My Wedding in Provence - Part 2 - Portraits

During the reception of our wedding in Provence, we snuck off with Chloé from Caught the Light to have our portrait pictures taken. As luck would have it, there was a gorgous field just outside the Château's grounds, with tonnes of poppies, which made for a beautiful backdrop. My dress and veil were by Delphine Manivet, and my sister gave me a silver Tiffany key-charm as my 'Something New', which I sewed to my pink peony bouquet. The Boy's buttonhole was made out of baby's breath, and carried a vintage key kept for years by my grandmother. His shirt and tie were from Start London. Come back to the blog on Saturday for the reception pictures - if you're a wedding detail fanatic, you're in for a treat!

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My Wedding in Provence - Part 1

Deep breath... It's time for me to feature my own wedding in Provence. Today, it is our five month anniversary {already!}, and it's taken me months to narrow down the hundreds of gorgeous Caught the Light and Jemma Harding Photography pictures to these blog postings, so I hope you won't mind me putting up quite a few photographs. It's SO hard to edit your own wedding. Next week, I'll also do a posting with all my fantastic wedding suppliers, so for the next few days it's going to be all about me. {I hope that's okay!}. So, here goes.... We celebrated our big day, at the end of May, near Aix-en-Provence. We hired Chateau Grimaldi for three days, and hosted the bridal party in the house, with the wedding on Saturday and a drinks party on  Sunday. We were SO lucky with the weather, as the sun shone for the whole three days, only to pour with rain on our honeymoon! By that time though, we didn't care. As you can imagine, for a wedding blogger, it was all about the wedding. Here are the first set of pictures, more to come later this afternoon.

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Real Peach & Paper Lantern Wedding: Belinda & Simon

You've got to love it when a groom gets into the wedding planning. The groomzilla is a rare and wonderful beast. He's should be admired by brides the world over, for actually appreciating why wedding details are important {not boring}, and for embracing wholeheartedly the wedding process. Most grooms {my husband for one} show no interest, so let's hear it for Simon, who along with his gorgeous bride, Belinda, planned the most incredible wedding in Jersey. I'm loving all their wedding details, including the paper lanterns, shabby-chic floral bunting, luggage tag place markers and twine-wrapped vases. I'm also head-over-heels in love with Belinda's gorgeous wedding gown, and the fabulous peach dresses she chose for her bridesmaids. Beautiful pictures published with thanks to Colin Cruickshank Photography.

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My Fabulous Fitness Weekend at Bootique

All this week I've been eating yoghurt for breakfast instead of cereal, and you know what, I feel a lot slimmer as a consequence. So why this sudden turn away from cornflakes? Well it's all thanks to the incredible weekend I spent at my friends' new project - Bootique in Majorca. Run by Alice and Angus {personal trainer and chef and engaged couple}, Bootique is a tailor-made holiday with at twist, where Alice trains you to within an inch of your life, and Angus feeds you healthy {but delicious} food. We went for a long weekend, and somehow managed about five hours of exercise a day without collapsing. In the gaps between Pilates classes, power-plate sessions and treks in the Majorcan hills, we relaxed around the gorgeous pool, sipping herbal tea and watching dragonflies dart around the tropical garden. Truly a heavenly experience, and one I can't recommend enough to brides-to-be for last-minute slimming or healthy hen weekends. And the best thing? It inspires you to be healthier at home - it's not just yoghurt I've started eating, I've even learnt how to cook quinoa.

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Beautiful Wedding Marquee Inspiration

Marquees are fantastic for hosting truly personalised weddings. As long as you've got enough space, you can pick and pitch in any location, from a field to your parent's garden. And then the fun starts! You can decorate the inside any which way you like - carpet colour, drapings, lighting, tablecloths, chair-style, flowers - it's all up for grabs. I've recently fallen for these arty drapings by Crescent Moon - loving the butterflies and feathers - which one would you choose?

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Wearing A Veil On Your Wedding Day

Wedding veils can be a difficult beasts. After all, it's the one accessory you only really wear once, so it's not like you get a great deal of practice on what style suits you best. My bridesmaids had terrible trouble fitting my incredible Delphine Manivet veil at my wedding, so I'd definitely recommend getting your hairdresser to do it for you. Or at least do some serious practice ahead of your wedding day. I'm particularly loving the wedding veil style in this picture below, discovered on fab blog Cup of Jo, by Amy Carroll. For other styles, do click here.

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Real Shabby-Chic Barndance Wedding: Jamie & Bryan

The sheer abundance of copyable details from Jamie & Bryan's big day, have got me in a tizz. How can I put in words the sheer wonderfulness of it all? What should I mention first? Luckily the team from Our Labour of Love have gushed on my behalf, pointing out the barn-dance invitations, the oodles of bouquets and birds nests, the flea market antique plates, the symmetry of the parasols and the personalised jam-pots. PLUS my biggest love, and something that should be in everyone's list of wedding-wants, the Kick Off Your Heels flip-flop favours. Such a fantastic idea to keep your girls on the dance-floor.

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