this is to invite you to....

I mentioned in a previous blog that I've been spending a lot of my spare time planning a wedding and here is a chance to see some of what I've been up to!

Seeing as we've now given out all our invites there doesn't seem to be any need to keep it a secret any more!

I was inspired by browsing other wedding invites on Pinterest but we wanted to have something that was still unique to us.

Jonny (my fiance) and I came up with design ideas together which included a hand-drawn tree, map and swirly branches.

The tree on the invitation section is based on a necklace that Jonny gave me when he proposed and the leaves were painstakingly coloured in by hand to have a more authentic gold look that was tricky to achieve with a printer!

The fabric used to tie up the invites is the same material my mum and aunt are using to make our ushers' waistcoats. And the green colour is a fairly close match to the material of the bridesmaid's dresses.

The ivory and walnut coloured card came from a great company I discovered called Eco Craft who produce high quality recycled card and paper. And we also got our labels and envelopes from them too!

Putting the invites together was definitely a team effort and at one point Jonny, me, my two brothers, my mum and my cousin Sorren were all involved in cutting fabric, tying bows, filling in John Lewis cards, colouring in leaves, writing envelopes etc! 

 

My brother Simon refused to look at any design ideas because he wanted the final result to be a surprise! So he was the first to receive an invite meaning we could then get him to help us make the rest!

officially unofficial...

This is a rather belated post seeing as this wedding took place about a month ago but with video work I hadn't had the time to think about photography blogs! So...

My friends Ed and Jeanna got married last month :-) They got loads of friends involved in doing various different jobs from playing in the band to arranging the flowers which meant the whole day had a really nice feel to it as everyone chipped in to help them celebrate. The job I was asked to do was to be the unofficial photographer which suited me well.

Mr and Mrs Spencer

A simple but very beautiful cake

Flowers by Robyn at Floral Footsteps

As I've said before, I don't enjoy function photography. But this job I loved. I enjoyed the luxury of being able to take lots and lots of photos coupled with the challenge of making sure there were some fairly decent ones in there, but at the same time I didn't have to get the official shots that the bride and groom had specifically requested. So if a shot didn't turn out well, it didn't matter.

I enjoyed getting the 'behind the scenes' photos as I got to the church early so had lots of time to photograph the band, ushers and groom before the service started. Some people seemed to take their roles more seriously than others...

And then there were lots of photos of guests having a good time...

   

I love this photo of my friend Abi, she's definitely a glowing mum-to-be. It's a nice place to finish, with another type of new beginning.