Birdcage Veil

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Stephanie & Aaron’s Budget ‘Peacock Vintage’ Wedding

July 7, 2011 in Wedding | 13 comments

“The whole wedding was sort of ‘peacock vintage’ themed,” newlywed Stephanie told me. “We really managed to keep the wedding cost pretty low and spent less than $12,000! We was able to do this by making our own centerpieces, boutineers, corsages, invitations, and headpieces. We also used an older, less popular florist because I knew exactly what kind of flowers I wanted, and I provided the ribbon and feathers to her, leaving no room for error.”

It’s clear that Stephanie & Aaron did things their own way for their Atlanta wedding. They didn’t spend a fortune, but with a bit of hard work, created a wedding that looked really spectacular. They spent money on the things they really wanted but saved on (or left out completely!) the things they weren’t too bothered about.  ”We did not send save the date cards, we simply sent our invitations out a month earlier than the traditional time frame,” continued the bride.

“My wedding dress is from a wholesale website. My 100% silk, fully lined and boned wedding dress was only $230 with shipping! I had the purple ribbon sewn on after I got it. My reception dress was found by my mother a year before the wedding at a consignment shop. I had a few minor alterations done and bingo… I was dancing the night away. My shoes are from zappos RSVP brand and only cost $59! The peacock feathers are from several peoples collections and I did buy a few extra at a craft store. They just gave everything a universal theme and looked beautiful in the candlelight.”

The bride also made her own headpiece from from russian veiling and peacock feathers, and her jewellery was a vintage Swarovski piece from France. They also were able to get their dream car to transport them for a lot cheaper than a traditional wedding car rental place might charge. Stephanie found the pink Cadillac parked outside a party she was at one night. When she was leaving the restaurant she literally left a note saying, ‘Please call me, I have to have this car for my wedding day’.

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Oysters, Beach Huts & Paddling in the Sea – Abby & Julian’s Beautiful Whitstable Beach Wedding

June 21, 2011 in British Brides, Wedding | 15 comments

Ahh the great British seaside! While we can’t rival (what seems like) the rest of the world in the sunshine stakes, our beach resorts certainly do have some beautiful British charm don’t they? I’ve visited Whitstable a number of times (it’s where we shot the mad hatter bride shoot!), and I have to say, photographer Joanna Brown‘s capture of this wonderful town is pretty much perfect. What a lucky couple Abby & Julian are to have had her as their wedding photographer!

After Julian proposed on Whitstable beach in September, the seaside town seemed like the perfect place to get married too. The couple were wed at The Beacon House on the seafront. “We both really wanted to get married, but to be honest neither of us were particularly fussed about a fancy wedding, and once I’d had a look at a couple of wedding magazines I started having mini-palpitations at the horror and the cost of it all,” Abby told me. ” I do love a wedding, but I hate being centre of attention myself and the whole coordinated, packaged nightmare of it was enough to bring me out in a sweat. We did visit a few beautiful venues, but knew they were just not us, and the final straw was visiting a perfectly manicured courtyard garden venue which had installed a permanent marquee ‘facility’ complete with carpet tiles AND bow back seat covers (my two pet hates), glowing colour change pillars ‘to fit your colour scheme’ and multi-function twinkling ‘star canopy’. They were so proud of it and it just epitomised everything I hate and DID NOT WANT at our wedding.  Finding the world of wedding blogs was a revelation and really just gave me the confidence to do what we wanted all along.”

“I already knew about The Beacon House from researching accommodation in Whitstable but we’d initially ruled it out as being too small,” Abby continued. “We went back to have a proper look just before Christmas, and while we were there popped into some nearby venues to see if they might work as a spill-over reception venue.  As soon as we went into East Quay we knew it was perfect.  I had my heart set on getting married at The Beacon House , so we decided to keep the ceremony small (on the veranda over-looking the sea) and just invite everyone along for a big party afterwards at East Quay.”

The theme really fell into place after the venue’s were sorted, and a vintage seaside theme was settled on. “The obvious theme to go with was vintage seaside which is great in itself but I was really conscious that I didn’t want it to be twee or pretty-pretty,” the bride continued. ” I also really wanted the wedding to have a personal, intimate feel about it, so decided early on that I wanted the whole thing to be as homemade as we could.  I think some people initially thought this was a cost cutting exercise but actually, tho our budget was quite tight, I would have done it this way regardless.  I don’t get the opportunity to be particularly creative in my job but I’m always cutting, sticking and sewing things together at home so this was really a dream project for me.”

“Because we didn’t want anything to be too fussy, manicured, pretty or perfect, I decided early on to keep the decoration simple, fill the room with homemade white pom poms and make the flowers the main source of colour. In the end we ran out of white tissue and the pom poms ended up being various shades of white pink and purple but I think it worked just as well. I looked into hiring table linen but I ended up finding some red and white tea towels in Ikea for 19p each (approx a third of what I’d been quoted for napkin hire) and decided to go with them instead.”

“We tied everything up with the same red and white striped ribbon and instead of name cards and table plans we just dug out funny pictures of all our guests, printed them out polaroid stylee and just left the guests to wander around and find their places, which was a great ice-breaker.”

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A Vintage Hen Do Inspiration Shoot

June 20, 2011 in British Brides, Styled Photo Shoots | 14 comments

I wanted to start this week with something not all together bridal, but a shoot that you can certainly take inspiration from. I like to think of these vintage beauties as girls-on-tour…maybe on a hen do, or on their way to a beautiful bridal shower….but a classy, and non trashing one of course!

Hen do photo shoots are one of my new favourite things. Is anyone planning on doing one with their girls?

Have a beautiful Monday everyone….

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Rachel & Nicky’s Punk Luxe Andaz Wedding

May 19, 2011 in British Brides, Wedding | 3 comments

Rachel & Nicky were married at the super swanky Andaz Hotel in London. The bride read Rock n Roll Bride throughout her planning and I’m oh-so-excited to see some of my favourite touches throughout this wedding (that cake? effing awesome!)

“Nic and I have been immersed in music since we were young, we have both grown up listening to punk and hardcore and a massive spattering of Bruce Springsteen!” the bride told me. “We wanted to make sure that our day really represented this. From invitations that featured Springteen lyrics, tables named after Springsteen songs from Born to Run to Badlands. I wanted to make sure that the day was a total celebration and that everyone was smiling all the way through. I walked down the aisle to ‘Bring Me Sunshine’ sung by Morecambe and Wise, just stopping short of doing the walk/dance that goes with it, which raised a laugh out of everyone attending and we left the ceremony to Springsteens ‘Two Hearts’.”

“Our cake from Choccywoccydoodah wasn’t the most traditional of cakes but it really represented our ‘dark side’! With a huge chocolate skull on the top and the tattooed ’till death do us part’ chocolate heart on the front, stunning and yummy. We always knew that if we got married that we would want to do it in Central London, we could never see the point of heading out to castles in the countryside as this had nothing at all to do with our lives. I have always found the City and financial district to be the most beautiful part of London, the incredible old stone buildings sitting between the sharp angles of glass and steel. I knew from the start that The Andaz was the place for us, I had dreamed of getting married here and having the reception and party in the old Masonic Temple that formed part of the hotel. We kept the temple a surprise and led people in there for the party, everyone was so shocked that there was room this beautiful tucked away. We partied away the night amongst the marble and gilt to classic rock mixed with a spot of punk, even our families danced along to Cock Sparrer’s classic ‘We’re coming back’! The whole day was our version of punk luxe.”

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Isobel & Dave’s Vintage-Inspired Budget Wedding

May 18, 2011 in British Brides, Wedding | 25 comments

Isobel & Dave’s incredible vintage-inspired budget wedding gives me butterflies! I am so excited  about sharing all the beautiful personal touches that they put into their day. The whole wedding is a testament to the fact that you don’t need to spend a fortune to have your perfect wedding.

“The two things we had in our heads from the start were; that we didn’t have a very big budget and that we wanted our wedding to reflect us,” Isobel told me. “We started by approaching it as a really big party where we’d just happen to get married. The important things for us were that our favourite people were there, our favourite music was playing, and everyone would have fun! We aren’t particularly conventional and there was never any question of following rules or doing things because we ‘should’. I didn’t buy a single bridal magazine or visit any bridal shops during the whole process!”

“Rock n Roll Bride and DIY Bride were my only ‘go to’ blogs for inspiration and ideas! We just did things because we wanted to (if we could afford it)! With the little touches – the badges, the teapots as vases, teacups full of sweets, the birdcage for cards and messages, the photo booth (definitely a Rock n Roll Bride idea-steal!), and the bunting – I think we  created a wedding that was fun, unique, and best of all, exactly what we’d imagined.”

The bride wore a dress that she had made from a vintage Vogue pattern. She was keen to wear something that was ‘her’ and something that she felt comfortable and beautiful in. “My dress was ade by a friend of a friend from an old Vogue pattern I found on the Internet,” she continued. ”I wanted long-sleeves as I assumed (wrongly) it would be cold in April and I wanted to cover my arms! I also wanted a dress that was ballerina length to show off my gorgeous shoes! The cream lace and nude lining it was made from were from Victoria Market in Nottingham. I chose lace because I wanted it to look like a wedding dress (you only get to do this once, right?!) but mostly because I love it. The woman who made the dress added the bow and the buttons on the sleeves, which I think were really good calls and one of the many reasons why I’m glad I didn’t attempt to make the dress myself.”

The DIY theme continued through out the wedding. The bride’s Mum made her birdcage veil and her bouquet from faux flowers (from Hobbycraft.) They also bought the majority of their decor ’things’ that they weren’t able to make themselves from Etsy and eBay, including the invitations, the birdcages, the lanterns, the napkins and the Lego cake topper.

My favourite detail has got to be the bunting. When they sent out the invitations they included a template for a piece of bunting and asked their guests to send them one made from any material they wanted. “Lots of people did and we got some lovely and very creative pieces (metres of it in some cases!) which we put together and used to decorate the reception venue.  I think this really added to cosy, handmade feel of the reception and reflected what we wanted the wedding to be – a celebration with our friends and family.”

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