Box of memories

I packed my wedding dress away this afternoon. The ritual of lining the box with tissue paper and carefully folding it away felt like one of the final acts relating to our wedding. The thank you notes have long since been written and sent, the photographs chosen for our wedding album. Now all that's left is to fold away my dress and, remembering how I felt on that day four months ago when I stepped into it, look forward to our marriage and all that is to come.






















































Box of memories photographs by me. Wedding day photographs by Fiona Ensor.

Sweet avalanche roses

Here are a couple of images from my final college assessment last week.

The brief: design a front facing triangular arrangement and create a moodboard to show the interior for which it would be suitable.



















The arrangement we had to produce to meet the brief is quite a formal, traditional design. I aimed to give mine a slightly vintagey feel, inspired by elegant Parisian apartments and romantic English country style.

I used my favourite Sweet Avalanche roses, which were the flowers carried by my gorgeous bridesmaids.



image by Fiona Ensor Photography

Tulips

Our wedding flowers were so beautiful that I couldn't bear to part with them so these Tulips came along with us on our honeymoom.

If you're lucking for ways to get the most out of your wedding flower budget then head over to Brown Bag where Nancy has written a great post showing how, by avoiding scarce, delicate, out of season or imported blooms, you can choose great flowers that won't blow your budget. In fact all this week Nancy has been running an 'Ask Nancy' series and she's posted some great advice and do-it-yourself flower tutorials.

The cake

When we started planning our wedding one of the things I was sure about from the beginning was that I wanted to use native Spring flowers that I had grown and loved in my garden, flowers that were right for the time of year and that had some meaning to me.

As you've probably gathered from the title of the blog I love Hellebores and always knew that I wanted them for our wedding day. My florist was a little unsure about using them at first as they can be a bit delicate, but choosing flowers that have some personal significance for me felt like a way of ensuring that our wedding was authentic, that it reflected who we are, and that we hadn't just plucked ideas straight out of a bridal magazine.

The cake was from M&S. It cost a bit more than we'd originally intended to spend on a cake but I loved the simplicity of it. It was delicious.

The cake stand, found in a clearance sale at Habitat, was one of my best wedding bargains. I now have a great excuse to bake (and eat) lots of cake. After all it would be a crying shame if such a pretty cake stand just sat gathering dust on the shelf.

The Goddess

Once there was a car...

the people who made her cheekily named her the DS (deesse) because they knew that everyone would think that she was as beautiful as a goddess.

She was loved by Presidents, Popes and screen idols.



Philosophers mythologised her and described her as having "fallen from the sky"

....and when you rode in her it felt as if you were floating on a cushion of air.

Well, turns out that all the time I thought that Mr H hadn't got round to sorting out a wedding car for us he had been secretly plotting a surprise.



Imagine how I felt when this pulled up to collect me on my wedding day.

Imagine how I felt as we glided through town with the warm afternoon sun glinting on her oh-so- shiny wing mirrors, happy in the knowledge that the months of planning and waiting was over and that I was finally heading towards my man to marry him.

Imagine how I brimmed over with happiness and excitement as people stopped and smiled and came out of their shops and waved......

and imagine the smile on my face as the car finally crunched onto the gravel outside the castle and I saw my man there waiting for me.

At last

So, we finally did it. After months of preparation, 10 days ago, on a beautiful perfect sunny Spring afternoon, Mr H and I exchanged rings, said our vows and the man that I love became my husband. Our memories of the day were captured by hundreds of wonderful photographs that we will treasure forever, but this picture of our nephew perfectly sums up the mood of the day.

Have you ever felt such overwhelming joy and happiness that you wanted to jump 10 feet in the air?

Arriving in (retro) style

There are just a few weeks to go until our big day now, and thankfully most of the wedding details have at last been finalised.

One rather important issue remains unresolved though. We still haven't figured out quite how I am going to arrive at the venue. This evening I am therefore going to work at persuading Mr H that we really ought to have a car like this.

Wedding invitations

You may remember that a few weeks ago I mentioned how much I loved these invitations by Storeyshop. Well, whilst it has been all cold and snowy here this week I've been busy designing and making our wedding invitations, and here they are. I'm going to head off to the post office later today to send them out. The illustration which you may just be able to make out in the top of the picture is a drawing of our wedding venue by my very lovely soon to be husband, Mr H.

Wedding flowers

This week after months of gathering ideas I finally got round to putting together an inspiration board for my wedding flowers. We are getting married in Spring, my favourite time of year. I plan to have Avalanche roses and hellebores (of course) as the main flowers for my bouquet. The colour scheme will be mostly green and white.

Image credits:
Dress: Marylise
Archway: h for hellebores
Cake: Marks and Spencer
Table arrangement: via weddings by Zoe Lingard
Shoes: Benjamin Adams