How hip do you want your man to be?

It seems that when we plan a wedding, we focus the style primarily on the bride and her vision for what she wants to look like. So the issue is that it takes two to make a wedding day. Unless there's two ladies deciding to make a life long commitment to each other, there is a groom to consider. So Topsie and Susie have decided to do a series of posts to give the man of the day a chance to decide on his style for the day.

Today: Hipster Grooms!

The hipster man is a dude who generally is too cool for school in a good way. He is a bit retro, a bit vintage, a bit grunge, a bit casual, but very stylish. The hipster groom style is appropriate at a garden wedding, a wedding with a "hand-made" style or generally for the musos getting hitched. A bow tie, a vest and a casual shoe, such as converse, is the general rule, but more than anything the hipster groom is about being yourself on the day.

I want that one!

This weeks "I want that one" is a bit of a tease. This dress is the work of J-Crew. It's flowy, garden party feel and empire line with detail across the bust, would be great for the more hippy lady or the hour glass figure. This dress and all the other amazing dresses available at J-Crew are between $300 and $3000, and are available through mail order. HOWEVER, not in Australia.

J-Crew States:
"We hope to expand our delivery range to other countries in the near future. If you wish to be notified of when we will be able to ship internationally, please send us an email at contactus@jcrew.com containing the word "INTERNATIONAL" in the subject line."

So I think if we all rally together and take 2 minutes to email J-Crew, saying, "Please sir, send to Australia", maybe we can make that "near future", the "near NOW".

Just a quick one

I found this and was a little beside myself with how wonderful it is. So simple, so sweet, so funny and all from Martha Stewart Weddings. I at first had trouble getting over the fact that it was Martha Stewart, who so often is portrayed as some sort of anti christ in most popular culture, but when you find gems like this, you have to think, I'd sell my soul to the devil to come up with this.

Great for inspiration on styling, flowers, favours, cakes and everything else, the Martha Stewart site is one a role model for us. So have a look, get lost for a while and just try not to picture the South Park version of Martha...

Photos: http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/

Amy Kate and Hallam Inspiration Board

Amy Kate and Hallam are a super lovely who are giving Topsie and Susie a chance to help them out with their planning. They are looking at getting married in March 2012 and when discussing styles, the key words they talked about were burnt organges, reds, australian native flowers and a hand made feel that wasnt too vintagey. This is what we came up with. We hope that this helps them even if it helps them to decide what they dont want.

Amy Kate and Hallam have started a blog for their wedding to keep everyone up to date with their plans. Follow them at hallamandamykateswedding.com
We're really looking forward to helping them progess through this both stressful and exciting time.

Blackboard says "Huurry up!"

I've been contemplating the idea of having items at your wedding that are not just featured that day but can be recycled and featured in your day to day life. For example, I use the music play list from my wedding all the time, at dinner parties, when I'm cleaning; I even gave birth with it in the background. If you are going to put in a substantial amount of time and effort into something that for the wedding, wouldn't you like more than just photos to remember it.

With that in mind, lets talk about a growing trend:The Blackboard
Blackboards can be used in a variety of ways at a wedding. They are becoming increasingly popular and with the new options of different colour blackboard paint available you can tailor the item to suit your wedding style.
A blackboard could be used in many different ways at a wedding, such as pure decoration (think JD hearts DT), to label something (imagine "Picnic Hampers, help yourself" or to give directions, (picture "Toilets this way"). You could also use them to take photos in front of. Can't you see a Polaroid of Nanna with the speech bubble behind her saying something sweet (or not so sweet) to the couple, or the angel wings and halos drawn on and the bride and bridesmaids standing in just the right spot.

Then the next day, when you are going through the boxes of decorations trying to find places for every thing, you take out that blackboard and up it goes on your wall. Now think of this same blackboard in ten years time with a shopping list in one corner, a reminder to drop the DVDs back in the other and maybe your kids drawings all over the rest. It would be a reminder of the day that got you to this point.  

Amy and Ollie's Pre Wedding Shoot 'em Up

Welcome to part one of Amy and Ollie's wedding, the couple with the over 8,000 kilometres between their home towns, nearly 9,000 kilometres between their current home and their wedding and about 40cms different in height.

Amy and Ollie met in the UK where they were studying at University and living next door to each other at college. After finishing Uni, as Ollie is French Canadian and Amy is Chinese, and English being their second language, and rather than learning a third, they chose Australia as their new home. After living in Sydney for a year, they decided it was time to get their wedding on. They chose to have a traditional wedding in China, but to bring some of their life here to that wedding, by having a pre-wedding photo shoot. Amy had 4 dress changes and Ollie 2, and having a full day were able to be captured in some of Sydney's most beautiful and recognisable places. These photo's were printed and hung at their wedding as well as used in a slide show at their wedding in China, giving everyone a glimpse into their life so far away.  Stay tuned for part II of Amy and Ollie's story.   



What's in Season?

I knew I would get here sooner or later. Hydrangeas are one of my favourite flowers. My wedding and all the flowers, stationary and timing of the wedding where all based around hydrangeas. When I saw Jemma starting to write this post I promptly took it over. This one was mine!  

Hydrangeas are such versatile flowers and you get a lot of bang for your buck because of the gorgeous clusters of tiny individual flowers on each head.

They are elegant and simply classic on their own, or mixed with other flowers like roses, peonies, lisianthus or pretty much any other flower you can think of and the hydrangea starts to have a cottage feel.

But that's not even the best part. The best part is the colours. Blues, pinks, purples and whites. If you pick them early you can have greens and if you get them late the colours become muted before turning brown. And you can control the colour of the bush by controlling the pH of the soil. Acidic soil produces bright blues flowers where alkaline soil give you pinks and purples.

Because of the amount of flowers you get per bush if you time it right  you can use flowers from your own yard. My parents planted extra bushes the year before my wedding so that we would have them in a years time. As things always go the flowers didn't come out in time, but Hydrangeas are easily purchased from market, florist or stolen from out side pubs like I do at Sutton Forest all the time.   

The shape and size of the flowers complement decorations like paper pom poms or lanterns and lends itself to a variety of different uses such as these flower balls and wreaths.

All in all the hydrangea gets a 10 out of 10.