Welcome back to another fab guest post from one of our TNWC Real Brides.  Today we’re joined by Sarah who is planning a homemade child-friendly wedding to her Mr-to-be Lee.  She’s been a very busy lady (along with her mum) collection a mass of vintage china for their wedding, as I’m sure many of you are…

Hi everybody!

So much has changed since I wrote my last blog post, it would seem that as the wedding gets closer our plans and ideas develop and change.

But one thing we have set in stone is our plans for wedding food, which from the start of our planning we have always been pretty certain of what we wanted.

After the service we will be having an afternoon tea, which fits in perfectly with our relaxed theme for the day.  We will be having a selection of sandwiches, sweet and savoury pastries along with scones and other sweet treats.  There will also be coffee and a selection of teas served with the meal.  This will all be served on vintage china cups and saucers and vintage cake stands which my mum has been collecting for a few months now!

We’ve had lots of fun visiting charity shops and antique centres searching for gorgeous china. We now have a houseful of beautiful china.   The charity shops and antique centres have also been a great source for all the old glass vases that we wanted to decorate the venue with.

In the evening we are carrying on our relaxed theme and will be having a BBQ serving chicken, sausages and burgers along with salads and breads, and our wedding cake for pudding.  We are yet to sort out the cake, but I’d like a Victoria sponge cake topped with some fresh fruit.

We have decided against individual favours for guests and have instead opted for a favour table that will be filled with old fashioned sweets in gorgeous jars and bowls.

I’m really pleased to see that afternoon tea and serving it in vintage crockery is still popular, despite many people saying that ‘vintage’ weddings were on the way out.  It brings back nostalgic memories of how we think celebratory times once were in this country, and I think that’s lovely.  

I can’t wait to see Sarah and Lee’s afternoon tea spread displayed on all that gorgeous china and cut glass they’ve been hoarding!

Next week I’ve got the next two installments from our other TNWC Real Brides – Caroline and Stephanie – just click on their names to read their first blog post all about their plans for their weddings.

Images: (1) Illustration by Izzy Burton; (2 – 4) Brides own pictures