So I thought given that its such a special time for me I would post a couple of piccies from our wedding and give you a little insight into my special day. In fact my wedding was the inspiration for LMW – I work in online media and at the time of my wedding I was amazed at the lack of good websites out there that focused on UK brides. I wanted to create a site that would showcase really fantastic suppliers, one off boutique designers, unique wedding ideas and basically anything that is ‘not on the high street’ (and probably a few things that are!) Also to encourage couples to do it ‘their way’ to involve friends and family and to save money along the way. Anyway enough of my waffle here are some photos from my big day.

Part 1 – this bit – is the preparation for the wedding – me and the bridesmaids getting ready.

I was lucky enough to have my great friend, who was also a bridesmaid, Ems Dennis do my make up – she is a fully trained make up artist and did a fantastic job on me and all the other bridesmaids. It was so nice to have someone that I knew and that really cared about me doing my make up as its a special and intimate time.

Talking of friends, my lovely friend from school Mel Bles (who is now a talented fashion photographer) took all the photos – poor thing rocked up with a bit of a hangover on the morning of the wedding. But we didn’t mind -she is such good fun that we had a real laugh getting ready. Mel knew a lot of the guests too so they all loved seeing a familiar face behind the lens. Mel’s style is reportage and we were fine with that – the church were also quite strict and didn’t want her using flash photography because they thought it would distract the service.

In order to keep costs down my lovely friend Nix Harding (do check her out she is a FAB interior/garden designer) offered to do all the flowers. She kept her promise despite being 8 months pregnant – which was so sweet of her as that really helped us saved quite a lot of money. She did enlist the help of her florist friend Britt, from Flourish and Green.. who was responsible for the button holes (which I have to say were fantastic) and helped out with flowers for the evening venue.

We decided that we (mum, me and bridesmaids) would do our bouquets in the morning – give us something to keep us occupied and also keep costs down. That is mum and dad above – keeping busy with arranging my bouquet!

I went to New Convent Garden flower market a couple of days before the wedding and with the help of Britt and Nix choose these lovely cream roses, red berries and ivy – very simple but made a lovely winter bouquet . Di, my maid of honour bought some white antique lace which we tied around the flowers.

I had 4 friends as bridesmaids – they all wore the same style of dress but chose different colours depending on what they wanted, and then they all wore silver shoes. I also had a little flower girl Minnie, who was absolutely gorgeous, dressed in Monsoon dress, cardigan and tights. She was SO cute. Just look at her here with Di, my maid of honour, who also looks stunning.

The older bridesmaids all wore shrugs from Coast, and they needed them. It was a lovely crisp and sunny day but as you can imagine given it was the 19th Dec it was also very chilly!

All ready to go, hair up and make up done and still doing ‘jobs’ on my computer!! I think that I should have had a wedding planner – I was calling the caterers and letting them know about a couple that couldn’t make it!

Anyway thats enough for today – I have part II in the church coming shortly and then part III will be after the church and the evening venue.

So I am sure that you will be over the moon to hear that we’re going to be treated to a vintage wedding evening in London next year. I was gutted to miss the last one – having just had baby Coco I couldn’t make it – but this one is firmly in the diary (its March 3 by the way).

The vintage wedding evening will be hosted by My Sugarland owner and former stylist to the stars, Zoe Lem. Penny Merricks, Director and Founder of Tigerlily Wedding Planning will also be on hand to offer advice on wedding planning and helping you to create the perfect day. I have spoken about Penny before – she has a great reputation in the industry and is regarded as one of the leading wedding planners.

The Vintage Bridal Evening will encapsulate all elements of wedding planning from hair, make-up and nails to photography, flowers and cakes. A team of experts will be joining Zoe and Penny to consult on all of these areas, including top hair stylists from the newly opened Andrew Barton Salon and Julia Boggio Photography (she is also fabulous have been meaning to showcase her work on LMW for ages)

Brides to be will be able to benefit from a personal styling workshop with Zoe, who has styled numerous celebs (Cat Deeley, Robbie Williams ) and worked on TV shows like Clothes Show and GMTV. Sit back, relax and let Zoe advise you on colours, shapes and styles that will suit you, your lifestyle and your personality.

Also sharing her knowledge will be Penny, with an exclusive wedding planning workshop, jam-packed with advice that will answer all those nagging wedding planning questions and concerns.

I know its a bit of a way off but given the interest that LMW readers have shown in vintage styling and dresses I’m sure that this is going to be another very popular event. I’d suggest booking now as places are limited email: info@mysugarland.co.uk to make sure that your name is on the list.

If you are looking for a wedding hair and make up artist then take a minute or two to check out these pics which I love. Its always difficult trying to find someone that you will click with, who you can trust to make you look your best and most importantly who will make you feel relaxed on the day. Alexis Daly comes highly recommended as a fab make up artist and hair stylist based in London with lots of experience in making brides look (and feel) their very best on their special day.

 
Alexis’s company, Big Day Beauty, combines hair and make-up for all occasions. Weddings are one of her specialities and she has trained in Hair at Vidal Sassoon and Make-up at London College of Fashion. Alexis has a treasure trove of hair and make-up products in her kit, from Liz Earle skin care to Armani, Chanel, Mac and Bobbi Brown make-up. Hair products include Redken, Kerastase etc. She has worked with the BBC and Big Day Beauty (her company) has been featured on ‘Sky Wedding TV’ and in ‘You and Your Wedding magazine’ of which she is currently working with a lucky competition winner who gets all her wedding hair and make-up done as part of the prize.

I really love the make up and hair on these brides – great work Alexis and also thanks to the photographer, Amy Murrell, for supplying these lovely black and white shots of Alexis at work. Make sure you take a peek at the rest of her work on Alexis’s site and also read what real life brides have said about her in the ‘Happy Brides Section’! Let me know what you think…..