If a Vera Wang gown isn’t enough to lure you into this wedding, it is also full of DIY ideas, bright colours, vintage touches and (my personal favourite) a Jenga guestbook. The whole wedding day ended in a trip for all to the bowling alley…bride in bowling shoes…how awesome is that? 

Captured by Cathy More Photography she tells us more about the day,

Jamie is a graphic designer and Brian is a car guy. Jamie is all about awesome so the whole day was filled with things like “the best day ever” and during the ceremony, “will you take Jamie to be your awesome wife?”

Jamie handmade all of the paper flowers for the tables, the bridesmaids bouquet and her own bouquet as well. Her dress was by Vera Wang while the bridesmaids wore Modcloth dresses. 

The altar was a salvage fireplace backed with ribbon and place cards hung from a salvaged door. After the ceremony they had a restored Ford as a getaway car. They served a breakfast buffet for dinner and ended the night with limo rides to the bowling alley for an after-hours celebration. Her DIY and design work is throughout the wedding: flowers, place cards, table gift, altar. 

I do love a good outdoor wedding and this one is pretty special. This is a day of details, many of them DIY and my personal favourite is the ‘something blue’ - it’s one of those quirks that I wish I’d thought of for our day so the best I can do is share it in case you are in need of a quirky ‘something blue’.

Captured by Karen Feder Photography she sums up Lindsay and Michael’s wedding day, 

Perfect weather, perfect company and perfect day. A celebration planned in the private meadow of Michael’s parents was the perfect backdrop for the May wedding. So many DIY details made the day perfect ranging from the fun facts on the quaint town of Red Wing to the apple jelly that Lindsay and her mother made as favours for the guests to the doors that she made for the aisle entrance. The 9 nieces and nephews that roamed the meadow rung bells just before Lindsay walked down the aisle and as she and Michael were announced husband and wife. Their late night snack of sliders from White Castle (Michael’s favourite!) arrived in the middle of drinks and dancing and the couple ran through an array of sparklers as they left for the evening.

I fell in love with this wedding for two reasons: 

1. The bride and groom came out of the Church to a cascade of bubbles 
2. The photo with the bridesmaid in the red sunglasses 

Captured by Rita Rojas-Sullivan Photography this is a lovely and happy wedding day. 

This is a jam-packed, colour feast for your eyes kind of wedding; with a Catholic ceremony in the morning and a Hindu one in the afternoon there is plenty to be inspired by. 

One of my favourite details is the ‘wedding peg’; I want one! 

Captured by Day 7 Photography, Sean tells us a bit more about the couple: 

Celia, an MIT graduate, met Amit, a UT graduate, while in Boston. They had mutual friends who introduced them to each other in a group setting, and Amit played it cool. So cool that Celia thought he wasn’t interested. Despite appearing uninterested, Amit and Celia got along better than expected. Celia is now at San Antonio finishing her graduate work at UTSA, while Amit is in Dallas working for Deloitte, but their hearts are in Austin. Their wedding was at the beautiful Radisson Hotel by the Congress bridge, and there were amazing places for photography everywhere. The day was full of cultural festivities, including a Catholic ceremony in the morning and a Hindu ceremony in the afternoon.

The best part of any wedding day is knowing that the people surrounding you love and care for you and in Sarah and Andrew’s case this is in it’s purest form. Not only were all their guests their to celebrate with them, they all, in their own way helped to create the wedding. Now that is something to celebrate. 

Captured by JB Creatives, I’ll hand you over to Sarah to tell her story:

Having been was with my then fiancé for almost 9 years, I wondered whether he would ever propose. Then, right after I had given birth to out beautiful son, he knelt down on one knee and finally popped the question.  And of course I said yes. 

We didn’t want to hang around for too long and so set the date for about a year in advance.  The date that we picked was the same date that we first became a couple and as the clock struck midnight it would represent the end of a decade together - and our first full day as husband and wife.

The fact that I was on maternity leave for the majority of the year leading up to the wedding meant that we did not have as much money as we would have liked – a problem I am sure many couples can identify with. 

As we began planning the wedding, we were looking for ways to save money wherever we could.  Our first saving was on our wedding invitations, which thanks to my cousin working for Paper Themes wedding stationers, I received a family discount.

After we had ordered the wedding invitations I went about finding a wedding dress and visited a local shop in the next village called The Bridal Boutique. 

Whilst I was picking out my dress I got speaking to the owner and it turned out that she knew my soon to be husband, as they were old school friends.  As a result she was kind enough to give me a 10% discount!

When I told my husband about this he came up with the idea of trying to source as many of the items and services that we needed from people that we knew.  Not only would it help save us some valuable money, but it would also give our big day a bit of a personal touch.

First Andrew contacted his old next door neighbour who he used to play in the street with.  He had only spoken to Ellen on Facebook in the last 15 years or so, but she still lives nearby now owns of The Secret Garden florist shop in Baildon. 

Ellen agreed to provide our flowers, and without us even having to ask, offered us another 20% discount!

Next was organising the photographer and my cousin’s girlfriend had recently started her own business JB Creatives.  Jane kindly also gave us a 20% discount and is responsible for all of these great photographs. 

When it came to the wedding cake we chose a local shop in our home town of Otley, called Patisserie Viennoise.  The shop is actually situated right across the road from my mum’s house and many of my family buy chocolates and other treats from it fairly regularly.  Again we received a discount because we know the owner quite well - this time 10%. 

What was great about knowing the owner was that he agreed to make figures to represent not only the bride and groom, but also the flower girls, bridesmaids, best man and our son.  It really made the cake special to us and drew a lot of comments from our guests. 

Getting into the spirit of things; Andrew’s mum offered to make the suit that our son would wear and the two dress for our flower girls - she did a fantastic job!

His friend followed suit and offered us the use of his beautiful Audio A8, which saved us around £250. 

The service itself was carried out by my aunty, who is a qualified civil celebrant and who runs her own business My Heart Went Boom.  It had always been our plan that she would carry out the service and she volunteered to do it free of charge. 

Another of my aunties made a wish tree, which we used instead of the traditional guest book for people to write messages. 

All in all we estimate that the generous discounts we received saved us in the region of £1,600.  Whilst this may only be a drop in the ocean for some couples planning their wedding; it made a huge difference to us and we were truly grateful. 

As a thank you we invited all of those that were so kind to us to our wedding – although many would have been attending anyway.  Andrew had the chance to catch up with an old school friend and his parents were able to reminisce with girl that had lived next door and grown into a fantastic florist. 

Whilst it was great to save some vital pennies, we found that having so many friends and family members pitching in made the wedding day feel extra special.  There was a fantastic atmosphere throughout the day and the evening celebration certainly went off with a bang!

Stationery and invitations: Paper Themes / Wedding dress: Bridal Boutique / Flowers: Secret Garden / Photographer: JB Creatives / Cake: Otley Patesserie / Words and Service: My Heart Went Boom

This engagement shoot is a dream come true for most of us - skipping around Paris with the man your about to marry with a photographer to capture it all in one picture perfect shoot. Melvin Gilbert was the lucky photographer who got to capture it all. 

The princess bride in her princess dress just makes this wedding for me, it is utterly divine. There are so many other details to love about this wedding but for me, I just keep coming back to sighing over the dress! Captured by Amber S. Wallace Photography. 

Italy has got to be one of my favourite countries and so I immediately fell in love with this wedding shot by Rosapaola Lucibelli Photography. Paula and Louis fell in love in Florence 14 years ago and decided to go back to celebrate their wedding with friends from all over world.

There is a beautiful lace dress from Pronovias, some sparkly shoes, white flower heaven and all of it overlooks the stunning city of Florence. Incredible. 

I love this wedding mostly because they have a whole set of hanging white flowers but also because it is jam packed full of smiles. Shot by Debra Gulbas Photography, it is a stunning day to inspire and re-ignite a newly-wed’s emotions!

I do love a good barn wedding and today’s wedding is just that. I love that the Bride has used wheat in her bouquet, there is a cupcake table and add in some rather cool ‘photobooth’ shots and this is an inspiring wedding.

Photographer Sandra from Bphotographed tells us more, ‘Ashley and Ryan said “I DO” on a rainy day in September, but nothing was going to hold them back from enjoying their special day, especially not the rain; the ceremony had to be moved inside; however, I think it added to the country charm… We truly believe that all the little details is what makes a day that much more special, and Ashley and Ryan did an awesome job of putting this day together, it was sincerely amazing!’