So, the aptly named events company who definitely needs no introduction in South Africa, By Word of Mouth made my task very easy!

My two bridesmaids and I made our way, with thanks to the Garmin, to their beautiful Hazeldene Hall in Parktown.

Where we were greeted by beautiful rose gardens between which spectacular bridal tables were set decorated from the classical white on white, to summery yellows and even earthy glass jars filled with pebbles, with the quaint aloes as the… aloe on top! Using simple touches such as raffia serviette holders complemented the earthy tones and I can only imagine how perfect that would fit a bushveld or desert wedding. With the smells of Jo Malone products perfecting the moment!

At the other side of the garden they had a candy stand that would take your breath, and all resolve to diet, away. In girly shades of pink and white, the table was heavily laden with striped candy apples, bowls of pink popcorn, Turkish Delights, candy canes, piquant cupcakes, marshmallows, glass tubes filled to overflow with pink and white jelly beans, with little white take away chinese boxes being filled to the brim by happy guests… and to take you straight to girly heaven, beautiful teacups, gently carrying rosebuds and flowers. Sigh! I can only imagine how this display would have held up as the main piece at a Bridal Shower…

At this stage you’re already walking around all dreamy eyed, head bursting with images of your own special day to come, while sipping on as much complementary champagne as you could, which was constantly being filled up. There was not a dry glass in the house!

We then slowly made our way into the beautifully restored house, where we were met with the most beautiful Marianne Fassler gowns, fit for queens, brides, brides maids and even the most whimsical little fairy-like dresses for your little flower girls. (http://www.mariannefassler.co.za/) Of course it helped that most of these exquisite creations were being paraded around the entire day by beautiful, tall, perfectly made up by Bobbi Brown, models! You could even sit to get tips for your own day by the Bobbi Brown girls.(http://www.bobbibrowncosmetics.com)

In the next room you were met with glistening beads and stones, earrings and hairpieces that took your breath away. The Kirsten Goss Bridal collection was enough to make you throw all previous hair ideas to the wind, and focus solely on making one of her unique pieces the focus point! (http://www.kirstengoss.com/)

Of course here I have to add that throughout all this time, there are constantly friendly, well presented waiters walking around, carrying trays of edible art. That’s the only way to describe what we were offered. From Omega 3&6 bursting salmon filled with cream cheese, to cauliflower and blue cheese soup cups… Naming everything we had to taste will be impossible! But every bite was so beautifully prepared and served, it took all the will power to say no to the third round of risotto! And that was only after we learned that on the first floor there was dessert table that would let all final resolve disappear… There we were met with delights ranging from mini chocolate puddings to lemon meringues… Yet I stayed strong and directed my focus to some more beautifully decorated tables! Ranging from festive blues and reds to dramatic blacks and purples, all complimented greatly by the most beautiful creative floral arrangements!

After another 2 hours of us chatting up a storm with lovely By Word Of Mouth personnel, models, friends and surprise family visits, constantly sipping on never ending champagne, we went home tired, but very happy!

(http://www.bywordofmouth.co.za/index.php)

Splendid Affairs is a wedding decor company specialising in bespoke wedding decor – something personal, unique, stylish and always glamorous. The inspiration behind this table was  vintage glamor coupled with the latest trend of using cut glass, crystal and silver as a prominent wedding decor items. The flowers are kept to the minimum and the focus is placed on other decorative items. Each table can have different items displayed, which you can keep as sentimental keep-sakes from your wedding day to treasure forever.

Follow these very easy steps to create this gorgeous rose box which can become a centerpiece, or a gifts table decoration, or even a ring pillow!

For more inspirational ideas flip through the digital pages of Splendid Affairs February Issue.

(You may need to wire the rose head so it can fit in beautifully between the corners of the arrangement)

I made this arrangement in minutes (without prior flower-arrangement knowledge), so I’m thinking: maybe this kitchen garden look could go with my Mad Hatter’s Tea Party theme?

Mrz Splendid does such beautiful flowers! Here are a few of my favourites. You can see more on my blog.

Soup tureen for the flowers

Take a look:  http://www.kensington.org.za/spring_fair_kensington.htm

Bling Cake Toppers

Wow, feels like forever since I last posted on here sorry guys.  Been diagnosed with a baby lol! and just got over all the sickness and tiredness but promise to load more in the future.

 So this is my new fab find:) they certainly didn’t have these unusual toppers when I got married  I have noticed a big trend in the last few months for unusual cake toppers and the ones with the couples fishing, shopping etc are so expensive and I think are R750!!!!  So I thought I would look around and see what else was out there.

I looked at ordering one for my friends wedding off a website in London and they were 99 POUNDS – ouch!  So I thought I would get someone to make them for me
Email me: mrsmack@iafrica.com if you would like some more info.
They really are divine and you can custom make them
Blinged with crystals makes these initial cake toppers are a fantastic way to enhance any special cake whether it be a wedding cake, an anniversary cake or even a special birthday cake. This initial could show your married name initial and two smaller initials to show the first name initials of the bride and groom.

Wedding cakes are important parts of a wedding celebration. It is something that represents your style, and it adds pizzazz to your wedding celebration. Finding the right cake topper for the perfect cake is not going to be hard anymore. With these Bling Crystal Monogram Cake Toppers your cake will be the one of the many parts highlighting you special day. Each Blinged Monogram Cake topper is a custom art piece, and is handmade.

cake toppperscake toppers

www.mixmingleglow.com

We were also lucky enough to get the very best gift of all from one of our MC’s and good friend. R10 000 towards a videographer!!  We’ve always wanted to get one but the costs are ridiculously high but after speaking to alot of already married friends, every one of them said they so regretted not getting a DVD done of their wedding day.  After meeting with Clive and Patricia of  Wedding Reflections (absolutely great couple!) and seeing samples of DVD’s they’ve done, it made our mind up.  It is so special to have done and if you can cut something else out of your budget and get this done, I truly suggest you do so.

We’ve started handing out the invitations and really all that is left is fine tuning the seating plan, budget, makeup and hair trials and final payments to suppliers.  We’re also arranging a meeting about 2 weeks before the wedding with the DJ, photographer, videographer and bridal party so that everyone knows what is expected and we will give the contact numbers of the suppliers to the bridal party so that everyone is reachable on the day in case of problems.  Oh!  And most importantly the dresses still need to be completed but that is going along quite well for now.

Everything’s going well you think…….mmmmm well it is but with a twist.

Mr Daisy decided that we should add some black into the picture and black doesn’t mix well at all with the colors or décor we decided to use. So after much debate I decided to work on another idea to show Mr Daisy that having a black “theme” wouldn’t look as nice as the “vintage” theme we had already decided on. On finishing the “mock-up” theme that included black for Mr. Daisy, I very unexpectedly fell in love with it, it was just so much more…….mmmm what’s the word……..vibrant, than the color scheme and theme we had already decided to use. Ideas for the new theme just kept rolling in, one after the other, It felt so good having a fresh idea to work with that I completely forgot about our previous theme. So here is an update on the NEW theme we are going to use….

The new colours - Black, Lime green, Gold, Light pink, Ivory

Tables:

New table layout

To bring in the black we decided to use Damask design table runners with Lime green table cloths. Many people cringe at the idea of colored table clothes and are still very traditional with the white table clothes and colored overlays but just have a look at this reception, doesn’t it just look VIBRANT.
Here is an example of such a colourful wedding.

I still liked the whole vintage, oldish kinda feel and I still wanted to incorporate that somehow with the black and green, which I feel gives it a very modern look. So our NEW theme now is “Modern Vintage”, very contradictory but I think it’s going to work AWESOMELY.

I found out that Damask anything is very very pricey and considering that we are on a very tight budget I decided that as a designer I can do my own damask design on the PC, create a stencil of the design, buy material and get black fabric paint and paint it on myself. I only need to make 7 or 8 of these so it’s not going to be a huge mission.

As for the plates, I would’ve loved to use square plates BUT I cant find anyone who hires square black plates……everything is round and white. So we are going to make black, square “placemats”, use the standard white round plates and black napkins.

Plate setting

The Centre pieces:

Everyone has seen the tree branches with fairy lights on them, well I LOVE THEM!!!! So we are going to incorporate that in our centerpiece. We are pretty much going to make an entire tree out of wire, spray it gold and add battery operated fairy lights to the “branches”. Once again, only 7 or 8 are needed so its not going to be too much work. The wire we are going to use is not expensive at all and have worked out the the cost of 7 trees (without fairy lights) is going to be about R200. There is still a lot more detail that has to come onto the tree such as flowers, but I still have to get all the ideas on paper to see what will work and what wont.

This is more or less along the lines of how the tree must look

Sort of the effect I'm for

That’s pretty much what I have come up with for now. The flowers are still going to be the same, green button daisies, light pink chrysanthenums (new) and one big king protea as my bouquet. We are still working on the invites, but have a good idea of what we want.
After more than a year of working with one theme a person can get very bored with it and ideas just don’t come as easily as they should. I have regained my excitement for the wedding planning with our new theme and cant wait to get started on all our DIY projects for the wedding.

Get the waitrons to serve colourful cocktails.  There is a minimal extra cost, if any at all, to replace champagne or wine with cocktails.  Also, why not use something affordable and colourful that guests will notice straight away for the escort-cards?  This is the first thing they see before walking into the reception so make a statement.  Going bold and vibrant adds glamour and style to any event and can be achieved for next to nothing if you just scan through some ideas.  You’d be amazed what you can achieve.

Keep your table presentation looking polished and at the same time cut down on your prep work by combining menu cards with place cards. “Ask your stationer to print the menu and leave enough space on top to caligraph or handwrite in the name,” suggests Blum who loves this idea for small weddings.

Keeping bridesmaids’ bouquets monochromatic gives them a clean, elegant look. Add textural interest by asking for each bouquet to be a different flower.   For a recent wedding, Blum did one bouquet of roses only, another of peonies, one of ranunculus, etc…all in the same shade of pink.

Want a dramatic look without the price tag?   Tall candlesticks of varying heights make pedestrian centerpieces appear grand. “The ‘bang’ is achieved by the high candlesticks instead of more flowers,” explains Blum.