Happy Thursday everyone!

Its a very special day for our latest Bride, Claire Johnson. Today is her Wedding Eve!!!

Well, she’s all grown up now!
Tomorrow we will see her marry Andrew Poole in Crewe Hall witnessed by all her family & their beautiful son, Aaron. Exciting!!!

We hope you both have an incredible day, I know you will & we are all so excited to be there!!

Much Love,
Charlotte, Rob & Faaamily!

As for me, I should be up & down Tower 42 by midday, then my Husband-to-Be will scoop me up from the floor and into the car heading straight to Crewe to join the family. I think I should have booked a massage in the Spa!

Remember these?

These were the home made confetti petals that both mum’s made – aren’t they pretty? Simply collect fallen petals, place on baking tray and dry!

Well – couldn’t resist – here they are in action! Hurray! Photo by Sophie Laslett

Love and flowers

Emma xx

Hello Monday!

A few weeks ago I posted about us making our big stack of paper pom poms! I had this idea of covering the ceiling with them – so the whole place looked liked Bohemia.

First of all we had a try out day making them…

Then we had a bit of a faff trying to errect the whole thing, as we weren’t allowed to hang them from the ceiling, so we had to hang them off a series of wires, strung across the ceiling!

Anyway, at last – the finished result! Hurrah! And the best bit? They didn’t all fall down half way through! Wooh!

Hope you like them as much as well all did!

Love

Emma 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

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

I love finding something truly exuberant & fabulous to include in my wedding.
By all accounts it may end up looking like a total circus that has been invaded by design students… Well, it won’t if I can keep all my ideas under control… I really love having all the mood boards to keep me in line & options to me so I can create the right ‘look’.

If you are looking for something a little bit more than a peony… these may be right for you…

Candelabras!!

I think they look amazing at events & are a great alternative to flowers or in addition to the right flower arrnagement.
So here’s some inspiration, followed by some prices!

In my search I found this site-
TableCentrepieces.co.uk
They have a comprehensive price list for you to bookmark other hiring companies. You can even use this to compare the price of some you might even buy.

There’s also Fleurs De France who do a full display for you. They do an assortment of wedding decor including flower arches.

Happy Hunting!
Charlotte xx

Hello Saturday!

The day before our wedding, Matt and I, our families, and all the bridesmaids and groomsmen were all up in Norwich for the rehearsal which we were having at 3pm on the Thursday.

This day could be better know as ‘Operation Pom Pom’. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I wanted the whole room to be really fun and colourful (I didn’t really have a colour scheme except that I wanted it all to be lovely summery ice creamy candy colours) so it would look like a ‘bohemian 1940s village fete’ (ha).

We had pre made a whole load of paper pom poms and bought loads of paper lanterns which we wanted to hang, but there was one catch. We couldn’t hang them off the ceiling. So Matt’s dad Robert came up with a genius system of hanging them all off wires, which we would thread from one side of the room to the other, attached to a series of clamps.

So the men all set about erecting the clamp system, and we all sat and started poofing out the pom poms, while my grandpa sat and put together all the lanterns. It was like a pom pom conveyer belt!

While this was underway, we also set up a table already to go – to show Beth, from our fab caterers (who I will talk about in a later post as they deserve a whole little section of their own). This meant we could all go off to the rehearsal at 3pm and Beth could do all the other table while we were gone, so they were all set up ready to go for the next day.

A little bit of advice – the day before will be the most manic. Make sure you make some time to have something to eat (My MOH Alex and Matt both got me some lunch while I was on the phone to our photographer Sophie, so I had two lunches mmmmm), and make sure that amongst the madness you have a time where you say good bye to setting up, and leave it to your bridesmaids or family and go and have a quiet couple of hours.

After the rehearsal at 3pm, I went and had a lovely manicure and pedicure at our hotel for a couple of hours before we went our for our team bride dinner. It meant I left the venue at 4pm, and even though some stuff wasn’t done, I had to let it all go and go off and forget about it. The next day when I turned up it was all absolutely perfect, so you can be safe assured it will all go to plan!

Thank you to everyone who helped out that day and did lots of fab creative work and made it all look so lovely!

Love

Emma xxxx

Morning!!

I just wanted to take the chance to thank Matt for his brilliant Guest Post yesterday- The Groom Speaks! You had us all in stiches!!

But today I want to share a special venue with you…
There are many beautiful places you can choose to get married, but when a collegue of mine showed me where she is getting married, I knew I had to tell you about it!!

Wouldn’t you want to know about getting married in a TREE HOUSE?!

Then sit back & gaze at The Lodge, Lochgoil, Scotland.

Stunning.
The Tree House is for more intimate ceremony & hold up to 24 guests. With views overlooking Loch Goil, its a beautifully romantic venue!
They do also have facilities for larger parties & an onsite wedding co-ordinator called Alice.

As you know, we love a beautiful venue at Electric Wedding, but we also like to bring you the facts. The cost.
What’s it going to set you back?

Wedding cost at the Lodge based on 24 guests is £6,000
(This is based on 8 people staying at The Lodge)
This price includes:
•The exclusive use of the Lodge based on a 24 hour rate
•The use of the entire grounds and the gardens
•Our wonderful Tree house for your wedding venue
•Flowers in all the Lodge reception rooms
•Table decorations
•Menus
•Place settings
•Guest table plan
•Our own Master of Ceremonies
•Silver cake stand and knife
•Four course wedding feast
•Canapés
•Cheese Board
•Champagne ( half a bottle per person )
•House wine ( half a bottle per person )
•Mineral water (half a bottle per person)
•Service charge 12 % on food and beverage
Also included in this our experienced wedding planner. Alice will work together with you to make sure your day runs smoothly and professionally.
For more price variants, click here.

What a great venue!

If you have a venue to share, let me know! I’m still looking myself…

Happy Hunting All,
Charlotte xx

I know. Its July and its actually hot & sunny…. well it was before this week…
Although we are in the summer zone, we can’t be forgetting those still planning & preparing their winter weddings!

It can’t be easy being months away from your Christmas weddings & there’s nothing seasonal on sale.. sigh.
Well, next month there will be. That’s right. Harrod’s & Selfridge’s will open thier Christams shops in August followed by Liberty & ther rest of the department stores on he High St.

And yes, I have been known to buy a few decks in August. You have to grab them quickly in London or they are gone! i will be cruising Oxford Street to determine what’s hot this winter.

Now, for all you lucky lucky Winter wedding 2010 ladies, here’s some snippets of Winter wedding love & inspiration….

Fake it. Fake your own snow! Its a brilliant idea if you are looking for some quirky detail. There’s no business like snow business…
You can actually have fake snow like in the films. A bit too much? Never!

I saw these mood boards online & wanted to share them for inspiration.

Now I’m excited! Winter weddings are spectacular!
Instead of a traditional wedding car, you could have a sleigh with Reindeers. I have seen it done.
Log fires, winter cabins, Christmas trees lighting up the rooms.
Why not serve mulled wine on entrance of the reception?

There are so many added extras you can have!
Seasonal bottle stops are great for wedding favours.
The options to make you day sparkle at Christmas are endless!!

Once those Christmas shops open, I will bring you more fabulous hints & tips for that to get & where. But for now, know that you are not forgotten!

Are you geting married at Christmas? Please share your hints & tips with us!

Magical.
Charlotte x

Only 5? I have allowed myself to pick only 5??
Yes, well, you would be utterly bored if I listed them all!!!

My Top 5.

1. The Dress
Naturally.

For most Brides to Be, its the most important feature to get right & something that should be the most fun… should be… after we have nearly killed ourselves to look as good as impossible….
I know many Brides who have run straight out to try on dresses immediately. I, as you know, am not one of those Brides, but I still want it to be utterly stunning, to match me.. ha ha ha! And I love how excited people get when they try dresses on! Even the big bad ones!
This amazing Claire Pettibone dress is actually for Sale! Click here to see more.

2. The Speeches
I just don’t know how they do it. The best man speeches are always great! Funny. Soooo funny. I know people get great tips on line- check out Wedding Speeches & Toasts by Maggie Mayfair for some great advice.
My hats of to you the Best man, its always a cracker!

3. Flowers
I love the flowers that are chosen for weddings!!! Peonies, Cala Lilies, Roses, sunflowers.. the list is endless.

They always look stunning & in my humble opinon, the simpler, the better.

4. Food & Drink
People always seem to remember the food! Sometimes because it was fantastic.. and sometime becasue it was awful.
I have sampled both, but like many, I remember the awful ones the most! So i am working hard for my food NOT to be a ‘bad food’ story.

I love food in general, but wedding food is so delicious becasue sooo much care & preperation goes into it all.

Don’t get me started on the cake!!

5. The Venue
The more magical & unusual the better for me! I showed you these tents from Papa Kata last week which I think are amazing!

You can also have a stunning manor house which often do a great deal on the whole day’s package.
I have also heard of tree house weddings, lake sided venues, Barns, beaches.. you name it I am sure someone has had a wedding there!

As the venue is where you spend the day, its so important to get one you like! I am still trying. I have found it but its a little out of my range right now….

So, there’s to Emma & her wedding next week!
I’m bursting with excitment!

Charlotte xx