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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Burlap & Peach Modern Desert Wedding

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say we need more peach in the world. More peach and more burlap. Luckily, Karen and John, the happy couple in this real wedding understand the worth if giving good peach and burlap, and celebrated their big day in serious style. I'm loving their cute-as-a-button ring pillow, Karen's gorgeous laid-back style {simple veil, hair down, let the dress do the talking}, the family-style dining tables, and the glamorous golden table numbers. Throw in the wedding favour succulents and bluey mason jar vases, and I'm a very happy wedding blogger. Incredible photographs published with thanks to Sarah Yates.

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Real Yellow-Themed Vintage Wedding: Kat & Ben

This wedding is a serious peach, packed with wedding details galore, and tonnes of wedding inspiration. I'm loving everything from the wedding flowers {pom pom buttonholes - woohoo!}, linen suits {chic boys}, pageboy flags and programme fans. But there's more! The mismatched table vases, the yellow parasols and the giant flower in the bride's hair. Everything is perfect, not least the Our Labour of Love photography - yum!

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Real Italian Destination Wedding: Suzanne & Lee - Part 2

Brides dreaming of an Italian destination wedding are going to want to copy every detail of this gorgeous big day. Suzanne and Lee started with a heavenly vineyard wedding venue, and added a rustic theme, fabulous flower displays, and jam-jar lanterns, plus tonnes more wedding details. I love Suzanne's glamorous Rita Westenius wedding gown, her family heirloom tiara, and her beautiful bouquet, which included hydgrangea blooms as her 'something blue'. With an enormous, traditionally Italian wedding cake, and local specialities as wedding favours, Suzanne and Lee drew inspiration from their surroundings for their wedding theme, and added their own DIY touches. Read more about Suzanne's projects in her comments below! Huge thanks to Amoretti Weddings, who planned their big day, and Andrea Calvano for his stunning wedding pictures.

We got married in a little medieval village called Citta'Sant'angelo, in the rural province of Abruzzo Italy on 4 June 2012 – the Queen's Diamond Jubilee!

The venue was perfect and hopelessly 100% authentic Italy. An old villa situated in a vineyard perched on top of a cliff with panoramic views of the Adriatic and Apennine mountains; it was spectacular. 

We wanted our decorations to reflect the rustic nature of the surrounding countryside and the faded grandeur of the villa. Because the views and setting were so wonderful, we knew we wanted flowers and decorations that would match it and hold their own amongst the surroundings.

I really enjoyed planning my wedding, but it did take up a lot of time! I am quite glad now that I can go to work and not have to think about favours or lastminute changes to seating plans!

Our wedding stationery was designed by Emiliana and the team at Amoretti Weddings, and they were fantastic. They were not wedding planners per se but more wedding designers! Emiliana was our wedding planner and she also designs amazing, elegant stationary so it was a no-brainer.

Fabrizio Panone of Pescara did out flower arrangements, we were so pleased with them! We chose him because, despite the language barrier, he instantly understood what I was trying to get across with pointing and gesticulating! 

For DIY projects, I created a little package for every guest about the local area and plans for the day and put it in their hotel rooms. As it was a wedding abroad I didn't want anyone to feel lost, and we wanted to ensure our guests savoured the local delicacies and see why we chose the region.

I also made a guest book on blurb.com. I badgered family members to provide me with photographs of all our grandparents on their wedding day, that would intermingle with the guest book pages. I also managed to dig out some photos from 1906, 1928 and 1952 of my family wedding headpiece in use!

We decided to keep the favours simple and 'Italian'. The girls had little packages of sugared almonds – a regional specialty, and the boys had little bottles of {my fave} ratafia, a local Abruzzo cherry liqueur- they went down very well.

We had a traditional Italian creamy wedding cake provided by the venue.

No matter how hard you try, or how detailed you plan your big day, some things will just refuse to go to plan. My advice is to book someone at you wedding who can be your 'troubleshooter / present putter-awayer / MC / guest co-ordinator' and just relax, breathe and enjoy the day.

We asked Andrea Calvano, a local photographer, to take out pics. We chose him because on viewing his portfolio he had a wonderful artistic flare.

♥ Want more destination wedding ideas? ♥ Or how about more peach-themed weddings? ♥

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Real Italian Destination Wedding: Suzanne & Lee

If you're worried about the English weather ruining your wedding day, consider a destination wedding. We celebrated our big day in France, and although going abroad is no guarantee for sunshine, it certainly paid off for us. Suzanne and Lee had a similarly wonderful wedding day in June in Italy! Surrounded by stunning Italian countryside, in a tiny medieval village, they created a romantic, rustic themed wedding day with the help of their wedding planners, Amoretti Weddings. With peach, blue and pink as their accent wedding colours, and adorable Italian wedding details {cute Fiats! a massive cake!}, I've fallen head-over-heels for their wedding. Don't miss Suzanne's helpful hints and tips -  Lee's suit, and the bridesmaids' dresses were all bought on the high street, saving money without stinting on style. Huge thanks to local photographer Andrea Calvano for his beautiful pictures, more from the reception coming soon!

We got married in a little medieval village called Citta'Sant'angelo, in the rural province of Abruzzo Italy on 4 June 2012 – the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. We knew we didn’t want a packaged up cardboard cut out affair. We wanted something different, something genuinely Italian, something special that our guests would always remember {and, as Lee would remind me, something on budget!!).

Very early on in our engagement my friend leant me a wedding book which had a photograph of a gorgeous bouquet of light pink, peach, cream and hydrangea blue flowers – it was very 'me' – I fell in love with it there and then! I also found beautiful peach bridemaids dresses so we planned everything around those colours.

My dress was made by the brilliant Rita & Chenca Westenius at Ritva Westenius. The shoes were Freya Rose, and the veil was a simple long piece bought from Ritva Westenius.

We were inspired by the venue and the location for the theme and the fact the wedding was abroad. Our invitations had a vintage aeroplane motif and generally for the wedding we wanted something romantic, rustic and classic - but not too over the top. 

My headpiece was my great great grandma's first worn at her wedding in 1906 and passed down through the family – I was very anxious about taking it all the way over to Italy on the plane!!

My bridesmaids dress were silk maxis from Ted Baker, their necklaces and earrings were beautifully handcrafted by Lou Lou Belle Designs, and I bought them each a little hair comb from Glitzy Secrets.

We searched high and low for outfits for the groom, ushers and fathers as we wanted suits that wouldn't be too confined or too hot on the day. In the end, on a whim we went to Bicester Village and found beautiful fine wool grey/beige suits in Savoy Taylor's Guild.

We got married in a little known part of Italy where hardly anyone speaks English or recognises English tourists. That in itself was the first hurdle, though it was quickly overcome by the rugged beauty of the region and the excitement we felt when we visited and grasped the potential Abruzzo could offer 'wedding tourists'.

Lee and I met in 2006 at work, I was a temp secretary at the time and he was a solicitor! We got engaged in June 2010 at the top of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world's tallest building.
 

We asked Andrea Calvano, a local photographer, to take out pics. We chose him because on viewing his portfolio he had a wonderful artistic flare.

♥ Want more destination wedding ideas? ♥ Or how about more peach-themed weddings? ♥

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