Light up your place settings.

I have just found these fantastic glass tea light jars, just perfect for name places, on Etsy.

Glass jars with a 'black-board' front these could be filled with tea-light candles, not only showing your guests where they are to be seated but adding to the atmosphere of the evening. As an alternative to a candle you could fill them with sweets as a tasty favour or place a beautiful single bloom in each and use as a mini vase.  For the more alternative wedding mark them with ‘love, happiness, faith, truth’ and scatter around the room.

Designed by rustic wedding designer Morgann Hill Designs and available to buy from Etsy (£75 for 50). And liquid chalk markers are also available.

 

Our First ‘Real life wedding’ – PART 2:

The Cake...

Made by my amazing Mum! I was so busy with other events work at the time of my own wedding that my Mum organised most of my wedding – she did all of the flowers and decorations, made and decorated the cake, liaised with all of the suppliers... she did such a fantastic job.

Personal touches to the day...

Areas for our guests to relax in were very important to us.

Jagermeister was a key feature of our wedding as it is my husband’s absolute favourite drink along with the best men (he had FIVE!) who requested their toasts to be made with Jagermeister instead of Champagne!

Sky lanterns were great (available at SkyLanterns) they created such a magical effect as they floated into the distance and the guests had great fun lighting them.

 Each guest’s placement card was attached to a lolly. This was designed, made and assembled by my lovely sister-in-law.

We had a ‘big hats and no black’ dress code for the ladies (as the bridesmaids were in black!) so the hat line was a great way to avoid squashed hats at the end of the evening and looked great in the marquee.

 I highly recommend having a photo booth at your Wedding. You get the most hilarious photos of all of your friends. This is the most tame photograph that I could find!

 My special guest! I even forgave him when he jumped on my dress!

 

The Bride's Top Tips:
1.  Invest in an amazing Wedding Photographer, who's work you love. A friend did my photographs and whilst he is a great photographer you really do need to have a lot of wedding experience to get those really treasured shots.  You keep your photographs forever, so it is worth splashing out on this aspect. It is also worth asking the photographer, before you confirm the booking, if they will give you a disk of all of the high resolution images to keep.
2. Test drive your shoes before the big day!
3. Have a Wedding Planner, or if the budget won't stretch ask a friend (or bridesmaid) to take control on your wedding day. I didn't do this and a lot fell onto my Mum's shoulders for the big day.

 Cake - made by my mum! / Photographer - William Sharp / Flowers - By my Mum! / Wedding Dress - Martin Charles / Bridesmaid Dresses - Karen Millen / Shoes - Marc Jacobs / Make up - FleurDeForce / Hair - Hensmans / Jewellery - vintage

Our First ‘Real life wedding’ – PART 1:

Fleur and I thought that in the midst of our Wedding planning blog marathon, whilst full of ideas and inspiration, we should add a weekly ‘Real life wedding’ feature to really get your wedding juices flowing. Something to brighten up your Monday!  We all love a good wedding;  the dress, the venue, the shoes, the flowers, the cake and personal touches to the day... so I thought what better way to start than a bit of self-gratification. My own wedding.  I got married four years ago last week, and it feels like yesterday!

The dress...

My dress was a creation by the wonderful Martin Charles. When I got engaged I looked through a couple of Bridal magazines and realised very quickly that I wanted a very simple, classic dress. I also liked the idea of having a black waist band (especially as I wanted my bridesmaids to wear black).  So, after visiting one of the main bridal boutiques in London and being totally scared away with the HARD sell that I received my Mum recommended Martin Charles. Martin was everything that I could have wished for. His studio at the time was in his home, a beautiful house in the countryside, so extremely relaxed. There was no hard sell and he listened to exactly what I wanted and designed an absolute masterpiece. My dress and the whole experience was exactly what I had hoped and dreamed it would be.  Martin also came up with the fantastic idea to have a separate underskirt to give a really full effect to the dress for the daytime that could be removed for the evening – making the evening dress more easy to dance in and with a more ‘evening’ feel! However as I did insist on a 10 foot train on the dress it was still a little tricky – but worth it!

Spot Fleur De Force here doing her bridesmaid duties!

I also had an extreemely long veil made, extending past the train of my dress. Spot the nerves in this shot! I have never been so scared in my life... the walk down the aisle was so daunting, but once I was at the altar with my husband-to-be I was much more relaxed.  

 

 ... I do! 

Although it all looks very traditional I walked down the aisle, much to the shock of the congregation, to Mendelssohn's Wedding March accompanied by an amazing rock guitarist, who then played Metalica whilst we signed our vows!

The Venue...

My husband and I went to school together so it was really special for us to get married in the school chapel, where we first met (aged just 13!).

 

The reception was held in a marquee in my parent’s garden. The flowers for the ceremony were based on a black and white theme but I wanted to add some colour to the reception so went for vibrant, clashing reds and pinks. I also bought candelabras for alternate tables and lots of tea lights so that the marquee was a sea of candle light in the evening.

My shoes were Marc Jacobs. My top tip is to make sure you ‘wear them in’ before the big day to make sure you can dance the night away without painful feet!  

Fleur De Force was my make up artist for the day!

I borrowed a stunning antique diamond tiara from my oldest best friend’s grandma.

Sweet Treats

Everyone loves a sweet treat at a wedding, utterly delicious and a great way to add some colour.  Chocolate Buttons is a company I use a lot for events. They have a great variety of sweets and chocolates on their website and provide a fantastic service. 

From their tasty selection...

Traditional sugared almonds are great if you are filling boxes or bags to make your own wedding favours.

I also love these colourful Jelly Belly lollies, you can chose the perfect flavour to match with your colour scheme and they look great in large glass vases or in jars on the bar.

Or if you are feeling a little naughty, the trick ‘mouth painting’ lollies in the shape of a heart are bound to cause a stir! You wouldn’t need to worry about finding a ‘something blue’ if all of your guest's mouths were!

Chocolate Buttons are also a fantastic one-stop-shop if you are making your own sweetie table for your wedding day.

                                                                                   Image from www.theknot.com

A Quirky & Romantic Wedding Venue Idea

Looking for something fun and original, away from the ‘standard wedding format’?

Then take a peek at Canopy and Stars.

If you are looking for something relaxed and rural, their selection of beautifully romantic outdoor venues could be perfect. 

Some of the venues also allow you to ‘take over’ the main house and grounds for up to a week, so you can really feel at home in your surroundings and make the most of your Wedding celebrations with your friends and family. 

It's even possible to set up your own mini-festival for your wedding weekend!

This website could also come in handy for those of you planning hen/stag parties or even more relaxed honeymoons with a wonderful collection of locations for ‘happy campers’. If wood-burning stoves, hand-delivered breakfast hampers, treetop bathtubs and getting back in touch with nature sound good, then this could be right up your street!

All images from Canopy & Stars

Fairytale Flower Girls

I recently saw these beautiful dresses on one of my favourite kids blogs Princess and The Pram. 

Damselfly Boutique supply beautiful “hand-finished clothes for heroines and wayfarers”... the perfect way to get your flower girls looking like fairies and feeling like princesses. 

These would be great if you're aiming for a fairytale, whimsical-feeling wedding!

 Prices start from £95.

Beautiful Bubbles

Forget messy confetti, why not replace it with beautiful bubbles! Not only do bubbles add a magical, ethereal effect to your wedding but they really do give your photographer something to get his camera whizzing!

Image from: http://wedding-aisle-music-2011.wedding8.no-ip.org

Bubbles are available at most of the online wedding stores and come in a range of styles. Confetti.co.uk  have a great selection.

Image from www.confetti.co.uk

It can also be fun to have an industrial-sized bubble machine over your dance floor for your first dance (be sure to test it first though!)

Something Old, Something New...

I'm sure you're all familiar with the old saying...

Something old, something new 

Something borrowed, something blue 

And a silver sixpence in her shoe.

But where did these traditions come from?

A sixpence is a coin that was minted in Britain from 1551 to 1967. It was made of silver and worth six pennies. So this wedding tradition is definitely English, and many sources say that it began in the Victorian era.

Each item in this poem represents a good-luck token for the bride. If she carries all of them on her wedding day, her marriage will be happy.

"Something old" symbolises continuity with the bride's family and the past.

"Something new" means optimism and hope for the bride's new life ahead.

"Something borrowed" is usually an item from a happily married friend or family member, whose good fortune in marriage is supposed to carry over to the new bride. The borrowed item also reminds the bride that she can depend on her friends and family.

“Something blue” has been connected to weddings for centuries. In ancient Rome brides wore blue to symbolize love, modesty, and fidelity. Christianity has long dressed the Virgin Mary in blue, so purity was associated with the colour. Before the late 19th century, blue was a popular colour for wedding gowns as evidenced in proverbs like, "Marry in blue, lover be true."

And finally, a silver sixpence in the bride's shoe represents wealth and financial security. 

It may date back to a Scottish custom of a groom putting a silver coin under his foot for good luck. For optimum fortune, the sixpence should be in the left shoe. These days, a dime or a copper penny is sometimes substituted, and many companies sell keepsake sixpences for weddings. You can buy the one shown above from the Royal Mint website.

source www.askyahoo.com

A Modern Bride's "Something Blue"

Adding something blue to your wedding day can sometimes be a little tricky... and many people go for the blue ribbon on a garter as a safe, hidden option.  I actually opted (when I realised last minute that I hadn’t actually considered this old custom!) to borrow my Mum’s Aquamarine ring.

For those of you who are struggling with your ‘something blue’, I absolutely love this idea I recently saw on one of my favourite wedding blogs Before The Big Day. An embroidered Wedding Dress Label... fantastic to have in your wedding dress as a reminder for generations to come.

These customisable labels are available on etsy here from just £10. I think this would be a perfect gift to buy as a bridesmaid for the bride to be. 

Sealed with Love

Knowing that I love personalised little touches, my Mum gave me a wax sealing kit a couple of years ago for Christmas and there really is something magical about stamping your mark on to correspondence. What better way to complete your wedding invitation than with a personalised wax seal?

Not only does this give a real air of tradition and luxury, it gives such a unique personal touch too.  There are many suppliers that will produce a personalised stamp for you, either with initials or a themed motif that you have come up with for the wedding.

Image from: www.ohsobeautifulpaper.com

You can also use the wax stamp on your placement cards, making a very simple card design unique and personal.

Image from http://melissasdesignaddiction.wordpress.com

It's also makes a great addition to the many thank you cards you'll be sending out after the big day!

City Co Seals offer a personalised service, starting from £20 

Tricycle Treats!

When the guests have been on their feet for hours and need a boost to carry on the dancing, what better way to give them a lift than an ‘Espresso Tricycle’... Quirky and fun, this gives a new and inspired twist to your wedding.

Supplied by IdeasBoxUK they can also provide funky trikes serving ice cream, crepes, candyfloss, popcorn or snow cones! A great accessory for a ‘colourful wedding’ and such fun for your guests! 

Also consider personalising the cups, boxes or packaging served to your guests for an added personal touch.

Baby Tails...

When my brother got married last year I wanted to find a tail coat for my little boy (then aged 10 months). At first I thought this would be an impossible task, but managed to find an amazing 5 peice for him to match the Groom and best men!

With sizes available from 0-3months to 15years your little one can be a true part of the Wedding party!

Available at FashionKid.co.uk.

If you really want to go all out for the little ones on your big day, top hats for kids are also available on Amazon here.