Vintage Burgundy & Blush Pink Winter Wedding Styling & Stationery

For today's Monday Wedding Styling blog I'm appealing to all of you out there who are currently planning a autumn or winter wedding! Its around the time of year that I really start getting lots of enquiries for the winter wedding season and one of my favourite invitations to compliment this is our Country Garden range. Many of you may have seen the range in its summery form in pale pink and teal, but it also comes in a burgundy and blush pink colourway ... perfect for a autumnal or winter wedding!
Below is the day invitation and place card for the range which you can find on our website http://www.knotsandkisses.co.uk

To go with this stationery I've come up with some luxurious burgundy and pink winter wedding styling ideas. This range looks fantastic mixed with golds, pearls and coffee colours to keep that real vintage feel and warm up what could otherwise be a cold looking scheme ... winter weddings don't have to be white & silver you know! This colour scheme would work just as well in a grand hall, castle or rustic barn. Hang gold letters as decoration and use the gold picture frames as table plans or just photos of the happy couple!

 flowers from www.thefullbouquetblog.com ; blush dress www.bridalpartydresses.info ; pearl bracelet www.etsy.com

 gold frames www.notonthehighstreet.co.uk ; wedding cake www.cottonandcrumbs.co.uk

pom pom decorations www.etsy.com ; flower girl dress www.projectwedding.com ; Love letters www.notonthehighstreet.co.uk 

Supplier Spotlight - Wedding List Services

I want to introduce to you something a little bit different today on the spotlight ... rather than featuring accessories, dresses etc I thought I'd show you something more practical for your wedding ... the wedding list service from website http://www.zankyou.com/uk . Its also a great way of getting your groom more involved in the wedding ... as they tell us below ...

Are you a bride struggling to get the groom interested in the wedding plans? Beyond booking the stag night and hiring the transport, many husbands-to-be opt out of wedding planning to allow their brides the time to shine.

But a growing phenomenon in gift list planning is allowing the boys to wrestle back control and get excited about the big day.
The team at online gift list provider www.zankyou.com have noticed a shift in roles among the bride and grooms when it comes to who looks after the wedding gift registry.

While Internet gift lists are a growing trend – a real time-saver and a means to keep friends and family around the world abreast of wedding plans – they are also bringing couples closer together, getting men more involved in the wedding planning.
Often it is the groom that sets up the www.zankyou.com page and manages the addition of items, plus the running of the guestbook. In fact, almost 50% of all www.zankyou.com pages activated in 2011 so far are run by men.
Grooms can set up a photo album, manage RSVPs and even add widgets, such as a Sky Sports Football News feed, to their page to encourage friends to visit more often.

And the ability to add gadgets, holiday experiences and quirky household items to online gift lists such as www.zankyou.com has led to many men wrestling the mouse off their beloved brides-to-be and taking control of the orders.
 

By contrast, women are more involved in co-ordinating high street store gift lists, and often enlist the mother of the bride or the chief bridesmaid in that part of the planning.
Belinda and Phil made their www.zankyou.com list a real joint project.

"Phil really liked the fact we could tailor-make it to our requirements and express our personality though it,” said Belinda.

“This appealed to him far more than traipsing round a department store zapping dinnerware and cushions. Like most men, he gets bored of this sort of activity after five minutes."
The couple found the gift list easy to manage and flexible to run.

"In terms of what we were looking for in an online wedding gift list, Zankyou ticked every box,” said Belinda.

“Other sites require your guests to pay commission when giving you a gift, which is something we really didn't want, as we feel we should bare the expense.

“In addition, we consider the level of commission charged by Zankyou to be very competitive.”

Couples can do more with a www.zankyou.com website, asking for financial contributions towards any sort of gift. You can also manage charitable donations, and all cash gifts go straight into a nominated bank account, negating the risk of cheques lost in the post.

“We loved the flexibility offered by Zankyou,” said Belinda

“We asked our guests for contributions towards our honeymoon and we were able to build our trip piece by piece, listing things like a meal out or a night's accommodation as something a guest could buy us, rather than making a faceless donation into one big pot.”

FACTFILE

www.Zankyou.com allows couples to register for honeymoon activities, a dream project or charitable donation, as well as household goods - and receive the full cash equivalent in their bank account. While other online cash wedding registries charge up to 7.5% for their service, Zankyou's rate is just 2.85% per transaction, no matter what the amount contributed. And, couples can defer this rate to their guests, making it absolutely free of charge for the bride and groom to use.

A New Post From Our Guest Wedding Blogger!

Today I am featuring a beautiful summer Real Wedding as my guest post on the lovely Knots and Kisses blog. I came across McAvoy on twitter and simply fell in love with the style and mood Jenny captures with perfect images filled with emotion and love, of all those special moments so natural / fun / elegant and extremely stylish, combining contemporary with soft natural light allowing you to have memories of the most special times of your life, available to look and share forever. McAvoy are a very passionate husband and wife team. They do a variety of things, not only weddings, beautiful portraits and family shoots too.

Claire and Ben celebrated their wedding day last summer. A delicious cream and teal celebration, with lots of detail and personal touches. A huge thank you to Jenny for letting me blog about this beautiful wedding. Enjoy..Ladyamy

Gorgeous Vintage Style Wedding Shoes

Hi all! Guest Blogger Lauren is taking a little break this week so I thought I'd bring you some gorgeous ideas for wedding shoes for your vintage inspired wedding!
I particularly love these shoes from http://www.emmyshoes.co.uk

My other favourite for something a little bit different are the shoes from http://www.hettyrose.co.uk ... I love a splash of colour under a white or ivory dress!

Navy & Cream Bespoke Wedding Stationery And Styling

I was asked a few weeks ago to produce some bespoke samples for a client who wanted a Navy and Cream colour scheme with a classic vintage style.
I thought it would be fantastic to share these designs with you and come up with some styling ideas to match.
Here are the bespoke stationery designs I came up with ... if you would like me to design a bespoke range for your wedding please contact me via email info@knotsandkisses.co.uk or give me a call 07976625201 ...

I wanted to create a classic style for this range but with a vintage twist ... I think the addition of the wide lace band works really well here. So I've approached the wedding styling in the same way ... use lovely dark navy's and creams but mix in vintage lace & diamante to create that vintage look.

I think this colour scheme works really well with a Fifties twist ... so full skirted mid length dresses and birdcage veils are perfect. Style your wedding with beautiful pale cream vintage crockery, cupcakes and pearls and you will soften what can be quite a harsh colour scheme.

 birdcage veil from http://www.chezbec.com/ ; flowers by http://www.boutiquepaeony.co.uk/

 navy dress from http://www.pinupemporium.co.uk/ ; photo of cupcakes from http://www.mcavoyphotography.co.uk/

 brides dresses from www.stephanieallin.net/ ; garter from Sweetly Fallen Bride on http://www.etsy.com/

fascinator from lorna1969 at http://www.etsy.com/ ; pearl bracelet from http://www.vintageamethyst.co.uk/

You can find out more about our bespoke stationery service on the website http://www.knotsandkisses.co.uk/



Designers Of The Royal Wedding Bridesmaids Dresses!!!

After I featured some of their flower girl dresses on yesterday's Supplier Spotlight ... I'm delighted to say that Nicki Macfarlane have let me tell you a little bit more about them on today's blog and the part that they played in the recent Royal Wedding!
I'm over the moon that they've let me have a copy of the original illustrations for the dresses to show you as well!

Here's a little more information from them about the part they played and how they set up the company....

When Catherine Middleton chose Nicki Macfarlane to design her bridesmaids’ dresses for The Royal Wedding, she would have had no idea that decades earlier, Nicki, then aged 15, had met Prince William’s great grandmother, The Queen Mother. She had been invited to represent her school at St James’ Palace where she received an award for her exquisite needlework!

Nicki’s inspiration for needlework came early in life, influenced by her mother who designed and created beautiful embroidered dresses for her children and also from her time at Heathfield School in Berkshire.
In the 1970s Nicki started her first childrenswear collection under the name ‘Miss Bunch and Mr Moggs’. Then, following the birth of her two daughters, Nicki continued to design and create in a freelance capacity until 2005 when she was asked by a client to design bridesmaids’ dresses for twenty-two children aged between 18 months and four years old.

At this point, Nicki realised that there was a gap in the market for beautiful bespoke bridesmaid and pageboys outfits and hence the brand ‘Nicki Macfarlane’ was born. In the intervening years, Nicki has become highly regarded in the bridal industry for her exquisite designs and use of the best quality fabrics. She works closely with every bride to ensure that each creation is individual, personal and fulfills her dreams. Personal touches set Nicki apart from the competition – each outfit has the bridesmaid’s name hand embroidered on the inside.

In 2009 Nicki’s eldest daughter, Charlotte joined the company. Trained at the London College of Fashion, she also brought with her 15 years experience in the fashion industry, most notably as Managing Director for Lulu Guinness. Together, in response to numerous requests from retailers, they launched their first ready to wear collection in February 2010.

Nicki and Charlotte have recently designed an exclusive capsule collection of dresses for John Lewis, which went in store last month. This season also sees the launch of their first every day childrenswear range, ‘Nicki Macfarlane Blue’ which is a collection of beautifully made, classic clothes for girls and boys aged between one and eight.

Since they were commissioned by Catherine Middleton to create the bridesmaids’ dresses for the Royal Wedding, life has been extremely busy for Nicki and Charlotte. Both have been involved in the creative process, alongside Catherine herself, and have dedicated many hours to hand-stitching the dresses between their homes in Wiltshire and Kent.

For further information visit http://www.nickimacfarlane.com

Spotlight On Beautiful Vintage Inspired Flower Girl Dresses

I honestly feel that sometimes the poor little flower girls get forgotten in the wedding industry ... there are thousands of gorgeous wedding dresses on the market now and plenty of lovely bridesmaid dresses. Surely there are beautiful flower girl dresses out there?!
Well I'm happy to say my faith is restored! Although I still had to trawl through quite a lot of websites featuring quite dull flower girl dresses with plain coloured sashes I managed to find some absolute corkers to share with you as well!

First up are the amazing dresses from www.ilovegorgeous.co.uk
I love this website ... I don't have children but if I did I'd be straight on here! Their flower girl dresses have such a pretty vintage look with a more casual feel which I love. Perfect for a country garden or barn wedding with daisy's wound through their hair.
My favourite is the cream wood nymph dress below ...

cream wood nymph dress - £79

marie antoinette dress - £132

peach cross my heart dress - £98

copyright ilovegorgeous 2011

The next company I'm featuring is rather special as they designed and made the bridesmaid dresses for the recent Royal Wedding! To be honest though I had no idea about this when I came across their gorgeous website and fell in love with their flower girl dresses on the spot! Nicki Macfarlane have a gorgeous vintage feel to their dresses and would be perfect for a slightly more formal wedding. You can see all their dresses on their website http://www.nickimacfarlanebridesmaids.com/ ... they also do pageboys!

My favourite is definitely the Jemima dress .. which would go amazingly well with our new Wonderland range of wedding stationery which you can find at www.knotsandkisses.co.uk

Jemima dress - £185 to £215

Jane dress - £195 to £225

Finally I want to show you the range for flower girls from one of my favourite high street shops Monsoon. I wanted to show a wide range of prices to suit every wedding budget .. and Monsoon's range certainly fits the vintage style look without breaking the bank!

I love their Ayla dress which would go perfectly with neutral toned weddings and for winter weddings their fake fur cape is adorable!

Ayla Dress - £46

Estella Dress - £48

cape - £22

www.monsoon.co.uk



More Wedding Inspiration & Beautiful Gowns from Lady Amy

Introducing more wedding lovliness from our guest blogger Lady Amy Wedding Design .... loving the gorgeous gowns! .....

So my recent research has been on beautiful wedding gowns, unique wedding inspiration, divine details and the most adorable wedding blogs..

Here are a few of my wedding finds and treasures.. Ladyamy Loves <3

Sarah Seven
Not only is the photography simply stunning, portraying a very peaceful atmosphere but these Wedding Gowns are so pretty, elegant and feminine. Less is more and here that is certainly the case, these 'brides' look adorable yet with minimum detailing / fussiness and accessories, its just simply all about the beautiful dress... with a variety of fabrics / creams / whites and peaches these dresses ooze cuteness...

Portland, Oregan designer Sarah Seven has created a variety of vintage inspired pieces, portraying elegance and femininity. With the delicate use of ruffles, layering flowers, beautiful natural fabrics and recycled vintage fabrics her bridal ranges are a small taste of this designers incredible talent. What a lovely find..http://www.sarahseven.com/index.html

images courtesy of Sarah Seven

Jessicas Country Flowers
I came across this lovely little florist, Jessicas Country Flowers late last night. Although she is based in America, while is more than miles away from Ladyamy, I still wanted to feature her website. Another truly passionate member of the wedding industry who, with beautiful work, she deserves a mention. Jessica specialises in Weddings and Events, enabling you to feel like a celebrity with her luxury full wedding co-ordination services. Great inspiration and wedding ideas... http://www.jesscountryflowers.com/index.html

images courtesy of Jessicas Country Flowers


The Pretty Blog / The Knotty Bride
I love nothing more than coming across another wedding blog, finding new 'real' weddings, collecting inspiration and ideas. Reading real life stories and finding wedding treasures, from not only the UK but all over the world. These blogs are lovely, just really interesting. They are both equally packed with easy and cute DIY ideas and up to date references. Oozing wedding goodyness and pretty details for all those wedding crazies and brides to be. Take a peek, I hope you like it as much as I do..

http://theknottybride.com/badge and http://www.theprettyblog.com/

...and so Ladyamy is finishing off with a few more pretty dresses ;)

Ive never been a huge fan of huge puffy princess ball gown style wedding dresses. As beautiful as they are I simply adore the more elegant and simpler designs, with finer details and embellishment.. Alberta Ferretti is an incredible designer, producing some very stylish gowns which ooze sophistication with beautiful simple lines, simple beading and sumptuous fabrics. Here are a few dresses from his 2010 collection..

I hope you enjoyed...
Love
Lauren x