Despite waffling on about not making the blog too personal, here I am with a post on the inner workings of my wedding planning. Talk about double standards!
But as it turns out, I’m absolutely loving the planning stage and really want to share my ideas. It’s so fun to see things coming together and like every bride-to-be, I honestly believe I could do this as a career. So here are a few of the wedding-y things I’ve been wrapped up in recently…
flowers.
I love a good floral print, but I’m not particularly knowledgeable when it comes to actual, real-life flowers. There are a few I like – peonies in particular – but most of the blooms I recognise will be out of season by the time our wedding rolls around in September.
So I was delighted when a lovely reader, Rebecca, emailed me about her mum Rachel’s flower farm just outside Sheffield. My only stipulation for the flowers was that they needed to look natural, and so having them picked straight from the farm sounded ideal. I went to visit Rachel on a very rainy Sunday and despite the awful weather we’ve had this summer, she’d created a bounty of beautiful florals.
After chatting to Rachel about the types of flowers that would be available in late September, I started a Pinterest board (what else?) to collect my ideas. Then I read a blog post in which the bride described her flowers as if ‘someone ran their hand through a meadow’ – perfect!
With a grower sorted and an idea of the style, there’s not much more to do on flowers until next summer. They are officially my favourite part of wedding planning.
collecting.
I’ve been collecting bits and pieces from charity shops and car boot sales since the age of 7, so this part of the planning is going rather well. Looking back, you could say I’ve been preparing for my wedding for 20 years. But let’s not, as that makes me sound cray.
Car boots have mostly stopped now, but there are plenty of ceramic jugs, vintage tins and floral fabrics to be found in my local charity shops. I’m also on the look out for old books to sit jugs of flowers on, vintage leather suitcases to hold cards/blankets/flowers and plastic pig figurines to do this with.
research.
I’m trying to rein in my researching, as I have so many ideas my brain no longer has the capacity for regular thought. Someone asked me how I was yesterday and I replied ‘Scrabble letters would be GREAT as place settings!’ (not really, but you know what I mean).
I also think reading too many wedding blogs/magazines can be hugely overwhelming, and sometimes make you feel a tiny bit inadequate, or even unoriginal. Yes, the whole ‘vintage’ thing is overdone, yes, we’ve all seen bunting before… but if that’s what you want, who cares? I think it’s great that some wedding blogs focus on unusual, unique weddings, and I’ve got so much inspiration from these posts. But not everyone has the time or spare imagination to create something spectacular, and that’s ok too.
Saying that, I adored the second issue of Rock n Roll Bride Magazine (buy it here) and will definitely order the next. I’m finding Pinterest really useful for collating my ideas and sharing them with suppliers, and this Filofax (that was in my goody bag from The Apartment at Fashion Week – best gift ever!) keeps all my receipts, budgeting notes and 3am-after-bottle-of-wine ideas together.
dresses.
I’m not going to share my wedding dress here (maybe when the big day’s over), but I thought I’d show you a glimpse of the bridesmaids’ dresses, as I’m so ridiculously pleased with them.
I spotted this dress on the Whistles website back in August and knew instantly it was what I wanted. I despise bridesmaids’ dresses and for a time, I considered having my ladies in different dresses with a similar colour theme. Anything to avoid them looking like bridesmaids, basically!
I also wanted to get them a dress they could wear again, that wouldn’t take up valuable space in their wardrobes and go unworn for years. This dress – a straight, shift style in pale blue lace with scalloped hem – is perfect. It doesn’t scream bridesmaid, but gives some cohesion to the group. It’s lace, which works with the vintage theme, but so simple and classic it doesn’t look OTT. I love it so much I got an extra one for myself (not to be worn on the day, you understand).
And to finish this post, I need to say a HUGE thank you to the staff of Whistles in Leeds, particularly Alex and Charlotte. This dress was a limited edition, and they tracked down EIGHT of them in various sizes from all over the UK. Alex also helped me use the Grazia discount to get 25% off which resulted in a huge saving. I am so grateful to these girls – thanks for being part of the planning, ladies!
