Inspired by my surroundings...

Congratulations on your engagement! Based in the heart of the Cotswolds, Ladyamy Bespoke Wedding Design is surrounded by a beautiful, tranquil, magical setting perfect for a gorgeous wedding day. I specialise in stylish vintage chic weddings. Im deaply inspired by my surrounding and privileged to live somewhere so stunning. I love all things to do with weddings, how can you not. Its such an exciting, special and lovely time. I love being apart of such a magical experience with gorgeous couples, using my natural creative flair and passion for the wedding industry to create the most beautiful and perfect bespoke day for you. I gain my inspiration from a variety of things and this diary is me sharing my 'pretty little finds' I hope you like them... I work with local, loyal and friendly suppliers. Thankyou to the lovely Alison of Daisy Cupcakes and Karen of Karen Massey Photography for their lovely imagery www.daisycupcakes.net and www.karenmasseyphotography.co.uk

Monday 30 May 2011

Spring Engagement Shoot

Nikita & Chris's engagement shoot

Location: Weston park, Telford
Date: April 2011
Theme: Spring flowers and grand gardens

So this evening on my little wedding blog we have a lovely spring engagement shoot.
Here is some more beautiful images, courtesy of  the lovely Jenny and Keith at McAvoy Photography

I simply LOVE the purple, blues and yellows, in the flowers they are gorgeous and the relection in the water is so pretty. What a lovely engagement shoot.
The perfect way celebrate your engagement and capture some magical and romantic memories before the wedding day.  
I hope you enjoy














Thankyou to Jenny for allowing me to feature another shoot

Love
Lauren
x

Friday 27 May 2011

 Emily Fisher runs Fishee Designs Photo Booth Ltd a unique Personal Mobile Photography service with a difference. It is Vintage, Stylish, Timeless, Fun, Shabby Chic, Interactive and Fashionable.
The Booth is a themed studio set where you can have creative fun with the photo shoot, try vintage style clothes and jewellery on and use the various antique props available to create a fun relaxed atmosphere allowing for some great photos.

Since being a successful candidate of the council run initiative ‘Face the Dragons’ as a small start up business, things have been by no mean easy for Emily but failure is not an option for Emily and she has explored every opportunity to maximize marketing and sales. She has been involved with the Boscombe regeneration team and the Boscombe Vintage Market, which runs once a month at The Crescent. She has been confirmed at several festivals and Events throughout the summer season and is looking forward to growing the business throughout the year. Further to that is making great progress networking with other like minded people to offer the service out to hire for parties and events.




Whilst marketing the Photo Booth and waiting for the festival season to start, Fishee Designs has also branched out her creativity and expanded the business to also produce hand-made Photo Cushions with a vintage theme and bespoke photo cushions for customer commissions. She also hand-makes, iPhone covers and gorgeous lingerie or shoe bags to keep your items safe when traveling. All her items are made from up-cycled vintage materials, meaning no two items are the same.




Emily has also teamed up with Nicki, the proud manager of What Alice Found along Christchurch Road in Boscombe and you can purchase all of these handmade gifts in the beautiful wonderland, which also now offers late night shopping, opening on Thursdays until 8pm for browsing and the chance to have an in-house photo shoot with Emily in the magical backdrop of What Alice Found! You can try on some of the clothes and accessories, get photographed by yourself, or with friends, family, pets and lovers! For just £25 a session you will get five professional digital photos edited and delivered to you within 2 weeks.



Find both Fishee Designs Photo Booth Ltd and What Alice Found on Facebook or visit the website for more details
07791968032

I hope you have enjoyed this adorable, fun and vintage post
Love
Lauren
x

Thursday 26 May 2011

Wedding Planning Advice and Tips and why book a planner..

Good morning, to all my lovely wedding lovers and blog readers. Yesterday I had a lovely relaxing drive around the Cotswolds, viewing lots of beautiful, potential venues and enjoying the stunning scenery. It was such a sunny day, the sunshine reflecting off all the leaves, beautiful cream and purple hedge parsley framing the country lanes and a sea of amazing greens, as we drove through field after field.. P assing many lovely little hamlets / villages and the odd manor house.

To all those beautiful brides to be, who are sweet enough to read my wedding rambles on my blog and follow me on twitter, a huge thankyou to you all. I have decided to dedicate this blog to you all and share with you some sound wedding advice / wedding tips and why its important to book a planner. I hope you find everything extremely useful..

Getting married is a hugely excting time, full of love / laughter / emotions and most probably a few tears. It all starts with the preperation and planning, making sure your wedding day is perfect and truly unique.

I have put together a few important tips and a little advice on the planning of your big day. The answers to all these things will most definately help you / guide you in the right direction for planning the perfect day and what needs to be included. So sit down with a cup of tea.....

1) What is your dream? Sit down with your fiance and both make lists of all the important things you want on the day. Devide everything into 2 small lists, essentials and optionals, this will help give you a clear idea of your dream day. Compare your lists and compromise where neccesary. Essential (venue / dress / flowers ) and Optional ( Limo / chcoclate fountain / choir )

2) What is your style? Religious or civil ceremony? How big is your guest list? Will you want a traditional or relaxed reception? Would a wedding abroad suit you?

3) What is your wedding budget? How are you going to be paying for the wedding? Will family be helping? If not work out how much you can save during your engagement.

4) Do you have a date set in mind? Are you wanting a short or long engagement? Are there any big family occasions which may dictate when you can / can't get married. Are there any specific dates which are sentimental to you? Do you want to get married at a certain time of year?

Do you share the same ideas of importance about your wedding day as your fiance? I have given you a small list of some of the elements to a wedding day, its a good idea to both put them in a priority list. You may think the venue / food is hugely important, wanting only the best food and drink and a very formal sit down meal. Whereas he may want as many guests / accessories / decorations as possible and with your budget the 2 may not be 'do'able'.


The Attire. Designer wear? or something from a sale or local boutique
A spectacular venue or a smaller venue with more personal touches and details?
The ceremony. Religious or civil?
Serving a gourmet meal and fine wines or a buffet style meal?
Unusual transport, like horse and carriage or something 'nice' maybe borrowed from a friend?
An open bar all night or a couple of bottles of wine on each table?

Why choose a planner? This is the most special day of your lives, the beginning of your furture together. Hiring a wedding planner can save you both time and money. Allowing you both to enjoy your engagement and look forward to your special day. A planner will eliminate any worries allowing your minds to be at ease, making sure it's a beautiful representation of your relationship, personalities and love for each other, whilst keeping your budget on track and fulfilling all of your wishes.

Here I have put together a short list of all the wonderful benefits from hiring a wedding planner / Ladyamy as your wedding planner

Ultimately saving you money and time (usually more than my fee)

Designing you a creative and beautiful wedding day which perfectly represents you as a couple / your vows / love for each other and combining your personalities

A planner does all the legwork for you, dealing with all the logistics and administration and paper work, saving you time and stress, allow you to enjoy a stree free engagement together

Liase between suppliers and professionals within the wedding industry, ensuring you recieve the highest quality of standard and the most perfect service for you

Where I have built strong and trusting relationships with wonderful professionals within the wedding industry I can offer you discounts and recommendations

Make sure that everything is organised and done in the right order on time and within your budget

To be there with you on your wedding day to not only ensure everything runs smoothly, you are feeling relaxed and at your best but that your venue is decorated to perfection and all the personal touched are in place

A wedding planner does not take over everything, you can still be very heavily involved in the design and all the details. Ladyamy offers a wide range of services from, Full Wedding Planning to Hourly Consultations, Wedding Day Co-ordination to Wedding / Bridal hair or even a Bespoke package, this allows you to choose exactly where you need a professional.

Please take a look at my services on my website for more details on these http://www.ladyamyweddingdesign.co.uk/services.htm


Your Budget!! Who is paying for the wedding? Traditionally this would be the Brides father, but as time has moved on usually, nowadays both sets of parents contribute and so do the bride and groom. Your budget will help guide you as to what is feasable and what is unrealistic.
Are you going to need to compremise on your vision and prioritise your wish list?
It is possible to have an amzing / spectacular wedding on a budget, you just need to be organised from the start and stay focused through-out the journey.
Grab a bargain, look out for sample sales and negotiate with suppliers (these are all things that a planner is for) Maybe design and make your own invitations, table plan and table decorations.
Opening up a Wedding Account is a super idea. This will make keeping track of what is coming in to the pot, being spent from the pot and what is left much easier.

Here is the average wedding budget, based on your budget of £20,000 This obviously depends on what is most important to you

Reception inc food / drink  40%
Venue /ceremony / music  15%
Wedding Attire 15% (if you have a budget of £20,000 spend approx £3,000 on the wedding attire)
Flowers  5%
Entertainment  5%
Transport  5%
Photography  7%
Stationery  3%
Unexpected Extras  5%
Total  100% £20,000

Not including Honey-moon and Rings 

Here are a few suggestions to help stretch your budget further..
Aim for a shorter day. The longer your wedding day, the more you'll need to pay for the venue / food and drink for your guests
A weekday wedding / sunday wedding (on a bank holiday) These days tend to be slightly cheaper, so you get more for your money
Have only your nearest and dearest to the dinner and all the other guests to the evening do
Think about making and hiring rather than buying
Less is more when choosing decorations / flowers etc
Remeber how many guests you have when choosing your cake. You will not need a 5 tier cake if you only have 50 guests
If there is another wedding at your venue on your wedding day, maybe you could share flower costs
Serve sparkling wine instead of champagne
Make your own music / Cds. This is a lovely personal touch and saves you money on live entertainment

I hope you have found this post extremely helpful, dont hesitate to get intouch for a complimentary consultation

Best Wishes
Love
Lauren
x
















Tuesday 24 May 2011

A Beautiful Memory...

A Beautiful Memory of a brown eyed brunette beauty.
This evening I am writing a blog, in memory of my beautiful big sister, Hannah Magovern, who would have celebrated her 27th Birthday yesterday.
Happy 27th Birthday Hannah
For Han's birthday we travelled to the seaside town of Marazion to celebrate with a nice glass of wine, some yummy food and the relaxing sound of the sea..
Hannah was the eldest of us three girls, I was the middle girlie and Beth is the baby. Obviously now we are in our 20's.

On the right are a few images of Hannah and I, Hannah with a couple of mates on a night out in Cheltenham and Hannah on a holiday to Jamieca and lastly the lovely one of our amazing Mummy and Hannah when she was little, these beautiful photos are few are far between so they are super special, reminding us all of such treasured memories with dear Han.

So, a brief explaination.. (this is harder to write than I thought, its making me very tearful..)
Its funny how much you can miss someone, even years after they have gone.

October 2001
Hannah suddenly fell ill with severe head-aches, being rushed to hostpital one evening after complaining of extremely intense head pains and sickness. Even the light of a night-light candle was too much for her to stand, screaming it was 'far too bright' and hurting her eyes. 
Visiting Hannah in hospital was fun, she always made me laugh. This one particular day, when I visited, from the moment I stepped in to her little room she was moaning at me, only as a big sister would heehee! ..that her room was untidy, the curtains were letting in too much light and needed to be pulled closed. Her room very peaceful as we chatted about school and life.. I remember her asking me why I had not taken her any flowers this time, which I found really sweet, because I couldnt take flowers everytime I went to see her. I was only 15 years old heehee... So I popped to the hospital cafe to get her some snacks. As I perched at the bottom of her bed, rubbing her feet as requested, she moaned that the tapping noise of my foot on the floor was irritating her. She seemed so different from the usually cheerful, chatty, very happy Hannah we all knew and loved, it was so strange seeing her uncomfortable and poorly.
Hannah was not in hospital very long. She was scanned after suffering a couple of strokes, affecting her speech and her eye sight. They found a blood clot on her brain, so she was quickly rushed to Frenchay in Bristol. Even though the operation was successful, Hannah sadly passed away after complications whilst she was in a coma.

I Miss my big sister everyday, she would be a wonderful aunty to my little Noah and I just know she would have had a very successful happy life, being the ambitious creative and intellegent soul she was.
Its such a shame we lost such a beautiful daughter / sister.. Lots of Love to my Mummy and Daddy who I am immensly proud of, for being so strong over the years.
Here are a few pics from our family trip, celebrating Hannahs birthday. We visited this lovely 'shabby chic' restuarant for a lovely lunch. Its called 2 Fore Street. Right on the sea front, with such pretty interior and delicious grub. After luch we had a wander around the back streets and a long walk along the beach..






A view from Marazion to Penzance


St Micheals Mount





I hope you have enjoyed this very personal post?
Love and happy memories
Lauren
x










Sunday 22 May 2011

McAvoy - beautiful Photography

Claire & Ben
 30 July 2010

 Astley Hall & Farington Lodge, Lancashire

 Cream and Teal Summer Wedding

...by Jenny at McAvoy Photography
0161 790 1239

Follow us on www.twitter.com/momentsbymcavoy

This evening I am featuring a beautiful summer Real Wedding.. Delicious Creams and a hint of teal..Enjoy!












 









Thankyou
x