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DIY Luxury Wedding Beaded Belts & Accessories

If you're a bride with eyes bigger than your budget, you're going to adore my latest wedding discovery. Take one simple, wallet-friendly wedding dress, and add one of these incredible beaded trims by Allyson James, and BOOM! you've got a luxury-looking wedding gown without the price tag. Allyson James' beaded trims are made out of exactly the same quality trims you see on designer gowns such as Vera Wang and Monique Lhuillier, they're hand-sewn with the finest crystals, pearls, beads and sequins. Trims arrive ready to be sewn into sashes, belts, headpieces, bouquet wraps...whatever your DIY dream desires. Time to let your wedding imagination run wild!

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Delicious Wedding Food Recipes from Metropolitan Bakery

How often do you think of your wedding food?

Are you thinking of having a family member cook?

Joe and I did. His dad cooked the most amazing BBQ that until this day, I really regret not finishing my whole plate. It was that good. If BBQ isn't your style, this wonderful cookbook from the artisan bakera Metropolitan Bakery in Philadelphia has delicious looking recipes including an awesome looking coconut cake and finger foods that look mouthwatering. They even have a few recipes available online.

Photo Credit: Metropolitan Bakery

Handmade Wedding Favors

Wedding favors are usually always on the to-purchase list for brides. You want your wedding favors to be cute, whimsy, and most importantly taken home.

Martha Stewart Weddings has put together a wonderful collection of handmade wedding favors.

Photo credit: Maria Robledo

A Pastels & Vintage Themed Wedding with a Mori Lee Gown - Part 2

It's wedding inspiration time for DIY brides. Gorgeous couple Hannah and Ben roped in the help of all their family and friends to create a stunning, personalised wedding day. By choosing to host their wedding reception in a marquee in the garden of stunning venue Hill Place, they could let their imagination run wild. Hannah chose a country garden wedding theme, and collected vintage floral fabric scraps, which her friend Polly sewed into over 60m of pretty bunting! Friends and family also helped with making their wedding cake, arranging their flowers, designing the table plan and personalising each and every place marker. I love the pretty pastel theme and the way the wedding favours and table names reflect Hannah and Ben's love of music. We named our wedding tables after vegetables - I wish we'd been more creative! Gorgeous pictures published with thanks to Greg Thurtle from TP Photography.

My husband Ben and I got married on 30th July 2011 at Hill Place in Swanmore, a beautiful Georgian Country Villa set in 20 acres of beautiful park land. Our wedding photographer was Greg Thurtle from TP Photography, who was brilliant and captured some amazing candid shots. Looking through the photos, they are all so personal and encapsulate the day perfectly.

I had five bridesmaids, they wore knee length, chiffon and halter neck dresses in dusky pink and sapphire blue. They were also from Brides of Southampton. I originally said that they could wear anything pink or blue, and took them to the shop to try on whatever they fancied...they all loved the same dress!

I also had a ‘best man’, my dear friend Chris was also part of my bridal party, he walked down the aisle behind me with the other girls, and did a brilliant job of keeping everyone in check throughout the day. He wore a black suit and matching sapphire blue tie.

We had a marquee in the beautiful grounds of the house so we could enjoy the gardens. We decorated the marquee in homemade bunting, which one of my bridesmaids, Polly, made from scraps of fabric I had collected. She sewed 60 metres!

My friends and I made all the place names from wooden sticks embellished with raffia and jewels. We made each one of the 100 sticks different and tried to capture the person’s personality in them!

We wanted our wedding to be relaxed and homemade. It resembled a country fete or garden with the bunting and various gazebos which housed the bar, the set up for the band {which was made up of our best friends} and the guest book tent {which had a digital camera on a stand and lots of fancy dress items for the guests to play around with- we had some VERY interesting photos as a result!}.

We had tonnes of DIY projects. We made our table plan from a large piece of MDF which we wrapped in material then adorned with miniature pegs for the name tags. All our friends and family chipped in with everything, from decorating to making the cakes. It was wonderful to see so much love had gone in to creating our special day.

We decorated the tables with jugs that we had picked up from charity shops around the country. We filled them ourselves on the morning of the wedding with cornflowers, pinks and September daisies.

My friend Helene made the cakes; they were carrot cup cakes decorated with pink, white and blue icing and roses. They were delicious, and even more special that they were made by our friend.

We loved planning our wedding. We had a clear idea of how we wanted it to look and feel and it turned out perfectly. We loved that all our friends and family were involved in the whole process, from making the table plan, to playing in the band; it took lots of careful planning, but was definitely worth it!

My advice would be use your friends and family's talents to add a personal touch to your big day. For example, if you have someone who can make cakes, give them a chance to make yours, it will mean a lot to them. However, make sure that your guests get to enjoy the day....my brother is so talented, he ended up being an usher at the church, a witness, setting up the band, playing in the band, being the MC and being the DJ...He worked so hard, by the end of the day he was more exhausted then I was!

♥ Want more marquee weddings? ♥ Or how about more pastel-themed wedding ideas? ♥

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A Pastels & Vintage Themed Wedding with a Mori Lee Gown

Take one dramatic wedding venue, add a DIY bride bursting with wedding ideas, and a pretty village church, and you've created wedding blogger's heaven. Hannah and Ben celebrated their big day at the gorgeous Hill Place in Hampshire, and got seriously creative with their wedding day, adding more DIY details than you can shake a stick at! Just wait for the reception details in Part 2, it's a DIY bride's dream. Hannah chose a country garden wedding theme with pretty pastels as her colour palette, which she carried throughout her wedding details, including bridesmaids dresses, bouquet and bunting. Her pretty up-do is stunning, and I love her traditional Princess-cut wedding gown, complete with the train she thought she didn't want! Other fun wedding ideas include the vintage car and camper van, and the sweet-smelling dried lavender decorating the church. Stunning pictures published with thanks to Greg Thurtle from TP Photography. Don't miss the reception details, coming soon later today.

My husband Ben and I got married on 30th July 2011 at Hill Place in Swanmore, a beautiful Georgian Country Villa set in 20 acres of beautiful park land.

We chose the venue because of the location and because it was so beautiful. Ben and I both grew up within a mile of Hill Place and the area has special significance to us both. We met at Swanmore Secondary School when we were 11, and we spent our teenage year s in the area. When we saw Hill Place, we immediately fell in love with it. It was so beautiful and Will and Rebecca Dobson (the owners) were two of the nicest people we have met! They were so laid back and accommodating, we knew that this was the venue for us.

My dress was Mori Lee by Madeline Gardner. It was called 'Simone'. I was adamant that I wanted a plain, fitted dress, but the shop assistant at Brides of Southampton thought that this dress would look great and encourage me to try it on. As soon as I stepped into it, I fell in love with it. It was sparkly, with a huge train, and it was everything I had thought I didn't want from my wedding dress!

My veil was also from Brides, it was scalloped edged with drop AB crystals. My shoes were from Rainbow Club and my necklace was my Great Nan’s. My Granny gave it to me when I was 16, and it was my something old and my something blue!

I also had a 'best man', my dear friend Chris was also part of my bridal party, he walked down the aisle behind me with the other girls, and did a brilliant job of keeping everyone in check throughout the day. He wore a black suit and matching sapphire blue tie.

Ben got his grey tail suit from Moss Bros. Again, he thought he wanted something vintage and non-traditional, so we spent many weekends in Brighton trying to find a brown waist coat and matching trousers. However, as soon as he tried on his traditional suit at Moss Bros, he knew it was the right decision.

We chose a country garden wedding theme, so I chose a bouquet of garden flowers such as stocks and daisies, plus a large ivory rose in the centre. My bridesmaids had similar bouquets without the rose. Our florist was Hazel's in Bishops Waltham. They were so friendly and creative, and it was lovely to use a local florist.

Our wedding photographer was Greg Thurtle from TP Photography. Ben is a photographer and knows Greg through a mutual friend. He was the perfect choice to capture our day. We had a great engagement shoot before the wedding to determine the style of photography we liked, and then Greg just got on with it!

Greg was brilliant and captured some amazing candid shots. Looking through the photos, they are all so personal and encapsulate the day perfectly.