Loving Sweet Peas for Summer Wedding

Have you heard of sweet-peas? They come in every shade of pink and purple, with a few white and yellow petals thrown in for good luck. They’re the perfect bloom for a wedding, because they smell so sweet. Add a few to your bridal bouquet, or decorate your wedding tables with lots of little nosegays. They look amazing against the bright white table cloths. You can buy them from specialised sellers Sweet Peas Direct, or grow them yourself from seeds planted in spring. All you need is a sheltered spot, and my mum’s secret ingredient…..cow dung! For more ideas, take a look at my Sweet-Pea Wedding Pinterest board.

{Image Credits} Top: Sweet Monday | Bottom: Heather Bullard

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A Lily-of-the-Valley Wedding Theme

Have you heard of lily-of-the-valley? It's the most exquisite flower, with tiny little white bells, and the sweetest scent. It's one of my favourite flowers, and luckily came into bloom just in time for my London wedding in early May. My mother picked it from her garden, and DIY'd my beautiful bouquet. It's a notoriously hard plant to force into flower, so if you want it at your wedding day, you'll have to be lucky! It's even got the royal seal of approval - Kate Middleton chose it for her wedding, and Grace Kelly carried a small bouquet of lily-of-the-valley on her big day. Once you see it, you'll fall in love - take a look at these wedding ideas, and check out my Pinterest page for more.

{My bouquet made by my mother, picture by Caught the Light}

{Source 1 unknown, Peggy Porschen Lily of the Valley Cake}

{Source 1, Source 2}

{Source 1, Source 2}

{Lily of the Valley Hair Piece, £43 | Source 2}

{Lily-of-the-Valley Gold Earrings, £15}

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Greek Goddess Bride Style

Choosing your 'look' for your wedding day can be difficult, particularly if you're anything like me, and your normal look is pretty thrown together. With two wedding days to plan, I was lucky enough to try two different bridal styles, although both ended up pretty similar {hair up, hair down!}. Whether you're thinking sleek and sexy, or boho and feminine, consider this gorgeous Grecian bride style. With a simple bouquet of olive branches, and an elegant leafy crown, plus a divine Samuelle Couture wedding gown, you're good to go - no need even for shoes! Fabulous styling by Kelly Oshiro, incredible pictures by the lovely Jose Villa.

 

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My New Favourite Wedding Florist

Finding a florist for your wedding can be a complete minefield. There's a lot of generic designers out there who'll do a great job, but if you're looking for something a bit different, a bit quirky and unique, then you'll love Rose & Wolf Flowers. It's run by a friend of a friend of mine called Georgina Agutter, and I've been following her work on Instagram for the last few months. I love the slightly haphazard style of her romantic wedding bouquets, and the clean precision of her more formal work. Take a look at her Facebook site for her latest wedding designs - I love the pop of colour in this whimsical bouquet.

{Picture Credit} Rose & Wolf Flowers - email here

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Pale & Romantic, Peach & Pink Wedding Inspiration

Brides looking for a romantic theme to their wedding day are going to love my next three wedding inspiration features. They're all part of the same pale and romantic styled shoot, shot by Annie Beedy of Mim & Honey, featuring flowers by Riley Messina of Erba Floral Design and wedding cakes by Cambria Goodwin of Butter. Annie's long been one of my favourite photographers - her pictures were some of the first I ever featured on Before the Big Day. So when she emailed me offering these exquisite shots, I jumped at the start. In this pink and peach-themed shoot, I'm loving the luxury of the multi-layered roses, the pink sponge interior to the wedding cake, and the simplicity of the plain white candles planted in old wine bottles. Ask your wedding cake designer to texture the icing for a similar rustic look, and add old keys, antlers and vintage crocheted mats to your wedding tables to recreate the rustic-chic look. Incredible!

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How To Choose Your Wedding Flowers

Choosing your wedding flowers can be a pretty tricky business; considering most people just send flowers and bouquets, without really knowing the names of any particular blooms. But thanks to Pinterest, I've stumbled across the best wedding flower guides E-V-E-R! It's all thanks to the amazing team over at The Wedding Chicks wedding blog. Along with Krista Jon, they've organised the most popular wedding flowers by colour palette, so you can impress your wedding florist with your knowledge. Of course, if you're getting married abroad {like I did}, then the pictures will help you enormously, although you could always consider international flower delivery instead! To enlarge the pictures below, just double click. More wedding flower guides here.

 

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Rustic Raw Cotton Wedding Inspiration

Raw cotton has got me in a spin. I've fallen for its fluffy fabulousness and rustic simplicity. It's an fantastic alternative to flowers for winter and spring brides - with the added benefit your wedding bouquet and buttonholes would last forever! String the bolls together for decorations, add them to table displays for extra texture, or create cloudy wreaths. For more fabulous winter wedding ideas, check out my Pinterest page.

{Picture Credit} Jasmine Star via Green Wedding Shoes

{Picture Credit} 1. Unkown 2. Jasmine Star via Green Wedding Shoes

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Real Floral Filled Wedding: Eric & Emily

At some weddings it's all about the dress. At others, the food or the venue. At this gorgeous private ranch wedding, it was all about the flowers. If you're struggling to find inspiration for your florals, look no further than the pictures of the amazing vintage-chic arrangements at Eric and Emily's big day. Copy their style by using old-fashioned containers for simple white blooms - check out car boot sales for old watering cans, watering troughs and urns. Loving the colour pop of the bright yellow in the bridesmaids' bouquets, and their neutral dresses. Everyone looks good in elegant silvery taupe. Other stealworthy ideas include the long banqueting-style tables and outdoor dining, something I'm hoping to do at my own wedding. Thanks to Sarah Yates Photography for her stunning pictures.

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How To Make a Wedding Flower Crown

One wedding trend that looks set to run and run is the boho look. With Kate Moss setting the tone with her festival themed wedding, and teepee weddings huge for summer 2012, I'm betting 2013 will be the year of the boho bride. For a fun and easy way to create the boho look, dress your bridesmaids in flower crowns. Inspired by the Pre-Raphaelites, these versatile accessories can look as glamorous, or as country-chic as you like. An added plus is their super easy to DIY - partly thanks to this brilliant tutorial by Brittany Watson Jepsen via Etsy Weddings. Brittany is easily one of my favourite DIY bloggers - she lives in Denmark, and writes a fabulous blog called The House That Lars Built, with tonnes of DIY wedding ideas and inspiration.

{Photo Credit} Photography by Brittany Watson Jepsen and Amanda Thomsen.

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Your Wedding Flowers for Less

Wedding flowers can blow your budget. They certainly blew mine, and that's despite me knowing all the secret tips. Unfortunately most of my wedding tips didn't translate into French for my wedding, but if you're getting married in the UK, then this advice on wedding flowers is going to save you a fortune. If you're looking for super-high end designer flowers, then this is not the feature for you - but right now, most of us are trying to save a few pennies on our wedding budget, and I'm all about cheap and chic. To get you in the mood, here are a few pictures of my own wedding flowers, taken by the lovely Chloé from Caught the Light. We couldn't DIY all our wedding flowers, because we needed to hire the vases from the florist, and it worked out as more economical to keep him on-side. But we saved a fortune by buying clouds and clouds of baby's breath from a local market. Our wedding planner Kerry Bracken collected it on the night before the wedding and it stayed lovely and fresh. Our Provencal florist, Stéphane, was wonderful - I'd recommend him to any bride planning to get married in France.

Before the Big Day Tips - Your Wedding Flowers for Less

1. Keep it seasonal. For a list of what flowers are in season for your wedding, click here.

2. Consider using plants rather than cut flowers for your table displays. Some garden centres will rent you plants, but even if you need to buy them, you can give them away as lovely presents after your wedding. You could even grow your own plants, whereas growing enough flowers is a mammoth task.

3. Keep it simple. Single blooms in lots of vases take a lot less time to arrange, and that means the florist will charge you less for their time. This isn't going to give you a luxury look, but elegant simplicity is very in right now!

4. Choose a cheap variety of flower, and buy tonnes of it for a dramatic effect. For example, I used baby's breath - a flower I hate when mixed with roses, but adore on its own. Carnations have the same effect. They're dreadful dotted in bouquets, but when you mass loads of them together, the effect completely changes, from awful to awesome.

5. Buy direct from a flower market and ask a friendly florist to moonlight on your behalf. This probably only works if you have a friend or a friend-of-a-friend who's a florist, but it's worth asking around. They could do your wedding flowers instead of giving you a wedding present.

6. DIY. Now I say this with huge caution. If you're doing simple single blooms as suggested in Hint 3, then you're not going to find this too traumatic. If, however, you're thinking luxurious mixed and hand-tied bunches, then you're not going to be able to produce the effect you want. Plus it takes hours, and it has to be done really near the wedding. You do not want to be arranging flowers the morning of you wedding. Really, trust me, you don't.

7. Don't DIY your buttonholes. They're harder to produce than you think, and they're going to be in every photography. Ditto for your wedding bouquet. Even if your budget is tiny, splash out.

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Wedding Flowers - I Love Baby's Breath

Wedding flowers can be a huge part of your wedding budget, but no one wants to get married without their prettiness. I'm struggling with a slightly {okay, hugely} over-budget wedding, and I've taken the hard decision to cut back on my original plans of floral abundance. One way to keep costs down is to choose just one cheap bloom, buy bundles from a flower market, and then arrange them yourself. Be reassured - DIY flower arranging is much easier when you're only working with one type of bloom. I've chosen baby's breath, for its feminine, vintage style - what do you think? P.S. I'm splashing out on a white peony bouquet, or maybe light pink...I can't decide! {Pictures via Pinterest}

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Wedding Flower Favourites - Sweat Peas

In fitting with my English Tea Party themed wedding, I'm choosing colourful English flowers. Hopefully peonies will be in season for the table decorations, but for my bouquet, I've picked sweat peas. Quintessentially English and beautifully scented, they've got a vintage prettiness that will hopefully work with my cake-stand and bunting. A quick google search led me to Sweet Peas Direct, who'll deliver me a gorgeous box of 100 stems ready for my London Wedding. {Photo Credit: Abby Trys Again}

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Gorgeous Spring Wedding Wreath

Welcome in spring with this gorgeous blossom wreath! Made of silk flowers, you could use it at your wedding, and then keep it for years to use on the front door of your home. I've always been a fan of pink and white cherry blossom {pictured}, but Twenty-Third and Vine also make wreaths out of peonies and camellias - check out their beautiful website.

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A Fun Alternative to Bridesmaids' Posies

Fashion forward brides are moving away from choosing the simple bridesmaid posy, and picking creative alternatives instead. From ribbon rings to pomanders, parasols and pinwheels, you can really let your imagination run wild. I still haven't chosen what my {five!} adult bridesmaids should carry, but here are a few of my ideas so far....I've been searching the web for wedding inspiration.

{Above from left} Segerius Bruce Photography via Before the Big Day, DIY Your Own Flower Parasol via Martha Stewart Weddings

{Above, clockwise from top left} 1. via Chez Wed, 2. via Steel City Bride 3, Bridal Buds 4, Lauren Grabelle Photography, 5. via Utah Bride Blog
{Below} All pinwheels available to buy from Rule 42

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Edible Treats

One way of creating a truly memorable big day is to surprise your guests - so how making everything edible? Instead of flower displays, buy these baskets of cleverly carved fruit from Edible Arrangements and save on desert!  Alternatively, DIY-it by dipping strawberries and pineapple into chocolate, and arranging them on sticks, in florist foam wrapped in ribbon.

If you're a fan of flowers, then why not add them to your wedding breakfast (or lunch or dinner)?  There's a bunch of blooms that can add colour and curiosity-value to your dishes and drinks.  Hibiscus flowers will slowly unfurl in champagne cocktails, and there's nothing more romantic than a rose-petal, rum cocktail.  Check out this New York Times article for more inspiration, and First Leaf for their fantastic range of tasty petals.

Imagine telling your guests that if they're still hungry after their meal, they can eat their plates! The Edible Plate Company promises that their crockery and cutlery is fully digestible, as it's all made out of cassava.  Perfect if you're planning a picnic or BBQ for your wedding, and what's more, they're totally eco-friendly.