Brilliant Cheap & Chic Bridesmaid Presents & A Competition!

Ever since one of my coolest friends chose Alphabet Bags for presents for her bridesmaids {pics here}, I've had a mega-crush on their fab designs. So when I discovered they'd launched a special range for weddings, I got very excited, and sent them a quick email promising a feature here on Before the Big Day. Imagine my excitement when they wrote back offering a fabulous Giveaway AND a Discount Code {sooo deserving of capital letters}. Win 5 bags from the Alphabet Bag Wedding Collection for you and your bridesmaids! All you need to do is Like Before the Big Day on Facebook, and leave a comment below saying which is your favourite bag. I'll announce the winner a week today {29th March}. Don't worry if you don't win, you can still get 15% off this week on bags, with the code BIGDAY.

♥ Want more Bridesmaid ideas? ♥ Or how about DIY wedding ideas? ♥

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DIY Bride - Homemade Tissue Flowers

My preparations for The InWedding Show are in full swing, and all I can think about are the decorations for my Before the Big Day stand, and the room where I'll be hosting my special wedding inspiration sessions. It's just like planning for another wedding! I've been buying vintage props like this vintage typewriter, old apple crates, and crafting materials like peach tissue paper, colourful inks and heart-patterned straws. I'll be hosting four sessions on 22nd April, on the themes 'How to Make Your Wedding Fabulous {Themes & Colours}' and 'DIY Weddings Made Easy'. As part of my planning, I've been practicing my DIY skills, and I'm particularly pleased with how these little tissue flowers turned out. Made with nothing more than tissue paper, a toothpick and glue, they take less than 3 minutes to make! Check out the tutorial from fabulous crafting blog Oh Happy Day, and make sure you sign up for my wedding inspiration sessions when you buy your tickets for The In Wedding Show {only £3.50 in advance}.

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My Latest Obsession - Wedding Macaroons

I'm aware that I'm hugely behind the curve on this, and that the macaron-trend ship has well and truly sailed, but I've suddenly become obsessed with macaroons at weddings. It's part of my new love of colour and brights, which in turn is almost certainly a response to the endless grey of the English winter. Once hugely expensive, you can now by macaroons at M&S, making them an affordable treat, and a lovely present for a girlfriend who's invited you round for dinner. Of course, the Ladurée macaroons {or macarons in French} will always be the ultimate luxury, for the packaging alone! If you can't afford to give all your guests a box of macaroons as a wedding favour, why not try a DIY macaroon wedding cake?

{Photo Credit} Aimeentnguyen via Vintage Rose Garden

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Wedding Favours - Wrap With Love

One of my favouite activities is wedding window-shopping at Etsy - I thoroughly recommend it to anyone with a spare minute to fill! On my metaphorical stroll earlier today, I discovered LillaLotta, the sweetest little store of handmade cotton tapes. It's run by Anna Barrow, who lives in a sleepy little village in the South of France, with her large noisy family of five little children. Along with her standard selection below, Anna also offers bespoke tapes, decorated with the wording and images of your choice. Just imainge - there are so many ways you could use the tape on your big day, from tying your bouquets and buttonholes, decorating table vases and, of course, adding to personalised wedding favours.

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Cute Felt Heart Wedding Favours

This winter wedding season is all about fabulous felt! It's being used in all the best wedding details, from favours to decorations. It's one of the easiest materials for crafting, as your stitches either disappear in the fabric, or work as a detail in the design. It's also super-cheap, a key asset for the DIY bride. Check out a tutorial on how to create your own hearts here or here, and buy your felt from eBay. I've fallen in love with these gorgeous felt and wool hearts by Sweet PB, so if you're not in the mood for wedding DIY, you can always get creative with your credit card! I'd use them as table decorations that would double as favours, or you could create giant hearts for your flower girls to carry instead of bouquets.

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DIY Christmas Wedding Favours

Edible wedding favours are always popular, and these gorgeous gingerbread men are the best addition to a winter wedding. Get your girlfriends baking, and encourage them to use their imagination in the decorating. Just imagine a gingerbread man bride and groom! These would also make a fantastic extra Christmas present - DIY your own with this recipe from The Primrose Bakery Book via Daily Candy.

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Hey DJ - How to Choose Your Wedding Music

Wedding dancing. It's a whole genre of its own. But how can you guarantee your guests will fill the dance floor all night? Why not ask them for their favourite tracks? Leave these fab, free, print-your-own cards on the tables through dinner, and encourage your guests to fill them in during dinner. They'll make for a fantastic conversation starter, and you can ask one of the ushers to pick them up ahead of the cake-cutting. Huge thanks to the team at brilliant blog The Wedding Chicks for this inspirational idea. Click here for the template.

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Say it with Wedding Cake

We're a HUGE fan of cupcakes here at Before the Big Day, and that probably explains the extreme excitement over our latest discovery. Yummy Card is simply the best invention since sliced bread, although it involves cake not bread. To be precise, it involves both a cake and a card. For the princely total sum of £9.50, you can send an individual, personalised cake PLUS a card anywhere in the UK via First Class post. Is it just me, or does that seem almost too cheap? I'm going to be sending them to everyone I know before they put the prices up! P.S. They also do Yummy Card wedding favours, although you'll need to give them a call to figure out logistics.

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Edible Wedding Place Cards & Cakes

After your wedding ceremony, all eyes are going to be on your wedding reception and the focal point - your wedding cake. So you're going to want your wedding cake to be one hot momma! Just lately, I've fallen for B Cake Studio's delicious designs. Angela runs the company, which is based in lovely South Wales, and she's an expert in modelling sugary fabulousness. Every wedding cake they make is bespoke, and designed to match your wedding colour scheme or complement your theme. She's also started making place card cookies as a twist on traditional place cards. They're great for a bride on a budget {place card and favour in one}, and they can be completely customised to coordinate with the wedding, right down to using the same font that was used on the wedding invites. Now that's what I call wedding inspiration.

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DIY Wedding Favours with Washi Tape

DIY brides looking to stamp their mark on their wedding favours need look no further than washi tape! This fabulous multi-coloured Japanese accessory is taking over the crafting world, and it's truly the easiest way to personalise your wedding. I'm loving the idea of combining these kraft-style boxes with washi tape, to create the perfect wedding favours for your guests. Check out Etsy sellers for thousands of different designs of washi tape - these are from Le Box Boutique.

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Vintage Teacup Wedding Favours

Vintage is a wedding trend that shows no signs of going out of fashion, and I'm a huge fan. There's something whimsical and romantic about using old-fashioned crockery at your big day, and it can add a lovely sense of history if you use old family china. If your grandparents have smashed theirs years ago, then never fear, Bedcrumb are here to save the day. They'll provide you with a cute vintage teacup and saucer, filled with scrumptious marshmallows or sweeties, all tied up in net with a vintage fabric bow, and a tag which can be personalised with your own special greeting. You could do all of this yourself, but for only £5 each, I'd be tempted to buy them in!

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Gorgeous Heart-Shaped Pottery Wedding Present

My husband and I {nope still not used to it!!} have just closed our wedding list, and are glowing in our guests' generosity. Some people who didn't even come to the wedding gave us presents - how kind is that! It's all slightly blown us away, and we can't wait to receive all our lovely gifts in a couple of weeks. This wedding business is something of a rush, as a bride, I can't quite believe you get an engagement ring, a gorgeous wedding dress, fabulous shoes, an amazing wedding day, a perfect handsome husband, and then people give you presents??? I feel like the treats should be spread out a bit more! We chose Heals for our wedding list, but if you're looking to go a bit more quirky, how about creating your own list with lots of gorgeous Etsy items on it? First on my list would be these gorgeous heart bowls from JD Wolfe Pottery - there's something about their earthenware nestling goodness that is right up my street.

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My Wedding Favours: Fortune Tellers & Vintage Keys

Wedding favours are a touchy subject. Some people think they're naff, others think they're a waste of money. Personally I think they're another opportunity to personalise your wedding, with the added benefit of giving your guests a warm and fuzzy feeling. At our wedding, we chose to give everyone a vintage key and the girls got grey pashminas, handed out by our amazing wedding planner, Kerry Bracken, as the sun set. The keys fitted in with our secret garden wedding theme, and everyone loved them! Lots of the ladies are still wearing them round their wrists or as necklaces, so they were definitely a hit. My Boy also created wedding fortune tellers, which included a Q&A about our relationship, plus the menu. It was fantastic to see people working out how to use them as they sat down to dinner. For a fortune teller tutorial, click here and search for Cootie Catcher {that's what Americans call Fortune Tellers}. Alternatively, you can buy them via Etsy seller Kat's Crafts. Gorgeous sneak-peak pictures by Jemma Harding Photography.

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Introducing Confetti Wedding Favours

Whether it's a Royal Wedding Street Party or your own fabulous big day, you're going to want to keep your eye on the little details. The wedding favours, the decorations, the table plan, the wedding stationery - it's all those little things that make a wedding stand out from the crowd. So don't miss the Confetti website - it's packed with ideas, and everything's organised by theme {so helpful!}.

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Introducing Azulsahara Stationery & Wedding Favours

Favours are a tricky subject for many brides. Some say that it's not a UK wedding tradition to give these mini-presents, but personally I'm all for them - not least because they're a fantastic opportunity to show your creative side. Whether you choose an edible option {chocolates are always appreciated}, or something more valuable, make sure you put yourself in the shoes of the guest - the last thing you want is discarded favours left on the table. Wedding stationery company Azulsahara help their brides with a fantastic selection of wedding favours, to match their invitations. This creates a fab 'together' look, where everything is the same pattern. Whatsmore, all their wedding favours are personalised with the names of the bride and groom, and the date of the wedding with no additional cost. Check out their gorgeous selection below, and on their website.

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Fun Wedding Biscuit Favours

Lots of brides agonise over what to have for their wedding favours, only to have them left, unloved, on the table at the end of the night. I know of one bride who handmade each guest a heart-shaped lavender bag, only to have half of them left behind - heartbreaking! One way to make sure your wedding favours are appreciated is to make them edible, and my latest crush is on these cute iced-bisuits from Biscuiteers. Pick one of the designs below, or get creative, and call on their special bespoke service, where you can work with them to create a brand new range of biscuits just for your wedding.

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Vintage Silhouette Stationery & Wedding Favours

There's something uniquely romantic about the silhouette. Hugely popular as gifts in the eighteenth century, they'll add an antique feel to a vintage wedding day. Add your profiles to your wedding stationery, or why not hire an artist to cut freehand portraits of your guests during the reception. I'd do it, but I hate my profile {huge nose}! Contact the Roving Artist or Karl Johnson for on-the-spot art, or Le Papier Studio for prints and invitations.

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Supporting Japan Part 3

Just a quick new posting in my quest to support Japan. Support their local businesses by picking up a few cute prducts from Japanese Etsy stores, or support Etsy sellers who are donating money to the Japanese Relief Fund. I've fallen for these gorgeous origami crane earrings. Why not buy a few pairs for your bridesmaids, or give paper cranes as favours for your guests?

{Product Credits: 1. Fawning in Love 2. Bandit Octopus Co}

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Fabulous Fancy-Dress Wedding Favours

If you want to kick off your wedding reception with a sense of humour, then why not give these little fancy dress items as wedding favours. Cheap and cheerful, they'll get everyone giggling before they hit the dancefloor. Try beauty spots from Printed Wonders for the girls, and moustaches from Mister Moustache for the boys, or vice-versa - you'll have everyone swapping before you know it!

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Chic Minimalist Wedding Favours

Whatever you decide to give away as wedding favours - if indeed you decide to give favours at all {there's a debate to be had there!} - make sure they're wrapped just right. You definitely don't want to be choosing anything predictable. Instead go for a chic, utilitarian look with these graphically designed muslin and paper bags from Humunuku. Or you could borrow their wedding inspiration, buy a stamp from Etsy and make your own!

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