After the whirlwind of the past fortnight, this week has been a bit of a… OK not ‘downer’ as such… but just, you know, a very normal one. Getting back from a long trip away invariably means that you have a mountain of work to climb when you return (and emails ahhh so many emails!) so in all honestly I haven’t done much except playing hostage to my computer and make grilled cheese sandwiches for tea (domestic goddess? oh yes!)

This week may not have been a red letter one, but it’s still important to see the small things that are there to make us smile…

♥ long phone convos with my bffs ♥ being proud of my friends ♥ excitable emails from the made u look girls about the nyc shoot results ♥ constantly tweeting, emailing and harassing Gala (and vice versa) aaah I miss ya girl! ♥ Gareth’s honestly ♥ new mac purchases ♥ pink eyebrows ♥ kittens!! ♥ grilled cheese ♥ shopping sprees (for him!) ♥ instagram memories ♥ sushi dates…with myself! ♥ designing new shoes ♥ submitting my first book foreward ♥ pre-skype nerves ♥ organising a new workshop date! ♥ getting a new copy of Exposed magazine and reading it again, cover to cover (thank you Jasmine!!) ♥ making plans to visit my girls ♥ postsecret ted talk ♥ ordering the best phone case ever (can’t wait to show you) ♥ getting recognised and chatting to blog readers (twice in one day!) ♥ charity lipsticks ♥ fish n chips ♥ sleep…zzzz ♥

So this week may not have been as exciting as some I’ve had recently, but hell, there’s still a lot of stuff to to grateful for. I’d love to know what you’ve been lovin’ this week too…

We have recently added a range map prints to our collection with the suggestion that brides can use them as table plans. The bride and groom would name their tables after London tube stops which mean something special to them as a couple and the whole map can be made into a table plan.

So far the London Underground maps have been most popular with our World map prints a close second!

Supplies Needed:

♥ London Underground Map Print available for purchase via Wedding of my Dreams
♥ A1 foam board
♥ Red polka dot tape
♥ Luggage Tags
♥ Scissors
♥ Blu-tack

Method:

Step One: Place the London underground print onto as piece of foam board and use decorative tape to stick the print onto the board. The board allows the table plan to sit on an easel or be leaned against a wall for all your guests to see.

Step Two: Choose underground stops in areas of London which will become your table names. Maybe places that mean something to you as a couple, places you have visited together, places you have lived or places you have been on dates.

The table plan cards can be made on luggage tags, you can’t print directly onto the luggage tags but you can buy A4 pages of clear stickers which you can print on to. (These are available from most office supplies shops, they come with 24 clear stickers per sheet)

You can even download the London Tube Font for free to continue the look of the underground map on your table plan cards from font space.

Step Three: Print out your guest’s names on to the clear stickers and stick onto the luggage tags.

Step Four: Stick a pin in the corresponding tube stop on the map and tie the luggage tag to the pin. Fasten the luggage tag into place with blu-tack. Do the same for all your tables.

How about taking the same idea but making a world map table plan?

Or maybe one for your favourite city?

These maps can also be purchases through Wedding of my Dreams.

Some of you may recognise Julian & Carolyn as I featured their ‘registration of marriage ceremony’, a Malaysian tradition, way back in December 2010! Well since then, the couple have been planning the rest of their wedding celebration – an outdoor party held at Kiara Jungle Park in Kuala Lumpur.

“For the ceremony itself, we wanted a really cute/funny entrance,” Carolyn began. “Our first ideas was to have a few of our friends ride in with their Harley’s and then my Dad & I would zip right in with a Vespa and cute ‘beep, beep’! Unfortunately (well, fortunately on hindsight) the Vespa we borrowed was giving us some problems, so we didn’t go on with the plan… but my friends still came with 4 white Harley’s and so I hopped onto to the back and that was my grand entrance!”

“We tried to DIY and upcycle as much as we could for our wedding. For example the napkin holders were made out of toilet roll cores, cut-up and then covered with vintage curtain material that my late grandmother used. We collected hundreds of tin cans & placed tea lights inside them to light up the walk way. My Mom also helped decorate an arch for us to use during our exchange of vows. In fact, my Mom did too many things to mention!! Last but not least, are the bouquets. All the bouquets were made by my very talented husband, Julian!”

“Our wedding favours were items from our childhood with an 80s theme,” she continued. “There was gum, wafer slices, jelly cones, little bubble blowing thingys… Everyone loved them! We also brought in our collection (and a friends) of vintage furniture to create a mini living room in the park for people to have their photo in as well as relax in! We got our friends to help take photos with instant cameras and got them to pin it up around the area.”

“The last and biggest surprise for the wedding is our wedding video,” the bride concluded. “You see in Malaysia, it seems to be a trend to compile pictures of the wedding couple from childhood, through to meeting each other and so forth. Julian and I have always felt that it was cheesy and we wanted to do something different. We finally decided on a thank you video instead, to be shared during the reception. I remember saying to Julian that I want the people in the video to be really touched, and so we shot the video ourselves and did make a few people tear. Mission accomplished!

Aww and look how cute it is…! I can see why people cried can’t you? Absolutely LOVE this idea.

Thank you to Julian & Carolyn for sharing your beautiful story with us again today!

Supporting Cast:

Photography Credit: Fotofarm
Venue: Kiara Jungle Park
Bride’s Dress: Custom
Bride’s Shoes: Debenhams
Bride’s Headpiece: Handmade by Ming Wong
Groom’s Outfit: Custom
Bridesmaid’s Dresses: Marry Merry
Cake: DIY
Flowers: DIY
Caterers: Chef On Wheels

Almost exclusively the Green Room centres on the successful businesses, the people who run them and the strategies they employ to get, and stay, where they are. These are all super-important and you should be learning something from every article but we have absolutely neglected something equally critical from these pages. Something it took me too long and too much effort to realise on my own.

You might have already read about how this blog came to be, Kat has written about it on a couple of occasions but it’s necessary to go over it one more time to get this rarely discussed point across. This time the story will be from my perspective. And as everybody knows there are always two sides to a story.

A few years ago Kat was working nightshifts, five days a week, including covering the weekends. I was running a small IT company with a friend who I knew from college. In spite of my innovative ideas the business was merely treading water and the work was extremely stressful. I vividly recall several times when one wrong move would have lost millions of pounds worth of data, forever. As much as I love computers (and working with enterprise servers and infrastructure is awesomely exciting) I love my wife even more, she was my only motivation. Providing for my wife was the only reason I stayed at it. I wasn’t making much money but I had the potential, if things really took off, to give us a comfortable life.

The problem was our work schedules conflicted horribly; we had two short evenings in the week when we could spend any time together. Out of this we spawned ‘date night’, which I later found out is nowhere near a unique idea. We would go out to a restaurant, see a movie, and just spend ‘quality time’ together, which I later found out is also a euphemism. This worked really well for a while, until the blog started to take more of Kat’s time. While not working her day (night) job, Kat was busy working on the blog. Seeking out new photographers, posting content, and getting involved in forums and groups. It didn’t take long until I spent more of our date night staring at the back of a mobile phone than into my wife’s eyes. This was a serious issue, more so since at this stage the blog was making no money (we did not accept advertising requests until much later) so it seemed like a sacrifice without purpose. I felt like the only thing that was, is, important to me was becoming harder and harder to reach.

One night, while Kat was at work, I was sitting alone thinking about how this obsessiveness she displayed was driving a wedge between us. I was to confront her, I decided. The phone had to disappear, I never wanted to see the back of that thing again. Maybe the blog had to go too, after all, we weren’t planning another wedding. What was the point of it? As the list of demands grew selfishly in my head a tiny voice spoke up. What if she’d told me I had to pack in working for myself? I had been living payday to payday yet could have easily picked up an IT job in the City and instantly made us better off but I have always loathed the office/commuter lifestyle. She knew this and accepted the risks that came with me running my own business, without questioning, without prejudice.

I had always imagined our perfect future would look like me running a super-successful company and my wife would be a stereotypical domestic Goddess. In many ways we’re both quite old fashioned at heart; I like to hold doors open for her and she likes to cook for me. At that moment I recounted the phrase “Behind every great man is a great woman”. It is not only old fashioned but also sexist to ignore that the reverse of this must be true. If many of the great men throughout history have been empowered to greatness by the freedom their wives gave them then many of the great women must have been empowered by their men. If it’s Kat’s desire to get into wedding blogging, I further reasoned, then it’s my marital duty to support her in any way I can.

The first action I took was to let go of the anger I had been feeling about Kat’s mobile phone use at date night. This deliberate, forced attitude shift made the world of difference. I soon began to take a genuine interest in what she was doing, who she was contacting, how she was working. I think it was around this time that we started talking about how advertising might work, establishing the value for an ad slot, and looking at the layout of the site. All skills I had picked up in my years sitting at a computer, being a geek.

The more involved I made myself, the more interested I became in the business. But still I remained very much hidden, behind the scenes, for this world of weddings is a woman’s world. Or so I thought, until one peculiar night when I found myself sat on a table with Pete, husband to Emma Case, and Dave, husband to Lucy Ledger. These two guys were so proud of their wives, they openly acknowledged how hard the girls had worked, and continue to work, and were happy to be second-in-command, picking up the slack wherever it may be. And that was just it, second-in-command, that’s what my subconscious was still having trouble accepting. I looked back at Pete and Dave, how they acted with their wives and how they interacted with each other and I realised nobody was ‘second-in-command’, they were partners, in every sense of the word. And I knew that was what I wanted for us too.

In the years since, Kat has worked tirelessly and performed miracles with the business. Building it to the stage where we could both quit our other jobs and spend nigh-on twenty four hours a day together. Our home life has changed quite a bit and spending so much time with each other is never going to be everybody’s cup of tea but it’s perfect for us. By letting go of my hitherto undiscovered sexist ideals I know that I have enabled her growth. Yet it scares me to think back to that lonely evening when, in trying to protect our relationship, I almost made a decision that could have destroyed everything. And so I’ve never shared any of this with Kat before now.

Sadly, I know there are other women out there, struggling to turn their dreams into reality, whose partners do not support them the way they should. I’ve met them. I’ve met you. Perhaps my story will help. Perhaps your partner will read this. Perhaps he will make a small change to his behaviour. Often, all it takes is a small change, such as turning a blind eye to a mobile phone over dinner on date night.

All Photography Credit: Made U Look Photography (full shoot on the blog soon)

After a New Year’s Eve proposal (“not at midnight, we’re not that cheesy!”) Chloe & Emma set to planning their tea party wedding for the end of March. Being two girls, they knew their wedding would stand out and they wanted that as well as to put their own stamp on their day. As Chloe explained “Obviously as two girls getting married our wedding was always going to be a bit different. People kept on asking which one of us was going to wear the suit but we were both determined to be complete princesses on the day. We knew we wanted a vintage tea party wedding and we looked at lots of different ways to achieve it as we had a tight budget. In the end my mum who found Jam and Tea, who provided the tea & cake catering, online (she is an expert Googler) and the rest of the wedding fell into place from there.”

“Maryanne of Jam and Tea was the heart and soul of the whole day. Her food is insane and totally yummy and so beautiful to look at. We came away from the food tasting completely high on sugar and knowing the wedding was going to be perfect. I guess the other thing we did that was Rock and Roll was only use independent female British businesses. From the caterer to the dresses, photographs and head pieces, we tried to promote great British girlies as much as possible and they were all amazing!!”

“We also made a lot of items for our wedding as we are both creative people,” she continued. “I guess the biggest thing we made was the wedding invites. We hated anything that said ‘Civil Partnership’ on them and found traditional ones so impersonal. I love to bake and Emma has a degree in industrial design so we decided to do it ourselves with a £50 budget. We also made little boxes with teapot sugar cookies inside as favours. They were a complete hit and everyone said they were the best wedding invite they ever had. They also came in under budget.”

Chloe wore a short, 50s style dress which she had made by Dolly Dare in Spitalfields Market, London, and Emma’s gown came from Ghost. “We would love to add a special mention to Nazrine Elms of Dolly Dare for making the most amazing dress for me,” Chloe raved. “We went into the shop looking for shoes (they sell Irregular Choice shoes) and accidently bumped into an amazing dress designer. She does not usually make wedding dresses but was willing to give it a go and put up with us in her shop every Sunday for 3 months. It was a complete creative process and the dress is 100% bespoke and unique. I can’t thank her enough for her brilliant creative mind. I would recommend her to anyone.”

The girls chose Shell de Mar to shoot their wedding as they fell in love with her bright and fun style. “Shella made our wedding pictures look like the ones I had been looking at as inspiration for years, except better. I’m still blown away by how she made our wedding look. I knew it was a beautiful day but the light and the softness she managed to capture (on a particularly crappy March day) was phenomenal. If she and Maryanne of Jam and Tea ruled the world it would be an extraordinarily beautiful place.”

Stunner indeed! Thank you to Chloe & Emma and the fabulous Shell de Mar for sharing the gorgeousness with us today.

Supporting Cast:

Photography Credit: Shell de Mar Photography
Venue: Orleans House Gallery
Emma’s Dress: Ghost
Emma’s Shoes: Kurt Geiger (bought about 10 years ago and never worn)
Emma’s Headpiece: Vintage
Emma’s Shrug: Vintage
Chloe’s Dress: Nazrine Elms from Dolly Dare
Chloe’s Shoes: Nine west
Chloe’s Headpiece: Agnes heart on etsy
Cake: DIY (friend)
Flowers: Wild About Flowers
Hair & make up: Natasha of Pretty me Vintage\
Stationery: DIY
Caterers: Maryanne of Jam and Tea

Photography Credit: Xanthe Hutchinson for Material Girl April 2012 via fashion gone rogue

Well I haven’t had much time to sit around and browse all the wedding prettiness I wanted to this week but fear not, I still have a plethora of yummy treats for you! Time for a cup of tea and a biscuit I think…

♥ Meringue encrusted wedding cake!
♥ Yellow, pink & gold wedding inspiration
♥ Big bow beautiful
♥ Colourful cash machine - I didn’t think anything could make me want to take out money more than I already do…but this does!
♥ Smitten with the Carol Hannah lookbook
♥ Peach & mint romance
♥ Portland farm wedding
♥ Handmade Backyard Australian Wedding

Photography Credit: Tim Coulson

♥ 60s mod table inspo
♥ A boat filled with flowers e-shoot
♥ Colourful Venice Beach shoot
♥ Neon Brit inspiration shoot
♥ Chic Brooklyn Wedding
♥ Does anyone use Flickr any more? This article gives it’s opinion as to why we’ve all left as well as explaining why communistic is more important than ever these days.
♥ Bleach dye tank top DIY
♥ Wedding reading ideas
♥ Long time blog reader Rachael (or as I know her Rachylou13 on twitter!) married Aaron on Sunday. I am SO EXCITED to see the rest of their wedding!
♥ Feather + Stone killed it with this shoot (can’t wait to see more!)

Photography Credit: Feather + Stone

Gala made this cute & silly video of our day at Central Park Zoo!

Granted this shoot organised by a team of UK wedding professionals won’t be for everyone..in fact I guarantee that some people will be either shocked or even appalled by it, but oh boy is it creative and different!

Stylist and florist Mat of Red Floral Architecture told me all about their idea for this shoot, ”We wanted to do a shoot that was both fun as well working with a team of people who weren’t too precious about achieving a conventional, marketable image. We wanted to see where that would take us. This was the result – unstructured, crazy, unadulterated mayhem! The day began as it ended, with torrential rain. Some would have called the whole thing off. My vision of new born lambs and blossoms juxtaposed with a burning bouquet and beautiful girls was in danger of being washed away but we carried on regardless. A 30ft gazebo was assembled the day before in case of ‘showers’ and this provided the structure for a luxury table setting, festooned with freshly cut blossoms, chandeliers and enough crystal and flowers to almost bring the whole thing crashing down! Props and poles were brought in for extra support and we carried on.”

After shooting the elegant and almost ‘pretty’ scene it was time to mess it up! “My dream of messed up girls with make up smeared, hair distressed and totally pissed off with the whole sanitised bridal beauty thing began to emerge,” continued Mat. “No vintagey, talc dusted, teabag stained imagery here please. We wanted angry, debauched girls with attitude and they didn’t disappoint. All ideas of them looking like ethereal, virginal spouses were replaced by brides behaving badly and with a little encouragement (!) they stepped up to the mark. I have to say that by this time we were all a tad delirious and frustrated at the washout that could have been. What it became was the most memorable shoot of all thanks to everyone on board for daring to see it through. This shoot wasn’t set up to inspire brides how to look or behave on their wedding day, but I suspect some of you would love to give it a go!”

Thank you to everyone involved in this shoot (listed below) for sharing this today! So, thoughts please – do we love it or hate it?!

Supporting Cast:

Photography Credit: Chris Hanley Photography
Video Credit: Marry Me Films
Flowers & Styling: Red Floral Architecture
Dresses: Charlotte Balbier
Accessories: Eleventh Heaven by Ann McKavney
Hair & Make Up: Flossy and Leigh

The hand-reared lambs were provided for the shoot by Mat’s partner who is a sheep farmer and were carefully cared for throughout.