To get a garter or not

I have never been a huge fan of garters and always thought I wouldnt have one on my wedding day!
I didnt the first time I got married so why would I this time was the way I thought.
The whole "tradition" of the groom taking it off with his teeth with the crowd of guests watching sent shivers down my spine in all honestly and it is something neither of us wanted to do, so decided not too!

UNTIL that is I was doing one of my many searchs on facebook and came across a company called "Truly I do" who specialises in handmaking made to measure garters and other bits and bobs!
https://www.facebook.com/TrulyIDo

Her work is in a word amazing and I found myself going through her photos and instead of going "nope I dont like that" I found myself going "oooo I like that" or "I love that"
And I started thinking about how I would have one IF I decided to have one
I then came across her "in progress" album and fell in love with this

The pearls and beads on this made it look stunning and the colour made it look very vintage which is perfect for my theme.
So I messaged her to see how much are garter using it would cost and after talking for a little while she said she was going to her suppliers soon to get more stock and she would pick up some Ivory lace that had some pearls and beads already attached to see what I thought!

We then discussed different laces and things and decided to go for a 3 layer one and NO BIG BOW as I quite frackly HATE them.
2 layers........

3 layers option 1

 The 2 layers just looked too plain so we thought another layer was needed. The 3 layer above was more like it but I didnt like the straight edge of the top layer as I thought it didnt really go with the scalloped edges of the other two layers so decided to go with this.........

Next up was what to go on it and as the big bow was out i started looking on a site I use and found this

PERFECT now all we had to do was wait for it to turn up and honestly I dont know who was more excited about it turning up lol me or her!
After running after the postman ;-) for a few days to see if he had a parcel it finally turned up and my garter was complete and on its way to me!

I can honestly say everything from start to finish was amazing the service, the quality of the finished product and the lady herself were second to none and as a girl who was dead set against having a garter I am truly stunned at how in love with it I am and cant wait to wear it on my wedding day (but I am NOT throwing it at the wedding nor is the h2b taking it off with his teeth in front of everybody, although he might do that later that night in private hehehe).

What Ive been up to in April!

Ok so I relised Ive not updated this in awhile so thought I better!

Well Ive been busy with the kids mainly this month (April) as I had parents evening and some personal developments in my oldest daughters life so been quite busy with them.

But Ive done a few wedding bits inbetween including wearing in my shoes which are even more stunning in person.

Ive also received our wedding memory box from a place called caris creations which is on facebook and WOW is all I can say about this, Helen, the owner is FANTASTIC so you must check the page out

It also has our wedding date on the back and its HUGE! I LOVE IT
Next I have received our tag holder for our guest book tree

SO thats what Ive been up to in April :-)
This month I will be paying off my napkin rings and glass charms so should be getting them soon as well as the boxes to put them in which I will need to decorate so will add pics of those soon!

Photo's!

Ok so the 3 main things to us for the day are....
                        1, The venue
                        2, The rings
                        3. The photos

So because of this I have looked at LOADS of photographers over the last few month's.
Because it is one of our top 3 we didnt really have a budget for this (naughty I know but hay they last the rest of our lifes dont they).
So we saw some at £199 and some at £700 and some were £1300 and we even saw some at £2000 that we loved!
We havent actually booked one yet but we know who we want so just need to find the deposit and we are away hehe.
So anyway I thought I would do this blog about some of the amzing photographers Ive come across and share there work and some photo's Ive come across that I LOVE!
First up is the first one I came across alllll the months ago that we did actually pay a part deposit to (this was back when we had our very first date). Emma Shaw is a fantastic photographer and has a style that we love, she did a family shoot for us in a local park just after our son was born so our first "family" shoot and they turned out amazinly! Here's her website............

http://www.littleflowersphotography.co.uk/

Next we saw a local photographer who again did a family shoot for us the following year. We discovered while there that he does a set package for weddings which at the time was £700 (gone up now tho) and h2b thought this was brillant, I wasnt so sure tho as I wanted a more relaxed feel and his work seemed too staged for me if that makes sence? He is a FANTASTIC photographer tho so heres his website......

http://www.discoveryphotographicstudio.com/

So next we have a lady whose work I came across as a friend used her for her wedding and WOW is all I can say about her work, truely amazing and shes won a few awards too hehehe But as shes in scotland she a bit too far away for us :-( Heres Her work tho.............

 http://www.karenmcgowranphotography.co.uk/

And that brings me to the last of the photographers I want to show you and who we are thinking of using as I love love love her style!! I have actually booked two shoots with her this summer for my girls birthdays as they will be 10 and 13 so they wanted pictures with their friends to celebrate (anything to get them to have their photo taken lol) so I'll blog about the results when they are done. Till then heres her website...............

http://www.summerlovephotography.co.uk/

Ok so there are my top four photographers Ive come across, what do you think???

 I thought I'd leave you with these photo's to show you the sort of things I like.....some are a bit unusual but I think they are all FUN and thats what I hope will come from our day! :D

                                                           The romance of this one is stunning

                               My girls will be wearing red shoes and Black dresses thanks to this pic ;-)

                                LOVE the way this couple showed off her blue "I do" stickers hehehe

           The lighting on this picture I love and it really make's the picture look more fairytale I think!

                                        LOVE this one so unique and right up H2Bs street hehehe

             We shall be leaving to a sparkler arch, fitting as we are getting married near bonfire night
                                                            All my men will have red socks

                                                           The sky on these ones is STUNNING!
                                                       and how cute is that little girl peeking out!

                                                                        How fab is this? ;-)

                                     I would love a red underskirt but unsure as I have blue shoes

                                            I'm not having a veil but love the romance of this

Shoeeeeeesss

Ok so I'm not really a shoe girl to be honest I'm more of a boot's kinda girl!
So when it came to shoes and what I wanted I knew I wanted something simple and not too high but that was it thats all I knew!

I started looking and came across some shoes from the rainbow club shoe company that I quite liked but was still unsure of so I carried on looking!

http://www.1stforweddingshoes.co.uk/acatalog/Nicole-Rainbow.html

Then I came across some lacey ones

http://www.1stforweddingshoes.co.uk/acatalog/Rainbow-Club-Melanie-Wedding-Shoes.html

Which again were stunning but still not QUITE me!

Then I came across these.............

Now these, THESE are ME!!!!
So of course I had to have them hehehe

A couple of months later tho I also came across these, ops

WOW WOW WOW!!

These would defiantly give me a wow factor for the wedding and would look FAB in photo's AND they were half price in my size :-)  I'm not a garter person so was wondering how to bring blue into the wedding so this is my answer!
A bit of creeping with h2b and talking to the lady who agreed I could pay in installments and these lil beauties are ALLLLLLLL mine! They should be winging there way to my feet next month when I pay the last bit off and to be honest I CAN NOT WAIT :-)

http://www.wedding-studio.co.uk/

Ok so Ive done ALOT of research now into all things weddings and Ive found a few WONDERFUL people who do amazing work.
So I thought my next few blogs would be a kind of showcase for each of these great people and their businesses.

So first up is http://www.wedding-studio.co.uk/ and a lady called Geraldine!
Now this lady comes from the lake district and it was thank's to a friend that I came across her.
A friend who is getting married in the lake district and this lady was a possiable surpplier of hers.
At the time Geraldine didnt travel and to say I was jealous is an understatement :-(
I "befriended" her on facebook and when she posted things like the centre pieces in my last blog I wished she covered my area.
She also does other things like chair covers and custom makes each one useing loads of matrial per chair which gives effects like these

 So yep I was pretty jealous that she didnt cover my area as I hadnt and still havent found anyone that does work that even comes close to her work!
Then christmas happened and because of all the interest Geraldine had had she went UK WIDE!!

OMG I found my chair cover lady and anything else I decided I HAD to have that she does lol

BUT as my date is so far away I was unable to book as she couldnt garentee her prices because of the rise in the cost of fabics between now and then, so I STILL couldnt book her :-(
A few weeks later tho she got back to me and said I wasnt the only 2015 enquiry (I knew I wasnt the only mad bride to be out there hehehe) so she would be happy to help me .....................YAYYYYY!

She cost's a little more then most but I'm a firm believer that you get what you pay for and if her pictures are anything to go by I'll be getting a million times more then what I'll be paying, so well worth it in my book!

Now all I need to do is find the deposit and I will have an AMAZING lady who does amazing work at our wedding.
                                              HAPPY HAILEY hehehe

Choosing the colours and theme

Ok so we have the date and we have the venue, next up on our list was what colours and if we wanted a theme to the day?

I saw this dress
and that pretty much decided our colours for me :-)
Depp red and Ivory it was............................But a family members comment of
                                                             "red isnt really you is it"
got me to thinking that they were right so I thought of changing the colours but I really wanted this dress. In the end I decided to add a colour into the mix instead and we had red, ivory and black (I'm ALWAYS in black).
But again I changed my mind as I kept looking at dresses and found loads that I liked (will do another blog about that lol) so I slightly changed things and did black, ivory and red roses instead as our colours/theme!


Have you noticed how people are never happy about your colours being your theme tho??? So when people ask I tend to say our "theme" is.........

                                                A classic modern romance with a vintage twist!

Now that this was decided I got to thinking of centre pieces.
I like all the modern centre pieces you can get these days with the huge martini glasses filled with lights and roses, the tall lily vases with the ostrich feathers coming out of them or even the fish bowls with roses in them

But I LOVEEEEEEEEE the stunning vintage centre pieces using cups and saucers

And the more un-usual centre pieces like this stunning one using a handbag of all things

(Please check out http://www.wedding-studio.co.uk/ for more stunning centre pieces like the last two pictures and also my next blog on this lovely lady)

So after seeing all these things I needed to decide what I wanted .............but how???
Well I want a modern feel with a vintage twist so I'm having black tall lily vases then I'm going to somehow add a vintage feel to using red roses???
I might have to ask Geraldine (the lady who did the last two pictures) to work her magic for me here tho because I'm stuck on how to do this!
So be sure to come back to read how when Ive worked it all out!  

The venue hunt is on.

Now that we are having the wedding back in the uk we needed to think of where to have the wedding!
This being my second marriage I knew it would be hard to get married in a church again and I personally wouldnt feel married if we got married at the local reg office (NOTHING wrong with them and I think they can be fab, Its just not for me) so the perfect venue hunt was on!

One saturday morning we got in the car and off we went!
We went back to look at Orton Hall
http://www.bestwestern.co.uk/Hotels/Orton-Hall-Hotel-And-Spa-Peterborough-83354/Hotel-Info/Default.aspx but decided against it in the end as our new date didnt receive the best of welcomes!

We then drove over to the Sibson Inn                                                            which was lovely on the outside but as it was closed on a saturday we decided to come back another day!

Next on our list was The Bell

This one was lovely two rooms and a outside bit JUST for our wedding but it was nearly all our budget without anything else :-(

So next up was  The Bull Hotel
http://www.peterborobullhotel.com/ which again was BEAUTIFUL but being smack bang in the middle of town we didnt think this was practical for our guests especially with parking :-(

Last on our list was one that I had seen on facebook and was about half hour away which we were unsure of for our out of town  guests but we decided to take alook around anyway at Barndale Hall
http://www.barnsdalehotel.co.uk/weddings-c3.html................I fell in love with the building on sight :-) BUT at nearly double our budget this just wasnt going to be so we drove away before I could cry lol

On our way out of here tho we spotted a smaller more country look hotel the other side of the road that we decided to pop into on the off chance!!
We went in spoke to the reception about our date and asked them what they did for weddings??
When we told them rough numbers they took us to their top barn and this is VERY similar to what greeted us

To say we were both lost for words is an understatement!!
We walked in and went WOW at the same time :-)
This ladies and gentlemen is the one, this is our wedding venue, roll on
                           
                                 sunday 1st november 2015 at 2pm at Barnsdale Lodge, Oakham!