Tips & Advice

Hummingbird Hens (Hen Party Workshops!)

If you’re a vintage craft loving girl looking for something unique and more ‘you’ for your hen do, and not loving the idea of being dragged around town with an ‘L’ plate, we have the perfect Hen Party for you!

Felt making!

Why not get creative and make something gorgeous while spending a great day with friends & family on our vintage inspired craft workshop days. You’ll get a complementary glass of bubbly and lunch is just £10 each (including a delicious afternoon tea and cake!)

..or why not bring a picnic!

Emma has been running vintage craft workshops at her studio in Nottingham and has now come together with Hummingbird to offer these wonderful ‘vintage crafty’ hen parties for you and your friends.

Creative sewing…

The parties are from 10am to 4pm and Emma will inspire you with lots of ideas, guidance and all the equipment you need to create a gorgeous masterpiece!

Embellished & embroidered vessels

How about something for your wedding such as a memory book? Or learn a new skill with your hens and have something beautiful to take home to remember the day!

Free machine embroidery

Emma has lots of courses to choose from; memory and keepsake books, creative sewing, free machine embroidery, embellished & embroidered vessels and (her favourite) felt making!

Keepsake books

For more information and to a get a sneaky peek at Emma’s course guide, visit emmalearoyddesign.co.uk or contact Emma at emmalearoyddesign@hotmail.co.uk or on 07970 121955.

Enjoy!

We’re in an ebook!

51 Amazing Ideas for your Wedding

launched early this morning as an ebook on Amazon.

Hummingbird Cards were lucky enough to be asked to contribute & George the ‘Wedding Fairy’ wrote a lovely feature on us – here’s just a little part of it:

‘Drift off into stationery heaven with this dreamy portfolio of absolutely everything you will ever need to set the right tone for your big day celebrations. The team at www.hummingbirdcards.co.uk have created a collection of wedding day stationery that will truly captivate and excite your guests from the moment their invite arrives on the doorstep. For me, this stunning range conjures up a true mix of fairytale and romance which ultimately, is the whole point of a wedding invite that so many other stationers miss completely?! Beyond the initial RSVP, everything is covered from the orders of service to table plans, allowing you to de-stress on this often most neglected yet essential part of wedding day planning. On top of all this, the British design work behind these little stunners is second to none. Fly the flag people!’

Find all his other 50 gorgeous wedding ideas on Amazon

Thank you George!

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.

Luella’s look book – white on white

We were absolutely delighted to have our laser-cut bunting fetured in the new look book for Luella’s Boudoir - one of our favourite Wedding Dress shops around. The theme was a simple yet stunning White on White. The shoot was held at One Marleybone and showcased all the new dresses for the season which are absolutely stunning!! Rachel worked her styling magic and the photography is by the amazing Segerius Bruce

The lovely ladies at Rock My Wedding have done a full report, take a peek here:

http://www.rockmywedding.co.uk/white-on-white/

“ Styling By Rachel Atwell Owner of Luella’s: I had so much fun styling this shoot and working with such a lovely group of suppliers made it even more enjoyable. I wanted to create something that would showcase some of our key bridal looks for 2011/12 but I also wanted to be able to give our brides some ideas about the different types of props they could use for their own weddings”.

Here is a video of what went on behind the scenes on the day of shooting:

http://vimeo.com/28980143

We love the huge white balloons available from HERE the white paper pom-poms available from HERE and of course our laser-cut bunting which you can buy online HERE.

Check out Luella’s Boudoir and all their excuisite wedding dresses and accessories online HERE

Venue- One Marylebone Photography- Segerius Bruce Filming- Pearls Videos Makeup & Hair Stylist – Gemma Sutton Flowers – Philippa Craddock Models- Gingersnaps Creative Management Props and accessories – Balloons: Simply Elegant Ltd Bunting & Mobiles – The Hummingbird Card Company Lanterns & Fans – The Hanging Lantern Company Poms – Paper Poms UK Butterfly & Heart Tree – Designers Choice Dresses, Accessories and Styling- Luella’s Boudoir

Creating Your Own Wedding Invitations

Since we launched our new website back in May we have had so many enquiries about our new CREATE & MAKE Collection. It seems there are a lot of creative Brides out there who really want to play a part in creating their own stationery – our D.I.Y. wedding option allows you to do just this.

Choose your favourite design from our BOUTIQUE LASER-CUT collection and we can supply you with all the elements to create your perfect stationery.

What is included?

For the price of a Create & Make invitation you receive:

- A beautiful laser-cut card outer of your choice

- A matching envelope

- A coloured inlay of your choice

We can also supply matching paper for printing your inserts, tape for fixing, ribbons and diamantés or pearls for the final finishing touch. It is a lovely way to get your bridesmaids and friends involved too, we love the idea of getting together for an evening with a bottle of bubbly and all sitting down together to get creative! Using our Create & Make range is also a great way to save a few pennies and have stunning laser-cut stationery on a smaller budget.

Here are a few simple steps on how to order your Create & Make stationery from The Hummingbird Card Company, followed by a little guide on how to put it all together.

ORDERING:

Firstly ORDER A SAMPLE ONLINE – once you have received it, checked your colours and made your choices you are ready to place your order:

Fill in our online CREATE & MAKE order form.

Step 1: Choose your design from our Boutique Collection.

Step 2: Choose your card colour, inlay colour, and if you would like ribbons, diamantés or pearls.

Step 3: Let us know which items you are interested in and how many you need. We will supply you with matching paper if requested and can also provide you with a set up for printing your invitation layouts.

Step 4: We will send you a quote and, once you have confirmed, an invoice for payment.

Step 5: Once we have received your payment, we will wrap everything beautifully in one of our keepsake boxes and send it via courier ready for you to start creating. Easy as that!

Now onto the fun part!

Choose a font, make sure you have all the correct details included (don’t forget to double check all the times, dates & spelling!!) Click here for help with wording your invites and what information you need to include.

You Will Need:

Lasercut Outers, Coloured Inlays, Printed Inserts, Guillotine (or scalpel & ruler), Double sided tape, Ribbon, Diamante or pearls, Superglue, Tweezers, Scissors, Glass of bubbly (optional!)

- Trim down all your inserts to the correct size and fold in half.

- Add a small piece of our skinny double sided tape to the back of the insert.

- Fix inside the coloured inlay. Trim the edges so they all match.

- Fix a small piece of tape to the back of the inlay and fix inside the laser-cut card.

- Add your chosen ribbon by tying in a bow and trimming the ends or just leave the card plain & simple.

- To fix diamantés or pearls to your cards add a tiny dot of super glue to where you would like them positioned. Then, using tweezers, gently place the diamantés or pearls on top of the small glue dot. Make sure you allow a few minutes for everything to dry!

- If you are wanting to include information sheets we can supply you with paper to match your invitations. Print and trim these down to size (130mm x 260mm), fold them in half, they sit neatly behind your invitation.

- Write your guests names on each invitation, address the envelopes, then simply add a stamp and they are ready to send.

If you need a layout for printing just let us know and we can send you an example. Follow the same process for printing Menus, Orders of Service, Thank You cards etc. We can also supply you with matching Place-cards, Favour Boxes, Bunting and Mobiles to co-ordinate with your stationery.

To order a sample Click HERE

ENJOY!!

To place a Create & Make Enquiry please click HERE

The Designer Vintage Bridal Show

This weekend we popped along to visit the Designer Vintage Bridal Show - a wonderful collection of wedding suppliers: beautiful dresses, vintage crockery, event stylists, wedding shoes, stylish transport, stationery, headpieces, jewellery and all you could possibly need for a vintage themed wedding day! A fantastic event which was buzzing with lots of stylish ladies all wanting a wedding with a bit of difference.

The stands all looked fantastic, they also had catwalk shows – showcasing dresses inspired by the 20′s& 30′s, 40′s & 50′s and 60′s and 70′s, bridal workshops, and the best bloggers around for you to meet in person: Including Kelly from Boho, Annabel from Love My Dress, Amma from Beyond/Beyond, Alexis from OMG and Kat from RockN’Roll Bride.

There was the gorgeous Wedding Yurt complete with fur floors, double bed and champagne bar serving love potion cocktails. Beautiful, alternative Wedding Photography from the amazing Emma Case, jewellery from Magpie Vintage, fabulous shoes from the lady who organised the whole event Rachel Simpson and our favourite stand was Charlotte Casadejus who had exquisite vintage inspired dresses (beautiful vintage lace and silk gowns made to measure!) and a selection of stunning vintage accessories.

Definately worth visiting when they have there next show, if you would like to see a list of all the exhibitors and get all the best vintage wedding inspiration just click HERE

http://www.designervintagebridal.co.uk

Perfect Wedding Awards 2011

We were totally thrilled to win BEST STATIONERY in this years Perefect Wedding Awards! We were invited down to THE SAWN at THE GLOBE (a very lovely location, overlooking the river) the sun was shining for an afternoon of champagne, nibbles and treats….they even had an oyster bar! It was the first award event that they have held and was a great success.

We are also featured in this months edition (OCTOBER) in their feature: “10 Questions To Ask Your Stationery Company”!!

Wording Your Wedding Invitations

Wording your wedding invitations can be a tricky business!

Regardless of whether you want formal, informal, parents hosting, Bride and Groom hosting, both families hosting or you want to say something totally unique – we are hear to help you! We can advise you on the best layouts and make sure you have all the correct details so your guests know exactly where to be and when!

Here are a few tips of what information to include on your wedding invites and how to make them look beautiful!

Firstly CHOOSE A FONT. We have a beautiful selection of fonts for you to choose from (if there is a specific font you have in mind then we’ll do our best to find it!) Then decide if you want a TRADITIONAL (centred) or CONTEMPORARY (aligned to the right) layout.

Script fonts work beautifully or for a more contemporary font choose one of our modern sans serif style fonts. Mixing a contemporary, formal font with names added in a script font looks particularly stunning!

When sending us your wording remember to include:

For Day Invitations:

- Who the invitations are coming from.

- Name of Bride (including middle names if desired)

- Name of Groom (including middle names and surname)

- Location of wedding

- Date of wedding

- Time of wedding

- Location of reception

- RSVP return date, name & address

- Any special dietary requirements

For Evening Invitations:

- Who the invitations are coming from.

- Name of Bride (including middle names if desired)

- Name of Groom (including middle names and surname)

- Date of wedding

- Location of reception

- Time of reception

- RSVP return date, name & address

For Formal, Parents hosting – Day Invitation wording:

R.S.V.P. cards can be sent separately (this encourages a quick and easy response from your guests) or you can include this information on the opposite side of the invitation. Remember to include a space for guests to include any special dietary if you are providing food for your guests. If you are sending RSVP cards separately you can always include a lovely, personal quote on the opposite side of your invitation.

For Formal, Bride & Groom Hosting – Evening Invitation wording, RSVP information included:

If you want to have a very informal invitation then just email us your wording and we can work our magic on it! Make sure it reflects you as a couple & your personalities – don’t feel you have to have a formal invitation if it is not what you really want!

Another little tip is how to politely let your guests know that their children are not invited! This is always a delicate matter, as you don’t want to offend your guests – so here are a few suggestions:

To allow all our guest to relax and enjoy themselves we have chosen for our wedding day to be for adults only. We look forward to sharing time with your family in the future.
We would like to invite all the children of our friends, unfortunately it is only possible for us to accommodate the children of close family

For any other help in wording your other stationery items e.g. Orders of Service, Menu, Information Sheets etc. please click HERE or contact us at info@hummingbirdcards.co.uk

Wedding Websites – The Wedding Community

We are thrilled to have Kim from The Wedding Community as our guest blogger today… Kim has some fab tops on creating a wedding website to help the smooth planning of your big day!

“Having your own personal wedding website or ‘wedsite’ is something that is becoming very popular with couples planning their wedding; even William and Kate had one!

Traditionally, when you send your wedding invitations you include printed maps, a list of local accommodation, gift list information and sometimes the itinerary of the day.

Having your own personal wedding website is a way of displaying all the information about your wedding in one place, so when your guests receive their beautiful wedding invitation they can simply be directed to your wedding website.

As a member of The Wedding Community, as well as having access to lots of other handy free planning tools, you can create your own wedding website for FREE. You can choose from five great designs and a selection of colours to coordinate with your wedding style.

Our wedding websites link in with our Guest List Manager. From your completed guest list, you can then use our drag and drop Table Planner to create your own wedding table plan. This can then simply be designed and printed by your stationery company to compliment your wedding style and match with your other wedding stationery.”

You can see an example Wedding Website herehttp://www.theweddingcommunity.com/mysite/343