Bag A Bargain

Super pleased with myself

So... Me and the hubby to be have a meeting with a caterer on Sunday, to discuss our menu and some prices. No Way in hell am i paying £5 for a piece of cake for 80 people a head, do the maths, its ridiculous.

So... I have decided that the logical thing to do is place a dessert table in the marquee with loads of cakes, chocolate, profiteroles, cheesecake, cupcakes etc. That way it will be 10 million times cheaper, and it will all be fresh because it will all be homemade cooking. My mums ace at making banana cake (my fave cake in the whole wide world) I have a best friend who makes cakes and cupcakes for a living, I'm sure she wont mind lending a hand (it can be her bridesmaid duty) my nan is famous for her fruit cake (i cant stand it, so this is said from others) and i must admit, I'm a dab hand too at a bit of baking myself.

Any way

Like i said, i want to set out a table all by itself allocated as the afters table. i have this idea of a long rectangular table covered in lace clothe, with vintage inspired cake stands and plates and trays filled to the brim with sweet treats.

Off course... as I'm not willing to pay, something stupid like £30 for one vintage themed cake stand. i have decided to sort the china wear myself ( aka, charity shop hunting)

I love charity shops, i don't do the clothes or shoes, and especially not the underwear from them, no thank you. i love the little nit bits you can find, a pleasant candle holder, amazing books, frames, they are the best for vintage cast iron mirrors, as my bedroom walls can tell you. In fact yesterday i even managed to talk the better half into buying me a beautiful cast iron white filigree themed mirror out of one for Christmas :)

I also found, wait for it... a stunning set of china wear, with the most amazing paintings and filigree on them. PERFECT

I managed to get

• 5 large plates
• 4 smaller plates
• 6 saucers
• 6 dishes
• 5 cups

all for .......... £2 (the biggest bargain i have ever snapped up!!

And I'm just so IN LOVE with them

The full range

The 3 sets of plates

Cup and saucer

Plates and cup

plates, cup, dish

Sweet Memories

Memorable keepsakes

I know we all come into this life with nothing and we pretty much leave with nothing too. And how our greatest pocessions should be nothing but our family, friends, health, happiness etc. and believe me...

my most favourite thing in my world is my family...

...but i would be devastated if i lost my most valuable possessions, and when i say valuable i mean to my heart and most certainly not my pocket.

My Dad (and my future husband) go on about how much 'junk' i have in my room. My hubby to be complains because he wants our future home to be minimalist and clear of clutter (his marrying the wrong person) and Dad moans about all the nails i put into his walls and ceilings to place my 'crap' on.

I Love My Room...so much

I long for my family home just for me and Luke to grow old in and raise children in, filled with all our stuff and photos and keep sakes and memories. But oh how im going to miss my room.

I love clutter and the way its decorated and how homely it feels, its my space full of my things and my memories. Pretty much every item in my room can tell a story.

Coke glass bottle taken from some bar me and Luke were at, filled with 3 dried roses from the first bunch of flowers Luke ever bought me. Standing next to a ostrich feather quill Luke bought me on my 23rd birthday (the day he asked me to marry him)

Engagement party keep sake

This mirrored frame is something i made. i bought a plain white frame and asked my sisters boyfriend to smash up some mirrors i had

'im very supersticious so wouldnt even contimplate doing that myself'

with the pieces of mirror i placed them in a mosaic style around the edge. I wanted a special frame to place a special picture in. That picture is the one shown below...

I apologise for the bad quality

We held our engagemnet party at a pub on the island, which just so happens to be one of the oldest buildings still remaining. With in the pub on the wooden beams around the building, there are photos hung up showing regualars and staff etc through out the years.

There was even some photos there of some of our geusts.

Well i saw this one and thought it was so romantic and loving, i just fell in love with it. Standing with my soon to be sister in law under the photo at the time, i showed her and said how it would be nice to have as a reminder of our engement party.

Next thing i know, shes taken it down and shoved it down my top.

I dont think i will ever forget that moment, priceless...

I want to try and incorporate this photo into the wedding somehow, maybe on the invitations or centrepiece decorations. Im not sure, but i will keep you informed.

This is my most recent keepsake to be hung on my wall. I saw the vintage style frame and just had to buy it, what for i didnt know at the time. Well im glad i did purchase it, as now it is a home for the photos that were taken of the week me and Luke had off from work, to celebrate his 30th birthday.

And its also given me a idea for decorations to have placed around at our wedding...

Corner 1

Corner 2

Corner 3

Corner 4

Wall 1

Wall 1

Child hood teddy and new ones from Luke

Piggy collection

Piggy and Queen collection

More queen and Royal family collection (books)

Collection of Art books

Disco Disco Disco Disco

Dance, Music, Friends, Family and Good Food...

What more could you ask for when it comes to a party.

I know I have talked about our engagement party on here before, but I've just been given photos by my uncle that he took while it was all happening, and luckily it has some lovely ones of our engagement cake

Thank Christ

I really thought i didn't have any :(

Cake table (with my nephew Bailey poking at the cake)

Lovely photo YAY! ( http://nattiscupcakes.blogspot.com )

I'm so please that i have a gorgeous photo of this, it really was something, pretty huge and really heavy, but oh so scrummy.

And no i didn't eat the whole lot, it was shared out between mine and Luke's family.

The usual Luke

This photo was taken after we cut the cake. A sort of pre wedding practise scenario. We didn't even think about doing this, it was our DJ Neville the Devil who suggested it...

And I loved it

I don't want to sound vain or anything, but it was real nice having all our guests watch us cut the cake, it made it so special, and it was only our engagement party

imagine the feeling at the actual wedding!!

Fred and not quite Ginger

Luke LOVES to dance, its unreal, I've never known anyone to move like Luke, his a right Fred Astaire on his feet. He loves to grab someone and spin them around

Hence the picture above...

Salsa!!

I cant say a bad word about the DJ we had, he was fantastic!! All our family have asked if his going to be the DJ at the wedding...

YES

He did everything we asked of him and much more. He made people get up and dance by Salsa! His a trained salsa dancer so he pulls everyone onto the floor and teaches them some moves then we all go for it.

So.Much.Fun

Fabric and Frustration

You've just got to keep at it

So...its been a very busy time since I last posted on here, finding material, researching dress makers and not to mention actually looking at venues to do 'the deed' in (getting married).

I've been itching to get started at trying out the task of making these fabric flowers i talked about in the last post. Well last night I finally started. Oh my...

didn't realize it would be this difficult...

I found a tutorial on the good ol' you tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnGdX7_5Rds

I really liked the look of the flowers, the shape and the petals, just the image i visioned for the look of my flowers.

Here's my first attempt...

I can hear the laughter as i type. Absolutely nothing like the tutorial flowers. It looks much easier then it is. But i said practise makes perfect. And that's what i did.

side view of first attempt

My second attempt turned out 10 times better, but still along way to go. I was much tighter with my twisting...

Really pleased with the straight on view

A lot better, but still some more practise needed.

My third attempt just went downhill from the second, enough to make you give up...

But i still carried on...

Not too bad

Just ridiculous

............................................................................................................................................

I just could not get my head around this technique, with the twisting and the triangle tips, so i looked through the Internet so try and find a simpler one. AND I DID :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53sVo-K6peg&NR=1

This was nearly almost exactly the same as the previous technique, but the way she twisted with the ribbon, not worrying about tips of triangle or anything like that, made it so much simpler, and i just kind of got it, from the get go...cue a much needed *sigh*

All Hail...the fourth attempt

This gave me hope...

Just much more neater and tighter

This makes me smile

Onto the fifth attempt, i wanted to create the depth in the flower, so i twisted higher and tighter at the bottom, and this is what i got...

Very Very Very happy with this

Not to happy with this, must...twist...higher...

Sixth Attempt...THERE IS HOPE

Exactly what i wanted

The best so far

Last attempt, before stitching it all together.

Im happy with the shape of the rose petals

Could be better, but still one of my best

A little bit loose after stictching. Need to be more careful next time

Final Finished One...YAY...im really really happy with this

So after my first few attempts, i feel i didn't do too bad, im excited about trying some more, especially bigger ones

Go big or Go Home

Every Rose has its Thorn (apart from fabric and edible ones)

I love Roses!!!!

Once again, another thing i have tattooed on me, this time a 3/4 sleeve of them up and down my left arm.

I just love their elegant, romantic look, and the such fibrant blocked colours they come in...

So off course i want to incorporate this into my wedding

I already had them at my engagement party, in terms of decoration on the cake. My best friend, Natalie Overhead, is a fantastic cake maker, and she loves decorating them, so much, shes made it her job. Check out her very own blog at

http://nattiscupcakes.blogspot.com

On top of our cake, i wanted their to sit a Birdcage that me and Luke bought while shopping in Norwich. (raven theme again) I just gave it to Nat and she made these lovely roses out of fondant icing and placed them inside the cage...

then sprinkled lots of edible glitter over them, they really were outstanding and sparkled.

What i loved the most about this was that i could keep it forever, as it only just gets harder and doesn't go mouldy or anything. A really nice keepsake from our engagement party.

Anyway, it now resides in my bedroom hanging from the ceiling in a corner with a shelf below it, with some of my keep sakes, like three dried roses from the first bunch of flowers Luke ever bought me.

And the roses inside it just make it that bit more prettier.

.......................................................................................................................................

I don't want to spend ridiculous amounts of money on flowers for the wedding, just to have them die and be thrown away, not when there is so much other important stuff to put money into. So i have decided to use fake flowers for the decorations (not the silly, cheesy fake silk/plastic ones you get from these budget stores) I am talking about beautiful hand made (by me) fabric flowers, stitched and sewed by my own to hands.

I have yet to try this out and make one...

but i have always been handy with a needle and thread and have been doing my research online and tutorials and picture etc.

Anyway...i hope to start practicing this in the next few days, i have yet to purchase some material, but i am hopeful, and once again if its something that works really well, its elements of our wedding we can keep forever, and share out to family members as little keep sakes too.

So watch this space for upcoming pictures...

Party Time

Let Them Eat Cake

Do you remember me telling you about the ravens...

Well here's how i used them in our engagement party.

Invitations

It was a great excuse to get stuck into some creative drawing. I knew i wanted to incorporate Ravens into the design, and the colours red, blue and white (a common site on logos around london). I work ALOT with tracing paper, have done for years, i love pencil drawing onto it, it makes such a smooth service, which in turn makes the drawings alot smoother, especially shading...blah...blah...blah

Anyway, i got the inspiration of the bottom motif from a book i have, titled 'Late Nineteenth Century Art' (a fantastic vintage book shop find).

I love filligree, so much so, i have it tattooed up half my bottom left leg. So i created the design so fit across the bottom of the invitation.

I then drew on the ravens, my favourite bit about the

invitations and gave it a black lined border just to finish it off. Then printed out loads of these designs on tracing paper.

The bottom part i created a striped pattern using my themed colours and placed the wording onto the background and printed loads of them off, then attached the illustration to the wording and i then had my invitation.