Real Wedding Featured on Whimsical Wonderland Weddings

Back in April I had the immense pleasure of planning the wedding of Anne and Seb (see their engagement shoot here) and I’m delighted to say that the lovely Lou from Whimsical Wonderland Weddings has featured their wedding as photographed by Shell de Mar on her beautiful blog, in two parts:

An Iris Inspired Elegant Spring Wedding part 1

An Iris Inspired Elegant Spring Wedding part 2   

Always Andri News: Real Windsor Wedding

Wow August already, how time flies during wedding season, well at least the sun is shining. So the last couple of months have been busy with various projects from weddings, shoots and some behind the scenes work too on a new look website...watch this space. 

My July wedding was a particularly nice one as it involved a boat trip down the river from the lovely Oakley Court to Windsor and a sightseeing bus trip pass Windsor castle too. Here are a few photos from the day and you can see more on photographer Theo Botha’s facebook page here. 

In other news  I assisted my good friend and fellow wedding planner Helen Carter on the day of her fabulously styled photo shoot with photographer Chanelle from Segerius Bruce photography which has an 8 page feature in You and Your Wedding Magazine which you can see here.

A Royal Wedding: My Thoughts

Well I feel I’m coming a little late to the party on this one as to be honest my focus recently has been on my lovely couple Anne & Seb’s wedding which took place on Saturday. So after watching the wedding on my net book while working and then having a few days off I’ve been spending some time catching up on all the Royal wedding news and now feel a little less out of the loop.

So what are my thoughts on the Royal wedding –well let’s start with the dress because surely that was at the top of everyone’s list whether they were into royal weddings or not. I’m pleased to say I wasn’t disappointed. I’d always pictured her in a Grace Kelly inspired dress-something about the timeless elegance that felt it would be the perfect inspiration for a modern day princess. Now I maybe slightly biased, I wore a long sleeved jacket on my wedding day,  but I think we’ll be seeing a lot more long sleeved wedding dresses from now on. There was a number of long sleeved gowns seen at the Golden Globes earlier this year as well as at the New York bridal market recently and I think it will be trend that continues to grow.

Now I also liked her second dress but can’t get over the niggling feeling that I wish she’d been a bit more adventurous with the design-after all the pressure was off by this point and the evening do was her chance to let her hair down a little and with Sarah Burton as designer, why not?

For the less traditional bride I think Kate’s sister Pippa’s slinky white sheath dress will also be great inspiration not just for your maids but for brides too, who wouldn’t want to look that fabulous on their wedding day, so I think white for your bridesmaids and slinky wedding dress will be very popular.

Other great details I liked were the lovely Halo tiara, great choice considering she probably had her pick of some amazing royal tiaras; her cute little Lilly of the Valley bouquet, which I imagine smelt divine; the majestic maple trees in the Abbey-although I would have loved to have seen blossom filled trees, perfect for a spring wedding; the top 4 tiers of the wedding cake and the fact that Kate chose all the flowers that were to be on it based on their symbolic meaning and I would have loved to have eaten the grooms chocolate cake-yum! (It was made to a secret royal recipe but you could try one of these recipes here and here)

As a young couple in love but with the pressure of the world looking on I think it was always going to be interesting to see how they injected themselves into their day. There were some lovely touches from the Sweet William flowers in her adorable Lily of the Valley bouquet to leaving Buckingham Palace in William’s Aston Martin but by far the loveliest thing for me was seeing how genuinely happy they both were on the day (I do love a smiling bride) and their little sweet asides to each other.

So congratulations to William and Kate a lovely day all round which many will remember for a long time. What were your thoughts on the royal wedding?

All photos via BBC News here. Cake photos here

Real Wedding E-shoot: Anne and Seb

While the world may be looking forward to a certain Royal Wedding at the end of the month here at Always Andri Wedding Design my focus has definitely been on one of my lovely couples Anne & Seb whose wedding we have been planning together since last summer and are getting married the next day in London.

Anne and Seb live in Canterbury so their photographer Shella of Shell de Mar Photography popped down there last month for their engagement shoot. Here are some of the photos from the day, for the rest of the shoot take a look at Shell's blog here

 
Photos courtesy of Shell de Mar Photography

Real Wedding: Nicola and Charlie

This weekend saw the one year wedding anniversary of one of my lovely couples from last year so in honour of this I thought I’d share with you some photos from their big day.

The fabulous suppliers who helped make it such a wonderful day:

Photography by Duncan Kerridge, Flowers by Rita Henry of Four Seasons Floral Design, Cupcake Tower by Peggy Porschen, Cutting cake by Jane Asher, Carriage by Victorian Carriages Ltd, Hair & Make-up by Kate Hughes from It’s all About You, London Gospel Choir from Rev The Session Agency, Reception Entertainment Incognito. Also a big thank you to Helen who assisted me on the day.

The wedding reception took place at the lovely London wedding venue The Institute of Directors at 116 Pall Mall. If you like the look of the venue why not pop down to their wedding fair on Saturday 19th March.

For more lovely photos from the day check out the English Wedding Blog here and here and you can see a little thank you from Nicola here.

Featured on English Wedding

In the Spring we had the pleasure of doing the on-the day coordination of Nikki and Charlie’s fabulous wedding at the Palace of Westminster in London ( I posted a sneak peak here)and this week the wedding has been featured on the wonderful English Wedding Blog in 2 posts here and here.

Do go take a look as not only are there some great photos from the day but Claire has some very nice things to say about me too!



Christmas Wedding Inspiration: Real Weddings

As much of England is still covered in a blanket of white I thought I’d post some photos and links to some lovely weddings in the snow to inspire your day…

Photo by Laura Ivanova via Elizabeth Anne Designs here

Photo by Erin Jean via Style Me Pretty here

Photo by Lisa Devlin via Love My Dress here

Photo by Brinton Studios via Style Me Pretty here

Always Andri News

Well it’s August already, where did July go? It’s been busy here at Always Andri, working on weddings for this year and next. On Saturday we were there for a lovely vow renewal/baptism party we’d helped plan in North London. After the ceremony in Highgate guests were treated to a yummy 3 course meal at Bradley’s restaurant in Swiss Cottage. Whether you’re looking for a wedding venue or just a great place to eat in London I highly recommend Bradley’s, with great food and service it really is a hidden gem.

The above photos are just couple I took but I’ll be looking forward to seeing the full set by the photographers Studio Rouge and showing some here.

A few weeks ago I took a trip down to Tunbridge Wells to style a stationery shoot with photographers Tino & Pip. On a sunny day in lovely park surrounded by wildflowers, we even saw a deer at one point, we had great fun working together to style and shoot the beautiful stationery of Ananya Cards, you can see some more pics and read about the day at the Tino & Pip website here.

I’ll bring you more photos from the day soon with a little Q&A from Vaishali, the designer behind Ananya Cards.

Real London Wedding Thank You & Sneak Peak

“Just wanted to say thanks sooooooooo much for all your help and support on the day. Everything went so well…

Andri you were amazing on the day, so calm and collected - every bride should have one of you! … I will be telling all my friends that are getting married to call you"

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of doing the On the Day Coordination for Nikki & Charlie’s wedding at the Chapel of St Mary’s Undercroft at the Houses of Parliament followed by the reception at the Institute of Directors on Pall Mall, London. Above is part of the lovely thank you email that Nikki sent me last week.



The photographer was Duncan Kerridge, I’ll be posting more photos from the day soon, in the meantime here are a couple of favourites.

The Brougham Carriage in silhouette

The Very Happy Bride.

Christmas Inspiration: Real Weddings in the Snow

Despite all this snow causing chaos on the roads, I do love winter weddings. I'll be looking forward to seeing the weddings that took place over the weekend in the coming weeks, but in the meantime check out these real weddings

Love the way the violet bridesmaids’ dresses stand out in the snow…

Winter Wedding here photo by Mthree Studio via With this Ring

This was a lovely inimate wedding with very personal details and oh my ...the dress…a 1947 New Look inspired wedding outfit designed by the bride and a friend that can be worn again and again...

Vintage Snow, here & here photos by Calla Evans Photography via Rock’n’Roll Bride via wedding bee

I originally found this wedding when I was looking at coloured shoes, which by the way are the most amazing green feathered Louboutin’s, it’s a beautiful wedding with lots of lovely details from feather hairpieces, succulent floral arrangements to lovebird cake toppers

Woodstock VT, here by Leigh Millar and here via Green Wedding Shoes

And if you can’t have you wedding in the snow, how about your engagement photos

‘An Engagement Session in the Snow’ here photos by Open Air Photography via Green Wedding Shoes

Happy Halloween

As It's Halloween I thought I'd share some Halloween inspired links that I have found recently.

If you are getting married at this time of year, either of these cookies would make great little favours, Bake it Pretty even give you clear instructions on how to wrap them and add a tag which could easily be customised with your wedding details.

Stained Glass Halloween Cookies here from Amy Atlas

Spellbinding Cookies here, from Bake it Pretty

These candleholders would look great along a fireplace...

Spooky Silhouette Candeholders, here via Design *Sponge


And if you're thinking pumpkins are only for scary faces then check out Pumpkin week on Sweet Paul.

If you are having lots of kids at your party you could set aside an area for a Dress the Pumpkin Competition-provide some pre-cut out features from magazines (lips eyes etc) and various other bits- jewellery, sunglasses etc and leaves the kids to have some fun! Great way to keep them occupied during speeches.

Above photo is Fashionista from Wednesday, there's one for everyday of the week: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday





Photo by Erica Turner via Ruffled

Finally a beautiful autumn inspired wedding on Ruffled with loads of DIY details, here & here

Silver pumpkin photo at top found via won't you be my naybyrd

Blog Love: Real Weddings

Check out the ‘Sweet Whimsical Wedding’ on Style Me Pretty in three parts, here, here and here…

Beautiful photography by Choco Studio, amazing venue- Ralston White Retreat, fabulous short dress (a thrift store find re-designed by dressmakers at Al's Attire), colorful carnival masks and succulents…love it!

And if you’re looking for ideas for a budget friendly green wedding take a look at this beautiful eco wedding full of great details on Green Wedding Shoes. The photography was by Sabine Scherer…gorgeous.

Real Wedding: Claudia & Didier

At the beginning of July we did the On the Day Co-ordination for Claudia and Didier’s wedding in Croydon.

Claudia’s from Germany and Didier is from Mauritius with family living in France so it was a truly international day with guests coming far and wide. As their home has been in Didier’s family for a number of years they decided to host the wedding there and their neighbour was happy to let them use his garden too, which doubled the space

With a colour scheme of white, shell, mushroom and gold they transformed the garden and marquee into a perfect wedding venue full of personal touches.

The marquee was arranged around an apple tree growing in the garden from which Claudia hung tea-light lanterns and butterflies- creating a lovely backdrop for the cake.

Didier’s Sister made a fabulous favour tree which tied in beautifully with the apple tree; from which she hung the traditional sugared almonds in various styles of holders from hearts to teardrops, personalised with the couple's name and wedding date.

Didier‘s sister also made all the simple rose and gyp floral arrangements for the tables, and with Claudia the candle and shell displays.

Claudia handmade all the menus for the tables, each one was a unique design.

The day went very well and it really was an absolute pleasure working with such a lovely couple. Thank you Claudia and Didier - wishing you both all the best for the future.

Cake by Celebration Cakes by Jackie Brown

Bouquet by Garlands Florists
Catering by Sunshine Catering

All photos taken by me