Messing about on the river...

One of our Avant Garde Illustry couples got married this weekend (well done Andrew and Nat!), choosing to get the legal bit done and dusted on Saturday before celebrating their love with a beautiful, low key ceremony led by Nat's Mum, on Sunday. The couple chose some lovely elements, many created by hand, by them (we're not sure how they did it all!), which brought the whole day together into what was clearly a huge celebration of 'them'. We loved the 'punting tickets' they gave out as favours and can only imagine the fun the guests had as they departed from the boathouse venue for a quick trip up river. And we're dying to see all the comments left on the hand-cut birds that were then tied to a tree of messages.

Most of all, we can''t wait to see the pictures of our favourite photographers dancing their Mr&Mrs shuffle to the tune that features on their site (http://www.boymeetsgirlphoto.biz/). It's called Golden Love by Midnight Youth - have a listen, it's beautiful. As indeed are the new Mr and Mrs Hewitson - congratulations you two x

A wedding alphabet

Our CELEB magazine has a lovely section imaginatively titled 'The A-Z of the wedding',because that's what it is. It is always different, we create each one from scratch for our very special clients, and as we're working on for Mel and Andy ('S' is for sparkles, their wedding glistened with tiny crystals!) we thought we'd start our own. So, the Illustries A-Z of weddings was born. It's there, on your left, starting with A, as you'd expect. Oh, and Illustries' mums, if you're reading (probably not, as you're both kind of silver paddling rather than surfing), we're sorry x

Time Flies...

One of Illustries' Besties returned to work following maternity leave today - suddenly the nine months of gorgeous chubby Archie-baby neck to snuggle while chatting with his mum feels like a luxury we should have cherished that little bit more.

Which gets us to thinking: it's all too easy to wish life away. We're lucky enough to work with people who are experiencing some of the times of their lives. Believe us, there is no more rewarding job than working with people to capture their memories and bring their stories to life. But as we launch our business and spend more and more time trying to find out about this big new world called the wedding industry,we're amazed at how easy it is for a personal, special moment to get lost in planning and the pursuit of perfection.

One thing we've learned is that actually, no wedding is perfect. They're beautiful, and special and moving and a hundred other things. But we guess there is probably always something more the bride and groom could have done. One more thing to make it different. But that's one more thing to stress about, and one more thing to add to the project plan. Our favourite weddings (and of course, this is just our opinion, but hey, it's our blog!) are the ones where things have gone just a little bit wrong, or where the napkin being just a slightly different shade of green than the bridesmaids' shoes hasn't seemed all that important. That's not to say that the precision-planned days are any less special, just that the smiles on the faces are almost always the same size.

And, for purely selfish reasons, where there's a hiccup, there's a story. Which makes our job a little easier - giving us a minute to pop out at lunchtime to snuggle the baby that's growing up before our very eyes...

P.S. We're loving these brides - planning, yes. Obsessing, no way!

Wedding Sparrow - a counting-down bride who's just loving the whole process.We love her blog!

Bohobride - quirky and fun to read, four months to go!

Can you do it on a shoestring?

We're doing admin (boo!) at Illustries today, with our heads stuck in a spreadsheet. So we are distracting ourselves by thinking about budgets - our own, admittedly, but the general topic has also come in for a think. Some weddings definitely have that 'money no object' feel, and of course, today everyone wants their own special day to be, well, special. And so often, special means different.

So, does 'different' have to mean expensive? We don't think so. At Illustries we see weddings with all kinds of budgets, and do you know what? They're all kind of special. From the extravaganza of exhuberance with all the trimmings you could want (amazing, and we loved it, right down to the mini toastmaster!) to this beautifully simple, zingy and full of love day that was just as full of memories, every wedding gives us moments to celebrate and moments to remember.

We're counting ourselves lucky that we get to help make those memories last...

No such thing as a disaster...

We're writing about a fabulous wedding for a Celeb magazine today, but this time the course of true love ran sightly awry. The bride's youngest daughter broke her arm just three days before the big one, meaning a night at A&E rather than a stag do for the groom. Panic set in - would she need an operation, would she be OK for the day? Nope and yup, but, immediate worries settled, would she get into her dress, and how would she look on the photos?

The answers? With a good old wriggle and utterly fantastic. This little girl and her big sister beamed their way through a beautiful day. OK, the sun didn't shine (alright, it rained!) but the whole place was lit up by some of the biggest smiles we've seen as their Mum married the man they all loved. And the bride got little Nattie a bright pink cast to match her dress. Now that's what we call owning the wedding 'disaster'!

Here at Illustries, we don't believe in disasters, we believe in making memories. Good or bad, rain or shine, it's all part of your beautiful story. And this story? Well, let's just say it had a more than happy ending...

Black. At a wedding?

Oh yes. And we're super excited about it. Illustries was happily showing off some lovely memory books at the hairdresser's today (Thursday afternoon blow dry = major bonus of self employment) and was introduced to a very elegant mum-of-the-bride-to-be (MOTBTB? is that how we should say it? It seems a little rude...) who gave us all the details of her daughter's upcoming nuptials. Stunning pure white dress with black sash from designer-who-shall-remain-nameless-but-is-very-expensive, black tie for the dudes and bridesmaids in black. Simplicity itself. We're already imagining the Illustry - Classic style, Audrey-esque and more than a hint of glamour.

Black is the new black, people!

A CELEB Magazine for William and Catherine?

Illustries had a great time celebrating the Royal Wedding (as did, we are sure, all you brides-to-be – who is going for full-size trees?) and it got us to thinking: surely the newly minted* Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would simply love to get one over on the paparazzi and create their very own CELEB magazine with Illustries? We are sure we’d need to sign one heck of a confidentiality clause, but imagine: a glossy, tongue-in-cheek celebrity magazine packed with all the gossip from their special day, all for royal-appointed eyes only. We think they’d jump at the chance! Wish us luck getting it past Clarence House...

We had a busy week, what with all the bunting to make and Pimms to quaff, but highlights included creating a CELEB magazine for the lovely Melanie and Andy Devine, and joining forces with the fabulous Boy Meets Girl Photography. Andrew and Natalie, the gorgeous photographers, have not only signed up to become our first partner photographers, but they’ve also ordered an Avant Garde Illustry for their own special day. Never mind them, we can’t wait!