Little Miss Wedding

The Wedding of my Dreams – just gorgeous

LittleMissWedding — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:47:51 +0000

I love it when a supplier sends me really good professional photos like these as the photos say it all. This is a selection of decorations, favours and goodies from online wedding shop, The Wedding of My Dreams. I asked Gemma, their creative director, to talk me through their top 10 best sellers.
Cream metal bucket – Another country inspired centre piece, churns and buckets are becoming really popular to display flowers in on wedding tables, most of our brides stick to cream for the more traditional wedding but if you’re looking for a splash of colour they also come in hot pink!Hanging glass candle holder with pearls and crystals – One of those little extras that are just so hard to resist, they really do add that extra wow factor to your wedding venue. Ideal for inside or out, hanging from trees in the garden they will look beautiful as the light falls and the evening begins.Mr & Mrs – Ideal for a wedding gift or can be used on the wedding day to decorate the church, venue or cake table.Paper lanterns – Such a simple yet brilliant idea I’m not surprised these are our number 3 best seller, lanterns made from fire proof paper look simply gorgeous with a tea light placed in them. Use them to light up for the path for the bride and groom’s send off as they leave the wedding.Pretty in pink flower candle – What can I say, it’s just so pretty, not just perfect for a wedding but also for your home after the big day.Silver and pearl brooch – All our of brooches are top sellers with this gorgeous pearl piece leading the way, it adds a perfect finishing touch to a wedding outfit or more recently brides have been using them as bouquet brooches, tying them to ribbons on their bouquets giving their flowers that extra wow factor.Soft pink flower heads – These flower heads are ideal for vintage weddings with their soft pink tones, display them in the stems of tall vases or scatter them in a low bowl for a simple yet elegant centre piece.Table Crystals – Table crystals are increasingly popular adding a bit of sparkle to wedding tables. Our stunning table crystals are professionally cut to catch the light as they shimmer across the room.Vintage country bottles with hearts – Perfect for adding a country twist to weddings, you can display singles stem flowers in them or fill them with your favourite sweets.Vintage heart name place holder – These vintage style wire heart name place holders look stunning on wedding tables and can be given to guests as wedding favours to use as a photo/memo holders.

For all these products and many more visit The Wedding of My Dreams site.

What a wonderful selection. What do you think guys? I love the vintage bottles and I think the metal bucket (and the idea of urns) would be the perfect addition to an outdoors country wedding

Kate Edmondson Bridal Couture

LittleMissWedding — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:19:26 +0000

Kate Edmonson is a british designer of bespoke wedding dresses and headpieces, all of her dresses are designed and handmade in her West London studio. She has been designing for private clients for over 10 years and here is a little peek at her talents.
Prices start at £1500 and go up to £5000, though she does design tea dresses from £600. For more information have a look at her site, Kate Edmondson Bridal Couture and let me know what you think. My lovely friend Annabel was a bit quicker off the mark on showcasing Kate and has written a great feature on her blog Love My Dress so be sure to check that out too

Vintage Twee – Fairytale Favours

LittleMissWedding — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:09:26 +0000

One of my most popular posts was the feature on Vintage Twee and her gorgeous vintage favours that I wrote a while back – well that post got stumbled all over the world and given all this love for her wondrous creations I thought I’d give you an exclusive peek at her new ‘fairytale’ range.
These Enchanted Fairytale Favour Boxes are perfect to tell your love story at fairytale or fantasy themed weddings! They have been handcrafted into little pillows for true, dreamy appeal and each corner has been embellished with small tassles made from gold thread. Each box has an excerpt from a different traditional fairytale including Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, taken from a book of english fairytales printed in the early 1900s. They script on the boxes read either: ‘Once upon a time…’, ‘A long time ago…’, ‘Happily ever after…’ and ‘In a land far, far away’ in a vintage font. A small touch of decorative reindeer moss and a deep green gemstone brings a touch of enchanted forest to the boxes and each one is finished with a small pearl heart embellishment to complete the love story! These favour boxes are perfect for an enchanting fairytale themed wedding or event and are priced at £2.25 each.

Make sure you visit the Vintage Twee site, or if you’re looking to snap these up straight away Vintage Twee Etsy Shop. As always leave some love for these fantastic british suppliers…. Thank you X

Tempting Wedding Cakes (& cookies)

LittleMissWedding — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:31:00 +0000

Well the name ‘Tempting Cake’ says it all – I can’t wait to taste some of these goodies because they look absolutely delicious. Not only that, but they’re fun alternatives for those that don’t want a traditional wedding cake – the hearts and kisses cookies are my favourite (and would also make good favours!) and I am such a sucker for chocolate so this chocolate torte would definitely be in the pickings. Aren’t those little cookies from the wedding collection also fab!
As you know I always like to take a peek behind the scenes of any company -I wanted to ask Emily, who set up Tempting Cake, a couple of questions about the company, wedding cakes and top tips.

* What themes are you seeing popular with brides?
Vintage is an enduring theme, with brides asking for vintage-inspired delicate filigree and pearl details on their cakes and cupcakes to complement their weddings. We are getting more requests for classic glamour cakes (think 1950’s old school glamour) as well as simple, elegant cakes where less is most definitely more.

* What is different about Tempting Cake?
Tempting Cake is proud to offer a top of the range service for discerning brides. We always freshly bake to order and pay strict attention to detail, so our brides can rest assured that when they order a Tempting Cake wedding cake, cupcakes or cookies that they will taste as good as they look.

* What advice would you give to brides when choosing their cake?
As with most things to do with your wedding day, the options for your wedding cake are endless. It’s helpful to have some basic information in mind when deciding on a cake, such as the number of wedding guests, your budget and some design ideas (either of cakes you like or alternatively some key details of your day such as colour scheme, theme, venue and a picture of your dress). This will help your cake maker to advise you on some fabulous designs for your big day. Give yourself and your cake maker time to plan your cake and be decisive as changes close to the wedding day can be costly. Choosing your wedding cake should be a pleasure not a chore, so my final piece of advice would be to enjoy it!

* How long have you been creating these fabulous cakes and what made you want to set the company up?
I’ve always had a passion for baking and design so making beautiful cakes is the perfect way to combine them both! Tempting Cake started off many years ago as a hobby, which grew into a side line while I still had an office based job. I’m now delighted to be able to devote 100% of my time and energy to Tempting Cake.

Its amazing to feature small british companies that have a real passion for something and are doing so well. Make sure to check out the website, Tempting Cake, and show Emily some love in the form of comments below or even better getting in touch with her about an order! Love to hear what you all think about these cookies and cakes!

Real Life Wedding * Gaynor and Graham (part 2)

Gaynor — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 08:05:13 +0000

Did you read part 1 of Gaynor & Graham’s wedding last week? Well as promised here is the second part. (For those of you that may not know Gaynor guest blogged on LMW in the run up to her wedding so its really lovely to see the final photos) Over to you Gaynor….We did the group shot first so that everyone could then get back inside to enjoy the drinks & canapés; I think only a couple of people were missing, all Grahams family so thankfully they are in other pictures.My gorgeous nephew Enzo gave me a horseshoe, one of 4 good luck charms we received.Our full bridal party; another of the shots I have framed!I love these photos of me and GrahamOf course being a Scottish wedding; Graham wanted to get some shots of all the guests in kilts; there was a lot!I wanted to get some of me and all of my friends; we did get some serious ones but I love this one!During my dads speech; he presented me with a tea cosy knitted by mum in our wedding colours. It came from my old profile picture on my blog which was me as a baby wearing a tea cosy on my head!Then it was time to cut our fabulous cake with the Lego bride & groom; we kept the top tier!This is my favourite photo of the first dance; no idea what we are laughing at though!The photographers at the wedding were Craig & Eva Sanders, who were recently featured on the gorgeous US wedding blog, Style Me Pretty – well done guys and thanks for sharing these fantastic photos from Gaynor and Graham’s wedding with us.
You can also find Gaynor on her blog OurDayByDesign) If you loved this wedding then check out some of the other real life weddings on LMW and don’t forget to leave us some comment love!

Creperie Nicolas – Crepe & Coffee Van for hire

LittleMissWedding — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 08:15:44 +0000

Another great idea for those looking for something a bit fun and different for their wedding… if like me, you fell in love with Betty the Vintage Ice cream Van or Lola the vintage caravan that I featured recently on LMW then Creperie Nicolas is going to be right up your street! Creperie Nicolas – a beautifully restored 1965 Citroen H van that serves delicious sweet and savoury crepes and fresh Illy coffee – is owned by husband and wife team Gill and Keith. They drive it to weddings, parties and venues all over London and the South East. I have to say that I am loving all these old school vans (in fact I’ve just asked my brother to find me one – not sure what I am going to use it for, but I know that I want one!)

* So how did you come up with this idea?
“We decided to set up a creperie after talking about doing it for years. We enrolled at a ‘crepier school’ in Brittany, and learnt how to make authentic crepes and galettes. On the same trip we bought the van, in Normandy. Whilst the van was being fitted out we honed our crepe making skills at home, testing out the results on friends and family. Everybody knew about sweet crepes, many were unaware of the savoury buckwheat galettes which are gluten free and delicious. We had a espresso machine fitted, and calibrated to meet Illy’s exacting standards so we could serve the Illy coffee we love. It took over a year to get the van looking the way we wanted, but we were delighted with the result.”

* So hows it been going so far?
“Since we started trading in April, we have attended events and farmers markets. We are enjoying meeting lots of people and getting positive feedback about what we are doing. We think the van is perfect for relaxed parties, it’s a great talking point and makes people smile (and the food is great). In London you can find us on the first Sunday of every month at Wanstead farmers market.”

Well good luck to you all @ Creperie Nicolas – I have to say I am slightly jealous of your business idea. I’ve tried the wholewheat savoury crepes and they’re delicious and healthy, so I can imagine this really taking off. Check out their website Creperie Nicolas for information on hiring. What does everyone else think? Surely a coffee and crepe is the ideal pick me up for guests after all the dancing and booze!

Real Life ‘Country’ Wedding * Ellie & Bebbs, Hampshire

LittleMissWedding — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 11:27:39 +0000

This wedding really struck a chord with me when I saw the first photo on Jay Rowden’s blog. The pub benches decorated with garden flowers, the homemade bunting and garlands in the garden, the bright colours on a summer’s day – it looked so fun, local and personal. A real ‘country’ wedding.
Aren’t these photos gorgeous, just love the laid-back style of this wedding. If am not sure it needs many words from me as the photos say it all. Before I show you the rest, a quick word about Jay Rowden, the photographer – he is brilliant isn’t he?? been featured in Vogue and many high fashion mags, but LMW is his first foray in to the world of wedding blogs – thanks Jay for sharing these with us. I’m not sure how you found me but I’m glad you did!“This was one of the prettiest weddings. The whole wedding centred around this adorable picture postcard village deep in Hampshire. Hartley Wintney is the kind of village that might feature in a Richard Curtis film. It even had a village green and was surrounded by charming Victorian cottages.
Once the service was over and the confetti thrown, all the guests ambled across the road to the reception which was only a three minute stroll away in the village pub. I particularly loved the venue decor and table decorations which all had a quaint Cath Kidston nostalgic feel to them, to tie in with the quintessentially Englishness of the setting.
All the flowers used on the day had been grown from seeds in the Bride’s father’s garden.
The sun shone, the wine flowed, the fragrant smell of jasmine wafted through the breeze and everyone had the most fabulous day.”Ahhh see that lovely blue dress – well I’ve got it in green – its from London designer, Ducie – I was only saying the other day its the perfect dress for a bridesmaid
“I LOVE wedding photography and I really care about how I capture the images from the day. I am obsessive about it. Wedding photography is the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing that I think about as I go to bed. For me, being a wedding photographer is the ultimate dream ticket. I am surrounded by love all day, I photograph love all day. I defy anyone to find a more beautiful way to spend a day at work!
I would say that my style is a blend of fashion, fine art and photojournalism. I’ve been lucky enough to photograph stars from the world of TV, Music and Film as well as Premiership Footballers. Clients book me for their wedding because they like my style and are guaranteed complete discretion.”
Really really love this wedding – thanks Jay for wanting to be featured on LMW. Many congrats to the lovely couple Ellie and Terrie and for the finer details read on…

Photography: Jay Rowden
Church: St. John’s, Hartley Wintney, Hampshire
Reception: L’Auberge at The Cricketers, Hartley Wintney, Hampshire
Brides dress: Benjamin Roberts at Brides Visited, Ashtead, Surrey
Brides earrings: Porters, Hartley Wintney
Grooms suit: Moss Bros
Cakes: Catherine Wright, Hartley Wintney

There are lots more real life weddings on LMW – be sure to check them out.

Real Life Wedding * Gaynor and Graham (part 1)

Gaynor — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 22:42:58 +0000

Gaynor was a guest blogger on LMW in the run up to her wedding so I was over the moon that she agreed to come back and show us some of the amazing photos of her wedding, so many of them that we couldn’t choose so its going to be in 2 parts. Many congratulations to Gaynor and Graham and maybe your marriage be a happy and loving one!
Hi Everyone
We have now been married for 3 months and the time has just flown by. We spent most of the first month of married life on our honeymoon; it got extended to 3 weeks due to the ash crisis at the time, and we had to spend an extra 5 nights in the Maldives, which was not at all hard, especially since Kuoni were paying!
Since getting back and getting our DVD of photographs, I have been tackling the thank you cards for our guests {I wanted to include some professional photos on the front} and trying to choose which of the hundreds of photos should make it into the album! Neither task is complete yet but I thought 3 months was a good goal! {Although since that was on Saturday; I didn’t finish by then but hopefully I will this week!}
So I thought it would be a good time to show you some of my favourite photos from the day; it was so hard choosing which to show you as we love every single one of them {which is why im having such a hard time with the album!} Our photographers were Craig & Eva Sanders
This is how I spent most of the morning, with my veil in a plastic bag on my back! The hairdresser had used a bulldog clip to attach it to the back of my top! Once I had got dressed, I came down the stairs; apart from Grahams sister, my other 4 bridesmaids hadn’t seen my dress or knew anything about it; I think they all approved! I love this shot of Graham leaving that Craig captured from inside the house. And the boys opposite the church after they had arrived.I love this shot of me and my dad, on the church steps that Eva took.This is the same pose but from Craig inside; I love how the minister is looking at this watch since it was already 1.20pm and the service was supposed to start at 1pm!I got to Grahams side. Not long after, I had to grab onto Grahams arm as I felt a little wobbly!There were a couple of surprises during our ceremony; the first one was from our flowergirl who sang Bonnie Wee Thing. She had asked if she could 16 months earlier when we asked her to be a part of the wedding and they all thought it would be better as a surprise!Exchanging our rings after our vows; I think you can see my dress really well in this shot! Our first kiss; I love how the minister is clapping away behind us!After signing the register we got some shots with our witnesses; my sister Ashleigh & Grahams cousin Andrew; also the chief bridesmaids & the best man.The second surprise came from our godmothers, who are also our aunts, who presented us with a bible on our wedding day.On our way out of the church, I couldn’t manage getting down the stairs with my dress, flowers & holding Grahams hand so he got the flowers; I think that’s what we are laughing at here!Once outside the church, we were greeted by all of our guests. I love this one of my mum, and that’s Grahams mum to the left; they did have the biggest hats ever and I’m sure we are all laughing as mum could hardly reach me to congratulate me and almost knocked my tiara!Once all the congratulations were over, it was time to get into the car {I had a Rolls Royce on the way to the church then a Jaguar to the reception} and make our way to Norton Nouse for the reception; the driver had to help get my train and veil into the car!Once me & my dress was completely in the car I was still laughing about it! This is one of my favourite shots and one of the 5 that I currently have framed!

(Wow loving all those piccies Gaynor – its so late at night now that I am going to save the part 2 instalment for another day very soon. In the meantime you can also find Gaynor on her blog OurDayByDesign)

Belle Amour – UK Wedding Blog

LittleMissWedding — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 18:44:51 +0000

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.

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.

Betty The Vintage Ice Cream Caravan For Hire

LittleMissWedding — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:49:47 +0000

I love this. I was really pleased when Hayley approached me and asked me if I would feature her and Betty on LMW as its such a fun and unique addition to any wedding. Picture this, she rocks up at your wedding with Betty, a 1950′s themed ice cream van, decked out in Cath Kidston and bunting a plenty. Inside, the vintage ice cream van is packed full of old fashioned goodies to treat your guests.

Guests can choose from locally produced farmhouse ice cream and retro flavoured lollies (cherry brandy, cider, lager and lime), old fashioned sweets from the jars, pretty glass bottled drinks such as dandelion and burdock, cloudy lemonade and her grandma’s favourite ginger beer!
Fabulous idea and no suprise that Hayley and Betty have just won Country Homes magazine’s Run Your own Country Business of the Year award and will be featured in the mag this September! Congrats to you both!This is vintage heaven and I imagine a popular attraction with the kiddies too.
I asked Hayley how she came up with the idea (it is a great one) to restore this 1973 Bedford cf, and then use it to serve up old fashioned fabulousness around the country.
“I started up as I just love vintage/ retro style….Betty is just an extension of all my passions!!! I love my job…I can smile, poodle along driving her to pretty garden parties, weddings and summer fetes!!!! And wear the most floral frocks and flowers in my hair xx My Mum died last year age 53 and I decided to do something fun…my mum would love it!!!!”

Betty can be hired for events in Bucks, Beds and Northants and can even be transported further afield should she be needed. Prices start from £200 but obviously depends on location, number of guests etc, so its best to speak to Hayley about your personal needs – for more info have a look at the site, Vintage Scoops.

What do you think ladies (and gentlemen if you are reading) isn’t this just the cutest idea? I’m trying to conjure up some events so I can get Betty down to London.