All round creative junkie

Until relatively recently, it wasn’t the done thing to have wedding outdoors, or in converted barns, or windmills, or in castle ruins. If it was, I’m pretty sure we would have done that instead. We still had a beautiful day, somehow even the summer stretched to October for us. Twelve years ago we were married at Redworth Hall Hotel in County Durham. Just 15 adults and 4 babies for a relaxed daytime and a big party on the evening. A very English affair.

However, I’ve been thinking a lot about weddings lately, after creating a coastal themed wedding in Northumberland with a budget of just £300, I’ve also designed so many invites for friends I’ve lost count. I’m also running workshops on diy weddings at the UK Wedding Show, showing brides how to create their own wedding themes on a  budget with a bit of creative upcycling.

So I’ve naturally been wondering what we’d do if we were to get married now. Obviously we’re not going through it all again, so I’m planning my (probably) fictional wedding vows renewal instead! In a fictional wedding money is no object so we’re heading to Florence in Italy. After Durham, it has to be my most favourite place in the world. The architecture, the art, everywhere you look is like a masters painting. Beautiful. Strangely topical, when looking for ideas I discover that David Bowie and Iman were married in Florence in 1992. But so were Kim and Kanye so hey, it’s obviously it’s the place to wed!

Being a graphic designer I would generally create my own invites, but when Paperless Post asked me to take a look at their website I was curious if there was anything that would actually catch my attention and make me change my mind on designing my own. They offer a create your own set of stationery for everything from milestone birthdays to baby showers to weddings. You choose your design and customise it with your own details online, where you see your finished invite designed before you buy. They do offer postal service too but the best bit about the site is you can send digital invites, you click on the envelope, it opens to reveal the invite, you send you rsvp electronically then the sender receives all the rsvp info easy to file away on your computer.

So after browsing through the beautiful designs by the likes of Kate Spade, Vera Wang, Oscar de la Renta, Jonathan Adler I settled on a couple of designs that I would choose from.

This design by Kate Spade just reminded me so much of the sky in Florence with a little bit of opulent gold. I was able to personalise my invite on screen and see exactly how it would look. I really like the gold stripes inside the envelope too. I’m a sucker for a bit of gold foil!

The second choice – maybe I’ll give my husband the final choice?! – is a mixture of Save the Date cards by Vera Wang and main invites by Kate Spade. They work really nice together, I love bold typography and the wide stripes, both strong and classic.

Then onto the wedding itself. What would I wear? It’s just a renewal remember so I wouldn’t go for the full white dress, but I do love a Carrie Bradshaw inspired tutu!

Obviously in Florence, we’d have to celebrate outdoors – there’s just no compromising there with a view of the Duomo preferably.

I’d get a few rustic touches in there that I’d probably create myself, I wouldn’t be able to help myself.

We’d eat pizza, pasta, drink copious amounts of local wine and finish off with a gelato bar.

So a warning to my friends, get saving, as I’m now trying to work out if this could be reality for 2020.

Find these images and more wedding inspiration on my pinterest page here.

xx