Hello Friday!

I wanted to touch a little on online wedding services today… pretty much because I have experienced both ends of the spectre on this one, and I found out recently about a new service that looks pretty cool I wanted to tell you all about!

When it came to planning my wedding list, we spent AGES trying to find a list that didn’t make us book our honeymoon through them, or charge us half the money were were receiving in commission. It was really frustrating for us because we wanted guests to contribute towards experiences on our honeymoon, but a lot of sites were either wanting us to book the whole thing through them or make us give half our pressie’s back in handling fees!

We got an email the other day about a new wedding list called Zank You, which basically allows you to create a wedding list for whatever you want. I thought it was really worth a mention, as I thought the idea was really clever!

Zankyou’s free service allows the bride and groom to set up their own wedding list with the gifts of their choice, from stages of the honeymoon to furniture for a new home to a charity donation. Guests are notified of how to access the list online and buy the gifts of their choice. The full cash equivalent of those gifts is then transferred on request to your regular bank account.

So for example, if you wanted to you could include your whole honeymoon on the list, as well as experiences on the honeymoon right down to your sun tan lotion and bikini if you really wanted to! And add on a toaster for good measure!

You also get a  free wedding webpage. This space is useful for sharing updates and info for your wedding such as information on accommodation, posting photographs, news and music. The webpage therefore becomes a sort of social network for your wedding, providing a central point of communication for friends and family.

The only fee is a small handling charge of 2.25% – which compared to a lot of honeymoon gift lists is really small.  I went on some that were 10%!

If you have any other questions you can find out more information in their FAQ section.

Defo worth checking this one out I think – it’s the only site I have seen so far where you can ask for anything all in one list!

Love

Emma xx

We had an email today from Wedding TV, who need Electric Wedding Brides to help them out!

Wedding TV are looking for couple to take part in the new series of The Great Cake Bake.

Are you having a Unique or Themed Wedding/ Civil Partnership between Early October-Mid December 2010?

Would you like a complimentary Bespoke Wedding Cake created for you by a Top Wedding Cake Designer?

If so Wedding TV would love to hear from you!

Please email your Names, Contact Telephone Number / Email, Date and theme/style of your Wedding and a recent photo of you and your partner to;

info@weddingtv.com by Monday 6th September.

Good luck wedding cadets!

Love Wedding TV, Emma & Charlotte xx

Well its been quite the wedding-year! That’s an understatement…

I have been to two very good friend’s weddings already this year & I have two still to go!! One of which I was invited to this morning, for 25th September!

But the big one for me is Cousin-Claire’s! We haven’t had a family gathering of this magnitude for many years now, but on 1st October, this changes with the union of Claire Johnson & Andrew Poole.

I can’t share too much just yet, but I can share the venue. Oh yes! Its one of my favourite places from ‘Up North’…

Have a sneak peek… Its Crewe Hall

If you are interested in a Spa Hotel Location, check out Spa Secrets Magazine. They have tonnes of fabulous locations & amazing beauty secrets.
I love it!

Wishing Claire & Family all the best in the final weeks! We are very excited!!
Charlotte (& Family!) xx

Hello Wednesday!

My favourite part of our wedding was the ceremony itself. We were lucky enough to get married in St John’s RC Cathedral in Norwich, which was a really beautiful venue.

Because it is so big, where we were standing was quite far in front of where all the guests were sitting, which meant that it really felt like we were the only ones in there at some points which was really nice (not that it was nice to feel like we didn’t have any guests but it didn’t feel as overwhelming!

We had 3 hyms, ‘Vow to Thee My Country’, which is my favourite, ‘Amazing Grace’, which was my Nanna and Poppa’s favourite (so it was nice to remember them with), and ‘How Great Though Art’, which was Matt’s Grandma’s favourite.

We had two readings. The first was our religious reading, which was a selection of several parts from ‘Song of Solomon’. This was read very beautifully by Charlotte (hurray!), as you can see in the picture above! The second was ‘Why Marriage’ by Mari Nicols Hanning. This was read by our friend Obi. We felt this summed up our reasons for wanting to get married perfectly. It reads:

Because to the depths of me, I long to love one person,
With all my heart, my soul, my mind, my body…

Because with this understanding
The possibilities are limitless.

Matt also read this as part of his speech later on, which was lovely.

Everyone said that we looked like we were having a really good time during the ceremony, but to be honest I think it was more we couldn’t help laugh, as several things went slightly askew… first the microphone cut out as we were walking down the aisle (it went boom quite loudly, I thought for one minute it was a sign, ha!), so a lot of people couldn’t quite hear us, which to be honest was just as well in one part, where Father James got my surname wrong! It was just like Four Weddings and a Funeral! Hahaha!

As I said my name right – we were all ok (although we did have to check with the registrar)!

Matthew also tripped over my veil when we walked up to do our vows – bless him, it was rather long, I think he got confused…

We then got all of Matthew’s younger cousins to do the bidding prayers, which was nice because it got them all involved in the ceremony.

We walked back up the aisle to ‘Here Comes the Sun’ by the Beatles (the organist played it for us, it sounded lovely).

I loved our ceremony – try and take it all in because it goes so fast! It is why you are there and the reason why all your friends and family are there too – there is no need to be nervous at all.

Next up – our part-ay!

Love

Emma xxx

We were contacted the other day by a fab new wedding list service for brides called Zankyou. Zank you is a fab new service that allows you to create the wedding gift list of your dreams. You can include whatever you like, and they will transfer the cash equivalent to your bank account. Find out more about Zank you later on this week!

Anywhoo, they contacted us to tell us all about their fab bridal event!

Zankyou.com and bridalwear designer Kate Edmondson have come together for an exclusive event to be held at Chandos House, London on Thursday 2nd of September 2010 – to launch the new Kate Edmondson bridal collection.

Just 25 lucky brides will have the opportunity to view the full collection of dresses and get great discounts from Kate Edmondson Bridal Couture and a range of other bridal suppliers. Suppliers include:

• Olivia Soleto Weddings
• Jo Barnes Vintage Accessories
• Rachel Simpson Shoes

All brides present at the event will have access to:

• 10% off for all brides who make an appointment with Kate Edmondson
• The chance to win a head piece by Jo Barnes Vintage Accessories
• The chance to win a wedding planning package worth £4,000 from Olivia Soleto Weddings
• The chance to have a make over with Bella Pierre

To win a chance to be on the guestlist for the event, you just need to visit the Zankyou.com blog or the Zankyou Facebook page and leave a comment. Alternatively, you can send your details to london@zankyou.com Zankyou.com will then get in touch with the lucky brides!

Good luck ladies!

Love

Emma & Charlotte

Dresses, dresses, dresses.

Its a mine field & with so much choice, where do you start??

Well, here’s a tip or two… Emma passed onto me a special book to help me on my way!
Its been a dreamy read & I have some really lovely ideas about what I want, well, what I think I want.

But I do know I want to share this with you all!

I have also been told by countless Brides that I shouldn’t assume anything. Once you start trying dresses on you will see.
“They are nothing like any clothes shopping you have ever experienced…” I hear.

Well, I’m excited to start but I have a while to wait yet!!
Time to shop!

Charlotte xx

Hello Bank holiday Monday!

Oh dear…writing this with a bit of a sore head this morning…we all went to Notting Hill Carnival yesterday! Still, onwards we go with my wedding story!

I wasn’t nervous at all about the wedding service itself – I was actually really looking forward to it! But I was REALLY nervous about walking down the aisle!

I had a whole vision of things that could go wrong. I could run out of music, or I could trip up, or I could go at the wrong time… would I cry… the list was endless! Plus as we were getting married in a cathedral, the aisle was REALLY long!

I loved the idea of it, but I was just really nervous at the thought of so many people looking at me (even though that’s the idea!).

It turns out, as with everything I worry about – there is no need to worry. When we arrived, we came through the doors (which open onto the aisle), and I could see all the guests down the bottom end, turning around to have a look. The thing is, the aisle was so long that at this point all they could see were our silhouettes, which I thought was quite cool.

We were all just standing there for what seemed like ages but what was probably only a few seconds – thinking, what do we do?! Do we go? None of us could remember from rehearsal what on earth we were supposed to be doing! Then Father James appeared – what a relief! – and told us all what we had to do.

We had a lovely archway of flowers that we all walked though – we walked down the aisle to the ‘Arrival of the Queen of Sheba’. Matthew is the worlds fastest walker, and as a result I now always walk really fast everywhere (otherwise with him I would get left behind ha!) – so it was really hard for me to not walk really fast and to slow down!

Luckily my dad was brilliant at this, even though there was a couple of times were I was practically dragging him along! Everyone said after how nice it was that we didn’t leg it down the aisle, as it gave them time to see us!

I can’t remember seeing any specific faces because there seemed to be so many – but I do remember seeing Matt at the end and feeling very happy

I didn’t fall over (not that it would have mattered), I didn’t run out of music and I didn’t get lost. All the worrying for nothing. It is one of the nicest parts of the day and you are only going to do it once, so just ENJOY it, and remember how excited everyone is to see you!

Love

Emma xx

Happy Bank Holiday Sunday!!!

Hope you have all been having a great weekend so far. How nice is it to know its not over yet?! ha ha ha!!

This weekend for me has been about the joining of the families!
Yep, yesterday our families met.

As with all family unions, it has the potential to be a bloodier affair than The Clash of the Titans, or more monsterous than that J-Lo film..

I was too busy this week, actually this month, to be nervous. I mean, it was a simple afternoon tea. His Aunt, 3 sisters & nephew…
Then, about an hour before they arrived at my family’s home, I realised the chaos.
My mum was covered in varying types of ingredients & in a full flap about things not being ready on time & if we needed another salad.
Afternoon tea had become a meal with 2 salads & 4 types of desert! “Just in case…”

My hair had gone from bouncy curls to flat waves, my eyes were sore from the popping out effect & I was sensing a twitch.
I eyed up the cooling bottle of Prosecco, I felt the need for a very large swig in a quiet, locked room.

Once I convinced my mother not to bake anything more & sent her to get changed, I finished off in the kitchen.
As they all arrived, I was nursing some finger burns & still hadn’t managed to get my hands on the Prosecco…

Then, my parents did what they do so so well… they went into full swing of chat & charm! Genius.

We talked embarassing stories (Rob heard so many of mine already so I was enjoying getting his!) looked like a girl when he was a baby apparently.. with a big afro- bless.

We ate, laughed & visited the church where we are getting married. We all had a go down the aisle & his nephew had a bash on the drums.
We finished the evening off infornt of X-Factor!

Thank Goodness. I am delighted it went so well.
Today, I feel very lucky!!

So I am heading to London for a drink and a gossip with one of my Bridesmaids. Hopefully she hasn’t seen this yet so I can re-tell the whole story in dramatic style!

Enjoy.
Charlotte xx

Friday Friday hurray for Friday…

All is good this weekend! It’s Bank Holiday (long exclamation of yesssssssssssss) – I’m having a date night tonight with my husband of 5 weeks and then we are all off to Notting Hill Carnival this weekend. It’s par-tay time.

So we are now up to the bit where I went to the church. So at this point I have already mentioned that we were all in a massive panic.. half an hour late and practically glugging champagne from the bottle. We miraculously made up our lost time at this point, and the cars arrived and we all trooped downstairs.

It took a while to troop, because my hotel room was about 3 miles from reception. We had two cars, both were vintage morris minors from the 1960’s, the girls went in a red one called Ruby and I went in a white one called Molly.

I have to say that at this point I was still absolutely bricking it about walking down the aisle. The aisle as you will soon see was very long. However at this point, when we got in the car, my Dad said ‘There is nothing you can do now about anything that could go wrong, you can just sit and relax now about it all’ and I thought ‘good point!’.

I have to say (and a lot of people have said this to me so I know it must be true!) – I was very calm at this point and not at all nervous! Apart from the aisle bit, I felt pretty laid back! I thought I would be on the verge of a nervous wreck but I wasn’t at all. So for all you brides to be, look forward to this bit because it really is FUN!

We had now gone from being late to early (only us), so we had to drive around for a bit. It was well cool seeing people walking up to the church to go to the wedding as I went past! So when we arrived we were right on time.

Here is me and my Dad. He was pretty calm too, and he is the real life version of Basil Fawlty!

We had a really lovely moment when we arrived where we all stood and posed for the below photo, and Isabella our little flower girl was holding onto Rachael’s hand. Sophie stood and said ’smile’ to us all, and suddenly from out of nowhere we heard this little voice go ‘CHEEEESE!’ and we all looked down and Iz was repeating ‘cheese’ over and over again as Sophie took the pictures! It was so cute – her Mum must have told her to always say ‘cheese’!

So… at last…we were all here and assembled and ready to go in, so we opened the doors and off we went….

More on Sunday!

Love

Emma

You will all have seen by now Emma’s beautiful wedding pictures! There are no words for how well Sophie Laslett captured the day, it was just so perfect!

In honour of how good Monsoon were for Emma’s Bridesmaid dresses & we have been hearing lots of interest in their collection…
I have pulled together a Monsoon Bridal Fest for you!

Sit back & put your feet up, becasue if you can find most of your outfit or your Bridesmaid’s in one shop, then wouldn’t life be easier?!!
Maybe it can be.
Here’s my faves from Monsoon Bridal…

Also a favourite with Marie Claire Readers- Isabelle Dress

Highly Rated by Brides Magazine- Louvre Dress

A gorgeous Bridesmaids dress- Timandra

Fabulous Colour! Palm Dress

Stunning. Kendrick Maxi Dress

Delicious! I’m particularly loving Kendrick for Bridesmaids! Not to mention all the grest accessories thay have in the Bridal Range.

Oh as if I would forget the shoes!
Amelie and Bessie

Hope you like them too! And if you didn’t & can tell me of something better… do.
Charlotte xx