Real Sheer Romance Wedding: Sabrina & Alex - Reception Pictures

There's so many gorgeous details in this dreamy luxury wedding, you're going to want to add every picture to your wedding Pinterest board. As you know, I'm a huge fan of marquee weddings, and I've fallen for the pretty-in-pink style of Sabrina and Alex's wedding reception. With stunning flowers by Jane Campsie at the Garden Inn, a traditional tiered wedding cake {chosen by Alex}, and elegant table stationery by Emma Jo {love the romantic calligraphy}, every element is exquisite. Enjoy these fabulous pictures by Maria de Faci, and be sure to look out for the fishy details - Alex is a keen fisherman, so Sabrina made sure to reflect that in a subtle way, including a cute wedding cake topper!

We celebrated our wedding on 30th June, at Alex’s family home. We wanted to keep the decor natural, romantic and stylish, with a colour palette of neutrals and pinks. 

Monique L’Huillier made my wedding dress, our florist was Jane Campsie at the Garden Inn in Stockbridge. She was an absolute dream to work with.

Alex's suit was made by Hackett.

My bridesmaids wore the Lela Rose dress from Dessy.

Maria de Faci was our wedding photographer. We liked the style of her photography and her portfolio.

Emma Jo Stationery designed our wedding stationery, including the table stationery. We wanted something elegant and simple. I love stationery and am a bit obsessed with paper, so for me it was all about the choice of paper and letterpress.

Alex chose the cake with no input from me. He wanted a patisserie style cake that basically tasted amazing! Each tier had a different filling – chocolate, Victoria sponge and carrot. Flowers from our florist were used to decorate it. 

Alex is a serious fisherman so we had a fishing motif running through the wedding {on all the stationery, names of tables, cake topper, etc}.

My advice for brides.....there’s a lot of choice out there so try and narrow everything down to three as quickly as possible to help with decision making. 

My other tip would be, film the day {either a friend or professional}. We used a professional {Super8 Wedding Films} and at the time I wasn’t sure whether it was a bit of an extravagance, but I was so happy we did once we watched it.

♥ Want to see more marquee weddings? ♥ Or how about luxury weddings? ♥

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

Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.

Real Sheer Romance Wedding: Sabrina & Alex

When it comes to dreamy wedding inspiration, it doesn't get better than a Monique L’Huillier wedding dress, frothy white peonies, pink roses and large round balloons. Sabrina and Alex's wedding is a study in romance, and I've fallen for their luxury style. Sabrina chose a soft colour palette of pinks and neutrals, and a church wedding, followed by a marquee reception at Alex's family home. For once the weather behaved, and there's nothing better than the English countryside on a sunshiny day. Don't miss my favourite stealworthy ideas - the glamorous cream Rolls Royce, the pretty Lela Rose Dessy bridesmaid dresses, and the elegant Emma Jo wedding stationery tied up with black and white baker's twine. More fabulous details in the reception pictures, coming soon! Huge thanks to Maria De Faci for her gorgeous pictures of the day!



We celebrated our wedding on 30th June, at Alex’s family home. We wanted to keep the decor natural, romantic and stylish, with a colour palette of neutrals and pinks. Alex is a serious fisherman so we had a fishing motif running through the wedding {on all the stationery, names of tables etc}.

Monique L’Huillier made my wedding dress, our florist was Jane Campsie at the Garden Inn in Stockbridge. She was an absolute dream to work with.

My bridesmaids wore the Lela Rose dress from Dessy.

Maria de Faci was our wedding photographer. We liked the style of her photography and her portfolio.

♥ Want to see more romantic weddings? ♥ Or how about pink themed weddings? ♥

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

Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.

A Quick Personal Message

Hello there and thank you for reading Before the Big Day! You might have noticed that my posts have been slightly erratic just lately, and I want to apologise for that. If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you might have gleaned the reason....I've recently had a baby boy. His name is Ivo, and he's now nine weeks and satisfyingly chubby! But much as I try to tell him he needs to nap regularly so I can blog, he hasn't quite got the knack for it. My passon for Before the Big Day is still as strong as ever, and I have been known to look longingly at my laptop, while burping him over my shoulder. I'm soon going to be getting a bit of help, so that my wedding blogging can continue apace, but in the meantime, please do bear with me. Before the Big Day is a one-man-{woman}-band, so if I haven't answered your email, or edited your wedding, Ivo is why....it's not that I'm ignoring you! P.S. During my pregnancy I also started another blog - Before the Baby, which is also getting less attention than it needs. Definitely worth checking it out though!!

 ♥ Want to read more about me? ♥ Or how about checking out our real weddings? ♥

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

Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.

Creative Wedding Invitation Inspiration

Wedding stationery is one of the most obvious ways to personalise your big day. It'll give your guests a sense of what's to come, and can really set the tone of your wedding theme. Graphic designers are up there with my favourite creative people, and they're constantly coming up with new and clever wedding invitation ideas. Here are a few of my recent favourites - discovered via Storkie and stationery blog Oh So Beautiful Paper.

{Product Credit} DIY'd by bride and groom Christine & Ian

{Product Credit} Kate at Ruby & Willow

{Product Credit} Kate at Ruby & Willow

♥ Want to see DIY wedding ideas? ♥ Or how about more wedding stationery ideas? ♥

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

Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.

Real Vintage Sunflower Wedding: Chanelle & Terry - Wedding Reception

If you're a budget-conscious bride, this wedding is going to fill your heart with joy. It's a complete detail-fest, with tonnes of DIY ideas, and all of them are wallet friendly. It's all about having your unique wedding style and keeping to a particular theme. Fantastic couple, Chanelle and Terry chose a sixties vibe for their big day, and DIY'd their flowers, photo-booth, table-plan and much, much more. Armed with blackboard paint and a huge fancy dress box, they kept their guests entertained late into the night with a music themed wedding reception in Terry's parents' back garden. Take a look at all these incredible photographs by Michael at My Beautiful Bride, and be sure to read Chanelle's answers to the Before the Big Day Bride's Questionnaire. She's a vintage genius {take a look at her retro clothes shop Annie in the Attic} full of fantastic wedding advice!



We married on the 30th June 2012. The ceremony was held in St Mary's Church in Buckland in Surrey, and the reception was held in the garden and marquee at Terry's parents' house in Buckland. Holding the reception at Terry's parents meant we had full control of all aspects of planning, styling and dressing which is exactly what we wanted.

Terry and I have known each other since high school! We didn't see each other for years and then met again in a local bar, and the rest is history as they say.

On our five year anniversary, Terry took me and our son {who was only 6 months old at the time}, to Brighton for the day, as this is one of our favourite places to visit. We spent the day there, trawling vintage shops, and had lunch before a walk on the pier. It was sunset and he timed it perfectly, when he got down on one knee on the end of the pier!

Our photographs were taken by the fantastic Michael from My Beautiful Bride, who we can’t praise enough. Michael captured our day perfectly, and he was great in the build up to the wedding, and on the day itself. 

Ahead of your wedding, Michael really gets to know you as a couple, and spends time brainstorming ideas for creative shots, to ensure he knows exactly what you want from your pictures. All our guests commented on how helpful he was, and we were flooded with messages and comments on the finished photos. 


The thing we realised about photos is that the day goes so quickly, that actually your photos are one of the most important elements of your big day. They're your wedding day story book.

 

We began planning the wedding the summer before our big day. We drew inspiration from wedding blogs, moodboards and places like Pinterest. As I work in vintage, the wedding was always going to have a strong sixties influence, as this is my favourite era. I also found choosing the flowers really helped develop my ideas and colour themes, and I put together many moodboards.



We wanted lots of interesting things for our guests, so we had tonnes of DIY wedding details. We turned the potting shed into a vintage photo booth with old curtains that could be changed for different backdrops, and a huge chest of vintage clothing, props and hats. We purchased a Fuji Instax {a LOT cheaper than Polaroid, plus films are easy to buy} that produces instant pics, and hung out string with coloured pegs to create photo bunting. Guests had great fun doing this and wrote messages on the photo borders for us to keep. 


Another detail that added interest was our 'Family Tree'. We collected old and vintage pictures, and photo frames, and used them to display photos of Terry and I, and our families. They were tied on string and nailed into an old tree which looked really pretty. Guests loved laughing at old photos of us and reminiscing.

We chose records for our name places and table plan, and chose some of our favourite songs for table names; we also played these tracks in the background whilst we ate. 

We provided coloured chalks on the tables, and guests wrote messages on the record table names, and on their glasses, which we'd painted with blackboard paint so we could use them as name places.

Wedding stationary can be expensive, and I enjoy DIY projects, so I made our wedding stationery myself. The Save the Dates were simple magnets with the day, date and time and a 60s 'Just Married' couple photo in black and white. The wedding invites were the same design with further information printed on postcards. It was much cheaper than traditional invitations, and suited our wedding perfectly.

We DIY'd our wedding flowers. Ahead of our big day, we went to flower shows and wholesalers to select the flowers we liked. We then found a wholesalers close to the wedding venue, and ordered the flowers and picked them up the day before the wedding. We all made the bouquets and table decorations together, and left them in water in a dark shed overnight so they didn't wilt. Florists can be very expensive so we saved a lot of money by doing them ourselves.

Our wedding cake was made by a friend of ours, and an expert baker - Jody at Boola's Bakery. Jody created exactly the cake we requested, but she is great and has a whole portfolio of ideas if you need inspiration. We told her our ideas and she created the perfect cake!

For wedding favours we created a penny sweet table, with small pink and white paper bags. Our guests were encourage to help themselves. We also made little brown paper envelopes containing sunflower seeds with the words 'Let Your Love Grow' stencilled on the front. Guests really liked these and they were very cheap to make.

I loved planning my wedding! It can be stressful at times, but on the day when you and all your guests can enjoy all that hard work, is really worth it. I say all the time, I wish I could do it all again!

My advice to brides planning their wedding is - enjoy the day! Its cliché but it goes so quickly. Get a great photographer {I couldn’t recommend Michael from My Beautiful Bride enough} so that you have perfect memories, and don’t be afraid to do things yourselves. You can save lots of money and its really rewarding.

 ♥ Want to see DIY wedding ideas? ♥ Or how about more garden wedding ideas? ♥

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

Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.