Introducing Wedding Abroad Experts - European Wedding Planners

As a destination bride myself, I'm a huge fan of getting married abroad. When my husband and I started to look into wedding locations, the combination of better weather, good European food and reasonably priced champagne made it a no-brainer for us. We managed to find our French wedding venue ourselves, after literally hours and hours of exhausting research, so I'm thrilled to recommend a new service from Wedding Abroad Experts. They're a fab network of independent professional wedding planners with fantastic knowledge of wedding venues and vendors in countries including France, Italy, Morocco, Croatia, Spain, and the Mediterranean Islands. The idea is that you buy membership to Wedding Abroad Experts for a small fee {from €9 a month}, and in exchange, you get access to their planners' vast wedding knowledge, and secret wedding-vendor black books. Then, if you decide you need more help, then you can always hire their wedding planners direct. I'm a huge fan already! P.S. If you're looking to celebrate your big day in France, I recommend the blog Weddings on the French Riviera. Tonnes of stunning wedding inspiration!

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Rustic Post-Wedding Shoot: Camille & Chris

Having swooned over all of Camille and Chris' wedding details, I've now fallen for their simple but sweet post-wedding shoot. I reckon it's the best idea EVER to organise some time with your wedding photographer the day AFTER your wedding. It gives you the opportunity to reflect on your big day, and collect a lovely album of pictures of the two of you relaxing together. Wedding days are always busy, so it's often hard to give enough time to your wedding photographer for portrait shots. The after-wedding shoot solves that problem. I love these beautiful pictures taken by M&J Photography. Try it yourself - all you need is a couple of simple props, a stunning natural backdrop, and two talented photographers! If you missed Camille and Chris' wedding, click here and here.

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Real Rustic Vintage Wedding: Camille & Chris - Part 2

It's time for the wedding reception pictures from this amazing detail-filled rustic, country wedding! With elegant parasols, handmade wedding favours, pretty doily decorations, and vintage fabulousness, you're going to want to copy every wedding detail for your own big day. Camille and Chris celebrated their destination wedding in Quebec in Canada, so all their DIY details were planned at a distance - no small feat! I love how they used luggage tags and a French Bistro style mirror as their table plan, and the pretty lace curtain makes the perfect backdrop for a photo booth. Other pretty reception decorations include the vintage lace table runners, the matching doily table numbers and the simple baby's breath and hydrangea wedding flowers. Love! Take a look at Camille's answers to the Before the Big Day's Bride's Questionnaire, for all her DIY projects and advice. Don't miss Part 1 of this gorgeous wedding here....coming soon Part 3, going live later today. Beautiful pictures published with thanks to the hugely talented Jonny and Morgane from M&J Photography.

We got married on July 7, 2012 in Mille-Isles in the province of Quebec, Canada, at the Fiddler Lake Resort. We visited several venues looking for a country-ish place where we would be celebrating our wedding outdoors, with the sun and mild temperatures of summer. 

We opted for the Fiddler Lake Resort because all our guests would be able to enjoy great authentic country cottages for a weekend {and week for those coming from overseas}. Also the Resort gave us 'carte blanche' for our wedding preparation, including no time limit for the party!

All of our decor was pretty much a DIY décor. We had a lot of fun looking for vintage, simple yet chic details and giving a second life to some furniture and pieces we found. Our theme was vintage-country and we asked our guests feel free to dress comfortably and to add a touch of vintage in their look! 

Our wedding color scheme built over time, as we were finding decor pieces bit by bit. Overall, we wanted to have white or cream flowers, beige table clothes and touches of cream lace here and there, as well a natural wood.



For our wedding favours, we made little candy bags out of brown paper bags, decorated with white doilies, and placed at each seat. We had the candies brought from France, the kind we know kids and adults are addicted to!

 We also had a lot of DIY projects but the funniest was making our lips and moustache favours for our guests! My handy husband mastered his scissors like no one, so we were done quickly! 

Our stationery kind of inspired our wedding décor. We chose them early in our planning, and bought them online at Minted. The process was so easy, I'd recommend it to any couple! We loved the lips and moustache vintage design, customized the text, and got our cards in no time.



We had tonnes of DIY projects, and worked as a team for months. I would buy used pieces in flea markets and Chris would help me give them a second life. We looked both for ideas online and shopped together - we loved it planning our wedding, and we'd do it again! Inspecting venues, talking budget, looking for suppliers, finding unique pieces everywhere and anywhere, making it our own, negotiating rates, thinking the entire day through and wanting the best to enjoy our time with friends and family - it was a fantastic experience!

We picked flowers at the last minute from a local florist. We ordered them by phone a week before the wedding! Arranging the flowers was another one of our DIY projects: we ordered a bunch of white hydrangeas in bulk, and placed in mason jars, along with some gypsophile or baby's breath.

We chose M&J Photography for our wedding photographers. We flew them all the way from France because they capture moments in a way that is so natural, without posing too much and from two different angles. Each one of them also accompanied my husband and me while we were getting ready, to be pictured separately. 

Jonny and Morgane are so easy to work with, and use everything they can to make the shots interesting and reminding us of the venue we chose. They just blended in with our guests so naturally that we did not feel that we had "paparazzi" at our wedding, something that often annoying for guests who want to approach the bride and groom!



My advice? Find compromises with your future husband by listening to each other's wish list and making priorities out of it. We both ended up getting the most important things we wanted! Don't take any suppliers for granted: our DJ abandoned the ship a week before the wedding and even the most professional suppliers need some directions and a good brief on how you want things to run before the event. If it is a destination wedding, guests should take care of their own accommodations and travel details, as the couple can quickly become travel agency and tourist bureau! 

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Real Rustic Vintage Wedding: Camille & Chris

Here at the Before the Big Day studio, we're welcoming in the New Year the way we plan to continue; with a gorgeous, inspirational real wedding. I've fallen for Camille and Chris, individual rustic style, and I love how their DIY wedding reflects their personalities. Take a look at Camille's stunning layered wedding gown from BHLDN, Chris' stylish wedding look {love his checked shirt & the ushers' bare ankles!}, and the bridesmaids' fun parasols. Now that's a well-dressed wedding party! 
Huge thanks to Camille for filling in Before the Big Day's Bride's Questionnaire - don't miss her advice, and keep an eye out for Part 2, and even Part 3, going live later today. Beautiful pictures published with thanks to the hugely talented Jonny and Morgane from M&J Photography.

We got married on July 7, 2012 in Mille-Isles in the province of Quebec, Canada, at the Fiddler Lake Resort. We visited several venues looking for a country-ish place where we would be celebrating our wedding outdoors, with the sun and mild temperatures of summer. 

We opted for the Fiddler Lake Resort because all our guests would be able to enjoy great authentic country cottages for a weekend {and week for those coming from overseas}. Also the Resort gave us 'carte blanche' for our wedding preparation, including no time limit for the party!

We picked our wedding flowers at the last minute from a local florist, and ordered by phone a week before the wedding! The florist ended up being so helpful - after asking me about my wedding outfit, she included my bouquet enhanced with a couple of orange roses and pearls, and a boutonnière for my Dad with the same kind of rose. I was so touched! Without her help and anticipation, I would have made my own bouquet with flowers found onsite.

My dress was a love at first sight on the internet! I spotted it on the BHLDN website. It had everything I was looking for: cream and not white, the bottom looked like lace and the top was so refined, with touches of gold. I pictured the dress with some rays of sun shining through it, so it didn't take me more than a day to think about it, and order it. I felt like the wedding dress didn't need a lot of accessories so I only wore pearl earrings my husband got me, and a vintage look turquoise ring. My golden shoes were a steal at a sale from BCBG!

Chris wanted a sleek blue suit and found one from Tiger of Sweden. He accessorized his look with touches of golden yellow {ties and silk square from Valentino} and brown suede shoes from Minelli.

I let my bridesmaids pick whatever they wanted to wear, and they came up with a white chiffon dress from IKKS in France. They were perfect for our country ceremony. Their shoes were low beige leather boots, which stayed comfortable til the end of the night. We accessorized the outfit with nacre and gold rings from BCBG and a hair leather band, brown with a couple of feathers from Zara.

We chose M&J Photography for our wedding photographers. We flew them all the way from France because they capture moments in a way that is so natural, without posing too much and from two different angles. Each one of them also accompanied my husband and me while we were getting ready, to be pictured separately. 

Jonny and Morgane are so easy to work with, and use everything they can to make the shots interesting and reminding us of the venue we chose. They just blended in with our guests so naturally that we did not feel that we had "paparazzi" at our wedding, something that often annoying for guests who want to approach the bride and groom!



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Real Italian Destination Wedding: Suzanne & Lee - Part 2

Brides dreaming of an Italian destination wedding are going to want to copy every detail of this gorgeous big day. Suzanne and Lee started with a heavenly vineyard wedding venue, and added a rustic theme, fabulous flower displays, and jam-jar lanterns, plus tonnes more wedding details. I love Suzanne's glamorous Rita Westenius wedding gown, her family heirloom tiara, and her beautiful bouquet, which included hydgrangea blooms as her 'something blue'. With an enormous, traditionally Italian wedding cake, and local specialities as wedding favours, Suzanne and Lee drew inspiration from their surroundings for their wedding theme, and added their own DIY touches. Read more about Suzanne's projects in her comments below! Huge thanks to Amoretti Weddings, who planned their big day, and Andrea Calvano for his stunning wedding pictures.

We got married in a little medieval village called Citta'Sant'angelo, in the rural province of Abruzzo Italy on 4 June 2012 – the Queen's Diamond Jubilee!

The venue was perfect and hopelessly 100% authentic Italy. An old villa situated in a vineyard perched on top of a cliff with panoramic views of the Adriatic and Apennine mountains; it was spectacular. 

We wanted our decorations to reflect the rustic nature of the surrounding countryside and the faded grandeur of the villa. Because the views and setting were so wonderful, we knew we wanted flowers and decorations that would match it and hold their own amongst the surroundings.

I really enjoyed planning my wedding, but it did take up a lot of time! I am quite glad now that I can go to work and not have to think about favours or lastminute changes to seating plans!

Our wedding stationery was designed by Emiliana and the team at Amoretti Weddings, and they were fantastic. They were not wedding planners per se but more wedding designers! Emiliana was our wedding planner and she also designs amazing, elegant stationary so it was a no-brainer.

Fabrizio Panone of Pescara did out flower arrangements, we were so pleased with them! We chose him because, despite the language barrier, he instantly understood what I was trying to get across with pointing and gesticulating! 

For DIY projects, I created a little package for every guest about the local area and plans for the day and put it in their hotel rooms. As it was a wedding abroad I didn't want anyone to feel lost, and we wanted to ensure our guests savoured the local delicacies and see why we chose the region.

I also made a guest book on blurb.com. I badgered family members to provide me with photographs of all our grandparents on their wedding day, that would intermingle with the guest book pages. I also managed to dig out some photos from 1906, 1928 and 1952 of my family wedding headpiece in use!

We decided to keep the favours simple and 'Italian'. The girls had little packages of sugared almonds – a regional specialty, and the boys had little bottles of {my fave} ratafia, a local Abruzzo cherry liqueur- they went down very well.

We had a traditional Italian creamy wedding cake provided by the venue.

No matter how hard you try, or how detailed you plan your big day, some things will just refuse to go to plan. My advice is to book someone at you wedding who can be your 'troubleshooter / present putter-awayer / MC / guest co-ordinator' and just relax, breathe and enjoy the day.

We asked Andrea Calvano, a local photographer, to take out pics. We chose him because on viewing his portfolio he had a wonderful artistic flare.

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Real Italian Destination Wedding: Suzanne & Lee

If you're worried about the English weather ruining your wedding day, consider a destination wedding. We celebrated our big day in France, and although going abroad is no guarantee for sunshine, it certainly paid off for us. Suzanne and Lee had a similarly wonderful wedding day in June in Italy! Surrounded by stunning Italian countryside, in a tiny medieval village, they created a romantic, rustic themed wedding day with the help of their wedding planners, Amoretti Weddings. With peach, blue and pink as their accent wedding colours, and adorable Italian wedding details {cute Fiats! a massive cake!}, I've fallen head-over-heels for their wedding. Don't miss Suzanne's helpful hints and tips -  Lee's suit, and the bridesmaids' dresses were all bought on the high street, saving money without stinting on style. Huge thanks to local photographer Andrea Calvano for his beautiful pictures, more from the reception coming soon!

We got married in a little medieval village called Citta'Sant'angelo, in the rural province of Abruzzo Italy on 4 June 2012 – the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. We knew we didn’t want a packaged up cardboard cut out affair. We wanted something different, something genuinely Italian, something special that our guests would always remember {and, as Lee would remind me, something on budget!!).

Very early on in our engagement my friend leant me a wedding book which had a photograph of a gorgeous bouquet of light pink, peach, cream and hydrangea blue flowers – it was very 'me' – I fell in love with it there and then! I also found beautiful peach bridemaids dresses so we planned everything around those colours.

My dress was made by the brilliant Rita & Chenca Westenius at Ritva Westenius. The shoes were Freya Rose, and the veil was a simple long piece bought from Ritva Westenius.

We were inspired by the venue and the location for the theme and the fact the wedding was abroad. Our invitations had a vintage aeroplane motif and generally for the wedding we wanted something romantic, rustic and classic - but not too over the top. 

My headpiece was my great great grandma's first worn at her wedding in 1906 and passed down through the family – I was very anxious about taking it all the way over to Italy on the plane!!

My bridesmaids dress were silk maxis from Ted Baker, their necklaces and earrings were beautifully handcrafted by Lou Lou Belle Designs, and I bought them each a little hair comb from Glitzy Secrets.

We searched high and low for outfits for the groom, ushers and fathers as we wanted suits that wouldn't be too confined or too hot on the day. In the end, on a whim we went to Bicester Village and found beautiful fine wool grey/beige suits in Savoy Taylor's Guild.

We got married in a little known part of Italy where hardly anyone speaks English or recognises English tourists. That in itself was the first hurdle, though it was quickly overcome by the rugged beauty of the region and the excitement we felt when we visited and grasped the potential Abruzzo could offer 'wedding tourists'.

Lee and I met in 2006 at work, I was a temp secretary at the time and he was a solicitor! We got engaged in June 2010 at the top of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world's tallest building.
 

We asked Andrea Calvano, a local photographer, to take out pics. We chose him because on viewing his portfolio he had a wonderful artistic flare.

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