Saturday 25 February 2012

Real Life Wedding - Anton and Vicky

It's Saturday morning and I'm in a reflective kind of mood. Saturday Kitchen hasn't started yet so I have a bit of spare time before the day properly gets going. Scrolling through my photo's from the last year I came across one of the best days of the year (in fact I better say it was the best before the lovely couple read this!), and as I think it's every Wedding bloggers duty to report on real life weddings, it's my pleasure to share with you the fantabulously lovely wedding day of Anton and Vicky.

I was lucky enough to be part of the beautiful day and as it was my first time as a bridesmaid I was more than a little excited. Vicky was ridiculously organised and thorough down to the very last little details and it definitely showed on the day. Yes, we made a bit of fun at the 3 page, colour coded itinerary that was emailed through the week before the wedding, but actually, it meant that everything on the day was perfect.

Their venue was amazing - a gorgeous barn conversion in the picturesque village of Shrawley, Worcestershire. The Church was a short walk (literally a couple of hundred feet) from the reception venue which provided some great photo opportunities as Vicky and her Dad walked down to the Church for the ceremony and meant guests didn't have to worry about getting from one place to the next. The whole wedding had a lovely country relaxed feel which suited the bride and groom perfectly.



Vicky's stunning dress was by Charlotte Balbier. If you haven't checked out any of her collections you definitely should. They're feminine but fashionable and not too pricey. The Bridesmaids dresses were Dessy and I love the way the necklines mimicked Vicky's (see what I mean about being oh so organised with the little details!).

Their photographer was Claire Evans. She is quite possibly the loveliest photographer ever and her pictures are gorgeous. I think the photo above of Anton and Vicky walking back down the aisle after the ceremony is one of my all time favourites. She captured some absolutely amazing moments.

The table decorations at the wedding breakfast continued with the relaxed country feel. Birdcages brimming with flowers served as table arrangements and all the menu's, table numbers and name cards matched perfectly with the ivory and purple scheme.


The Groom and his ushers all looked very dapper in their suits from Slaters and I love the dark grey with the purple. However, saying all that, I think the little flower girls stole the show in their floaty white dresses and adorable hair pieces.

It really was one of the best days. It's the only wedding I've ever been too where when it came time to leave, the majority of the guests were still boogying on a very full dance floor (either that or queuing up for the photobooth which was an absolute hit). I loved every minute of it and can only hope that when it's my turn in a few months, my husband to be and I can pull it off as well as Anton and Vicky did.

http://www.charlottebalbier.com/

http://www.claire-evans.com/


Thanks for reading,

Chelsea
x

Friday 24 February 2012

Bands of Gold

So it's Friday and it's payday...not gonna lie, it's quite possibly my favoritist day of the month. It also means that tomorrow's Saturday and I have a lovely full bank account just waiting for me to have a little nosey around the shops. Except for one thing - I'm getting married in just over three months and all that disposable income that I used to happily spend on the high street is now very importantly put aside for wedding things only (although it's amazing what I can justify as a wedding buy...).

That's why whenever I find a good bargain on a wedding essential I get a little bit excited and feel the need to share my fantastic find with anyone who will listen. Perhaps my best bargain so far has been on our wedding bands. After reading through volumes of Bridal magazines and seeing wedding ring budgets from £500 to £1500 I gave myself a tentative £1200 limit.

After one afternoon dragging my husband to be around the high street jewellers trying on band after band (all while my hands got considerably warmer and warmer and each ring evoked a mild panic attack at the thought of getting it stuck and the embarrassing situation that would result in) I realised that £1200 was probably a little under the mark with the gold prices where they are. We were consistently quoted £1300 or more. However, I wasn't disheartened and by the end of the day we'd sorted out the exact spec of band we wanted - width, weight, colour and karat amount. Being one of online shopping's biggest fans (one click buying on Amazon is one of the most dangerous functions ever invented) I thought I'd have a snoop around the Internet before committing to £1300 of high street gold.

There are a lot of jewellers online these days, and since they don't have to pay all the overheads that a shop does they can give you the product at much much cheaper prices. The average saving for the bands we'd chosen was about £800. Maybe I should repeat that....eight.hundred.pounds. It's not just penny's that you save by going online. Saving £800 on rings could mean that you can all of a sudden afford a photobooth, that band you loved, a videoagrapher, or just mean you don't have to give up Latte's for a year to save that extra bit of cash.

 I ended up checking out a jewellers I'd bought from before - Joshua James. They do quite a bit of branded jewellery and I'd bought some of their nomination charms as Christmas pressies the year previous. Their website was fabulous and easy to use. They didn't charge for postage or packaging and having used them before I trusted their quality. For the rings we wanted it was just over £550 all in. They sent the rings in a lovely display box and delivered in just over a week. I couldn't fault them if I tried. I'm so very happy with my purchase and felt it was definitely worth sharing. Have you found a great wedding bargain online? Please share if you have as I'm always looking :)







Thanks for reading,

Chelsea
x

Thursday 23 February 2012

Coming soon...

Welcome to my first ever blog!!!  
I don't know what the grammar etiquette for statements like that are, but I definitely feel that it deserves more then just the one exclamation mark.

For whatever reason, I'm fairly new to the world of blogs. But (and I know you're not supposed to start a sentence with but) I am so so sooooo excited to be a part of it all and to share my honest opinions, personal experiences, and any other random info relating to weddings that I happen to come across.

I'm lucky enough to have met the man I want to spend the rest of my life with and somehow convinced him to spend the rest of his life with me too. After getting engaged just over a year ago I'm in the final run up to my wedding this year and have loved every last minute of planning, organising and researching my perfect dream day.  I've met some lovely people in the last year and have enjoyed every minute of being immersed in the wedding world - which in short is why I've started this blog.

Over the coming days, weeks and hopefully years (!), I want this page to become a plethora of good advice, idea's, story's and the likes, that other brides, bridesmaids, grooms, and anyone else that's interested can have a good read, a good laugh and come out the other side maybe just a bit more informed.

Please don't judge a book by it's cover just yet, as I know this page needs some serious work. But I promise, give me a couple of weeks and I'll have sorted out atleast the basics behind HTML (I'm sure I took a course about that in school....) and at the very least learnt how to make this page as pretty as it deserves to be!

Thanks for reading,

Chelsea
xxx