Antique gold, yellow and white wedding

from top left:
mirror from pink wallpaper
love sign from fuck yeah romantic, original source unknown
yellow bow napkin from Martha Stewart
hidden fox mug from Kir Devries via Creature Comforts
gold keys from rare device
white stags head from Z Gallerie
utopia necklace from Jacqueline Rabun
gold belero bride from Southern Weddings
yellow shoes and bouquet from Simply Bloom Photography via Weddings Unveiled


I'm working with a bride with this colour palette and I just can't get enough. With white, gold and yellow you can be chic, quirky, fun, modern, vintage inspired.... the possibilities are endless and that always makes for an enjoyable wedding styling process.

What do you think? Do you like it more or less than teal and purple? I just can't decide.

Teal and purple

I am obsessed with this duo...




From top left:
purple dress from Dior via House of Design & Style
cake from Maggie Austin via Postcards and Pretties
lilac hair source unknown
purple hearts from Red Bubble
tablescape from style me pretty
canvas from maechevrette on etsy

What does a wedding planner actually do? Part 2

The other week I started this little mini series with a post on wedding planning and what hours and where I work. This post is all about how I divide my time between my clients.

Sorry about all the text by the way. No pretty pictures today, this is all about the words!

Firstly I'll make an obvious point. I do have to take on enough weddings to make a living. Whilst I do love my job I do still have bills to pay so I do have to work on more than one wedding a year say to make it work! Having said that one of the key factors in running your own business is the balancing act between having enough clients vs having the time to dedicate to each one.

So I never take on more work than I know I can do well. In fact one of the hardest things in running my own wedding planning business has been having to turn down a wedding job because as much as I'd want to do it, I just don't have the time.

Different couples hire me for different purposes so some will require more work than others. I offer one off consultations on a variety of wedding related things from wedding styling to managing the budget and so on. So these jobs are time intensive for a short space of time, obviously during the consultation and when I write the follow up report. Then the couples go off and plan their own weddings armed with whatever information and help they needed. This is different to the full planning jobs for instance where I work with some couples up to 18 months before their big day. So with full planning jobs it isn't intensive all the time but an ongoing process.

So how do I divide my time?

When I provide checklists and time lines for couples I also draw them up for myself. So I know what I need to be doing for each client by a certain time. And I know which parts of the wedding planning process are most time consuming. The venue search is always the biggy and when this happens I can guarantee that couple will be getting a lot of my time!

Everybody has different ways of working but I tend to roughly map out my week into sections for each client. So I'm always totally focused on one wedding at a time. I don't search for reception decoration ideas for two weddings at a time for instance.

But as much as we planners like to plan, I do have to be flexible as everything revolves around the couple and their needs. Sometimes brides (and grooms) change their mind about what they want or something new crops up in their lives that affects their wedding. So lists and planning is essential but so is being adaptable to new situations.

Certain clients have more demands or a more challenging wedding to plan (tight budget, large guest list, short time to plan). But by having time blocks for each client I can ensure one client doesn't take up more time than another. Even if that sometimes means working late it's the fairest way to ensure every client gets the attention they deserve.

Having said all this, if Kate and Will decide to hire me as their wedding planner for the royal wedding, I wouldn't need any other jobs at all, so if you're reading this Kate please do get in touch.

Joking obviously. I'd rather have all my couples than one royal one. Plus I imagine it will be very traditional which isn't really my bag ;)

Flowering tea centrepieces

I'm having a bit of a centrepiece moment lately.

I came across this clear teapot and thought it would make a rather cute and original wedding centrepiece.


Teapot via Not On the High Street and flowering tea available at Exotic Teapot

You can actually drink these teas but I like the idea of them as centrepieces. They'd be good at an outdoor reception. Think long wooden benches and a rustic colour scheme. You could just dot these along the tables.

What do you think? Good idea or a step too far?!

Little People street art

Okay so this has absolutely nothing to do with weddings but these images tickled me and I thought they might amuse you too.

Check out the blog Street Art Utopia where I found these, it has some interesting stuff on it.









Which one's your favourite? I like the couple with the cigarette art best I think.

Radiohead playlist

I am so ridiculously excited about Radiohead's new album The King of Limbs which has been released online today. So I had to do a mix of some of my favourite Radiohead songs. Which has been impossible.

Words cannot express how I feel about Radiohead. Coming from Oxford I grew up with their music. From The Bends to OK Computer and the incredible In Rainbows, their music has been the soundtrack to my life.

I can't even write any more without getting teary.

Suffice to say, Radiohead, I love you.






If you like Radiohead too, what are your favourite songs?

For more Mixtape Master madness, peep the playlists on these blogs:

Hi-Fi Weddings | Tylre. | Ten Thou Bride | Fashion Under 100 | Jo, Rooting | Craft My Life | another damn life | Fancy Notion | Dead Flowers | Casa De Kaloi | Bunnies’n’Beagles | My San Francisco Budget Wedding | Existing Between Reality and Dreams

Web wonder

via Snippet and Ink

You simply have to look at the other images from this wedding.

They are simply gorgeous.

See here for other web wonders.

Neon centrepieces

I love the idea of these as centrepieces or table numbers. And they're not extortionate either.

Available from Neos Lettering these would look good at a warehouse wedding reception with lots of exposed brick and wood.

What do you think then my lovelies?

You bring peace to my heart...

Not everybody's cup of tea but certainly a day for some gratuitous heart action. Whatever you get up to this evening, have a good one.

from top left...
DIY heart luminaries via Creature Comforts
Bridesmaid hearts via Green Wedding Shoes
I Heart You origami bouquet via My Bohemian Summer
Red velvet heart cake, source unknown
Origami heart garland via Oh My!

See other Monday Medley's here.

Serious wedding dress envy

Most of the time I am more than happy to be a wedding planner but when I see dresses like this all I want is to be a bride. Just look at them. I'd wear every single one at my wedding if I could, I mean how could you possibly choose?

Although if I had to, it'd be this first one I think...



Although this one makes my heart sigh a little too...



The bow. The detailing...



The colour. Oh and the texture...







The bow. Need I say more...



All images from here

This divine collection BHLDN meaning Beholden is from the genius brand behind Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters and launches this Valentine's day. Rumour has it is is only available in the States for now *sob* but hopefully this won't be the case for long.

These beauties aren't even super expensive. All dresses range from $1000 to $4000 AND there's a bridesmaid collection too.

Phew. All too exciting. All I know is, if I were a bride-to-be I'd be jumping on a plane across the sea to get my hands on one of these bad boys!

Now this is a statement necklace

I'd like to see a bride in this necklace...


And rather wonderfully it is a mere £6.99 from Finest Imaginary

Making me smile today...

Now how much would this be in London?

'The Brain' is a cinematic laboratory in Seattle but I would like to rather like to live there. The huge windows, the 'book' cases, the greenery outside. Heaven.







Check out the architects site Olson Kundig Architects for more rather amazing spaces.

What does a wedding planner actually do? Part 1

*my ideal office would look a little like this divine image from coco+kelley*


I know a large part of the people who read my blog are my clients, or potential clients so I thought letting you in to my world and how I work on weddings might be of interest to you.

So I'm going to do a series of blog posts on various different issues/situations/musings and if there's anything in particular you'd like to see here just get in touch josieanddan@savoirweddings.com.

Okay so first up a question I've been asked a fair few times in consultations:

What hours do I work and where do I work?

Since I first became a wedding planner roughly 18 months ago (depending on whether I consider the start of my business when I began researching or got my first client) I have played around with different working hours.

I'm more a night owl than an early bird and find myself most creative late at night so the normal 9 - 5 routine isn't always best for me. Plus a lot of my clients are super busy and have full time jobs so they can only meet in the evening. So in some ways I should work 3pm - 3am or something although that doesn't leave much room for a life.

One thing's for sure, whether it be actual research, networking or thinking about a particular wedding or client I definitely work more than 40 hours a week. Which I imagine is true of lots of self employed people whether they work in weddings or not.

I do a lot of work in the various splendid coffee shops of Dalston and Hoxton (I had an office but the building got sold) and find these kind of environments great for when I want to brainstorm or work on something creative like wedding styling or design. And I work from home the rest of the time which is great for speaking on the phone/more serious research. And also lovely because my desk overlooks a canal which is fairly peaceful.

The one time that I try to keep sacred is my weekend. Partly because otherwise I'd never see my friends or my boyfriend and partly because wedding planning is a full on, passionate, exciting job and I need the weekends to relax and regroup.

What about you? If you're freelance where do you work and what hours do you keep?

For the romantic in you - a perfect ceremony reading

Sonnet 116 Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

william shakespeare