Freya Rose and The Great Gatsby

Yesterday I blogged about GoHen for inspiration for your hen/stag dos with their new Roaring Twenties package. I personally love the styles of the '20s & '30s and I'm so pleased that that era is so much in vogue at the moment. If you're having a vintage style wedding then check out these beautiful shoes from Freya Rose.....

The 'Great Gatsby' is getting greater!!

With Baz Lermon's highly stylised take on this famously classic tale imminent on our screens, Freya Rose celebrates the elegance, drama and sophistication of the 1920's by choosing some of her favourite decadent designs.Freya Rose's innovative and artistic designs resonate roaring 1920s style. This era always has been and will continue to be an increasingly important draw of inspiration. Beautiful materials, intricate bead work and fine detailing are always considered in Freya Rose designs.

'Vivian' Shoe Clips by Freya Rose RRP £75.00

Freya Rose: " The 'Vivian shoe clip' is a gorgeous art-deco inspired clip made from Mother of Pearl and Swarovski Crystals. They jazz up any shoe, are a decadent addition to any outfit and always make an impact!"

'Leah' Shoe by Freya Rose RRP £380.00

Freya Rose: " 'Leah' is a classic open toe sling back in Ivory Duchess silk satin with the Exclusive Freya Rose's signature Mother of pearl mosaic heel. Beautiful hand made duchess silk flower, embellished with swarovski, parisian lace and ostrich feather. This is a gorgeous shoe for someone wanting a classic toe but not having to compromise on details!"

'Audrey' by Freya Rose RRP £375.00

Freya Rose: "'Audrey' has to be my most 20's inspired design. It is an exciting and sexy peep toe shoe with a T-bar and a hidden 1.5cm platform. It has the most exquisite art deco style embellishment leading up the foot, using a variety of swarovski crystal and beads hand worked to create an art-deco geometric print. 

'Audrey' is the result of a collaboration with designer Debbie Carlisle. Anybody with magpie tendencies will pine over these beauties."Freya Quotes " The roaring 20s was such a beautiful time. It was the first time women could move freely in their clothing - the perfect blend between style and function. Everyone still recognises the style   because it is everlasting. I love pulling inspirational details from this explosive time and incorporating them into my designs, allowing a twist of contemporary modern design with the secrets of times gone by."

For more beautiful shoes visit the website. Freya Rose can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

GoHen

Have you planned your hen or stag night yet? I recommend popping over to the GoHen website for some inspiration.

The countdown is on for upcoming Baz Luhrmann film The Great Gatsby and in celebration GoHen have created a fantastic themed hen party package called 'Roaring Twenties'. The film, which is based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, centres around 1920's culture and a time of great sophistication and celebration, themes wound into the pre-nuptial package offered by GoHen.

The plot focuses on main character Nick, a World War I veteran who takes a job in New York and rents a small house on Long Island. His new abode turns out to be next door to the lavish mansion of Jay Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire who hosts extravagant festivities. What ensues is an exploration of social connections, forbidden passions and sublime, elegant parties across the great manor house.

The beautiful writing and suave storyline have influenced the innovative hen package created by leading hen party organisers GoHen. Their new ‘Roaring Twenties’ package takes place in the striking city of Oxford and involves hens spending a night in a 4 star hotel with spa and leisure facilities. Typical of Tom and Daisy’s civilized teas in the book the group will indulge in afternoon tea, including a selection of finger sandwiches, pastries and scones served with tea or coffee. This is followed by an afternoon session of Burlesque Dancing, where the group will be taught a sultry, show-stopping dance in-keeping with the many ballroom dances orchestrated by Mr Gatsby. In classic celebratory style the package is topped off with VIP nightclub entry; hens will be treated like royalty and given an unforgettable experience.

GoHen’s Oxford Account Manager Danielle said, “Our wonderful new Roaring Twenties package is perfect for any hens who love the vintage, 1920’s theme and want to recreate a piece of the famous novel. We’ve found the most classy, chic activities on offer and paired them with the fabulously elegant destination that is Oxford to create a hen package that’s a real all-round, group pleasing experience!”

GoHen, as part of StagWeb Ltd, have been organising unbeatable events since 2002 and benefit from 11 years experience in this specialised market, including significant buying power, higher value events, client protection, event creativity, dedicated account management and systems support. With packages from as little as £35 and as varied as cocktail making, inflatable games, life drawing and the Somerset Games, with GoHen you get a dedicated account manager to take charge of all elements of planning, invites, budgets and itineraries. With years of experience and ABTA bonding for added reassurance, the GoHen team really deliver the best in celebration weekends.

To find out more give GoHen a call on 0845 130 5225 or visit their Roaring Twenties package. GoHen can also be found on Facebook  and on Twitter.

Melanie Potro New Collection Launch and Sample Sale

Melanie will launch her new collection of Wedding Dresses, Mother of the Bride and Bridesmaid outfits from 25-27 April. 

Be the first to view and try on an array of couture Wedding, Bridesmaid and Mother of the Bride gowns.

A Sample Sale will be held on 28 April from 12-5pm.

Both events will take place at: 33-35 St John's Square, London EC1M 4DS

For more details and to book an appointment, please email bride@melaniepotro.com or call 07775 806084.

Wedding Stationery Sussex

Floral Inspiration

Another great blog I've come across recently is the lovely Style Me Pretty blog, and today I've been browsing through the Galleries section, which you can filter by categories my choice has been Flowers today to brighten up an otherwise fairly dull day!

Flowers can help to decorate and 'lift' your reception space. We had very tall glass vases with beautiful blooms in our chosen colour scheme with trailing ivy, and the water was tinted to match, which gave the whole marquee splashes of colour. And at the end of the day we gave the flowers to various guests so that they didn't go to waste.

Wedding Stationery Sussex

Colour Schemes for your Big Day

Have you chosen a colour scheme or theme for your big day, or are you struggling to make a decision? There are some inspiration/mood boards here on the blog that I've either put together or featured in on other blogs, or why not take a look at this fabulous blog that I discovered today called The Perfect Palette - whether you're looking for strong colours or something softer you're bound to find inspiration here, such as this gorgeous Aqua + Emerald combination.

http://www.theperfectpalette.com/

Wedding Stationery Sussex

Pocketfold Invitations

How often have we all received invitations, whether for a wedding or another occasion, with information inserts that fall out as soon as you open the card, and once retrieved and read somehow manage to disappear never to be seen again - crucially the directions sheet that can't be found on the day of the occasion?! Here at Lilguy Stationery we have an extensive range of pocketfold invitations that solve that problem. We produce two sizes currently, one slightly smaller than A6 and a 15cm square, both come with matching envelopes either to the card itself or the insert card/paper. 

If the colour you're looking for is not shown don't worry, we have access to card and paper direct from the manufacturer, and if none of their colours quite match we can have your colour made up if you give us the Pantone number. 

 Pocketfold Invitation

 Pocketfold Invitation

 Pocketfold Invitation

 Pocketfold Invitation

 Pocketfold Invitation

 Pocketfold Invitation

As you can see, these invitations can be very simply decorated or can be much more flamboyant, depending on the style of your day. To see more information on each of these please click on the link underneath the pictures. The invitation wording is fixed to the  top panel of the invitation and the RSVP cards and other information sheets are kept together in the pocket below.

 Pocketfold Invitation

 Pocketfold Invitation 

The invitation wording is fixed to the middle panel of the invitation and the RSVP cards and other information sheets are kept together in the pocket below. Not all of these invitations are shown on the website but please feel free to contact me by email to discuss your requirements and get a quote.

Please do visit our full wedding stationery website for more ideas, you can also 'Like' us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and also on Pinterest.

How To Create Your Own Beautiful Orders of Service

Fancy creating your own Orders of Service? Hopefully this tutorial will help!

You Will Need:

Pre-printed A5 Orders of Service
15mm Double sided satin ribbon
Sharp clean scissors
Invisible thread
Fine needle
Mini diamante heart embellishments
Ruler
15 mm Double sided sticky tape
Scissors for tape
Glue gun and glue sticks

1.  Cut a 30cm length of ribbon.

2.   Thread needle with a reasonable length of invisible thread and knot at one end. Weave the needle through the ribbon at the centre, draw it through & then wrap the thread around to pinch the middle together, push the needle through the centre to secure.

3.   Cross the right hand side of the ribbon over the front of the left hand side and draw the needle through the crossover about a third of the way down, drawing the centre of the ribbon to the back of the crossover and then wrap the thread around the middle several times to form a bow. You will need to carefully adjust the loops and tails as you do this to ensure that they are even before pushing the needle through                                                 from front to back of the middle of the bow to secure the knot.

      4.  Sew the end of the roll of ribbon onto the back of the bow, but don’t cut                to length yet.

5. Flip the ribbon down so that it covers the end you’ve just sewn (carefully trim any fraying) then wrap around up over the front of the bow and back down the back so that you have a neat centre to the bow.

6.   Place your mini heart embellishment on the front of the centre of the bow, taking care to adjust both the bow and heart neatly before stitching it in place. Finish off the thread behind the bow centre and cut short.

7.   Now measure a 46cm length of ribbon from the centre of the bow and cut.
 

8.   Place double sided sticky tape down the side of the Orders of Service, making sure to use different scissors to your sharp clean ribbon scissors.

9.   With the protective cover still on the tape, wrap your ribbon around the card and trim the end to around halfway down the centre of the bow.

 10.    Peel enough of the protective cover off the tape and fix the end of your ribbon in place. Then you can pull the bow out of the way to peel the remainder of the tape away before adjusting the ribbon and carefully fixing to the tape.

 11.   The bow will at this stage still need to be fixed in place, so with your glue gun apply a small amount of hot glue behind the centre of the bow and press into place – be careful not to use too much glue as you don’t want it to squidge out of the sides!

12.   Using your sharp clean scissors trim the tails of your bow into even    points.

Fiddly, but worth it! If you would like us to provide the materials please contact us via our website, email or you can phone us on 07899 664070. We can also print your Orders of Service for you on high quality heavy card and paper - our printer takes up to 300gsm card which will give your stationery a beautiful and luxurious feel. 

Wedding Stationery Sussex

Breast Cancer - Part Two

The day of the lumpectomy we had to be in Chichester by 7.30am which meant a very early start and I wasn't allowed breakfast, just water or black coffee/tea till 6.30am. On arrival at the surgery suite we were surprised that it was patients only and that Mr LG wouldn't be allowed to wait with me until my time to go to theatre, so off he went for a long long wait! There was a comfortable waiting area once the booking in procedure had been completed and I waited with an older lady also having a lumpectomy and a lady who was in for breast reconstruction following a mastectomy 18 months earlier, and the three of us had a good chat and a laugh. I was due to be going to theatre at around noon but didn't actually go till around 3pm, by which time I was ravenous and had a headache from lack of fluids. Having seen various episodes of various hospital programs on television I wasn't expecting to walk into the operating theatre and to climb onto the operating table with the huge lights overhead! My last experience of hospital had been with my eldest son who had been wheeled into an anti-room for his anaesthetic, which apparently they still do as they don't want to scare the children! However, I had a lovely all lady team and the last thing I remember before waking up on the recovery ward was chatting away about something and nothing, probably making absolutely no sense at all ;-)

The sentinel node was removed and sent off to the lab along with another tiny node next to it, to be analysed whilst the lumpectomy was taking place. Although it did show signs of cancer spreading through it the decision was made not to remove a further batch of lymph nodes as the second one had been so tiny they didn't think the cancer had gone any further (it was too small to analyse properly on the day so had to be looked at in more detail afterwards). Unfortunately at my two week follow up they told me that the tiny little node had indeed had microscopic signs of the cancer so I ended up having to have another band of nodes removed. I completely understood the reasoning for not removing more nodes at the first operation as it could have meant unnecessary invasive surgery. You don't realise how much work your lymph nodes do until you have less of them. I had eight removed in total in the end, the second batch showing absolutely no signs of the cancer spreading thankfully. A few weeks ago I was stung on the foot by a sleepy wasp who had crawled into my slipper - in the past that would just have been sore for 24 hours or so and then I'd have forgotten about it, but with less lymph nodes to produce white blood cells to fight infection I ended up with a very swollen foot and a blister the size of half a golf ball which took ages to get rid of with the aid of anti-histamines and antibiotics. 

Last Friday I started a six cycle course of chemotherapy and that will be followed by a course of radiotherapy and 5 years of hormone therapy tablets. The after effects of the chemo haven't been too bad although I have been feeling absolutely exhausted at times, even after hours and hours of sleep. This is just something that I have to get through to have the best chance of the cancer being eradicated and not returning. I feel I have been very fortunate to have a very treatable form of cancer and six months of treatment are a small price to pay for being able to enjoy many more years with my family and all the people I care about.

For information on cancer in all its forms Macmillan are excellent, also Breast Cancer Care and I would urge everyone (men as well as women) to check themselves regularly and if you do find something unusual get it checked out immediately - ignoring it won't make it go away and early treatment will give a much better chance of survival. 

Breast Cancer - Part One

Now and then life throws you a curve ball. Mine came just over a month ago when I discovered a lump in my breast. Last year a friend of mine had a mastectomy and chemotherapy and is now in the clear, and since then I have checked myself more frequently. At first I couldn't quite believe that it was a lump, but it was definitely different from the other side that Sunday morning. First thing on Monday morning I phoned the medical centre and requested an urgent appointment - the first available was on Thursday afternoon. My doctor reassured me that it was just a cyst and fired off an email on the spot to refer me to a breast care consultant. I did relax, especially as it had become rather painful after all the prodding and poking around, as I'd always thought that breast cancer was painless.

I received a call from the hospital appointments department on the following Monday and ended up with a cancellation appointment at a hospital about an hour's drive from home but just 36 hours later. Between finding the lump and arriving for the consultation at hospital my right breast was sore, itchy and I was experiencing shooting pains through it. The mammogram came first, not the most pleasant experience in my life, but neither was it the worst! The consultant was very nice and down to earth, examined me and then sent me for a core needle biopsy and an ultrasound scan of the breast and armpit. Done under local anaesthetic, the biopsy was far more unpleasant than the mammogram - it didn't hurt, but as the sample is taken it sounds and feels like a large staple gun going off inside your chest! After they'd peeled me off the ceiling and slapped on a little plaster I went off for another chat with the consultant.

Having been reassured by my doctor that it was just a cyst you can probably imagine how utterly floored I was to be told that there was a 90% chance that it was cancer. At first I thought he was saying that there was a 90% chance it wasn't nasty, but he calmly disabused me of that notion! The results of the biopsy were due back the day after I was to leave for a week in Crete so we made an appointment for the day I arrived home. Feeling physically and mentally shattered I then had to make the decision as to whether or not to tell anyone. I decided that I would tell my family and very close friends before the results and before my holiday to prepare them. I kept it all very matter of fact and upbeat - I realised that the thing that most concerned me was that I might lost my hair through chemo which I was really rather hacked off about as I feel it's my best feature! A lovely week with my friend and her daughter in Crete did me the world of good, although I have to admit to being a bit of a nervous wreck on the evening before we were due to come home.

The wait to be called through to see the consultant was stomach churningly nerve wracking, slight element of surprise as the original consultant was off sick so I was seeing someone different, however I instantly liked her. The news was swift and devastating, it was definitely cancer - level 2 invasive carcinoma. After the original consultation I'd resigned myself to the fact that it would be cancer so the initial shock didn't last too long. An appointment was made for the following week for another type of scan, pre-op assessment and the op and we discussed what the procedure would be. The sentinel lymph  node would be the first thing to be removed and sent straight to the lab for assessment while the lumpectomy was taking place, and based on the results the consultant would then either sew me up or remove more nodes to see how far the cancer had spread. 

Clutching a folder full of information leaflets and appointment sheets Mr LG and I left feeling a bit overwhelmed, and started the process of confirming the diagnosis to family and friends. 

FitzGerald Photographic

Our blog post today comes from Clare FitzGerald and she shares her beautiful photography of Jenny & Milo's wedding earlier this year......

The wedding was held at the Swallows Oast Barn in Ticehurst, East Sussex on Saturday 25th February 2012 and had a vintage-esque theme set within the backdrop of a beautiful rustic barn. 

The Bride, Jenny, Head of Events for a unique London venue, oversaw the planning & detail of the day, as you would expect from someone who organises events for a living and always with a smile on her face! Jenny was very hands on with the theming, props and decor of the venue, sourcing or making herself. The icing on the cake, quiet literally, was the impressive Wedding Cake & Cheese Cake, that she made. In her spare time, Jenny is in the early days of setting up her own cake making business, so was obviously keen to make her own!

With grey skies in the morning, the sun came out in the afternoon, to make it a beautiful day! I couldn't have asked for a better wedding to start the year off or a more lovely & relaxed couple to photograph!

Many thanks to Clare for sharing these wonderful photos and to Jenny & Milo for allowing us a peak into their special day! You can contact Clare through her website as well as following her on Facebook and Twitter.