I really want to be able to finish off our Order of the Day programmes and for that I need to know what order our ceremony will take. It is scary because I really have no clue whatsoever to expect - I've never been to a civil ceremony before!
So I called up the Registrar's office and explained that I wanted to make this programme and could they let me know what happens and when.
She was very helpful and we discussed everything for about 10 minutes. She said The Reid Rooms would do a rehearsal with us a couple of days before the wedding, so at least we will know what to expect!
Ceremony Order:
Brides Entrance (From This Moment On - Shania Twain)
Introduction by Superintendent Registrar
1st reading (Apache Blessing)
Declarations & Contracting Words
2nd reading (extract from 'The Velveteen Rabbit')
Exchanging of Wedding Rings
Marriage Vows (our own)
3rd reading (Love is The Reason)
Signing of the Register
Exit of the Newlyweds (Forever & For Always - Shania Twain)
Here is the front cover to our wedding programmes:
I basically cut an A4 piece of black card in half lengthwise and folded it in half to create a booklet. I then added the purple card on top and then the printed cover. I plan on tying all the pages together with some white organza ribbon.
TTFN xx
I knew right from the start that I wanted to have names for tables as opposed to numbers. I thought this would be a good place to inject something that means something to us as a couple, and as we're having a relatively small amount of tables, I don't think there will be too much confusion when guests are looking out for their table. I also think numbers are boring and remind me of being in a restaurant (ﾟoﾟ)
We sat down one evening and brainstormed table name ideas...
- fruit
- flowers
- the word "love" in different languages
- colours
not many, granted, but then I thought, why not bands/artists that we have seen together live in concert (･_･?)
H2b had never been to a music concert. Ever. Until he met me... and we have seen lots of bands/artists together now. Anyone that knows us, KNOWS it's what we do for a good night out, I think in 2008 we had a concert a month! H2b drew the line at coming with me to see NKTOB and Take That though!
I thought it would also be good to have the dates and venues on the table name card - mainly so it wouldn't be like we plucked random artists out of the air, but that they were people we had seen live!
I carried on the black/purple/white colour scheme, and on the reverse of the card we plan on putting the guests names (maybe)
Here are all the table name cards...
Top table will be Darren Hayes, natch, he's my favourite musician ♥ ♥ ♥
The Bridesmaids and their partner's table will be the P!nk table. It is also my Chief Bridesmaid's (my sis) fave musician - she came along with us to see her a few weeks ago. P!nk rawked!
As for the rest of the tables, they are unassigned at the moment...
Britney is yet to be seen - June 7th, but we'll have seen her by the time the wedding rolls round!
TTFN xx
The first step with our day invitations was to source pocketfolds. Through asking on the Wedding Ideas forum I discovered a website called Cards Cards Cards and I ordered 50 white pearlised 5" x 7" pocketfolds with matching envelope. The website has since folded (no pun intended!) So glad I ordered those 10 extras!!
I also had to source some purple card...which I liked...remember I'm quite fussy about purple (O_O；). I eventually tracked some down at The Range what a God send that store is!! The only snag was that the *only* card I could find in a purple that I *liked* was A1 in size!! To give you an idea of that... A1 is 23.4" x 33.1". I had given myself the task of having to chop all this down into the sizes that I needed. And with the invite backing, plus four inserts, I'd given myself one hell of a job!!
By the time I had bought the purple card and the pocket folds I had already designed the layout for the invitation and for the inserts, so I then meticulously measured everything and began to cut out with a craft knife. MISSION!!! But it was worth it, as I think they turned out great, and everyone complimented me on them （*＾＾）
So I present to you our (daytime) invitations:
I originally was going to tie them up with ribbon, but decided against it as was too bulky to post, and the ribbon would have got squished in the mail.
I made 40 invitations in all - took about 6 weeks to make - a lot longer than I thought it might!
I eventually tracked down some gorgeous swirly brushes which I think look fabbu! I had bought some little purple gemstone stickers which I didn't want to go to waste so added them strategically
We added four inserts as you can see in the picture below
Directions - speaks for itself - how to get to our venue with a map on the reverse (not pictured)
Information - our website (designed and coded by yours truly), accommodation info, taxi numbers, order of the day (what time we are eating), gift registry, confetti policy and RSVP details.
Photography - we created a Photobox account for our friends and family to upload their photographs from the wedding to. We used this insert to give instructions on how to do that.
RSVP - We used this to detail how they could RSVP to the wedding - online, by phone or by post. Originally it was going to be an RSVP card, but I couldn't find any envelopes to fit it!! Moral of that tale: find your envelopes first!!
I also DIY'd our evening invitations, table name cards, escort cards, menus, order of the day programme, candy buffet sign, wish jar sign, bathroom basket signs, CD covers (for people to take home and burn their images to if they don't have the internet) and post box.
TTFN xx
Now, I think I may have said before that it's tricky putting my wedding blog into any sort of order as I've left it till when we've practically finished doing everything, so as I think of things to write I write them... as I've been talking about our invitations, and before presenting you with the final draft and the ones we actually sent out, I will back track to our Save The Dates.
Another American idea which we've adopted over here in the UK! Once we decided on our date - a Wednesday - we knew that it would be a good idea to send out save the date cards to our guests, just to forewarn them of the day/date and enable them to get the time off work if they wished to attend.
We bought sheets of magnetic card to make the cards a little more practical - everyone sticks a magnet on their fridge!
Like I said, these were designed and made before I had any clue of colour, style or anything wedding related (＞。≪) I even got the village where our venue is wrong! D'oh! If I could do them again they would be in the same style as the rest of our stationery!
Oh well, they were sent last August after our engagement party so too late now!!!!
TTFN xx
I knew right from the start that I wanted to make our wedding invitations... one, because I'm arty/crafty and two, to save money.
If I look back now at the invitations that I originally liked the look of they are nothing at all like the ones I eventually designed and sent out to our guests!
Here is a selection of images online that I found. They were snagged so long ago now I can't remember where they came from - but I know that I always would find things by Googling...
You'll notice that they're all very home made looking, have a similar style and theme (mainly hearts and flowers).
I duly went off to the Art Department at The Range and picked up some blank cards in varying sizes and colours, silver outline stickers, ribbon and a bunch of embellishments (to add to my stash I already had at home!) and got to work.
I'm surprised I never took any photographs of my first efforts. They may still be languishing some where in the house, but none of them looked right, I figured they would take forever and a day to make, what with all the little details that had to be stuck on, plus, I just wasn't "feeling it" when I looked at them.
Another reason why I scrapped this whole homemade look was because I had fallen in love with a new style of invitation... POCKETFOLDS!!
TTFN xx
hmmm, 20 days already gone past since I started this blog - next week is my sister's wedding, once that is over, then the countdown will really be on! I'm getting a bit calmer now knowing that most of the "to do" list is now done, and I'm confident that we'll have everything done by mid June or at the latest the start of July.
I'm working out hard at the gym to get as much in shape as I possibly can - I'm gonna make sure that the dressmaker has to take in my dress when I go for my fitting in July.
TTFN xx
Now that the BM's dresses had been sorted *sigh of relief* the next step was to accesorise them all...
When looking for stuff for the girls, I had to always bear in mind I needed four of everything so cost was always a factor! Yes, I'd saved me a pretty penny on buying the dresses from a catalogue, but I wanted to try and keep everything within some sort of budget!
I started out by seeing these pretty necklaces (with matching bracelet) in my Avon brochure...
As I am an Avon rep, I was able to get these with a 25% discount, so they only cost me about £3 each - bargain!
Next came the handbag - another Avon find...
Two of these were free as I had them in my "stock box" of freebies that I was able to bag myself over the years - I had to buy two more from another Avon rep at the cost of about £5 for the two - bargain again!
Next was the fascinator...
Which I found at Dorothy Perkins for £7 each - a bargain in the fascinator world as the ones I saw elsewhere were £15 - £30 each!
Finally their shoes, which was agreed at the start they would pay for.
I had seen these shoes from Faith online, and thought they were lush - I loved the rounded toe (I hate pointy shoes with a passion!) and they would tie in with the black sash round the girl's dresses.
However, I found this picture yonks ago and while casually browsing through my mum's catalogue (again!) I saw a similar pair of shoes in Empire Stores. I was actually purchasing my own shoes at the time and saw them in black also. They wanted £30 a pair for them, but were doing a special offer of 3 for 2, making them just £20 each - bargain!! I ordered myself a pair in black too, and along with my BMs shoes - 6 pairs in total and making them all £20!
All that was left was to decide on the girl's hair and make up - I left that up to their discretion for their hair as they all have different colours and styles, but we all decided together to go with lilac/purple eyeshadow...from Avon, of course!...
and a pinky coloured lip gloss...
which my Chief Bridesmaid (and sister) would apply for everyone on the morning of the wedding.
Bridesmaid dresses, accessories, hair and make up.... DONE!
TTFN xx
