Regular readers of the blog might have spotted my giant balloon obsession. It all started back when I was planning my own wedding - I saw this picture, and decided I had to have giant white balloons at my big day. Fast forward two years and Before the Big Day bride, Verity, got in touch to tell me about her love of red balloons, and to find out the details of my supplier. Fast forward another year, and here are the amazing pictures of Verity and Russell's big day! They didn't just use balloons in their wedding decoration - they had a veritable plethora of wedding details, all themed around a vintage comic book and board game wedding theme. You'll find buckets of DIY wedding inspiration, from their Monopoly board table plan, the favour boxes wrapped in comic book pages, their mum-made wedding cake and jam-jar Pimm's glasses. I love the Scrabble tile wedding favours, the vintage cameras and the pop of the homemade red bunting against the white of the marquee. Huge thanks to Verity for submitting her wedding, and to her fantastic wedding photographer, Rebecca L Weddings for capturing all the details. Why not submit your wedding?
We got married on 18 May 2013 at Sudbury Hall in Derbyshire with a reception in Rosliston Forestry Centre.
We actually had a rough ride with our reception. We booked a nearby barn but got told with eight months to go that they were no longer doing weddings due to noise and neighbour problems. We were gutted! Thankfully Saffron Caterers put forward Rosliston Forestry Centre as an alternative. It was in the middle of the National Forest, and has accommodation for all our guests, so it was the perfect alternative, and better than our original choice.
I've known of Russ for years, as he was the best friend of my sister's boyfriend. I'd often hear his name and even friended him on Facebook and Twitter but we didn't meet for years. My sister always used to try and set us up, in fact I have an email that she wrote to me from five years ago which said I should marry him!
In 2010 I was invited to a party where I knew he'd be as well, and when he didn't turn up, I found that I was disappointed, so I asked him for a coffee via Twitter. From the moment we met we were inseparable. Our first date was on St George's Day in April, on New Years Day we decided to move in together and the following year, on Christmas Day.....he proposed to me in his PJ's.
Our wedding theme was a mash up of board games, music festival, comic books and vintage. As we invited our guests to stay for a whole weekend we called it Wedfest 2013! For decoration we had inspiration from childhood board games, and used bright pops of colour - prominently red and blue.
For me our wedding photographer was the most important element of the day. I love taking pictures, and documenting every moment. We came across an award-winning fashion and art photographer called Rebecca L who was branching into weddings. She was running a competition to win your wedding photography - to enter you had to submit a style board from an engagement shoot, and I entered with a superhero theme.
Although we didn't win the overall competition, it gave us the opportunity to spend time with Rebecca, and it was a no brainer that she would be our photographer. I'm so proud of the pictures she produced, as I didn't want me or my family to spend the day formally posing. She captured the magic of Wedfest perfectly.
Everything at our wedding was DIY! It took my best friends and my sister 18 months to make the bunting, which turned out so professional and colourful. The champagne we had at the reception was home-made elderflower champagne, and our wedding cake was made by my mum.
Our table plan was a giant Monopoly Board which impressed our guests. We had a vintage board game as the centre piece of each table, my sister Becki was very impressed that I had sourced a game from our childhood {Hotel} as her centre piece.
I couldn't make a decision on our wedding cake for ages - there are so many options and ideas flying round. In the end we found a red and blue design from Pinterest and my mum recreated it perfectly. The cake was lemon drizzle, and all the guests ate it as dessert because I hate to see wedding cake go to waste, because the guests are too full from a full course meal.
We created a letter box for cards by covering a box with pages from comic books, so that it matched the favour boxes. We also washed 100 jam jars {never again!} to serve our Pimms cocktail complete with red stripey straws.
The best man and most of the guests made a brilliant video singing along to a song from the film Anchorman - it was such a surprise and such an amazing gift. My Dad's Powerpoint speech {which included far too many baby pictures} also went down a storm.
My sister Ashlea made 100 favour boxes out of vintage comics, inside each box were Scrabble tile cufflinks, or wine charm for each guest. I spent months making sure I had the right scrabble initials for everyone.
I really didn't care about our wedding flowers, I wasn't even going to have a bouquet until my friend Roxanne persuaded me to have one. I'm so glad she did! For the table decorations, we also had gerbera in milk bottles, sourced by my sister from a flower market.
Our wedding caterers were Saffron Catering. Without them, we wouldn't have had the wedding of our dreams. They helped us when we were let down on the venue, and they provided a really professional service with a great American-style BBQ.
We splashed out on a live band who allowed you to get up and sing with them. They were called Bandeoke! Russ kicked off the night by signing McFly - It's All About You....that sounds really cheesy but the song means a lot to us. The cheese continued through the night as guests sang Take That, Dolly Parton, and as it was Eurovision night, we had Bonnie Tyler. The best moment was seeing my cousin Curtis sing with a friend of Russ'. They had never met before but sang Elvis like they were brothers - such a funny moment. They band appeared to have fun too which was so important.
I absolutely love any occasion where friends and family get together, so I was very excited to be planning my own wedding. I must admit that at first I felt very overwhelmed, but as soon as we found the venue it all very easily fell into place. I was told that I was very relaxed in the run up to the wedding - I had a bit of a melt down over the table-plan, but that was the only blip in eighteen months. So I would say that I {and Russ} managed it very well. Having the support of both sides of the family and friends was really appreciated too.
My advice to brides planning their wedding? Don't be afraid to be you. Your decisions might raise an eyebrow or two, but it really a day where you can celebrate everything that makes you and your partner unique. I'd also advise that you need to be as thrifty as possible and look for sales, barter down suppliers and enter competitions {I won both my invites and an engagement shoot this way}.
Love Before the Big Day? Never want to miss a post? Sign up for our free newsletter, for exclusive content and special offers! Before the Big Day - The Best UK Wedding Blog.
We got married on 18 May 2013 at Sudbury Hall in Derbyshire with a reception in Rosliston Forestry Centre.
We actually had a rough ride with our reception. We booked a nearby barn but got told with eight months to go that they were no longer doing weddings due to noise and neighbour problems. We were gutted! Thankfully Saffron Caterers put forward Rosliston Forestry Centre as an alternative. It was in the middle of the National Forest, and has accommodation for all our guests, so it was the perfect alternative, and better than our original choice.
I've known of Russ for years, as he was the best friend of my sister's boyfriend. I'd often hear his name and even friended him on Facebook and Twitter but we didn't meet for years. My sister always used to try and set us up, in fact I have an email that she wrote to me from five years ago which said I should marry him!
In 2010 I was invited to a party where I knew he'd be as well, and when he didn't turn up, I found that I was disappointed, so I asked him for a coffee via Twitter. From the moment we met we were inseparable. Our first date was on St George's Day in April, on New Years Day we decided to move in together and the following year, on Christmas Day.....he proposed to me in his PJ's.
Our wedding theme was a mash up of board games, music festival, comic books and vintage. As we invited our guests to stay for a whole weekend we called it Wedfest 2013! For decoration we had inspiration from childhood board games, and used bright pops of colour - prominently red and blue.
For me our wedding photographer was the most important element of the day. I love taking pictures, and documenting every moment. We came across an award-winning fashion and art photographer called Rebecca L who was branching into weddings. She was running a competition to win your wedding photography - to enter you had to submit a style board from an engagement shoot, and I entered with a superhero theme.
Although we didn't win the overall competition, it gave us the opportunity to spend time with Rebecca, and it was a no brainer that she would be our photographer. I'm so proud of the pictures she produced, as I didn't want me or my family to spend the day formally posing. She captured the magic of Wedfest perfectly.
Everything at our wedding was DIY! It took my best friends and my sister 18 months to make the bunting, which turned out so professional and colourful. The champagne we had at the reception was home-made elderflower champagne, and our wedding cake was made by my mum.
Our table plan was a giant Monopoly Board which impressed our guests. We had a vintage board game as the centre piece of each table, my sister Becki was very impressed that I had sourced a game from our childhood {Hotel} as her centre piece.
I couldn't make a decision on our wedding cake for ages - there are so many options and ideas flying round. In the end we found a red and blue design from Pinterest and my mum recreated it perfectly. The cake was lemon drizzle, and all the guests ate it as dessert because I hate to see wedding cake go to waste, because the guests are too full from a full course meal.
We created a letter box for cards by covering a box with pages from comic books, so that it matched the favour boxes. We also washed 100 jam jars {never again!} to serve our Pimms cocktail complete with red stripey straws.
The best man and most of the guests made a brilliant video singing along to a song from the film Anchorman - it was such a surprise and such an amazing gift. My Dad's Powerpoint speech {which included far too many baby pictures} also went down a storm.
My sister Ashlea made 100 favour boxes out of vintage comics, inside each box were Scrabble tile cufflinks, or wine charm for each guest. I spent months making sure I had the right scrabble initials for everyone.
Our wedding caterers were Saffron Catering. Without them, we wouldn't have had the wedding of our dreams. They helped us when we were let down on the venue, and they provided a really professional service with a great American-style BBQ.
We splashed out on a live band who allowed you to get up and sing with them. They were called Bandeoke! Russ kicked off the night by signing McFly - It's All About You....that sounds really cheesy but the song means a lot to us. The cheese continued through the night as guests sang Take That, Dolly Parton, and as it was Eurovision night, we had Bonnie Tyler. The best moment was seeing my cousin Curtis sing with a friend of Russ'. They had never met before but sang Elvis like they were brothers - such a funny moment. They band appeared to have fun too which was so important.
I absolutely love any occasion where friends and family get together, so I was very excited to be planning my own wedding. I must admit that at first I felt very overwhelmed, but as soon as we found the venue it all very easily fell into place. I was told that I was very relaxed in the run up to the wedding - I had a bit of a melt down over the table-plan, but that was the only blip in eighteen months. So I would say that I {and Russ} managed it very well. Having the support of both sides of the family and friends was really appreciated too.
My advice to brides planning their wedding? Don't be afraid to be you. Your decisions might raise an eyebrow or two, but it really a day where you can celebrate everything that makes you and your partner unique. I'd also advise that you need to be as thrifty as possible and look for sales, barter down suppliers and enter competitions {I won both my invites and an engagement shoot this way}.
Love Before the Big Day? Never want to miss a post? Sign up for our free newsletter, for exclusive content and special offers! Before the Big Day - The Best UK Wedding Blog.
