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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Original Hand-Painted Wedding Stationery & Maps

Wedding bloggers can sniff a wedding trend a mile off, and I've caught the fragrant whiff of a mega-stationery craze coming our way. Hand-drawn wedding maps have been gaining in popularity for a while, but next season, hand-painted wedding invitations are going to be the only way to entice your guests to your wedding. Either DIY or ask an artistic friend to lend you a hand, or alternatively book the fabulous artist and illustrator, Alice Peto to help you out. I've fallen head-over-heels for her whimsical invitations and maps, and I'm sure you will too!

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Real Celebrity London Wedding: Paul & Nancy

Wasn't it wonderful to see Paul McCartney marry his girlfriend Nancy on Sunday? And doesn't she look incredible in her Stella McCartney buttoned dress. Simple, chic and gorgeous. Massive wedding inspiration for any brides planning a civil ceremony, or those who aren't keen on wearing a full-length gown. I'm also loving the flower in her hair and the way she's bucked the trend for big wedding bouquets with a cute bundle of roses. Paul's youngest daughter, Beatrice, was bridesmaid, and they celebrated their big day at the trendy Marylebone Registry Office in London.



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Win VIP Tickets to The Luxury Wedding Show London

Oooh we do like a wedding fair over here at Before the Big Day! After a truly fabulous time at the National Wedding Show and the Designer Wedding Show, we have a whole new wedding fair for you to get your teeth into. The Luxury Wedding Show London is on the 22nd-23rd October at the Saatchi Gallery and I have 5 pairs of fantabulous {new Before the Big Day word combining the values of fantastic and fabulous} Saturday tickets for you to win! This incredible prize is worth £100 per pair, and includes goodie bags worth £30! All you need to do is leave a comment below, or send me one via Twitter {tag it @beforethebigday} and I'll enter you into the competition. Make sure you leave your email address so I can contact you if you get lucky. I'll draw the winner on Tuesday 18th October at 5pm.

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Before the Big Day Competition - Win Your Engagement Shoot

Hello to all you lovely new Before the Big Day readers from the Designer Wedding Show! I had so much fun meeting all of you, and I have to admit to being very flattered at how many of you were already fans of Before the Big Day. A big thanks too, to the lovely Patrick from Butler-Madden Weddings for inviting me to hang out as his stand, AND for his fantastic competition offer. Don't forget you can win an engagement shoot with Patrick this week - all you need to do is go to Butler-Madden Weddings' Facebook page and Like. Then you need to tell me your imaginative and creative location for your engagement shoot by commenting below this post. Make sure you add your email address as well. Good luck - we'll be announcing the winner on Friday 14th October at 1700. For the Terms & Conditions of this competition, please click here.

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Real Breathtaking Renaissance-Style Wedding: Jillian & Brian

Stupendous is not a word I'd use lightly, but it's the word that jumps to mind when you see the incredible wedding dress in this Before the Big Day Real Wedding. It's a fabulous confection of ruffles and bows and feathers, with more than a little of the Carrie Bradshaw about it. And I love it! My theory is that if you're only going to get married once in your life {here's hoping}, then it's worth doing it properly. Jillian and Ben must have felt the same way, because their venue {Vizcaya Museum in Florida}, flowers and detailing are all breathtaking. This sort of wedding doesn't come cheap, but if you're working on a budget then there's plenty of wedding ideas you can steal, from the sweetie bar, to the balloon photo props and the black and white theme. You could also use their fab photographers - the very talented ladies from Simply Bloom.

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Real Farm-Style Shabby Chic Wedding: Jess & Rik

If I could get married all over again, in England, this wedding is exactly how I would want to do it. Gorgeous Jess and Rik celebrated their big day in the Bristol countryside, with a glamorous farm-stye theme, complete with a tractor and trailer to transport them from the church, and straw bales for seating. Themes are all about drawing inspiration from your venue - it'll make the details more likely to fit in with their surroundings. That's why the burlap, traditional marquee and vintage suitcase guest book area work so well in this wedding. I'm also loving Jess' incredible gown, and her bridesmaids' soft pink dresses, which must be some of the most flattering I've ever seen. No ghastly Bo Peep outfits for these ladies! Fab traditional green striped straws too. Stunning pictures published with thanks to Butler-Madden Weddings. If you want to see more from this wedding, check out the Before the Big Day Facebook page.

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Before the Big Day Competition - Win Your Engagement Shoot

October always feels like the start of a new year to me. It must be a left-over feeling from the start of the new school year, but as soon as the leaves start turning, it feels like it's time to start afresh. To celebrate this brand new season, and to whoosh away any back-to-school, goodbye summer blues, I have a fabulous competition for you. Drumroll please.....One of my very favourite photographers, Patrick, from Butler-Madden Weddings is offering an amazing engagement shoot for one lucky couple. This incredible prize is the perfect way for you to practice your posing ahead of your big day, and celebrate your engagement. It's worth hundreds of pounds, so it's no ordinary prize, it's a supercalafragalisticexpialadoshus prize!

To enter, you need to do two simple things. You need to go to Butler-Madden Weddings' Facebook page and Like. Then you need to tell me your imaginative and creative location for your engagement shoot by commenting below this post. Make sure you add your email address as well.

We'll be announcing the winner in one week, on Friday 14th October at 1700. In the meantime, if you're going to be at Designer Wedding Show in London this weekend {7th-9th Oct} look out for the Butler-Madden Weddings stand. If you fancy it, come over and have a chat with me, Patrick, or his lovely assistant Laura. For the Terms & Conditions of this competition, please click here.

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Incredible Destination Engagement Shoot & Competition

Normally I don't feature engagement shoots, so this is a huge change for Before the Big Day. I figure as tonnes of photographers are now offering engagement shoots as part of their wedding packages, brides need inspiration on how to style their engagement shoots just as much as they need wedding inspiration. I've fallen head-over-heels for this gorgeous couple. Angus and Alice got engaged a few months ago, and Patrick from Butler-Madden Weddings shot their engagement pictures in sunny Majorca, where they live. The light is just gorgeous, and I'm loving their casual clothes and easy style. If this shoot is tempting you into organising one to celebrate your own engagement, then prepare yourselves for some exciting news. Butler Madden Weddings and Before the Big Day are teaming up at the Designer Wedding Show to offer an amazing competition. I'll be anouncing more details tomorrow - so make sure you check back on the wedding blog tomorrow!

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