Welcome to our guest blogger, Rebecca!

As the proud owner of one of the very first Illustries, I was thrilled to be asked to do a guest blog. This is probably as close to infamy (in a good way) that I’ll get!

But what to talk about? Seeing as I enjoyed it so much, I thought I’d share with you a little about the Illustries process. Once we had decided to go for it and get our Illustry done we basically got to enjoy the whole thing. Both the hubby and I secretly loved the telephone interviews – we felt like stars – move over Jordan! Unashamedly talking about ourselves and our special day felt so indulgent. We were mildly aware of friends and family that were also contacted including the best man and our daughter Imogen. But the Illusties team just seemed to work out who were important to us and made sure they featured prominently.

When we got to see our draft before it went to print we were overwhelmed – so much stunning detail, both in the artwork and the words that just seemed to capture our day perfectly. Then, a few days later, the Illustry itself arrived…we were blown away. All those tiny details beautifully captured from the colours to the flowers, to cheeky comments and even the proposal

After all the love we put into the day, we kind of felt embarrassed to ram our photos down everyone’s throats, but our Illustry gives us the perfect excuse to say look what they’ve done with our day! Spookily – we’ve just celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. If I could have my wedding over again, would I do anything differently? Not a thing, but one thing I would do is get my Illustry much sooner!  

N is for Name

What's in a name? Quite a lot, apparently! Is it still the modern thing for a girl to keep her own surname or are we all to ready to trade in our moniker for the chance to become Mrs Other Half? Maybe it all depends on his name and yours? We know of a lady who was called Miss Heaven - who'd ever give that up? And another of our brides became Mrs Devine, we'd jump at that! But what if his was really bad, or your name was Tuesday and his name was Knight. Not a good mix! Personally, we think that's exactly what it is, personal! In this richly coloured tapestry that is the Illustries own memory-library, it's been done both ways. First time round for Emma: double-barrelled. Second time, wholeheartedly Mrs P, and that's the way it’s staying! And a good friend of ours persuaded her husband to take her name - good on you Mrs Wege!

We carried out a totally non-scientific survey via the blog and twitter this week, and the vote came down firmly in favour (90%) of the bride changing her name - you old traditionalists! Oh, and there was one vote for him changing his - we think a certain Mrs Wege may have visited!