A new video!

Aliye sent me this yesterday and it's already the most watched video she's uploaded!

We're World of Warcraft players and, knowing this, Aliye bought some in game music. This is a special performance piece by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and it sound amazing! What Aliye didn't realise is that this is the login music so when I hear this normally I'm about to play, I thinking about what I'm going to do, I'm thinking about meeting my friends... It's very much an expectant piece so we think it's quite appropriate for this.

Lavendar Wands

I didn't buy corsages or button holes because I didn't think they really fit in (this is one of the wonderful things with medieval weddings, a lot of modern stuff can easily be cut out and no one will think it's missing because it wouldn't fit in) but I saw this a couple of weeks ago and decided to have a try for our mums. Unfortunately I couldn't find any long enough for our mums so I did these small ones for our nieces and as a present to a friend who has helped out a lot.

You need 2m of ribbon, 0.5cm or narrower and an odd number of lavendar stems (I used 9 and 13) roughly equal length.

Strip off the leaves.

Tie one end of the length of ribbon just under the flowers.

I need more pictures, I'll add them when I get chance.

Fold the stalks over the flowers at the ribbon.

Take the long end of the ribbon and weave in through the stalks. It's a bit fiddly at first but once you've done the first two rounds it get easier. You need to pull it really tight because as it dries out it will get looser.

Leave it over night to dry out and then tighten up the weaving.

Once you've finished the weaving, you can either tie it off and have the stalks loose or wrap the ribbon all the way down and finish with a bow. You might find a little superglue useful for securing the ribbon!

I included two stalks for the blue one

My flowers

When I was looking for a florist I knew I needed one who got excited by what I was doing, otherwise I would end up with the same bouquet anyone got. I told them I wanted it to look like I'd collected it on the way to the church.

I met one florist at a wedding  show and when I told them the brief I think they forgot I was there because the two of them got very excited about, discussing between them what they could do! I knew I'd found the right people!

Other than that brief, lilies and roses were important to us because our daughter's name was Lily and red roses were the favourite flowers of both our grandmothers who died in the last few years.


Close up of my bouquet

 

I have two bouquets here, the girls seemed to pass them off a lot!

My sister (MoH) and eldest daughter (CBM)

Me and my husband!

All three types of bouquet



Placemats

I made these placemats for the children but we weren't able to get crayons and Mark left them in the hotel anyway so they never got used. In the end though they weren't needed, Monty kept the children occupied and I don't think any of them were bored or would have needed it. I thought I'd share anyway.

This is another thing I'd like to have a go at making for other people, so if you would like one in your wedding theme, get in touch!

Options for placemats

Let me know your themes or anything you want included and:

Wordsearch

     Word list or Theme for words

Hidden Message Wordsearch

     As above plus message

Mazes

     Rectangle
     Cut-Outs
     Circle/Oval
     Wheel
     Escape

Drawing Space

     Theme or Shape for drawing space

Colouring In

     Theme or picture for colouring in



Dot to Dot

     Theme or picture

Naughts and Crosses boards

Squares board

Treasure Hunt (list of items for children to find or, if you're supplying disposable cameras, for them to photograph)

Obviously I only have so much space so there's a limit to how much I can fit in.



Wedding Map

I thought as the wedding is over and I don't need to worry about revealing too many details on here, I'd start to show you more detail of our stationery.

This is our wedding map. I drew it myself - according to Mark I can't draw, he refuses to tell me how good the map is... - drawing the various elements on A4 paper, scanned them all in and then used Photoshop to get them right. I'm quite pleased with how they came out, very proud of my jousters! The only things I didn't draw are the train and carriage. I've included our crests on the flags outside the castle and a Tardis because the Lord Leycester Hospital was used as a Doctor Who location and we're both fans.

I enjoyed making the map so much I'm thinking of doing it for others, if you'd like one get in touch. I'm going to do them cheap (just to cover any costs) to start with to get some experience.

The wonderful people who made this happen!

I can't not tell you all the wonderful people who were involved in making this such an amazing day. I don't think I can really fault any of them, it was a truly magical day so I want to say thank you to every single one and to the staff at the different venues who I can't list individually.
Base of Operations
Warwick Arms Hotel

Recording the Day
Aliye Mullen photography
Midway Media videography

Bridal Preparations

Utopia Nails slotted me in quickly when my nails were in desperate need of being done.
Makeup by Jodie did the makeup
Naomi did my hair but I've not got website for her, but I can pass numbers on if necessary.
From Me to You Florist

Clothes and Some Table Decorations
The Costume Company

"Transport"
Listening Horsemanship (their clothes and the horse's dress were also from The Costume Company)

Ceremony
Lord Leycester Hospital
HawksRUs provided the owls
St Justin for the quaich
Eden Candles provided the unity candles and rushed them through when there was a mix up with paying.
PetalPot for the confetti

Reception
Warwick Castle everything that we had was included, The Costume Company supplied some decorations but the castle did most of it.
The Fool Monty
Bagshot the Magician
Ben the Cake Man (bet you can't guess what he did!) Ben's not doing birthday cakes this year due to his heavy wedding demand this year so doing Dad's cake was a real favour for us.
Chocolicious Chocolate Fountains
Then there was the band and Noel AKA Lord Talbot AKA Warwick Bowman.
If I've missed anyone please send me a message so I can add them in.

The evening reception

The Yorkist in the camp!

We then went down to the Undercroft, I had a quick look in the room whilst no one was in there and was blown away! The room looked amazing, I hadn’t imagined what they would do to it and it was far better than the normal evening banquets. As I left the room I saw that our coordinator had made us some lovely table plans up on Warwick Castle background paper (like the signs you see around the castle) and by the time the guests arrived the staff had a copy each and were helping people to their seats like they’d read it a million times, someone else presented us with the guest book and pens that the hotel had brought to the turnstiles for us. I checked out the toilets – including the gents, much to my nephew’s horror! Obviously I knew where the men were though so it was safe, my nephew was funny because he was so excited to see the basket and asked me if I’d seen it! I sat down for a little bit whilst we waited for the guests to come out of the exhibition. We greeted everyone in, then the MC “Lord Talbot” was announced in and he announced us in with a fanfare and asked us for permission for the guests to sit down, we discussed it for a second before agreeing!

It was nice for the first time that day to be able to sit down and not worry about anything. My youngest was getting a little stressed as she’d been away from me now for the best part of 24 hours (I forgot to say earlier, I found out her grandparents had taken her to their room, when I asked where she was I was told they’d taken her to bed so I left them) so hadn’t had a feed in that time. I’d given her quick cuddles through the day but not been able to do much as I was needed in pictures so quickly afterwards each time. I asked the staff if they could find her something (we had less people than we’d paid for so plenty of food) and then took her for a feed. My dress wasn’t accessible easily accessible, so I had to undo my zip and feed her over the top (my tog was disappointed she missed it, she likes shots like that) she was a lot more settled after that.

It was a brilliant night; everyone had a lot of fun.

We cut the cake with a sword

then had a handfasting.

One of my stepsons was employed as a magician’s assistant and paid £1 for it!

We had a fire show, which I didn’t expect and I always love Monty’s fire shows! During the periods when we weren’t eating Monty took the kids into the corridor and made them balloons which went down really well.

We had some brilliant musicians who were disappointed at the end when we told them that the group consisted of people who were into LARP etc. As we were getting close to the end of the night Lord Talbot asked us to choose three couples to join us in our first dance. Having spent the day with these people there were some very obvious choices! I’m sure we were slightly set up because the instructions were slightly confusing and the caller played a wind instrument so couldn’t call! But it was a laugh!

I had planned for us to get a taxi back so we could beat the guests but the taxi arrived half an hour after people had left and when we got back the hotel was empty apart from people staying over and my brother’s family. So we had the chocolate fountain to ourselves! Mark was a little worried about the cost, although hadn't said so but I knew him well enough, so I called him over and said “I’d like to introduce you to the Warwick Arms deposit” he looked blankly at me so I said “this is the £300 deposit on the Warwick Arms I’ve been reminding Mum about” and I could see the relief on his face as he laughed at another set up!