Invites: On My Marks

I have had this post drafted for a while now, and have wondered whether it would give too much away for my guests, but as they will be recieving their invites soon, I thought I'd share some of my basic ideas.

A selection of the invites we have received in the last couple of years

We are about 4 months until our wedding and I have spent the last few weeks going cross-eyed as I cut the different elements so I can soon start assembling our invitations.
For each package there are 4 sheets that form the invites and additional info, 3 parts to the RSVP and 2 decorative parts, times that by 75 and its a lot of cutting!

The invitations has been one thing that has been a true compromise between BH and I, as we have rather different tastes:
He would have something very simple, elegant and traditional, he doesn't like calligraphy looking fonts and he wouldn't bother with additional info, rather send an email. Where as I want the invite to be very hands on with lots of detail and handmade design and I LOVE calligraphy looking text.
So coming up with the final design took a few redrafts. A few months ago I shared with you the fonts, colour and paper we had chosen.

We now have a final design:
We have chosen a pocket fold case; the center, flat part will hold the invite to the service.; simple black text on pearlescent card secured with photo corners so it can be removed and put on a shelf/mantelpiece.
The pocket will hold the reception invite, directions and an additional info sheet: providing local hotels, information about photography, confetti, dress code, gifts and full contact details for my mum.

Clockwise from Top left: Portrait Grey and yellow, Landscape Baby Blue, Brown with ribbon tie,
Grey with blue & yellow details, Square Pale Blue & Turquoise with titled inserts, Yellow invite with red leaf details,
A5 Christmas themed invite with tartan and ribbon detail, Fir cone detail with a woody brown detail,
Green with Paisley design and Red 3 section, duel language pocketfold invitation

To create the decorative/crafty element, and to satisfy my 'Bridezilla' tendency that the invite has to reflect us and have something handmade, we have decided to add a 'bellyband' around the folded card. This also allows me the opportunity to add some rustic texture to an otherwise formal item.

Clockwise from top left: 'M 'monogram floral fabric and ribbon, Yellow 'French Country' solid band with vintage framing,
Modern Grey with wedding date, Yellow bubbles with initials, Simple white and featuring couples story, Baby Blue Bow

As well as the bellyband I am adding a crafted touch with 2 stamped details.

As we know we have several friends and family with food allergies and also need to know if people would like space on a bus, we are including an addressed (but not stamped) RSVP card to make life easier for guests and our parents.

So here is my invite sneaky peak; these are the materials for our invitations:
2x custom cling stamps & acrylic bloc
Hessian fabric
Natural Charms grey stitch ribbon
Pocket fold in laid card
3 fold card in pearlescent card
Purple and petal paper
RSVP sticker
Matching card in laid and pearlescent for inserts


Once we sent all our invites i will provide a more detailed post with lots of photos of the final design.

TTFN ~ Kate xx

Flowers Finalised

Buttonhole, Hair wreath,
Bouquet, Table Wreath
Corsage on bag.

While I was at my parents for a few days, I finally managed to meet up with my friend Fay, who is a talented florist and who is kindly doing my flowers for the wedding.

What I love about having a friend do the flowers for you is that you can discuss the details over a cup of tea and a giggle.
Fay's known me for years, so as I sat there explaining the theme and the look I'm going for, she could follow me and begin to picture what I'm after.

I knew exactly what 'items' I would like her to create and, even though I am doing the church decoration, there was quite a list:

1x buttonhole for groom, using both flowers.
4x buttonholes for grooms family, Best man and Ushers, using one type of flower
4x buttonholes for my family and friend, using the other flower
4x girlie buttonholes for 'team Bride'
3x corsages for Mums and BH sister
2x hair pieces for bridesmaids
2x flowers to carry for bridesmaids
1x bouquet for me
12x table centers
decoration for around cake
20+x sprigs for the choir
and possibly 4 small vases for around reception

The thing I love about Fay is that she has known me for years, so she very quickly caught my vision for the look of the day of a magical/fairy tale woodland. I was also able to show her the plant my Grandma's been growing for use at the wedding and tell her exactly what flowers I would like - thankfully she agreed that it would all work well together and would be in keeping with the 'theme'

TTFN ~ Kate xx

Pages of style #6: Top Tables

Table settings using book pages
 ideas: 1) Cutlery pouches
2) scroll place setting
 3) Flower napkin rin

I really like it when I go to a wedding and some thought and time has gone into the name tags, menu and how each place setting looks. It elevates a wedding from fancy meal to special event.

There's also lots of fun to be had:
Laid back bbq reception, how about turning those pages into a pouch for each person? You could place a napkin, cutlery, salt & pepper sachets and maybe a ice breaker question for each guest. Place the pouches in a wicker basket, for a rustic and accessible display.

A simple idea is to turn pages from your chosen book into napkin rings.

As the pictures to the left display, you could attach a flower to each name tag. perhaps attach a brooch clip and they could double up as favours for the female guests.

Cut pages to make
table numbers

For table numbers you could cut the number from a page and then mount it on plain paper -this would look effective either with the number made of the page or in relief (the coloured base showing through).

If you want to make the books the central theme to a wedding, you could take you inspiration from the table settings to the left.
By simply creating fans from the pages you can make 3D place mats and simple decorations for the backs of chairs.





TTFN ~ Kate xx

Pages of Style #5: Wonderful Wreaths

Glitter edged leaf wreath

As I'm getting married just after the festive season, I have been wondering about including wreaths into the decor. At first I was looking at fairly classical ways to create them; from flowers, ever greens and simple branches to fabric - there is a Swedish tradition of making wreaths at Christmas by gluing squares of fabric into a foam mold, or you can simply tie lengths of material onto a metal coat hanger fashioned into a loop. And of course there was the stunning brightly coloured wreath made from baubles that I included in my seasonal themes post.
However, when I started to look at options to use my Shakespeare play I cam across a wide variety of possibilities for styles of wreath.

Wonderful paper wreaths: 1) Frilled paper wreath 2) Red & Pink Paper Chain Wreath 3)  Big Beautiful Blooms
5) Wreath made from paper cones 6) Wrapped wreath with flowers 7) Bright flowers 8) Lovely leaves

Beautiful paper rose wreath

What ever venue you are using a wreath is a beautiful way to decorate; they will fill empty space, provide a warm welcome if you have a sign in the center or create a focal point.You or a flower girl could even carry one as an alternative to a bouquet.

Its currently quite fashionable to create a backdrop for the exchange of vows, which could be done my making several wreaths (if book pages don't fit with your theme, why not make them in different colours) and then hang them at different heights along the wall.

Uses for wreaths: Hair circlet, pompom wreath as chair decorations,
pew ends, wreath of scrolls on a door to welcome guests, and room decoration

I would also like to add that I currently love Oxfam bookshops, recently visited the one in Winchester and purchased 4 copies of the Shakespeare play, I always know how much a copy will be and they had a fab range of copies and therefore fonts & layouts to choose from.

TTFN ~ Kate xx

Tricky Traditions

The Marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert:
The start of most British wedding traditions

In last few weeks I have 'met' some lovely fellow brides and one of them wrote a very moving post about why she won't be following all traditions, and this got my thinking about the traditions we have chosen to follow and why.

Before I go on I want to explain something about myself: I love the pomp and ceremony of British customs, I spent my time at uni going to formals, enjoying the dressing up and 'rules' of etiquette we followed.
At heart I am a traditional girl, I like that there are things that have been done by generations (albeit since the Victorians), therefore we have chosen to follow most traditions, but not all...

My Home Village
As well as being traditional, I am a home bunny. When we started talking about weddings I knew I wanted to be getting ready at my parents house & my childhood home. For me a hotel room in a unfamiliar location
                                                                 would not have felt right.

Village church - at the bottom of my road

4 things
I am keeping to 'Something old, something new, something borrowed and something new'; there are many way to do this, but I have chosen to have an item for each 'something' - once my 'something old' has been located I will share all four with you.

A proud Dad at my sisters wedding

Given away
My dad will be giving me away - I am very lucky; I have amazing parents who are supportive and encouraging in all parts of my lift and who are still happily married. To have anyone else other than Dad walking me down the aisle would be odd.

Speeches
My worst nightmare would be lots of people speaking, I think the traditional combination reflects all the key groups; the couple, family and friends. BH would be ok if I wanted to do a speech but I feel I would of had my moment and the speech is his.

There are many other traditions we are following: wearing white dress and matching bouquet with BH buttonhole, cake cutting and first dance, but there are a couple I'm 'messing with':

                                   Top Table
In the Guildhall there is a raise Dias and they would normally have a long, one sided top table for a wedding. We, however, have chosen to sit at a round table (still with our parents, best man and maid of honour) in the middle of all our guest, we have invited them to celebrate with us so we want to be with them not 'Lording' above them.


Master of Ceremonies
I do not like Toast-masters! They are not a British tradition from what I can tell and I find them naff (sorry if you're having one, this is obviously just my opinion). I had originally asked my FiL (to be) if he could do this role and was told that "it would not be appropriate" as parents are hosts - who will do this role is still up for discussion.

Team Bride
I have never wanted a fleet of girls walking in front/behind me as I process down the aisle: I have the world best sister (yes I'm biased) and a collection of amazing friends, so when it came to choosing my adult bridesmaids I decided to get creative - my sister is my only bridesmaid, but my fabulous friends (including one guy) are my 'Team Bride' they are all taking an active role in the day, will have a buttonhole/small corsage and are joining me and my family for dinner the night before the wedding.

I think every bride & groom need to plan their day their way, traditions and etiquette change over time and there's every reason to break out the box. A traditional day has always been what I dream about and so I happy to have a formal wedding that can include many of the customs.

TTFN ~ Kate xx

3 Witches of Warwickshire

I thought I'd share a funny moment in my wedding planning:

Last Monday I went with my Mum and very good friend, Naomi, to source some twisted willow for the wedding. I had found Wroots online and as they weren't too far from my parents we set off to look at and purchase some sprigs.
No one thought that it would be sensible to take the larger car (my dad's) for this errand, so off we went in my mums small Honda.

We managed to get lost finding the exact address - even though we had driven past it 4 times!

5 bundles of 6foot & 2 bundles of 4 foot willow twigs and lots off giggle later we all piled into the car!

The car was long enough (just!)

My Mum couldn't look left at the junctions but other than that we were fine.....

When Better Half saw these photos he said we looked like 3 witches whose broom had broken down and decided to use the car. Charming!

I don't think I have laughed so hard my sides hurt for several years - was definitely worth the hassle as the willow is beautiful.

I just want to say that the guy at Wroots was amazing, didn't snigger once! Patently gave us directions, put up with my 'thinking out loud' and even helped us load the twigs into the car. The willow is fantastic value too.

TTFN ~ Kate xx

Bridal Beauty: Under Pressure?

Like most Brides to be I have a full time job and in the last few weeks it's been really busy as I've been planning and organising the Holiday Club (which turned out great). This was followed by a long weekend at my parents where I thought I'd get time to do lots of blogging, however between wedding shopping, wedding crafting and seeing friends this blogging time didn't materialise.

So here I am on my lunch break, wearing a face mask and typing my apologies.

Coming back from weekend of party food, roast dinners and take aways, I am aware that I have a few extra pounds to loose before W-day. I don't think I have ever felt so confused about my size...

Growing up I was a BIG girl and by the time I was 16 I was ok with that, that was me. Since then I have been diagnosed with Crohn's, lost a lot of weight due to the disease and nearly died.

Is it really important for me and other brides to be their thinnest on their day? If I watch the Wedding Channel it is sponsored by weight watchers and each break is framed by an ad showing a beautiful girl shrink to a size 8 for her day - do we need to be told 8 times an hour we are fat and have to be a thin bride?

Yes we all want to look and feel our best, but is conforming to societies standards of beauty the way to do it?

If you are a girl where you have been thin and that's how you feel most beautiful, then returning to that size is great. But I don't see why I should strive to get down to my previous small size when that meant illness and hospital. As long as my dress fits and I'm healthy that will be enough to me.

However, I am obsessed about my skin and hair. After my first turn in hospital my skin is in a never ending cycle of breakouts and I have a weird shelf of hair on my left side as I suffered some hair loss through the stress of the illness. To return these back to their previous good condition involves dedicating time and finding the right products, I have to remember to keep to a daily skin regime and take the time to care for my hair. I need to spend time weekly pampering - oh what a shame!

I also have to eat a healthy balanced diet to make sure my body is getting everything it needs to restore my skin and hair and to keep it healthy.

My beauty must haves: 1) Lee Stafford hair growth products, 2) healthy meals inc fish and lots of veg,
3) selection of my face products, mostly Soap & Glory, 4) I must remember to drink lots of water, 5) body pampering products even more Soap & Glory. I buy all my products from Boots

So for the next 4 months, I will be eating healthily and exercising, not because I want to be thin, but because I want my body to be healthy and strong - ready for the start of the next chapter in my life.

TTFN # Kate xx