Monthly Archives: February 2014

DIY Rainbow Farm Wedding: Helen & Toby

Alexa Clarke Kent

February 28, 2014

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Helen and Toby’s rainbow wedding took place at Coombes Farm in Lancing. The didn’t have a huge budget, £8000, but they made it go far with plenty of personal touches and DIY projects. The cakes, flowers and stationery were all done by friends and they didn’t hire a fancy caterer to feed their guests. Instead of gifts they asked their guests to each bring their favourite dish!

“We deliberately chose to get married on Friday 13th September 2013, as we liked the idea of choosing a date that is not usually chosen by couples planning a wedding”, Helen explained. “It also meant that it would be unlikely to clash with any other weddings and Toby won’t be able to forget our anniversary!”

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“We chose Coombes Farm due to its relaxed vibe, it is very much a working farm and therefore doesn’t feel like the average wedding venue, which can feel very polished and formal. We also wanted somewhere where we could stay in the camper van and for our guests to have the option to camp, which made it feel like a mini festival. We basically treated planning our wedding like planning a party and wanted to ensure that everybody enjoyed themselves! Key ingredients included a tractor ride and of course, a bouncy castle!”

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DIY Tutorial: Half Up, Half Down, Hidden Hair Braid

Mark Brooke Photography

February 28, 2014

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Today I’m sharing the second hair tutorial from my collaboration with Your Cloud Parade and 10.11 Make Up (you can see last week’s faux hawk here!) This is a elegant and ethereal a half up, half down hidden braid style would be perfect for boho or casual brides. And I promise it’s not as complicated as it sounds!

The best bit? It uses all the same supplies and products as last week’s tutorial so if you tooled up for that one you can now give this one a bash too!

Supplies Needed

♥ Hairspray (we used Kenra Volume Spray)
♥ Bobby and hair pins
♥ Curling iron (we used Hot Tools – barrel size may vary based on length of hair, just for adding texture)
♥ Texture spray (we used Kevin Murphy Resort Spray) or spray wax (we love KMS Hair Play spray wax)
♥ Backcomber (we used Tool Structure Tortoise Backcomber)

Method

Step one: Add some texture to the hair by adding some curl. Spray with some texturizing spray or spray wax.

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Step two: Add volume by sectioning out the hair around the crown of your head, leaving out the front and sides. You will want enough hair on each side for braids, as well as any hair you want framing your face based on the desired finished look you would like.

Backcomb or tease the hair you have gathered at the back of the crown. Start the backcomb about 3 1/2 inches from the scalp, pressing the hair down towards your scalp to create a cushion.

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Thursday Treats: Thank You

February 27, 2014

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Made U Look

This week has been hard, one of the most emotionally draining I’ve had in a long time. I’ve cried a lot, I’ve stared at my computer screen not knowing what to do, I’ve told people I love them more than I ever have before.

Thank you all so much for your outpouring of support. It’s been very much appreciated. I’ve had so many amazing messages and I’ll be passing them on to Chris and Jo’s family in due course. For those of you also suffering I applaud you for being so brave to reach out to me, via public comments or private email. It really is the first step to recovery and I’m so proud of you for vocalising your desire to get help.

It’s been a lot to take in, but ultimately it’s been so worth it. I’m sending you all so much love. Thank you, thank you x a million.

I’m about to head off on a family holiday to Whistler so I’ll be taking some much needed time away from the internet. There won’t be a Thursday Treats next week but I have some great content scheduled to go up in my absence so be sure to keep popping by.

Weddings & Weddingy Things

Backyard wedding
Beautiful pink dress bride
Homemade succulent wedding
♥ Free People’s march 2014 lookbook is Vegas wedding fabulous!
Comic book wedding cake
60s inspired smog shoppe wedding

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Steve Cowell

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Doctor Who and Chester Zoo Wedding: Diana & Ben

Sarah Janes Photography

February 27, 2014

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When my favourite vintage wedding dress shop launched their own, self designed, collection based on vintage styles (but able to be sized up to a Uk size 22!) I was super excited to be able to host an exclusive competition for one of my readers to win one. Alongside Fur Coat No Knickers founders and designers Emma and Laura, I read every single entry, eventually picking the gorgeous Diana as our winner.  Her story touched our hearts and we were all so honoured to be able to fulfil her dream to feel beautiful on her wedding day.

I am utterly thrilled to be sharing that wedding with you all today! It was held at Chester Zoo.

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“Our wedding was us. It was just us”, Diana began. “It was the most laidback, chilled out event ever. Everyone commented on how impressed they were that we’d managed to instil a sense of ourselves through proceedings. Neither of us wanted a big fancy event. We just wanted to get married and have a kickass party and that’s what we did. The Doctor Who stuff was more me than Ben but I loved it and so did the kids.”

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Alternative Wedding Dresses for Rock n Roll Princesses

February 26, 2014

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Alfred Angelo, America’s oldest and largest family-owned and operated bridal company, was founded by Alfred Angelo Piccione in Philadelphia. Since 1933 they have been designing wedding attire for brides of all tastes, styles and budgets. So when they got in touch asking if I’d like to showcase some of their quirkier styles on my blog, I jumped at the chance. After all, that’s what I do best!

Their range is extensive (250 dresses and counting!) so it really wasn’t that difficult for me to find dresses that would please even the pickiest of alternative brides. Oh I do love my job.

Rock Princess

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Even the most Rock n Roll amongst us do sometimes dream of being a princess for the day – there’s no shame in that! If a big beautiful ballgown is what you’re after then feast your eyes on these beauties. Add some Alexander McQueen skull suede pumps, a Butler and Wilson skull tiara and oddles of black leather jewellery and you’re ready to rock my friend.

Boho Babe

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Doctor Who Inspired Woodland Wedding: Justin & Annie

Julie Wilmes photography

February 26, 2014

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Justin and Annie were married at the groom’s mother’s house. They didn’t have a massive budget for their wedding, just $5000, but made it go really far by DIYing a lot of things including all the reception décor and props. They wanted their day to have a lovebirds theme but with references to the other things that they enjoy, namely  Doctor Who!

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“Our wedding was homemade and we tried to have lovebirds as a recurring theme as I have a lovebirds tattoo”, began Annie. “We also wanted to include other things we loved such as the tardis from Doctor Who on the cake, the photo set-up, the zombie cake, and even the Star Wars lightsaber cake cutters! We really focused in the small details.”

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For Jo

Chris Barber Photography

February 25, 2014

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This isn’t something I ever thought I’d write about on this blog. In fact I toyed with the idea of whether or not I should actually post this for ages. But instead of trying to think about it too much I just started typing to see where it would go… writing is cathartic for me and I really just felt like I wanted to get this all out of my head. I’d decide whether to publish it or not later.

On Sunday, my friend Jo committed suicide.

Just writing those words feels unreal, like I’m in some kind of dream world or alternate reality. Dealing with death is fucking hard, dealing with death when someone has taken their own life is utterly devastating. There are just so many unanswered questions.

But I’m not writing this because I want any kind of “Oh I hope you’re OK” comments. As much as I appreciate them this is not about me. It’s about a far from being about me as anything I’ve ever written.

Jo suffered from depression. I knew she had low self esteem, and we’d spoken about it many times, but I really genuinely didn’t know how rough it was for her. And that makes me feel terrible. Like I was a totally awful friend for not knowing more, doing more, asking more.

I keep going over all our conversations in my head, wondering if I could have done anything differently or said something more helpful. I feel so guilty.

I wanted to write this today to try, in whatever small way I can, to reach out to any of you that might also be suffering. I want to encourage you to talk to people, and to never give up. Life is precious, life is short, life is worth fighting for.

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John Waters and Pink Flamingo Inspired Same Sex Wedding Shoot

Shannon Collins Photography

February 25, 2014

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Coming across the most amazingly colourful house by chance one day, wedding photographer Shannon Collins dreamed of being able to do a shoot there. Well fate stepped in, making it a possibility, so she knew she had to make it extra magical!

“Last year, I was photographing a couple in Philadelphia for an engagement shoot”, wrote Shannon. “On my way home, a few minutes from the location, I drove past a lovely yellow house with tons of pink flamingos scattered across the lawn. I screeched my brakes and drove in reverse so I could capture a quick snapshot of the house. It instantly reminded me of the John Waters film, ‘Pink Flamingos’ and made me smile.”

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“I posted the photo to Instagram, thinking nothing of it. A few hours later, a friend of mine responded saying that one of her close friends grew up in the house. Then, the close friend commented, saying her parents still live there and she’d let them know I liked it. I reached out to her, asking if she thought her parents might be open to the idea of having a styled shoot at their house. The home-owners were incredibly gracious and although they were out of town for the day of the shoot, they allowed us to use their home as our backdrop.”

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How to Plan a Wedding: Reception Décor & Flowers

Eliza Claire Photography

February 24, 2014

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The décor for our wedding was actually the bit I struggled with most. I’m not the most crafty of people, and during my (pre-blog!) planning I struggled to find any ideas that I actually particularly liked. It was all mirror tiles and fish bowls filled with water and floating geraniums back then. So we went for something super simple – tall floral table centrepieces (which I ended up hating but oh well!) and a black and white colour scheme. Yep, that was pretty much it.

However these days you are overrun with inspiration to make your wedding reception as unique as you are! From wedding blogs to Pinterest, and magazines finally getting on the more quirky train… it must be completely overwhelming.

Whatever style of wedding you’re having, my advice to you would be this: just pick stuff that you like! Try not to over-think it and simply choose things that reflect what you and your partner love in everyday life.

If you love travelling, how about a map as a table plan? If you adore reading, what about books as part of your centrepieces? If you’re really into comics why not use your favourites as the table names and markers? Once you get started the ideas will just start flowing. I promise.

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Picking a colour palette can be difficult (hence why we went for monochrome!) and unless you’re a stylist or designer it can be really tricky to know which colours will work well together. A great resource to get you started is Adobe Kuler. Simply select your main colour on the wheel and it will show you which other ones work with it – genius! Another great resource is Colour Lovers. This site is packed with thousands of colour schemes and you can search by type (wedding, corporate, home, fashion) as well as upload an image and get the codes for the actual hues used in it. Amazing!

Don’t stress to much about everything being all matchy-matchy. We actually went for our black and white theme because I literally couldn’t think of anything worse than having to carry colour swatches around with me to make sure the bridesmaid’s dresses matched the napkins matched the flowers… YAWN! Little did I know that an intentionally mismatched and eclectic scheme looks flippin’ awesome. Embrace the colour chaos I say!

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Don’t Tell The Bride AKA Lauren & Perry’s Gig Wedding at The Forum

Debs Ivelja Photography

February 24, 2014

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Do you watch the BBC Three show Don’t Tell the Bride? When I was engaged I was pretty obsessed. Gareth and I would sit together to watch it every week and my favourite game was quizzing him over what he’d do if he had to plan our whole wedding himself.

Like many of you, I always wondered what everyone got up to behind the scenes – Did the bride really not have anything to do with it? (SURELY you’d be dropping hints like mad before you signed the contract?!) How much influence do the production crew have? And why do the boys always pick the wrong dress?!

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This is not the first time I’ve featured a DTTB wedding. Mike and Becky’s wrestling wedding has graced these pages previously but by their own admission they didn’t really enjoy the process. However when I saw Lauren and Perry’s big day, and read that they really did enjoy doing it, I was keen to speak to them about it. Plus what could be more Rock n Roll than a gig themed wedding at one of the most iconic music venues in London!?

We knew that we wanted to get married but that after having a baby and buying a flat there was never going to be a time when it was financially possible”, Perry began when I asked what made them want to go on the show. “Lauren was going to apply for The Great British Bake Off but saw the application for Don’t Tell The Bride and decided to do that instead. I didn’t think we had much chance of being picked but when she read me her entry email I started to get really nervous. It was GOOD!”

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Victorian Vintage Wedding with Gothic Touches: Mark & Clare

F/Stop Poetry

February 23, 2014

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Mark and Clare were married at The Jacob Henry Mansion in Joliet, Illinois. With a church on-site it was not only the perfect backdrop for their Victorian vintage wedding, but somewhere they could have both their ceremony and reception. They loved their venue and styled the whole wedding around it’s gothic elements.

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“We got the idea for theme of the wedding, Victorian Vintage, from my engagement ring”, began Clare. “My ring is a very art deco in style with the diamond sitting deep in the setting, and very unique filigree designed metalwork. We love the antique look of the ring and decided to find the attire, venue, stationery, and other decorations that would go with the theme. Antiques and antique-looking things are so classic that they will never go out of style, and we were hoping to find a theme that we could look back on in 30 years and still fawn over our choices.”

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How To Land your Dream Job

FX Media

February 21, 2014

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The Blogcademy, the blogging and business workshop I co-run, recently advertised for an events coordinator. I’ve never hired anyone before (I don’t think my husband counts, he was a bit of a shoo-in!) or had to go through job applications, so this was actually a massive learning experience for me too.

We had over 100 applications (!) and going through so many in short succession really did show me – quickly – the mistakes people were making over and over again. I hope some of the things I realised can also help you if you’re planning to apply for a new job soon.

Be short and concise… but not too brief

As I said, we had over 100 applications to go through and anyone who rambled on for too long in their initial email or covering letter instantly started getting on my nerves (harsh, I know..!) While you certainly should include a letter which lays out why you want the job and what you can bring to the role, be sure to make everything relevant and get to your points quickly!

Use your covering letter to really sell yourself to your potential employer but don’t tell your life story. We don’t need to hear about your childhood nicknames or the fact that you make the best god-damn brownies in the world. Show that you’re passionate and well-versed in the company ethos and that you are qualified for the role, but if something isn’t relevant, take it out!

On the flip side there were some people who literally just sent in their CV and an email that said “You should check me out!” To an employer that looks like you don’t really care about the specific job you’re applying for and you haven’t put any effort into your application.

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DIY Tutorial: Faux Hawk Bridal Hairstyle

Mark Brooke Photography

February 21, 2014

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Over the next month, every Friday, I’ll be showcasing an original bridal (but not super-traditional, obviously!) hairstyle idea. These super simple but utterly gorgeous DIYs have been pulled together by the fantastic Your Cloud Parade, the first online marketplace dedicated to weddings, and 10.11 Make Up exclusively for Rock n Roll Bride!

ENJOY!

Supplies Needed

♥ Hairspray (we used Kenra Volume Spray)
♥ Bobby and hair pins
♥ Curling iron (we used Hot Tools)
♥ Texture spray (we used Kevin Murphy Resort Spray) or spray wax (we love KMS Hair Play spray wax)
♥ Backcomber (we used Tool Structure Tortoise Backcomber)

Method

Step one: Add some texture to the hair by adding some curl. Spray the hair with texturizing spray, as well as a little hairspray. This will help the hair hold the backcombing/ teasing for the next step.

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Step two: Part the hair into 3 sections so that you have a mohawk section of hair starting from the front hair line, down to the nape of the neck. Because this is a fun and de-constructed style, your partings do not need to be perfect. You may even choose to not part, and gather hair from the center as you work your way back during the style.

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Step three: Take the mohawk section, and backcomb/ tease the hair. Gather small section of the hair at a time, place the comb about an inch from the scalp and pull the hair down with the comb, spray a little hairspray and continue as you work up the strands of hair from that section. Repeat until you have successfully backcombed/teased the entire mohawk section.

As you backcomb each section of the mohawk parting, you can lay that hair forward as you work your way back. Leave the two side sections alone, or pin out of the way.

©markbrooke.com

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Thursday Treats: Uneventful, and that’s OK

February 20, 2014

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FX Media
Shoes from Melissa, Dress from Next

This week, hum, what can I say? It’s really been pretty uneventful. I’ve basically been catching up with emails (oh so many emails!), writing and making Blogcademy-related world takeover plans… all from the comfort of my sweat pants.

Yep, it’s true, being a full time blogger/ writer/ entrepreneur/ business owner (whatever the hell you want to call it!) really isn’t that glam most of the time. But that’s perfectly OK with me. I actually quite like weeks like this where there’s no pressure, and I have no external commitments other that just plodding along, doing my own thing and working at my own pace. When your life is such a rollercoaster most of the time it really is awesome to not need to leave the house for a week!

Weddings & Weddingy Things

New York City loft wedding
And the bride wore yellow…
NYC style in the woods
Handmade South Carolina wedding
Magic garden wedding!

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MangoRED

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Ski Themed Mountain View Wedding: Masha & Lenya

Alexey Kudrik Photography

February 20, 2014

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Masha and Lenya are prolific skiers and so wanted this mutual love to be reflected in their Israeli wedding. The day took place at Villa Dalia, in Moshav Ora on the outskirts of Jerusalem. There was free-flowing alcohol and sports references throughout.

“The inspiration was our craziness with several things including Lenya’s love of alcohol and football and my love of skiing and music!” began the bride. “The design of the day was unique.”

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“We used the famous vintage alpine ski poster from Chamonix, France as our main design theme. We got one of these posters, dressed the couple into the wedding clothes and added a football theme. This print was used almost in every little part including the invitations and favours.”

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How To Make Your Own Wedding Rings

Emma Lucy Photography

February 19, 2014

Wedding photography by Brighton Photographer Emma Lucy

I wouldn’t call myself particularly artistic. I love to write and I’m not bad at taking the odd photograph, but anything more fiddly and I’m all fingers and thumbs! So when Rachel Jeffrey got in touch asking if Gareth and I would like to visit her studio to make some rings, I was slightly apprehensive.

Despite my nerves, bright and early on Monday morning, we jumped in the car and headed up to Wheathampstead, just outside of St Albans, for a day of ring making. We were actually both super-excited about what was in store, neither of us had ever done anything like this before and we were intrigued as to what it would be like.

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‘Underwater Love’ Wedding Shoot

Rosie Anderson

February 19, 2014

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Inspired by the work of artist Marc Chagall and loving the fluid feel of the abstract paintings, wedding photographer Rosie Anderson wanted to create something similar in a series of photographs.  To get that same fluid feel on her camera she had a brainwave – shooting underwater!

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“Tom and Gemma are childhood sweethearts, they had to work together and really looked after each other on this shoot”, she wrote. “What I realised is that the water closes the gap between people. There is no air getting in the way, no words – it’s all about that moment. Something really special happens underwater. It’s hard to put your finger on it but it was magical. I’m now hooked and am planning another underwater photo shoot soon!”

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Five Simple Strategies to Keep on Top of your Small Business Finances

FX Media

February 18, 2014

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I’m about as un-mathematically minded as they come. Just the thought of balance sheets, invoices and bookkeeping brings me out in a cold sweat. So no-one is more surprised than me that today I’m writing an article about managing small business finances!

However, ever since starting the Green Room I’ve been emailed constantly by folks asking me if I could help them with their various money organisational woes.  Well, all I can really say is that thank goodness I married a man who understands how all this stuff works because without him I’d probably be sobbing into a spreadsheet right about now.

Surprisingly though, I have actually learnt a few little titbits about managing the money side of things over the years. These tips are pretty simple and easy to implement, but I hope some of you will find them helpful.

1. Work out how much you need to survive

Figuring out how much you need to live on is lesson number one when it comes to setting your rates. You need a final number in mind to enable you to work backwards and calculate how much you need to charge for your product or services.

To do this, add up all your expenses. This should include everything from food, entertainment, clothes, rent and travel for yourself and the things you’ll need to keep your business ticking over like equipment, your website, marketing and insurance. You should also include a few luxuries like eating out every so often, because it’s not really going to be much fun being sat at home eating beans on toast every night because you’re not charging enough.

If you needed £30,000 a year to live on and run your business effectively. Next, work out how many clients you’d ideally like to work with annually and then divide the second number by the first. Say you wanted to work with 30 clients per year, that would mean you’d need each client to bring in £1000 each.

2. Pay yourself a wage

Something I realised quite early on is that I needed some boundaries which how much I was allowed to spend on myself each month. Before Rock n Roll Bride I was very much living payday to payday and was literally spending everything I earned (I’ve never been much of a saver!) So I knew that if I didn’t pay myself a wage that I’d probably end up having no money left to pay any business costs.

The other thing with paying yourself a consistent wage is that you’re less likely to go crazy in Topshop if you have an unusually lucrative month. Doing this is dangerous because if for some reason the following month is a bit leaner, then that extra money could have really come in handy.

This is especially important for people with very seasonal businesses, like those of us in the wedding industry. In the summer you might be working on lots of weddings which means lots of money coming in, but over the winter you’re going to struggle if you’ve spent all of that extra income and nobody is getting married!

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Alternative, Family-Centric Wedding: Sara & Dave

Assassynation

February 18, 2014

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Sara and Dave were married in November. They had been together for 14 years and have 5 children so having a wedding had never really taken priority, but after visiting the amazing Eclectic Wedding Extravaganza Wedding Show in Birmingham, that all changed!

“We met when I visited the local tattoo studio where Dave worked”, began the bride. “We got chatting and basically things progressed pretty quickly. We both shared similar interests including, of course, tattoos and body piercing. We definitely live life to the full and how we want to. We have 5 super kids, 3 boys and 2 girls. Again they are very original in their own ways and are certainly free spirited.”

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“Marriage was mentioned in the past but, with having the kiddies we always put their wants and needs first,”, she continued. “The eldest and youngest boys are disabled so they take up quite a bit of our time and energy.”

“But we decided at the beginning of 2013 to do something that celebrated us as a big happy family and that was to get married. To celebrate it along with the kids was very exciting. Everyone had a say as to how they thought it should be as well as what they wanted to wear. I decided to visit the EWE event as everything I kept seeing just wasn’t us. I could not believe my luck, at last I had found what I was looking for under one roof.”

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How To Plan A Wedding: Catering, Cakes and Cocktails

Emma Case Photography

February 17, 2014

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Whatever kind of wedding you choose to have, the food and drink are in prime position to make or break the day. Not only will they help to set the tone, they’ll bring people together and fuel those bodies for dancing into the wee hours! The food and drink can take up a huge chunk of the budget so it’s important to make wise choices.

Catering

Here are a few things you need to consider when making decisions about what kind of food to serve:

What kind of food do you really like to eat? These days traditional wedding breakfasts are almost a thing of the past, especially for alternative couples, so the world really is your delicious oyster when choosing what to serve! Obviously you want everyone to enjoy the food, but this is also a time to please yourselves.

I’ve been to fully a vegetarian wedding, and even though I’m not a veggie myself, I loved the experience. It’s something that defines the couple so I loved that they stuck to their guns and didn’t feel like they had to serve meat just to please everybody else. This is not the time to worry that your great aunt might not enjoy your favourite food, this is your day so your taste buds should dictate the menu!

If you’re on a budget, consider having a buffet (or BBQ if the weather is nice). The wedding buffet used to have quite derogatory connotations (soggy sandwiches, frozen volovants and lank sausage rolls anybody?) but these days more and more couples are opting for this idea – and doing it in style! With a little bit of forward planning and imagination, a buffet meal can be both delicious and cool.

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Wedding catering doesn’t have to be all about a three-course sit down meal. There are many catering companies offering really unique options such as portable woodfire pizza kitchens, taco trucks and baked potato bars. And don’t forget about dessert too. How about an ice cream trike, a candyfloss vendor or a candy apple station?! My friend London Bride did an amazing blog post on some of the coolest options in the UK so be sure to have a nosey and her suggestions.

Think seasonally. Just like with flowers, food that’s in season will be much more delicious, fresh and affordable than anything that has to be shipped in overseas. Also consider sourcing your ingredients locally if you’d like to support growers and producers in your area. Farmers markets and local independent restaurants are a GREAT place to start!

If you really want to save money, how about having pot-luck catering? Instead of gifts, ask your guests to bring their signature dish. This will make for a yummy and truly unique culinary experience!

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