Monday 31 December 2012

Happy New Year's Eve from Before the Big Day

This year, everyone I know seems to be abroad for NYE, so I'll be wishing people a fabulous 2013 almost every hour! Wherever you are, I hope you have a fantastic evening, and I wish you all the luck and love in the world for the next 12 months. It'll be an exciting 2013 for us, because we'll be welcoming our son into the world at the end of March. And I imagine for most of you guys, 2013 will be the year you get married - amazing!


P.S. I found this picture nearly a year ago, and I don't know the credit! If you do, please tell me!

P.P.S. Would you consider a NYE wedding?

♥ Want to see wedding themes? ♥ Or how about real wedding ideas? ♥
If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for our free newsletter
Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.

Thursday 27 December 2012

Personalised Mexican-Style Paper Lace Bunting

Ever since my trip to the craft markets in Mexico, I've been a huge fan of their amazing paper decorations. Take a look at this romantic laser cut banner by Comeuppance. It's created in the style of traditional Mexican papel picado, and it's the perfect addition to your wedding decorations. Take a look at the Comeuppance website for more pretty designs, and wedding inspiration.



♥ Want to see wedding decorations? ♥ Or how about Mexican wedding ideas? ♥
If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for our free newsletter
Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.

Wednesday 26 December 2012

Bank Holiday Wedding Sale Links

If you're planning a summer wedding, this might seem a little crazy, but the Christmas Sales are the perfect time to buy your wedding details and decorations. With huge discounts off fairy lights, paper decorations, table details and fancy dress, you can save yourself a fortune. Here are just a few of my favourite wedding sale links from Cox & Cox.



♥  250 warm pea lights - perfect wedding decorations (save 20%)

♥  Famous face masks - fun wedding favours (save 20%)

♥  25 wooden tags - fab wedding place-markers (save 20%) 

♥  Grey willow wreath - adaptable to any wedding theme (save 50%)

♥  Save the Date cards from Cox & Cox (save 50%)

♥ Want to see real weddings? ♥ Or how about wedding offer ideas? ♥
If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for our free newsletter
Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.

Tuesday 25 December 2012

Happy Christmas from Before the Big Day!

A huge and heartfelt Happy Christmas to all Before the Big Day brides and grooms! This year I'm celebrating Christmas in the English countryside, surrounded by fairy-lights, flickering candles, and a giant Christmas tree. I hope you have a wonderful festive season, and I'll be raising my glass to all the couples who get engaged on Christmas Day.....remember to tell them all about Before the Big Day!



♥ Want to see real weddings? ♥ Or how about wedding theme ideas? ♥
If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for our free newsletter
Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.

Monday 24 December 2012

Real Rustic Picnic Wedding: Michelle & Paul - Part 2

Brides planning a backgarden wedding are going to love all the DIY wedding details in this pretty rustic big day. With tonnes of vintage and homespun wedding inspiration, you're going to want to add every picture to your Pinterest wedding boards. From Michelle's pretty-as-a-picture wedding gown, to Paul's cute bow-tie and linen suit, this stylish couple created the perfect picnic wedding. I love the popcorn favour bar, and, the vintage desert table display, and the yummy pastel cupcakes. Huge thanks to the team at Simply Bloom Photography for their beautiful pictures - and don't miss Part 1 of this wedding here.










♥ Want more rustic weddings? ♥ Or how about more purple-themed weddings? ♥
If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for our free newsletter
Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.

Real Rustic Picnic Wedding: Michelle & Paul

It's hard to imagine sunshine days with all this rain pouring down, but take inspiration from this gorgeous summer picnic wedding. If you're planning your own garden wedding, you'll love Michelle and Paul's pretty homespun wedding details, from the DIY'd twine-tied buttonholes, the homemade quilted picnic rugs, and the picnic baskets filled with foodie treats. I love the rustic, wooden wedding signs, the mason jars filled with wildflowers, and the cute bicycle photo prop. Tonnes more pictures on their way in Part 2, huge thanks to Simply Bloom Photography for their stunning shots.














♥ Want more rustic weddings? ♥ Or how about more picnic wedding ideas? ♥
If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for our free newsletter
Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.

Friday 21 December 2012

Tie the Knot Wedding Rings

Spotted! This gorgeous ring from fabulous Etsy-seller Sparklethots.  Each ring is individually handcrafted and made to measure - perfect for a promise ring, if you're planning to pick out your engagement ring together. Or they'd made fantastic bridesmaid's presents - a lasting momento of the day they watched you tie the knot!



♥ Click for more wedding ring ideas! ♥ And tonnes of elegant weddings! ♥
Have you discovered our free newsletter? Sign up for free! 
Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.

Monday 17 December 2012

Real Stylish London Wedding: Caroline & Matt - Part 2

London brides are going to love this inspirational wedding, with its fun pub venue, shabby-chic wedding decorations, and pink and gold colour palette. Caroline and Matt stamped their personality on their big day with unique DIY'd wedding details - Matt designed their wedding stationery, Caroline's mum made the wedding cake and Caroline created the tankard table plan. Stunning table flowers as well - I love David Austin roses! Huge thanks to Erica from Photo Madly for capturing the wedding so perfectly, and to Caroline, for filling the Before the Big Day Brides' Questionnaire. Don't miss her fab hints and tips, and take a look at Part 1 of this wedding here.


Matt and I met at work but we didn't get together until one Christmas party when Matt was dressed as a Lego man and I was dressed as Madonna in the Material girl video. 

We were together for 3 and a half years when Matt surprised me with a weekend away to Norfolk which is where we went for our first weekend away together. He'd booked us into a romantic yurt and took me out for an amazing eight course meal, when we got back we sat next to the camp fire with our glasses of champagne and Matt got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.


We got married on 21st September in London, our ceremony was in The Old Marylebone Town Hall and held our reception in The Londesborough pub in Stoke Newington.



We looked at lots of different types of buildings for our reception but decided a pub would work well for us as we really wanted the day to be really laid back and relaxed. I was also determined that our venue should have just one room to create a really intimate atmosphere. 

The Londesborough is one of my favourite London pubs and they really ticked all the boxes for us, we had the whole pub to ourselves and they have outside space and the food was amazing! We felt bunting would work best in the pub and other than flowers we didn't need to do much else as its such a lovely space already. We really couldn't have been happier with our venues.




I didn't want a particular wedding colour theme, but instead worked to a colour palette of soft pinks, greens, white, pale gold and navy.


My florist was Elinor Walsh from Marlow, Buckinghamshire. She did such a good job, the flowers were exactly what I wanted. I really wanted pink and white peonies but in September that's not really an option so we chose pink David Austin roses mixed in with white hydrangea. I chose to have them tied with twine.

I was very keen that the table decorations should be in low vases as I wanted people to be able to chat over them easily without wanting to move them out of the way. The flowers were one of my favourite things about the day as it was so exiting seeing them in the pub, I was so happy with how they turned out.

Matt is a graphic designer so he designed our wedding invitations. I came up with the idea of using beer mats, and he created the look. We used the same design for our wedding menus, which also doubled as the table place names.


My DIY projects included our table plan. I wrote the names of our guest on glass tankards, using chalk pen, then stacked them on a set of shelves. We also made the table names by buying clipboards and sticking struts on them. We then printed out each table name to look like a pub sign, and clipped them on.

We wanted wedding favours that were fun, and we spotted the chocolate lips and moustaches in a wedding magazine. We bought them from Creightons Chocolatiers in Leighton Buzzard, and were so pleased with them. They looked great and tasted amazing, and everyone commented in how fun they were!


I saw a cake online that I fell in love with, and my mum said she would try and replicate it. I bought the cake stand online and my mum did the rest. I don't like fruit cake so we had a lemon drizzle cake. It was delicious and looked amazing, I'm so pleased my mum made it, as it meant so much more.

I loved planning my big day! There are so many different ways you can do a wedding and they're all amazing, I could do it all over again - although only if it was with Matt obviously!!

Our photographer was Erika Szostak from Photo Madly. We picked her because we loved her work, and we felt really comfortable with her straight away. Your photographer is such a big part of your day it's so important you choose someone who you like having around! We're thrilled with how our photos turned out.

My advice for future brides is to remember that on the day you can't change anything so just enjoy it! Things will go wrong but it's not important, the main thing is that you enjoy the day you've spent so long planning. Also don't stress about your decisions once they're made, I can't tell you how much I stressed about things that looking back on it just weren't important!



♥ Click for more London wedding ideas! ♥ And tonnes of shabby chic weddings! ♥
Have you discovered our free newsletter? Sign up for free! 
Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.

Real Stylish London Wedding: Caroline & Matt

There's a real soft spot in my heart for London weddings, particularly after we hosted our own 'official wedding' in the heart of Hackney. Caroline and Matt planned their own stylish big day at The Old Marylebone Town Hall, with their wedding reception at The Londesborough pub in Stoke Newington. I'm completely in love with Caroline's fairy-tale Tara Keely wedding dress, which was the complete opposite to what she had originally planned! Her dress matches the feminine mood of the wedding; reception decorations included shabby-chic bunting, stunning David Austin roses, with gold, pink and dark blue colour accents. There's tonnes more DIY wedding details in Part 2 of this lovely wedding, keep an eye out for the second post later this afternoon. Huge thanks to Erica from Photo Madly for capturing the wedding so perfectly, and to Caroline, for filling the Before the Big Day Brides' Questionnaire. Don't miss her fab hints and tips!

My dress by Tara Keely by Lazaro from Morgan Davies in London. It was not an easy decision! I must have gone to about 20 bridal shops and kept waiting to find 'the one'. When I started shopping I said "I don't want a big dress and I don't want it to be strapless", so obviously that's exactly what I ended up with! I had a couple of dresses that I was choosing between, but I kept comparing everything to that one,so in the end I just accepted that it had to be the one!

My sister and I bought some fabric from a shop in Tooting, and I handmade my sash. I was then thrilled to find my Carvela shoes in the sale, and the colour matched the sash almost perfectly.

My florist was Elinor Walsh from Marlow, Buckinghamshire. She did such a good job, the flowers were exactly what I wanted. My ideal wedding flowers were pink and white peonies, but in September that's not really an option, so we chose pink David Austin roses mixed in with white hydrangea. I chose to have them tied with twine.

My wedding jewellery was bought online from Glitzy Secrets and my veil was from Blissful Gifts. I really wanted a bubble veil, and was so happy when I found Blissful Gifts online as it was so hard to find one anywhere!



I didn't really mind what colour or style my bridesmaids wore as long as they all felt nice in the dress. The dresses they ended up in were actually the second set of dresses we bought, because the first dresses just weren't quite right, and I could tell they weren't happy in them but didn't want to say anything!


It was more important that my best friends and sisters were happy and felt nice on my big day than they were wearing a specific style. In the end we bought their dresses from French Connection and added some gold ribbon from John Lewis to link in with the colour of Matt's tie.

We got married on 21st September in London, our ceremony was in The Old Marylebone Town Hall and we held our reception in The Londesborough pub in Stoke Newington. I got ready at The Black and White House in Belsize Park.


We both knew we wanted a civil ceremony, and living in London means there are lots of Town Halls in the city that were big enough for our 80 guests. We only gave ourselves 7 months to plan the wedding, so it really came down to where was available, but Marylebone was my first choice as I love the drama of the building, so we were really happy to get it.




Matt's suit was tailor-made from King and Allen. He really wanted a nice suit he could wear again. He also wore the pocket watch, which I bought him as a surprise, to open on our wedding morning.


Our photographer was Erika Szostak from Photo Madly. We picked her because we loved her work, and we felt really comfortable with her straight away. Your photographer is such a big part of your day it's so important you choose someone who you like having around! We're thrilled with how our photos turned out.


Matt and I met at work but we didn't get together until one Christmas party when Matt was dressed as a Lego man and I was dressed as Madonna in the Material girl video. We were together for 3 and a half years when Matt surprised me with a weekend away to Norfolk which is where we went for our first weekend away together. He'd booked us into a romantic yurt and took me out for an amazing eight course meal, when we got back we sat next to the camp fire with our glasses of champagne and Matt got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.



♥ Click for more London wedding ideas! ♥ And tonnes of shabby chic weddings! ♥
Have you discovered our free newsletter? Sign up for free! 
Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...