A tattooed bride, tea length dress, pinwheels, toadstools and red & blue!

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Hi! I'm so happily engaged and loving the planning! I'll start with an intro and some background!

That's me! I'm Toni, I'm 23 years old and I live in Edinburgh, Scotland. I live with my beautiful fiance (Colin!) in our small but cosy 1 bedroom flat with our monster puppy, Morrissey. I absolutely love tattoos, horror movies, (learning/reading about) serial killers, 90s nickelodeon and cartoons.
November 15th, C and I were sitting on the couch not long after putting up our Christmas tree (don't laugh! I wanted to put it up weeks before). I was on the laptop, he was watching TV. He pulled me into a hug, so he was hugging me from behind and we snuggled for a bit and then I thought he was scratching but next thing I know, he pulled out a ring and asked me to marry him! Of course I said yes. I was super embarrassed, haha. We kissed and he slid it on my finger. It wasn't much of a surprise; we'd talked about it for months and it was already unofficial. We just made plans not to make it "official" until we had the ring. God knows how many times I drunkenly asked Katie to be my bridesmaid "but shhhhhh! Don't tell anyone!"

We originally wanted a very small ceremony. Small being just C, me, Katie (bridesmaid) and Lee (one of my best friends who's got really close to Colin and is going to be his best man). We weren't going to tell another soul until the deed was done! But then when it got "official" and we really thought about it, we wanted people to know. We wanted our families there.

We set the date for November 10th 2012. 10/11/12 ;D

Some information & numbers! I borrowed this Gwizz's thread!
Guests: About 32 at the ceremony, up to 120 for the evening reception.
The Venue: The Quay, Musselburgh.
Bouquet: Felt, buttons and pinwheels.
Colours: Red and all shades of lighter blue.
Theme: Pinwheels, paper pom poms, toadstools, a few vintage cameras and buttons dotted about.
Budget: £2.5k.

My rings! Both wedding and e-ring together.

And the e-ring on its own.

The first person we told was my mum. I was a little scared of speaking to her because I wasn't sure how she was going to react because of our ages but she was fine. She said she was happy for us, reminded me that she was married with a child at my age and offered to pay for half of the venue which is amazing of her (she's since asked if she could pay the whole lot, my dress, the cake, the centrepieces, my bouquet etc etc). Money is still tight, after all.

Colin's parents were a whole other story. His dad is very sick so I'm not sure if he even knows. I've never actually met them! But she (the mother) was not happy in the slightest and has since requested that Colin never contacts them again. I won't go into it!

Because we'd already been talking about it for a few months, we already had a pretty good idea of what we wanted and the very first "definite!" I found was my bridesmaids dresses. I'm having a maid of honour (my sister) and two brides... people? Katie and a really good friend, Ryan. Of course this won't apply to Ryan! Although he has shown a rather deep interest in the dress ;P We'll get to him later! Something that would flatter all body shapes, sizes and heights was a must! And this is what I found.
https://www.attitudeclothing.co.uk/productimages/12681394950.jpg

My sister took first dibs on that one and we're still on the hunt for a blue dress for Katie!

 

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The Venue!​

We wanted somewhere small and close by with the right numbers and the right price tag! We were originally going to go for the Holiday Inn package deal but then my mum was speaking to someone at work and mentioned a restaurant with wedding facilities that has a similar price tag but you get more included in the package. We booked to go and see it but Colin had other commitments and couldn't come!

I was absolutely stunning. The ceremony room especially! It's right on the harbour so the views are amazing. We booked it there and then because I knew Colin would feel the same way. A week or so later, we were back with him and yep, he loved it just as much as I did!

The ceremony room.

The reception room has the same views

 

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My Dress!​

For my dress, I knew from the start I didn't want a big, princess poufball. They are beautiful but they're just not me! I knew I wanted a tea length one. However, I went to try some on anyway to get an idea.

I really loved the length on this one! But just was not feeling the dress at all.
https://pic90.picturetrail.com:80/VOL2262/13432606/23971308/400043857.jpg

HATED it.
https://pic90.picturetrail.com:80/VOL2262/13432606/23971308/400043855.jpg

Liked this but still... meh!
https://pic90.picturetrail.com:80/VOL2262/13432606/23971308/400043860.jpg

The choice was made to go online after that. I just was not going to find what I wanted for the price I wanted. The following are some from online that I considered.
https://pic90.picturetrail.com:80/VOL2262/13432606/23971308/400354748.jpg

https://pic90.picturetrail.com:80/VOL2262/13432606/23971308/400354749.jpg

https://pic90.picturetrail.com:80/VOL2262/13432606/23971308/400354751.jpg

But still... meh! I really wanted a white dress with a white subtle polka dot overlay dress but could not find one in my price range at all! Then I found this one and decided this was it.
https://pic90.picturetrail.com:80/VOL2262/13432606/23971308/400457744.jpg

https://pic90.picturetrail.com:80/VOL2262/13432606/23971308/400457745.jpg

I wasn't overly happy with it but meh.. it would do. I could afford it and couldn't find anything even near to what I liked for a price I could afford. So it was done. I'd picked my dress.

Then, one day, I was browsing etsy... and there she was... I was AMAZED. Speechless! Here was the dress I had literally been dreaming about, down to the last detail. And the best thing? It was half the price of the one above.

 

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And here she is!! The dress maker has made me a blue petticoat, though.
https://pic90.picturetrail.com:80/VOL2262/13432606/23971308/400932169.jpg

I'm disgustingly in love! She was ordered on February 20th, posted today (well, Saturday) and will hopefully be here in 2 weeks!

Shoes!​

Before we'd decided on colours or, well, anything really I had picked my shoes.
https://pic90.picturetrail.com:80/VOL2262/13432606/23993826/400455555.jpg

They were £70 originally and not long after getting engaged, they were reduced to half that price. Amazing! The day where we had the money to spare arrived. I went online to get them... and they were sold out. Everywhere. An email to Schuh and Irregular Choice confirmed my fears; they were discontinued. I was distraught! I didn't continue looking for more right then and I'm glad of that. Our colour scheme (red and lighter shades of blue with some white) was born and I instantly knew what I was going to buy re: shoes. £90 on the Irregular Choice website. I got them, brand new in box, for £65 on eBay. I NEVER wear heels (have worn them no more than 5 times in my 23 years) and these are SO comfortable and hideously easy to walk. Major love affair going on with these babies. They're slightly too big but nothing inserts won't solve! So even being too big, they're comfy and easy to walk in!

https://image.irregularchoice.com/product_images/Autumn-Winter-11/4230/4230-2-l.png

https://www.scorpionshoes.co.uk/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/_/i_am_from_bury_red003.jpg

https://www.legendfootwear.co.uk/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/3/8/3801-19A_Red3_8.jpg

And on me, with a couple of tights options I'm leaning more towards the first pair.

 

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Hair & Make up!​

From the start, I've known I would be doing this myself. There was no way on Earth we could afford professionals but, even if we could, I would hate to spend that amount of money on hair and make up.

The one drawback? I am terrible with hair! I couldn't even find anything I liked... I just knew I wanted some height. Which would require back combing my hair. I HATE THIS. My hair is super fine but I have lots of it and it just does not hold teasing. Even if I found a way of making it hold, I hate doing it and have refused to so far... I didn't plan on starting now!

I was watching some youtube videos on hair tutorials one night and came across one where she used this product in her hair. The result was amazing so off to google it I went. After more photos and more videos, I knew I needed them so I ordered them!

The product? Hair boostias.
They come in packs of 5 and are designed to sit under your hair and give all the height with zero backcombing. Perfect!
https://www.poshfroxonline.co.uk/images/products/large/boostia3.jpg

I was a bit dubious though. Nothing is ever this straight forwards for me! So it was a tense 3 day wait for them to arrive.

They eventually arrived and I was super excited to try them so I did it there and then! As I said earlier, I am terrible with anything hair related. I mean it! I even struggle to straighten my hair... After 5 minutes in front of the mirror with my hair boostias, this is the result.

Just what I never knew I wanted! Of course, on the day, I'll take more time over it so it'll be nice and smooth with no stray hairs but this is just perfect.

Not long after that, I bought my veil. This was another nightmare similar to the dress. I knew I wanted a birdcage veil and I knew I wanted a bow. But I couldn't find a thing I liked. All I could find were white bows. Eventually, I settled for buying a bow headband and was going to make my own.. but right before buying it, I had another look around another favourite site, folksy, for something h2b had just mentioned and... here she was!

She was ordered right that minute. Made to order, it was another 3 weeks until she arrived. Like the hair boostias, I didn't hesitate in trying it out! As you can see in the photos, I'm still in my jacket. We came home to the package and I didn't even take the time to get my jacket off before shoving it in my hair.

Excuse the face; it had been a long day! And I'm yet to try it with the hair style but I might give that a go tomorrow!

For my make up, I was originally wanting a very matte, porcelain/flawless finish with retro "cat flick" eyes. But that's pretty much my every day look and I wanted something different. I'm still going for the matte porcelain face but my eyes? They're going to be fully, made up GLITTER. Bright, red glitter.

Very much like this but with a nude lip.
https://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lgwd3yZXzq1qe478lo1_500.jpg

 

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My bag
https://pic90.picturetrail.com:80/VOL2262/13432606/23993826/400455564.jpg

https://pic90.picturetrail.com:80/VOL2262/13432606/23993826/400455563.jpg

https://pic90.picturetrail.com:80/VOL2262/13432606/23993826/400455561.jpg

 

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My Beautiful Boy!​

Phew. We'd bought essentially what he's wearing but in all black. It arrived and... he hated it! So we took it back. The only thing that was a definite was the shirt and I am MAD for it. It's just so cool! So we went out shopping, money in hand, and this is what he went for. Omnomnom.
https://pic90.picturetrail.com:80/VOL2262/13432606/23971303/401112645.jpg

He'll be in red converse and neon blue socks! The other men will be in the same suits but all black, a white shirt and one in a red tie, one in a blue. Blue converse!

I made their buttonholes myself. This one is Colin's:

And everyone else has these.

And on me to show the size

My lovely brother will be walking me down the aisle.

His daughter, my niece, will be the flower girl.

And my sister's boy will be our pageboy. Mini pinwheel buttonhole and all!

(photo by me)

 

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My Bouquet!​

Now, this was fun. I'd always wanted something different. Something I could keep forever! First, I was going to have artificial sunflowers. Then I discovered button bouquets! Love at first site. I had a quick look around on etsy and they were ridiculous prices... a quick scour of folksy and I'd found an amazing lady with amazing bouquets and even better prices! I was set.

Then I discovered a pinwheel bouquet on etsy for a similar price.

Then I discovered a felt flower one. Argh!

It was the felt one that won me over. Her prices? Horrible haha! So I decided I was going to use it as inspiration but make my own. I wanted MORE stems, smaller felt flowers and more buttons so the emphasis was really on the buttons. I really wanted some novelty buttons too so DIY was the best route to go. I'm not sure of exact price but this totalled less than £30, including stuff I didn't use.

My inspiration:

The supplies I bought. I ended up not using the foam bouquet holder or the foam ball.

Felt flowers

A couple of stems

And the finished result. Cutting and sewing the flowers took a couple of weeks because I was lazy and assembling it all took less than an hour.

And me holding it for size. I've decided I HATE the visible white of the bouquet holder so I'm going to hot glue some more felt flowers on there. And I really need to learn how to tie the bow better!

Bridesmaids Bouquet!​

I struggled with this for a while! Eventually I gave up and decided they'd just have to have faux sunflowers... but then I had an idea. A bit later, this is the result.

This is for the bridesmaid that will wear the blue dress.

I've since spray painted the handle silver.

The bridesmaid in the red dress will have the exact same but blue. I've only made three of the six pom poms so far though!

 

[elisamarie]

I love this! i almost wish i was a little more involved in my wedding after seeing your amazing ideas! i will be stalking

 

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The soles of my shoes are too pretty for the "I DO" stickers so I'll be getting one of these; a temporary tattoo Not sure where it'll go yet! Maybe in a little bit of free space on my left arm. It can act as a filler piece for the day

My necklace. It'll have my grandads nickname on it where it says "name" of course! I chose his nickname rather than his actual name of grandad as no one but family will know that's what it is. His nickname was Chick This is only a maybe, though. I wanted to wear a pearl necklace but feel that's something I should borrow from a family member. My sister has one and I keep forgetting to ask her! If she no longer has it, this is what I'll wear.

My perfume! Colin (H2B) is from Northern Ireland and my sister lives there. We went over on the ferry for Christmas and I had a smell of this for the first time there and decided there and then it would be my wedding scent

Cake!​

This is what we're going for. It'll be 100 cupcakes strong The little cupcakes will be in pale blue polka dot cases. They'll be plain sponge with white buttercream icing. Omnomnom. My favourite

THIS will be our top tier! But more cupcake shaped, like in the first image.

Little cupcake toppers. A toadstool and a couple of little flowers will go on half the cakes.

Pinwheel cupcake toppers in red. The other half of the cupcakes will have just one of these in each one. I'll make these.

Little pinwheel cake topper for the top tier. I'll be making this.

 

[modified]

I love this! i almost wish i was a little more involved in my wedding after seeing your amazing ideas! i will be stalking

Thank you! What do you mean, you wish you were a little more involved? Did you have a planner?

 

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Ceremony Backdrop!​

We have amazing views the entire wall on 2 of 4 walls but it's not something we're overly interested in if I'm honest! We'd rather have something us and something fun!

This is the part of the room where the signing the register table is. The part outlined in red is where we'll be hanging our backdrop. A mini one on the altar too!

So if these photos were taken at our wedding, the background would be 100% our backdrop!

And here it is! In the background, of course! But this couple fringed their crepe paper. We won't be doing that. We'll be having red, white and blue!

 

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Centrepieces!​

A quick mock up (the sticks with silver balls will be cake pops!)

Another go. As I said, The pencils in the pot will be cake pops! The white star shaped thing next to it is a light. We have 2 of those per table, too. We're also going to have a couple of toadstool tea lights (cutting the wicks off so they can't be lit), blue polka dot menus, red polka dot napkins with a blue pom pom napkin ring, tiny wee bottles with pinwheels on sticks and a tag with each name on for the place names, a few ultra mini versions of the pinwheel you can see in the back on my wall (in place of scatter crystals), some lit tea lights and blue chair sashes with red pom poms hanging down from the bow at the back. Sound good?! We want to have quite a busy look to the middle of the table as the setup we're going for leaves a LOT of space in the middle.

Menu, designed by me.

Oh, before I forget! If you look back at our ceremony room photos, you'll see the blue sashes on the chairs. Those are the exact ones we're having. But on the chairs lining the aisle, we'll have pinwheels like this but not on the ground; they'll be sticking out of the sash!

Our napkins. These are cheapy paper ones but they'll be wrapped around the expensive linen ones the venue provides so these are just for show! They'll be wrapped up like you would with a scroll and the napkin ring will be a little blue pom pom.

The toadstools for the tables.

Place names. The bottles will be smaller than this and filled with jelly beans or something. Then a little tag around the bottle neck or something with the name on

The Sweetie Table!​

I'm going to be making a backdrop like this for it.

And here's our basic layout. The blue box in the middle will have our cake on it. To the left of the photo will be a slushie machines with blue and white stripey cups and a glass of red and white striped straws. On the right side of the photo will be 2 stands of lots and lots of cake pops and a bundle of red and white striped paper bags with a blue personalised sticker.

We still have a couple of jars to fill!

Invitations!​

I'll be designing these too! This is something that's proving so hard for me. I've designed so many and scrapped them immediately because I just wasn't feeling them. These are the only ones I've managed to come up with so far that I think I'm happy with. I'm still designing almost daily though. I hope I can come up with something we both love.

The back of the invite.

The front.

The front of the RSVP.

The back.

 

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Our Photographer!​

We're super lucky to have the amazingly talented Sassy of Assassynation photographing our wedding. Being a photographer myself, the photos are extremely important to me and I know she'll do an amazing job. Google her!

We're also doing a first look session as we have a late afternoon winter wedding and I don't want night time photos!

To start with, it's going to be just Colin & me in this diner. Amazing! This is it at night so you can imagine how great it looks during the day.

We're then going to take a walk down the royal mile, taking photos along the way.
https://www.simpsonfineart.com/catalog/images/Royal-Mile.jpg

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BdDkzofHAfk/ThXp9N-49wI/AAAAAAAAAnQ/-oSQO60wgI8/s1600/Royal+Mile.jpg

https://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/38423.jpg

https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/edinburgh/edinburgh/images/knoxhousex-450.jpg

https://images.travelpod.com/users/jonesinmybones/1.1253924250.royal-mile_5.jpg

And we'll finally end up here
https://www.clanwalkerguesthouse.com/images/holyrood_park_edinburgh.jpg

https://edsphotoblog.com/wp-content/photos/800px/arthurs_seat_edinburgh.jpg

Where we hope to take photos like this!

And I think that's everything I can show for now! I'll be back super soon with hair trial photos with veil!

We have lots and lots more amazing plans but I'm keeping them to myself for now as they're not set in stone as of yet! I hope you enjoyed seeing what we have so far

 

[MadameJ]

LOVE LOVE LOVE all your wedding designs!Adore weddings that are just very personal and not trying to keep up with traditions n trying to please everyone else!!

I too am making majority of things for weddings for this reason,I don't want the norm and want it to be very 'me'.

Ours has a slight superhero theme

 

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Hi! Thanks very much Do you have a thread up?

 

[MadameJ]

Not yet,everything is still a working progress!My bouquet is half done,my invites are half done infact pretty much everything is half done(I have a tendency to get a littlw over excited and jump onto the next task before finishing the first ha)

I will start one up soon tho

Tell me how easy was your bouquet?Im having a brooch bouquet myself(making it myself) an was going to attempt lace flowers for the bridesmaids but I have to admit the felt/button bouquets are awesome and the quotes I have been getting are ridik!

 

[mummymunch]

*stalks*

 

[sheryl16]

i absolutely love everything!!

can you plan my wedding please!!! hahhaa

 

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Thanks ladies! Haha Sheryl! I have to admit, I'm having the best time ever planning this!

MadameJ, it was super easy but time consuming! I ended up cutting out 100 felt flowers. Each flower had 4 seperate pieces.. so 400 in total and the largest piece was less than 1.5 inches! It took me a couple of weeks to cut all the felt but that's just because I'm a lazy bum and only cut 4 or 5 a day... there was one day I sat down to watch The Simpsons and by the time Eastenders had finished, I'd cut 35! So that was the most time consuming. Once they were ready, it took about 20 minutes to punch all the holes in the middle to put the wire through (all I had was a cheap and nasty mini hole punch haha! Would've killed for a cropadile then! And whilst we're at it, a sizzix for cutting the flowers!). Threading the flowers and buttons onto the wires took about 10/15 minutes and then assembling them into the shape took another 10 or so minutes! Very very easy and so rewarding!