How to get your woman on YOUR wedding wavelength

So you went down on one knee and popped the question.  Not only did she say yes, but she’s now having the time of her life showing off the engagement ring that cost you three months salary, looking at venues, choosing flowers and oohing and aahing over dresses.

But chances are your enthusiasm for making her your wife has now cooled a little and whilst you are really looking forward to the day and to be being the leading man to her leading lady; it really seems it’s all about her being the centre of attention.  What about you?

Our Wedding

Make her smile by mentioning “our wedding” regularly, gently reminding her that it’s a big day for you too and that yes you would like some input.

Calendar

Make sure you write your important dates across your Nuts/Michelin/Rachel Stevenson calendar, including Sunday services to hear your banns being read, stag/hen weekends, appointment at the suit hire shop, her birthday, when the invites go out, RSVP date.  When she sees how much you’ve got on the calendar, she won’t give you too much more to think about.

Off-Limits Time

Book a weekend break away and insist that you do “couple” things without mentioning the W word.  Book a lovely hotel, run her a bubble bath, cook her breakfast in bed, or just stay in bed all weekend and remind her why she’s marrying you in the first place [nudge nudge].

Think Like a Woman

Whilst you don’t want to pay a great deal of attention to the finer detail, you tell her that’s her forte; why don’t you let me sort out the honeymoon – think of the time you can sit surfing the net looking for the perfect trip together and if you are a good negotiator think of the money you will save playing the agents off against each other.

Flatter Her

Tell her regularly what a fantastic job she is doing and she will be more inclined to let you sit back and watch her do all the hard work.  Tell her how much you appreciate what she is doing, by boosting her ego you’ll get her on your wavelength faster than you thought possible!

Don’t let her ask you to make decisions on things she has chosen

You know she’s already chosen the invites, she’s been looking through websites for months.  Tell you trust her judgement and would like to see her top three favourites so you can help her decide on THE ones.

And if this all fails subscribe to the leading online mens magazine Staggered.

Happy planning!

Cold

It’s cold, the shop is cold and the accounts have gone cold.

end of ..

but here’s a pretty blog to look at http://www.stylemepretty.com/

Wedding Cake Toppers

Yes, we’re blogging AGAIN about wedding cake toppers.  Probably because they are becoming increasingly popular in the UK and probably because we’ve got 12 new ones to add to the 60+ we’ve already got on our website.

So as we’ve got the information to hand and the pictures to prove it – we’re going to blog about wedding cake toppers again, before we’ve even uploaded them onto our website!

We’re an approved reseller for weddingstar, based in Canada and this year their designers have excelled themselves and produced twelve new cake toppers that really show “real life” today.

A laid back groom

We’re loving the “couch potato”, a young man lounging on his sofa with TV remote in one hand and Xbox controller in the other; and don’t forget the big box of popcorn to hand.  We’ve got him pictured with our Exasperated Bride, who is looking stern with her folded arms. What a wonderful idea for a wedding cake – miniature popcorn tubs, overflowing with popcorn.

Flying Tackle Bride

Then we’ve got a new sporting topper, the Rugby player with his missus giving him a flying tackle.

She’s not letting go of her man and maybe he should be thinking twice before going to a match on his wedding day!

Following on from the huge success of our “Kissing Couple” topper, we now have the “Main Squeeze”, where the cheeky groom is having a feel, the “True Romance” and the “To Have and To Hold” toppers.

Toppers with a Modern Twist

We’ve got  a groom in a kilt and a new designer wedding gown, we’ve got a “mature look” couple and a new fishing couple along with a “race to the altar”, “showering of love”, “picture perfect” and “your No. 1 Fan”, all of which will be featured by the end of the day on our website, along with product descriptions and pricing.

Surely your perfect wedding cake topper must be amongst the 70+ that we now have, but there are still floral arrangements to be had as well as all the brilliant personalised toppers from people like Artlocke Designs and Feats of Clay.

Some to whet your appetite, now we must really get working on the website. Happy New Year everyone.

Happy New Year

Once again it’s a new year, but this time we have a new decade to look forward too.  The noughties are now over and what do we have now; the teenies?  And do you say two thousand and ten or twentyten?  Bring back the eighties I say!

Enough about my musings and back to the matter in hand; weddings.  What will 2010 bring us?

Pantone announced that its colour for 2010 is turquoise; and this was immediately seen in the Martha Stewart Wedding magazine by the Envelopments editorial with this design using pale golds and blues and then a brighter design using turquoise with red and green as seen here.  Our interpretation of both these designs will be available on our website by the end of the week – we love being an Envelopmentor!  It just opens up the design side of wedding invitations – why have off-the-shelf when you can have your own designed (and not pay the earth.)

So why not make it your New Year’s resolution to find yourself a wedding stationer – not just find your wedding stationery but find a stationer that you can work with to design the perfect wedding stationery for you.  Make it easy – call us and make an appointment at our retail store/studio!  If you aren’t local check out our website which is constantly being updated with new accessories and new designs.

Happy New Year

We were really good at the beginning of the month and blogged regularly but Christmas preparations took over and suddenly it’s 27th December – how did that happen?

So Happy Christmas to all our past, present and future couples; to all our wedding colleagues; to all our friends and families.  And here’s to a new beginnings, a new decade and another New Year!

We haven’t even had time to check out some blogs, webpages or twitterings for you; but we promise we will be good in 2010 and blog more.

Happy New Year, bring it on 2010!!!

xx

Aisle Be Yours Wedding Services

Aisle Be Yours Wedding Services is a venue decorating company based in Bristol.

They offer full or partial venue decoration; from laying up the tables and setting up your cake, through to chair covers and floral displays for your centrepieces.

One of their most popular services is the design of silk wedding flowers. Gone are the days when artificial flowers were a few plastic red roses; these artificial flowers are now far superiour in quality and are often mistaken for the real thing and are always in season.

Sherrie, the owner of Aisle by Yours, is passionate about her floral masterpieces and her work is absolutely gorgeous.  But don’t take our word for it, check out her website and her blog on why you should choose artificial wedding flowers over fresh!

Colour trends

Last week Pantone announced that THE colour for 2010 is going to be turquoise.

But just how quickly, does this come down the line into fashion trends and then bridalwear?

Wedding Paraphernalia is seeing a lot of purple and lilac again for 2010, so does this mean our brides are not trendy, or does it mean that the turquoise hues won’t make it to the bridal catwalk until the 2011 season?

To be quite honest, having been a stationery designer now for ten years, we’ve seen most colours, with most colours staying around for years.  Chocolate brown was the new colour about four years ago, along with sage green three years ago; but they are still both popular colours.

Purple and lilac seem to come round every two years and we are even seeing a return to coral now – peach in the 60′s!

So what will turquoise bring?

Personally I love this new design from Pretty Wild, the Belle Epoque, which mixes several shades together.

But if you type into Google “turquoise weddings” all the images come up with every shade of blue from pale aqua through to almost a navy blue.  Turquoise to me is bright vibrant colour, just like this wedding cravat.

And just another note – most of the links on the forums coming up on Google, were from brides looking for turquoise items in 2008 – so that goes back to our every two years malarky!

I’m going to leave you with some of our own turquoise images:

5x7 Pocketfold from our Washington Range

Gumball Machine Wedding Favour

Butterfly Table Plan

Magnolia the Florist

Today, we are going to share some photos from Magnolia the Florist, based in Rothwell, High Street; just opposite the Wedding Paraphernalia shop.

We know Dean won’t mind us showing these photos that he took in October as he prepared a vintage wedding at Rushton Hall.

Dean is a fantastic florist, he just loves it when a bride comes into the shop and just says “let your creativity flow” and this wedding was no exception.  The bride’s personality shone through the flowers; her bridal bouquet, finished with a sparkly heart buckle, was perfection in vintage dusky pink seen through hydrangeas, roses and bear grass with little other touches that we will have to ask Dean the names of!  Diamante studs were used in the roses.

Vintage Bridal Bouquet with Hydrangeas

Bouquet shown as held

The groom wore a single hydrangea, whilst the other guests wore complementing roses for buttonholes.  The mother’s wore corsages of ivory roses finished with pearls.

The wedding table centrepieces showed more vintage pink roses, ferns and bear grass.  A sculpture of fine art.

Vintage Inspired Wedding Table Centrepiece

Check out more photos from this wedding and others or become a Fan of Magnolia the Florist.  They also have a shop in Kettering and are an Interflora florist so if you want to send something a little different in 2010, speak to Dean.

Hockleys, the cakemakers

Michael and Graham are twin brothers and set up Hockleys Cakes in 1986.  They are based at their beautiful studio/kitchen in Brixworth, Northamptonshire and their cakes are to die for.

They are the most professional cakemakers that we have ever come across and when the brides come into the shop and ask for recommendations, they would think we were on commission!  and the boys reckon we only visit them for gossip and cake – well why not.

Their fruitcake is never bitty, their chocolate fudge cake is yummy and their sponges are light and fluffy (carrot, lemon, ginger, madeira, coffee, etc.)  All their decorations are handmade including the toppers, flowers and other fantasy ideas that the customer may have.  Check out the flowers on Kirsten & Andy’s cake (Rushton Hall 2007):

White Chocolate Rose Tower

Kirsten commented “You have to hand pick all the roses off. They are made from white chocolate and there are 6 layes inside. 4 of belgian choc, 2 of fruit!! It was delicious!”, when asked how you eat it.

And just how long did it take to make all the flowers on Aimie and Richard’s cake (Kilworth House Hotel, June 2008)?

Mini White Flowers & Black Ribbon

Michael had to bring this one in on a trolley as the five tiers of fruit cake were quite heavy!

They don’t just do wedding cakes, they have recently been commissioned by another of our clients for their golden wedding anniversary.  Mrs Gingell phoned us to say they were so pleased with the customer service that they had received thus far and were currently working their way through a sample piece of fudge cake.

Become a fan of Hockleys on Facebook, visit their website or arrange an appointment at their studio.

Your favourite suppliers

Not all wedding suppliers can afford to advertise, but they do as good a job as any of those advertising through the magazines.  They may be a one-(wo)man band, a family run business or just been doing it for years by recommendation.

So who are your favourite suppliers.  Unsung heroes that went beyond the call of duty on your own day, your favourite cupcake maker that you use regularly for all events, the planner that is THE planner to have!

Whilst we aren’t offering any awards, no award ceremony and no badge or trophy; we would like to blog on a daily basis about different suppliers throughout the world.

1) It gives us something to blog about other than ourselves

2) Let everyone know about all wedding suppliers, not just a few.

Email us and let’s get this blog blogging.

Later today, we will be blogging about our favourite cakemakers Michael & Graham Hockley.