A sixties retro wedding!

Now I'm going to be honest here..........I've been stuck for something to write about for a few days! I haven't really done anything other than complain about the cold weather, worked busy shifts, and spent hours on the Internet looking at wedding invitations but not making any decisions about said invitations.

So after a bit of thought, I considered what  I would like to read about and hit on the idea of some vintage wedding inspiration. It's been in the back of my mind that I would like to have sixties inspired hair and make up for my wedding so here are a few ideas for you if you have the same tastes!




This is pretty much EXACTLY what I had in mind! Large amounts of black eye liner and a modern twist on the beehive. Ideally, I'd like my hair half up, half down with some sort of tiara.

A messy beehive looks more modern

Wow. If I looked like this, I would never stop looking in the mirror! I'm going to have to try and get my skin in tip top condition by September (hello! some sun would help!)
I've already started using deep conditioning treatments on my hair and plan to get it trimmed once more before the big day.....

Chocolate brown eye shadow and ombre hair

I'm not great at doing my own make up so I'll also be trying to find a make up artist to do it for me. I think it's important to feel special on your big day - and for me that means looking a little bit more polished than on a regular day!


And the best way to turn up at your retro wedding? A vintage camper van of course! Unfortunately my boy wasn't sold on this idea and we will be travelling in something a little bit more modern :(

And finally.......a retro cake!

An Orla Kiely cake!

And some matching Orla Kiely cupcakes!

Well, I hope you like this little insight into my retro mind! I was definitely born in the wrong era...

Wedding play lists - how not to fall out!

Dear readers,
                     I like to think that my fiance and I agree about most of the details for our wedding (or maybe he just can't be bothered to argue most of the details!) but one thing we can't agree on is the music.
 
We have VERY different taste in music. I like the 60s and 70s and mid 90s indie.....he likes rock and the 80s and Pink Floyd. We can agree on The Beatles and Queen (let's face it - who doesn't like them?) but that's almost as far as it goes. We can seriously argue and even fall out about the rest of it.
So how do we go about choosing "mutual" music?

We need to pick a first dance song and also agree on a few hours worth of music for the reception. I think the music should be recognisable to everyone (young and old) and have lyrics that you can sing along to. He would rather have the songs that he knows and likes, but that would have your average granny turning off their hearing aid!

No one likes a dancing dad....

I do think he's right in pointing out that it's our wedding and we should have what we like.....but how far do you take that?

We've started the process by finding a website that lets you create your own playlist. That way, you and your beloved can search for songs you both like and just add them to a play list with the click of a button. Youtube is also really helpful if one of you has never heard of the song that the other is suggesting!

As for the all important "first dance," we are still undecided. What would you suggest? What did you have at your wedding?

And how on earth do you pick the music for one of the most important days of your life?!

Thank you!

I mentioned a little while ago that Wedding Paper Divas were going to send me some personalised cards as a "thank you" for blogging about their website. Well, here they are!

My photo is deliberately a little blurry so that the surprise isn't spoilt for the people I send them out to....(ok, it wasn't deliberate. My phone was just having a funny five minutes!)

I went for a birdcage design in keeping with the rest of my wedding theme and as I'm not sure what my actual colours are yet, I went with the colour that looked the best!

They are absolutely gorgeous and I can't wait to send them out next year when I am Mrs Rebecca/Becky Woodling! (Scary...) The postage was actually quicker than I expected considering they were coming from across the pond but it took me a few days to get them as they required a signature and only delivered Monday to Friday (and I was at work.) However, you can go to the delivery website and select somewhere for them to be left without a signature. I was really pleased with how they turned out so now I need to pick a design for the invites.

After much deliberation, I have decided to make my own "save the date" cards on a budget and order my full invitations from Wedding Paper Divas. Otherwise, costs add up and before you know it, you're bankrupt. Not a good way to start a marriage!

On that note, I went wedding dress shopping today with my Mum and found THE ONE. We've paid the deposit so that's one less thing to organise. I'm having to fight the urge to show a picture but some things have to be kept secret!!

And I suck at keeping secrets.

Wedding Paper Divas save the day!

Something VERY exciting happened to me yesterday. I got mail. Not "in the post" type mail. Email. From a company! To be precise, the company I blogged about yesterday.

http://www.weddingpaperdivas.com

Somehow, they had seen my post and wanted to thank me for raising awareness of their site. They have let me pick out some "save the date" cards as a thank you. This is my very first "collaboration" with a company through my blog so I'm definitely not playing it cool (as you can see.) No little asterix quietly announcing a sponsored post for me.......

I imagine my cards will probably take a couple of weeks to arrive as the company is based in America - that particular piece of post is sure to cause me to emit a squeel!

Would it be wrong to send them one of their own "thank you"
cards as a thank you?!

I had a good look around their site at their other products and found that they offer a free website hosting for your engagement. So, obviously I set one of those up straight away! It was really easy and you can match the background to the invitations or save the dates that you've ordered. It gives you an area for photos, you can use it as an RSVP, a guestbook etc. As a techno-phobe I found it pretty fool proof (which is saying something!) The link for the website which is called "Nearlyweds" is ---> HERE

After much deliberation, I'm not going to show you my website or the cards I've picked as I don't want to spoil it for my guests but I'll show you the cards once they've been sent out.

Right, I'm off to add some things to my Nearlyweds site! If I've missed any vital information then let me know......

Save The Date!

Hello! Happy Bank Holiday. I'm actually not working today (first time for everything!) so me and the boy (the boy and I) went to visit our potential wedding reception venue. I had already seen it but wanted to check that my other half would be happy.

It's still a beautiful setting for a reception so we'll be booking it pretty soon! We went to the church earlier in the week (which is also gorgeous) and spoke to the registrar about dates. I'm not going to tell you the date we've picked as we have also been looking at "save the dates."

For anyone who has never planned a wedding, save the dates are cards you send out early on to let people know when to book time off work! Then you send out invitations at a later date with the rest of the information.

I found a really great website that has lots of designs for invitations and everything else you could possibly want to coordinate called Wedding Paper Divas  You can find their Save The Date cards here: http://www.weddingpaperdivas.com/save-the-date-cards.htm

It has a lot of different styles to choose from so there should be something for everyone! Here are a few of my favourites (not including the ones we might pick!):

Save the date - available at Wedding Paper Divas

By the way, this post is not sponsored! These are just designs I like. Although....if anyone does want to sponsor me or send me free Save The Dates then I'm well up for that!

So, everything is getting well under way and we have just over a year to get our planning thing on. Next up is finding a wedding photographer.....any suggestions? :)

Oh, and also they said I could have a dessert table/ sweets table so I can't wait to start planning that! Pinterest, here I come....(you can find my wedding board at girlfrommars79 - probably!)

Mugs, cake tins and pick your own vegetables

Evening! I'm currently watching Superscrimpers so if my sentences don't make sense then you'll know why....

Got a couple of photos for you - images speak louder than words!

Wedding brooch bouquet with Ikea flowers, fruit and vegetables from Pickwells (pick your own!)

I've been continuing with my Wedding Brooch Bouquet which so far has taken hours and hours and hours....etc
I was finding it hard to get a good shape for the bouquet so I decided to go and find some artificial flowers to use as spacers. I had seen some in Hobby Craft but couldn't be bothered to drive back over there so I stopped in to Ikea and picked up 8 stems for 75p each. That's more like it!

They look super amazing so I'm well on my way to a finished bouquet.

We also took a trip to a place called Pickwells where you can pick your own fruit and veg. I had some lovely green beans for dinner and the boy made a yummy crumble out of raspberries, blackcurrants and 2 apples. All that food in the bottom right photo came to £7.50. And £1.50 of that was the Hello Kitty cookies and posh crisps!

Whilst in town, I spotted the fox mug in the photo below (£5 from Marks and Spencers) which was so beautiful that I couldn't resist it. I literally HAD to have it. I saw the cake tins (also M and S) and thought of Hannah Banana. Who can resist a bit of retro? I didn't buy those though as I'm budgeting (supposedly) this month....

And that's Lily at the bottom. I thought her silhouette was just very photographable. That should probably be "photogenic" but photographable just sounds better and more catty......

Life lately

Hello. Sorry I haven't been around recently! I haven't really had much to write about and then the days just sort of slid by and then the no writing panic set in!
But I'm back now and ready to share a few snapshots of my life.......

Making rhubarb crumble with my mum's home grown rhubarb

New hanging baskets and my pet friendly hoover

Dressing like it's the 90's and having bbq's

Half price Monday's at the Slug and Lettuce and fake Magnums

Constructing my wedding brooch bouquet - tutorial coming soon!

Potential wedding venue

What have I been up to then? My mum was visiting last weekend so we took the opportunity to drive out to the New Forest and check out some wedding venues. The one above is definitely the winner so far. Talk about wow factor....
 
We also went to try on some wedding dresses and the lovely ladies at "Brides" in Portswood were able to fit us in with no appointment! I tried about 5 different dresses and fell in love with one that was over budget and not at all what I thought I wanted.....

Obviously we weren't allowed to take photos and I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise anyway! I'm torn between sharing everything with you (as is my usual style) and not wanting to give away all the details of the day.

I have started to construct my wedding brooch bouquet using all the different brooches that my mum and I have collected. It's hard work. The wire has to be thick to make it sturdy but that makes it impossible to bend and shape. I will persevere. Would you like a tutorial of how it's done?

 Let me know....

P.S The pic that I've labelled "dressing like it's the 90's" is due to watching serious amounts of "My So Called Life" on BT On Demand. It's from way back in 1994 I think and was my FAVOURITE programme as a misunderstood teenager. Angela was like, totally, like me.....