DIY Autumn Leaf Wedding Confetti

This is such a genius idea, I can't believe I hadn't thought of it before! I love everything autumn, and there's nothing I like more than going out for a long walk, and picking up lots of natural momentoes - think polished conkers, spiky horse chestnut cases, and mottled leaves. So this quick and easy wedding crafting project ticks all my boxes.

All you need is a huge pile of pretty autumn leaves, a heart punch {buy them here}, kitchen towel, and a couple of hefty books. Punch out pretty hearts and press them between kitchen towel, and tada! You've got perfect autumn confetti. Use it to decorate your wedding reception tables, or put it in cones for your friends to throw at you as you come out the church. Tutorial here.

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An Easy Wedding Decoration DIY

You don't have to be a graffiti artist to fall in love with spray paint. Any crafter worth her salt knows it's the easiest tool for fast, effective results. You can easily turn the mundane into something incredible. My friends recently celebrated their wedding at an incredible venue in East London. They needed to personalise the reception space, but didn't have much of a budget. For under a £100 they bought dozens of white paper lanterns, and saved jam-jars. A simple spray of neon spray paint, and a bag of Ikea tea-lights, and they had a brilliant, original wedding decorations {like these}. My colour of choice is gold - particularly for autumn and winter weddings. Just take a look at these fantastic DIY ideas - find more on my Pinterest page.

Sources: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8

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A 'Blooming' New Forest Autumn Wedding with DIY Details - Part 2

Take one wedding florist, add a graphic designer husband-to-be, and a group of insanely talented guests, and you have a wedding-made-in-heaven. Jen and Lee celebrated their big day in the autumn, and completely mixed up their wedding schedule, to make sure they didn't lose the light for their pictures. This inspired decision meant the party started straight away, and the lovely Ben Goode got to take these stunning portrait pictures in a gorgeous golden light. It's definitely an idea to steal if you're planning an autumn or winter wedding. As long as you don't mind seeing each other before the ceremony, then it's a winner! There's so many other brilliant details, you'll want to save every shot - from their giant, fairground-style, illuminated initials, to the CD favours made to look like mini-vinyls, and the chocolate brownie pyramid wedding cake. And did I mention Jen is a florist? Wedding flowers to die for! If you missed Part 1, don't!

We got married on the 6th October 2012, at East Close Hotel, near Christchurch in the New Forest. The ceremony and reception both took place here. 

Our photographer was Ben Goode - he did the pictures for a colleagues wedding and we loved them. As soon as we met him, and saw more of his work we were sold. His style was the perfect mix of discreet reportage and creative stuff.  He was SUCH a nice guy to have around on the day of the wedding too; lots of guests commented that they liked his relaxed attitude. Needless to say, we were blown away by the resulting photographs. He caught little moments of emotion that really made us laugh and cry.

We wanted a venue where we could have the whole day, so our guests didn’t have to travel after the ceremony and the party could start straight away. East Close Hotel was the perfect choice!

We had the whole place for the day, which felt exclusive and luxurious, but the hotel is small enough that we didn't feel we were rattling around. I loved that each room had a different feel, but all in line with our taste.

I was my own florist {Jennifer Poynter Flowers}, helped by the girls that I used to work with {from Arcade Flowers in Ringwood}. Flowers are obviously my thing, and I loved having the chance to create exactly what I wanted, with all my favourite autumn flowers and foliage. 

I included lots of roses, spray roses, gorgeous ‘Mambo’ lilies, velvety burgundy gladioli, astrantia, astilbe, poppy seed heads, several varieties of eucalyptus and beautiful pink snowberries. There was also lots of amazing trailing amaranthus which was grown for me by a local lady. She wrapped it all up in fleece every night through September in case of an early frost!

We were lucky to have lots of skills which allowed us and our friends to DIY lots of things… I’m a wedding florist, so the flowers were sorted… Lee is a graphic designer and hand-made all of our beautiful stationery… a friend made the cake… another friend is a DJ and offered to help with that…

My mum is a writer and crafted a very funny reading for the ceremony out of all our guests' tips for a long and happy life together {we asked them to include this with their RSVP}. This all obviously saved us some pennies, but also made the day so much more personal.

My husband designed all of our stationery. It was paired back and simple, concentrating on good design and nice typography {we're a little obsessed with typography!}. It had a slightly art-deco feel, but not too overt, and was mainly printed in black on thick grey card stock. The tables were named after classic print fonts and the signs sat on small silver metal easels that were only 80p each in Ikea and looked wicked. 

Having favours that doubled as place cards reduced the amount of stuff on the table {or 'table crap' as Lee called it!}. Everyone was given a CD of our 'guilty pleasures and firm favourites', as we both love music. I sing in a band, and Lee DJ's as a second job. 

The songs were listed on the back of the sleeve, and the front had the person's name and a little note thanking them for joining us. Lee painstakingly designed, printed, cut out ,and assembled the sleeves which took days. The CDs were burned onto disks that looked like mini 12inch records. 

I like to think people will find them in the glove box in ten years and remember our cool wedding ;-) For the kids we did little boxes in the same style with these awesome mini lego sets inside that they could make a personalised lego name plaque out of. It kept them busy during the speeches.

We weren't going to have a cake at all to begin with but our lovely friend insisted on making one as a present. We went for a big stack of chocolate brownies decorated with icing sugar and autumn figs. Everyone couldn't wait to dig in, and didn't have to because all the pieces were pre-cut…!

My advice to other brides? Everyone will have an opinion about your wedding, but they are only trying to be helpful and may not understand what sort of day you want to it to be…Try to be polite and consider their advice, but make sure you do plan the day your way.

We had a funny structure to the day because we wanted to get the bridal party together for photographs before the ceremony - being a late afternoon ceremony in autumn we were worried about the light, and also wanted to start celebrating straight away. We also weren't superstitious about seeing each other before the 'aisle moment'. A lot of people thought this was weird and unlucky, but we did it and it worked brilliantly - the photographer thanked us for it, and we didn't get struck by lightning!

Planning our wedding was great fun. It was ace to put together a big party for all of the most special people we know, and share our commitment with them. Also, after years working in the industry and seeing so many fab weddings, it was also really nice for me to finally organise my own!

Our first dance was James Vincent McMorrow's cover of Higher Love, which neatly segued into the 80s Steve Winwood original half way through. It was lovely and hilarious at the same time :-D

We splashed out on some amazing fairground-style giant illuminated initials to sit next to the dance floor. We got them from an artist called Andy Willett who makes shop and bar signs, and the quality was so good, that we now have them decorating our house - LOVE them. We soon realised how many of our friends have the same initials as us as they were all having their pictures taken with them in the evening!

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A 'Blooming' New Forest Autumn Wedding with DIY Details

I absolutely L-O-V-E it when a Before the Big Day bride gets in touch with me and asks if I'd like to feature her wedding. It's like being included on the guest list! Lovely Jennifer read this blog in the build up to her wedding day, and sent over the beautiful pictures by Ben Goode. I'm in love with every one, and completely obsessed with all the perfectly DIY'd details. Jen is a florist, so obviously the flowers were sorted, her husband Lee is a graphic designer and hand-made all of the fabulous stationery, a friend made the wedding cake, another friend DJ'd, and Jen's mum is a writer, and crafted a very funny reading for the ceremony out of all their guests' tips. Put together this saved them some pennies, but also made the day so much more personal. There's so much stealworthy wedding inspiration, I'm finding it hard to know where to start.....maybe with Jen's stunning high-street wedding dress, but don't miss the fun vintage VW camper-van, the locally-bought bridesmaid gowns, the flowery cocktails, and most of all the incredible wedding flowers - all designed by Jen herself. Such a dreamy wedding - more to come in Part 2 later today!

We got married on the 6th October 2012, at East Close Hotel, near Christchurch in the New Forest. The ceremony and reception both took place here. I booked a pristine VW camper van from Dorset Dub Hire to take Lee and his boys to the venue as a surprise. He only found out on the morning of the wedding when he opened his card from me. It was a good job too as it happened, as our car broke down early in the morning and couldn't be relied upon to get them there!

There wasn't a particular theme as such {I don’t really like 'themey' things}, but I suppose the day was just full of things we love. The colours we chose were really influenced by what we thought would look great in the venue. 

I had always thought I would never go for pink, but there ended up being quite a bit of it! Burgundy, magenta, pale blush pink and grey was the palette that tied all the elements together. 

I went to a couple of bridal boutiques very early on in our preparations and loved trying on the dresses, but I couldn't really find the sort of thing I wanted. I really didn't want a dress with a train, I didn't want to wear a veil and I didn't want to wear heels. In one shop, the assistant didn't understand why I wouldn't want to look like a princess for the day, and I came to the conclusion that I might do better in high street shops. This also had the advantage of being far cheaper and leaving me with more budget for what I really cared about {FLOWERS!}.

Unfortunately, after falling for and buying a gorgeous dress from Debenhams, I later fell even more in love with one in Monsoon and bought that too, cancelling out the initial bargain! I only wore one of them on the day - the vintage-y lace number from Monsoon, with cowl back and floaty asymmetrical sleevey-bits.

My shoes were flat, dirty-pink, velvet, peep-toe pumps, with big pearly bows on the front, from Carvela. I wore my own sapphire engagement ring {something blue}, my late great-grandmother's diamond engagement ring on the other hand {something borrowed}, a pair of sapphire stud earrings which Lee bought as a present for me to open on the wedding morning {something new}, and a simple silver necklace that Lee bought for me years ago {something old}.

I was my own florist {Jennifer Poynter Flowers}, helped by the girls that I used to work with {from Arcade Flowers in Ringwood}. Flowers are obviously my thing, and I loved having the chance to create exactly what I wanted, with all my favourite autumn flowers and foliage. 

I included lots of roses, spray roses, gorgeous ‘Mambo’ lilies, velvety burgundy gladioli, astrantia, astilbe, poppy seed heads, several varieties of eucalyptus and beautiful pink snowberries. There was also lots of amazing trailing amaranthus which was grown for me by a local lady. She wrapped it all up in fleece every night through September in case of an early frost!

When it came to choosing bridesmaid dresses, I totally love the bridesmaid gowns that can be tied lots of different ways and thought they’d be perfect since my two girls were very different shapes, not least because one of them was pregnant and gave birth 11 days before the wedding!

I then actually discovered that a local bridal dressmaker, Frances from her shop, Calm Amongst the Chaos, did her own version of this type of dress, and that she could do the perfect charcoal grey colour, and different lengths for each of them. I was glad that we got them from a local business instead of having them shipped from somewhere. The girls wore their own shoes and an ivory shrug from Monsoon.

We walked in to The 59th Street Bridge Song by Simon and Garfunkel, which was really for me and my Dad, as we always used to listen to it in the car together. He was a bit emotional about it as he didn't know what it would be until it started.

Lee hired a suit from Moss Bros as he never needs to wear one for work, and couldn't justify buying one. We asked the other guys to wear a suit they already owned, which worked well as they all felt comfortable and didn't look too match-y.

We bought a tie for each of them which they could keep afterwards. We’re not keen on cravats or anything too wedding-y and Lee really wanted a striped tie, so we hunted high and low for one and found it in Marks and Spencer {of course!}. 

Funnily, we couldn't find enough of the same one ,and discovered that a candidate on The Apprentice had worn the tie on the show, so they had sold out almost everywhere. We ended up ordering them from 4 different shops to get seven matching ones! The things you do for love and a perfect wedding eh?

We walked out to a brilliant and crazy brass band version of Africa by Toto, covered by Hackney Colliery Band. It's just bonkers and makes us smile.

We wanted a venue where we could have the whole day, so our guests didn’t have to travel after the ceremony and the party could start straight away. East Close Hotel was the perfect choice! In reality, the party started before the ceremony! 

We had the whole place for the day, which felt exclusive and luxurious, but the hotel is small enough that we didn't feel we were rattling around. I loved that each room had a different feel, but all in line with our taste.

Since the flowers were fast becoming a bit of a thing, we thought it would be cool to have flowers in the drinks. We got these edible hibiscus flowers that you pour fizzy wine over and they open up and flavour the drink, like a flowery cocktail. Delicious and pretty.

Me and my bridesmaids all did our own make-up and a friend did our hair. The clip I wore was another last minute something borrowed from the hairdresser friend.

Our photographer was Ben Goode - he did the pictures for a colleagues wedding and we loved them. As soon as we met him, and saw more of his work we were sold. His style was the perfect mix of discreet reportage and creative stuff. 

He was SUCH a nice guy to have around on the day of the wedding too; lots of guests commented that they liked his relaxed attitude. Needless to say, we were blown away by the resulting photographs. He caught little moments of emotion that really made us laugh and cry.

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Real Stylish London Wedding: Caroline & Matt - Part 2

London brides are going to love this inspirational wedding, with its fun pub venue, shabby-chic wedding decorations, and pink and gold colour palette. Caroline and Matt stamped their personality on their big day with unique DIY'd wedding details - Matt designed their wedding stationery, Caroline's mum made the wedding cake and Caroline created the tankard table plan. Stunning table flowers as well - I love David Austin roses! Huge thanks to Erica from Photo Madly for capturing the wedding so perfectly, and to Caroline, for filling the Before the Big Day Brides' Questionnaire. Don't miss her fab hints and tips, and take a look at Part 1 of this wedding here.


Matt and I met at work but we didn't get together until one Christmas party when Matt was dressed as a Lego man and I was dressed as Madonna in the Material girl video. 

We were together for 3 and a half years when Matt surprised me with a weekend away to Norfolk which is where we went for our first weekend away together. He'd booked us into a romantic yurt and took me out for an amazing eight course meal, when we got back we sat next to the camp fire with our glasses of champagne and Matt got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

We got married on 21st September in London, our ceremony was in The Old Marylebone Town Hall and held our reception in The Londesborough pub in Stoke Newington.

We looked at lots of different types of buildings for our reception but decided a pub would work well for us as we really wanted the day to be really laid back and relaxed. I was also determined that our venue should have just one room to create a really intimate atmosphere. 

The Londesborough is one of my favourite London pubs and they really ticked all the boxes for us, we had the whole pub to ourselves and they have outside space and the food was amazing! We felt bunting would work best in the pub and other than flowers we didn't need to do much else as its such a lovely space already. We really couldn't have been happier with our venues.

I didn't want a particular wedding colour theme, but instead worked to a colour palette of soft pinks, greens, white, pale gold and navy.

My florist was Elinor Walsh from Marlow, Buckinghamshire. She did such a good job, the flowers were exactly what I wanted. I really wanted pink and white peonies but in September that's not really an option so we chose pink David Austin roses mixed in with white hydrangea. I chose to have them tied with twine.

I was very keen that the table decorations should be in low vases as I wanted people to be able to chat over them easily without wanting to move them out of the way. The flowers were one of my favourite things about the day as it was so exiting seeing them in the pub, I was so happy with how they turned out.

Matt is a graphic designer so he designed our wedding invitations. I came up with the idea of using beer mats, and he created the look. We used the same design for our wedding menus, which also doubled as the table place names.

My DIY projects included our table plan. I wrote the names of our guest on glass tankards, using chalk pen, then stacked them on a set of shelves. We also made the table names by buying clipboards and sticking struts on them. We then printed out each table name to look like a pub sign, and clipped them on.

We wanted wedding favours that were fun, and we spotted the chocolate lips and moustaches in a wedding magazine. We bought them from Creightons Chocolatiers in Leighton Buzzard, and were so pleased with them. They looked great and tasted amazing, and everyone commented in how fun they were!

I saw a cake online that I fell in love with, and my mum said she would try and replicate it. I bought the cake stand online and my mum did the rest. I don't like fruit cake so we had a lemon drizzle cake. It was delicious and looked amazing, I'm so pleased my mum made it, as it meant so much more.

I loved planning my big day! There are so many different ways you can do a wedding and they're all amazing, I could do it all over again - although only if it was with Matt obviously!!

Our photographer was Erika Szostak from Photo Madly. We picked her because we loved her work, and we felt really comfortable with her straight away. Your photographer is such a big part of your day it's so important you choose someone who you like having around! We're thrilled with how our photos turned out.

My advice for future brides is to remember that on the day you can't change anything so just enjoy it! Things will go wrong but it's not important, the main thing is that you enjoy the day you've spent so long planning. Also don't stress about your decisions once they're made, I can't tell you how much I stressed about things that looking back on it just weren't important!

♥ Click for more London wedding ideas! ♥ And tonnes of shabby chic weddings! ♥

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