Featured Venue: Kensington Roof Gardens

On my hunt for unique and unusual wedding reception venues I found the gorgeous Kensington Roof Gardens.

Tudor Garden Dinner

Spanish Garden

Tudor Walkway

English Woodland

Ranked No. 21 in the The Independent’s ‘ 50 Best Wedding Locations in the World, The Gardens combine impeccable taste with complete and utter fantasy. The gardens are set 100ft above street level, with breathtaking views of the London skyline. They include walled Tudor gardens, a formal cloistered Spanish garden with a court of fountains and the English woodland with a stream and ducks, so they cover all the bases in terms of personal taste…

The venue can hold 130 guests for the ceremony and up to 500 for the reception (180 seated).

English Woodland

Prices may vary but at the moment there are two packages available – Gold Package is £130 per person, and Platinum is £150. Price is inclusive of hire, security, champagne and a selection of three-course meals. Platinum package includes entertainment, decoration and bride and groom accomodation. There is a minumum of 50guests depending on the time of year and your requirements. See website for details, worth a look-see www.roofgardens.virgin.com

Special Offer – 29 December 08 – 31 March 09

“Have your dream wedding at The Roof Gardens. Choose 20 free bottles of champagne or complimentary pre-dinner canapés for 100 guests! This special offer is available for weddings held between 29th December 2008 and 31st March 2009 (excluding 1st January) Valid for new bookings for Sunday weddings (12 noon – midnight). Ts&Cs apply” Contact the Venue for more details.

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Photobooth Invitations

I have been doing some research around  invitations, trying to gain some ideas for new and unique graphics. Whilst surfing the Internet I came across this image and fell in love with it. It’s a very informal but sweet idea for a young spirited couple who want to steer away from traditional themes. This idea could be used throughout the entire wedding, in the RSVPs, the favours and some ‘thank you for attending’ literature. It ties in very nicely with one of Holly’s previous posts (on our old blog) about having a photo booth on site to capture images of your friends and family at the wedding (
http://theoneweddings.blogspot.com/2008/11/i-want-photo-booth.html
)

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Favours for the Starbucks Generation

As a child of said generation myself, when I saw these I was immediately drawn in.

 

Coffee Cup Candle

Scoop of Love

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This charming mini-candle has a mouth-watering coffee aroma when lit, and comes in a clear box tied with ribbon and a tag with both of your names on it. Similarly, the stylish ‘Scoop of Love’ one person heart scoop is crafted in heavy-duty stainless steel with a heart design echoing along the scoop handle, and is elegantly presented in a textured ebony  gift box.

These favours and more are available at www.aweddinglessordinary.co.uk for £1.75 and £2.25 each, respectively.

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Trash The Dress

Recently, I was told about this website by a friend who designs wedding dresses – www.trashthedress.com chronicles post-wedding brides in a gallery where they more or less, yes, trash their wedding dresses. The tagline on the website claims ‘It’s about Creation, not Destruction’, and I have to agree – there are some gorgeous images on this site.

According to the website, in terms of your wedding dress you have two choices-

1) Suffocate it in plastic and throw it in a closet
2) Show your husband how committed you are by trashing the dress, and get some great fun pictures while you do it!

 

Christopher Perkins

KJP Images

Tami-Foto UK

Dolly Photography

Infinity Studios

Perfect Zoom

The trend is catching on in the UK too, with more and more couples opting for radical, once in a lifetime post-wedding photos in their wedding outfits. For ideas about how to trash your dress, or photographers in your area who have experience in shoots like these, go to www.trashthedress.com or www.trashthedress.eu.

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On The Michelle Obama Trail

We posted yesterday about Michelle Obama’s wedding dress from 1992, and how gown designers today are trying to emulate her effortless yet regal looking style. Well, today she’s given us a new reason to blog about her by wearing an amazing white dress to the Inauguaral Ball last night in Washington. In it, she danced with her husband, President Obama, to Beyonce singing ‘At Last’, originally by Etta James – and a firm favourite for first dances everywhere.

The ivory silk-chiffon gown was designed by 26 year-old up and coming designer Jason Wu, and he claims he wanted to make a dress that represented ‘hope’, and that he also wanted to design something to suit her personality of strength but also gentleness. We think he did a fantastic job, and the pair look absolutely incredible. The dance was enough to bring Beyonce to tears after her performance, as she says it was “overwhelming”.

Bloggers have been on First Lady Fashion watch since Obama was running for President, but now I’m sure bridal designers will be latching on to this one too. We love the beading detail on the (what looks like ) slight pleats, and the gorgeous one shoulder band. Here are a few similar ideas for wedding dresses in the same style.

Montaigne by Sarah Lang

Bonaparte NY

Vera Wang Autumn 08

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Thought Provoking Word Clouds

Sorry for the lack of posts on my behalf, however I have been away in sunny Barcelona for a few days. Obviously this will provoke some Spanish based wedding ideas but while I prepare those here is a quick look at a website called Wordle.

Wordle allows you to make some gorgeous word clouds, which I thought would look lovely as a graphic on invitations or other literature around the wedding venue. You can input your own words and then it jumbles them all up into a cloud, with the most repeated works bigger. You can click randomize to change the style, font and background as many times as you like. My partner and I did one a while ago, putting in words that meant things to us as a couple, places we have been together, songs we love or names we call each other. I think it is a great, and very thought provoking, way to show people why you mean so much to each other.

Although you can’t save images the right size for decent printing from here, and this site wouldn’t act as a DIY graphic design tool, it would act as good way for your to get your key words and important elements and feelings down into one place, allowing a wedding planner or designer to take your ideas and develop them further. Word clouds such as this would be a great tool for any planner in understanding what you want from your wedding and the style you are going for.

Below I have added one I did earlier for The One.

The One Wordle

Click here to visit the Wordle site and start making your own today!

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Trivia: Phantom Bridesmaids

In medieval times, the bride and groom would supposedly be on guard for any evil spirits that might be trying to halt the marriage and stop the ceremony, perhaps ghosts of relatives that were against the union. So the bride would enlist the help of friends who would dress exactly like the bride as a decoy for those clearly short sighted spirits, so that they would not be interrupted during the wedding. The tradition of dressing like the bride obviously died out, but the idea that the bridesmaids should all dress the same continued.

 

Being asked to be a bridesmaid back then, I imagine, wasn’t as flattering.

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Barack and Michelle

America should be very proud today, and to honour their new President, we thought it fitting to do a post about his wedding day.

 

 

According to Michelle, the two years they spent dating she heard Barack’s endless debates about whether marriage was still meaningful and important as an institution. Then, at dinner together in 1991, just as Barack was launching into yet another discussion about it, Michelle was about to launch into a heated discussion herself about how he needed to start getting serious with their relationship – but she was cut off, as he presented her with a box. Inside she found a beautiful engagement ring, as he joked,”Well that shut you up, didn’t it?” She claims she was swept off her feet.

On their wedding day Michelle wore an almost Sleeping Beauty-like off the shoulder gown with a princess length veil. And she looks every bit the princess here.

 

 

Designers for 2009 are now trying to emulate this gorgeous gown style, and here’s a few we found – the left photograph is from La Sposa.

 

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L O V E

For Christmas I got some gorgeous silver-look stand alone LOVE Letters like this ones here (now only available in bronze for £20). And I just got to thinking how romantic lettering might look at a wedding reception. Here are are few photo suggestions.

N O E L would be beautiful at a December wedding reception over a fireplace. Or perhaps if you are able to, hanging both of your initials in large wooden letters over the doors of the church with thick ribbon. A large set of both of your names would be well placed somewhere either at the church, registry office or reception.

If not, then they make fantastic and personal wedding gifts.

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Black and White Photo Cake

I fell in love with this cake as soon as I saw it. It’s from a cake designer called Maisie Fantaisie, and they do amazing bespoke wedding cakes available all over the UK.

This particular cake is made using any black and white snapshots you can provide, and placing them on the cake in edible sugar paper. It just looks so elegant, and its so personal. Obviously, in this photo of the cake there are snapshots of the bride and groom on the actually wedding day, which wouldn’t be possible. But if you had photos from both of your childhoods, and photos from when you first met, and up until the wedding, it would make it so personal and amazing. Your guests would truly enjoy it and it looks great.

The black and white cake is priced on the website at £850, but its worth contacting the company for an updated quote.

Here are some other of Maisie Fantaisie’s beautiful cakes.

Go to their site immediately to feast your eyes.

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