Tips & Advice

Winter White Wonderland

Last weekend I took the studio pup for a lovely long walk around Staunton Harold. Armed with my camera I headed for Dimminsdale Wood as I was hoping to see the snowdrops out in all their beauty & we weren’t disappointed, there was a wonderful white carpet of snowdrops all with their heads popping up under the wood land branches with the sunlight shimmering through.

It was like a little magical glade & reminded me of an old favourite childhood book, the Flower Fairys!

This got me thinking, how beautiful would a snowdrop wedding be?

After a quick search I found the stunning Hodsock Priory which offers a ‘Snow Drop Wedding Package’.

What a wonderful idea if you’re planning a winter wedding with a difference!

For flowers keep it simple like these from Moo Moo Style.

Traditions, customs, etiquette & a few little tips!

If you’ve decided to have a traditional wedding it can be confusing who does what & when, particularly if you’ve never arranged a wedding before! While chatting through stationery orders we’re often asked for our thoughts & ideas. Weddings can be tricky & stressful but thankfully there’s some good old wedding traditions that can help solve your problems. Some of them should most definitely stay in the past but others are kind of cute, so if for one day why not embrace a few old traditions and have fun?!

We’ve put together a few little tips, ideas & a whole heap of traditions to help you through.

The Dress..

is the most widely known superstition! The dress shouldn’t be seen by the groom prior to the wedding! Today most Brides wear white or ivory following an old tradition to signify virginity, happiness and joy. Historically though brides would have worn their favourite colour or dress so why not now? Ultimately go for what YOU want to wear & find your perfect dress! Check out the new trend for floral printed wedding dresses they’re gorgeous!

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Lalique Lace over Fine Crepe (The Vintage Wedding Dress Company)

Leila Rose brown polka dot tulle dress

Floral print wedding dress by Atelier Aimee Bridal Couture

The Rings…

are traditionally worn to show a person’s marital status. The tradition dates back to Roman times. It’s the most symbolic piece of jewellery anyone will wear. The unbroken circular band symbolises the eternal commitment from one person to another. A lovely idea is to have rings cut from the same piece of gold or platinum! In the past a ring bearer would have carried the ring on a cushion. Today the rings are usually paid for by the groom & are often carried by the best man. So you have the engagement ring, now all you have to do is find a stunning wedding ring to go with it!

Vintage wedding rings

Something old….

something new, something borrowed, something blue, & a silver sixpence in your shoe!

The last part of the rhyme, isn’t used much any more (probably because it was pretty uncomfortable!) but a silver sixpence symbolised happiness, spiritual & financial wealth. Why not add ‘I DO’ to the soles of your shoes in silver or in silver diamanté, it’s great to make your guests giggle when they catch a glimpse!

‘I Do’ for your shoes from Nutmeg on Not On The High Street

The bride wears ‘something old’ as a symbol of her old life that she is leaving behind & old friends to bring into her new life. (I had an old silver locket tied into my bouquet with photos of my grandparents.) The ‘new’ refers to new hope for her new life & is probably your dress and shoes. ‘Something borrowed’ is often a garter from a happily married girlfriend is believed to pass on good luck to the newly-weds. Blue symbolises purity, faithfulness & commitment to her husband, so tie a bow & add it to your undies!

Vintage style garter from Florrie Mitton

The next tradition we are going to cover is bouquets and flowers.. so please keep following!

Christmas posting dates.

It’s the time of year when the post is full of festive greetings & messages to loved ones. (We love opening the post in December!)

If you’re getting ready to write your Christmas cards or are planning on sending your wedding invitations or save the dates over the next few weeks you’ll need to know the last posting dates!

In order for your envelope to reach it’s recipient for December 25th you’ll need to post it by:

Wednesday 5th December (for Asia, Australia, Far East (including Japan) & New Zealand
Friday 7th December (for Africa, Caribbean, Central & South America, & Middle East)
Monday 10th December (for Eastern Europe, Canada & USA)
Wednesday 12th December (for Western Europe)
Tuesday 18th December – Second class (for UK)
Thursday 20th December – First Class (for UK)
Saturday 22nd December – Special Delivery (for UK)

Hash tag your wedding!

The other day I was having a cup of tea with a spot of pinning (we’re a tiny bit pinterest obsessed here in the Hummingbird studio!) when I came across this image.

I love this idea so much! If you’re an instagram fanatic like I am & your friends or family members use it too then this is a really great way to be able to see people’s pictures of your wedding day without having to scroll back through everyone’s individual feeds. You could easily apply this to twitter as a whole too so you can see people’s tweets about the day!

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

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 here 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 wide 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 (centered) layout or a contemporary (aligned to the right) layout.

Script fonts work beautifully in wedding stationery (we feel they capture the old fashioned idea of hand written letters) but contemporary fonts can also look lovely too. Why not try mixing a contemporary, harder font with a script font?

When thinking about your wedding invitation wording you might want to think about the following:

- Who the invitations are coming from?

- Name of the Bride (including middle names?)

- Name of the Groom (including middle names & surname?)

- Location of the wedding ceremony

- Date of the wedding

- Time of the wedding

- Location of the reception (if different from the ceremony)

- RSVP return date, name & address

- A request for information on any special dietary requirements

(If you’re having a separate evening reception the wording will probably included a lot of the same details as your day invitations. Make sure you clearly state that your guests are being invited to an evening reception though!)

Here are a few examples:

Formal, Parents hosting, day invitation:

To encourage your guests to respond to your invitation quickly, why not send RSVP cards with your invitations? RSVP cards are also useful for collecting other information from your guests. You can leave a space for them to let you know about special dietary requirements or menu choices (if you’re providing this option in advance.)

If you are sending RSVP cards separately you can always include a lovely, personal quote on the opposite side of your invitation.

Formal, Bride & Groom hosting, evening invitation (with RSVP information):

If you’re looking for a more informal or quirky invitation then we can work our magic for you! Wedding invitations should reflect you as a couple – don’t feel you have to have a formal invitation if it doesn’t fit with your personalities!

A final tip:

Another question we’re often asked is how to politely let your guests know that their children are not invited! This is always a bit of a delicate issue – you don’t want to offend your guests! Here are a few suggestions:

- We’ve chosen for our wedding day to be adults only. We hope that you’ll take this as a chance to relax & enjoy the day!

- Although we could like to include children in our day, we’re only able to accommodate the children of our close family.

- Respectfully, we’re unable to include children in our celebrations.