With summer drawing to a close, it’s the start of my favourite season — autumn!
With this comes harvest time and rich yellows, oranges, browns and of course, golds!

Using gold within your wedding palette will create a wonderful warmth to the event and of course, nothing’s as good as gold when it comes to creating a sense of luxury.

To follow the gold theme throughout your invitations, why not choose our Henna design in gold or Print, Crystal, or Cherry for black and gold.

autumn, gold, invitation, wedding

These wedding venue portraits from Letter Fest are fab and a great way to capture and remember your special day.

Letter Fest will create a bespoke illustration of your wedding venue or a special place close to your heart – the pen and ink drawing includes the name of the couple, venue and date if required (or a personal message if you prefer). It is printed in a graphic, contemporary style with strong black lines and offset block colours. Visit www.letterfest.com for more info.

Art, keepsake, Wedding Venue

Instead of letting a wedding planner turn your wedding into another sausage factory event, use your imagination to make the event one-of-a-kind and really personalise it to you and your fiance.

Sassy Stationery
Your invitations are the first thing your guests see and should reflect your tastes, helping to set the theme of your wedding right form the start. If you were proposed to on a white sandy beach in the Caribbean, or in Paris, why not use an image reflecting this on your invites. Check out Scissor Paper Stone’s Snapshot range.

Get family and friends involved
The great thing about weddings (other than the obvious!) is that it brings people together. People love to be involved, so if you have a friend or family member that has a skill or talent, utilize it! If you’re aunt does flower arranging, ask her to do the bouquets and arrangements; if your brother’s in a band, ask him to do the music — little touches like this help to personalise your wedding and make the day even more special.

Catering with a twist
Rather than having the standard wedding meal, try to think of something that means something to you. If you have a favourite restaurant, why not ask them to do the food; if you have Czech heritage, duck and dumplings could be the main course!

Dress to impress
Let’s face it, a lot of wedding dresses are pretty run of the mill these days — why not make yours stand out with a personal twist! If green is your favourite colour, why not dress in green? It’s your choice!

Sporty Transport
A limousine is lovely, but why not do something a bit different and depart the church or reception in something that really represents you as a couple. Some fun examples include a double-decker bus; scooter; vintage cab; boat — have fun with it!

Catering, stationery, transport, wedding, wedding tips

Every bride wants to look her best on her wedding day, but how you get there can be a challenge.  With that said, I am happy to introduce a great resource to help you prepare for your wedding in a healthy and happy way.  Her name is Sarah Jenks, founder of The Breathtaking Bride and she will be sharing some of her tips with us over the next few weeks.  Sarah’s philosophy is truly a breath of fresh air in this culture of crash dieting.

Today’s tip: Get rid of the deadline
Deadlines create WAY too much stress, and stress creates discomfort in our minds and our bodies.  When we have discomfort, we search for relief and the cheapest and easiest relief is rich, salty, sugary foods.

Lose the deadline and shift your focus on how to feel good everyday.  Not only will you avoid having an absolutely miserable engagement, but you will be creating habits you can carry with you long after the wedding.

• Exercise to relieve stress in the moment

• Eat fruits and veggies to give you sustained energy

• Stop eating when your hunger has subsided (not when you are full) to avoid feeling bloated and nauseous

Our thanks to Sarah for those great tips.  We’ll be posting more advice over the next few weeks. In the meantime check out www.thebreathtakingbride.com

breathtaking bride, exercise, health, nutrition, wedding

Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz were married in a secret wedding earlier this month. The ceremony took place in front of a small group of family members at a friend’s house in the Bahamas. Cruz wore a dress by her longtime friend John Galliano for the intimate vows.

We think the pair would have loved our Shell stationery — it’s just perfect for beach weddings, tropical or otherwise!

celebrity, invitations, javier bardem, penelope cruz, shell, wedding

If you want to add some fun and games to your wedding, why not have a wedding casino! I went to a wedding recently that had one and it went down a storm. Give monopoly type money out to all your guests saying ‘The Bank of Mr and Mrs Smith’ and away they go! The person with the most dosh at the end of the day, wins a prize.

casino, entertainment, wedding

Traditionally released to bring good luck and prosperity, Chinese lanterns are a peaceful alternative to fireworks and are a great way to add an extra visual effect to your wedding.

I’ve found this great website, which supplies the whole range of Chinese lanterns, from floating sky lanterns that you light with your loved ones, to paper bag lanterns that sit on the floor and look great lining a path or walkway. Check out chineselanterns.com

Chinese, decoration, Lanterns, wedding

Choosing the colour scheme of your wedding is great fun! Once it’s done you can co-ordinate everything, so your whole day flows — from invitations, to flowers, from bridesmaid dresses to table decorations, shoes and more!

Bright colours are a popular choice in the summer months as they complement the steamy weather. Hot pink is just what the doctor ordered, especially for those beach weddings we all dream of!

Choose Butterfly invitations with brightly coloured tissue and follow the butterfly theme throughout. Choose Type or Petal for a contemporary feel. Orchids and pink roses are beautiful this time of year — check out our flower library!

flowers, invitation, pink, weddings

Lots of fabulous press again this month!

In Wedding Magazine there’s a real-life wedding story of one of our brides. The couple chose beautiful fuchsia pink peonies from our flower library to match the floral arrangements on the day.

“We found a brilliant company called Scissor Paper Stone.”
Thanks for the lovely comment Ruth!

We have also been featured in Brides Magazine this month. Pink Crystal was chosen to feature in a roundup of the most stylish stationery around.

And last but certainly not least, Kentish Wedding have featured 4 of our invitations. Our Snapshot range was featured in their Get the Look: Down at the Beach section, as well as White Rose in the Floral Dreams section, Butterfly in the Garden Party section and Lavender from our istock library in the Lavender Blue section.

floral, flowers, wedding, wedding invitation, wedding invitations, wedding stationery, weddings

These beautiful cascading flower blossoms are sourced from the bottom of reclaimed plastic bottles which have been cut, sanded and tagged together.

The idea was created by Michelle Brand, a Manchester eco-designer taking on environmental issues with her work. Michelle finds beauty in everyday items – another reason to love her simple and sustainable transformations. She creates chandeliers, screens, curtains and room dividers – like this flowerfall.

Michelle Brand Flowerfall, image via iDIY

Image via apartmenttherapy.com

Image via iDIY

eco, eco-friendly, funky, recycled, wedding decoration, wedding reception