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Charlie

Julie Dutton eco couture wedding dresses

Charlie

Julie Dutton Designer Dressmaker has recently launched her new website, full of her beautiful handmade wedding dresses. Julie uses a variety of fabrics to create her stunning dresses, including ethical silks, Fairtrade organic cottons, vintage textiles and fabric remnants.

Cara: a lightweight bridal gown in peace silk

Julie also up-cycles vintage textiles and reworks heirloom dresses to create for you a bespoke wedding dress. The emphasis is on reflecting your personal style and vision in the creation of your own custom made handcrafted dress.

Island Girl: textured detailing made from silk fabric remnants

Sienna: simple style in organic silk satin using studio remnants for design details

Charlie

Vintage inspired wedding accessories from A Alicia Handmade

Charlie

A Alicia Handmade Wedding Accessories is the new dedicated wedding collection from the lovely Anna who started her business in 2009.

Her exquisite wedding accessories – lace and ribbons garters, clutch bags, wrist corsages, hair combs, and embroidered ring pillows – are inspired by vintage fashion.

Many are even made from vintage fabrics, ribbons and lace, but often with a contemporary twist. Anna’s best-selling Big Bow Garter uses gorgeous vintage ribbon but is brought up to date by the simplicity and boldness of its design. We think it’s fab!

Charlie

PapaKata Autumn Open Weekend 2010

Charlie

A fantastic opportunity to go and see these incredible giant teepees set up and decked out. If you’re considering a giant teepee for your wedding, I’d definitely recommend a visit – Mr Rigg and I went to see the giant teepees set up last autumn in Sussex and you really get a feel for the atmosphere you can create inside them.

PapaKåta are holding an open weekend on the 9th and 10th October 2010 just outside York. You can drop in at any time to say hello, sip a glass of bubbly and toast marshmallows on the brazier – or you can book an appointment with one of their team.

Charlie

Vintage inspired bouquets and buttonholes

Charlie

Having discovered that Charlie Ryrie has posted some great images of the vintage inspired bouquet and buttonholes she made for me on her blog, I thought I should share them with you. A new camera is on my Christmas wish list!

This is the beautiful bouquet – a gorgeous mixture of pinks, peaches and purples in a wide variety of flowers. At The Vintage Wedding Fair so many people commented on how they loved the natural look of this bouquet, how it was like you’d scooped up a bunch of flowers from a meadow.

Charlie has an incredible way of bringing together a wide variety of flowers in one bouquet that looks so natural.

This is just one of the buttonholes Charlie made for my stand at the fair – and possibly my favourite. I love the colours and the use of the seed heads.

Every buttonhole was unique, a different collection of a flowers, foliage and seed heads – people really loved the individuality of the buttonholes, rather than the traditional single rose worn by everyone.

Charlie

A wonderful day at The Vintage Wedding Fair

Charlie

What an incredible day yesterday was! Exhausting, but great fun and really worthwhile. Mr Rigg and I were up at 7am packing the car and heading off to Harrogate for The Vintage Wedding Fair.

There was a great buzz when we arrived with lots of gorgeous women in pretty vintage outfits with stunning hair styles. Everyone was busy bringing in boxes and fussing over their stands. We set up our stall – I was delighted with how it looked…but our camera almost died and continues to die, so the photos are all a bit fuzzy which is a shame.

Charlie Ryrie, who I met recently, who runs The Real Cut Flower Garden sent me a stunning vintage style bouquet of her flowers and some sweet buttonholes to display on my table. They arrived on Saturday morning carefully packaged in a tall box and cushioned with tissue paper and dried hops.

Charlie

Off to The Vintage Wedding Fair!

Charlie

I’m all packed and off to Harrogate for The Vintage Wedding Fair today!

Charlie

Making wedding jam

Charlie

I realise that I haven’t spoken much on the blog about my own wedding planning. I’m quite a private person when it comes to my own wedding and I seem to change my mind about things so often that it’s hard to say ‘this is what we’re doing’.

But last weekend, with autumn approaching, Mr Rigg and I went to a local farm to pick autumn raspberries to make into jam. One thing we’re almost certain about is that we want to incorporate an afternoon tea into our wedding day.

This is for a number of reasons:

1) A large part of my childhood was spent at my grandparents house in Devon. Many of my memories are eating homemade scones, with granny’s jam and clotted cream from a family farm up the road.

2) I have a friend who makes the best teeny tiny scones and who is prepared to make enough for our guests.

3) I love the Englishness of it and the connections I have with it.

4) And who doesn’t love scones with clotted cream and jam?

Charlie

A stall at The Vintage Wedding Fair in Harrogate

Charlie

I am so excited to find out that I will be having a stall at the fabulous Vintage Wedding Fair that is being held in Harrogate on Sunday 19th September.

There will 50 specialist exhibitors and vintage dealers, including over 600 vintage wedding dresses, headdresses, hats, a vintage themed caterer and a vintage hair and make-up expert.

The Vintage Wedding Fair is taking place at the St George Hotel in Harrogate on Sunday 19th September from 11.30am – 5pm. Entry costs just £2.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Charlie

Artcadia – individual and ethical wedding stationery

Charlie

Artcadia is a great new company started by Vici-Jane Kohring after she struggled to find stationery for her own wedding that reflected both the personalities of her and her husband-to-be and the ‘less traditional’ style of their day.

Using her experience in design she has started creating beautiful and unique wedding stationery. Artcadia’s collections currently include designs such as Carnival, Vintage and Organic, with a range of stationery from invitations to menus.

Charlie

Pretty wedding shoes from recycled vintage fabric

Charlie

I am currently on the hunt for pretty shoes to wear on my wedding day. With a vintage style wedding dress that is quite delicate, I need shoes that complement it nicely, and ideally meet my ethical and/or eco wishes.

So when I was reading my e-newsletter from Daisy Green and saw an article on shoes made with recycled vintage textiles and leathers. Intrigued I followed the link to the TRAIDremade website and discovered the below two shoes that I’ve fallen in love with…

Wouldn’t they make gorgeous wedding shoes?

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