Alternatives to a veil

Whilst a veil may be traditional they are certainly not compulsory. It all depends on the style of your dress and how formal/informal your wedding is.

Just because you dont go for a veil, doesn’t mean you need to miss out on headgear all together though. There are some great alternative (and budget!) options

Dahlia fashion in london have some gorgeous vintage headbands that would set off an informal boho/retro dress beautifully

gorgeous headbands from http://www.dahliafashion.co.uk

Or, for a more informal trendy wedding, why not try a birdcage veil, like these from Lily Bella (starting at a very reasonable £14.99)

gorgeously stylish- from http://www.lilybella.co.uk

Personally, my dress had enough detail, so I just went for a combination of flowers

Sometimes a few flowers or a clip is just right

More delightful craftiness- A bit of Doily love!

I am sorely tempted to have a go at this wonderful idea from ‘more design please’. Its a variation on old school balloon papier mache but with a delicate twist- using doilies!

From http://www.moredesignplease.com

Instant cheap shades- with a cute vintage look! you could do them in different sizes and maybe even colours. I LOVE the possibilities here and if I’d have seen this before my wedding it would have been high on the ‘must try’ list.

I discovered recently that doilies can also be used to make very effective and pretty bunting. Here seen on greentreegoods, but having made some (slightly more traditional looking) myself recently- watch this space for a step by step bunting ‘how to’.

Doily-bunting from greentreegoods.blogspot.com

Getting the look- clown style

I know lots of people have gorgeous delicate decor at their weddings, and in lots of ways, it would have suited me too- but when we came up with the ‘theme’ for our wedding, it was our joint love of fun and laughter that drew us to a colour scheme that would reflect BOTH our personalities.

Taking inspiration from the primary colours in Michael’s froggle suit and my ‘clown and bride’ cake toppers we went for a bright and joyful feel. As one person on the day put it- ‘This is just the essence of fun!’

The 'essence of fun' colour scheme

The service was in our church St Helen’s, a lovely traditional building that needed minimal decorating. We just used the wooden roses to wind around pillars and some paper flowers made by a friend at the end of the pews.

At the reception, we had 150+ guests for a sit down meal, in tables of 10-12 with one very large ‘top table’ (something I will blog about at a later date). We were in another large old church building, but couldn’t fix anything to the  walls or pillars due to venue regulations.

Our decorating solutions?

1. Bright bold colours (using florestry spiders web as table runners) toned down with neutrals and cream

2. Home grown flowers- My auntie’s friend grew tulips in her allotment that flowered around the time of the wedding and she kindly made table decorations for us with these

3. We also used the left over wooden flowers (in 50p vases from Ikea), and helium balloons in blue red and yellow to complete the colourful feel.

4.Homemade paper flowers for the church pews

Total decoration costs for both church and reception? Under £100!

Can you look a million dollars on a budget?

I’ve already blogged about my lovely gown and homemade bouquet, but what about the rest of it? Bridal hair and make up can add hundreds more onto the budget, so what to do if you’re trying to cut costs?

I have never had very good experiences of make up done by other people, so I wasn’t keen on the idea of getting someone in on my big day. The main thing I wanted was to look myself (but the best version of myself I could be!). 

Although I used to be a bit of a make-up-o-holic in my teens and early twenties, my look has mellowed over time and since my other half prefers the natural look I very often wear no make up at all, or just a splash of vaseline rosy or gloss on my lips. I’m also a BIG fan of Benetint, as it gives a really natural flush of colour and is very durable.

My make-up loving days gave me the confidence to decide to do my own bridal look, and I am really glad I did. I spent a bit of money on some quality products- and made use of some deals on magazines* and freebies from No.7 at Boots.

I am fortunate to have a number of friends who are a dab hand at hairdressing, so I enlisted the help of my old flatmate Marianne (a physio in real life) and entrusted her with my locks on the big day. After some discussions and even buying a cheap veil just in case, I decided for simplicity and went for just lovely hair and no veil. Marianne did an amazing job and my hair not only lasted to the end of the night but looked awesome for the first few days of honeymoon too!

Getting the look

My ‘natural bride’ look consisted of:

• No.7 tinted moisturiser
• Benetint (cheeks and lip stain) by Benefit. This was a gift, but canny brides could recently have got a free sample sufficient for wedding and honeymoon with Glamour magazine*
• Benefit ‘Primpcess’ eye kit (with eye pencil, mascara, brow definer, eyeshadow and highlighter) I got this at cut price on an easyjet flight for £20
• Jemma Kidd lipgloss ‘Candy’ (free with glamour mag*)

* Budget brides to be should keep a look out from free magazine make up deals. In the UK, Glamour are particularly good at these- especially my fave brand of Benefit.

the finished look

Eco- wedding food?

How can we help you?

Can you be green on a budget? Often it feels like the ethical options come at a premium, so we were delighted to find a wonderful catering company who manage to combine eco with value.

“How can we help you” is run by a lovely man called Darren, and we were attracted to them because

a) They were offering very good value paella options

b) They were (unlike many catering companies) very upfront on their website about their costs and exactly what those costs included (no hidden extras)

c) When Darren came to cook for us it tasted AMAZING

d) They donate 10% of your bill to your chosen charity (added to our red nose day donations, this meant hundreds of pounds of our wedding costs went to good causes)

e) They have a gold eco-award, meaning they’ve been audited and go the extra mile to recycle, use local produce and to invest back into the community.

With all this going for them and for a cut price deal (we got a discount due to our high numbers) per head, we started to wonder what to catch was. Would something go terribly wrong??? Surely this was too good to be true?!

They were, it has to be said, late setting up the night before, but on the day the food and the service were faultless. We’d HIGHLY recommend!

Looking back at the photos even now makes me ravenous!!

Fabulous food!

 

Clowning around

The clown theme

 

So, having decided to go with a fun, circus/clown feel to our wedding, we booked an entertainer from Froggle Parties to wander around the tables.

Dressed in a typical froggle outfit, Ben our entertainer did a sterling job making children of all ages (including the very grown up ones) smile.

From bubbles to balloon hats, the guests had lots of fun, and combined with our red nose favours the entertainment provided some great photo opportunities too!

Froggle: http://www.froggleparties.com

One of my friends, a mum of three said it was “The most child friendly” wedding she’s been too- and was worried the kids would expect all weddings to come complete with clown and comedy swords!

I’d initially thought the entertainer would just be there to keep the kids happy, but actually the way it worked out he ended up keeping everyone happy- and the end result was just as good as having a magician or more ‘grown up’ performer for our guests and really cemented the joyful feel of the day. Very good value for money!

The budget wedding dress

As I posted a few months ago, I took the plunge and ordered a dress online, which I then got customised by a local seamstress  in Putney, as well as getting the normal alterations you would expect (taking up length).

The total cost of the gown including delivery was £230 and I paid £200 for the alterations and customisation (including a lovely wrap which was made from the excess material). This was amazingly good value given the volume of material involved and the fact that my seamstress was taking up 4 layers of material when she altered the length.

Normal wedding dress alterations apparently come in at around £150, so for essentially £50 extra I got a totally customised gown- Awesome!

The proof of the dressing is, in the wearing, however- so without further ado here’s an unofficial snap:

the final creation!

I now pronounce you

Man and wife!

Man and wife!!

So, the lack of blogging over the last few weeks has been because on 16th April myself and My lovely man finally said ‘I will’ infront of our friends and family and before God.

We’ve been chilling out (Everyone had said we’d need a break after the stress of organising the wedding, but I didn’t realise HOW tired we’d be, so the last two weeks R&R were so appreciated) and remembering the wonderful colourful joyful occassion that was our wedding.

There’s so much to tell- and lots of things that I couldn’t blog about before, because they were a surprise, so now I’ll be continue the blog with snippets, reviews, photos and and some further top tips.

Not got our official pics yet, but when we do, I’ll post pics of the dresses/flowers so that you  can see how the plans all turned out.

The day was truly amazing- and I’ll tell you more about that in due course but I still maintain that the marriage is the most exciting (and important) bit.

Right now, I’m sitting in my new house, the bank holiday sunshine is streaming in through the window, and my new husband just brought me breakfast in bed. We’ve spent the last few days making our home, and enjoying living together for the first time. We have had the odd disagreement, and our car just broke down for the 4th time in the space of a few weeks (I wouldn’t want to paint an unrealistic picture of wedded bliss), but we’ve grown together even in the last few weeks and I cant really describe how right and natural it feels to be his wife.

The glamour/fun and excitement of the wedding is a great memory, but the reality of travelling through life with my best friend by my side is starting to sink in- and I’m so so so excited (and overjoyed) about that journey!

Wedding prep and marriage prep

 

For the last month, my hubby to be and I have been attending a ‘marriage preparation’ course. Preparing for the marriage, is in my view much more important than preparing for the day- since the day is over in 24 hours, whereas the marriage is for a lifetime.

We’re attending the one run by our church, St Helen’s, but faith aside, many now believe that doing marriage courses really help set the right foundations and protect your future marriage from the outset.  Mostly, I think because any course worth its weight will address the expectations that both sides have before tying the knot.

We did a hugely detailed ‘expectations survey’ before starting our marriage prep, and whilst it was good chance to talk through some big issues (money/ children/ sex etc) we had already discussed most of it in the course of our relationship. However, such discussions are essential- in her book ” The art of Marriage” Catherine Blyth notes that many modern couples today have not properly discussed such big things as children and finances before they walk down the aisle! Crazy- if you ask me!

The main thing I will take away from our course though, is that when you get married, you are marrying a wonderful, but imperfect person, and that you yourself are not perfect either. To put it bluntly- we are both two sinners, who are trying to forge a life together.  As such, the pattern of repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation (that incidently is at the heart of the christian faith) is essential for anyone wanting a lasting marriage. That, and the remembering of the vows that glue us together more than even love itself.

“I made a mistake” “I was wrong” “I’m sorry” “I forgive you” “I love you” are some of the most essential words in any relationship- especially marriage, and I suspect we will be saying them many times over the coming years.

French cruise and bargain booze

A spot of celebratory french fizz

Some would say that a dash over the channel for cheap wine isn’t worth it any more because the exchange rate isn’t what it used to be. However, when we were investigating buying the wine for our afternoon reception, it definately looked like you could still make a significant saving- especially if your wine superstore pays for your ferry crossing!

We pre-ordered £300 worth of wine and fizz from the Calais wine superstore, they paid for our crossing from Dover, and today we went to France and got all the wine for the wedding. Although we had preordered some things, it was with the understanding we’d be able to taste their wines and change our minds about what we wanted, so long as we still spent over £200.

It was a gloriously sunny day in France too, which topped up our vitamin D stores nicely!

Tasting the wines was essential. (And because we were both sharing the drive, we did a lot of swilling and spitting- very attractive!)

In the end, we hated the Echo Falls wines we had pre-ordered (which costs around £6 a bottle in the UK and only £2 per bottle in Calais) but fell in love with two ‘premium’ wines by a fairly new chilean brand “Gran Tierra” . We saved a good £4-£5 on each bottle by buying from the French wine store compared to UK retail prices. Multiply that up by 60 bottles and even though the Euro exchange rate is not so great, that’s a saving of almost £300 on the table wine alone. We then got some really nice tasting french fizz and saved a further £4 per bottle, making over £400 worth of savings. Not to be sniffed at, and definitely worth the trip.