Wedding stationary

We went to eBay to find somewhere to get our wedding stationary. After browsing thruogh a few different options we found Noah's Nuptials run by a lady called Abbi. She makes all types of wedding stationary - invitations, place cards, orders of service and thank you cards - all with beautiful designs and various embellishments.

We had narrowed down our options to Abbi and another company, but it turned out to be easy to choose between them. We requested samples from both - Abbi's arrived within two days and was absolutely beautiful, but the other didn't arrive until the next week and when it did, it looked like something we could have done ourselves on a desktop printer.

Abbi's website says:

Five years ago, my son Noah was born. I didn't want to return to work full time, knowing that I would be missing those first few crucial years. One day, my mum said to me "You're good with your hands, why don't you try making cards?"
That day, Noah's Nuptials was born.

And the rest, they say, is history! I never had to return to work and the hobby which was going to make me a little extra money is now a full time job.

So if you have something special in mind, a way to make your stationery perfect for you, just drop me a message and find out how I can bring it to life!

Noah's Nuptials
w: www.noahsnuptials.com
Abbi does have a shop on eBay, but also has her own website. She has a dozen designs to choose from and is willing to make changes as well for specific requests.

Something old...

I'm quite traditional at heart, and ever since I was little I've been thinking about what I'd wear for my 'something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue'.

I'd considered an old piece of jewellery that I'd had for years and loved. I had a pair of pearl earrings at one point that would have been perfect for a wedding, but sadly they went missing when I moved house. I also wondered about an old ring, if whoever I married gave me a family heirloom or if we used my grandmother's engagement ring which I inherited as my ring.

Then I considered underwear. I'm not talking about really old skanky underwear, just something that I hadn't bought new especially for the wedding. I had a friend who got married who wore an old pair of blue pants for her wedding, along with tights borrowed from her sister and a new dress. But while I'm sure I'd be quite happy wearing comfortable few month old pants from my sock drawer, it's not exactly something I can show people if they want to know what I'm doing for my something old.

I hadn't really thought much about it in the few days after the proposal until my Mom mentioned her wedding dress. She still has it, safely in a box in the loft, so I asked if I could see it. It was a very typical wedding dress of the 1970s, with a high neck, long sleeves, and made of beautiful lace. The underskirt (made of crinoline, I believe) had unfortunately yellowed while it had been in storage, but the lace was still beautifully white. As well as the dress, Mom had kept her veil and cap, and they were both still in beautiful condition too. While we were ooh-ing and ah-ing over the dress, Mom produced several pearl necklaces in case I wanted to wear one of those for the wedding.

I said I wouldn't reveal any secrets in case darling beardy man wants to read this blog, so I'll just leave it that I found my something old out of the selection of beautiful things that Mom showed me, and after the wedding I'll post a picture of what my gorgeous something old was.

Something blue...

My beautiful ring arrived on Wednesday, especially made by Charlotte, a friend of lovely beardy man. It's silver with aquamarine (my birthstone), and Charlotte is going to make our wedding rings as well. It's absolutely gorgeous and I absolutely adore it!

Welcome to the church

One of the simplest things we had to do was book the church for the wedding. We're getting married at Aston Parish Church, in Birmingham, where I went to church until I was about 18, my parents still go, and my parents and my brother were married.

For anyone who follows Premiership football, it's almost directly opposite the Aston Villa ground, and darling beardy man, knowing that I wanted to get married there, even gave me a list of Villa's fixtures when he proposed, so that we could make sure that we chose a day when the club was away and we'd be able to get cars in and not get swamped by football fans!

The church itself is beautiful, with its Victorian architecture and stained glass windows. (It also has a lovely aisle, which is very important, because I don't want to get married anywhere where there isn't an aisle for me to walk down!) It's very interesting to look around as well, and a few years ago little brother and I wrote a new guide book for the church to replace the old one which was written in 1985.

Another good thing about Aston is that it's got a church centre which is attached to the church via an indoor link, meaning that if the weather is bad we don't have to go outside at all to get to the reception. A lady at the church has an amazing way of decorating the centre so that it looks like a marquee, and there's a kitchen if we want to do any of our own catering, toilets, and plenty of space to sit and eat, and to dance later in the evening.

Aston Parish Church
Witton Lane, Aston, Birmingham, B6 6QA
t: 0121 327 3880
w: www.astonnechellscofe.org.uk

The perfect green

When I was choosing the colour scheme for the wedding, I wasn't quite sure where to start.

How I'd imagined my bridesmaids - sort of...

Before we'd set a date, I was thinking it might be a spring wedding. If it had been, I was envisioning bouquets of wildflowers for me and the bridesmaids to carry, and the bridesmaids wearing dresses all of the same sort of style in different pale pastel colours.

Once we set our date, however, the pastel idea didn't seem like it would work as well, and there would certainly be very few wildflowers around in November!

Our colour scheme, but not our dresses!

One of my favourite colours is green, and I particulary like the nice rich Christmassy green of holly leaves. On various websites I've seen it described as hunter green and forest green. I decided to try to get bridesmaid dresses in this colour, and because it's a Christmassy colour it will be nice for that time of year.

When I told darling beardy man I was thinking about colours he jokingly said I could co-ordinate with the Morris Minor pick-up truck he's just finished restoring. We're planning on leaving the wedding in the pick up, and it had sort of crossed my mind that it was the same colour, but I'd not thought about it in those terms!

Darling beardy man's "other woman"

I think he was a bit surprised and pleased after the bridesmaid dress shopping trip when I told him that yes, we will actually we co-ordinating with the pick-up!

While the main colour is green, that has potential to be a bit bland if that's the only colour aside from the ivory of my dress, so I've picked an accent colour as well that's just as dark and rich as the green, and that will be picked up in the flowers and in the little bridesmaids' dresses.

Still undecided on my hair...

The old, new, borrowed, blue tradition

I'm very traditional at heart and so I really wanted to include this old tradition into my wedding. I was intrigued about where it came from though, so I did a bit of research and found out that it dates to at least the late Victorian era when it was included in a book of folklore, with the addition of a last line 'and a silver sixpence in your shoe'.

Historically, the items would be given to the bride by her family and bridesmaids for luck and as tokens of love. I was interested in what each part signified though.

Something Old is to represent the past, and where the bride comes from. Because it is being used on the wedding day it is also a sign of a link to the future. One of the common something olds would be for the bride to have a piece of lace or other fabric from her mother's dress sewn inside her own gown. Other something olds are jewellery, or a button from the bride's father's coat which can be sewn inside the dress of even included in a bouquet.

Something New signifies a new beginning and a new life with the bride and her new husband. The most common new thing is the wedding dress itself, but as so many new things are usually bought for a wedding, it could be anything from a hair accessory to shoes.

Something Borrowed, depending on where you look, either shows borrowed happiness or that the bride's friends and family will always be there to support her when help is needed in the future. It goes without saying that the borrowed item must be returned after the wedding, or it is no longer borrowed! Often brides will borrow jewellery, and if it is a family heirloom that is borrowed it can also be counted as the something old, but I've known friends to borrow pairs of tights from their sisters or a hanky from the groom as well.

Something Blue can be seen to symbolise faithfulness, purity, loyalty, love, modesty and fidelity. Blue items don't have to be a bright shade, and could be hidden from view if the blue item is a garter. I've seen blue pants, blue bridesmaid dresses, a single blue flower in a bouquet, and blue stones in jewellery. Some people use blue for their eye make up, and others will have blue-soled shoes.