About Me

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Hello and welcome. I'm a bride in Belfast who grew up on Father of the Bride and dreams of a wedding at the Plaza or an outdoor ceremony in a private home in Nantucket. I've big dreams and a little budget. So with this blog I hope to share with you how I'm trying to get a very personal, bespoke, luxurious wedding in Northern Ireland with a little budget squeezing and creativity. Or as I have come to see it a Vera Wang wedding on a Walmart budget.

Friday 10 June 2011

Sparklers are the new Fireworks! (and cheap & charming too)



Snap it up!

House of Fraser are in a big summer sale at the moment and there are lots of wedding gems to snap up. Including half price earrings, shoes and that amazing ultimate strapless Wonderbra I mentioned before. I know from two brides already that these Dune shoes are really comfortable and flattering. And who can go wrong with pearls...another pearl tip, there is a beautiful contemporary drop pair in Jaeger on Donegall Sq West for £25 in sale. Ps not on sale but cheap anyway  and simply elegant is the ivory guest book in Paperchase for £12.95.

Wednesday 1 June 2011

First Dance...

I'm really in a pickle about the first dance song...you see we have 'songs' of our relationship but to date they have included Queens of the Stone Age when my fiancé was a little tipsy and played it on repeat and told me he loved me....The Black Keys concert...when I returned the feeling. We have Metallica from two great concerts (which I don't think I would have ever considered until we met)...so you can see the pattern here not exactly first dance material! Along the way we have also encountered some music with great fun and meaning such as John Prine, In Spite of Ourselves (to rude for family I think), Home, Edward Sharp & The Magnetic Zeros (too quick and jumpy) and Joshua Radin, Today which is beautiful if a little slow and quiet to one of my favourites so far, 'With this ring' by The Platters. Anyway, still totally undecided. In the meantime I'm also on the hunt for reasonably priced dance classes...have been calling the Crescent Arts Centre & Clarkes Dance Studio to date. I think if we combine the right song and the right teacher we might get there! Will keep you posted.

Monday 30 May 2011

Perfect Peonies!

I'm not a summer bride (I think?!) so I won't be selecting Peonies. Peonies are a very (very!!) popular wedding flower choice and you can see why, they are beautiful, but they are only in season for a few months. Picking flowers in season will save you money and also, I once read that nature is very clever...flowers are in season for a reason, so that they complement that season. Therefore picking flowers in season works with nature & your budget! So this is peony season and as luck would have it Marks & Spencer’s are stocking them for £20.00 a bunch in white/ ivory & pinks. Any wedding florists reading this will kill me, but if you really are on a tighter budget and have the guts to take on your own flowers you could definitely do it with the M&S peonies (the one at Sprucefield is the best). 

Friday 20 May 2011

Wedding Words

My cousin Emily spotted this wedding invitation...too lovely not to share! Just a different way of approaching the traditional wedding wording while telling your story. I was at a wedding once before where the bride & groom had their story printed on the back of the wedding program and it was honestly lovely. Makes you realise what all the wedding fuss is about...the magic of two people and their personal love story!




Thursday 19 May 2011

Suits you Sir!


I have a rather laid back (read he has decided seeing that the budget is heavily weighted towards me, then so are the tasks) groom who has decided to be very particular about certain things, one being his suit. I showed him some skinny boys in very cool modern suits (which the wedding magazines are full off, but how many Northern Irish fellas can pull that off, right?) and he just sniffed and said they weren't wedding suits! So I did a little dig and showed him a range of suits...turns out in his head a wedding suit is a morning suit! Go figure. So he's booked morning suits, if that's his thing it works for me, and to be honest as a rugby loving fella it suits him too (pardon all the puns). Next up, I was ticking off things that are done and mentioned a pocket square...which he straightaway said, yep that's what he wants...who'da thought...I just assumed (and why would I) that he would go for a boutonniere. Ah well, I think I'll go with whatever he wants as it isn't just about me & I'd hate it if it was, and it really does feels lovely to have his wishes included.

Wednesday 18 May 2011

French Manicure

Ok not that manicure...and can I give a wee word of advice, don't do the nail stick on, extensions whatever...a good friend of mine and beautiful bride said to me at her wedding, as she looked forlorn at her nails...I wish I could take these off, they feel so false and they're sore'...not how you want to feel (Take note, same applies for heavy wedding dresses, another friend just couldn't wait to get that off...not how you want to feel about that dress you spent forever dreaming about and picking!). So instead I'm taking a 'Vogue Idea' from an article I read by a lovely and very sophisticated former french model who said use Dior Crème Abricot Fortifying Cream For Nails and you will never need a manicure (she did also say it will wreck your bed sheets...but sure so does red wine). Another lovely bride also recommended Perfectil Skin, Hair & Nails (available at all good chemists and usually 3 for 2) which she started 1mth before her wedding, and I can vouch, her skin was perfect(il) ha! So I think overall approc £17.00 for the creme & £15.00 for your supplements tallies up well compared with a salon based budget!

Ahhh I'm gonna be the bride photos





Twinkle, twinkle little star


Woohoo new post (don't know if anyone else is excited, but I am). Busy isn't even a word, so I'm back and blogging. So today I'm writing about sparkly wedding bits. Mostly because I really need to locate a particular item myself and have been looking at a few sites (can't tell you which items, giving enough away already!) What I have found is that there are a few tasteless companies & designers jumping on the 'Vintage' bandwagon and I can't see the pearl for the faux pearl to save myself. I've seen more than enough junk put together in bridal boutiques, made of glass beads and fishing wire and called 'vintage' than I can cope with! Also, a lot of the stuff is so bright, sparkly and seriously tacky! So I've discovered a few sites that aren't too bad, Liberty in Love, particularly the items by Stephanie Browne, also Glitzy Secrets and Ebuni.com. Or if you do want the real deal there is also the Decadence Vintage Bridal Fair on June 12th at Malone House. Last time I was there there was a lady who can also make you any bridal jewllery you desire. So if you have also found any good sources for wedding jewellery I would be delighted to hear from you? You can look on ebay, but type in vintage or antique and you will get a back a disaster list of irrelevant rubbish...so enough rant from me, I'm off shopping! :)

Wednesday 20 April 2011

Engagement Shoot with Campbell Photography


Through this blog (yippee!) I had a really lovely message from the even lovelier Kristi Nicole Campbell offering me an engagement photoshoot. This is something done more often (again) in America than here but here's a few reasons it is really a lovely idea and very useful. For starters it is an informal way for you and your fiancée to get more comfortable posing, kissing (ooh) and canoodling in front of the camera (kinda hard to pretend they're not there ) & it is also a way of recording this lovely, exciting period of anticipation before the big day. Like everything it will be over before you know it. So, Kristi proposed the idea and I said yes of course, especially when she sent me a link to her previous work on flickr . Kristi & her husband Neal make up Campbell Photography and together they are both a wonderful couple (who met on flickr admiring each others work...very sweet) and a dream team for wedding photography. They shoot on film and digital and the quality of the film photos they take is just beautiful, shooting on an old vintage american camera. I think I need a whole separate post on how the shoot was organised and how it worked but below is just a little taster of the moodboard of my own initial thoughts for the shoot and the quite surprisingly gorgeous results! If they can do this for two hung-over people...what could they do for your wedding photographs!! x (Just a preview...more to come)




Tuesday 12 April 2011

Beauty's where you find it! Vogue Wedding Issue!

I rushed home last night as we were driving out to look at our wedding car (which is amazing...can't reveal). So I came home to my boyfriend cooking dinner! This was/ is of course always lovely. BUT…then checking through the post there was a little card, which I opened to discover, was a very sweet Happy Easter card from him. I was then directed to look under the cushions for a little pick-me-up and what did I find there…Vogue May 2011 which is dedicated to all things wedding! PLEASE Buy…you will LOVE! X

A Gal with a Plan...

 
Sunday night I was reading Grazia and the journalist was yattering on about reasons she is not married. Anyway that's grand, but one comment struck me when she started discussing the crazy prices of wedding dressses relative to other purchases. and I thought in a way she's right. I've always said my ultimate gift to self would be a Chanel 2.55 handbag and I have to say I currently could not justify that, but on the otherhand I'm pretty much spending that on my wedding dress. So...there in lies the plan! My dress is by one of the main fashion bridalwear designers at the minute and so far I've spotted it either in ads or fashion stories in Elle Sposa, Vogue Sposa, Brides etc etc, so I think post wedding I will sell my dress (so that some other lovely bride can use it) and with the proceeds buy myself a Chanel 2.55. This way the idea of parting with my wedding dress and all the lovely memories will be all wrapped up in a beautiful classic bag that will never date? See, perfect! x

Friday 8 April 2011

BIG Dress & Accessories Sale!

My friend at Bows Bridal Boutique is having a BIG Closing Down Sale with up to 70% off dresses & accessories from Paloma Blanca, Sassi Holford, Marylise, Charlotte Balbier & Rembo Styling. Here are a few of the dresses I tried on in my first bridal appointment there  & 1 or 2 ... (Big Disclaimer...I don't know what dresses are no sale...these photos are just to show the quality of the owners choices!)
Drama and stunning!
This model does nothing for this dress!...very Jackie O
on and was definitely nicer on me with a veil :)
Would have tried...
Classic but beautifully made and VERY flattering!
Wish list...and still on lust list!

Wednesday 6 April 2011

Nice Day for a White Wedding!

Everyone dressed up with all the tacky veil's and L plates and now we're all trying to do chic...if I decide to wear bridal attire for my hen party I want to channel Stephanie Seymour in Guns & Roses November Rain...

Ghost Town

As you may have read from a previous post, I visited quite a few bridal shops in Northern Ireland while deciding on 'The One'. As I was driving past Forever Bridal, Finaghy I seen one of them in the window and my heart did a little flip. Not because I wished I'd picked that dress, but because going in hopeful, trying on dresses and going home and thinking them over, breeds an emotional attachment. Perhaps that's why that girl ended up with 9 dresses on her wedding day! It reminds me of that episode of Sex and the City when Carrie talks about the ghosts of relationships past...I now feel like greater Belfast is littered with the flings of dresses I've loved and left! So in the spirit of this I thought I'd share with you the dress that started it all and some of the memorable dresses and where I tried them in the city.

The bride that started it all...
Ivanka Trump in Vera Wang!
Esther by Vera Wang
at Selfridges, London (£££££)
Felisha by Enzoni at
The Bridal Suite, Holywood (£££)
Hemera by Jenny Packham at
Blush Boutique, Lisburn Road (££££)
Wallis Simspon by David Fielden at
Blush Boutique, Lisburn Road (£££)
T450, Jasmine Bridal at
Haven Bridal Studio, Moira (££)
 Beatrice by Sassi Holford at
Bows Bridal Boutique (£££)
2052 by Tara Keely at
 Petticoat Lane Bridal Boutique
Hillsborough(£££)
 Honey by Mia Mia at
Petticoat Lane Bridal, Hillsborough (£££)
 Jesus Peiro at Forever Bridal Boutique,
Finaghy (££)
 Lusan Mandongus at
Forever Bridal, Finaghy (££)
Clio by Jenny Packham at
Castle Couture, Galgorm (£££)
Jenny Packham at
Castle Couture, Galgorm (£££)
Jenny Packham at
Castle Couture, Galgorm (£££)