Here Comes the Bride Wedding Signs

One of the wedding details I left till last was my Here Comes The Bride sign. I'd spotted them on Etsy, and I figured I could easily DIY one myself, but I left it a bit late. If you look at the second set of pictures, you can see my nephew holding my DIY sign, prettily stuck together with black tape! The idea for my wedding was that he'd walk down the aisle ahead of me holding the flag, but he fell asleep before the ceremony and failed at his task. So when you pick your pageboys, make sure they're older than two, and have a good snooze before the wedding ceremony! If you're not so keen on designing your own flag, my favourites are from The Ritzy Rose and Larkspur & Linen. Along with Here Comes The Bride you could also have practical instructions like Cake Cutting or First Dance or even Please Take Your Seats. What would you choose? I'd love Happily Ever After.

{Product Credit} The Ritzy Rose

{Product Credit} The Ritzy Rose & my nephew at my wedding by Caught the Light

{Product Credit} The Ritzy Rose &  Larkspur & Linen

{Product Credit} The Ritzy Rose 

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Real Pretty in Pink Wedding: Zoe & Pete

Winter brides are going to love this beautiful English countryside wedding. Despite getting married super-close to Christmas, Zoe and Pete resisted the temptation to choose red and green as their wedding theme colours. Instead Zoe chose a vintage-pink theme, in keeping with the details on her gorgeous Ian Stewart wedding dress. The Four Seasons in Hook made for a beautiful setting for their wedding ceremony and reception, and I'm loving their portrait pictures in the stunning grounds. Stealworthy wedding ideas include Zoe's wonderful sparkly Benjamin Roberts shoes, the vintage-pink roses, Zoe's elegant chignon and the bridesmaids' pretty wrist corsages. Plus a great idea for a Chrismas wedding - all the tables were named after the 12 Days of Christmas, and once the groom finished his speech he instructed all the guests to sing the song, from start to finish. By the end all the guests were up on their chairs singing and waving their arms. Amazing! Huge thanks to Binky Nixon for her beautiful pictures, this is an exquisitely captured wedding.

My shoes were from Benjamin Roberts, which I bought from a shop owned by one of my bridesmaids - A Bride To Bee in Hampshire. I stuck the I Do sequin stickers on myself. 

I kept seeing this particular dress in all the wedding magazines and the first shop I went into the same dress was there hanging up and I fell in love with it straight away! It was made by Ian Stuart. My veil and accessories were from the same shop as my dress, Bridal Couture.

For our venue, we chose The Four Seasons Hotel in Hook, Hampshire. The venue is in-between Portsmouth and London, and we have friends in both cities, so the location was perfect. My husband had stayed at Four Seasons hotels before and was very impressed their service and accommodation. We wanted quite a vintage theme wedding, and we chose neutral, almost autumnal colours.

I loved planning our wedding! I kind of knew what I wanted and we had just over a year to organise it all, so it wasn't too rushed.  My advice to brides planning their wedding is not to stress and just enjoy it. Write a list of everything you need to do and what you want. Plan in advance and try to book things quite early. Do the big things first, e.g. venue, dress, photographer, entertainment, and then move on to the fun decisions.

My bridesmaids' dresses were from Dessy. I knew I wanted them in long maxi dresses, and a neutral colour, to match the flowers on my dress. I was thrilled that Dessy had a colour that matched exactly!

Our florist was recommended to us by one of my best friends who found them for their wedding. They're called Exclusively Weddings & Events, and they're run by a lovely lady called Linda. She was brilliant and we loved her work. I love roses, so we went for them, and they looked beautiful.

My husband's outfit was from Paul Smith, but he had a good idea of what style suit and shoes he wanted before he went shopping.

Our photographer was Binky Nixon. She was recommended to us by a few good friends who'd booked her for their weddings. She was brilliant - we loved her!

We chose a traditional three-tiered square cake, plain and elegant, decorated with vintage-pink roses.
Debenhams designed our stationery. The invitations were simple cream and chocolate brown, with a ribbon-wrapper fastened with diamanté heart. Plain and elegant. For favours we chose Godiva milk and white chocolate hearts in a box. We wanted something that wasn't going to go to waste and they looked lovely with the table decorations.

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Real Pink Peony & Sparkle Wedding: Kristian & Skyler

It's not often that a set of wedding pictures makes me laugh out loud, but you wait until you get down to the picture of Kristian and Skyler kneeling to receive their blessing. Skyler's best man and older brother decided to play a joke on him, and decorated the soles of his shoes - genius! Gorgeous wedding details you'll want to copy include the elegant teal theme, reflected in the bridesmaids' dresses and the vintage brooches fastening their bouquets. Kristian's dress is just exquisite, and her cathedral-length veil is super-romantic. Their cake is a work of art, and loving the mismatched tiers, and the break from tradition. I'm not sure how it didn't topple over, but it looks fab! Gorgeous pictures thanks to the lovely ladies over at Simply Bloom Photography.

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Very Exciting Before the Big Day News

Well this is very exciting! Sky Living has nominated Before the Big Day as one of its favourite wedding blogs. We're listed alongside all my favourite UK wedding blogs, so I'm feeling very proud. Do check out the link here. This is proving to be a very exciting month here on Before the Big Day. We've welcomed 5000 more new unique users, and word is spreading about our now-not-so-little wedding blog - woohoo! Please do tell all your friends who are getting married - it's only fair that they get to enjoy all this free wedding inspiration too. Big thanks to Alexis from OMG I'm Getting Married for drawing my attention to this accolade!

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Exotic Morocco-Themed Wedding Inspiration Shoot

This incredible wedding shoot has got me wishing we'd planned our wedding in Morocco. With tonnes of gorgeous exotic details, you'd think this was a wedding planned in the desert, but in fact, the team of wedding vendors are based right here in the UK. It just goes to show you can create any wedding theme you like, all you need is a blank canvas, and tonnes of imagination. I'm loving all the bright wedding details from this shoot, including the pretty paper lanterns from Papaver Designs, the bright Moroccan-style cushions, the delicate lanterns and incredible gold wedding cake. There's tonnes of wedding ideas for every type of wedding, I can imagine the lace bunting and table stationery at a pretty farmhouse wedding as well. Huge thanks to Xtraordinary Photography for their gorgeous pictures, and to Poppy Lee from Papaver Designs for telling me all about the shoot. For details of all the vendors, do check out the list below the pictures!

{Vendors}
Wedding stationery & lanterns: Papaver Designs {Poppy made all the paper lanterns, tissue paper pom-poms, gift tags, paper flower ball (pomander) & wedding menus for the shoot.}

Wedding Planner & Fairy Godmother: Daisy Chain Events

Wedding Photographer: Xtraordinary Photography

Wedding Cake: Little Town Bakery

Wedding Dresses: Miasposa 

Flowers: Flower Fever
Bridal Headpieces - What Katy did Next

Cushions & Textiles: Lauren Crawford Textiles 

Bunting: Little Bundles Bunting  

Wedding Details: Event Diva {Mairi provided bird cages, Moroccan lanterns & wooden hearts.}

Make-up: Beautiful Bridal Makeovers 

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Walking Your Way to Your Wedding Weight

{Posting by Alice Cowen, Before the Big Day's Personal Trainer & Nutritionist} Are you wondering how you're going to drop a few pounds before your wedding day? Did you know that walking at a moderate pace for 30-60 minutes burns stored fat, and builds muscle, which in turn speeds up your metabolism? You can burn up to 500 calories an hour depending on your weight, and the speed you walk. What do you reckon, could you make time to fit walking into your life? How about walking to work? Or start walking with your future husband or bridesmaids at weekends. Here in Majorca at Bootique I do a 45 minute walk nearly every Sunday. I find it very relaxing, and end up daydreaming my way there and back, while listening to my iPod. Often I completely forget I'm exercising at all - now that's got to be the best solution for a future bride who hates working-out! xaLx

{Photo Credit} Danielle Aquiline via Elizabeth Anne Designs

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Fun Musical Themed Hen Party Idea

In a couple of weeks, I've got the hen party for one of my friends who's getting married this summer. I can't wait for a fun get-together with my girlfriends, although the maid of honour is keeping our activities a secret! All we know is that it's going to be in London, which means it could be virtually anything, although at least that means there's no chance of anything outdoorsy or cold. My worst nightmare would be some sort of camping hen weekend, where we all have to be hale and hearty. Even the addition of roasting marshmallows on an open fire wouldn't bring me round. On one of my favourite hen parties last year, when we went en masse to Chicago musical London, and all dressed up in character, which made for a hilarious evening. We all wore fishnet tights, and Twenties' style flapper dresses with long strings of pearls. Even the feather boas looked classy! You could do the same for most West End musicals, from Grease {Pink Ladies} to Matilda {Roald Dahl outfits}, or even the Wizard of Oz. Loving the idea of a bride dressed up as Dorothy in sparkly red shoes, particularly if they happened to be Louboutins like these {any excuse to buy Louboutins!}.

♥ Looking for more hen party ideas? ♥ Or how about wedding shoe ideas? ♥

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Rain On Your Wedding Day

After one sunny day, we're back to rain again. So although I wish for you to have sunshine on your wedding day, it's probably best if you plan for a wet day, just in case. That way, you won't be sad if you get a spot of drizzle. To cheer you along, here's some fabulous rainy wedding inspiration, collected via Pinterest. There's some great ideas for rainy wedding day portrait pictures, and some fabulous wellington boots! Click here for the Pinterest board for tonnes more gorgeous images.

{Photo Credit} Caitlin Thomas Photography

{Photo Credits} BDG Photography & Fotopastele

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Brilliant Bubble Wand Bridesmaid Present

One of the reasons why I like weddings so much is because they're a magical moment out of the ordinary. Done right, they can create an almost childlike excitement in your guests - the fairy-tale feel of Happy Ever After. A moment when we can all suspend our disbelief. Continue the feeling of fun with these fantastic bubble wand necklaces for your bridesmaids. Created by Parliament of Two, they're designed as a tribute to our supersize childish memories. Just add bubble mixture.

♥ Looking for more bridesmaid wedding ideas? ♥ Or how about summer wedding ideas? ♥

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