Bridesmaids

Well picking bridesmaids and the best man was simples, the outfits not so much...

My two sisters and Dae's sister-
Katie, Emma and Megan were to be bridesmaids
And my little brother Jack who is 9 by the way, was to be the best man?
"Why would you want a 9 year old as a best man" I hear you ask.

Well Dae and Jack are bestest buds and Like Jack said "he's known him all of his life" Dae has been in my life longer than my little brother, but when they are together they are inseparable, talking about random things like bugs, spiders and monkeys lol. Dae is a Zoologist and well Jack might be the only one interested. Hahaha I sound like a cruel wife.

Megan, Emma, Jack and Katie.

But remember you don't have to go along with the norm', having Jack as the best man was the best thing. He did a cracking speech, which I will write about another time.

I didn't have a maid of honour or anything, and I didn't put any demands on my bridesmaids, I wanted them, so I didn't have them do things for our wedding, as I think it was our wedding, we decided to have it, not them.

We also didn't have a stag or hen do. It really isn't our thing to go out and get drunk, and to have our last night of freedom? I think it's a bit late after 11 years together. So we had a nice gathering at our house the night before the wedding with some family. x

Now I am rambling...

Ok the dresses.....
These dresses were not what I was after at all, I first thought long red ones, but no I didn't like the usual bridesmaid looking dresses.
So I looked at 50's style dresses in red, which we were going to get made, but we never found the right person or dress style, and then my mum said she could possibly make them.
It took us ages and ages to actually find a dress which we liked, possibly September time.
It wasn't when we stopped looking that we saw these.
I walked into the shop (QUIZ, on the highstreet) just because we were out shopping and I saw the dresses straight away. I knew I wanted them, the top bit matched my dress with the pearls and crystals, and the lace and the champagne colour was christmassy enough.
I Fell in Love and they had a dress to fit even my littlest sister who is only 10 and very slim. :)
Woohoo the dresses bought, the shrugs were bought on the 1st of Jan, so things were coming together

the bridal party

never one to have 'nice' photo's done x

Have fun with the day.

Did any one else have problems with finding dresses? or did you have problems with bridesmaids?

What Next.....

What next...?

Well I think the wedding took a back seat for a while, as I wasn't sure what needed doing. But I did go on a beltin' family trip to Florida in March.

Take a break! don't let wedding planning rule your life.

Oh maybe, just maybe you might want to set a budget.
Everyone says set a budget and stick to it.
..... I didn't. Mainly as I had massive help from my parents, and well they basically said if you like it, get it :), not spoilt much.
But actually all in all, we did and got everything at bargain prices. You may not think so but we didn't spend over the odds for anything, so just look out for bargains and buy what you like when you see it :)
Don't think oh I wanted that, and then go back and it's gone.
We did that Florida, there was a christmas decoration which I loved. But we didn't buy it when we saw it. My parents went back into the shop on the last day, and they had none left!! :( so I got something else. So buy it when you see it! don't wait.

But..... my mum's friend was going on holiday to florida too, and she found the decoration and brought it back for us, I didn't know this until the morning of the wedding when I opened my box of goodies off my family and it was in there :D

my disney ring decoration 

Oh I am now collecting a decoration every year for our wedding anniversary, nice tradition to have, and the present buying will be easy for the hubby on our anniversary. - Just buy a decoration. lol

The Dress!!

Ok Since I got engaged, I always thought I wanted a fish tail dress with lace. OR a red dress as it was an xmas wedding.

So in Feb I thought it would be a good time to go try on some dresses...

I arranged an appointment at a shop in Doncaster - Wedding belles of Doncaster at Armthorpe, which was recommended to me by my mums hair dresser - who was also our hair dresser on the day of the wedding.

Any way...

I walked in and all the downstairs were bridesmaids and mother of the bride dresses, and a lady in the shop was steaming a dress that had just come in, it was white, huge and sparkly. Not what I was looking for at all. But I asked if I could take that upstairs (where the bridal gowns were) to try it on.

After trying on a red dress and dismissing that straight away as it looked terrible on. I tried the big white sparkly dress on and I LOVED it!! Totally fell in love, didn't want to take it off.
But I did, I tried on a few other styles just to make sure, but they were just 'wedding dresses' they weren't quite right.

So yes that was easy.
The first wedding shop and the first dress I see and it's mine :)

Simples. xx

And no, I didn't have any doubts, or think - 'maybe a should have looked at other shops, tried more dresses on'

I tried more dresses on and got bored :)

I knew I had the right dress.

In The Beginning

The Venue was the easy part.

We got married at Monk Fryston Hall Hotel

On the 23rd December 2013

I wanted a christmas wedding, and this venue is perfect for it, it is so warm and cosy and old english. Can't ask for better. Plus all the staff are lovely :) and the christmas decorations were perfect, so we didn't need any venue decorations at all :)

Ok Venue and Date - Check

Next..............

December 2012, at this point I was thinking about the cake and the invites.

But it wasn't until very last minute that these were decided.

So next point of call was actually the ladies favours.

photos by ollievision photography

My mum bought all these robin tree decorations in January - now thats organisation for you.

But we wanted to personalised them somehow.

We tried stamping their bottoms with a stamp, however the ink never dried :(

So I bought some little wooden tags off ebay, painted them with either glitter or gold paint, then stamped my stamp onto the tag, and tied them onto the bird with twine - perfect tree decoration to remember our day by. 

(I have missed out how these birds were sat with mayonnaise on their bums for days, to try and get rid of the red smudged ink. We got there in the end -good as new ;)....)

Also My little 10 year old sister made all of the little santa sacks which we put the robins in, 

which she handed to all the ladies at the wedding during the meal.

Then it was time to dress hunt!!!

Married!!!

Well I did it. I got married!
Finally after nearly 12 years with my other half we tied the knot
I would like to share here how we got to the big day, how we put it together and how it went.

Mr and Mrs Kelly's rings

photo by www.ollievison.co.uk 


From the beginning............

Kids Drawn Wedding Invites.

I had a thought a year or so ago about getting your kids involved in the wedding, as a wedding stationer, there is not much I can do other than paper craft.

So I had a genius idea...... Get your kids to design your wedding invites.

The kids draw the image, send the design to me. I tidy it up a bit and add a bit of colour if needed, then turn it into a wedding invite.

Here are a few of the ones I have had the pleasure of working with.

This child draw a picture of herself too, which I thought I would put on the invite as well, so put her on the back with *Drawn By Daisy* Which I thought was a lovely touch as they have designed the card, and will see it printed. It is a perfect way to get the children involved.

competition time

Have I really not been on here since xmas. *Slaps wrists* That was naughty of me. Ooops sorry about that guys.
But I hope you have been keeping up with everything on my facebook page?

Well I have reached over 1500 likers, so as I promised I will be doing a giveaway.
I will be giving one lucky winner £25 off/or towards their wedding stationery. (not including p&p)

All you have to do is comment on this blog,
and like and comment on this link which will be on my facebook page. Tagged at the top. So you shouldn't miss it.
This competiton is not being run on facebook, as it against their rules.

You can get your friends and family to enter the competition for you, they can hand the winnings to you, or as a surprise for you, so get everyone involved and the more people you have liking and commenting, the more chance you have of winning.

I will run the competition until the end of the week, so will pick someone at random after the bank holiday weekend.

Good luck. xx