Wedding Inspiration #2 - Non-typical wedding dresses

Now, I have NEVER been the big white dress kind of girl. I could barely visualise myself in any type of typical wedding dress, and while I have a vague plan in mind at the moment (Them Atelier Dirt dress, platform wedges, antique lockets and maybe something knitted for warmth) I can't help but keep trawling the internet for gorgeous dresses, as I am pretty sure I will change my mind :) I would love to find an amazing vintage dress, and I am drawn to unique detailing, cutouts, draping - the curve-adding friends of a skinny girl. I'm not fussed on colour either - I've considered yellow and teal as well as muted whites, creams and beiges, but I do feel pretty strongly that when I find the perfect dress, I will know!

So, for inspiration, I've found some beauties here, so take a look and enjoy!


Mini Oriel Georgette Dress by Temperley London, found on shopbop.com
I absolutely love this dress of great beauty. I found it on shopbop originally as part of the Wedding Boutique Second Dress collection, but if I was going to wear a short dress for the wedding, I'd want one like this - vintage styled and simple, with enough detail to make it look really different.


This is GORGEOUS <3 I love the spaghetti straps and the geometric detailing - I would happily wear this out to dinner or to my own wedding, it's beautiful. By MAXAZRIA via shopbop.com


This beautiful, '20s inspired dress (sadly out of stock, cos otherwise this would be a definite maybe) has got ruffles and frills, but not in a typical meringue-dress way. I love the deep cream colour as well, and I bet it would look dead flirty and cute on. Ahhh, modcloth. You make me happysad.


I realise it's pretty bizarre to want a wedding dress that is studded, but I love the edgy feel this would give to an indie wedding. The white flowing skirts have that wedding feel and I think the studs give it a little sass and attitude, something I definitely want in our wedding. From asos.co.uk


A lovely, flirty little white dress from Topshop - I would pair with metallic platform sandals and loose hair with flower accessories for a fresh 60s approach to wedding dresses.

I'll definitely be doing more dress posts so stay tuned for updates! And of course, let me know what your dream wedding dress is - are you traditional, edgy, or is a dress such a rare occurrence in your life that for you that a £10 sundress would be an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience? Let me know!

Wedding Inspiration #1 - Invitations

First, a note: the posts on this here blog will be a bit muddled up to begin with, and I have yet to sit down and edit the appearance of the blog myself, but I intend to write some proper background posts - about us, about our engagement, that kind of thing. But I'm pretty busy with work at the moment so bear with me for now :)

There are so many awesome wedding invitations on the blog, and I'm really drawn to the funky, unusual, stick in your mind type. I'd had what I think is a stroke of genius for our invites, which involved procuring some cheesy songs on 45 vinyl (oh charity shops, you provide us with so much) and printing up our own sleeves with the wedding info on. What could be better than getting a wedding invitation that's also, say, a tacky 80s classic (99 Red Balloons, anyone)? But, realistically, time and money contraints mean that we (probably) won't go ahead with that idea, opting instead for a retro movie poster style invite - we're still deciding whether to go with a straight spoof or just an invite in that style. Or, possibly, a retro concert poster style invite? Either way, I'll be designing it in the interests of budget and taste.

But anyway, here's some other awesome invitation and Save The Date (a US pre-invite?) ideas I found online.


From Kelly Ink, Flickr
I adore the use of the kiddy pictures and the cardboard - it just looks so sweet!




From Manolo Brides
Just a fantastic idea, I love wedding invitations that get everybody involved.




From Wedding Tea Towels
I love love love love this idea, and think it's SO cute, and I love that your guests will have something to remember your wedding by. Paul thinks, however, they're tacky, stupid and "Why the hell would you want donkeys on your wedding invitation?" (There's a range of designs, one of which includes two donkeys kissing noses).




This idea for Julia's wedding invitations is astoundingly good - I mean, how cool is a 3D Viewfinder wedding invite? Cooler than most I think :)

There are so many great wedding invitation ideas out there that I'm sure I will find dozens more and write more posts on them - have you come across any great ideas?

Introduction

My fiance Paul and I have been engaged for a couple of years now, and will have been together for 4 years in April 2011, and this blog is about our wedding planning and execution. No, not that kind of execution, I mean the actual wedding ceremony :)

I'll be using this as a scrapbook and kind of diary so I can remember this plan. Over Valentin'e Day this year, I was chatting to Paul on Facebook while he was working and we were talking about what to do for our anniversary. "Well, I've got an idea" he typed, and suggested we just book a date at the registry office and plan a quickfire wedding. We'd been dreaming of the day when we could get hitched but basically, we are gonna be waiting years if we wait til we have that ten grand or whatever to spend. And i had already said to him I'm not the big white wedding type - I want to get married so I can make that commitment to Paul, to spend a day shouting to the world about how crazy I am about this man, in between the everydays where I try and tell him and show him as much as possible. We're one sarcastic, music-loving, comedy-adoring crazy match made in heaven and I'm looking forward to being his wife!

So, where it stands so far, is we have nothing booked but I do have my dress idea (I think), a vague idea of the flowers and we know we know that we want to get married around the middle of September. We know we want a quick registry ceremony, our own written vows, and an awesome party in a little indie club to celebrate. I keep murmuring to Paul about having different coloured cupcakes when I'm falling asleep, and we've bandied about the idea of a hash wedding cake (more to make ourselves laugh). I know what I want to do for invites and I have a vague colour scheme in mind. And I have lots of little ideas to make it ours.

So, I'll be posting, scouring, sharing and pondering the wedding journey, and I know I'll love having this to look back on :)