A Nice Day for a WHITE Wedding!

We did it!

All photos ©NaomiJoyPhotography 2012 - click on an image to bring up the full-size gallery

Wedding invitations!

Our wedding invitations have arrived!

They are the gorgeous handiwork of my fab chum Gemma Perkins and Bob and I are over the moon with them. The actual invites are mounted on little wooden plaques with string hangers for extra vintage chic!

Here's the finished invitation packs ready to send:

This is the actual invitation - and what it looks like as a plaque:

This is the invitation for our Ice Cream and Slippers evening reception:

And here is the RSVP card:

We are beyond chuffed with them and know our guests will love them!

Bob's sweet proposal!

Quite a lot of people have been asking how lovely Bob popped the question, so here it is in all its sparkly wonderfulness...

I love Christmas. It's a well-known fact - the more tinsel, twinkle-lights, brightly coloured baubles and fir trees the better. Bob, who is decidedly more reserved when it comes to the festive season than I am (although he did once do a stint as Father Christmas, which I think is fab) knows this well and since we have been together he has always made our Christmasses really special.

But even considering this, I didn't twig that he was planning to propose on Christmas Day!

On Christmas Eve, I had bought some gingerbread stars to make tree decorations and we had a fun hour decorating them with writing icing and sweets. When we hung them on the tree, I noticed one was missing but assumed Bob had snaffled it when I wasn't looking (cakes and biscuits tend to vanish when Bob is on the scene...)

Next day, we arrived home from church and Bob - who had been decidedly strange all morning and for about a week beforehand - made me sit on the sofa and kept nodding at the Christmas tree. It took a while for me to work out what he was doing and then I looked over and saw this...

At this point, I should probably explain that Pandy is the nickname my family has called me since I was little. When I met Bob he liked it and so it's stuck!

I have to admit, I was in total shock - even though we had been talking about the possibility of getting married for a while. When I looked back at him, he was kneeling beside me with a vintage, white gold diamond ring. It's beautiful and exactly what I would have picked for myself - it looks like a tiny star on my finger!

So, there you have it! It was the loveliest, most private moment and I'm so proud of the Bobster for dreaming it all up. When I asked him how he decided to propose he said he knew with my reputation for writing romantic conclusions to my books he would have to make the proposal special enough - aw, bless!

Our must-have wedding accessory...

There is one thing that Bob and I have agreed we absolutely have to have at our wedding...

When we sat down to plan our wedding, we decided that there should be two important elements: firstly, something that represents who we are; and secondly, FUN. We don't want a stuffy wedding that we and all our guests will feel out of place at. We want to celebrate the start of our married life with the kind of light-hearted fun that we hope will be a feature of the rest of our lives together. One thing that both represents us as a couple and totally ticks the Fun box is our love of slippers.

So, we are inviting our guests to bring their favourite pair of comfy slippers or shoes for the evening part of our wedding celebration. They can be old favourites, or brand new purchases (if anyone needs an excuse to upgrade their comfy footwear!). And there will be prizes for the best ones. Oh yes!

Not only is it a brilliant idea for making everyone feel relaxed (you try having a serious conversation with someone when you have enormous fluffy animals attached to your feet...) but it's also practical. Having worked at - and attended - so many weddings, I know that one thing unites them all: that moment, either late in the afternoon or at the beginning of the evening reception, when your posh shoes start to murder your feet. There is nothing worse than trying to enjoy yourself on the dancefloor in too-tight shoes, or daring to go barefoot praying nobody has dropped any glass. I have to say that Bob and I are rather chuffed with this idea and I can't wait to see our suited and booted guests in daft footwear, boogying the night away! Now that will be a brilliant photo opportunity...

I've already found a pair of brand new, white furry slippers with silver embroidery and sequins to wear with my wedding dress. In fact, Bob was quite worried about me for a while because I was more excited about my funky wedding slippers than I was about my dress!

Photo credits: Pink Slipper Boots; Freud, Lamb and Bunny Slippers

Sparkletastic accessories...

As all my bridesmaids will be wearing different colours and different dresses, I wanted them to have something to tie everything together.

All their bouquets will be the same, but I thought it would be nice if they could have something a bit special for part of their outfits. After browsing on Etsy.com I came across the work of Sue Eggen from Philadelphia in the United States. She creates the most beautiful, original accessories, jewellery and craft items under the name of Giant Dwarf.

I absolutely fell for these handmade fancy felt and Diamond German Glass Glitter Starlette Sparklers. Each one is unique because Sue cuts them out by hand and the glass glitter looks stunning. I ordered one each for my bridesmaids, so it will be subtle but a nice feature. It means that Helen, Hannah and Bev can have their hair however they want and incorporate the stars (each star has a bobby pin on the back).



They arrived today and I'm chuffed to bits with them. There was also a lovely message from Sue:


It's one of the things I love about all the designers I've met on Etsy - everyone is so friendly and there is a real sense of individuality on the site. I also love that there are elements of my wedding that have come from craftspeople elsewhere in the world: my wedding ring has been made by Shirlee Grund of Lichen And Lychee, a wonderful jeweller from Seattle (pics coming soon). Bob and I want our wedding to be an event that everyone involved can get something out of - and it's so cool to see the enthusiasm of people I've never met before for our special day. It makes everything so much more lovely!

Bring on the BUNNIES!

I'm going to have five bridesmaids at our wedding - two adults (my sister Bev and best friend Helen), one teenager (my singing student Hannah) and two tots (Bob's niece, Georgie, and Bev's daughter, Freya.) The three older bridesmaids will have similar bouquets to mine (see below post for more on my flowers) but when it came to thinking about Georgie and Freya I quickly realised that flowers weren't the way forward for them.

Georgie is four and Freya is three - both adorable and both very headstrong. As the potential for tantrums is quite high I thought perhaps flowers could become weapons of mass destruction if they have an off-day! I wanted to come up with something else they could carry that would look sweet but not cause too much damage if swung about...

Then, I had a brainwave: BUNNIES!

Both Georgie and Freya have toy rabbits that they love and I thought that a new bunny for the wedding would be something they would like and could also be a present for being our bridesmaids. So, they will be carrying one of these amazing Jellycat Bashful Bunnies each! This one is called Hettie and I bought them online from Tiny Tot Shop, who have a fab range - so a happy half-hour of gorgeous bunny shopping ensued! I'm going to tie spring green and buttercup yellow ribbons around the bunnies' necks so they look a bit festive. What do you think?

Bloomin' lovely!

I'm very excited because I've just met the lovely florist who is going to be providing the bouquets and table arrangements!

I've chosen Little 'a' florist because I absolutely adore Amy Grzegorzek's designs. I first saw her work at the Designer Vintage Bridal Show at Highbury Hall in Birmingham last February, when I was researching wedding stuff for my novel It Started With a Kiss. Amy's work is wonderful and everything I've seen has been fab, so I can't wait to see what she does with my flowers!

I've given her quite a wide brief for the flowers - the big thing about our wedding is that Bob and I want everyone to be relaxed, so we've extended that approach to the colours we've chosen, the contrasting shades of the bridesmaid's dresses and the beautiful mismatched vintage crockery for the afternoon tea. Basically, anything goes!

Some of the flowers that might be included are:





from top left: Delphiniums, Eustoma, Sunflower, Sweet Williams, Roses

Exciting!