Tuesday 25 February 2014

Colette & Karl's

Last Friday we had the pleasure of catering for Colette and Karl's wedding in the lovely Tithe Barn in Ufton Court. The Barn was beautifully decorated and even the sun decided to show its face.


Straight after the ceremony the reception drinks started with soft drinks and bubbles whilst canapés circulated. These snazzy looking canned drinks would look great at a summer wedding in rustic tin buckets filled with ice.

The tables looked lovely, this couple went for a cheerful fuchsia colour for their table theme. Usually couples tend to go for the ivory napkins but we think coloured ones can look really good, it's great to be creative with your table set up! The flowers were in huge glass vessels in the centre of the tables surrounded by petals.This photo really shows off the lovely timber beams of Ufton Court's Tithe Barn.

Standing proudly on the way into Tithe Barn was our chef's masterpiece. Instead of the traditional tiered wedding cake, this couple opted for a croquembouche which looked absolutely delicious! Each bun was filled with creme patissiere and decorated with white chocolate-dipped raspberries and mint.


After a champagne toast the starter was served, breaded pig cheeks with caramelised braeburn apple and frisée salad. The starter was followed by a hearty venison stew with roasted root vegetables.


The poached pear dessert went down a treat, which doesn't surprise us as it looks delicious! This photo may well make your mouth water.

After the meal the tables were cleared and the bar was open for business. The guests danced away to a live band who performed some really unique covers of well known classics.

Wednesday 19 February 2014

Ufton Court's Wedding Fayre

On Sunday we were very lucky to be part of Ufton Court's wedding fayre in the beautifully rustic Tithe Barn. The floods had cleared, the weather was much better and the day was a success!

We met lots of lovely brides to be, grooms to be, mother's of the bride, exhibitors and many many more fantastic people. When we entered the barn, it had been decorated beautifully with lace lanterns and fairy lights courtesy of Oakwood Events. It was a stunning display!



One of the exhibitors that caught our eye was Streatley cakes, a lovely little cakery situated in the village of Streatley. Unfortunately though, we were opposite their table of beautiful and delicious looking cakes with mouths watering as brides and grooms to be got to sample them!

This was one of the cakes teasing us from across the room. This one stood out to us the most because the rustic theme of the cake worked perfectly with the atmosphere of Tithe barn.

We were so impressed by the cakes that we had to check out the website (http://www.streatleyvillagecakes.co.uk/) and came across these beauties.

A lovely little vintage blue ditsy floral cake.

Look familiar? This beautiful naked cake was at the Japanese themed wedding that we catered for!
Vintage style cupcakes in beautiful lace cases and "i do" toppers
These are just a small selection of cakes that this lovely company makes, but do check out their website for more information on these and many other cakes.

Friday 7 February 2014

Colour of the week

This week's colour of the week is Glittering Gold. This years wedding scene sees the rise of glitter and sequins as a trend, with gold being the main colour of choice. Whether that be shiny, metallic, bold gold, subtle, silvery, pale gold, or pretty, pink, rose gold, it's definitely on the menu.


Golden wedding dresses are becoming increasingly popular. If you feel you'd rather shy away from a completely gold dress, with the worry you might look like something from your childhood dressing up box, this dress above would be perfect for your gold themed wedding. Only featuring gold on the bodice, this dress uses gold in a bold, but subtle way. Teamed with the full white skirt, it's an extremely charming dress.


Rather than having a white skirt, this dress has a very pale coffee/cream skirt which makes the colour contrast a lot less bold and a lot more subtle. The gradual loss of sequins towards the bottom is an extremely elegant way of adding glitz to your dress.


The sequins on this dress have a lot less of a gradient, but still appear elegant and beautiful.


The bride can glitz up all the way to her finger tips! Gold make up might sound a little scary at first, and when you scour Pinterest for gold makeup you really do have to filter out a few over-sparkly examples. However, the two examples of eye make up that we have here are really dramatic, yet elegant. Blending your eyeshadow from dark to light in the inner corner will contour your eyes, brighten them up, and bring out your eye colour. For blue eyes, yellow hues and shining pigments are a must. Bringing dark browns and charcoals into the blend works best for brown eyes.

As for nails, we love these subtle designs. You want your nails to look elegant and stylish, but adding a little glitter to the base of the nail will add just enough sparkle to bring a bit of fun to the look.


From browsing Pinterest, we've seen some real gold bouquet horror stories; fully spray painted bouquets of roses were among them. But we also came across some really beautiful ones. By adding hints of gold, you can transform your cream bouquet into something truly unique. Spraying fern gold will bring interesting height and width to your bouquet. Adding golden flat, round leaves will just inject the right amount of shine to your bouquet. 


It's not just cream and white bouquets that look great turned golden. These colourful spring/summer bouquets also look fabulous with a bit of gold. Pretty up peach and pink with delicate sprigs of gold, or wrap golden ribbon around your stems to keep a round bouquet sparkling.


If you skimp on glitter on the dress, make up for it on your toes. Glitter on glitter might be a little too much; there's a fine line between dazzling your guests and blinding them! Team your plainer dress with some beautifully sparkly open toed Jimmy Choos.


Mismatched bridesmaid dresses are a huge trend for 2014. Whether that be different styles in the same colour, different materials, or different colours in a colour palette, this year is all about mixing it up. Not all your bridesmaids are going to be the same shapes and sizes, so it makes sense for them to wear a dress that compliments them as an individual. Have your bridesmaids wear a mixtures of dusky pink, cream, gold, bronze and pale robin egg blue for a romantic colour scheme for the bridal party. Be sure to choose different materials and finishes; we really like the contrast of the bold sequins of the bronze dress against the soft romantic ruffles of the dusky pink one. Beautiful!

If you'd rather one colour for your bridesmaids, the second photo shows you how to really achieve this look well. Although they both share sequins and beading, they're extremely different dresses. The block separation between the gold bodice and cream skirt on the right contrasts so brilliantly against the long, slender continuous gold on the left. A mixture of short and long dresses will bring different heights to your bridal party, ensuring great photos.


It's the little things that matter. Tiny, delicate, gold details will really compliment your bridesmaid's dresses. If your bridesmaids are wearing a small amount of gold detail on their dresses like the one above, picking out the same coloured accessories will bring the whole look to life. This really simple, beautiful golden baby's breath crown looks beautiful on relaxed, long, messy hair, but would look equally as beautiful will a loose up-do or a ditsy plaited bun.

If you fancy something a little bohemian and modern, we really like this ornate, unique jewellery for your bridal party. Rings with charms are becoming very popular in high street stores at the moment, teamed up with robin egg, mint or duck egg nails, this gold jewellery will look stunning.


It's not just the girls that look great in gold, how about a golden groom? A gold tie, gold buttonhole and gold brogues are a really fresh way of bringing gold into your wedding. Fun and modern, the brogue shoes are this year's take on the groomsmen wearing converses. If you're not feeling bold enough for gold shoes, brown will go with your tie just as beautifully for a modern and stylish look.


You can completely change the look of your gold brogues with what you team them up with - accompanied by navy braces and a floral tie, you can Boho-up your groom's look. This look would be perfect for an outdoor summer wedding in the woods dressed with golden and brown pheasant feathers.


There are many ways of bringing glittering gold into the groom's look. Although bright pink and gold is a definite no no for the groom, we think this dusky pink and gold friendship is a yes, yes, yes. If you don't fancy something floral, how about using feathers to dress your suit. Teamed with ornate, interesting silver buttons, this feathers are a really fresh and modern look.


Yellow and gold are also great friends. This striped golden tie, grey suit and bright yellow flower are a great summer look for 2014. Wrap your buttonhole in a subtle golden ribbon matched to your tie to bring the look together.


You can also bring your gold theme to your wedding breakfast. Such a regal colour, this will make your wedding breakfast look fit for a king. Sequin table cloths are creeping onto the wedding scene this year. With well chosen cutlery, napkins and tableware, these table cloths can look truly beautiful. Be sure to add height to the centre of the table to draw the eye away from the table cloth; a flat table of sequins is going to give the wrong impression. A mixture of height, texture and gold hues will create a fantastic ambiance for your guests to enjoy at your wedding meal.


Gold cutlery is a subtle way of bringing hints of gold to the table. Obviously, gold cutlery and gold table cloths is really not going to work. However, this black and white table cloth is a great backdrop for the golden tableware, creating a nautical theme.


Rather than colour blocking, we love the mismatched subtle colours that the table on the left has been dressed with. The vast array of textures and colours is extremely unique and beautiful. There's almost a 'mad hatters tea party' feel to the wedding breakfast; gold and silver cutlery, different ceramics full of flowers and a huge selection of plates and bowls. This looks is great for an outdoor or marquee wedding in the summer. 

Mix a selection of floral crockery with gold cutlery for a cute, vintage tea party themed wedding breakfast. The textured, soft gold table cloth in the right hand photo is a perfect base for the gold cutlery and vintage plates. We love!


Your wedding favours can also be within your chosen colour theme. We loved the colour of this mint macaron with a chocolate filling and gold dusting. Your guests would be spoilt! The sugar lollies are such an economic and easy favour for your guests; DIY with tonnes of recipes for edible gold glitter online!


Gold decorations can adorn your wedding reception too. These paper and lace decorations are so fun for a summer wedding. A great alternative to your average bunting, these textured colourful tassels would look beautiful strung from thick wooden beams in a summer barn wedding. Paper spirals and bunting bring a summer fete theme to any wedding, use as a backdrop for your cake table.


For a vintage, Great Gatsby evening reception, these gold dipped feathers are a great decoration. Hung from beams or hung from door frames, these feathers inject a little fun and sparkle to your evening party. With fairy lights or oversized string bulbs you can create a great ambiance to dance.


Keeping with the Great Gatsby theme, how amazing is this cake? Mint and gold are the perfect couple.


A little more subtle, this wedding cake features extremely pale mint icing and a delicate gold edge around each tier. Gold and mint, as stated before, are the perfect couple; and pink is their love child. Adding hints of pink to a mint and gold wedding injects fun and summer vibes. 


Gold and peach are a strong rival to the gold and mint love affair. You can subtly add gold into your food and drink. Gold leaf cupcakes are a really elegant and delicate addition to your dessert table. Rose champagne in gold dusted glasses provides a fun way of sparkling up your reception drinks.


If gold dusting the rim of your champagne flutes isn't your thing, how about hiring or purchasing some beautiful gold stemmed champagne flutes. This is a very soft, silver gold, and would be an extremely sophisticated edition to your drinks reception. For a Paris themed drinks reception, adorn your reception table with gold dipped macarons. Perfect!


Simple is very often the key. This gold and white tiered cake is so simple and sophisticated. Colour blocking is a great use of the colour gold, with no sparkles or sequins in sight, this cake looks perfect with just a few berries draped over it. For a simple addition to your dessert table, add home spun sugar. Naturally a golden colour, this simple accompaniment to your cakes and desserts will bring a gold splash without too much fuss.

For the original sources of these photos, head over to our Pinterest and have a browse through our Glittering Gold board. Pinterest is full of such lovely ideas for your wedding, and we've short listed some of our favourites to make it easier for your to plan the perfect glittering gold wedding. 

Tuesday 4 February 2014

Wedding invitations

Sourcing photographs and ideas for this blog took a gigantic amount of time! There are so many different designs and ideas for your 'Save the date' and wedding invitations, you may well feel a little bit lost. On the other hand, the more imaginative and creative brides and grooms will feel like a kid in a candy shop; with so many colours, patterns, fonts, shapes, words and finishes.

It's not just the aesthetics of your wedding invitations that need careful planning, you must brush up on your wedding invite etiquette. Head onto http://bridalguide.com/blogs/bridal-buzz/wedding-invitation-mistakes for the top six wedding mistakes that are commonly made or check out http://wedding.theknot.com/wedding-planning/wedding-invitations/articles/wedding-invitations-etiquette.aspx for the most frequently asked wedding invite etiquette questions.

Simple


We thought we'd start of with the simple stuff. Simple wedding invitations can still be beautiful and unique. A lot of brides and grooms opt for elegance and simplicity over patterned, illustrated designs. The invitation above is such a lovely idea, although it's extremely simple, it's unique; with the bride and groom's fingerprints.


Another example of elegant simplicity is this design from CMSStationary on Etsy.


Following the theme of having a small centre design, this wedding invite from Sillhouetteblue on Etsy features a venn diagram with the bride and grooms initials and a heart in the centre. It's such a lovely statement invitation, we love!



Romantic and elegant. 'Peonies' by Artcadia  features embossed text and one simple peony flower at the top of the invitation. This design would be perfect for a romantic, traditional wedding with a dusky pink or grey colour scheme.


ElloThere on Etsy has such a beautiful online shop. Her designs are so fresh and unique with such a variety. Now, you might not think that bold and subtle could be describing the same thing, but in this case they really are. The boldness of the clean cut, capital typography contrasts so well with the simple and subtle pale body text and delicate birds.

Illustration


Illustrated wedding invitations feature much more fancy typography, softer flowing lines and shapes, and images or patterns around the design. We love the curves and general flow of this wedding invite. The simple red image of the couple aren't too harsh against the black background as they're broken up by the calligraphy style text.


The illustration bordering this wedding invitation is so delicate and stunning.


Here's another design from Artcadia called 'Peaches'. Unlike the one above, where the border is more prominent that the thin and simple text, this design has a bold text banner, and a simple border. We love the beautiful subtle powder blue colour.


'Summer garden' by Artcadia; A bold, simple, statement wedding invitation. The illustration is much more funky and bold, but is just successful.

Rustic and vintage


This set of 50 wedding invitations by StunningStationary on Etsy feature a vintage doily wrapping up the wedding invitation, tied up in a jute bow. We love the rustic feel of this wedding invitation, it would be perfect for a vintage themed wedding with a vintage cake table. Lovely!


This unconventionally large text is the predominant design on this wedding invitation. Against the brown paper it looks so rustic and bold.

Themed Wedding Invitations

There are wedding invitations out there which are themed to your wedding. Whether that themed to a certain era, colour or season. Here are a selection of winter themed invitations. Themed invitations kick start the feel of your wedding, so that your guests have an idea of your big day before it happens. This could work hugely to your benefit; if your wedding was to be Art Deco, or Great Gatsby inspired, creating a wedding invitation in the same theme would perhaps make your guests inclined to dress within the theme, meaning perfect wedding photos!


Here's an example of an Art Deco themed wedding invitation from Not on the Highstreet. We love the corner borders and typography, and the peacock is such an icon of the era.




All of these wedding invitations are themed for a winter wedding, or could be interpreted to theme a rustic woodland wedding at Wasing Woodlands. The first is a design by EverAfterPapery on Etsy. It's such a magical and charming invitation, great for a traditional Christmas themed wedding with seasonal flowers and fir tree decorations.

The second design by RockPaperDove on Etsy is a more modern and less rustic invitation. On viewing the invitation, your guests will assume an autumn, wood and winter themed wedding.

The third wedding invitation is a very simple and subtle invitation. 'Frosty' by Arcadia, is another design which will immediately get your guests pondering tall firs and winter themes.

The Weird and Wonderful


This is such a fantastically unique idea by Ambient Studios. Their whole wedding invitation is inside a camera film. The bride and groom were both photographers, and their wedding was themed around cameras and photography. 


Another interesting idea; ElloThere on Etsy has created a wedding invitation that looks like an old record in a lovely bird covered slip. This would be a great invitation for a vintage wedding, you could use vinyl records throughout the wedding in different ways to link everything together.


We found this wedding invitation on Pinterest but unfortunately couldn't find the original source! It's such a shame because this is a really unique and clever idea. The invitation is folded up into a circular box and each individual circle features a photo of the bride and groom, and information about the event.


Another whacky idea for a wedding invitation is to have it as a puzzle, so that your guests have to piece it together to find out the details of the event. This invitation would be good for a summer wedding where you could set up outdoor games like giant puzzles and jenga.

The Little Heart Workshop

The Little Heart Workshop is a small online shop that sells beautiful hand decorated wooden shapes and gifts. Louise has a whole section for Weddings; whether you need a seating plan, place names or table names. She also makes beautiful wooden hearts for saving the date, that you can send out to your guests.




Such a unique and lovely idea; rather than a piece of paper that can get crumpled or ripped, you can hang these wooden hearts and keep them forever to remember the day.


Another big craze this year has been Chalkboard wedding invitations. Click the link to see more beautiful chalkboard wedding invitations https://creativemarket.com/blog/2013/07/16/design-your-perfect-wedding-invitations-chalkboard.

A lot of popular highstreet brands also supply really lovely invitations to you to hand write your wedding details on. Here are some beautiful designs from Paperchase;


This fun, charming design features a woodland theme with flowers and owls.


These wedding invitations are simple and romantic, with flowers, roses and ribbons.