The Wedding Expo!

Do you know what I love? Well among other things, weddings and expos, so imagine how absolutely excited I am about the upcomming wedding expo which will be held at the Coca-Cola Dome in Joburg this weekend the 25-26th of August. Tickets are R100 and can be bought online or at the gate.

A Wedding mood board with love*

The one key ingredient that I've really been missing during my wedding planning process is having my girlfriends close-by. With the closest ones more than a 2hour flight away, I've been missing them hugely! While phone calls and emails are great, they just can't compare to a face-to-face chat while enjoying a delicious cup of coffee!

One of my beautiful bridesmaids made and mailed this to me a few days ago and I just think it's the sweetest thing ever. Plus I absolutly adore ever single image she chose.

Thanks so much Lau, this means so much to me! xox

What a lucky fish! My Diana dream comes true

You know when your just having a royally poo day, where nothing seems to be going your way and you being to wonder why you bothered getting out of bed?! Well last week, that was me. On the brink of tears and feeling particularly sorry for myself I was trying to pull it together- when the postman knocked on the door.

Not accustomed to getting mail I flippantly flipped though the post to see who to give what to, when a little postage slip with my name on it caught my eye! Intrigued I looked a little closer to see if I could see any hint of who sent it, or where it came from.

My curiosity grew even more when I saw it came from a close friend in Korea. Not expecting anything from anyone, and desperately needing a short break, I quickly popped out of the office. And there I was greeted by a lovely brown box. I ripped the tape off the box only to uncover the most heart-felt and wonderful post-card with a Diana mini attached.

I can't even put into words how touched I was, and still am by the gift. Months ago, before I left Korea, this particular friend and I saw a Diana in the shop and I 'oohed' and 'aahed' over how much I wanted one, at the time Charlie and I were frantically saving every last penny before coming back to South Africa and I had to put my wish on hold. Even more sweet is that my friend had remembered that I love 'Hello Kitty' (I even have the cell-phone cover) and had bought me a 'Hello Kitty' themed Diana.

The package was so much more than a camera, it was all the thought and kindness that went into it. I'm so blessed to have so many thoughtful and wonderful friends.

Can't wait to get snapping!

Meghan & Namha's 'Save the Date'

Have you ever just met someone and known from the very second you first saw them that you were destined to be friends? Well thats how I felt when I met Megan for the first time about a year and a half ago in South Korea. We we're both teaching english at the time, and had both recently gotten engaged.

When I heard Megan and Namha had set the date I insisted I design their 'save the dates.' With Megan originally from America, and Namha's from South Korea I knew they wanted something that would incorporate both of their cultures.

Megan and Namha celebrated their wedding in Korea a few months ago, and are having a second reception for their American family and loved in the USA in a few days time.

I wish I could be there to celebrate with you two! I hope you have the most amazing day.

Above Megan and Namha are pictured wearing traditional korean clothing, called Hanboks

Tip: Post cards are a great idea for 'save the dates' and wedding invites, not only are they very in fashion, they also save a bunch on postage fees and envelopes.

Love Celebration: your personal wedding planner

With our wedding date and venue decided upon and secured, wedding planing and fantasising is in full swing!

But I must say, I feel a little like Alice, tumbling down and endless rabbit hole, as I slowly but surely discover how much thought and planning actually goes into a wedding. Not that I'm complaining, quite the contrary, I'm thoroughly enjoying every moment (well except for trying to fit our seemingly never ending growing guest list into the small and intimate idealised number of guests we had hoped for!)

Last week however my job was made incredibly easier when a surprise package was delivered to my door from Charlie Brown who had been away in Joburg for what felt like a never-ending seven days.

The package contained a "Love Celebration" wedding planning file, which offers an a-z on everything you may need advice on regarding the big day and more. It comes in a stunning ring-bound file, and can be purchased in either white or black (although the white is currently out of stock.)

With tons of additional downloadable's like scrap-booking templates, and the fact that its ring-bound so you can add whatever you want to it, I think it makes the perfect wedding planning guide, or an ideal present for any future bride.

You can purchase your own love celebration file by going to http://www.lovecelebration.co.za/

All images were sourced from the love celebration website

Making more time for me

Blogging is something I really enjoy, sometimes I wonder who exactly I think I'm writing to, but there is something about it that I just really take pleasure in. Since being back from korea, I haven't been blogging nearly as much as I had hoped, I picked it up again for a while, and then let it fall by the way-side again.

It's not that I go off of it, it just doesn't seem to make my 'things that have to be done list' and it feels like as soon as I've managed to to tick all the things off that have to to be done, it's time for bed or to add more things to the "have to do' list.

A few weeks ago I made the resolution that if I wasn't going to be able to find time to blog during the week, I would set aside some time on the weekend to make a few posts, I guess because more than anything else I blog for me. All reinvigorated by my new idea, I started to 'freshen' up my blog page, and added it to my new design website which you can go check out here. I cleaned up my pintrest boards to make them more user friendly for lovers of all this weddingy like me, and waited for the arrival of the weekend!

We'll it's been several weekends since then, and here I am. For the first time in ages putting aside a few minutes for me. I'm swamped with work at the moment (a good thing) and I wont have gotten round to writing any content to post during the week. But hey, at least I made the time to write this!

So hopefully sooner than later I'll be posting frequently again!

In the meantime, why not go visit my Pintrest boards!

Packaging for a bridesmaid's gift

I made sure that the name tag was easy to remove, so that they could use it as a book mark at a later stage.

What you'll need:

• A ruler
• Glue
• A pencil
• Scissors 
• A printer
• Pretty paper
• Letter stickers
• Little diamante
• Ribbon

About 6 weeks ago I made a trip to Joburg to catch up with two of my closest Uni friends. The three of us haven’t all been together in over two years. So there was no doubt it was going to be a really special weekend.

Although it's literally months until our wedding, one of my two friends was vising SA from England, and not knowing when I would get to see her again I felt the time was right to pop the question  to her and my other friend simultaneously as we’ve been some-what of a terrible trio since fourth year.

So I did, on Saturday morning after the 3 of us had woken up and devoured a delicious breakfast that consisted of preserved figs and yummy Woollies croissants, I handed them each a little hand-made paper bag with a small gift inside (I’ve only gotten round to asking two of my bridesmaids so far, so I’m going to have to leave out what the gift is until I’ve asked everyone who needs to be asked.)

Surprised they asked what the gift was for, but I said nothing and waited for them to read the writing on the package.

I will treasure the smiles on their faces and the warmth of that moment for the rest of my life. Making the paper bags took hours, but made the whole thing that much more special.

Thanks so much Lau and Cath for saying yes! I’m so glad I’ll have the two of you (and a few other special girls) by my side on the most important day of my life.

• I fond the butterfly stencil I used for the name tag here.
• The name tag stencil here. (I had to manipulate the length and width a little in word, but it's easy enough to do)
• And I can't remember where I fond the template to make the bag! But I found a similar template that you can use to make your own bag here.