Lucy and Nigel's lovely room.

Well, it's been a while since I last had time to blog. As promised, I was going to share with you some of our May bride, Lucy's fabulous decoration ideas.

For wedding favours, Lucy had filled glass jars with sweets. The jars also contained a reminder of the guest's menu choice (fabulous idea, I can never remember what I've chosen!) There were also wine glass charms in different designs for the guests to take home.

The whole room just looked like a fairytale, from the cake, to the tall glass vases on the tables, the bird cage for the cards and the table plan. Officially the prettiest room I've ever seen!

The bouquets were designed and made by the bride's mother-in-law and were absolutely stunning. I loved the button detail, gorgeous.

There are so many great ideas around for table decorations and wedding favours at the moment. Jaime and Charlie used the very popular vintage theme for their table decorations, incorporating Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit for the place cards (well, we were in the lakes!). The wedding favours were little chocolate pebbles wrapped in tule and sitting in lovely hand crocheted baskets (made by Gaby). The groom's father made some beautiful jams for wedding favours which really tied in well with the whole countryside/ vintage theme. The table was dotted with origami swans which were a big hit with the children.

Each table's name was a song or song lyric special to the couple (great idea!) and etched into a wooden sign (etsy.com I think.)

The flowers for the centrepieces were so creative and were a mixture of fresh and paper flowers, something I've never come across before but which really did look stunning.
The whole room just looked so lovely, and there were some really thoughtful personal touches such as bunting made by the very talented chief bridesmaid.

Finishing the room off was the cake (by Lenka at Skrumptious Cakes) which looked absolutely stunning and tasted amazing too.

Newby Bridge wedding, April 2014

Well, the wedding we were at last weekend was an absolute blast. With it being a family wedding (as opposed to a working wedding) I did rather a lot of partying and not so much on the building my wedding planning ideas front! But I have 2 small children and spend most days in a manic rush, so the opportunity to relax and let my hair down was too good to miss. I did however manage to chat a little to the wedding planner Helen Davies, and pick her brains a little about her job, as well as picking up some lovely decorative/ wedding favour ideas, which I'll share on here soon.

The Swan at Newby Bridge http://www.swanhotel.com/ is just such a beautiful wedding venue for anyone that has a bit of cash to splash on their venue. The food was absolutely exquisite, the venue itself was beautiful and the staff could not have been more helpful. It was generally very well organised on the hotel's part, and the lady who oversaw the ceremony and photos and the meal was absolutely brilliant. As I part run Herke Wedding Photography, but also have aspirations to go into wedding planning, I always feel I have 2 'hats' on at weddings, and am looking at things from a photography and planning point of view.

I'll hopefully get chance to blog some more about the wedding soon, but right now I must go - it's past 2 a.m, am up feeding my baby so typing this one handed is taking forever! Also, sleep deprivation may mean this all makes little or no sense! Aaaah the wonderful, knackering days of caring for infants. Happy Days (and nights)!

My next purchase for HWP is bunting. Am looking at making my own so each one is unique to each wedding. Must get myself to hobbycraft (any excuse)!
(I did have a picture here of some lovely bunting but for some reason it has disappeared when I've shared my post. Still getting used to this blog, Neil is the technical one.)

Have found some fab plain bunting on ebay which can be customised so am going to experiment with potato, block and sponge printing. And how about mini bunting for cake/ ring/ detail shots?

This week has seen me go out running with our May 2014 bride. When she told me we were only going out for 15 mins, I foolishly thought - no problem! I used to regularly run for 40 mins or more......but sadly I had seriously underestimated how unfit I've become after 2 children, too many cigarettes and even more cake. I think what nearly killed me was the 2 mins run, 1 min walk cycle spread across the 15 mins. Anyway we did it so it's all good! Well done L, and well done me, actually!

One of my passions in wedding planning (and in life!) is shopping and finding a bargain. In Home Bargains in Huddersfield they have some lovely card post boxes (the kind for your guests to put your cards/ money wallets in) for only £1.99 (fully customisable) If bling is your thing, they also have some gorgeous table confetti (like little pretend diamonds) and some huge champagne glasses ideal for storing sweets/ wedding favours for your guests or for using as a centre piece (maybe filled with tealights/ a pillar candle/ floating candles/  twinkly fairy lights/ flowers?) These things tend to sell out quickly so get yourself down to Home Bargains! Love it.

Jaime and Charlie's wedding.....only 6 weeks to go.

Very excited for Jaime and Charlie's wedding on 26th April. As this is a family wedding, it will be largely a non- working wedding for me, although Neil is doing the photos. I'll be busy trying to keep my girls quiet and hotfooting it to the bar at every opportunity to deal with the stress of being a mummy of 2 little ones!

I will hopefully be able to take a few shots though, especially of Neil with his brother and his parents.

I'm also going to see what I can collect for a new idea I have for Amy Herke Weddings, but more on that later. 

This week I am embarking on a running training program with one of our lovely brides to be, which is a bit risky as we are both rather fonder of a glass of vino than a run, but we will see what happens.....

Wedding season is well and truly upon us and I can't wait!

The Swan, Newby Bridge, Jaime and Charlie's wedding venue

Have been meaning to start a blog for sooo long, have finally done it! This blog is dedicated to all things wedding, and I hope to include wedding planning ideas as well as stuff to do with Herke Wedding Photography. Very excited to get started........