Real Elegant Lace Wedding: Sade & Brent

Thanks to Kate Middleton's wedding gown, lace is huge this season, with wedding gown designers going gaga over this oh-so feminine of styles. I'm seriously spellbound by Sade's Monique Lhuillier dress, which showcases the lace trend in stunning style, and whatsmore, her wedding is to die for! There are so many wedding detail ideas, you're going to want to copy every one - from the yellow door 'altar', to the ribbon trimmed cake and homemade jam pot favours. I'm also loving the lemon place markers and the vintage books, and the sunshine yellow colour scheme. The whole wedding glows in a truly golden light. Fabulous photographs published with thanks to Punam Bean Photography.

 ♥ Want to see more lace themed weddings? ♥ Or how about yellow-themed weddings? ♥

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Before the Big Day Theme - Lace

Choosing a wedding theme is one of the best bits about planning your wedding day. It's when you can let your imagination run wild, before annoying things like saving for your wedding gets in the way. I chose a secret garden theme for my wedding, including a vintage key motif, and a sage green and grey colour palette. Take a look at my mood boards for my wedding inspiration. If you're looking for a wedding theme that's feminine, sophisticated and totally on-trend, then I'd recommend lace. It works on every level, from wedding dresses, to stationery, decorations and wedding bouquets. The Vintage Wedding Dress Company has even brought out a new Decades Lace Collection, and Martha Stewart's lace hole punches make it an easy theme to DIY. Take a look at the pics below for more wedding ideas or click here for lacy weddings on Before the Big Day.

{Above} Photography by Aaron Delesie via Ruffled Wedding Blog

{Above} Lace Tape for sale from Papermash

{Above} Luminaries via Martha Stewart Weddings, Votives from Perfect Bound via Brenda's Wedding Blog

{Above} Photography by Tracy Turpin

{Above} Lace DIY Project via Ruffled Wedding Blog, Paper Lace Bunting for sale from Aymujer

{Above} Lace Bouqet, Lace Pins and Lace Jars for sale from Vintage Proverbs 356

 ♥ Want to see more wedding theme ideas? ♥ Or how about real weddings? ♥

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Real Vintage Marie Antoinette Wedding: Nicola & Marc

Today I've mostly fallen for the Marie Antoinette decadence of Nicola and Marc's vintage wedding at historic Swinton Park in North Yorkshire. Nicola chose a unique style for her big day, with a theme of pearls and lace, plus soft purple tones and plenty of sparkly jewellery. Her for-keeps bouquet is stunning, and a family heirloom in the making - brooch bouquets are a great way to include vintage or family jewellery, so everyone is 'represented' on your wedding day. Buy similar via Etsy. Other stealworthy details include Nicola's 20's-style pearl necklace, her stunning corseted wedding gown {how slim is her waist!}, and Marc's stylish suit {is that tartan?}. I also love the vintage reception props - the old suitcase table plan, the antique books and fan and the birdcage detailing in wedding stationery and wedding cake.  Huge thanks to Lightworks Photography for these stunning pictures.

♥ Want to see vintage wedding ideas? ♥ Or how about more castle wedding ideas? ♥

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Real Traditional English Wedding: Sarah & Michael's Wedding Reception

With wedding details galore, you're going to love the reception pictures from Sarah and Michael's beautiful big day. Sarah chose lace as her wedding motif, and purple and white as her colour palette, for a truly coherent wedding theme. I love the clean lines of their white wedding marquee, and the purple punctuation of the wedding flowers and table stationery. Even their wedding cake is in keeping with the theme, with super-realistic purple flowers made out of icing. The effect is one of classic elegance, all perfectly pictured by Anna Rosell. Enjoy her wedding photographs, and be sure to read all of Sarah's great wedding advice, and don't miss Part 1 and Part 2 of this wedding!

We celebrated our wedding at Longstowe Hall in Cambridge on 4th August 2012. We wanted a real English wedding, and felt the historical feel of Longstowe's Elizabethan architecture, and its beautiful English rose gardens was just perfect.

We had a purple and lace theme to the wedding, and also white roses, again keeping with the traditional English feel. We wanted to keep it simple and traditional yet classic. We also felt it was really important to use local suppliers and we managed to do just that.

My favourite chocolate is Ferrero Rocher, so I decided to give each guest a chocolate as a wedding favour. I bought organza and purple ribbon from Hobbycraft and my Nana, Mum and I had a great {and long} day wrapping each one.

Our wedding flowers were from The Flower House in Cambridge. I don't know much about flowers, and only knew that I wanted purple and white roses in the stem of the vases, so I let the florist decide on the arrangements. 

We loved planning our wedding! Being a teacher I love researching and organising, and a friend bought me a wedding planner, so I was in my element buying wedding magazines and tearing out bits that I liked for reference. The worry is whether it will all come together on the day, a few things didn’t go as planned, but that added to the day.

My advice to other brides would be, don’t get too bogged down with research, there are so many options out there and many people offering similar ideas. Choose something you like and then don’t research it anymore, there may always be something else to find, but you have draw a line, otherwise it can be never-ending. Most importantly, enjoy it all as it is over very quickly.

We spent ages designing our wedding invitations, menus and table names, keeping with the purple and lace/white theme. We found an wonderful lady called Julie, whose local stationery company is called Little Button Nose, who handmade them for us.

For our wedding cake I chose a local lady called Margaret who makes wedding cakes as a hobby. She made handmade the purple icing sugar flowers that cascaded all the way down the cake, and afterwards, as a keepsake, she put them in a little arrangement for us. We had a three tier cake, sponge, fruit and chocolate.

Our photographer was Anna Rosell. She was recommended by the venue, but I also loved her work and the gorgeous colours that she always manages to capture in her shots. I spent months in the run-up to our wedding following Anna’s blog, and looking at the other weddings that she had shot, so I was very excited, as I knew she would provide us with pictures to treasure.

♥ Want to see summer wedding ideas? ♥ Or how about elegant weddings? ♥

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