Hey there you lovely lot :-) Charlotte is here this morning with her second bride diary entry. This time she is updating us with her latest going ons, with her invitations sent out and the most amazing wedding signs built. I am getting so very excited for you Charlotte :-) XOXO Lou

So my iPhone wedding countdown is finally down double figures…74 days to go!! And, with only 10 weekends left until our big day, John and I have decided that we need to get our act together and crack on with all those jobs we’ve been putting off. I thought I’d give you guys a little roundup of the things we’ve been up to in the past couple of weeks.

Our invites have been posted at last! They were a labor of love and took me ages to design and put together – who knew that tying string would take so long!!  We’ve had some lovely comments from our guests though, which makes all the hard work worthwhile. It’s so exciting to receive the RSVP’s through the post each day too – they’re like little presents!

(more…)

Sam is back and she only has 4 weeks until the big day… ekkk!! Sam tells us all about her hen do, and shares some sneak peeks of their wedding DIY. Excited! Sam needs your help. Do come share your pre wedding pamper plans in the comments box below :-) XOXO Lou

Hello everyone! I hope you are all well and good. Less than 4 weeks to go to ‘W’ day as a type this. All I can say is ahhhhhhh! I’ve never felt this bizarre before. I’m a complete mixture of emotions. One minute I am excited, then ridiculously nervous/anxious and then I get completely stressed and overwhelmed. Most of the big things are sorted and booked, just a case of praying they turn up on the day. Now its time to sweat the small stuff. Stuff I never even knew existed.

Last week we received an email from the registrar conducting our wedding… suddenly its all so real! I read the form we had to fill out about 3 times, but I was so stressed about it that I couldn’t make any sense of it. Simple questions like ‘Do you wish your father to give consent during the ceremony?’ and ‘Do you want your guests seated or standing during the ceremony?’ were baffling me. They wanted me to know what order my bridesmaids were coming down and which order they would be seated… who was to take my flowers… exactly what music we wanted playing… Needless to say my head was fried. I decided to stop freaking out and sleep on it… I’m still sleeping on it!

In more positive news… I am currently sat here still buzzing from the energy from my hen weekend. Wooop! Just got back a few hours ago and had such a good time. Fourteen of us booked to stay in a cluster of cottages in the countryside near Leeds, not really knowing what to expect. They were fab!

(more…)

Afternoon my lovelies. Mel is here this week telling us about her search for the perfect venue. Mel is planning her wedding from abroad which is no mean feat, so it is really interesting to hear how she found her venue. Feel free to have a chat with Mel in the comments box below too XOXO Lou

Deciding where to get married was a big call for us, knowing that wherever we did it, a large proportion of friends and families would be unable to come. My mom, a stickler for tradition, wanted the wedding in the bride’s hometown. And there are some lovely venues in Solihull, it’s just that London feels more like my hometown now. However, Rob was keen to escape London for it and head somewhere a bit more scenic, like New Zealand… And man I was tempted because it is just so darn pretty over there! We had to decide on a country before we could decide on a venue.

The day after we got engaged, Rob had joked about looking at castles in Ireland but then very sweetly pointed out that it could be a nice idea to go back to where my roots are (although I suspect he was also thinking of the golf courses). We found our venue, viewed it three months later and finally manned up and booked it after eight months. In the meantime I aged about 20 years. We’d found a venue we both loved. However, I had to sell it hard to my parents who didn’t like the idea of venturing anywhere outside of a five-mile radius of their house. I also managed to convince myself that no one would come (does anyone else do this?!) due to the extra travel (regardless of the fact that many guests were having to travel halfway around the world anyway!) and I also felt EXTREME guilt at asking people to travel to Ireland. So I drove myself pretty bonkers until we found out we were moving to Switzerland, at which point I decided I could not be bothered with stressing any more and just decided to book it and to hell with the consequences. I went with my gut and am so glad I did because, well, look at it…

(more…)

Afternoon you lovely lot :-) Sam is back this week to share her seriously fun engagement shoot. Sam and Mr G had a play date fancy dress engagement shoot, which i will leave to Sam to explain all. I love these light hearted images :-) Thanks to Andrea Ellison for sharing her photographs with us today.

So here we are finally less that 7 weeks until the big day! Things have all got a bit crazy. Things that I was ‘leaving until nearer the time’ are suddenly needing to be done. Things that I didn’t even know needed to be done… are needing to be done. Mainly last minute crafting, confirming plans with suppliers and paying for things (sad face). So in all of this panic it was a lovely surprise to receive our engagement shoot pictures from the lovely Andrea Ellison…

Our engagement shoot was shot in a beautiful garden, on a Welsh mountain side, on a cold and misty Saturday afternoon. We loaded the car up with costumes, props and pretty frocks and headed up to Llangollen for a play date. It was a very chilly day and so our kigu onesies were greatly welcomed for a snuggly warm up at the end of the shoot.

Me and Mr.G are big fancy dress fans and love to have a laugh. I will always remember before we got together, we had been friends for a while and we had gone on a group trip to Butlins. On the last evening I had been loitering around the fancy dress shop hinting… no begging… everyone to get dressed up as a fairy with me. Everyone declined so I admitted defeat and headed back to the chalet. It was at that point that my knight in shining armour, aka Gary, stepped up an offered to be a fairy with me that evening. Now that’s a real man right there! The whole night was hilarious and randomly brilliant. Not only were we fairies that night but we also returned as fairies on the following trip… that time as a proper couple.

Our penchant for fancy dress didn’t stop there. We have somehow acquired a whole dressing up box of things from various events and fancy dress parties we have been to. Our dressing up box holds so many fun memories for us. (more…)

Today i am so excited to introduce you to our last real bride joining the Whimsical Wonderland Weddings family… Charlotte! Charlotte is marrying fiance John in July. Their wedding sounds amazing!! Thank you Charlotte…. XOXO Lou

Hello everyone! I am so excited to be the latest real bride here on WWW.

My name is Charlotte and on the 20th July I will be marrying my long-suffering fiancé, John. John and I met at work 7 years ago. We quickly became friends and after about a year of not much work and lots of play, Valentine’s Day came along. As both of us were single, it was decided that we would boycott the big V-day and watch the most non-romantic film we could think of…Jurassic Park! I think we both knew that was the start of something special (and maybe slightly sad!!). Since then we have been inseparable and “Jurassic Park Day” has become a bit of an annual tradition.

The proposal. Ok, so lets set the scene…riverside, fairy lights, candles, a BBQ, lots of wine, oh and our Dalmatian called Paris! We were camping in Somerset (I spent all of my summers there when I was younger – its my favourite place in the world). Despite my nagging and the crazy pre–engagement wedding blog addiction, John managed to keep the proposal a total secret. He surprised me with his most romantic gesture to date!!

Roll on 18 months and we are fast approaching the big day!

Our wedding is being held at a commune in Oxfordshire called Braziers Park. It’s only been used as a wedding venue a few times and has a completely untouched feel about it – not the norm, but just what we were looking for. It’s a little bit hippy and a lot us…the perfect setting for our relaxed day.

(more…)