Bride on a budget

Lupinbunny of Black Swan Bride has given herself the challenge of planning an imaginary wedding with 100 guests for the princely sum of $8000! It will be fun to see how creative she has to be to keep the budget under control.

She is also located in Perth so I am especially interested to see what ideas and options she comes up with.

Check out her progress here. She has so far covered the budget breakdown, the invitations, the venue and the catering.

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Bridal Expo 2010

I asked my sister if she would like to go to a Bridal Expo with me this weekend. She said that she would go, so today we wandered off to Burswood for a looksee and perhaps to find some inspiration.

A lot of the larger items have already been organised for our wedding (photographer, venue, celebrant hair and makeup, cake and so forth), so the day was more about having a look and gathering ideas. There were a few stand out gems amongst the crowd, as a general rule involving food!

There was not much there for the groom. I was a little disappointed as C asked me especially to keep an eye out for some inspiration.

Beautiful handmade chocolates by KaKaWa.

Tasty cookies by The Sassy Cookie. We tasted their sample and at the end of the Expo went back and bought a bag!

Beautiful afternoon teas by Antiquitea. They hire beautiful china and cutlery as well as providing a catering service.

Some inspiration for the groom courtesy of Dress Circle.

The lovely ladies of Mitchell & Dent with their gorgeous wedding stationery. Looks like their beautiful designs were popular!

Lastly, The Celtic Centre. A wedding is always a good place to display your Celtic heritage. The models were performing the traditional highland air guitar dance.

Mother of the Bride Inspiration

I started his post back in March, thinking that I would collect a picture or two along the way to post some inspiration for the mother of the bride. My mum managed to beat me to it and has her outfit hanging in her closet waiting to be worn!

This is the single inspiration photo that I have. I like the dress that the mother of the bride is wearing. It is elegant and tasteful, and flatters her figure. It has a mix of fabrics and colours without being too loud.


Image here

Stationary Stationery

I was going to suggest to my sister E that we go to a local Bridal Expo next weekend. That is, until I had a look at their Preferred Suppliers and realised that they had Stationary vendors!

Honestly I do not understand why it is so difficult to spell it correctly! See here for my last expression of disappointment.

Back to the Expo... I believe it is the same one I went to a few years ago (2001??) with my friend SCC. I know she found it useful to organise at least her wedding limousine. We do still have a few items to arrange for our wedding and it may be of use - dodgy spelling not withstanding.

Wedding blogs

I have to admit, I do not mind checking out a "real wedding" or two. Especially the ones from the US... twelve bridesmaids, over the top styling and obsession with detail.

Usually I cannot get over how expensive the whole event looks and how much time they (or their team of wedding planners!) would have spent making sure every detail was perfect.

Generally I admire the shoes. There are some lovely shoes out there!

It is the extensive detail that gets me though, I do not want to get too obsessed with getting the day "perfect" and hopefully my sister and friends will keep me in check if I get out of hand.

The "real weddings" serve as a good reminder for me to keep it simple and to not take myself too seriously.

Image here

Too good to be true...

I love this fantastic detail from the wedding of Sarah and Ben, thanks to Real Weddings. It seems that the happy couple's friends collaborated to bring them a special song at the conclusion of their wedding ceremony. Click on the link and watch the second video to see what I am talking about.

The part I like? The song that they sing! Can't take my eyes off you... The musicians in the crowd too are awesome. Not just one or two of them but about ten, including a man with maracas. Gold!

One of my favourite film moments is when Heath Ledger sings on the bleachers to Julia Stiles in Ten Things I Hate About You, accompanied by the school band! Yes, sad but true.

Image here

Bridesmaids in Blue

Some inspiration for bridesmaids. I do love the colour blue!

I like the simplicity of the flowers in the second photo, and it looks like some of the girls also have a rose in their hair.







Images 1, 2, 3

Accent colour - antique rose

I really like this shade as featured by Polkadot Bride.

I could see it as an accent colour for the bridesmaids to offset against the blues.
A pretty flower in their hair.
A bouquet of antique rose.
A gorgeous evening bag for lipgloss and tissues.

Image belongs to Polkadot Bride

Something blue... or silver?

Thank you to Martha Stewart Weddings for some beautiful inspiration. I am looking at either blue or silver for my shoes and accessories.

A flower

I was drawn to this flower at the Karridale Tavern.

A beach wedding

Chad and I headed down to Margaret River for the wedding of C&J on Friday. It was a very simple wedding, attended by the bride and groom, their two sons, the best man (Chad) and bridesmaid and their partners, the bride's parents and the groom's mother and aunt.

The bridesmaid's partner H and I were both asked to take photographs for them of the day, and I managed to snap 276 over the course of festivities. It was pretty bright out so lots of squinting went on and I need to do some more learning on how to take photos and also edit them!

C and H came to our room in the morning for C and Chad to get ready. From there we headed to the Karridale Tavern to meet with everyone except the bride and bridesmaid and to the wedding venue at Hamelin Bay. After the ceremony we headed back to the Karridale Tavern for lunch and to relax.

Hamelin Bay is a gorgeous location! So peaceful. The bride's aisle was the sand and the processional music the sounds of the ocean.

Not looking too nervous.
Chad and me.
Mother of the groom sorting out the flowers.
The blushing bride.
Bridesmaid A with BabyR, Bride J and her father with BabyS.
Pledging their love.
Joined together.
Kiss the bride!
Happy family.
Just married.
Gorgeous bridesmaid.
Beautiful colours.

A blue bouquet

I am partial to blue for our wedding colours, and so is my blue-eyed boy. Here the bride's bouquet is accented by blue, whilst the bridesmaid has simple blue tinged flowers.

Image by Lilia Photography via Polkadot Bride

An Easter Wedding

M&T's wedding continued at the Bellrive Yacht Club. There were lovely speches from the families, energetic moves on the dance floor and great company. All of the ingredients for a wonderful wedding!


Sisters! Standing are the groom's sisters, our MCs for the evening and seated are the bride's sisters.

Mrs & Mr H!

The lovely mother of the bride and sisters M and S

The blushing bride with J and L

L, F, me, C and M

Awesome view from the balcony

Our table centrepiece

An Easter wedding ceremony

The day of M&T's wedding was clear and the temperature made it to a cool 16C! The ceremony was held at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens in the Conservatory. It was such a beautiful spot, sheltered and colourful with the many plants throughout it. As you can see in the photos, the sun was shining.

The menfolk belonging to the sisters of the bride.

Me with L&K. I am carrying my warm jacket (filled with down!) in anticipation of the cold evening.

The bride's getaway car!

Guest book ideas

It is nice to have a guest book, somewhere for your friends and family to write you special messages and draw funny pictures. Where though is it written that it has to be a book?









I bought some card before our engagement party with the idea of making a guest book, I could not find the inspiration to finish what I wanted. I might have to put some more thought into it for the wedding and see what I can come up with!

Thank you to Martha Stewart Weddings 1, 2, 3 and
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Bridesmaid style

This is the concept for bridesmaid dresses that I am hoping to achieve. In this instance the dresses are tied together by the same colour and possibly fabric, and the matching sashes made from Japanese fabric. The dress styles have been selected to suit each bridesmaid, not so much so that they are all the same!

Image via Polkadot Bride

Still more shoes!

Image 1, 2 and 3 via The Bride's Cafe