Category Archives: Blogs & Bloggers

This is where I like to highlight other wedding blogs that are worth a read – Places that you can get inspiration on the big world wide web.  Its where I feature other bloggers work and exclusive interviews with them.  Its where I share the love and let you know where else you should be reading, because lets face it sometimes its hard to find a needle in a haystack.

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Belle Amour – UK Wedding Blog

I’ve decided that I want to feature more british wedding blogs on LMW – blogs that like mine focus on the UK wedding industry. There are so many great US blogs out there that we all read and love, which are great for ideas and inspiration, but unfortunately they don’t feature many british suppliers. Each week I will be interviewing/ featuring a fellow blogger – some of them you might already know about, some of them not – I hope you enjoy discovering their blogs too.
BelleAmour_banner_LMW
So this week I wanted to talk about a new blog I discovered Belle Amour, – Debs is one of the few bloggers that I know that is not already married or planning her wedding, and that is what really intrigued me. Her blog features real life weddings, features on UK suppliers and the perfect honeymoon destinations.

So I asked her how she got into blogging about weddings?

It’s not because I’m desperate to get married :) But I’m starting to go to more and more weddings as my friends marry and, although lovely, there’s no personality behind them, nothing that hints towards what the couple are like. And I don’t believe that’s because my friends are boring! I just think they don’t know what’s out there so I wanted to share all the amazing stuff I’ve seen elsewhere to hopefully inspire them and others if possible. And then if there’s several of us UK bloggers doing it hopefully between us we’ll have found lots of less traditional suppliers over here and by the time I get married (which will be years off yet) I’ll have an easier time planning my wedding ;)
I also love amazing photography and just generally looking at pretty things. My blog is kind of like a huge research project so when I do get engaged I’ll be able to see all the wedding-type stuff I love in one place! And meeting like-minded creative people is a huge bonus!

And how do you imagine your ideal wedding?
Ooo and my vision for my wedding day… ideally it would be by a lake with row boats that all the guests could take out. And the meal would be in little individual picnic hampers and everybody would sit on picnic blankets and cushions – I like relaxed – but I’d probably still have to have some kind of decoration about like flowers. And at night there would be fairy lights and candles everywhere, fires would be good too but unlikely they would be allowed! And there’d be live music and a barbecue then everybody would camp out under the stars :)

Any other blogging plans on the horizon?
I am also close to launching a baby blog and I’ve just read you’re doing the same! Mine’s called Belle Bebes (with accents above the e’s but I don’t know how to type them on this!) I won’t be covering the more serious baby related stuff like labour and breastfeeding as I have no idea about it! It’s more just how to have original nurseries and plan great baby parties and will feature toys and prams etc. And this came about as my best friend is expecting in December and was telling me about her idea for a Mamas & Papas nursery. Nothing wrong with Mamas & Papas but when she told me I quickly sent her over a few links from around the web and within minutes she decided she wanted something more original and something she’s spent time designing and decorating, rather than one trip to a shop!

Thanks Debs – happy to have found your wedding blog and looking forward to the launch of your baby one
As an aside….well yes I was planning on launching Little Miss Baby and I probably wil sometime soon, but I have come across a bit of an obstacle – images/photos. We all love looking at pretty pictures and that is the great thing about wedding blogs – its a array of professional wedding photos – flowers, dresses, venues, accessories etc are all showcased beautifully. However when I was doing the baby blog I didn’t find anywhere near the same quality of photos – the product photos were often taken by the supplier themselves and didn’t look particularly professional. More importantly I’d say a big issue is taking photos of children and babies that you can use in your posts – many of my friends don’t want their childrens’ photos online (which is fair enough), so then my only choice would be to post pictures of Coco doing X or wearing Y, which lets face it is pretty dull for everyone.

Thanks Debs for giving us a little insight in to Belle Amour and good luck with the plans for the baby blog – keep us posted.

LMW featured on Your & Your Wedding

I was over the moon to get an email from You and Your Wedding to tell me that Little Miss Wedding had been featured as one of their 15 favourite UK wedding blogs to follow. LMW is something that I do as a hobby (when I get a chance) and as any of you bloggers out there will know it feels amazing to get a little pat on the back and know that people are reading (and hopefully enjoying) your blog.
I wish that I had more time to dedicate to blogging so sometimes I struggle with the fact that I can’t post every day and that I can’t spend more time on it (I’ve got a baby and a pretty much full time job in media), but a mention like this makes it all worthwhile. I’ve always thought that we need some good UK Wedding Blogs and now it seems like there are lots cropping up and many that are now well established.
Love My Dress Banner
Lots of my fellow bloggers like the lovely Annabel, whose blog Love My Dress, Charley from London Bride and the girls at Rock My Wedding and Georgia at Before The Big Day were also listed. I also found a few new wedding blogs that I didn’t know about like Belle Amour – its so good to see some really good british wedding blogs out there rivalling the US ones:-)
So thank you to YAYW for featuring me and well done to all the others listed on there, its great to be in such good company.
Whilst I am at it I wouldn’t be anywhere without the great people that have become my friends and supported me over the last year – the fantastic photographers (you know who you are) that I have featured on LMW, and the many that I look forward to covering in the future, Gaynor from OurdaybyDesign who guest blogged for me in the run up to her wedding, all the fab wedding suppliers that I speak to, those of you that comment on my posts, my Twitter friends and those that link to LMW as a useful resource for UK brides. I’ve found a new hobby in blogging and its a pleasure to feature and work with so many talented UK wedding peeps.
xx

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Decor8 image from Holly Becker

Some really lovely blogs I’ve found

I know I’m normally posting about weddings, but I thought that I would share a couple of blogs with you that I’ve recently discovered. Nothing to do with weddings, but just people who have a passion for a little something (design, photography, styling, babies, gardening) and who like to share it with readers like you and me. Sometimes I like to switch off and read about other things – there is nothing like a change of scene to stimulate the mind…

* CARROTS AND KIDS Carrots and Kids Header

This one is so lovely – written by Deb, a mum of 5 (I can’t believe she finds the time to do this with such a big family). ‘Carrots and Kids‘ – the tales of a mum who loves gardening, her dog, hanging out with her husband and her many children. I was especially happy about finding this as I am about to launch LittleMissBaby.com and I want to include as much as I can about gardening, the outdoors, growing your own veggies, and ways for children to entertain themselves that doesn’t cost and arm and a leg. Deb writes very well and I have a real affinity with what she is saying. I think she must be a super mum!

* JARDINO Jardino Header
I discovered this blog recently whilst I was on a little course. I love the way that her blog is laid out and she takes the most beautiful photographs, mainly of still life flowers, but also anything that involves her love of the outdoors. Her tagline is ‘The Therapeutic Gardener’ which its quite true – just looking at her photos is enough to put a smile on anyone’s face. I have a new camera and I am going to start trying to take more photos of flowers. When you get some of the up close photos (like she does) then you realise that nature really is incredible. Janine is also a lovely girl, which makes reading her blog even more enjoyable. I thoroughly recommend reading Jardino , especially when you need a bit of de-stressing.

* BURRS AND BERRIES Burrs and Berries header
I came across this blog because the author, Samia, is a graphic designer and illustrator (she is doing my blog header for LittleMissbaby.com) and I love her blog. The layout, the style, the posts and what she writes about. Creative people always write about gorgeous bits and bobs. Well its not secret that I love design (especially Scandi) and I would love to be able to write about it, but I leave that to the experts and for now am just happy to read blogs like Samia’s. Be sure to take a look at Burrs and Berries

* A CREATIVE MINT A Creative Mint Header
For those of you that might not know her, Leslie, from A Creative Mint, works miracles with her camera and her awesome styling of photos (just have a look at her header). I love reading her blog and looking at her photos. I am not she how she does it but every post always looks incredible. It takes me hours and hours to try and style photos, then take them properly and finally show them in a pretty way on my blog – but Leslie makes it all look so effortless! Honestly if you haven’t visited this blog then do. I can’t believe I only just discovered it in the last couple of months.

* DECOR8
You guys must know this one, Decor8, but if you don’t here is another goodie. One of my best friends, who happens to be an interior/garden designer extraordinaire, didn’t even know design blogs existed (where has she been??) so I have been busily introducing her to the likes of Decor8 and she is now completely obsessed. Holly is fun, honest and writes a fab blog. Also I love her sense of style and looking at all the lovely photos that she takes. I think this must be one of the most well known (and oldest blogs) on the block. Just look at these gorgeous pics of Holly’s home that she put together for me – thanks Holly!
Decor8 image from Holly Becker

Did you manage to have a look at any of these? What did you think – will you be adding any to your reading list?

Summer table flower arrangements

82 days to go and here is my ‘To Do List’

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and that 2010 will be a lovely year for you all. I thought I should start my posts in 2010 with our current list of wedding items still to do. Some are in progress but others still need to be started which is a little worrying! I have to admit that I haven’t progressed any further with the wedding invitations since we got back from holiday but I’m not too concerned yet as they shouldn’t take too much longer and all of our guests already know about the wedding from the save the date cards. I would like to have them all sent out before we meet our venue coordinator at the end of January so that we have a better idea of our final numbers.
Summer table flower arrangements

Flowers by Florish & Green

So with 83 days until the wedding, this is what we still have to do:

• Give notice of our marriage {as soon as possible and before the middle of March}.
• Finalise our hymns, readings & music for the ceremony and speak to the minister.
• Choose people to do the readings.
• Book the hairdresser.
• Pay for our wedding rings and decide what we want engraved inside them.
• Choose a song for our first dance.
• Have hair and make-up trials.
• Have our hen & stag nights {the bridesmaids & best man are arranging them}.
• Hire a kilt for one of our ushers {the other usher & best man are buying their own}.
• Buy all of my accessories; my shoes, veil, tiara & jewellery.
• Finalise my old, new, borrowed & blue.
• Make all the day & evening invitations {this is still a work in progress}.
• Choose our menu & wine and decide whether to upgrade to Champagne & canapés {we have a meeting with our venue coordinator on the 30th January}.
• Make all the order of service’, menus & placecards {samples have been ordered}.
• Decide on the seating arrangements & make the table plan.
• Decide on the table names & make the table name cards.
• Choose the gifts for our Gift List.
• Get gifts for the bridesmaids, best man & ushers.
• Make thank you cards for the bridesmaids, best man & ushers.
• Buy chocolate eggs for the favours and tissue paper to put inside the boxes {we got the boxes while we were in the US}.
• Paint our G & G letters.
• Decide if we want to ask one of our guests to video the ceremony & speeches.
• Book a hotel for the Sunday night before we leave for our honeymoon.
• Buy anything we need for the honeymoon & pack.
• Check if we need any vaccinations etc for the honeymoon {as soon as possible}.
• Try to grow my nails then get a manicure the day before the wedding.
• Decide if I would like a fake tan or not and have a trial.

I’m sure there are other things that I have forgotten about or not even thought of yet and of course we still have to pay for everything and pay all of our suppliers when the bills arrive!

You can keep up with all my wedding planning in the run up to the wedding on my blog Our Day by Design.

Award Winning Photo from Archibald Photography

Wedding inspired blogs from the UK – weekly round up

Award Winning Photo from Archibald Photography

Award Winning Photo from Archibald Photography

Every week I like to list a couple of the blogs (wedding ones obviously!) that have been keeping me entertained, inspiring me to write about wedding stuff or where there are a plethora of pics that I can cast my beady eyes on… so this week here goes…..

Given that some of my post popular posts on LMW are on wedding flowers I thought that I would share the Planet Flowers blog with you. I have featured lots of their wedding arrangements in the past and I have to say that their blog has lots of inspiration. I love this recent post with all their autumnal flower arrangements at Lennoxlove House – great to see florists using seasonal flowers in their work – the orange and amber colours give such a warm and lovely feeling to the wedding.

And another Scottish wedding supplier… (I know I featured one last week but I can’t help it that there are lots of good wedding photographers coming out of Scotland!) This week its the Archibald Photography blog that took my fancy – I love peeking at all their wedding photos, stealing some tips and ideas and most importantly checking out all the grooms dressed up in their kilts!. Check out their blog to see some of their recent weddings and work, including the lovely picture (that one there) from their recent wedding fashion shoot for Lindsay Fleming (which has just won Mark a Gold SWPP award). I have to say the dress is beautiful but its really the way that picture is shot and the background that does it for me.

Talking of photographers there is one UK bridal blogger that loves showcasing the work of talented wedding photographers and I can definitely recommend her blog. I always planned to include it in my weekly round up but because there was so much to talk about we ended up doing a bit of an interview with Kat. If you didn’t get to read it yesterday catch up here on my behind the scenes chat with Kat from Rocknrollbride.com and get reading what she has to say about weddings the Rocknroll way!

I have also found a couple of cool blogs that I have been following one of them is ‘Seven Weddings (but only one wedding to organise)’. This is the postings, ideas and thoughts of Gee as she travels to 7 of her friends weddings in the run up to her own. You have to read their engagement story which had me completely taken as its so sweet – who said romance was dead?! Some really cool bits on there, like her post on Swish socks for the groom and ushers. I love a bit of fancy footwork so that sort of thing completely appeals to me (on that note I should post about my husband’s gold shoes that he wore to our wedding!)

And like my post last week on wedding blogs I was going to review 5 of my favourites but already I think I have rambled on enough for one day. I hope that I have opened your eyes to some of the fabulous UK wedding blogs that are out there on the net – let me know your thoughts and recommendations for where else I should be reading and lets share the wedding blog love!

Kat from Rocknroll bride.

Behind the scenes with RocknRollbride.com

Kat from Rocknroll bride.

Kat from Rocknroll bride.


In preparation for my ’5 wedding blogs of the week’ spot tomorrow I thought that I would do a quick interview with Kat from Rocknrollbride.com…. but seeing as my ‘quick’ interview turned into something a bit more substantial ( I got so much good gossip, tips on blogging and insight into her life, her passion for photography and her own wedding) that I thought it warranted its very own post. So here goes…

How did you get into this blogging malarky?
I started rock n roll bride in October 2007 when we were planning our own wedding. I actually started it as a diary of our wedding, things I liked etc like most ‘bride blogs’. However after the wedding I didnt fancy giving it up so i changed tact a bit and the blog became a place for me to share all the wonderful, unique and awesome weddings and photography I found. People seemed to like it…the rest, as they say, is history

Do you do it full time? or do you have other work?
Unfortunately not yet! I have a full time job as a producer for a shopping tv channel here in the UK called Price-drop tv. I work weird hours as the channel is like from 745 am – 130am so I do very un-office hour shifts, which in a weird way gives me plenty of time for blogging. I do probably work about 18 hours a day with both jobs combined through! I am hoping to leave my ‘proper’ job soon tho to concentrate on the blog and other writing projects – fingers crossed!

What inspired you to set up Rocknrollbride.com?
When we were planning our wedding, although I adored (and still do!) a vast amount of the wedding blogs out there, there was nothing that really blew me away or always featured the stuff I liked. I adore rock chicks with a kick ass attitude and bloody fantastic and innovative photography. I found that usually when I saw a wedding that was amazing then the photography was a bit dodgy or vice versa. I wanted to encompass both aspects and by searching by my self and finding a lot of up and coming photographers in particular, I was able to bridge this gap and share both sides of the awesomeness! It seems that now, more that 2 years ago, a lot for blogs and photographers and featuring more innovative stuff which rocks!

Kat and her own wedding  English Rose Photography

Kat and her own wedding English Rose Photography

How does it differ from the other blogs out there?
Although i love a good wedding what I go nuts about is amazing photography. I find most blogs focus on the details of other people’s weddings whereas I would rather show a wedding as a whole. I’m actually really not bothered about the details. what I love is seeing the couple in love, the fabulous outfits, the portraits and the over all tone of the wedding. Of course it goes without saying I would rather feature a rock n roll couple to a cookie cutter ‘pretty pretty’ wedding any day of the week too. I don’t like featuring weddings that are already on other blogs anymore as I dont see the point of copying someone else, and awesome photography is a must. I want to inspire brides, grooms and photographers alike. Its not about copying other people’s ideas, it’s about taking little bits from what I feature and making them your own.

What would your top tip be for anyone looking to get into the wedding industry in the UK?
Keep at it – I’m still trying to do the same! Even though rock n roll bride is quite popular in America not many people in the UK have heard of it or me (shocking :o ). I think the blogging concept as a whole is yet to really take off over here. make connections, make friends with people over here, email people you admire and don’t give up.

Kat at her own wedding - English Rose Photography

Kat at her own wedding - English Rose Photography

What was the best bit about your own wedding?
Seeing my husband for the first time with a big cheesy grin down the bottom of that aisle. When I got down to him he took my hand, squeezed it and whispered ‘you look awesome’ :o

Lets face it we all love something a little bit different and Rocknroll bride is exactly that. Not only do I like the style of the blog but I love the way that this bridal blogger is based over here in the UK (there aren’t that many!) – I can only predict big things for this lady once the UK completely kicks off with it love of bridal blogs (which can’t be far off, given that the Americans go potty over them).

The photos from Kat’s wedding are taken by English Rose Photography its worth taking a look at their site there are some lovely shots on there. Tomorrow I will be posting about my fave blogs that are out there – if you missed last week check out my selection of wedding blogs right here and let me know your thoughts.