Carnival Wedding: DIY Invitation Tickets

Making the Carnival Wedding Tickets was a little bit fiddly, but it's definitely do-able, even if you're not a professional graphic designer. The secret is to be adaptable, and use the computer programmes you understand. For me, that's Picasa, Word and iPhoto. Picasa is a free programme, which you can download from the internet, and it's seriously easy to use. This tutorial will help you adapt any free printable, so it's worth saving!

First of all I downloaded a free printable of a carnival ticket invitation that best resembled the look I wanted. I found this amazing template from The Burk Family Blog via Pinterest {right click, Save As onto your Desktop}. To find your own template, the best search to use is 'free printables' and then any other key word. If you can't find one on Pinterest, then Google Images is a great place to look as well.

Carnival Wedding Theme DIY Invitations

My birthday is fast approaching, and as it's my last one before I become a mother {eek!}, I've decided to go the whole hog, with a Carnival Theme. It's a style I seriously considered for our wedding, so I'm using my 34th as an excuse to use all my carnival wedding inspiration. As ever, my first obsession was styling the invitations - I think it's key to any wedding or party to build anticipation with fabulous stationery, and with the right kit, it's super easy to DIY. Take a look my Circus Bunting invitations below, complete with DIY instructions. And if you're looking for more Carnival Wedding Theme ideas, then definitely check out my Pinterest page.

Making the invitations was a two stage process. First of all I made the bunting cards, and then the carnival tickets to slip inside.

What you need
Hint: I find all my supplies via eBay to get the best prices!
* this Carnival ticket template {published with thanks to The Burk Family Blog}
* white cards 4" x 3"
* striped blue & white paper bags
* washi tape
* star squeeze punch
* A4 red card 220gsm
* white address labels 100mm x 34mm
* plain white sewing cotton
* sharp scissors
* sticky tape
* glue
* a printer with black ink
* a guillotine {or be very good at cutting straight lines}

Vintage Wedding Dress Sample Sale

Massively exciting news! The Vintage Wedding Dress Company has just announced its annual trunk sale. Taking place this month, from 21st-23rd of February 2013, viewing is by appointment only at their central London showroom. This gorgeous boutique is renowned for its heavenly gowns, both vintage and vintage-style, and this is your opportunity to get your hands on them at discounted prices! For full information and to book an appointment, call 0207 907 7719.

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

If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for our free newsletter. 

Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.

Real Spring Vintage Wedding: Laura & Brandon

A truly stunning wedding for you this fine Thursday {one day to the weekend, yipee!}. The gorgeous bride, Laura, chose a library wedding theme, to reflect her own studies in libary science. Throw in a few vintage wedding details, including an old globe, a library card catalog 'guest-book' and vintage vases and you've got tonnes of fantastic wedding inspiration. I'm loving all the DIY wedding details - Laura's mother's friends filled little bottles with locally grown organic wildflowers, that they bought by the bucketful from their local florist. Another favourite is their blossom studded wedding cake, the candy bar, Laura's amazing Justin Alexander gown, and the gorgeous, chic green stationery.

More posts like this one:
✽ Real Spring Snowdrop Wedding Video
✽ Real Welsh Spring Wedding

♥ Want to see green themed weddings? ♥ Or how about more spring wedding ideas? ♥

If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for our free newsletter. 

Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.

Cheap & Chic Wedding Jewellery

Put away your credit card.....ideally somewhere you can't find it for some time. Is it hidden? Okay, now take a look at this gorgeous wedding jewellery from Blaguette. It's the best bling I've found in some time and {whisper it}, the prices are super-reasonable. Personal favourites have to be the purple Labroradite Triple Drop earrings {below} - they'd both look gorgeous with a gentle up-do - with or without a veil. With 30% off for Valentine's Day {with the code HEART13}, it's time to treat yourself.

More posts like this one:
✽ How to Dress Your Bridesmaids
✽ Wedding Diamonds for Hire

♥ Want to see wedding jewellery? ♥ Or how about more bridesmaid ideas? ♥

If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for our free newsletter. 

Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.

Wedding Shoe Heart Stoppers

If you're anything like me, you'll be wanting to make sure every wedding detail is perfect! At least, that's how I felt in the early days of my planning - once things got a bit closer, and a bit more rushed, I started to become a lot more laissez faire! But with months and months to go, you can worry about the little things, and these anti-slip shoe hearts definitely fall into that category. But aren't they adorable?? They easily peel off and stick to the sole of your shoe, stopping any embarrassing falls, and adding a flash of cute to your every step. Pick them up for under £10 from Mon Amour Boutique, plus a few sets for your bridesmaids. P.S. Mon Amour Boutique also have adorable I Do and Me Too matching sticker sets for you and your husband. If you kneel in church, they'll make all your guests smile.

More posts like this one:
✽ I Do Tattoo
✽ Your Perfect Subtle Something Blue

♥ Want to see quirky wedding ideas? ♥ Or how about more wedding shoe ideas? ♥

If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for our free newsletter. 

Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.

Real Stylish Vintage Wedding Video: Lisa & Robert

There's nothing I enjoy more than a sneak-peak of a gorgeous couple's wedding video. It's a fast-track way to view all their fabulous wedding details, and if the wedding videographer is good, then you get a real sense of the atmosphere for their big day. Lisa and Robert chose Richard from White Dress Films as their videographer, and he's created a truly beautiful trailer of their big day at Creeksea Place in Essex. You're going to love Lisa's gorgeous vintage style, her bridesmaids' flouncy dresses, Forties hair-styles and fabulous tights. Add in the vintage scooter wedding theme, honeycomb paper decorations, beautiful English garden-style flowers, vintage suitcases,  fun fancy dress props, and more wedding details than you can shake a stick at, and it's a wedding inspiration overload!

More posts like this one:
✽ Vintage Tea-Party Wedding Shoot
✽ Real Roses & Vintage Wedding Video

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

If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for our free newsletter. 

Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.

Before the Big Day Wedding Trends of 2013 - Antlers Theme

Today's Wedding Trend of 2013 is definitely slightly left field. It's grown out of the new natural fashion for woodland wedding themes, and while wearing elegant antlers on your wedding day might not be every bride's idea of glamorous, it does look fabulous! If you're not quite ballsy enough to go the whole hog and get your horns on, there's tonnes of other fantastic ways to reflect a deer or antlers- themed wedding. Take a look at the gorgeous pictures below, and for many more ideas, do check out my Pinterest board. P.S. If you follow me on Pinterest, you'll get sneak-peaks of all the trends before everyone else!

{Photo Credit} Laura Fulmer Photography, styled by Jessica Santos Gallo of Fine and Fleurie. First featured on Rock n' Roll Bride

{Photo Credit} 1. Tyler & Katie Branch, first featured on100 Layer Cake, 2. The Nichols

{Photo Credit} 1. Deer Head Antlers Wedding Invitations by Haute & Homespun, 2. Bryan Rupp Photography, styled by Amy Allen. First featured on Style Me Pretty wedding blog.

More posts like this one:
✽ A Quirky Music Themed Wedding
✽ A Black Veil - would you?

♥ Want to see quirky wedding ideas? ♥ Or how about more wedding advice? ♥

If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for our free newsletter. 

Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.

Introducing Before the Baby Blog

With a new addition to the Before the Big Day family on its way, I've decided to expand my blog family as well! My baby son is due at the end of March, and I'm getting bigger in every way - my bump now seems enormous {see my Instagram feed}, and I'm firmly out of high heels and into flats. So while my enthusiasm for weddings is unstinting, I'm now having a fantastic time exploring the wonderful world of babies. Considering the fun I have writing Before the Big Day, it made perfect sense to write a baby blog, so may I introduce Before the Baby! I'm not updating it quite as much as my wedding blog, but we have big plans afoot, so if you're expecting a baby, know someone with children, or your business has anything to do with nurseries, baby clothes, children's parties or baby photography, please do get in touch via email, Twitter or Facebook!

More posts like this one: 
✽ About Me
✽ Peter Rabbit Range on Before the Baby

♥ Want to see marquee weddings? ♥ Or how about more church wedding ideas? ♥

If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for our free newsletter. 

Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.

Real English Garden Wedding: Krysten & Matt - Reception Details

With tonnes of English garden wedding details, you're going to love the pretty in pink reception pictures from Krysten and Matt's beautiful big day! Krysten organised many of the DIY projects herself, with a little help from her family. Matt's mum made the wedding cake, his aunt arranged the wedding bouquets, and their friends all grew English garden wedding flowers to decorate the reception venue. With tonnes of money-saving tips, you're going to love reading Krysten's wedding advice, and you'll want to copy all her stunning shabby-chic wedding details. Huge thanks to Sam Johnson for his beautiful pictures - don't miss Part 1 here.

We got married on Saturday 7th July 2012 at noon in our church in Long Itchington. Our reception was at Matt's parents' house – a beautiful old farm. We always knew we would want a summer wedding there as it’s very personal and special to us, it's a stunning English setting and had the space we needed. 

Our theme was English Summer Country Garden – we had different coloured flowers everywhere and our day had a real personal DIY feel. Family and friends had grown all the flowers in the pots that surrounded the marquee and courtyard, and a close selection of family arranged all the table flowers.

Our photographer was Sam Johnson. We went to school with him and I knew he had a very good reputation. Ahead of our wedding he came to visit the church and venue, and we spent time deciding on the types of shots we wanted. We are so pleased with our photos, particularly the ones of us on our own in the garden - they're gorgeous pictures that we will cherish forever.

I found my Rachel Simpson shoes at a vintage wedding fair. They were reduced to £50 on the day and a percentage of the money was donated to Breast Cancer Research UK. I love pink, so they were perfect and fitted my vintage style dress.

Matt and I met at secondary school when we started taking GCSE Maths and History lessons together at the age of 15. Matt asked me to our Year 11 summer ball and 10 years later asked me to marry him on my birthday weekend away to Lake Windermere. 

It was April Fools Day, we went for a long walk in the rain with our puppy and he kept checking his phone for the time and then proposed after midday {April Fools don’t count then apparently!}. I was very shocked when I saw him on one knee and of course said yes! It was very romantic. Minutes later we bumped into a couple who were celebrating their 50 year anniversary – they said it must be a good sign for us!

Our wedding reception started with prosecco and canapés in the courtyard, with a string quartet and then we chose a really unusal marquee from Artisan Marquees for the reception. It was plain white, so we decorated it with lots and lots of beautiful colourful English garden flowers, large colourful flower paper pom poms, and white paper globes.

My exceptionally creative and talented friend Milly Carter designed and printed our gorgeous invites, order of service, place names, table names, table plan. They all had a floral, vintage theme. 

Our wedding invitations, Order of Service and place-names were printed on brown eco paper and our table names and table plan were hand painted black and white with pink flowers. We chose a theme of 'These are a few of our favourite things' so each table had names including 'Lady Coco' {our dog}, 'The Beatles', 'Lake Windermere' and 'Trinity School' {where we met}.

For wedding favours, we had Matt's mum traditional chutney in little glass jars topped with floral material for decoration, plus a brown luggage tag stamped with 'Spread the love. Matt and Krysten. 7th July 2012'. They fitted perfectly with our DIY country theme, and were very cost-effective.

We had lots of DIY projects. We made the flower pom-poms, decorated the chutney pots for favours, created our favour sweetie table and a photo wall with pictures of all our guests. But the biggest project was probably the wedding flowers!

I love flowers so this was a huge part of our wedding theme. From the start I knew I wanted as many flowers as possible – lots of different colours, with little dainty garden flowers in teacups on the tables. We asked our family to grow pots of flowers and help with the decorations, and the scent on the day was glorious. 

I loved planning our wedding! I followed lots of bloggers on Twitter and had two books; a scrapbook with ideas, and a wedding planning book full of lists and deadlines. I found the more organised I was the more I could enjoy the creative side.

I really miss planning it now! It was special and fun to be able to chose everything and develop a theme. Matt was happy to leave me to do the 'look' so long as he tasted the food, and chose the wedding band. He picked Anthem who are based in Brighton, and they were absolutely fantastic!!! We've never been to a wedding with so many people dancing wildly to a band!

Our favourite cake is Matt's mum's freshly baked Victoria sponge with cream and strawberry jam. The strawberries added a summer feel. She made this with our sister-in-laws company Sweet As in Leamington Spa. It was simple, classic and delicious. We served it as pudding with fresh cream.

My advice for brides is to set a budget from the outset and work out your priority items – we were fortunate to have people to help with flowers, so that £100, which we could put towards a fantastic band. I got at least three quotes for everything too – it's astonishing the price difference between companies. Our marquee was a third of the cost of another company, and by driving an additional 5 miles we saved £100 on the bridesmaid dresses! Our friend recommended a string quartet at a music college who were significantly cheaper as they are not yet graduated so charge less – they were superb.

Also, use talented friends and family – they can offer a wonderful personal touch, you can save lots of money and people love to be involved and be apart of your special day! It’s easy to focus on the wedding but your committing to a lifelong marriage - so don’t forget to make plenty of time for each other before the big day.

More posts like this one: 
✽ Shabby Chic London Wedding
✽ Anthropologie-Style Wedding

♥ Want to see marquee weddings? ♥ Or how about more church wedding ideas? ♥

If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for our free newsletter. 

Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.