vintage tea sets

When we were planning our wedding - and I can't believe that we started that process two and half years ago; how time does fly - we spent a lot of time looking for vintage tea sets. I started out thinking we would hire them but there was a distinct lack of options. Even the ones that looked promising initially turned out to be a disappointment and so we decided that we needed to take matters into our own hands, painstakingly collecting - in conjunction with our families - a hundred sets of dinner plates, tea plates, cups and saucers. (and cutlery too). It turned out to be beautiful and well worth the effort; we took two sets on our honeymoon and even today we eat off some of the tea plates. I also have enough tea cups and saucers for an extremely large royal celebration next April and every single junior member of my family has inherited part of it for their university lodgings.



Planning a wedding now and I understand that is a myriad more options. Just today I stumbled across Vintage Tea Sets, a company who essentially offer a similar service to what we ended up doing ourselves. They also sell candles in vintage tea cups and other tea party essentials as well as hiring crockery for events of all kinds. They are also based in the West Country, and, if you are planning a west country wedding (as we did) they must be well worth investigating. I think I must have been drawn to them as they feature two of my favourite things on their website (vintage crockery and peacock feathers).

---
Top photo by me and of our crockery and napkins. We bought all 100 of those too.
Bottom two photos borrowed from Vintage Tea Sets, showing their crockery.

My list doesn't seem to be getting any shorter...

...but we seem to be getting things done. My mother has done excellent work with logistics ensuring people can get too and from the reception. I just wish some of the guests would RSVP {in any form, we are beyond caring now whether it is done officially or not} to make her life easier.

My hen party is next week and everything has been paid for and the tea party finalised. I cannot wait to eat the sandwiches, cakes, scones, cupcakes and little bite sized pieces of chocolately goodness that are planned for the top tier of the cake stands. I just need to finish off my outfit and all the last minute logistics but I am really looking forward to it.

This weekend we are going away. To stay with M's parents. M is playing in a golf tournament. I am going to print and collate 100 orders of service which as yet have not been finalised, checked by the vicar or approved by my mother. I foresee a long afternoon tomorrow trying to get it all done in time for printing.

This week I am going to finish the bridesmaids' presents, jewellery and my hair piece for the reception. I have decided to make a hybrid headband style thing from the silk flowers, merry widow veiling and a peacock feather or two. I plan to sew it to a hairband and hope for the best. I must also make the BoyBird and the napkin labels.

We then have to buy M his shirt and BestMan's tie. I think these are chosen, they just need purchasing. Speaking of purchasing, we also now have to pay all the final amounts to the various companies. It's scary seeing so much money leave our bank accounts.

---

The advice I have for anyone one month out from their wedding is this: take some time out for yourself. Do something else, think about something else. Delegate. Cross some things off the list which no longer seem important. Get things done so you're not rushed in the last week. Pack for your honeymoon in advance.

The advice I have for anyone further back in the planning process is this: time flies. The wedding seems ages away and there seems to be lots of time. And then there isn't. Get things sorted early. Delegate early (but remind later on, so things don't get forgotten). Set a metaphorical deadline for getting diy and projects finished. You will over run. You will not want to be making whatever it is 2 weeks before the wedding. enjoy the planning process.

The Invitations (Part Three)

This girl's internal dilemmas continued. Having solved the tag issue thanks to Marie (for the suggestion) and her darling boy (for purchasing it), her thoughts turned once again to the invitations. She was so pleased with the support that she had received and realised that invitations were not a competition. She knew that, but she also loved beautiful things, in fact, she only wanted things for her wedding that were beautiful.

Still, it was more important that their best people came to the wedding, not whether the invitations were perfect. Besides Alex had done a fantastic job and as long as they had the correct information on and reached the correct people, their purpose would be fulfilled.

And accompanying the invitations and the RSVP cards (don't ask, yet) would be this map:

{Wedding Map (unfinished), originally uploaded by rachel-catherine}

Well, a finished version of this map. It will have place names and our names and the date and another reference to the wedsite/website. She just hoped people would see it for the handmade charm with which she intended it, not just wished she had photocopied part of a road map...

Oh, and for those of you that asked, this is the peacock image:-

{Peacock Image, originally uploaded by rachel-catherine}

And it's stamp brother which matches it will be used to 'seal' the backs of the envelopes and to create the thank you cards.

---

If you care to read about this again, in a slightly altered format(!), follow this link to Elizabeth Anne Designs...

---

Oh, and this may be my last post for a week or so. Having a minor operation tomorrow (diagnostic) but have been told to take two weeks off work. Hoping to be at least up and organising and maybe even blogging by next week, but we shall see...

T minus 3 and a half months (or 105 days to go...)

In November I posted my to-do-list. Three and a half months on, with exactly three and a half months to go, it thankfully looks a bit more manageable. Which is a good job since wedding planning is not the only thing on my mind...

*Make and send the invitations including calligraphy maps and RSVP card inserts.

*Choose readings and the people to read them

*Finalise music to be played during the signing of the register and ensure accompanist is happy.

*Finalise order of service and have printed.

*Collect my dress from the alterations lady. Make accessories & veil.

*Make bridesmaid's jewellery (components ordered & have arrived). Finish diy projects/presents/etc.

*Finish collecting crockery including tea trays and vases.

*Send colour sample to ribbon supplier and finalise order. Make labels for the napkins. Make seating chart. Assemble table decorations from peacock feathers (ordered) and wine bottles (collected). Order match boxes.

*Taste cheese for the cake. Finish cake toppers.

*Fill in details in guestbook and arrange for someone to ensure people sign it. Make photo display

*Collect material from family and friends and make into bunting to decorate marquee.

*Book transport for guests between church and reception.

*Taste and choose wine, champagne and beer. Sort out glasses.

*Ensure groom purchases clothes for him and ushers and BestMan

*Flowers and buttonholes

*Pay balance on honeymoon, book extras.

*Design poster to advertise band and DJ. Ensure logistics for PA system and equipment are in place.

*Purchase presents for wedding party.

*Choose and purchase wedding bands

T minus 5 months and 6 days

...

There are 22 weekends between now and the weekend of the wedding. I am busy for the next 5 (birthday party, my sister's return, skiing hols, party for my sister's return/cousin's departure). We are then visiting the chaplain for the last time in February, which counts out that weekend. I am also busy for the first two weekends in April (close friend's 30th and then Easter) and a weekend in May (hen party). I am also refusing to do any diy projects the weekend before the wedding, which leaves 12 weekends to complete everything.

* Invitations: cards and envelopes have been bought. Information needs to be calligraphied and then painted etc x 75. Estimate 5 per day = 7.5 weekends. Better work on them during the week too.
* Orders of service: once content has been decided (before and during weekend visit to Chaplain) design can be finalised (once sister's boyfriend the graphic designer returns from Australia) and they can be printed etc. Estimate = 1 weekend.
* Bride's outfit: Dress is coming to London on Sunday so that sister-in-law-to-be the fashion designer can pin dress to fit and arrange alterations as well as advising (possibly executing) on lining skirt/petticoat and the making of the veil/veils. Estimate = 2 weekends.
* Groom's outfit: Needs researching, finding, purchasing and potentially altering. He will have to fit this in after work as well. Estimate = endless.
* Cake-toppers: Designed and material purchased. Waiting for sewing machine to arrive to finish. Estimate = 1 weekend.
* Tables: Names to be calligraphied onto tags. Ribbon to be bought to match shoes. Ribbons plus tags to be attached to napkins. Great Plate Search to continue. Cutlery issue to be sorted. Table plan to be finalised and calligraphied. Estimate = 1 weekend for the diy. Delegate the rest (but to who?)
* Venue decorations: Peacock feathers to be bought. Photo displays to be made. Guest book to be bought. Hat line to be made. Band posters to be designed and made (delegate brother-in-law-thegraphicdesigner?) Estimate = 1 weekend.
* Bridesmaids: jewellery to be made, presents to be made and bought. Estimate = 1 weekend.
* Arrangements: Many. Too many to list. Estimate = More weekends allocated than there are weekends to be used. Easter may become a working party.

Outstanding:-

* Catering arrangements to be finalised and paid for.
* Wine and champagne to be agreed and purchased.
* Ice arrangements to be made, ditto glasses and ice buckets.
* PA system (why oh why will companies not return e-mails)
* Entertainment to be finalised (i.e. set lists and logistics with instruments)
* Wedding bands to be chosen and bought
* Groom's outfit to be sorted
* Flowers to be chosen and ordered (practice run?) and buttonholes to be designed and then delegated
* Bride's grooming issues to be decided and booked.
* Hen party to finish organising
* Second week of honeymoon to be decided and booked plus wardrobe purchased
* Music for the church aside from hymns to be decided and booked and rehearsed

Looks like it's going to be a busy but exciting few months... proper posts to resume now that it is January and the blogging holiday (also general computer and phone holiday) is over.

...

Sneak Peek: Car Ideas

...

Image by Damian Hall Photography via here

...

Designer Wedding Show (again)

Designer Wedding Show - Reasons for Being Disappointed:-

1. The people manning the stands were, by and large, rude. With one or two exceptions they seemed uninterested and unhelpful. I wanted to ask questions about orders of service covers, but once the stationery people heard that was all I was after, they couldn't care less. Price lists were presented and backs were turned.
2. Cost - I know it was the designer show but that still doesn't mean I want to spend £600 on a net tulle veil. Not even silk tulle, net.
3. I was offered a teeth whitening brochure.
4. The one stand I found where I seriously liked her headpieces and veils and was stood there wearing said headpiece and veil, and she wouldn't let me take a photo to remind myself what I looked like. The headpiece cost almost £300 and yet she refused to let me have an image of myself in it. An image which I would have uploaded to my computer and gazed at, because it was so beautiful, and possibly convinced myself that the money was worth it. Now all I can think about is how she wouldn't let me take the photo. (Nor did she send me an e-mailed image which is what she promised she would do instead).
5. Realising how self obsessed some brides are, and some women too. M overheard one girl saying to another "well, you've got everything sorted now, all you need is a boyfriend".
6. Realising how brides-to-be can be made to feel so inadequate if they don't have every last whatever for the wedding. Really, who needs cards printed up with the names of your bridesmaids-to-be, to ask them if they will be your bridesmaid?

Designer Wedding Show - Reasons for Being Pleased:-

1. Walking around the show, we realised how much of the planning we have already done and how happy we are with the way we are doing things. Sure, the Amanda Wakeley lady might have made a face like I was a bad smell when I said that I bought my own Amanda Wakeley gown from Oxfam, but I am pleased with where I purchased it. Sure, the invitations lady looked at me horrified when I said we were handwriting our invitations, but we are pleased with our choice. And yes, the florist might have snapped at me that making my own bouquet was bad luck (but I think she was more annoyed that she told me all about New Covent Garden Flower Market and how cheap the flowers were, and how easy it was to make a simple bouquet of roses and was then forced to admit she charged £75 for her own, whereon she asked who was doing my flowers, I said I was, she realised her tactical errors and thought rudeness was the way out of the situation).
2. Knowing that we are pleased with our choice of photographer.
3. The afternoon tea we ate together was very tasty.
4. Not having paid for the tickets - they were free due to an offer in the Telegraph.

...

Marriage Service

Received an e-mail from the Rev'd who is conducting our service with definite confirmation of the time and date and location of the service. I started reading the marriage service on the Church of England website and felt myself becoming slightly emotional. It all seems a bit more real now and I am looking forward to it so much. I cannot wait for our forever to start officially.

We now have to choose hymns and readings and prayers and organ music. We have asked a very good friend of ours from university to play her 'cello during the signing of the register and co-incidentally she e-mailed me about an hour after the chaplain to suggest a piece that she could play.

I rather like this reading from Song of Solomon 2.10-13; 8.6,7:-

"My beloved speaks and says to me: 'Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs,and the vines are in blossom;they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

'Set me as a seal upon your heart,as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire,a raging flame. Many waters cannot quench love,neither can floods drown it. If one offered for love all the wealth of one's house, it would be utterly scorned."

but I have no idea whether M likes it or not. We are also allowed to have a non-biblical reading I believe. I very much like this passage from Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway:-

"At night, there was the feeling that we had come home, feeling no longer alone, waking in the night to find the other one there, and not gone away; all other things were unreal. We slept when we were tired and if we woke the other one woke too so one was not alone. Often a man wishes to be alone and a woman wishes to be alone too and if they love each other they are jealous of that in each other, but I can truly say we never felt that. We could feel alone when we were together, alone against the others. We were never lonely and never afraid when we were together."

But there is plenty more time to fall in love with some other readings...

...

Wedding Lists Update

How ironic: it was Liberty where we were hoping to have our wedding list. I had been trying to make an appointment with Jason, our personal consultant, for several weeks but to no avail. Finally, I looked up the wedding lists page on the website instead and discovered that the website had disappeared. Hhmm. That seemed odd. Alarm bells started ringing so I dug out the business card he sent me along with the information and rang him. No answer. Finally, after about 5 tries throughout the afternoon he deigned to answer the telephone.



And guess what? Liberty's wedding gift list was managed by Wrapit. Who are in administration. So no more Liberty gift lists. I enquired as to why (a) he had been ignoring my e-mails and (b) they had not thought to tell their customers. He could not provide an answer and rudely terminated the call. I was really disappointed.

Not because we cannot have Liberty presents, because that was not the idea of the list. Also, all my close friends know that Liberty is my favourite shop. It is because Liberty is my favourite shop that I was so disappointed. I didn't expect to be treated in such fashion by any of their staff. Now, I read the small print to the gift list brochure and I was still under the impression that the list was managed by Liberty. I was very surprised they had outsourced the list to such an unstable company. One of the reasons we thought Liberty might be a good bet was precisely because we thought they were such a heavy weight shop problems like this might be avoided...

In other news, on Peonies recommendation I went to MacCulloch and Wallis to get some netting to try out different veil ideas. I almost ordered the material online until I discovered that the actual shop was just down the road from my work, and they are open til 7pm on Thursdays, so I popped down last night and bought 2 different sorts of veil material, some clear combs, some lace ribbon and some emu feathers to experiment with some sort of birdcage veil. When I've managed to make it into something worth photographing I may even post a photo or two here.

...

The Planning Continues

Last year I was involved in some of the organising of a wedding. I learnt a lot from that wedding which was a fabulous day enjoyed by all the guests, some of which can be translated to help M and I with our own wedding plans:-

• The more planning that is done early on in the engagement the better, I think. Everything did come together in time for the big day but I think I would like to give ourselves a little more leeway.
• It takes longer to organise a hen-party than you might think. Best get started early (at least in dreaming up the perfect thing to do). The more notice you give everyone, the more likely it is that everyone will be able to attend.
• Making bridesmaids dresses takes a lot of time but the results are stunning.
• Having vases on the top table instead of flower arrangements means that everyone has somewhere to put their bouquet and the effect is beautiful.
• Elaborate flower arrangements in the church and the reception look gorgeous but they are possibly a cost which can be cut.
• It is the smallest touches which can hold a day together. I am thinking co-ordinated stationery from invitations to thank-you letters, a theme running throughout the entire day, flowers or feathers and soaps in the loos, a hat line, tea available throughout the day, blankets and umbrellas available if it is cold and/or wet, cushions on seats for the Grannies and many more things I have yet to think about.
• ushers are invaluable.
• reception lines are a great idea. people should be told they are required to stand in one ahead of time.
• the most important aspects of the day are making sure all parties arrive at the church and that the actual marriage happens and goes well & that everyone has an amazing party afterwards.
• that the bride & groom leave the party before it descends into too much chaos, that everyone (especially the ushers) knows when they are departing and how and that people are there to wave them off.
• that cleaning up is organised beforehand so no-one gets lumped with it unexpectedly.

The Wedding Planning Commences...

Who knew that planning a wedding would be so complicated?! Obviously, being a girl, I have dreamt about the day the man who would become my husband would propose to me and the beautiful wedding that would follow. I have dreamt about it and formulated plans, colour schemes, ideas. Only I never had to think about practicality; how all the plans would fit together and more importantly, how much they would cost.

Yes, cost, the bug bear of my life and currently, the wedding. Add the word 'wedding' to anything and it seems to triple in price. Obviously on a Saturday in June there are limited reasons for wanting a marquee venue for 120 people. It doesn't take a genius to work out what is going on. What it might take though is a genius to work out how to incorporate all our plans and ideas into a budget that we, my parents and my future parents-in-law can afford.

Thankfully, M and I have pretty similiar ideas about what our wedding should be like. It took us about 10 minutes to agree on our ideal location followed by a week convincing the investors. We know what we would like in theory but finding the people to make it a reality is slower to come. Perhaps the most frustrating thing is finding out pricing - most companies wish to provide individual quotes which abstractly is fine but rather time consuming when you are looking for ideas. What we immediately want to know is roughly what their average quote is. Do they routinely charge over £1000 or is it more like £500. I don't really want to waste my time getting personalised quotes to find that it was never ever going to be within my budget at all.

Other observations regarding the wedding business this week relate to church weddings. I can see why people don't bother if they are happy with a civil/registry office wedding. Aside from the initial meeting with the vicar there are at least three wedding preparation sessions to attend (well intentioned I am sure, but after 6 and half years together we are already aware that people tend to like to give and receive affection in different ways...) and many many extra costs to pay. And that's after the realisation that you can marry in one of about 4 churches unless you have a 'special connection' and a licence from the Arch-Bishop, which is what we are relying on, a London wedding not been an attractive or affordable option. I know they don't want people entering into marriage thoughtlessly but surely the church as a whole should be making it easier not harder to have a church wedding.

Still, small rantings aside, I am so excited at being engaged and really looking forward to the wedding already. I keep looking at M seeing how much happier he looks and thinking "this man is going to be my husband. He really will be with me forever". And after that, wedding budgets don't seem to matter that much after all.