The Little Touches

It’s All in the Details

Every bride spends hours and hours pouring over the tiny details in her wedding: the colour of the chair sashes, the twinkly flowers on the table names, the diamante scatters across the table – it all has to match and coordinate.

The logo’d photographs were taken by Clive Blair and they are utterly amazing!

My poor husband was dragged from Hobby Craft to Confetti, from wedding shop to flower shop to make sure that we coordinated all our tiny details.

My bridal shoes are probably one of the tiny touches that no one really saw, so here they are! I bought them in 2007 from China, they were custom made and I even designed them myself!

And my tiara, one of my favourite pieces from the wedding. I think I’ll keep it forever and wear it when I feel sad just to cheer myself up. It’s so beautiful!

Marrying a Vampire

Necrophilia?

I’m not the biggest fan of the Twilight saga, but with a wedding featuring in the latest movie I am inclined to take notice.

I actually lasted twenty minutes into the first film, the hormones and teen angst made me reach for my remote. I didn’t enjoy it when I was a teenager and don’t really want to watch films with it in, but the films became very popular.

picture from twilightmovies.org/wallpaper.php

The only thing is, would you really want to marry a vampire?

I Wouldn’t

For this discussion, lets assume vampires are real. Right, got that out the way, now lets remember that vampires are human predators.

picture from uk.gamespy.com/articles/116/1168324p1.html

Your Wedding Dress

To Sell or Not to Sell?

This is a very difficult and personal question: After your wedding, will you sell on your wedding dress?

It an be quite a touchy subject, there are lots of opinions either side of the argument, but which answer is best for you?

This question came up when a friend of mine recently sold her wedding dress. In this economic climate, can we afford not to sell our dresses?

30 Days to Go

Checking the To Do List

As the days are ticking closer and closer to our big day, I’m getting more and more concerned that we have got everything ready.

Like most brides, I want our wedding to be perfect. I don’t want anything to go wrong or be forgotten, so with a month to go, I am checking and rechecking my To Do List.

picture from ohsobeautifulpaper.com

Going over my To Do list really helps me to calm down and realised that everything we have to do is manageable.

Getting the Buggar to Bustle

My Wedding Dress is Awkward

I love love love my dress. Every time I wear it I think it’s more and more beautiful: It squeezes me in, it’s sparkly, it’s got a fantastic skirt (in my opinion), I just think it’s amazing!

The only problem is, can I dance in it?

Every time I went out to look at a wedding dress, the one thing that h2b said to me was, “Make sure you can dance in it.” Now, I have blogged before about how difficult it was to find a wedding dress. I’m going to admit that being able to dance in the dress wasn’t the highest priority after the first 15 dresses.

All I wanted to do at that point was find a dress I liked!

picture from www.mydaily.com

For the Kiddies

I May Use This at Work

We only have a few children at our wedding but we wanted to keep them entertained.

Unfortunately, our funds couldn’t stretch to a magician or a child’s entertainer but we could buy some really lovely books!

I didn’t go to many weddings as a child, but I can imagine that they can get a bit dull for children. At one family wedding I attended as an 11 yr old, I remember documenting in my diary how drunk everyone was behaving!

The Table Plan

The Table Plan is Done!

(subject to change)

I had decided that this weekend was the weekend that the table plan was going to be done!

H2b and I made the decision to place our friends and family with people that they know. It’s quite traditional for weddings to mix up the guests so that your friends could be sitting with your cousins or with other people they don’t know.

H2b and I quickly decided we didn’t want that. A number of our friends and family don’t see each other very often and our wedding will be a chance for our guests to have a bit of a catch up, so we’ve decided to put people who know each other together, as much as we can.

Personally, I’m more likely to relax and have fun if I’m on a table with people I know.

Our Table Plan

I’m a very tactile person, and I just wasn’t able to visualise the table plan using the online software. I scrapped the computer and went old school. We started with cutting out the tables.

The Day of Your Nightmares

Wedding Dreams and Their Meanings

I’ve posted a few times about my wedding nightmares. I’ll be quite happily enjoying a dream, fast asleep, when suddenly I’m getting married. But it’s all going wrong!

I’ve only had one dream about our wedding that I liked, but that’s probably because it only lasted a second.

picture from celebrateintimateweddings.com

Wedding Rings

A Recent Purchase

When h2b and I got engaged, he gave me a blue Tiffany box to keep my ring in. I really want my ring to stay clean and nice so I keep it in it’s box.

I was thinking about the wedding rings and I wanted to put them in a little box to keep them safe and clean and nice, too.

I’ve been looking around for different ring boxes. The exact one I wanted was in the back of a wedding magazine but I haven’t managed to see it again! The lid could be engraved with your names and the date of your wedding but I haven’t managed to see that one again since.

English Wedding

Recent Posts

As regular readers will know, I also post on English Wedding blog. I was really excited to be asked to be a Blogger Bride, but with little progress in the wedding, I haven’t had a lot to blog about.

Recently, with some more updates, I’ve been able to blog a little bit more. Sometimes I post the same as I’ve posted on my blog, but other times I write something a bit different.

If you would like to see my English Wedding posts, they are:

• Days to Go: 82
• Days to Go: 98
• Days to Go: 139
• Days to Go: 163
• Days to Go: 195

As you can see, I thought of very imaginative post titles! lol

The lady who runs the website, Claire, has really fantastic real bride stories, stunning photos and amazing inspiration.  It’s my favourite blog!

Bridal Fitness

The Wedding Dress Diet

I didn’t want to be one of those brides who loses weight for her wedding dress. My feelings are, he proposed to me when I was chubby, he can marry me while I’m chubby.

But now I’m thinking of the photos.

H2b says he loves me just the way I am, that I’m beautiful and all that blar blar blar. But he is helping me to lose weight.

I’m never going to suggest that the way I’m losing weight is healthy or the best way to lose weight, but what I’ve been doing so far seems to have worked for me.

These are passport photos taken 8 months apart. While obviously you can’t smile in a passport photo, and in one I’m wearing make up and in the other I’m not, it’s still clear to see I’ve lost a bit of weight.

And here’s how I did it!

Double Happiness Paper Stamp

DIY Confetti

I’ve always wanted to make my own table decorations for the wedding. It was a money saving idea but it’s also a bit of a personal touch.

My h2b is Chinese so I wanted to incorporate that into our very British wedding. The symbol for a lucky Chinese wedding is Double Happiness. As I’ve been to more Chinese weddings than British weddings at this point, I’m fairly familiar with the symbol so it was that symbol I wanted to have at our wedding.

I couldn’t find lilac Double Happiness confetti anywhere so I decided to make my own.

What Exactly Is Going to Happen?

Our Wedding: The Guests

A friend of mine, a guest to our wedding, asked me today what was going to happen at our wedding. She’s not been to a British wedding before (and I say British because American and Australian weddings are different) so I thought it might be a good idea to tell you all what happens at your average British Wedding.

What to Wear

The first thing most wedding guests think about is what to wear. For men, it’s easy, a suit and a tie. Men should avoid tails or Edwardian suits unless asked to wear them.

For more informal weddings such as beach weddings or forest weddings, you may not need to wear a tie but it can’t hurt.

A Spot of DIY

My Personal Touches

Many brides make lots of their elements of their own weddings and I am no different.

I went to a stationary lady to make our wedding invitations and orders of service, because it’s so difficult to get the printing in exactly the right place, and when it comes to the wedding, I’m not very patient.

But I did want to make some elements of the wedding that I was sure I wouldn’t be able to ruin.

I’m also making the table plan but I haven’t started that yet as I’m still waiting for all the RSVP’s to come in.

Favours

I didn’t make but I did buy the favours myself, and I am going to fill them with mini eggs.

Our Photo Booth

The Construction Begins!

This is very exciting, h2b has started building the photo booth! He’s collected together all the parts for his booth and construction began yesterday!

I have said before how important I feel photos are of a wedding. They are something you can keep for generations to show your children and your grandchildren. Photographs are a time capsule, they show everyone what it was like when we got married.

So, for a few extra photos h2b is making the booth! It was a fantastic success at my friend’s wedding.

2012 - A Big Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I’d just like to take a moment to say a very Happy New Year to all my readers! I hope you all got a bit squiffy and had a wonderful New Year with friends and family.

2012 is going to be a big year for most of my readers: we’re getting married!

I almost can’t believe it’s finally here! H2b and I got engaged in October 2009, so it has been a long time coming – two and a half years! It does mean that we had a long time to shop around and get everything we want, but 2012 has been this far away year for such a long time.

I almost can’t believe it’s actually here.

So, a very happy new year from me and the best of luck to all the brides getting married in 2012, where ever you are!

2012 is going to be a very big year!

Evening Reception Music

The Do Not Play List

Music at an evening reception is very difficult to select. If you’re anything like me, your main priority for the wedding will be that everyone has a fantastic time.

A good way to have a fantastic time is to dance the night away but you’re not going to do that if you don’t like the music.

So, how do you please everyone?

This can be very difficult for a bride and groom who prefer an extreme genre of music. It can be hard to get Auntie Glenda up to dance to heavy metal or RnB music but then it’s your wedding, you should have the music you like.

It’s a toughie.

Not Feeling Inspired?

Where to Find Inspiration!

All brides need a bit of inspiration, even brides like me who have been dreaming about their weddings since they were children need a little help with some ideas.

But where do you turn?

It’s alright advising brides to find inspiration but where do you start?

There are masses of ideas out there for brides who want inspiration. If you want a more unique wedding there are less ideas, but if you’re going for the more traditional white wedding with the flowers and posh dress there are more ideas.

I’ve collected a few to get you started:

Where to Find Inspiration:

Wedding Blogs!

My blog isn’t very good for inspiration because it’s more of an advice blog, however there are some fantastic blogs out there with pictures of other people’s weddings where you can steal some fantastic ideas!

Shropshire Petals

Environmentally Friendly Confetti

A lot of churches and venues recently have began asking brides and grooms not to allow guests to throw confetti. It makes a mess, it’s not very environmentally friendly and it goes everywhere! In wet weather it can even stain your wedding dress!

However, it looks fabulous in wedding photos so what can you do?

When I was at the National Wedding Show in Birmingham I met the fantastic people at Shropshire Petals. Now, this was two and a half years before my wedding so I wasn’t going to order anything just yet, but I did take away a sample of confetti and have had it on my shelf ever since!

They provide confetti made out of delphinium petals. They are bright, colourful and 100% biodegradable! Venues and churches are more likely to let you throw dried petals than confetti and Shropshire Petals are very affordable!

Bridesmaid Duties

All You Need to Know About Being a Bridesmaid

I have been asked to be a bridesmaid five times and have loved every minute of each one!

The first time, I was 9 years old for my aunt and I remember going for the dress fitting and being excited about the bouquets we were going to have. We had beautiful flower garlands in our hair and lilac bridesmaid dresses.

Could this be where my love of lilac began?

I have had a different coloured dress each time I’ve been a bridesmaid and been completely honoured and touched to have been a bridesmaid!