I imagine this wedding to take place in a beautiful stately home, with roaring open fires keeping everyone snug and scented candles providing delicate fragrances of cinnamon, spiced apple and mulled wine. The decor is a key component of this design, so I would use huge Christmas trees as focal pieces in hallways, and swathes of pine garlanding to decorate staircases and mantelpieces.
It’s important to keep guests warm at this time of year, so rather than the traditional champagne and canapés I’d serve warm mulled wine and mini mince pies for the post-ceremony reception, whilst carol singers entertain guests with favourite Christmas tunes. I love the idea of writing guests’ names onto baubles and hanging them on the Christmas tree in place of a table plan, and leaving brightly wrapped presents underneath in place of favours.
For the wedding breakfast I’d serve a traditional Christmas dinner, complete with individual flaming plum puddings, and after guests have danced the night away to a swing band would round the day off with a spectacular firework display and a mug of warm hot chocolate.
Merry Christmas everyone – see you in the New Year!

Photo Credits:
Bride and groom: Lisa Devlin via Love My Dress
Pine decoration, Christmas tree and log fire: Flickr here, here and here
Shoes: The Knot
Candles: Lakeland
Wedding gown: Pronovias
Purple bow: Spirit of Christmas Fair
Bouquet: Brides
Cupcakes: Martha Stewart
Bridesmaid dress: Dessy

Thanks to Helen Carter, for this wonderful December Wedding Inspiration Board – be sure to check out the other wedding inspiration boards that Helen has done for LMW in the past and let us know your thoughts on the choice of colours…..

Thanks so much to wedding planner, Helen Carter, for this wonderful November Inspiration Board – be sure to check out the other wedding inspiration boards that Helen has done for LMW in the past. I’m loving the November one…. what do we think ladies? (and gentlemen!)
Photo Credits:
Cake: JL Designs
Bridal gown: Pronovias
Candles: Alesia Barry
Invitation: Bella Figura via Style Me Pretty
Centrepieces: Jessica Lewis via Style Me Pretty
Bridesmaid dress: Lazaro
Table setting: The Knot
Shoes: Jose Villa via Snippet and Ink
Bouquet: The Bride’s Cafe
Wintry scene: Flickr
Bride headshot: Flo and Percy

Hiya, Little Miss Weddingistas! I am a wedding planner and owner of Forever and Ever Events, a boutique wedding planning firm based in Primrose Hill, London. I was so thrilled when I was asked to guest blog about my favourite two topics: DIY and Styling.
As a wedding planner and event design consultant, I know how daunting DIY can seem to people, especially to those who don’t have much time to put it together! Never fear: here are some easy DIY tips that will most certainly inject your personalities and charm into your celebration. (Just don’t leave ordering some of these items to the last minute! Always factor in how long shipping/handling will take… just FYI!).
Photography by Alicia Pollett

10. Frame old photographs of you and your fiancé (individually, from toddler to adult, and as a couple), as well as photographs of your grandparents, siblings and, most importantly, your parents on their wedding day. Try and use pretty antique-style or gilt-edged frames. Set these framed photos around your reception venue or in the hotel lobby if you have exclusive use. It will instantly create a sense of an intimate party that celebrates your lives.

9. Remember chalkboards from school? Well, they don’t have to be associated with your ol’ school marm. Chalkboards can be extremely cute signage at a modern wedding reception and are also eco-friendly. All you need are large pieces of wood, plastic or metal and “chalkboard paint” from your local hardware store. Definitely apply multiple coats, but make sure the prior coats dry completely before adding the next layer. Use these babies as a welcome sign, to write out the evening’s menu, a dessert table sign, etc., and then reuse them after your wedding!

8. For a guestbook, find an old/antique typewriter on eBay or at a flea market/car boot sale. Set it on its own table with blank sheets of high-quality paper. Feed one paper through for guests to start on – and type your first message, such as, “This is our guestbook! Share a message with us! Love, M + D.” After the wedding, punch two holes in the left hand margin of each page, stack them up and feed a pretty ribbon through all the pages (front through back, twice to secure), double knot and tie a big bow. Now you’ve got a guest book with pretty binding.

7. If you can’t afford one of those amazing photo booths, why not create your own? Put together a Polaroid camera station! Ask an attendant or friend to take Polaroids of your guests and paste the instant photo into a book. Your guests can then leave a cute handwritten message next to their photo. Before the wedding, take a sample Polaroid and, using it as a guide, paste photo corners onto each page, so that it is super easy for your “photographer” to slide the instant photos onto each page.

6. Are you a music buff and picky about your DJ or band’s play list? Create your own wedding soundtrack and provide personalized CDs as wedding favours. All you have to do is burn the play list onto CDs and order personalized CD labels in your wedding colours. Make sure to get square envelopes that match your colour palette for the CDs and tie a ribbon around the entire packet so that it looks like a mini present.

5. Escort cards can be such a creative DIY platform. If you’re planning a destination wedding, get brown luggage tags for your escort cards. Use a typewriter to type up each guest’s name with their table assignment (e.g., “Mary Herrington | Table 4”) and line the tags up alphabetically in a large antique suitcase that’s displayed lying open on a table, propped against a wall. Type up a sign that says “Find your dinner destination!” or something cute like that so that your guests know to pick up their escort cards.

4. For instant charm, hang up bunting and fairy lights! It’s so easy to do – and fairy light don’t even require assembly! For the bunting, cut out triangles on patterned paper and sew the top of the triangles onto thin white ribbon with few inches of space in between each triangle. Then hang away!

3. Do you have a friend or family member who is awesome at baking? Put together a dessert table with their homemade treats! Mix up your mom’s famous pecan squares with your BFF’s cupcakes and your granny’s melt-in-mouth cookies. Set them out on a long table in your reception area on cake stands and pretty platters. Yum!
Photos by Berna V Photography
2. Flowers & centerpieces. For an outdoorsy or vintage reception, collect glass milk jugs, pickles jars and honey jars and arrange them in three’s in the center of a round table. Make sure you use fresh flowers and arrange different, yet thematically cohesive, flowers into each of the three vases, creating a vibrant centerpiece. For example, baby’s breath mixed with daisies and roses in the same colour palette. {Tip: it’s beautiful to mix ‘rough’ edged flowers and succulents with the traditional, like roses}.

1. And the easiest DIY styling idea? Candles candles candles! This is so cheap and so easy, you really don’t have an excuse. Candlelight instantly creates warmth and a romantic glow – and makes your evening reception look stunning in photos. You can get tea lights in bags of 100 at any local shop for less than £5. Order super cheap clear glass tea light holders from IKEA and set out loads of tea lights all over your tables. Gorgeous.

Most importantly – make sure you have FUN and inject YOUR personality into any DIY project for your big day. For more tips on event styling, DIY and wedding planning, visit Forever and Ever Events or visit my blog.

‘What do you think guys? Fab ideas? Do you have any other DIY ideas to add?‘

If you are anything like me, planning my own wedding was like embarking on the most fabulous journey ever. Even though I was not a typical “wedding person” I became totally enthralled from beginning to end. At times it completely took over my life and I forgot why I was getting married in the first place. Sometimes my budget became a life force all of its own threatening to get bigger than the national debt! But, on the happy day I had the most fabulous time and I can really say as most brides do, it was the best day of my life!
But!! Is there a but? Yes, my only regret was not having enough help in the run up to the wedding and on the day itself. I spent the weeks before chasing round after suppliers, making sure everyone was happy and that everything was just so. Your wedding party can help but if you are like me I wanted to spend time with them and not have them running round after everyone. I had spent months planning for everyone to enjoy themselves.

In doing so, the day before the wedding I was so stressed when I should have been chilled out spending time with my closest friends and family that it really threatened to overshadow my big day. Luckily I am a person who loves lists and organising so I managed to juggle everything and still enjoy my day. Although big chunks of it were spent worrying about if the tables looked ok, had the flowers arrived, how were the cakes arranged? Its no lie when everyone tells you that your wedding day flies by, it certainly does. My food threatened to be ruined because we spent too much time taking photographs, no one really was pointing out times etc.

That’s when I thought I thought of The Wedding Genie, a company that specialised in “On The Day Coordination”. Couples could handover their plans a month before the wedding. Sheer bliss, I meet you at the venue if possible with the venue staff there. We go through everything and I take a list of all the suppliers and plans. After that you can sit back and pamper yourselves in the run up to the wedding. I contact everyone to double check arrangements and give my couples weekly updates so they can be sure everything is on track. You also have an email and phone buddy just in case you start to worry. My brides can wake up on their wedding day, take off their watches and enjoy every single minute whilst I organise everything behind the scenes. You may have a venue coordinator, but generally although they are great, their responsibility is to look after the food and wine. Mine is to completely look after you.

On the day I greet all the suppliers; create a timeline so everyone knows what to do. I even greet your guests, if you don’t mind, and bring my emergency kit. It contains everything from suntan lotion; batteries and umbrellas to battery operated fans in case it’s hot, and even spare tights etc. If anything goes wrong it’s my job to sort it out so that you don’t even know about it.
A friend of mine in the wedding industry has a brilliant saying; a Wedding Coordinator should be the guardian of your wedding day vision. This is exactly my philosophy. Its also affordable and I don’t mind travelling. In fact to help out with your budget anyone who books this service and mentions Little Miss Wedding will receive a 10% discount.
If you are not convinced about a coordinator, my best advice is to delegate!!! Get your bridesmaids to help, give them each something to do and brief them before the wedding day. Ask your best man and ushers to help re seating and photographs. Make sure you are not running around, you need to be calm and enjoy your day and luxuriate in getting ready, concentrate on enjoying every minute, its speeds by like a train. You planned it!! Please enjoy it!

I wish you all a fantastic wedding planning journey, the wedding day you truly wish for, and health wealth and happiness during your marriage.
All photos in this post are provided by Wedding Genie. Please do visit my website to find out more about me, Julie Dawson and my wedding planning services at The Wedding Genie.

1. GET A WEDDING CAKE WITH FLAVOUR
There is no point having an amazing looking wedding cake that tastes like cardboard. Your cake designer should be able to provide you with freshly made samples so be sure to taste the wedding cakes available and if you have a specific cake centre in mind, don’t be afraid to ask your cake designer if they are able to make it.  These days you can have practically any flavour you like for your wedding cake, from chocolate to carrot, however I believe that it is a good idea to have at least one tier oftraditional fruit cake to offer your more traditional guests.

2. WORK OUT YOUR BUDGET
From a good designer, a 3 tiered wedding cake can cost anything upwards of £500. The more sugar modeling that is required and the more intricate the design the higher the cost will be; so set a realistic budget for the wedding cake design you would like and choose a designer that will be able to realise your dreams within it.

3. CHOOSE THE RIGHT DESIGNER
Look around for a designer who meets your needs. Different designers specialise in different types of cake. If you want a very ornate wedding cake covered with royal icing and intricate piping, don’t choose a designer who specialises in sugarpaste novelty cakes and vice versa.  You should also choose a designer who listens to what you want rather than pushing their ideas on to you. It’s obviously a cake designers job to offer suggestions but the final decision should be yours and if after a few design tweaks the wedding cake still doesn’t match your dream it might be worth looking for a new designer.

4. TIME IS A CAKE DESIGNERS FRIEND
Give the designer as much notice as possible. Most cake designers need a minimum of 3 months notice to make a wedding cake but remember that this is a minimum! If you require a rich fruit cake or large amounts of sugar modeling, whether it be flowers or people, the more notice you can give the designer the better. This allows for fruit to be soaked, the design to be tweaked and models to be exquisitely made and not rushed.

5. REMEMBER THAT THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES TO A TRADITIONAL WEDDING CAKE
If you are not keen on having a traditional wedding cake there are plenty of other alternatives.
• Individual miniature cakes -these are covered in marzipan and icing and decorated as though it were a big cake.
• Cupcakes -these are very popular at the moment and can be topped with either sugarpaste or buttercream and decorated to match your theme. If you choose to have cupcakes, I recommend also having a small top tier cake for the traditional cutting of the cake photographs. Boxed cupcakes and cookies also make very good favours.
• Cheese. For those who are not very keen on sweet cakes, Cheese Celebration Cakes are the perfect alternative. Stacked rounds of cheddar, stilton and a host of other cheese varieties can be decorated with fruit and/or flowers to match your wedding theme. Cheese Celebration Cakes are also a fabulous idea as a centre-piece for your evening buffet. This way you could have the traditional sweet wedding cake during your daytime reception and a savoury cheese cake in the evening keeping everyone happy!

Make sure that you check out Janet Mohapi-Banks site for more information on her and her wedding cake designs. Its great to have someone as talented as Janet guest blogging on here because I like to showcase the best wedding suppliers and unique wedding ideas on LMW. Thanks so much for those delicious looking cakes.

1. Keep your guests warm. There’s nothing worse than feeling cold, and your guests aren’t going enjoy themselves if they’re sitting shivering! If you’re having a winter wedding you will need to ensure your venue is well heated – this is particularly important for churches or older buildings that may be draughty, or barns that don’t have central heating. If necessary, hire stand-alone fan heaters than can be switched on before your arrival to warm the air and create a cosy atmosphere.

2. Don’t leave your guests in the cold. Think carefully about when and where you will have your photographs taken. Your guests won’t want to stand outside in the cold for hours whilst you and your wedding party have lots of group shots taken. I would recommend having the majority of your photographs taken at your reception during the drinks reception, so that guests can relax indoors.

3. Serve warming refreshments. When you come in from the cold the last thing you want to be drinking is ice-cold champagne. Instead, serve warm cocktails, hot toddies or mulled wine to warm your guests and create a more seasonal atmosphere.

4. Plan for the weather. Make sure you have plenty of umbrellas available to keep you and your guests dry. You could leave them in a stand outside the ceremony or give them to your ushers to hand out to guests. If it looks like temperatures will fall below freezing, make sure paths are gritted the night before to avoid any falls or injuries. You might want to wear trainers or wellies to get from the car to your ceremony in order to avoid ruining your wedding shoes.

5. Think about timings. Remember that it will be dark from about 4 pm onwards, so if you want your photographs in daylight you will need to have an earlier ceremony time – I would suggest no later than 2 pm. For a truly wintry feel you could incorporate the earlier evenings into your wedding by having your ceremony at dusk.

Thanks to Helen Carter for these top tips and the lovely Winter Wedding inspiration board that you created for LMW a couple of days ago- check out Helen Carter’s site for more info on her planning services and to find out how you can save 20% off her services.

Wedding Dress

The recession has made us all that little bit more resourceful, especially when it comes to finding the best value wedding dresses. There are thousands of articles available on the Internet, in magazines and specialist websites designed to aid in this pursuit. We’ve all read about the 5p wedding dress on eBay, designer warehouse sales, charity shops and high street shops that offer affordable wedding dresses. But have you heard of the untapped Aladdin’s cave of wedding dresses in dry cleaners?

Think about it, a bride has had the most amazing day of her life, she is back from honeymoon and carefully chooses a reputable dry cleaners to take care of her special dress. Once the dress is there, the bills for the wedding start to come through, the credit card bills from honeymoon arrive on the doorstep and she can’t choose which photographs to have so she has them all. Something has to give – the answer she doesn’t go back to collect the dress and pay the large dry cleaning bill.

Dry cleaners have in their code of conduct, do keep any unclaimed items for a designated period after they should have been collected, but after that? From this point onwards a dry cleaner is just looking to cover the original cost of cleaning the dress so they are not out of pocket.

“It amazes me how many brides, simply do not come back to collect their dresses” Says Nick from Mr Ps Dry Cleaners, Bristol. “It has always been the case that some brides, simply did not return, but since the recession we have been seeing this more and more. We pride ourselves on our excellent cleaning and restoration service which includes fixing the dress for any beading or embroidery damage that happened during the happy day. The unclaimed dresses take up too much storage room.”

With wedding dress dry cleaning starting from £150, you could grab a bargain. So if your wish is to find a nearly new wedding dress – get on your magic carpet and head on down to your local dry cleaners.

Thanks to Laura Payne from Myriad Genii who wrote this insightful article – if you’re on a budget I would say its definitely worth checking out the local dry cleaner. I have also seen some pretty nice dresses in some charity shops in certain areas of London (Chelsea, Islington)
Luxury Wedding Planning Consultancy from a male and female perspective – check out Myriad Genii site for more info on how they can help you with your special day.

This was the most gorgeous wedding to photograph from start to finish, and the precedent was set with the magnetic wedding invitations, designed by the bride Dee, who is a digital artist. We had prepared for the day by visiting the church at South Stoke, and knew then that it was going to be something special. With no power in the church, the wedding party would only be lit by a combination of candles and natural light. Although this can be a challenge to photograph, the end results are definitely worth it.

We did not have a chance to see the bride’s overnight cottage in Arundel prior to the day, but given that the town itself is a thing of natural beauty, it was always likely to wow us, and walking into the front room with the grand piano confirmed it.

Dee was keen on having her photo taken on the piano in her dress, although it was so shiny she struggled to stay on there! The dress itself was beautiful, finished off nicely by a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes, and fit in wonderfully in the bride’s bedroom, with its brass framed bed.

Dee was a delight to photograph, being a natural in front of the camera, and she was matched by her actor husband Adam, who donned his Top Gun shades almost as soon as he had his suit on. The ceremony itself was incredibly moving, and looking through the camera’s viewfinder was a joy as it framed the couple’s giggles and teary eyes perfectly.

Once out of the church we were privy to the congratulatory back-slapping and hugs, especially when Dee shared a poignant moment with her grandparents who had travelled from the Caribbean.

After spending some time taking photographs of the couple with the church backdrop we moved up to the reception hall, which was a converted barn close to the church, adorned with hops along the walls and filled with candlelit tables. Traditional Caribbean food was served, and passing the catering tent on the way into the reception hall certainly left everyone’s mouths watering! The post dinner speeches again drew tears and laughter from everyone, setting the tone for the guests to let their hair down after the first dance.

This was written and the photos shot by the photographers Tino&Pip based in Kent.
You can get more inspiration from other real life weddings that we have featured though I have to say that this one is currently one of my favourites and I look forward to covering more of their work soon!