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Thursday, September 8th, 2011
Posted in A Bride's Perspective
With a lot of DIY going on for our summer fete wedding reception, it seemed logical to extend this to the favours being offered to guests. As we were having picnic food and no table plan, we had decided not to lay the trestle tables with cutlery and crockery, rather allowing people to sit as and where they chose, bringing their drinks and cutlery with them. This was important to us, so that friends could sit together and could choose to eat at a time that suited them, their children and fitted in with all the activities we had planned. Instead we just set the table with white cloths, a hessian runner and decorated it with flowers in mismatched containers and photos of our ceremony some four months earlier.
This did cause an issue where favors were concerned though, as with no place settings, there was no obvious location to leave them for the guests to pick up. Therefore, any favors we chose would have to be displayed separately for guests to take as they left. So they were obvious they needed to be something of a reasonable size that could make a display with impact and weren’t overlooked by departing guests.
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Thursday, September 1st, 2011
Posted in A Bride's Perspective
I have perused a number of gift lists in my life. My first experience was a receipt book which you borrowed from the bride’s mother that listed one item on each page and you tore out the pages corresponding to what you were going to buy leaving behind the carbon copy. I remember being chuffed at being early enough to bag (excuse the pun!) a suitcase rather than having to tear out multiple pages relating to each bowl or plate from the dinner service.
Another highlight was having to claim the price of the gift chosen for a friend back from our credit card company after their list provider went bust, taking all their gifts with it, and sending a cheque off to her once the refund had been received.
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Thursday, August 25th, 2011
Posted in A Bride's Perspective
I am a lover of picking up leaflets and stashing them on my “good ideas” pile and I often try, unsuccessfully, to convince my husband that they are indeed good ideas. This exercise is usually unfruitful but on rare, lucky occasions ends with a “if you really want to, love”.
I was, therefore, surprised that the wafting of a leaflet from The Wedding Ring Workshop under his nose elicited a near enthusiastic response (I must have picked my time well and avoided Match of the Day) and I was despatched to research their Wedding Ring Workshop Experience in more detail.
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Monday, August 22nd, 2011
Posted in Fashion Focus, Wedding News
Thirty years ago to the month, a nine-year-old me stood in a queue for five hours with my parents to view the wedding gifts given to the Prince and Princess of Wales at St James’ Palace. Beyond the highlights of the platinum plated replica of the Royal Yacht Britannia with portholes of rubies, the tiaras and candelabra and the his and hers bathrobes and toothbrushes, there was a glass case containing Diana’s wedding dress and shoes. Already less than impressed with what she’d seen on the day on the TV, my mother was further disappointed with the reality, damning it out of hand with the verdict that the creases still hadn’t dropped out and it was far too yellow!
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Thursday, August 18th, 2011
Posted in A Bride's Perspective, Real Weddings
Well, the wedding’s over and the ground has well and truly been hit with the proverbial bump. My list of thank yous is sitting ominously on the coffee table and I know the place I want to start is the most important one. But how do you summarise everything that the amazing Helen has done in something that fits in a card or goes on her website as a sound bite?
My husband joked during the wedding speeches that the chance to get a word in edgeways was a noteworthy occasion in his life, so you’ll see I’m not usually one to scrimp on words. Therefore, I thought that rather than trying to be pithy and succinct I could convey my thanks in a blog post that truly sets out the wonders of having wedding planner like Helen on your side.
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Thursday, August 11th, 2011
Posted in A Bride's Perspective
You know the saying “Whatever the problem, chocolate is the answer”? Well it could have been written for me (and probably 95% of the female population)! And so it was true again at the beginning of the year when I was planning my hen day and trying to solve this little conundrum:
Happy to do a two stage extravaganza, I was looking for an afternoon activity to please all from my seven year old daughter and her school friend to my mum and aunt who were pushing the upper age range, before those up for it could head out for a meal and drinks.
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Monday, August 8th, 2011
Posted in Spotlight On..., Stationery
Last week, Sarah outlined how she had used the fabulous Wedding Tea Towels as invitations for her Summer wedding celebration. HCW first spoke to Karen Brown of TOWTT in December 2010 (you can read the post here), and now eight months later we chat to Karen again to see what is happening in the world of Wedding Tea Towels and what goodies she may have in store for us in the future.
So Karen, we see a lot more designs on your website now. How did these come about?
From two angles actually. We have launched a beautiful Boutique range with six new towels produced by other designers which has really expanded the choice available. The designs are exclusive to us and have been very popular with brides and grooms.
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Thursday, August 4th, 2011
Posted in A Bride's Perspective, Stationery
Well we’d done things a little unusually by not inviting any of our friends (and hardly any of our families) to our wedding,so we wanted to carry on doing things a little differently for the big summer celebration party as well.
The first hint our guests would have of what we were planning would be the invitation. I was mindful that there was likely to be quite a lot of information to include (details of what was going to happen at our “wedding without the wedding”, information about our alternative wedding list, and sign up details for the children’s creche), and so looked at pocket-fold type invitations to house the multitude pieces of paper. In addition, I wanted to bring in the Summer fete picnic theme we had decided on and so set about trawling wedding shows and the web for inspiration.
Although I found some fantastic designs featuring carousels, fairground entry tickets or billboard fonts, nothing quite clicked and I was slightly put off by the £5 plus per invitation price tags I was seeing. Then browsing through one of the many wedding magazines that had started piling up to precarious levels at the side of the bed, I came across The Original Wedding Tea Towel Company and I immediately fell in love with the concept.
The idea of a tea towel linked in beautifully with the afternoon tea picnic we were planning and with the bespoke design option we could aim for something which hinted at the other elements we were planning for our day. An added bonus was, that even with the bespoke design fee, the towels came in at a lot less than paper invitations, as well as being a lovely keepsake for all the guests.
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Monday, August 1st, 2011
Posted in Wedding Press, Wedding Styling
Earlier this year I met with the lovely Chanelle from Segerius-Bruce to discuss an idea I had for a photo shoot. This was my first styled shoot, and I was being fairly ambitious with what I wanted to achieve – it had to be heavily detail-oriented, incorporate two different styles within the main vintage theme, include an outdoors element and provide brides with inspiration that was realistically achievable for their own wedding design. No pressure there then!
It was clear from my meeting with Chanelle that she was on board with my ideas from the word go, and in back in May, after several weeks of careful planning, I headed off to the George in Rye with a fabulous team of suppliers to bring my design to life. And here are the results, spread over 8 pages in the latest issue of You & Your Wedding magazine!
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Thursday, July 28th, 2011
Posted in A Bride's Perspective, Venues
Imagine the situation … you’ve just found the perfect venue for your wedding and you’re embarrassed to tell people where you’ve chosen. How could this be the case? Well, it happened to us and we were saved from eternal social suicide by Julian Fellowes!
Our wedding was scheduled for February and, realists and long-sufferers of the British weather that we are, we decided that the most important attribute our wedding venue must have was fantastic interiors, as we didn’t think the opportunities for a multitude of outdoor photographs would be great.
Always ones for a good stately home ceiling and lovers of pillars and pilasters, we wanted something grand, but not draughty, something with character, but given the size of our wedding party, something cosy and welcoming. Our ideal geographic area was around Newbury in Berkshire, which was where we met fifteen years previously.
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Thursday, July 21st, 2011
Posted in A Bride's Perspective, Real Weddings
What did you imagine your wedding day would be? Probably there would be a white(ish!) dress, bridesmaids, beautiful blooms, a fairytale romantic setting, a stunning cake, lots of emotions and a cast of thousands? Me too!
As I mentioned last week, my husband-to-be’s views were slightly at odds with this as, having finally popped the question, his idea of a perfect wedding was just a handful of very close family and all done in secret. And so, the first compromise of married life was upon us!
I must admit, being relatively late in life to be doing the whole bride thing (a birthday with a zero is approaching next year) I have had many a chance to sympathise with soon-to-be-married friends about guest list negotiations, parents refusing to make a contribution if you serve goats cheese as a starter (true!), rehashing seating plans and nightmare bridesmaids. I even have one friend who abandoned all plans with two months to go and ran off to get married in St Lucia just to be out of the future mother-in-law’s radar! So I set about embracing Andy’s idea but ensuring that we still had a wedding with all the traditional touches you would expect with more guests.
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Thursday, July 14th, 2011
Posted in A Bride's Perspective, HCW News
I have some exciting news to share with you today – we have a new addition to the Helen Carter Weddings family! My little wedding planning empire is expanding, and I’m very pleased and proud to introduce you to my new assistant, Sarah Nendick.
Sarah is actually a recent bride of mine, and I’m absolutely thrilled to now have her as part of my team. I feel I should point out that I don’t make a habit of hiring my clients (!), but over the last 18 months Sarah and I have formed a rather special bond, and as an old-married I’m really looking forward to having a bride’s perspective and insight on various aspects of wedding planning.
Over the coming weeks Sarah is going to be posting regularly on the blog, and will be sharing some of her wedding finds, DIY projects and creative ideas. Today, however, I’ve asked Sarah a few questions by means of an introduction, so you can find out a bit more about her, her wedding and her plans for being a part of the HCW team. Over to you Sarah!
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