not being able to dance in my big dress was seriously stressing me out. I asked the seamstress to make the dress somehow hook up so that I could dance in the evening, but it just wasn’t possible. So, after much soul searching, I decided to get a second (short) dress that I can dance in. I am officially a 2 dress bride woo hoo! The second dress is not a proper wedding dress but rather a very pretty dress from Oasis, and I plan on wearing it again (possible after dyeing it a different colour) after the wedding so hopefully that justifies buying another dress.

I have a question for you though – I plan on wearing my big dress for the first hour or so of the evening party so that everyone gets to see it and I’ll do our first dance in it. Then I’ll change into the shorter dress for some serious dancing. But, do you think it would be weird to change back into my big dress to make our exit at the end of the night??? I’m worried I won’t feel like the bride leaving in a short dress and I want to sort of sweep into our hotel for the night looking properly bridal (don’t laugh!) – what do you think? Would it be bonkers to change twice?

Bridesmaids.

The girls dresses have been easier – my daughter is a light red head and so that narrows the colour choices significantly. Coral, peach and orange were all out! So we looked for turquoise or navy dresses. I wanted them to have a dress that they might wear again, and so we hit the high street. Fortunately there seem to have been loads of turquoise dresses in the shops this year, so after considering ordering a couple for home delivery, the girls chose the first dress here – a rather lovely asymmetrical number from Oasis costing a bargain £60.

Shoes Heaven!

Oh boy, shoes ….. I could probably have about 10 pairs of wedding shoes as I keep seeing really lovely ones! Cream ones, peach ones, gold ones, bright orange and turquoise ones – they’re all so pretty!

The ones I’ve narrowed it down to are these Monsoon ones (top left), bought in the sale for £65:
Although I may swap to this turquoise pair (top right) I got in the River Island sale for £20:

And in the evening, I had a pair of gold dance shoes (bottom left) made from a place in China that I use for my competition shoes – basically they will make practically any colour, heel size, strap design etc that you like. You order it all online and about 4 weeks later your shoes arrive! For a bargain £20 including shipping from China, these beauties arrived just before Christmas and I’m now on a mission to break them in before the wedding. Oh and the pretty turquoise and gold ones (bottom right) just sort of jumped into my online basket just before I checked out – who was I to say no!?

The girls chose these ones from Dune, also in the sale, but when they arrived, they were much more green than in the picture so they’re going back, and the hunt for their shoes is back on.

Like Alex, we still have a long list of things to do including sorting out what the boys are going to wear, what the hell I do with my hair which I hate, the rest of the stationery order, iPod playlists and a zillion and one small details which seem to take more time than the big things.

We also had our engagement photo shoot over the Christmas holidays so I’ll be sharing those pictures with you all in February along with the story of why we had to do it twice!

Happy New Year!
Shirley xx

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