It's Spring (nearly)

With the anticipation of Spring and having enjoyed a lovely week of sunshine, I donned my flipflops, sat in the garden and got designing....

Forget Me Not

Bespoke tiara with a beautiful Coalport Primrose and Forget Me Not china brooch. The brooch is surrounded with muted yellow pearls taken from a 1950's necklace, swarovski ivory pearls and swarovski ab crystals. Perfect for a Spring time / Easter wedding.

This is probably my favourite tiara so far, it is so bright and cheery, it gets me excited about spring and stirs the senses. It reminds me of freshly mown grass, butterflies and dragonflies, big blooms of bright flowers. Definately in contrast to another of my favourites...

Winter Chic

Bespoke vintage tiara with a lovely 1950's AB crystal brooch. The tiara is encrusted with vintage charcoal pearls taken from a broken vintage necklace, swarovski AB crystals, swarovski clear crystals and swarovski ivory pearls.

My New Job!!

Afternoon All,

I took my son to our local park on Wednesday and I bumped into the lovely owner of the bridal shop that I purchased my wedding dress from last year. We got chatting and she mentioned she could do with a hand in her bridal shop on a weekend and after I finished jumping up and down shouting 'Me Me Me' we seriously talked about it, and...

...I started yesterday!!

I had a fabulous day chatting away to brides helping them into amasing dresses, I even made a sale!! I sold a lovely lady her perfect wedding dress and veil, she looked stunning and we even had a few tears. I can't believe how much I enjoyed it and I got a huge amount of satisfaction from helping a bride find the perfect dress.

The name of the shop is Elyse Bridal and it is on the Wellingborough Road in Northampton. The owner is soooo lovely and if you come in on a Saturday you'll have the pleasure of my help :-)

Elyse Bridal sells dresses by Mark Lesley, Alfred Angelo & Ronald Joyce

Real Wedding - I

Some of the best inspiration available to women (and men) planning a wedding comes from photo's of real weddings! That is why on a fortnightly basis I am going to feature a picture board of photo's from a real wedding.

I hope you get some wonderful ideas from this and if you do use any of the ideas I would love to hear from you!

Mr & Mrs *Flowerfairy* - The Wizard of Oz Wedding


I especially love the centerpieces...

I love vintage clothing and jewellery so it was natural for me to go with the vintage feel for my dress etc The rest just fell into place really! I wanted to create a make-believe feel for the day and hang on to the imagination I had as a child. It is so easy to get bogged down with real life as an adult that we tend to forget how magical things can be, so using the 'The Wizard of Oz' theme for my tables was the obvious solution!! I LOVE the Wizard of Oz and it reminds me of my childhood, unfortuanately both my parents are no longer here so it reminded me of them too. My husband loved the idea so I was given "permission" to go ahead! All of our guests had fond memories of the film and we tried to seat guests on appropriate tables i.e. two of Pauls workmates are about 5' 6" so naturally they went on the munchkin table! (ha ha) Guests were all trying to work out the relevance of why they were sat where they were. I did have to out the Wicked Witch though as I didnt trust myself! :-) The top table was of course the Emerald City! Mrs Flowerfairy

What a FANTASTIC and unique idea for a wedding, it really illustrated the bride and grooms personality and captured the imagination of the guests. Who doesn't love 'The Wizard of Oz?'

New Designs

Evening All,

I've had a lovely day today and with the weather being so nice me, hubby and our son managed to sit in the garden of our local pub and have a wonderful leisurely Sunday lunch, it must be nearly spring!

I've then spent the rest of my Sunday crafting!!! Firstly, I finally got round to turning the ugly pin board in my kitchen into not such an eyesore...

...this is something I have never attempted before so I am really pleased with the outcome.

I then spent a few hours trying out some new jewellery designs, what do you think???

Thanks for looking, check back tomorrow for my first 'Real Wedding' feature!!

x

Inspiration Board I

Inspiration Board - Part 1

This is the inspiration board I created for my wedding back in December, so I hope you like it and if you use any ideas from it I would love to hear about it and maybe see some pictures...

Chocolate Suprise

Evening All,

I have just sat down after finished making my Mum's birthday present for tomorrow and I am desperate to show it off!!

I have decided against the standard book / DVD and I thought I would be creative and make something she (and I) would thoroughly enjoy!! So here it is...




















A selection of her favourite truffles, including white chocolate with lemon, milk chocolate and hazelnut, bitter milk chocolate and milk chocolate coated in white chocolate.

Hubby just pinched one and said, and I quote, 'there better than the ones we buy in Brugge' So I am really pleased, especially as this is my first ever attempt at making truffles! I don't know why I haven't made them before as I had so much fun, especially the cleaning up afterwards (I didn't lick the bowl I promise).

Anyway when I was putting it all together it made me think how nice it would be as a centerpiece at a wedding. One of these in the center of each table, maybe on a mirror plate or a piece of vintage lace with drapped pearls and vintage bits and bobs dotted around!

When I got married I actually had a 'Chocolate Themed' wedding and I wished I had thought of this then! For those who are interesed my 'Chocolate Theme' included...

• Hot Chocolate & Baileys as a welcome drink
• Chocolate favours
• A Chocolate Shop (instead of a cake)

I'll show you the pictures some time!

x

I Dare You To Wear...

After spending the morning doing my housework - boring!! - I decided to relax this afternoon with my wire and beads and get creative!! And below is what I came up with. I guess it is a bit unusual as a bridal tiara and probably something only a daring bride would wear...


Bespoke Vintage Tiara with a lovely 1950's AB crystal brooch. (It shines blue in the photo but in reality it catches different colours in different lights) The tiara is lined with vintage charcoal pearls taken from a broken necklace and swarovski AB crystals entwined around the pearls.

New Designs

Just thought I would quickly add a couple of my newest tiara design's before bedtime!!

The observant ones among you will see that the brooch used on the second picture is actually the same one from the hair comb in my first ever blog. I decided to take this original comb apart as I wasn't overly happy with the quality - it was my first ever attempt so it was never going to be perfect! - and I have made this tiara instead. I am actually really please with it!

These are the first two design's in my 'Without Mystery, Magic Disappears' collection.

Old Photo's / Postcards

Steering slightly away from Jewellery for the moment, I love the idea of involving old postcards and photographes into your Vintage wedding day.

So here are a couple of ideas...

I was looking for some old postcards on Ebay for a project I am doing and I stumbled accross some postcards of the church that I got married in.

This would be wonderful mounted and used to decorate the front of a a guestbook or photo album and at only 99p to purchase it an absolute bargin. The postcard could also be photcopied or scanned and printed onto card to be used as an lovely invitation people are sure to keep.

If a postcard isn't really your thing, or you cannot find a suitable one why not dig out your families old photographes and see if you have some old family wedding photo's to incorporate in your stationary or theme. This could also be a nice way to honour loved ones who cannot be there.

I used some old family wedding photographes that had been reprinted on sepia for my own wedding photoboard. The photo's were placed around the edge of the photoboard, and held in place with vintage hat pins and some old pieces of jewellery from my nan's collection. Dotted around the photo's were scrapbooking tags with words like...

....................................................................................................

* Absence makes the heart grow fonder - On a photo of absent friends

* It was only a matter of time - On a photo of my new husband and I when we were younger.

* Favourite things - On a photo of our son

........................................................................................................

When people were looking at the old photos and reminissing about bygone weddings it was a lovely moment.

..................................................................................................

Here is a close up of my three favourite pictures from the board. How wonderfully do they reflect weddings through the ages.

Without Mystery, Magic Disappears

I had so much fun night last night, I sat and cleaned up all my new (but old) treasures. Each and every item is so unique and individual I wonder when and where they were made? And who had wore them before? With most I will never find out, so I will just have to use my imgination although I have been lucky enough to find out a short story about a couple of my lovely pieces...

Kristen: Before my Mum married in 1955 she attended many balls and dances, she wore elbow length mittens and these lovely earnings. She always kept them from these days, although never wore them again. She would get them out sometimes to show me.

"Without mystery, Magic disappears"

Cecil Beaton - Academy Award winning stage and costume designer.

Vintage Finds

I have had such an exciting / lovely couple of days!! I have been scouring charity shops, antique shops and the internet in search of the perfect vintage jewellery as treasures for my tiara's and hair combs, and this is what I have found...

I am so excited about making my finds into wonderful pieces of jewellery so watch this space!!

The Beginning...

Well, here goes my first blog...

My name is Sam and ‘My Wedding Party’ is a company my mum and I are in the process of setting up, our business concept will become clear in time, but whilst the ‘i’s’ are being dotted and ‘t’s’ are being crossed it is all TOP SECRET! We do hope to be formally up and running by late summer 2009 and I promise I will keep you updated. So before I let the cat out of the bag I’m going to change the subject and fill you in on what I want my blog to achieve in the meantime.

First of all I got married in December 2008, so I still like to think of myself as a newlywed – I do sometimes wonder how long I can call myself that?!?!? Anyway I, like lots of women, absolutely loved planning my wedding and I have many a scrapbook of wedding ideas and hundreds of fabulous websites saved in my favourites folder that I would love to share with as many ‘brides to be’ as possible. So I thought here would be a fantastic place to share some inspiration.

Secondly, over the last few months I have been turning my hand at some jewellery making. I am in the early days of it and as of yet I have only fully made two bridal hair combs and one tiara. But I thought this would be a great place to showcase my work and hopefully get some feedback.

Bespoke Vintage Hair Comb
Vintage hair comb made using a 1950's domed pink brooch, encrusted with pearls and crystal beads. This is a one off bespoke design.

Bespoke Vintage Hair Comb
Bespoke vintage hair comb with a beautiful hand painted floral brooch with a large glittering blue stone. It is encrusted with pearls and swarovski crystals. Your something blue!
















Bespoke Vintage Tiara
Vintage style tiara encrusted with swarovski pink pearls and swarovski crystal beads. This is a one off bespoke design.

Well thats all for tonight!! I hope you visit again and I hope you enjoy the journey with me!!

x