December 17, 2011
This week's super cute DIY project was submitted by Erin of BerinMade. Erin's etsy shop is a place for fancifully hand-drawn posters and flamboyant stationery & paper goods and I'm honoured to share with you this adorable tutorial that she created just for us. These would be awesome for a Christmas wedding or even just for your Christmas dinner table. Over to you Erin...Read more...
December 16, 2011
One of the questions I'm most often asked when I meet people is how on earth I'm able to blog so often. Well firstly and most obviously, I'm in a very lucky position that the majoroty of my content (i.e. the weddings I feature) is submitted to me. Every morning my inbox greets me with a plethora of potential blog content. Brilliant! However, as much as I adore featuring the weddings that I do, if the only content I wrote was other people's work, I think I'd quickly get bored. After all I'm not really stretching myself as a writer by penning 'Sally & Stan were married at the manor house wedding venue in June...' Although coming up with new ways to write very similar content is a task in itself sometimes! Anyway, my point being that I love sharing the amazing weddings and looking at all the glorious wedding photos I get to, but writing the blog posts doesn't massively challenge me as a professional writer. I currently publish approximately 16 blog posts a week, 11 of those being real weddings or photo shoots. However I'm always challenging myself to come up with new new ideas for the other 5 posts. So, today I thought I'd share some of the techniques I use for saying motivated & inspired, for coming up with new content ideas and for making sure you blog regularly.Read more...
December 16, 2011
This week's wedding Post It Note was submitted by Carina of the fabulous Love Me Do Photography. I loved reading the ideas she presented in her article, some of which I'd never even thought of. We'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas for getting those boys involved in the comments section too so get those thinking caps on! ...and as a side note, if you'd like to submit an idea for a Post It Note article, feel free to drop me an email, I'm always looking for new ideas for this series. Let’s face it, weddings are very 'bride heavy'. We gush about the bride’s dress, hair, shoes, and everything else feminine that goes into a wedding. But really, the wedding (and marriage) is about two people coming together; most often being a bride and a groom ( I’ve haven’t noticed this problem in same sex weddings so kudos to you!)Read more...
December 15, 2011
Last night I went to my second Christmas party of the year held at my favourite shop in all the land, Fur Coat No Knickers. I certainly couldn't go to a party in a dress shop without a fancy dress so I rocked up in this baby created for me by Alexandra King, accessorised with my sparkly 'Airlia' belt from Lara Hannah and added some extra sparkle (hey, it's Christmas!) with my silver glittery brogues. Champers, mini cakes and stupid (in Charlotte's case pole) dancing ensued...Read more...
December 15, 2011
Emily & George's rustic autumnal wedding was sent to me by Carina and Nadine of Love Me Do Photography and I simply fell in love with all the personal touches. The bride wore two dresses, the first, her Mother's wedding dress from 1977, and the second, a vintage-inspired short number by Avioanni. She also wore vintage jewellery. "The necklace I wore in the church was the same one that my Mom wore on her wedding and it was my Great Grandmother's (my Mom's Grandmother)," the bride wrote. "The earrings I wore in the church were the ones my Grandmother (my Dad's Mom) wore on her wedding and were given to her by my Grandfather. That was an amazing discovery. The jewelry I wore at the reception was also my Grandmothers but a little more modern looking. My aunt, Kathy, was amazing and loaned me most of the jewelry and told me some great stories along the way."Read more...
December 15, 2011
This photo shoot and film landed on my desk a few weeks ago and I was immediately intrigued. I recognised the 'groom' as being Solomon Trimble, whole played a warewolf in the first Twilight movie and wanted to know more about the ideas behind this styled shoot. Real life couple Carmen & Solomon modeled for this glam/goth/grunge inspired project.Read more...
December 14, 2011
December 14, 2011
When I first looked through this shoot by Lithuanian photographer Saulės Pieva I was honestly a bit chilled. It's definitely got that creepy-spooky vibe going on. "The shoot was about mist and about the strange spirits who are protecting dying nature," Saulės told me. " It's about the mystery of the rain, the forest, little creatures and secret life of nature spirits."Read more...
December 14, 2011
Jasmine & Piers had only 16 guests for their intimate wedding which meant they were able to have a really relaxed and personal celebration. "We wanted it to be simple and pretty, and most of all...relaxed," the bride told me. "We didn't really have a theme, but if I had to pick a work to describe it, I say Love. Everything involved in the day are things (or people) we love. Piers had his Father as his best man, which was very sweet. One of my very dear friends, and her boyfriend, from NYC spent the morning with me, helping me get prepared. During the ceremony, our friends and family sat in a circle around us in the "Lady Chapel" of All Saints West Dulwich. It was exactly what we invisioned and felt so special. We all had so much fun. I don't think either of us have ever smiled that much in one day!! It was perfect."Read more...
December 13, 2011
Wedding dress designers Simply Bridal was started with a basic idea of helping the bride, not the middleman. "After hearing from countless friends and family members about the high cost of wedding dresses, our founder Lawrence Ng decided to start his own bridal company that met the needs of his loved ones," they say. " Our aim is to provide outstanding quality in fabric, materials, and fit without the inconvenience and costs of traditional bridal boutiques and retailers."Read more...
December 13, 2011
To say that I'm excited to be sharing Sally & Mark's wedding with you this afternoon would be an under-exaggeration of HUGE magnitude. Not only is their wedding freakin' awesome on so many levels, but they pulled the whole thing off for £900! Let me repeat myself to make sure you got that, because I didn't quite believe it when I read it on Sally's submission either - the whole wedding cost just £900!! "We had approx 6 weeks and a budget of around £900 for our wedding," Sally wrote. "Where we could we handmade items or got friends to help us out. We were lucky that our photographers, performers, DJ and cake makers were all friends so did us special deals. We were also able to get both our venues (the afternoon reception was held at William Steads Pub and the evening afterparty at the Tap and Spile Pub, Darlington) for free as we didn't hire them exclusively."Read more...
December 13, 2011
Caroline & Stuart were married at St. Annes Church in Littleworth Common, Burnham. They held their reception in a field right opposite the church. Their wedding was a super creative affair with them making and styling the whole thing themselves, they even renovated some giant funfair teacups!Read more...
December 12, 2011
Roisin & Paul's Somerset wedding makes me ache for those long Summer days again. The Apple Orchard at Brook Farm played host to their August nuptials - a celebration of love, life and all things good. The couple opted for a humanist ceremony led by Alison Orchard, "She was so crucial to the success of the ceremony, which was such an emotional and wonderful experience," the bride told me. "I think lots of people thought it might have a been a hippy-dippy, tree-hugging, fingers down-your-throat service, but instead found it was a lovely and romantic experience. We wrote our vows and kept them quite similar to the traditional ones. We sang, 'A little Help from My Freinds' by the Beatles and I cried all the way through it."Read more...
December 12, 2011
The last time we spoke, I was floating on the high of a relatively warm autumn down here in Brighton (I’m not kidding; I went swimming in the sea at the end of October). I’m sad to report that the temperature tables have now rightfully turned, and as a result I’ve been honing my beady eye in on stocking up my winter wardrobe to accommodate for these chillier months. Now, apart from being a little bit skint a lot of the time, it’s also worth considering that I have a Mother who is a dab hand with a needle and thread. This has meant that I've grown up understanding the value of clothes – I won’t breach onto designer territory just now, because that’s a whole different kettle of fish – but I will say that nine times out of ten I’ll step into a popular high street store and be blown away by the lack of quality for the relatively extortionate price tag. On more than one occasion I have been the victim of inexplicably frayed edges, missing buttons, and ripped seams, and altogether I find it quite disheartening. That said, I do like to buy my key pieces – jeans, plain t-shirts, jumpers, etc – from high street stores, because we can all wear these things differently. If I am ever conscious of looking like a clone, I would much rather go for second-hand.Read more...
December 12, 2011
I was hanging out at Fur Coat No Knickers a few weeks ago catching up on my vintage fashion/wedding industry-based gossip, when in breezed an excited girl who had just got married in one of their beautiful wedding dresses. Naomi had popped back in to show Laura & Emma some of her wedding photos and as soon as I heard the words 'wedding photos' I immediately jumped out from behind the dresses to have a nosy myself (Poor Naomi, I must have given her a heart attack...turns out she was a regular reader of this little wedding blog throughout her planning!) Anyway I loved the photos Naomi showed us on her phone, so when I received the submission from her photographer Sarah Lauren I was thrilled that I would be able to share them with you too!Read more...
December 11, 2011
I don't often sneak peek weddings I have to feature on the blog (I save that for Twitter and Facebook teases). However recently I've been getting so many amazing weddings submitted that I can't wait to get them out! All these weddings will be hitting the blog over the coming weeks, but just for you dear reader, here's a little insight into how pretty my inbox is looking right now.Read more...
December 10, 2011
As someone who pretty much sucks at all things crafty, I was super excited when this no-sew-super-cute-but-super-simple DIY tutorial landed in my inbox from my Sister From Another Mister, Megan of Princess Lasertron. Even I could make these babies! Wouldn't these just be the cutest way to wrap your Christmas gifts this year?Read more...
December 9, 2011
In many working environments there is a undulating undercurrent of moans and groans from disgruntled employees. For example, when I worked at the shopping channel we bitched about the length of our shifts, the amount of product we were expected to flog sell, the quality of said product, the air conditioning (or lack thereof), the mess in the green room... you get the picture! In fact I got so used to the daily moans and groans that I'd think nothing of it. I'd never stop to think how it affected my overall mood or attitude to the job. It just felt normal.Read more...
December 9, 2011
Today I thought I'd run few a few ideas on how you can save money on the catering/food at your wedding. It's often one of the biggest expenses but it doesn't have to be. As always I'd love to read any of your own tips in the comments so hit us up with them!Read more...
December 8, 2011
This week my best friend in the whole world came to visit. Carly & I lived together for three years at Uni and she was my maid of honour...in fact we always said if things didn't work out with me and Gareth we'd just go ahead get married. Anyway we hadn't seen each other in like, actual forever, because we both have stupidly busy lives and cray cray jobs, but it was so awesome to hang out and be bestest friends again. Happy face!Read more...