Totally Tropical Boho Bridesmaid Dresses

Random fact of the day - I'm planning a tropical themed New Year's Eve party {long story}. As part of my research for fun ideas, and what to wear, I stumbled upon the most incredible bridesmaid dress company E-V-E-R. If you're a boho bride, or fun-spirited, or just love a good print, you're going to fall head-over-heels for this brilliant brand called Show Me Your Mumu. Created by two fabulous girls who live in New York, their website is stuffed to the rafters with fantastic gowns, playsuits and getting ready robes. Be warned - you'll come away wanting an Hawaiian themed big day!

Here are just a few of my favourite gowns.....

{Sources} Top picture from Green Wedding Shoes Blog, all other shots from Show Me Your Mumu

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How to DIY Your Wedding Altar & Aisle

The perfect wedding venue is really difficult to find, and it's partly down to the restrictions on civil ceremonies. Marriage is a serious business, but in my view the government is waaaay too prescriptive about where we're allowed to celebrate a wedding ceremony. I'm always getting emails from brides who don't want to get married in a church, but are depressed with the civil ceremony venues in their local area. My solution isn't for everyone, but it worked perfectly for us. We had two weddings; a quickie ceremony in our local Hackney Registry Office, followed by our big 'official' wedding in Aix-en-Provence in France. This gave us the freedom to create our own ceremony {click to read}, write our own vows, and most importantly choose any venue on the planet. If this type of wedding takes your fancy, then you're going to need some serious wedding inspiration for altar and aisle decorations, and that's where the Before the Big Day Pinterest board will step into the breach! Just take a look at these fabulous, colourful wedding ideas - many more here.

{Photo Credit} Kristilee Parish Photography, see more from this wedding on Wedding Chicks blog

{Photo Credit} 1. Unknown via Inspired By This,  2. Unknown {please get in touch if you know}

{Photo Credit} 1. The Bubbly Blonde Prepster, 2. Anushe Low

{Photo Credit} 1. Leah Verwey via 100 Layer Cake, 2. Martha Stewart Weddings

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Amazing Boho DIY Vintage Wedding Part 2

It's Part 2 time for this incredible DIY-fest of a wedding. There is so much wedding inspiration in this fabulous big day, that I've had to split it in two for risk of blowing your minds! If you've missed Part 1, check it out here. From the wedding stationery to the wedding cakes {yes that's cakes plural}, no details was too small to DIY. I'm loving the recurring owl motif, the hankies '4 tears of joy' the incredible Wedding Land hand-drawn map, the burlap runners, the sweetie favour bar and the vintage camera on each table {to reflect Marissa's love of photography}. I don't think I've ever seen such a personalised wedding, and you can tell it must have been one amazing loved-up party! Huge thanks to the team at W Scott Chester Photography for their incredible pictures, and a heartfelt congratulations to Marissa and Caleb! P.S. If you want to see more pictures from this lovely wedding {plus extra wedding inspiration ideas}, do check out Before the Big Day's Facebook page.

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Amazing Boho DIY Vintage Wedding

If you're a boho bride, a vintage bride, or an obsessed-with-details DIY bride, this wedding is going to knock your socks off! It's an enchanting festival-style affair, with magical wedding details, and a big dollop of homespun fabulousness. I've taken the divide and conquer approach, so instead of flooding your eyeballs with too much wedding inspiration in one go, I'll be publishing the next half of the wedding at lunchtime, so you can enjoy it with your sandwiches. But there's tonnes to feast on in this batch of pictures, so let's get started. Marissa and Caleb celebrated their wedding on a Wednesday since they wanted to say 'I do' on their five year dating anniversary {love this idea!}. They DIY'd tonnes of their wedding details, including the incredible wood ceremony entrance, with its vintage screen doors AND the lovely altar area, with its Anthropologie-style letters and owls. I'm loving Caleb's laid-back style, Marissa's cute DIY broach bouquet {buy a similar one from Etsy}, her handmade floral bunting, her bridesmaids' colour-pop pink dresses plus yellow bouquets, and the personalised fingerprint tree guestbook at the entrance. If you want to create a similar wedding style, but don't have time to do all the wedding details yourself, then I must recommend Etsy weddings, for beautiful homespun products. Huge thanks to the wonderful team at W Scott Chester Photography for capturing every golden moment in such style.

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Real Tipi Church Wedding: Jess & Alistair - Reception Details

With tonnes of colourful, bright wedding details, and a wedding reception set in a tipi {so on trend}, you're going to love Jess and Alistair's big day. After their church wedding ceremony, they head to the beautiful Church Farm on the Wirral, right near the sea, for their wedding reception. With the help of friends and family, they DIY decorated their wedding tipi with bright paper lanterns, handmade hanging hearts, jam-jar tea-light holders, and pretty green ivy. Jess even created her own wedding table plan out of a humble piece of mdf, plus blackboard paint! I love the countryside feel of the hay-bales, wood-fire and cheesecake, and it's all pictured perfectly by Victoria Phipps Photography. If you missed Part 1 click here, and don't miss Jess' answers to our questionnaire - she has tonnes of inspirational wedding advice.

We got married end of July 2012 in Thurstaston, on the Wirral Peninsula. The ceremony was at St Bartholomew’s Church and the reception was in Papa Kata tipis at Church Farm on the Wirral.

We had three different florists for my bouquet, the church and the reception. My bouquet and the bridesmaid’s corsages/groomsmen buttonholes were by Eden Florists in West Kirby, Wirral. Friends of Alistair's mother did the flowers for the reception, and members of the church did the church flowers.

Al is wanted quite a traditional wedding, and I wanted something fun and relaxed. We compromised by having a church wedding and a tipi reception. The church had meaning for both of us as it was where my parents had got married, and it's somewhere Al and his family had visited on Sunday walks.

We didn't have any wedding theme as such. We just wanted a colourful and personal wedding. Creating a fun atmosphere was important to us, as was throwing an amazing party with some seriously tasty food!

There were a few of DIY projects, and as the reception was in a tipi there was a lot of decorating to do. The blackboard table plan was some cheap mdf, that I painted with black board paint. We collected lots of jam jars for rustic tea light holders, and the green ivy was picked and put up by Al’s mum and a couple of her close friends.

As part of my hen-do we did a crafty session at a local artists studio where we made hanging hearts in different colours. We put these hearts up as part of the decorations. I painted numbers on white paper lanterns for hanging table numbers, and the hanging lanterns for the dance floor were bought and set up by us. 

I like to illustrate in my spare time, and we thought it would be nice to have an illustrated wedding invite. Jim Fleming, a local artist illustrated our cards. I added in the lettering, and drew a whimsical map, and I also wrote the place cards and the table plan.

We were lucky enough to have two cakes. We went for a cheesecake from the Liverpool Cheese Company, and Al’s mum baked a yummy fruit-cake wedding cake for us.

We spent a year planning our wedding, and tried to not let it take over our lives. We had creative control over every aspect, which made the day just what we wanted, but it was also a lot of work!

My advice for other brides starts with learning the art of delegation! We couldn’t have planned the day we had without the help of our parents, our friends and anyone else who offered assistance.

Our photographer was Victoria from Victoria Phipps Photography. We really liked her natural photography style.

♥ Want to see London wedding ideas? ♥ Or how about more pub reception ideas? ♥

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