Zoe Brakes Costume Designer: I'm getting married in the morning ding dong the bells are going to chime.......(my DIY)

Let's get creative!!!!

The food......We met with the venue approved caterers 'Complete Caterers' and discussed our ideas.

I always wanted a relaxed day where everyone felt comfortable, no extremely elegant, sophisticated 3 course meal, but a picnic theme, as neither me nor Dan class ourselves as a particularly 'fancy' couple, and I believe a wedding should reflect the personality of the newly weds.

We decided on a BBQ, and I thought the best way to present what

was available was on a blackboard as there was not just one single

choice nor a full menu, just a buffet. (the blackboard idea as so)..........

....We also made our own desserts along with some

of our family members hence the other sign. time

to get cake making!!!!!

The food was stunning. Complete Caterers did us proud.....To Colin and his team THANK YOU!!

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My own strengths don't lie in cookery however, but with crafty artistic projects such as my invites.......

........After looking at all my inspirational images I gathered my

designs and came up with something quite DIY! I incorporated

The vintage letter idea with the quirky postcard, with an artistic

mood board displaying a picture of myself and Dan. Every invite

was to be different to the others. Here is a selection.................

I tied the string in a bow with a cardboard heart shape and mini save the date style label held in place by it.

All the pages were loose only kept together through tying them with the string, creating a sort of parcel with lots to look at.

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The Guest book was one thing I wanted to be really creative and different with. Its something we will keep for life and look back on to remember the day; the well wishes made by our loved ones. I decided to cut swatches of fabric and bought some fabric pens so people could share their thoughts on the material, which would then hang on our wall as a patchwork quilt and a constant reminder.

Its still to be completed but on the day each swatch was decorated and this is one of them......

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The table plan.

I wanted the names to be written on an old rustic window, however they are very expensive and quite difficult to track down, especially when I had such a precise image.

I decided a mirror would be as effective and we just happened to own one of an ideal size and rustic appeal. I feel this idea was very different and fit in well with the theme.

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The table decor.......

My favour bags were cheap and effective. We housed our Love Heart sweets and lottery ticket favours in old sandwich bags, held closed with pegs and decorated with lace.

The table numbers sat well amongst the flowers.

...and the jars worked well with the Hessian table cloth and tied string.

The mix of the delicate flowers, rustic table cloth, vintage favour bags, crafty vases and fairy lights just encompasses my themes and ideas onto each table.

The favour bags amongst the place names.

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Room decor.......

I wanted to decorate and cover some of the bare walls with something in-keeping with the theme.

I thought putting photos on the walls like some of my inspirational images showed, would allow me to display photos of myself and Dan throughout the years we've known each other.

Some of the photos used.....

We displayed the photos on strips of thick ribbon in the colour scheme. This way we didn't have to make extra holes in the walls and could still show the optimum amount of pictures.

My Mum's tradition for all her daughters weddings is to make her own collage of funny pictures; the bride as a baby to the day she met and would marry her husband. She likes to add quirky comments too, her own way to embarrass the bride without a speech.

I don't think my singing voice is quite good enough for 'The Voice' TV show, but the baby me obviously did!

The 14 year old me at prom.....little did I know that I'd marry that wonderful boy!!!!!

Dan's mums collage.......amazing photos of Dan's childhood.......Michelin man!!! haha

I then decided to recreate one of the ideas I had found online, making frames with written comments about each other in them......this is what we wrote about each other.......

This was a lovely addition to the decoration, as it was a subtle extra and as we had a traditional wedding and didn't write our own vows we could say exactly what the traditional vows meant to us this way!

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Mr and Mrs

That will take some getting used to!!!

I thought I'd create a rustic bunting sign to decorate the top table.

Each letter is decorated differently picking a vintage font.......

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Place names

I used a stamp with individual letters building up the names and used a

silver ink onto old luggage tags. I then used some of the decorative

pieces from my invites to add to the place names and link them all

together.........

I tied the place names to the rolled napkins with ribbon strips decorating them too. This was a big job and both our families and wedding party helped immensely. Good job guys!