Photographer

At the very beginning of my wedding phase, I didn't want to spend a lot, I wanted a nice wedding, with people who I want there. I didn't want extravagance. I didn't even want a photographer :s

Well that was a silly thought. Once you start planning a wedding, you realise you do want things, and you do need things.
And one thing you really do need is a good photographer!!

I didn't want one, as I just thought, it will be fine, everyone will have camera's I will just get photo's from everyone. Or I was going to get some cameras that you can hire out, and then get the photos from them just.

But the thought occurred to me...

I have been part of a wedding group on facebook, for a little while now, and I had a photographer friend on there. The group has been chatting away on facebook for three years I think now. So I casually emailed her, to see if she had my date free and if she would possibly want to do my wedding photography!
She had my date free, and she would love to do my photography - RESULT!!

It wasn't until after the wedding day that I was so glad I had booked a professional photographer.
The day went by so fast, that I felt I missed everything!!
But my photographer captured everything, everything and more.
She captured our emotions as I walked down the aisle with my dad, she captured the fun of the wedding during the ceremony, the meal and also Disco.
And she captured my surprise face, as I saw my surprise reindeer for the first time.

She captured all the moments I thought I would forget, or even didn't remember I had.

A photographer is a vital part of your day! I speak from experience, so please don't scrimp on one, or get your friend of a friend who has a posh camera to do your wedding day.
You have 1 wedding day (or maybe more) This is the one and only time to capture this day, you need a professional, or you will regret it.

I would highly recommend Paula, from Ollievision Photography.
She is based in Leeds.
http://www.ollievision.co.uk/
Ollievision Facebook Page

started blubbering after seeing my mum in tears, I was fine before that :)

A loving noggin' rub from the hubby to be 

A little tearful. 

Surprise Reindeer

Capturing the bubble blowing. Which I never got to work, I think I had a dud bottle.

Hair!!

Right, hair was no biggy for me.
I have short hair, I wanted short hair. So not much I can do with it.
A lot of people like to grow their hair for their wedding's but no, not me. I look a scruff with long hair.
Ha I might look like a scruff with short hair too, but hey I like it :)

My hair is rather lopsided, an A symmetrical hair style...
What can you do with this??
Simples a clip.

We went on a mooch to Accesorize and bought a clip for me, and a clip each for my bridesmaids.
I originally wanted my bridesmaids to have loose curls, half up, half down.
But I don't think Katie was impressed with that, so when we had our hair trial, I let her decide what she wanted and I decided what I wanted, and then Emma - I am not sure we gave her a choice hahaha.
But as the 2 older bridesmaids had the same length hair I thought it would be nice for them to have the same style. Which worked well in the end.

My clip that I got from accesorize we felt was a little too small, so I went on a hunt on ebay for some clips/slides. The first one I bought was massive, but the second one, and the one I wore, was a bargain and it was lovely at only £3. I don't mind sharing my bargain secrets, as I do love a bargain and I am sure you lot do too.

I wasn't an overly fussed bride I don't think, and whatever the bridesmaids liked or wanted, I was ok with it. I didn't make them wear anything they didn't want to, and I let them choose everything, as long as they all liked it, as they would have the same :)

Hair stylist was my mum's friend Paula Mooney, and I think she did a fab job.

My bridesmaids with their hair done, and best man

Lovely side bun, with curls, and clip

Loose curls, and a plait held with a clip, or pearls and gems

My clip, side on view

Getting ready.

She also did my mum's hair and made her look lovely!!

They all had curls

Also I didn't get a make up artist. My older bridesmaids always put their make up on nicely, so I knew they would be ok if I didn't get one. And I never wear make up, so didn't want to look as though I did.

But me and my mum (who also doesn't wear make up) went into boots, and did that skin test things on the no.7 counter and got foundation to match our skin tones.

I was the palest one of all, hahaha but I knew this would be the case.

But we don't wear foundation, so asked the lady which was the best one to use, without feeling as though we had it on, and she gave us some form of liquid foundation.

Sorted!

Oh and then we got a free gift, which included mascara, eyeliner, eye shadow and lip gloss! sorted, thats our wedding make up :) (for me and my mum)

My sister and sister-in-law to be, have ooodles of make up, which I wouldn't have a clue where to start.

I would recommend no.7 stuff to anyone, I love it now. However don't wear it too often.

Shoes!!

Well shoes in the loosest terms.
I didn't have shoes! neither did the groom or best man.

We had...
Timberland boots! :)
"oh my god why would you want those on your wedding day" I hear you saying.

Well me and David are known for our timberland wearing, we wear timberland boots all the time, We have a number of pairs between us. I remember my first pair in college. A lovely pink pair, then I got the normal orange coloured, then more pink, and more orange. Infact we have a nice collection, so I thought it was only right to have timberlands, especially seeing as my dress touched the floor anyway, so I couldn't wear heals, not even kitten ones. And I aren't a pump kind of girl.
So the hunt began...

I saw mine on eBay quite early on, a lovely white pair of knee high boots, with a fur trim. <3 LOVE!
But the laces weren't very nice, so I bought some ivory velvet ribbon and threaded them on my boots. PERFECT winter wedding snow boots. On the plus side my feet were comfy ALL day.

I couldn't actually put my boots on my self, so Emma my bridesmaid and sister came in very useful. Thanks Emma, and Phoebe her friend, she did my other boot.

 They might have not been the 'normal' shoes for a wedding, but they were 'my' shoes for our wedding. We don't do 'normal'

David, got some timberland boots too, but not the big clumpy ones, they were slightly posh deep red ones, which I thought looked ok, but the cheeky man in the suit hire shop said 'he isn't sure on the choice of footware' well good job it isn't your wedding is it.
And my little brother the best man had black timberlands on too. So we were all matching.

Here's my smart men, lol Jacks ruche was a bit skew wiff, but then the suit hire shop, gave us a adults, so it was miles too big anyway. That shop gave me more to panic about than anything else during the wedding planning.
Jacks suit was way too small, then it was way to big, then it was too small again. In the end we gave up. But he scrubs up nicely, and the timberlands. We all love anyway, and to be honest that's all that matters.

Bridesmaids...
These shoes proved a little tricky, as we were looking for sparkly, glittery ivory ones, or maybe a nude sparkle, but we had no luck finding any, and not any suitable for my 12 year old bridesmaid, we needed similar shoes for all 3 bridesmaids, and we only found gold or silver sparkle shoes.
Then we thought Lace, the dresses were lace, so why not an ivory lace!
YES!
Now the hunt started, ebay, debenhams, bhs. My mum went all over York to find some shoes for us, no luck.
So my mum, and 2 sisters popped over to Manchester for a spot of shoe shopping, they had a set train to catch, so we had a time limit.
However we found the shoes we wanted in the first hour. LOL. They had 6 hours left to kill in Manchester.
Easy you say... Well not for shopping haters -  I think their dread set in.
However we ended up running out of time, as there is more to see in Manchester than they first thought, plus an hour or two in Hard Rock Cafe helped - love that place. Oh and NEXT haha the biggest one my mum has seen, try getting her out of there.

Any way shoes!!
We found the older bridesmaids shoes in Debenhams :) excellent, ivory lace peep toe, just what my sister wanted. Then into BHS for some kitten healed ivory lace shoes which you tied with ribbon. Perfect just what Emma (the little bridesmaid) wanted.
Well that was just too easy in the end.

This is the best photo of the shoes, should maybe get some close up shots.

Oh and my mums shoes were lace too, black lace :) but they weren't always going to be, she had some very very high gold shoes, which no one could walk in. So she opted for these lovely ones. They all seemed to match, and my mums dress was lace too, and red. Perfect

Invitations!!!!

Right I think it is time to talk about the stationery.

Firstly Save the Dates. These were very easy to do. I knew I wanted something simple and straight to the point, so I designed by bauble magnet save the dates.
As I sent them out in January, it was nearly a year before the wedding, I didn't want people to forget about the wedding, so a fridge magnet was the way forward, so everyone could stick it on their fridge and see it daily.

Save the Date magnets is the shape of a christmas bauble.

Now that those were handed out and out of the way it was time to design the Wedding Invites, now this turned into a huge challenge.

I designed a few, which were ok, I designed some which I liked but they didn't quite have the wow factor I was looking for. These were some of the first designs.

I wanted a rustic feel to the invites, as though they had come from santa and printed on old papers. 

But they weren't quite right, not for my invites.

So I designed something similar to the save the dates, with the same font. These were going to be tied together and put into a red santa sack for posting. But again I loved the idea, but the invite still wasn't working for me. It was a bit bland.

So back to the drawing board....

I kept the font as I actually loved it.

Made it abit more fancy than the tied invites with just the wording, by adding images.

They were pretty, just not right.....

I kept designing and designing.

But it wasn't wowing anyone.

So one night around 10pm I was working, and my mum and sister came in the room. I showed them what I had done, and they basically said take everything off, it's too much, keep the reindeer if you must and maybe just the star...

Really??? You want it blank...

I did it blank... I added glitter, I added ribbon and a snowflake crystal to finish it off.

YES... "Take it all off and have it blank'

Why did I not think of this.

A snowy, sparkly, shimmery wedding invite with a touch of red. PERFECT

Now, we had the invite but you can't send an invite like that out in an envelope.

"get a box"

Get a box, and then my mum had the genius idea of putting this material inside, instead of tissue to make it look even prettier.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE

Now only one thing left, as this isn't giving anyone enough info. We needed an info booklet. Now we set the theme the info booklet was simples. 

This info booklet held the menu, rsvp card, venue details, accommodation a gift list, and how to find us sheet. 

All finished off in a gorgeous box

Invites DONE. Just in time for the posting date I had set.

I think the invites went down a treat, we had some lovely feedback from them. Infact no one wanted to pull out the rsvp sheet of the info booklet, so they let us know via email or text usually. That's got to be a good sign right.

I would have to say that the invites and the cake designs gave me the most hassle, everything else seemed to go smoothly, or was picked easily. Now I know how a bride can turn into a bridezilla with invites, as I have had a few ;)

I think a good invite sets the tone for your wedding. I took this theme all the way through to the day stationery, which I will show you another day. I have work to do hehehe

The Cake!

The cake was a challenge.

I decided early on I didn't want a 'normal' 3 tiered wedding cake.
So I set up a pinterest board and this helped me with cakes 'sort of'

This was the first cake a fell in love with, but we just didn't think it was 'wow' enough to get a cake maker to make it. If you are going to pay a cake maker, at least set them a challenge lol.
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/174092341817453653/

Hopefully that link will have taken you to a stack of presents.

Then because that wasn't right. I kept looking,
pinterest board this is all the inspiration for the cakes.
From bird cakes, to trees, baubles and disney. I think I looked at 100's of cakes, but it still wasn't right.
I even designed my own at one point, and was going to get that made up, which was going to be a story board cake of me and David. But no it wasn't right

But it was getting rather late in the day to be picky, as November was fast approaching, and even though I had been paying off the cake since early in the year, she really did need a design from me. And then I saw it! I saw what I wanted as my cake.

Presents stacked in a lovely way, in all the same coloured paper. I showed Erica of Creative Icing in Selby, and she said wow. She said she would give it a good go. Which I was so pleased with.

I went in the shop with David and my little brother Jack
http://www.creativeicing.co.uk/
On the Saturday 21st December to see it and pay the final payment.
WOW!! was all 3 of us could say. Even Jack who isn't easily impressed, hahaha
The cake was stunning and so much better than I could have imagined.

our wedding cake

The shop owner had said it had caused a lot of head turning, and people were taking photo's of it when they came into the shop.

It was a stunner, and it was worth all the time spent trying to find it, and the money :)
The detailing was amazing

It also tasted delicious too, I have never had such a soft sponge, and full of flavour.
We had vanilla sponge and fruit cake.
It was a shame to put the knife into it :(

Choosing the right cake maker is very important, make sure they know what they are doing, I see a lot of cakes that turn up and have sunk, as the bottom layer is supported enough. I chose creative icing, as I could go and see the cakes in their own shop, and also they have been in Selby for many years, so thats always a bonus if they have been around a while and still going strong. Oh and they made the wedding cake for Tyrone (off Coronation Street) and his wife (off wild at heart)
Not sure on their real names, but hey if they are good enough for them, they are more than good enough for me :D

How did you decide on your cake? are you sticking with tradition or swaying away?
I'd love to see your cake pics if you can post on here? (not sure if you can)

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