Saving Money with Ikea Wedding Details

When we picked our wedding venue in France, one of the first things I researched, was the nearest Ikea! Luckily there was one only an hour away, as I knew that I didn't want to have to ship out all the amazing wedding accessories I'd spotted for our big day. Candles, canapé serviettes, French-style napkins and lanterns - we picked them all up super-cheap, and none of our wedding guests knew the difference. At one stage we even considered buying glasses, as they worked out as cheaper to buy from Ikea than rent, but in the end our caterer provided them for free. Take a look at my latest Ikea wedding finds - from blanket favours in case your guests feel chilly, to pretty lace-style plant pots, water bottles, wine carafes, orchid table decorations, and even giant artificial potted plants to decorate your marquee. It's a veritable treasure trove!

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Vail Newborn Photographer - Baby Holden

It's not every day that you get to do a newborn shoot in a Four Seasons, but that's exactly where I got to do Baby Holden's newborn photo shoot.  With some help from a good friend who works in valet there, I was able to haul my backdrops, lights and props up to one of the gorgeous residences there.

The Falkes moved in across the road from us about 18 months ago and we became instant friends.  We both had fluffy white dogs, sons that were the same age and then we were both pregnant with our seconds boys at the same time.  Peter worked at the Four Seasons in Vail and recently received a great promotion that meant they needed to move.  So in the space of a few days, they managed to sell their house, have a baby and move to Chicago.  I'm exhausted just thinking about it!  Somewhere in between, they had a few days that they could take up residence at the Four Seasons here, so that's where we did the shoot.

He is such a handsome wee chap and we had a great time getting the photos!  I'm sad to see the Falkes leave the Valley, but I'm also really excited for this exciting new chapter in their lives.

For more Vail Newborn Photography, go to The Newborn Collection.

Super-Glam Sophisticated Bridal Jewellery

Brides who like a bit of glitz {I'm thinking Jenny Packham-style glamour}, are going to L-O-V-E my latest wedding discovery. Just take a look at these amazing headdresses from Willow Moone. Aren't they just the bomb?? They pick up on the big jewellery trend that we're seeing right now {lots of v large necklaces spotted in Anthropologie & J Crew}, and add a massive luxury twist. Every piece is hand-created by boutique owner Debbie Bailie-Collins out of perfect crystals, scattered artfully on to the finest ivory illusion bridal tulle. There's something very vintage, flapperish and 20's about them, and I have a serious obsession with the whole collection.

{I want this} 1. Lujon - Crystal Art Deco 1920's Tulle Headpiece, £330 | 2. Ishtar - Crystal Silk Organza Headpiece, £398.89

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Vail Photographer - New Logo and New Look for White Starfish Photography!

It's taken a little while to come to fruition, but I'm happy to announce that White Starfish Photography has a new look! 

I'm going to be moving ahead in small steps, but the first was to start with my brand new logo, designed by Caro Creative.  You might wonder why on earth somebody who is completely land locked would name their business after a sea creature.  When I say completely land locked, I mean it.  The closest beach to my house is a 14 hour drive away.  It makes me feel nauseous when I think about how far away the ocean is.  Keep in mind that in New Zealand, the FURTHEST you can ever be from the sea is a 2.5 hour drive!

So the story starts way back in 2006, when I was newly engaged and I was busy running around getting ready for our wedding.  My maiden name is Te Whetu.  Te Whetu is a Maori (native New Zealander) name and it's literal translation is The Star.  My husband's last name is White.  When I was trying to decide what to use for the table center pieces at our wedding, I thought about the combination of our surnames, mixed with our beach wedding and this led to the natural choice of using white starfish.  I took a pottery class at Colorado Mountain College and I crafted all kinds of different white starfish that were scattered all around at our reception.  I liked how the little creature symbolized our relationship and now it has just stuck with me!

It took me some time to come up with the logo though.  Designing a logo isn't very easy, but thankfully my good friend Caro is a design expert.  I had to marinade on it for a while, but I finally came up with the concept and here is what it means.  Each of the legs on the starfish are in the shape of a koru.  A koru is motif that is used consistently in maori art.  It is based on a fern frond, and it symbolizes new life.  I wanted to feature koru in the starfish because most of the events that I shoot are representative of a new life.  Whether it's the new life together that a married couple have chosen when I shoot a wedding or quite literally a new life when I shoot newborns.  I also chose to use 6 arms on the starfish because starfish are commonly found with 5 arms and I want my photography to be anything but common!

As I mentioned earlier, it's happening in steps.  Here is a copy of the new logo and the new website will be up and running in a couple of weeks.

A Traditional Countryside Wedding with a Fabric Inspired Theme - The Reception

It's taken me far too long to put up the second half of this amazing detail-filled wedding, {I've had horrible flu}, but believe me, it's worth the wait! Bride Amy read Before the Big Day while preparing for her wedding, and took her decor details to the next level. We're talking 250 meters of hand-sewn bunting, homemade fudge wedding favours, and carefully painted dog food tin can vases. The result is a perfectly rustic English country garden theme, with a pretty green and blue colour palette. I love all the Colefax and Fowler fabrics, and the DIY'd table flowers, picked from Blooming Green Flower Farm. Look carefully at every picture for the little extras, including the twine-tied jam jar lanterns, the blackboard paint table names, menu cork stands and burlap table runners. Huge thanks to Amy for submitting her wedding, and filling in the Before the Big Day Bride's Questionnaire, and to Kate Murrell Weddings for her beautiful wedding pictures. Don't miss the two fantastic wedding videos at the end - one by 

We got married on the 27th July at St Michael and All Angels in Withyham, in Sussex, and we hosted our reception in my parent’s garden ten minutes away from the church.

As I work in interior design I was very into the visual side of the wedding planning, and I had a scrapbook full of sketches, pictures and fabrics! I wanted to go for a very traditional English country wedding look, with bunting, a pole marquee, trestle tables and country garden flowers. 

It was actually a small scrap of fabric which inspired my theme, a pretty blue and green floral print on a cream background, and I thought these would be the perfect colours for an English country wedding!

Our wedding photographer was Kate Murrell Weddings, and she works in the photographic department of the hospital where my Dad works, and she does weddings at weekends. We felt at ease with her straight away, she did a fantastic job on the day and we love our photos!

I have always enjoyed doing crafty projects so I tried to make almost everything myself, with the help of my family, bridesmaids, friends and even Alex at times...! 

I have always been passionate about fabrics and during the run up to the wedding I was working for a fabric company called Colefax and Fowler, so it made sense to use as much fabric as possible for the decorations, especially as they kindly gave me lots for free! 

My mum and I made 250 metres of double sided bunting using hundreds of different fabrics, plains, stripes, checks, florals and geometric patterns, all in blues and greens. It was a huge task but it saved a lot of money on other decorations, brought lots of colour and pattern into the marquee and created the rustic country feel that I wanted. We were also hoping that other people might like to hire it out for their weddings afterwards!

I wanted to have quite rustic looking blackboard table plan, so Alex made it out of MDF and we painted it in blackboard paint. 

A friend of ours, who has far nicer writing than me, wrote out all the names in chalk pens. The brilliant thing about this, is if there were any last minute changes, it wasn't too much of a disaster, as it could be painted over!

We named our tables after places in Verbier as that was where we met and got engaged. Alex proposed to me at the top of the highest peak, Mont Fort, so that was our top table! We had a Verbier piste map framed with photos and descriptions explaining the stories behind each table name! We also had Jaeger bombs as a toast after supper, as a reminder of après-ski in Verbier! 

My Mum and I and a team of family and friends did all the flowers in the marquee. My Mum spent months saving dog food tins and we painted them all in blue and green Farrow & Ball colours and did the table arrangements in those. 

We picked the majority of the flowers at a flower farm in Kent called Blooming Green Flower Farm and used flowers from our garden and friend’s gardens too. My Mum also did the garlands on the poles too; she put them all up herself on the morning of the wedding! 

Our airing cupboard became a confetti factory and we dried lots of blue, green and cream petals, which we used for confetti at the church and sprinkled over the hessian table runners too. 

I wanted to have very traditional invitations so I had them printed at Gee Brothers in Clapham in black thermographic script, on oyster wove card. For the actual day itself I stuck with the rustic theme and had stamps made by the English Stamp Company with our names and the date. 

I printed the menus on manilla paper, and backed them with different blue and green wallpapers. I also made the menu stands with corks, sticks and mini clothes pegs!

Again, making the most of having access to beautiful fabrics in my job, I used small samples of blue and green prints from Colefax and Fowler to make little bags, which contained fudge made by Alex's Mum. We then tied them with raffia and added a luggage tag name-tag, killing two birds with one stone!

I wanted to have a very rustic, country feel to all the flower arrangements, and obviously wanted to use all blue, green and cream flowers, particularly hydrangeas.

I loved planning our wedding, especially the creative side of it! It was quite an emotional rollercoaster though, lots of highs and a few lows – during the more stressful moments! But generally it was such a special time, both for Alex and I, and our families, and it brought us all closer together.

One of my bridesmaid's mum {who I have known since I was six}, very kindly offered to make our wedding cake. We went for a traditional fruitcake, which we had iced in white, and piped with little dots. We decorated it with blue hydrangeas in between each layer to fit in with our flower theme.

Now it is all over we are quite relieved not to have to do wedmin all the time, but we would love to do the day all over again as it really was the happiest day of our lives and it went far to quickly!

We had a fantastic band called The Ruby Tones, who are a five-piece band with brilliant female lead singer. The dance floor was packed all evening and I hardly left it!

We used a company called MB Productions to do our video. They filmed a friend's wedding and when we saw their video we knew we had to have them. They did a long video, and a short highlights as well. Although they weren't cheap, it is the best money we spent! The day is such a blur already and they captured it so beautifully. It is such a lovely memory, that we can share with all our friends and family too on Vimeo! 



My cousin Georgia Rothman also did a fun video set to Robin Thicke Blurred lines, with us and our guests mouthing to the lyrics, it is brilliant and she is now in demand for friend’s weddings! 



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