Home » Archives for February 2013
DIY projects are a sure-fire way to personalise your wedding, without breaking the bank. Fresh from my semi-do-it-yourself stationery success, I'm super-keen on any DIY wedding projects. But what if you're not exactly a dab hand at graphic design? Well a whole bunch of Etsy shops have come to your rescue, with cheap printable template, which you can buy, personalise and....well print! Here's a selection of ideas from one of my favourites -
Print Your Party. Loving the sparkler cases and cocktail umbrellas - do you reckon they're easy to make?
Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.
Time for the beautiful reception pictures from this lovely Cornish coastal wedding. Julie and Ben created many of the wedding details themselves, as {like most of us}, they had to keep to a tight wedding budget. Julie DIY'd her wedding stationery, table plan, and her wedding favours, adding the personal touch that makes a wedding stand out from the crowd. I love the hedgerow themed wedding flowers, the simply billowing marquee, and the traditional English deckchairs. Don't miss Julie's fantastic advice for future brides, or Part 1 of this gorgeous wedding! Huge thanks to
Alan Law Photography for these beautiful wedding pictures.
We tied the knot on the 30th of June 2012 at an amazing venue in Cornwall called Fentafriddle. We picked this date as it was my Dad’s birthday {who sadly passed away}, and we thought this would be a great way to keep celebrating the date.We didn’t have a wedding colour theme as such. The bridesmaid dresses were gold and cream, and our bouquets were based around the hedgerow. Daisies featured throughout. We both just wanted it to feel natural and bright. Choosing our wedding venue wasn’t about location, as we looked all around the UK. Our most important request was that it had to be relaxed and child friendly, and we wanted our close friends and family to be able to stay with us before and after the big day. Wedding days can pass so fast and you just want to cherish the moment for as long as you can. When we saw Fentafriddle we both immediately knew it was the venue for us. The view over the sea just takes your breath away.Because the landscape of the venue was so stunning we hardly had to do any decorating. Flowers required were minimal and I wanted to make the table plan and centre pieces myself for that personal touch.Each table was named after a place that meant a lot to us, so we had Canterbury as we both attended university there, Kentish Town which is where we first lived together, and the head table was of course Trebarwith Strand where Fentafriddle sits proudly. and will always be in our hearts.A local florist in Delabole called Bruallen did our wedding flowers. The ladies there are just amazing. Neither of us knew anything about flowers and they immediately understood our requirements. All I knew was that I wanted an antique rose to feature in my bouquet and I wanted the flowers on the table to be loose, natural and bright. Our wedding flowers were just lovely and most of them came from various local Cornish farmers that very morning.At first we weren’t going to have a wedding cake and planned just going to have a desert that could be cut in front of our guests. Our caterer came up with the idea of a giant pavlova with fresh berries, and not only did it look stunning, but the flavours were immense. I really do recommend our caterer. The quality of the food was superb and she was so laid back about the day which rubbed off on us, and the people she employed on the day were great fun. Her name was Fee Turner. But in the end close friends of ours had a cake made for us as a gift, and it was beautiful and was cream and gold. So you could call us greedy as we ended up having two cakes!Our wedding favours were stones inscribed with paraphrases from the readings included in the ceremony. Quite often we’ll go around someone’s house and the stone will be used as a doorstop or sitting on the side and it always makes me smile. We also placed a small card at each table-place, including a poem by Dr Seus and a brief thank you on the back. The main reason for both was to add a personal touch, but I won't lie, keeping costs down was also a factor. In the beginning I really enjoyed planning our wedding. But nearer the time I did start to feel the pressure, and even though I don't regret it now, I did start to regret having to do some of my DIY projects - the table plan and favours!
My advice to brides would be....let others help when they ask, don’t panic if things go wrong on the day. Our generator packed up at around 11pm and when I walked back in the marquee on the verge of feeling emotional and stressed all I could see were lighters in the air and my guests singing Wonderwall {by Oasis}. This turned out to be an amazing way to end the evening. You just have to not let anything ruin your day, and remember it’s probably only a problem to you, and not to your guests.
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Real Summer Countryside Wedding✽
Real Pretty Marquee WeddingBefore the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.
Even though it's
freezing outside, this gorgeous Cornish coastal wedding is bound to warm you up, and get you inspired for your summer weddings. Julie and Ben celebrated their big day seconds from the sea, and a stunning {if windswept beach}. They didn't plan a particular wedding theme, but let their natural, bright wedding venue do the talking. I love Julie's elegant
Lusan Mandongus wedding gown, with its sexy scooped back, and her simple up-do, while the flowers girls were super-cute in
Monsoon. Julie's stunning bouquet included blooms collected from local Cornish farmers the morning of her wedding, and her florist found inspiration from the hedgerows - LOVE! Huge thanks to
Alan Law Photography for these beautiful wedding pictures. We've got lots more reception shots to publish tomorrow - don't miss them!
My wedding dress was brought from a wonderful shop in St Albans called Satin Bow Bridal. The dress is a Lusan Mandongus gown called Gem and I just loved the low cut back. But it was tricky to find suitable underwear!Both my hair accessory and my back drop necklace {perfect with my wedding gown} were from Chez Bec. My shoes were from Girls of Elegance and were called ‘Gwen’. But to be honest far too much effort went into picking the shoes, as no-one saw them and they got completely trashed from the soft ground. We tied the knot on the 30th of June 2012 at an amazing venue in Cornwall called Fentafriddle. We picked this date as it was my Dad’s birthday {who sadly passed away}, and we thought this would be a great way to keep celebrating the date.Choosing our wedding venue wasn’t about location, as we looked all around the UK. Our most important request was that it had to be relaxed and child friendly, and we wanted our close friends and family to be able to stay with us before and after the big day. Wedding days can pass so fast and you just want to cherish the moment for as long as you can. When we saw Fentafriddle we both immediately knew it was the venue for us. The view over the sea just takes your breath away. Both of the adult bridesmaids' dresses were from House of Fraser, made by Anoushka G {both bought on sale}. The little flower girl dresses were from Monsoon. The top of the dress was gold crochet and they both looked adorable.
Poor Ben was left with the last of the budget so instead of buying a wedding suit or hiring one out we thought he should buy a suit that he could continue to use at work. It was a Charles Tyrwhitt suit and the colour was dark chocolate. We met in Ibiza seven years ago at the Hed Kandi closing party {the same night Ben fell down some stairs, and only realised in the morning he had a broken leg!}. Unfortunately I only found out he was interested in me via my friend at the airport on the way home, and I was disappointed she hadn’t told me earlier! The same friend later went to a house party back in the UK and Ben just so happened to be there, and he asked her to pass his number onto me. I wanted very much to find out more about him, got in contact and the rest is of course history!
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Real Seaside & Sweetie Wedding✽
Real Nautical-Themed WeddingBefore the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.
With a stunning rose studded marquee, and tonnes of pretty shabby chic details, you're going to love the Easter-inspired real wedding. Fantastic couple Annabel and Richard chose
Sheldon Manor for their wedding venue, and I've fallen for its historic prettiness, and gorgeous gardens. Annabel was a bride on a budget, but there's absolutely no sign of it - just take a look at all her amazing wedding details. I'm seriously impressed by all the DIY work that went into this wedding - take a look at the pretty spring flowers - all arranged by Annabel's mother, while Richard's mother created all the lavender-filled heart wedding favours and the fun squishy 'Just Married' letters. Other stealworthy details include the stunning rose-patterned marquee, lovely pastel table decorations, and traditional bunting. Save money like Annabel with
Ikea lanterns, a self-decorated
M&S wedding cake, and smooth stones as place-markers. Huge thanks to
Ben Edward Photography for his stunning pictures.
We celebrated our wedding day at Sheldon Manor in Chippenham, Wiltshire on the 7th April 2012.We wanted somewhere totally beautiful, very English and that had the 'wow' factor. Not that we were showing off, but we knew that the part of the country and the time of year would make people fall in love with the venue, just we like we had. I wanted my dress to be like the venue and a bit like me - unfussy! I tried on a few very different styles but knew before I tried 'the dress' that this was the one! Our budget was not big - we were paying for our wedding ourselves so everything had to be quite well researched. My dress was an absolutely beautiful Sassi Holford wedding gown, simple, with no bling, teamed with a lovely champagne silk sash. I felt so amazing in it, I never wanted to take it off!
We knew that we wanted an understated, pretty and vintage kind of day, and Sheldon Manor was perfect. Richard bought his lovely, navy, three-piece suit from TM Lewin, plus ties for him, my dad, his dad and brother. They were yellow with pale blue spots in honour of Easter!In my hair I had a single silk flower from Chez Bec. I didn't think my dress would have looked right with a veil. I didn't really do the borrowed thing - I had new - my bracelet, or I considered my shoes new! Blue - my gorgeous aquamarine engagement ring, although the dressmaker had put a pale blue bow under my dress to help hook the train up - only me and the bridesmaids knew about that and I kind of liked it! Old - me, I was 36. When I got married!!!I wasn't bridezilla about my maids dresses - all I wanted was that they tied in with the theme of the day, that they loved them, and chose a style that they would wear again. I thought they would go with pale pinks, blues, greens or yellows to compliment the flowers, but they chose navy blue and went for floor length which surprised me. They looked lovely and considering how different they all are, the style and colour suited them perfectly.
My accessories were minimal, I had a bolero jacket made from the same material as my wedding dress for the ceremony. I wore pearl earrings from Accessorise, and a bracelet from my husband {!} given to me on the morning of our wedding.Ben Edward Photography was our wedding photographer. We were looking for lovely photos at a price we could afford. Ben's pictures were lovely, and just what we were looking for, so we booked him for our engagement shoot, and were so happy!! We couldn't wait until the wedding to see how everything looked!
My mum is great with flowers and arranging so she got the flowers I wanted, and then did them on the day. She did all the bouquets, buttonholes and table arrangements, as well as some decorations for the room we had the ceremony in. We had pale pink and cream roses for both the bridesmaids and my bouquets, cream buttonholes and tulips and the same for the tables.We loved planning our wedding! And Richard was great too. We definitely knew what we wanted so it was easy to tell everyone involved what to do, how we wanted things. We couldn't wait to see the fruits of our labour on the day. Our wedding theme was vintage, pretty and low key. Bunting, cream birdcages, scones and jam, that kind of thing.
Our wedding favours were lavender filled hearts with ribbon stating our names, and the date of the wedding. My mother-in-law is a whiz with the sewing machine and we were meant to be sharing the job, but we also moved house 2 months before the wedding and I didn't have the time in the end. The poor woman had the job of doing them on her own.The stationers were a real find - Boris and Doris, who made us beautiful laser cut invitations. They were absolutely perfect for us, and everyone loved them, so much so, when I sent them out, about 80% of my girls sent texts to say how gorgeous they were and didn't want to send the RSVP's back!Budget factored when we were choosing our wedding cake, so we chose chocolate tiers from good old M&S!DIY wedding projects included the lavender bag favours, and the 'Just Married' sign made by my mother-in-law out of stuffed letters made with material of my choice. We pegged the letters out on a line inside the marquee, and they looked gorgeous.My big advice for future brides, is try to chill, take your time and don't go for the most expensive thing you see. We had a perfect wedding for us, we saved on lots of things and splashed out on the important things. Look for inspiration from friends, magazines and try and do some things yourself. It's very satisfying to see things you have grafted for taking shape and looking beautiful on your most special day. And don't forget to remember what it is all about. You love him, he loves you, even if things go a bit wonky on the day then it's a story to repeat. Fun is the essence. More Posts Like This One ✽
Pastel Bridesmaid Inspiration✽
Pretty Pastel Themed Real WeddingBefore the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.
