The Wedding Diary

The Wedding Diary: A Garden Party Theme

As soon as we’d decided to hold our wedding reception at home we knew we wanted a garden party theme for the day. This started with our invitations & was carried through the day from our choice of a marquee to all the vintage crockery I had been madly collecting.

Here’s a few tips for creating a real garden party themed wedding:

- Jam jars! I used jam jars as vases for the table flowers. My Mum & her friends were collecting them in the months before the wedding & it was such an easy way to bring a  garden feel to the tables. By doing it ourselves we saved a fortune! Each jar was then tied with a raffia bow. With every table having different jars and flowers they all looked so pretty & individual.

- Country flowers. Getting married in September limited the choice of flowers I could use a little but I still tried to pick flowers with a country garden feel to them.

- Tea cups! I love vintage crockery & using it for our wedding was a perfect excuse to invest in just a few more beautiful vintage tea cups & tea plates. Everybody got one in their place setting which (aside from being useful when it came for tea time!) really made the celebration feel like one big afternoon tea party.

- Vintage Cake Stands! Lots of them in old glass and china for our table of delectable & scrumptious delights. We wanted to create the look of an old fashioned tea table stacked with pastel coloured Macaroons, Chocolate Profiter rolls, Ginger snaps, cup cakes & mini Creme Brulle.

- Luggage tags. Instead of place cards I used manilla luggage tags with names calligraphied in white – these were tied around the napkins & finished with a stalk of lavender. This had the added affect of making the marquee smell absolutely beautiful too.

- Vintage table cloths. I just adore old, hand embroidered table linen and so I just had to use some  for the Top Table, the Wedding Cake table & the Memory Tree. These with the vintage china were such a simple and subtle way of adding a little colour.

- Sweetie jars. We wanted to make sure the children had lots of fun too – so we had  jars filled with old fashioned sweets, Love Hearts, Parma Violets, Sherbet lollies, Cola Bottles & mini sticks of striped candy. Each jar had a little luggage tag to label them. I must say though I kept seeing ‘adults’ taking a sneaky handful & tucking in too!

- Mini old fashioned tent! Another idea we just had to have was a little old fishing tent for the kids. We filled it with pic-nic blankets and added little chairs and it was the perfect den to keep them entertained.

- Kids Table. Having been to so many weddings when my heart would go out to all the little ones who just didn’t want to be stuck in a high chair or on a table full of adults and to all the adults who just wanted to get on and enjoy the day I came up with the idea of a ‘Mini Table’. So with an old school table and some little chairs we set up a complete table just for them. They also had their own lunch – a goody pic-nic bag!

All of the photographs in this post were taken by the very talented Gill Taylor. You can contact her via her website.

 

The Wedding Diary: Table Names

So you’ve sorted your Order of Service!

Next – organising where everybody is going to sit.

This is rarely a simple or easy task. Everybody from family & friends are going to want to give their opinion on where they & everyone else should be sitting! There isn’t really a quick fix solution to sorting out your table plan. In the end you & your partner just have to sit down together with a large piece of paper & go for it. You’ll never please everyone!

One thing which we’ve found a lot of people like to do is to use table names instead of numbers.

I did this for my wedding & it worked really well. It has the advantage of making the day just that little more personal.

Deciding what to use as table names can be really fun too. We see so many different names in the Hummingbird Studio – everything from places couples have been on holiday together to all the streets they have lived on. Emily‘s sister even used sweeties (accompanied by a large bowl of the corresponding sweet in the middle of each table!)

Dan & I chose to use the names of all our Grandparents. This was particularly special for us because none of them are still with us & it was a way for us to still include them in our special day.

For a table plan we decided to use a ‘table plan tree.’ The willow branches worked really well with the garden party theme of our wedding & we were able to turn it into a memory tree later on in the evening when the tables had been cleared. It was lovely for our guests to be able to leave us messages.

All of the photographs in this post were taken by the very talented Gill Taylor. You can contact her via her website.

The Wedding Diary: Orders of Service


Writing your Order of Service can be a pretty daunting task.

If you’re having a religious wedding service then it can be a little easier with guidance from the person conducting the service but it can still take a lot of drafting & re-writing!

We married at a local church which was special to my family. The Reverend talked through which service we would be using & suggested some bible readings we might like to use. This gave us the basis of our Order of Service which was really useful, from there though we added to it & made it our own.

Here’s a few tips which might make things easier if you’re in the process of  writing your Order of Service:

- Don’t be afraid to be a little different with your readings! Although 1 Corinthians 13 is a beautiful bible reading it is often used! We chose a passage from Song of Soloman instead & it was lovely that people didn’t necessarily know it too well beforehand.

- Why not put in a quote or passage at the beginning or the end? We had a quote from John Lennon that is special to both of us.

- Generally, secular wedding services are shorter than religious ones & there is much less that needs to go in to your Order of Service. With non religious weddings we often get people choosing to have an Order of the Day instead. This allows you to put in lots more information – the running order of the day, which rooms are being used etc.

- A really lovely touch is to put a place for ‘thank yous’ in your Order of Service. You could thank everyone for joining you on your special day & take the time to list the members of your wedding party. It’s also nice to do this so people can see who everybody is.

- Don’t try to put too much in your Order of Service. You don’t need the words of the marriage service or all the wording that the person conducting the service will use. It’s nice to keep some things as a surprise for your guests!

Hope this helps a little! We can guide you through the process of creating your Order of Service here at Hummingbird & we’re always happy to provide your with samples to give you a little inspiration.

All of the photographs in this post were taken by the very talented Gill Taylor. You can contact her via her website.

The Wedding Diary: Hints & Tips

Whilst I’m getting all my wedding photographs sorted with Gill I thought I’d write a few blog posts about the whirlwind that was the last few days before my wedding.

The last days of wedding preparation were so much fun (but so busy!) so I thought it’d be lovely to take time out to explain a little about what we did, what we made & how we created our wedding,  & to pass on some hints & tips to those of you who might be planning your own special days!

Stay tuned for posts about Orders of Service, table names & plans, & how I achieved my garden party theme!

This beautiful photograph was taken by the very talented Gill Taylor. You can contact her via her website.

Sally-Ann’s Wedding

I can’t believe that it’s been a whole six weeks since we got married!

I’ve got lots of beautiful photographs to share with you but for now here’s a sneaky peak from the blog of our lovely & very talented wedding photographer, Gill:

Sometimes on a wedding day an opportunity presents itself and I end up with an image that is very unique.  This is what happened on Saturday and I’m thrilled with the result.

Charlie is the couple’s little dog and was very much a part of the day, even walking back down the aisle with them after the ceremony.  I was with my bride in the morning in their (simply stunning) Edwardian home.  The bedroom had a chaise longue just under the large windows with a vintage screen to the left.  This is where my bride decided to hang her dress, so of course, I got a lovely dress hanging shot, some lovely shoe shots, the usual arty stuff.  Charlie was milling around, such a gorgeous, great-natured pooch … then of course he had to get his ribbon on.  I documented this, got a lovely shot of Sal with Charlie, check.

Then Charlie did something absolutely perfect … he jumped up to look for daddy out of the window … and bam !  I had something a little different.

There’s lots going on in this image, and I love it.  I hope you do too.

Thanks Gill. This picture just sums up the day perfectly. It’s printed, framed & hung on the wall already!

I’ll be doing several more ‘Wedding Diary’ features to follow up after the wedding, just as soon as we’ve got the photos!

 

Caramel & Cream

Just had to share this lovely mood board with you from the fabulous Snippet & Ink (they always put together the most beautiful mood boards!)

After seeing all the beautiful manila stationery from Sally-Ann’s  wedding, (we will be sharing some pictures from the big day very soon!) we thought this Caramel & Cream collection compliments the theme perfectly.

Top row from left: white rose bouquet from Martha Stewart Weddings, fall leaves, table number runner from Wedding Style Guide, photo by Elizabeth Messina
Row 2: white calligraphy on kraft paper envelope by Oscar & Emma via Oh So Beautiful Paper, bosc pears via Design*Sponge, cake and wooden cake stand from Herriott Grace
Row 3: cheese and crackers and Oscar de la Renta dress both from Martha Stewart Weddings, Saxton Pear Cider via The Dieline, jar of caramel sauce from Annie’s Eats

Credits: photo of bride and branches by This Modern Romance, kraft box with twine from New Ivy Style, branch candelabra by West Elm via Apartment Therapy, chocolate tutu by Tutus Chic, photo of rustic reception hall by Abby Ross, dandelion letterpress by Sweet Harvey, s’mores pancakes from Can You Stay for Dinner, photo of cashmere hand warmers by Orange Girl Photographs via Naturally Chic

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Wedding Diary … Country Flowers

Hooray, I’ve found my ‘Perfect Shoes’ and  I’m feeling ever so slightly Carey Bradshaw at the moment as I have to keep having a peek in the box.

That’s not a clue by the way for those that keep asking!

Next to arrange were the flowers, I knew exactly what I wanted but were they even in season, could the florist even get them. My dream flowers would have been from the hedgerows but having a September wedding heading into autumn kind of meant there would be little if nothing to pick. So I put my list together. Cow Parsley was a must, David Austin Blush full roses and any vintage looking roses, White Hydrangea, Lavender, Mint, Rosemary, Senecio or Eucalyptus & Gypsophila of course.

I’ve become a real hoarder for the wedding, collecting jam jars and getting friends and family to do the same. All the tables will be scattered with a wonderful mix of pretty jars with random flowers and herbs. The church flowers  I must confess are still a gem of an idea but I plan to use lots of Gypsophila, silver birch branches, white hydrangea again and then lots of candles. But we’ll see.

So the to do list is getting ticked off and I do believe I’ve started to drive the girls in the studio slightly mad with my wedding banter!

Wedding Diary – Designed by us!

Dan, my partner, and I sat one Saturday night over a glass of vino and scribbled and sketched endless ideas. We didn’t want anything too formal, it had to be ‘very us’ and of course laser-cut. So we created our Garden Party unique wedding invitation.


I sketched out the design and we then played around with card swatches trying out different colour combinations.

I absolutely adore Manila paper and even gift wrap my presents in it adding white ribbons and tags, so using Manila card was a must really. We included in the design lots of little sentimental touches like our initials carved in the tree and hanging from the branches, the three bells at the church, our vintage tea-sets and of course the trees shaped into a heart.  (Which is no surprise to anyone that knows me; I love a heart or two!!) I also wanted to try and make the invites look a little like bunting, so they are individual layers of card tied together with a little ribbon and sent in a gorgeous Manila wallet. The backs of the info cards and RSVP cards are printed with cute scatter polka dots in a beautiful shade of apricot blush.

The finishing touch was calligraphy addresses, in white Gouache,  which took an age but when they were all made they all looked so pretty I didn’t want to send them!

Our family and friends just love them and it’s so lovely to get their excited messages when they receive them. ‘Auntie Sally’ even wants to hang it on the wall!


Next it’s Bridesmaid dresses and my shoes! I’m having a nightmare finding anything I love, that’s not a traditional wedding shoe, but quirky and comfy to wear all day. Any ideas??!!

Sally-Ann x

 

The Wedding Diary – Delicious!

So now it’s time to create the cake! The first decision to be made was how many tiers and with so many delicious tastes and recipes to choose from it took an age!

Finally we agreed on three. A gorgeous traditional fruit cake, soaked in brandy. A tangy lemon sponge infused with lemon and layered together with yet more lemon curd – yummy! Then a little top tier of rich Vanilla and Almond Sponge layered together with vanilla butter cream and raspberry preserve – the raspberries are fresh from the garden!

And then the part I was most looking forward to – the design of course.

After several weekends of creating flowers and playing with sugar icing I just adored these vintage peach and apricot faded roses so much I made five!

I love the delicate ‘Sugarflair’ powders, they can create such subtle fading affects when blended with sugar paste for each petal. They are so much better than colourings.

I have also started to make the little Hydrangeas flowers to mix between the roses as little in-fills. When the cakes are all iced, stacked and decorated I’ll post a pic or two to show you the final design, just before the big day.

Next it’s onto the invites. The design is sketched, the artwork is created and so the laser cutting can begin! We will give you a sneek peek next week!

Sally-Ann x

The Wedding Diary: a veritable treasure trove!



 Having made the decision to have our wedding reception in the garden & having (after a bit of a hunt!) found a perfect traditional, canvas tent style marquee means that the fun can now begin! I can finally start to create, hunt for & make decorations & other little bits of gorgeousness that my head has been full of for months now.

 
My first must was to start to hunt for lots of vintage crockery. I’ve already got quite a few heirloom pieces which I’ve had hidden away, but I’ve started to collect lots more so we’ve got enough for our garden party wedding!
 
 
I love to visit antique fairs, junk shops & car boots! & they’ve proved to be a great source for vintage tea cups, milk jugs, tea plates & teapots! I even picked up a few pieces last week at Newark.
 
 
Its been great fun bringing home bags and boxes of treasured finds and carefully cleaning & storing them away.
In the studio we’ve all got our personal favourites.
 
 
Suzi loves this hand painted teacup!
Its onto the ‘Cake’ next & Mum and I are getting together tomorrow to chat over recipes,
cake tin sizes and of course the decoration!