DIY it... Literally!

Rule # 1: If something doesn't come in your colour : PAINT IT.

Rule # 2: If you could make it easily yourself : DO.

Rule # 3: If you have talented friends and family : USE THEM - They will be over the moon that you asked!

Following these 3 simple rules can save you bucket loads in terms of money, and the people who help you will gain too from your gratefulness. WIN WIN!

• Use eBay / DIY stores / Charity shops / boots sales... even (and especially!) garden centres!- As well as outdoors bits and pieces, you can pick up some great indoorsy bits like chalk boards, tin jugs and even home wares!

• For "Vintage" themes, dare to check out your local dumps / councils for any furniture / larger items you can salvage, like suitcases etc... If searching online for pieces, try to avoid the term "vintage" in your searches as, being the word / trend of the moment, people can justifyingly put their prices up for things. Be more descriptive- "used", "worn", "old" "aged" and "shabby" often do the trick for more weathered looking items like cases / props. "kitsch", "cute" and "indy" for higher spec items like clothing and china.

• Do not be afraid to buy "cheap" - at the end of the day, their purpose is to only last the few hours of the wedding day! This also means that if you aim to sell your items on afterwards, you are more likely to get your money back.

Photo credit: Matt Jones

• Before you go spending tons on wrapping paper / tags for gifts etc. check out the DIY stores for wallpaper - most places offer unlimited free samples : you could save a few squids here!

• For wooden wedding signs / crafts, check eBay. Websites like etsy and folksy are great for finished articles, but eBay houses hundreds of spare-time carpenters on the look out for the opportunity to do custom work for pocket money and good feedback - play nice and you can even negotiate the prices down.

• Wedding dresses come in all shapes and sizes… found one that is second hand, but not quite your fit?- Find a local dressmaker / get down and nasty with your needles and thread- you’ll end up with a personalised adaptation like no other.

• Use sale rails and bargain corners for cheap material and paints - there is ALWAYS a tin of white going cheap and tester pots cost next to nothing but go far - use them to turn almost anything to shabby whitewashed chic or colour theme heaven. Use fabric shop offcuts / old bed linen from charity shops to make bunting and table runners.

• The saying goes "everybody knows someone called Dave"... Think about it... yep, you do! The same goes for everybody knowing somebody... whether you can think of them straight away or not, most people have "contacts" that would be able to help in some way to create your dream day for less - know a great cook that can bake a cake? Know someone crafty who can make favours / invites? Sure you do!

• Get back to nature! Grow your own flowers for decoration / use branch trimmings from trees to decorate your marquee ceiling / build your own wishing tree... Pick fruit locally and make your own jam favours... Fruit also makes great table settings, adding colour and providing nibbles all in one! Genious!

And to think this is just a TASTER of the crafty mischeif you could be getting up to!- It really is the best way to end up with exactly the look you want to acheive and host a day that is absolutely unique to you. I'll cover more in further blogs, but hopefully this should whet your appetite and get you excited about doing things yourself! Go on! Get crafting!

Love,

Guest lists... the pecking order

Ahh, the guest list. Something that should be so easy, but that politics make so difficult.

Do you invite this person?- If you do, shouldn't you also invite this person and that person? Soon, if you're not careful you'll end up with the whole village and their dogs at your wedding!

• The best idea is always aim to keep it small - invite only your immediate family and closest of friends - those who matter most to you as a couple. These people are important to you, and should be valued so.

• Further to the sentimental value of the people you invite is (unfortunately!) always the cost. Caterers generally charge per head and venues cost more, the more people they can house. It stands to reason that the more heads you have = the bigger the cost. Stick to your budget.

• Try not to be overpowered and stand your ground. Don't be influenced by people telling you who should and shouldn't be there- it is YOUR wedding, only you know this.

• I have never been a fan of allowing guests for the parents either - I know a few brides who were made to allow for this, and the situation with one of them spiralled to the parents having invited half the people attending- leaving the bride feeling extremely uncomfortable! If you do feel you really need to allow for this, be firm and put a cap on it - only allow for people you have actually met and know, not just trophy guests invited to make numbers and show off.

Our wedding was small and intimate with only 25 guests invited to the day-time. We didn't invite all the people my family wanted us to, and BOY did this cause major controversy and hours of arguments, but when it came to the day, no-one said anything about it and there were no "consequences" to our decision. If anything, I think people better understood the atmosphere we were hoping the day to have, and in not inviting 3rd cousins twice removed and second aunts who I met once but now live on the moon, we well and truly acheived it.

I guess the point i'm trying to make is that as with anything in the planning stages, do what YOU want. Don't ever feel pressured into inviting people you don't want there, just because you "should". Stick to your guns and choose the people you want to share your day with wisely, because the next political challenge is the seating plan!

Love,

Fly me to the moon...

Or the Bahamas... Or Paris...

... drive me to Brighton??!

A honeymoon comes well deserved after a wedding, and regardless of its shape and form, or the amount of money spent on it, I truly think should be something every new bride and groom gets to experience!

Imagine it: for months you have been wolfing up information from the same websites, ringing the same people about the same problems, writing countless cheques and squirming at bank statements... the last thing you want to do is go back to that same armchair, phone and credit card!

And the best thing is that a honeymoon doesn’t necessarily mean splashing out on an overpriced cruise, round the world flight or even getting out of the country! Just leaving your wedding planning surroundings is a relief in itself.

Yet more and more couples are choosing to "hold back" on a 'moon'- the most common reason being that they simply cannot afford it... and yet the most popular wedding gift asked for nowadays is money. Make this top of your wedding list requests (Because even if you implicitly say you do NOT want gifts, people WILL insist) and you will be well on your way to a trip somewhere nice. Also, by factoring your break into your wedding costs, any gift money comes as a bonus and you can save feeling guilty for another day.

Everybody talks (and I’m one of them!) about the stresses of wedding planning... even if you are the most calm, positive, level-headed person in the world (like my hubby!), weddings do take their toll.

They are all consuming-  become all you talk about, all you dream about... and when you go shopping, all you buy for to the point where you are so in tune to wedding frequency that just catching a glimpse of “your colours” ends up with you soon queuing at the tills, basket high...

And it’s not ever apparent just how much you think about it until you stop.

We didn’t ever plan on having a honeymoon, but are so unbelievably happy we did! We slept, and ate, walked and TALKED... (Something we rarely sat back and enjoyed while planning!) I didn’t wear make-up or worry about eating so much ice-cream i'd get break-outs or not fit into my wedding dress... He didn’t suffer with migraines from my nagging him... It was bliss.

The ultimate chill-out a honeymoon has to offer is honestly the best wedding present you can receive.

So take this as Hens thought for the day: Book yourself a honeymoon- if you have the money, go somwehere you always dreamed about, if you don’t, grab a cheap UK break at a B&B in the middle of nowhere and just relish in the silence.

You’ll love me for it J

Love,

 

Why does it always rain on me?

Inspired by the ginormous puddle that is the UK right now, I thought it apt to write about the dreaded possibility of rain on your wedding day...

No-one can predict the weather, and yet it is probably one of the biggest worries a bride and groom can have about their big day as it is the only real thing that is completely out of your control.

The best thing you can do is to try and find contingencies amongst your day plan - if you can't have photo's outside, can you find somewhere indoors? Maybe, if you have a free corner, could you set up a photo booth?

If you need to walk outside at all, why not invest in some wellies and an umbrella in your wedding colours?! - You'll be protected from soggy feet AND get some cool, quirky pictures!

Use the rain to your advantage! - Have some fun and be a little daring - why not CHOOSE to have some photo's outside?! There is still plenty of opportunity here for your photographer to capture some brilliant shots- particularly couples ones, provided you don't mind getting a little damp!

(c) Boy Meets Girl Photography http://www.boymeetsgirlphoto.biz/



(c) One Black Sheep Photography http://www.oneblacksheep.co.nz/



Try and factor in additional times during the day where being outside can be attempted - Generally in the UK, (particularly in the summer), it doesn't normally rain continuously, but if it does decide to shower while you're trying to get your outdoors on and you don't fancy getting down and drizzly, without a contingency this can scupper your plans. Allow pockets of time however, and your odds of an outdoor photo opportunity are much greater.

((Plus, from a photographers point of view, we can take great shots in just 10 minutes, if given the time to play with! - Just check out the above!))

Lastly, don't panic! The rain can't 'ruin' your wedding day. If it showers, it showers. If it pours, it pours! THAT is your day- Make it yours! Besides... some say it's lucky for it to rain on your wedding day!... What a brilliant, completely unplanned head start!

Love,

Who lives in a house like this? - The hunt for a reasonably priced, suitably cute venue

The hunt for a wedding venue is one of the first things you will take on as a newly engaged couple, and much like your choice of dress it can (and should be!) a very personal, ever-so-slightly stressful thing to do!

It is the first time you will realise just how much the wedding industry can afford to charge for things, and how much of a bank-balance changing experience weddings can turn out to be. Do your research however, and you can pay reasonably and sometimes under the odds:

• Get clued up. Avoid venues with marriage licenses if you can – you pay a LOT more for the privilege! Perhaps look to split your wedding- have the legal ceremony at a church or registry office, then move the reception to another venue. It is not uncommon to do this, and could save you a packet!

• Be flexible. Look for “off-peak”  and mid-week availability. Venues struggle to fill these slots and so often the price is a lot lower. And while venues vary in what they consider “peak” and “off-peak” months, even those months in the balance can often be found at a lower rate.

•  “Off-peak” doesn’t necessarily mean bad weather either!

Some places consider the months of April and May to be “off-peak” yet in the UK, for the last 3 years, April has been our hottest month, and statistically May is one of the better months for low rainfall.

• Have vision. Like houses, not all venues will start off looking the way you want them to – If you can try and see past the “decor” and more into the potential of the space, you’re on to a money-saving, self-personalised winner.

• Be prepared to look outside your “catchment” area. Especially if you live in one of the pricier counties / tourist hotspots. Moving just across the county border can often make a world of difference to venue costs. Be aware though that if you are planning on MARRYING in a different county, by law you need to reside there for a week before being allowed to apply and sign the papers in that county.

• How cheap is “cheap”? Be realistic. You can’t expect to find a “cheap” venue and have it comfortably house 300 guests. Overheads alone dictate this and when you consider food at price per head on top, your venue spend suddenly doesn’t look so realistically rosy...

• From trawling the internet, it seems the most common answer that people spend roughly between 45 – 50% of their budget on the venue alone. This often doesn’t include food either. When you consider this figure, and then that food / drinks need to come on top... you’ll probably want to keep this cost as low as you can get!

• Be clever and think outside the box. Your venue doesn’t need to be a building at all!- certainly not a “destination” one either (manor estates etc.) Nowadays you can plonk your party just about anywhere...

• Marquees / tipi’s / yurts
• Barns / stables / Boats / village halls / pubs
• Museums / Galleries / Wildlife centres / nature reserves / arboretums
• Theme parks / school fields / back garden...

And to prove doing your research pays off?

Our wedding venue was a steal. We had to travel slightly outside of our “catchment” and, as it doesn't have a wedding license, we married at a registry office but, (without food) we only paid £200!

We found a marquee in Summertown, Oxford able to comfortably hold up to 120 people, right on the river. The marquee is permanently up all year round and if used during the colder months, can be heated at no additional cost. It is an extension to the boathouse restaurant / main river punt station in Oxford, so there is a fair bit of traffic through here, but they were not disturbing in any way and if anything, made the experience more enjoyable! In a  scenic location, and a complete blank canvass, it was just the perfect venue for us.

Visit their website to see more: http://cherwellboathouse.co.uk/

Love,

Too much of a good thing is wonderful

When planning a wedding, it’s not hard to get sucked into the massive inspiration catalogue that is the internet! Following as little as an hour, you can have produced a whole book of ideas on everything from venues to napkins to underwear!

As overwhelming as your collection may seem, this is actually a good thing! Weddings  have a funny planning timeline which means you often do a lot at the start and in the final weeks coming up to the big day, but you are left with a giant hole in between... this is the ideal size and shape gap for getting down and dirty with the prit-stick and scissors, working all those amazing ideas in to your day!

So many brides worry about sticking to themes and that a mish-mash of different ideas pulled from different places won't “go” together... but at the end of the day, if YOU picked these things, and YOU love them, it will all work together for YOU.

We went through a similar phase!- Shooting weddings mean that we get to see peoples different ideas on an almost weekly basis, and we picked up loads of tips in the months leading up to our wedding day from other brides and grooms. We also spent hours on blogs such as “Rock n Roll Bride” scoping all the unique weddings that get posted on there, and scooping up every ounce of individualism as we went... 



A medley of mix and match madness from our marriage!
(Photos by John Alexander: http://www.jeaphotography.co.uk/)



We ended up making EVERYTHING for our wedding, and it pretty much all had a different feel to it... we mixed travel theme place settings with vintage boating ticket favours, modern photobooth save-the-dates with country garden flowers, an old-school juke box with purple stripy socks!



Everything was different, but everything was relevant to us, and people knew it as soon as they walked into our venue- the creativity and uniqueness of everything was one of the biggest talking points of the day, and we are so proud to say that our wedding was truly US.

At the end of the day, you can never have too much of a good thing.

In fact, too much of a good thing is wonderful.

Love,

Who the 'cluck' am I?

Hi, my name is Natalie… more commonly known as "Goose" or "Chicken" by my husband, Andrew (hence HEN)… and I love trees.

Awkward.

I am a part time photographer and full time creative and I’ve decided to start this blog to vent all my rants about buttons and ribbons on the big pond that is the internet, instead of giving my husband a constant headache and in turn, reason for a quick divorce…

I have a penchant for all things thrifty / vintage, a keen eye for a charity shop bargain, an addiction to eBay and a love of painting furniture white…

I am not an alcoholic.

So! Introductions out of the way… I just got married about 6 weeks ago, after 5 years with my man, 3 years of being engaged, and 8 months of wedding planning stress!

My wedding was honestly one of the best days of my life and it was over in a flash. All those months of tears, tantrums and "we’re not doing this any more"s gone in an instant, and to be honest- I really miss it!

Hence the creation of Hen’s love trees… a homage to weddings and an intended filofax of ideas for those about to embark on the journey of planning a wedding, or for those like myself, who simple enjoy looking back at all things old, new, borrowed and blue…

Using my photographers eye, and my creative streak I aim to bring to you a host of reasoning’s behind the many trials you come across when wedding planning, unique and individual ways of getting round unnecessary costs, and why shouldn’t listen to anyone else but your instinct when it comes to getting the wedding YOU want.

My word is not law. I do not aim to offend. I just know what I like, and hope you will too!

Love,