Afternoon lovelies.… Laura has the most awesome post for you this afternoon, of her experience as a bride turned bridesmaid for her best friend Kelly’s wedding. I so love the images from the vintage styled hen do :-) Hen inspiration just for you girls.….

All Images © Laura Babb Photography

Hello everyone. I hope you’re enjoying the glorious sunshine? Let’s ignore the rumours of snow this week shall we?

This is probably going to be quite a long post with lots of pictures, so you might want to grab a cup of tea!

Instead of talking about my own wedding for a change I thought I’d talk to you about my best friend’s wedding and hen party as it’s been my main wedding focus over the last month.

Kelly and I have been friends for the best part of 15 years and she tied the knot on Friday! She has been engaged for getting on for two years and the wedding that seemed so very far away when she first started planning it finally happened this weekend, on a gloriously sunny day at Castle Headingham, in Essex.

But before I talk about the wedding, I’ll tell you about the hen party. Or parties. Yes there was more than one and I took pictures at both of them.

As head bridesmaid or Best Babb as I have been titled for the purpose of Kelly’s wedding – a title of which I wholeheartedly approve – planning the hen traditionally fell within my remit.

Luckily Kelly was after some classy (but not too classy) fun and that wouldn’t blow the budget, as she was conscious about keeping costs down for the people who would be attended (good girl, I say).

We decided that vintage inspired dress would be the order of the day and that we’d head to a 50s inspired American diner for dinner and cocktails and then we’d head off to Bourne and Hollingsworth for even more cocktails.

I’m quite good at backcombing and styling hair so when Kelly asked if she and the other bridesmaids could come to mine to get ready, I decided, in consultation with the other maids, to arrange a few surprises.

We asked the brilliant Elbie Van Eden to come along and do all of our hair and make-up and I threw a little tea party with cucumber sandwiches (sans crusts, naturally), cakes and enough bubbles to ensure we were all pretty tipsy by the time we left to head out for dinner and I also bought each of the bridesmaids a vintage brooch as ‘hen party favours’.

The raffia hearts and jars are things I’ve been crafting for my own wedding so it was really nice to see how they might actually look when put together.

And it was really nice to be able to photograph some of the hen party for Kelly (I didn’t photograph the latter part of the evening as I was busy drinking cocktails!) so that she has a record of how beautiful she looked all dressed up in her Vivien of Holloway dress.

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I have been waiting on the edge of my seat to see and hear all about Adeline’s Hen do in sunny Brighton. Adeline and her hen’s had a fantastic weekends, full of ideas you can steal for your do too :-) Take it away Adeline.… XOXO Lou

Here Come The Girls.…..

I feel that I am truly blessed to have a very close group of girlfriends that I rely on for everything! Don’t get me wrong, Andy is my rock and my best friend, but when you just need a natter, a gossip and a moan, no one beats turning to the ladies in your life!

I have lots of close friends and wanted them all to feel like they had a part in my wedding. I didn’t want to have lots of bridesmaids so I only chose 3, which were supposed to just be family members, but I changed those around slightly after upsetting one with our ‘no children’ rule.… whoops! I had 3 very special roles to fill, which I left to the other girls. It was fitting to have my friend Stacy as our witness because without her new years eve meddling 7 years ago, Andy and I may not have ended up together! I also needed someone to help me on the day, but didn’t want to stress my bridesmaids out with it, so asked an old school friend, Alice. She will help me get dressed on the day and make sure that everything runs smoothly!

This left one very important role to fill and one lovely lady to fulfil it.…. To plan my HEN PARTY!!!! Step up Emma! The most organised person on the planet and a fellow bride-to-be! No one was going to be better equipped for this role than her!

I gave Emma some guidelines as to what was needed of her! I chose the weekend, let her know that it needed to be within half an hour of an airport (as myself and friend, Becs would be heading South from Edinburgh) and that she needed to find a weekend cottage for 12 of us to stay in!

I also sent her a link to a 50’s Mad Men hen party I found on Love My Dress that really caught my eye!

From it, Emma produced an amazing and fun filled weekend! She had input from my future sister-in-law, Sophie (who is the drinking/ice-breaker game expert) and Stacy (who knows everything about me!)

Firstly, Emma found a wonderful cottage that would sleep up to 14 people in Brighton! Not only was the location fabulous, but the cottage was a former sweet-shop that had been converted to a Kath Kidson style 50’s house! Perfect or what!

 Image source

During this girly night in, one of the girls, Stacy, produced 12 pairs of fluffy boots. This is something I used to wear regularly on a weekend when I was 17 with one of my bridesmaids, Emily. Something that I really wanted to leave in my past, but was fun to have everyone wear for the weekend! We even had t-shirts made by the talented Dolly, who produced all my wedding stationery, which had the French versions of all of our names on the back (as a nod to my French roots!)

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Let’s face it, we all love a party, especially one with your girlfriends.

Hen do’s are becoming increasingly popular and more extravagant, with more creative ways of celebrating your last days of singledom i have found some of my favourite ideas.….

♥ You don’t necessarily need to go for an organised package, hit your local town, go for a meal or a drink. It needn’t be expensive to have a good time on your hen do, so long as all your loved one’s make it you will have a fab time!

♥ How about a photoshoot with your girls? Remember this feature on {www}? Shot by Lee Allen Photography.…

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Here come the girls, girls, girls, girls, here come the girls.….. sorry but i just cannot help but want to sing that song when i see these fantastic girls. The fabulous Abbie aka Tattybojangles, is in fact a dear friend from twitter of mine, and i am sooo excited to share her amazing hen do with you all today.

Abbie wanted something memorable, with a fun twist and she certainly created that. How stunning does Abbie look in her vintage style dress and her amazing hair and make up, not to mention her gorgeous friends. I think this is a fabulous idea for a hen do with a difference and for some gorgoeus images of you and your girlfriends before you embark into the world of marriage.

Shot by the incredible West Midlands based wedding photographer Lee Allen Photography, thanks so much to Lee for sharing his work with {www} today.

Enjoy.

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