My DIY wedding garter

So, wedding garters. They can be a teensy bit tacky right? But, being a huge sucker for tradition, I knew I just had to have one.

I did a little bit of online browsing for one, but everything was the same ol’, same ol’. Then I found these beauties:

             (courtesy of greenweddingalliance)

Liberty in Love

Liberty in Love

I really fell in love with these (click on the images to take you to the beautiful Liberty in Love website – you will love!) but with a price tag of over £50, I just couldn’t justify it. I therefore decided to attempt my own.

I got some elasticated lace, a piece of felt and a vintage brooch with blue stones (something blue) and this is what I came up with.  I haven’t joined the ends together yet as in my mind my legs will be sooooo much thinner by Sept (in reality, I’ll be exactly the same size and kicking myself that I didn’t get my arse into gear), anyhoo here it is……

Obviously nowhere near as nice as the Liberty in Love one’s but better (and just a £ more expensive) than the 99p ones I found on Ebay.

Maid of Honour 101

So, today I am publishing my very first guest post. Whoop.

This comes to you from Rachael – you can follow her on Twitter @livealittleNYC

When a bride asks you to be her maid of honor, it is not only exciting and an honor, it is a responsibility. She is putting her trust in you to help her prepare for the biggest day of her life. Here are some suggestions to help you be a great maid of honor.

Be organized. Planning a wedding means managing a lot of tasks. From helping with the registry, to researching bridesmaid (and maid of honor) dresses, to planning the bachelorette party; the bride will certainly appreciate any help you can provide. If the bride is using a wedding planner or planning software, it wouldn’t hurt to purchase the same one for you. It will help make sure you are both on track and nothing gets overlooked. The Ultimate Wedding Planning Kit is a great wedding planner to help keep things organized.

Save the dates, invitations, and bachelorette parties. A big part of planning for a wedding is making sure the date is secured and everyone knows it. Make sure you remind her that as soon as the date is set, she and her groom should send out save the date cards. You can even be the “official photographer” and take the personalized shots for their cards! Make sure not long after the cards go out; the couple starts to look at wedding invitations. Meanwhile, you should start working with the mother of the bride and the mother of the groom on a shower for family and friends. And you should start to plan the bachelorette party for the women in the wedding party! The bachelorette party is something that is fun and frivolous so when wedding planning gets a little stressful for the bride, switch gears and talk about what she would like to do and who you should invite. A great stress reliever indeed!

Be supportive. Anyone who has planned a wedding knows it can be wonderful as well as incredibly stressful. Just about every couple at one point during planning talks about eloping in an effort to avoid all the stresses that go with the planning. The parents of the bride want to dominate the invite list. It would be easier to plan the invasion of a small country than finish the seating chart. The list of potential issues that can pop up never seems to end. The maid of honor needs to help the bride whenever possible – which usually is nothing more than offering sympathy and listening to her when she is feeling stressed. Being supportive when the bride needs you might just be the most important part of being a maid of honor. 

My Week – according to my phone pics

1. Yay! My Ikea family card finally arrived. Our nearest store is Cardiff, and I’ve only recently had to courage to brave the M4 and go there.

2. Oli and Frankie having a cuddle with their brand new cousin at Nanna Glads. If you look closely you will see Frankie’s knitted camera. This always makes me smile.

3. My Pinterest inspired no-door-cupboard in the kitchen.

4. Happy Birthday to my wonderful Mum!

5. Dog walking.

6. Handsome man.

7. New Ikea rug.

8. Wedding invites ready to go-go!

9. A walk in the woods.

Last but not least, my beautiful Eva made her First Holy Communion on Sunday, and I am proud to say she was one of the very few little girls there who didn’t look like they were auditioning for my Big Fat Gypsy Wedding! Just saying.

The Wedding Cake Debate (I am having with myself)

So, I thought I had decided once and for all on my wedding cake….hang on! Have I mentioned I’m getting married?

It was decided that we were going to simply go for the fuss free and pocket friendly M&S plain cake option, until my Mum put a spanner in the works, by suggesting I make the wedding cake! This was after I had made a particularly tasty birthday cake for her a few weeks back – admittedly, this was just a plain old Victoria Sponge, but apparently is was ‘light as air’!

So, after seeing the following Naked Wedding cake currently having a bit of a moment on Pinterest I’d started thinking this would be the route I would go down.  I ordered the 10″, 8″ and 6′ wedding cake tins and started practising.

However, call me a fuss pot, but I couldn’t help thinking that this rustic looking cake just didn’t ‘go’ with my classic, elegant non-theme themed wedding.

Wanting to stick with the DIY wedding cake idea (after all, I have forked out for the cake tins!) I’ve now discovered the:

Buttercream Wedding Cake

This is a bit more ‘me’ than the naked cake, as I really do want a white/ivory cake but I think it still looks do-able as it doesn’t have to be as perfect as rolled icing – which I really dislike the taste of.

Plus, with this cake it won’t matter if I slightly burn the edges of the cake, AND I can make one layer chocolate! Ha!

Now to get practising my 3 tier cake til I get it perfect……cake anyone?  Anyone?

Note: any input would be greatly appreciated. The man’s well rounded and carefully constructed opinion on this matter consisted of the sentence “it’s just a cake, I don’t really care what it looks like”.