Posts Tagged ‘blog’

Hello everyone!

My name is Emma Case and I would just like to introduce myself as the newest member of the Bridal Soup team and to say that I am so so excited and cannot wait to share all the delicious things that come our way!  As a ‘not yet married but engaged to a gorgeous guy’ lady I am really looking forward to finding all sorts of wonderful things that I would want to book for my own wedding and to share them with all of you!

So who am I?  Well I am a photographer who loves anything vintage and a girl who likes fake moustaches, photo booths, cupcakes and good music.  You can find me at www.emmacasephotography.co.uk

When I’m not taking photographs I do a bit of acting, sign language (which is my other passion), spend time with my fiance Pete, attempt to decorate my house and look after my two cats, Maximo and Nanna.

I hope you all enjoy my future posts and it’s an absolute pleasure to make your acquaintance,

Emma x

If you have something that you would love us to feature or you simply want to say hello then email me at emma@bridalsoup.com

Probably the first thing your wedding guests will see when it comes to your wedding is the invitations, so why not impress them early with a unique and creatively designed invite. There are some great people out there doing stylish, contemporary invitations but one of our favourites is Zenadia Design. Based in California, but attracting clients worldwide, Zenadia is the brainchild of Heidi Jimenez who was inspired to start her company after designing the invites to her own wedding 6 years ago. We chatted to Heidi about all things inviting…

1. How did Zenadia Design come about and how long have you been around?
I always thought I wanted to work for a magazine designing layouts, however when I was married in 2003 and designed my own wedding invitations, I knew I had found my niche in the world of design. I love designing invitations because it gives me the ability to incorporate layout design as well as typography, two of my passions in design. As I’ve grown in the world of design, I’ve also found a love for using not only paper, but fabrics, flowers, beads and anything imaginable on invitations. I really enjoy creating a complete couture piece and take a lot of my inspiration from fashion.

2. Where did the name come from?
I made the name Zenadia up. When I was taking graphic design in high school, we had an assignment to come up with a design studio name and identity. I wanted something completely different; something that people would remember for being unique. Thus the name and logo were born.

3. What products do you offer?
Zenadia Design specializes in coordinating all of your paper products for your wedding. Invitation, escort cards, programs, menu, thank you notes, weekend events, rehearsal dinner invitations.
We can also create one of a kind party invitations, baby announcements, moving announcements, personal stationery and business cards.
In addition to custom work, we also offer a line of ready made invitations and note cards, available through our etsy shop.

4. You offer custom made invitations for couples. How does that usually work?
Since we are creating something exclusively for each client, the process starts out with a conversation. We want to know all about your plans for your event and just get to know you.  After the conversation, we begin the design process. At this time we start to develop ideas for your invitation. The great thing about custom work is that the possibilities are endless! When we present the designs to you, you don’t have to pick one design in particular. We can combine elements from each design to make one design and so forth. Once we’ve settled on a design, the proofing process begins. After you sign off the final proof, printing and assembly begins. Once this is complete your order is ready to be delivered! At Zenadia, we strive to make the design process as fun and stress free as possible.

5. When do you advise clients to order their wedding invitations?
With custom work its never too soon to get started! I always advise brides the sooner the better. Custom work can take anywhere from 4-6 months, and you typically mail invitations out 6-8 weeks before the big day, so you would want to get stared at least 6-8 months before your wedding.

6. Do you have any favorite projects that you’ve worked on?
I actually really enjoy working with all my clients. I love getting to know them and being able to design something completely personal and unique. However, one of my favorite projects was a surprise party invitation I did for my husband. The invitations were designed to give the receiver a feeling of being a “secret agent”. The first piece to send out was the top secret envelope. I wanted all of my husband’s friends to be able to attend the party, so I sent out a “top secret assignment” to everyone, asking them to pick which date best fit their schedule. Next to go in the mail was the actual invitation, complete with “Agent (recipients last name)”, to really give the invitations that personal secret agent feeling. The invitation was in the form of a spiral bound book with all the details, map, and parking directions.

7. How do you feel wedding invitations have changed in recent years?
I think traditions are being thrown out the window, and couples are wanting an invitation that pushes the envelope and is completely personal for them. At Zenadia Design we believe the invitation is a piece of history that should be cherished for centuries to come. Our goal as a couture invitation designer is to create a piece of history for each client. Something that is personal and reflects who the people are as a couple. When generations down the line look back on their family’s wedding invitation, we want them to be able to see their ancestors personality reflected in the invitation, as well as the feeling or theme of the wedding day. As our company tag line says “creating history just for you™”, which is exactly what we do.

8. Do you ship worldwide?
We sure do!

9. Whats next for Heidi and Zenadia?
We will continue to provide exclusive one of a kind invitations for our clients, as well as maintain our high level of customer service. In addition, we’re always adding new collections to our line of ready to order invitations, as well as stationery. With our ready to order invitations, you get the same great Zenadia Design style with a quicker turnaround time than custom work.

10. Any other tips or suggestions for brides?
Have fun! Your wedding (planning and the big day) was meant to be fun. After all, its one of the biggest events in your life so make sure you take some time to enjoy every minute. =) 

See more at Zenadia Design’s website at www.zenadiadesign.com

Happy Friday people! I hope you enjoyed my first tentative steps towards telling our wedding story…next stop - The dress hunt!
 
After the tears of joy, the calling everyone we knew and the general ‘oh my god-ing’ after Gareth popped the question, the first thing on my agenda was the dress!  The very next day at work I was logging onto my computer and typing ‘wedding dresses’ into Google.  
 
At the beginning this will be a very daunting task. There are a million and one dress designers out there and a hundred billion squillion dresses to choose from.  Now, I’m not going to write an article telling you that you need to order your dress 6 months before your wedding, or that you need to take into account that your dress will set the tone for the whole day blah blah blah…as you can go and find all that boring information on every other wedding planning website.  What I’m aiming to do is pass on a few things I learnt from my own dress buying experience: 

·        The boring bit is the budget, but you really do need to work out how much you have to spend before you fall in love with a custom made Vera Wang that you just can’t afford.  However saying that, and this is something I heavily promote on RnR Bride (and actually in my everyday life!) if you want something that badly there is always a way…does that make me sound like a spoilt brat?  I hope not because what I mean is, if you were totally in love with ‘that’ dress, you could always get a similar design made for example…
·        Look at as many dresses as you can (online, in magazines or in store) to get an idea of the styles you like, however – and this is the important part – do not rule anything out and try loads on!  I was adamant from the beginning that I didn’t want a strapless dress. I was under the impression that big boobs + strapless = disaster.  Yet when I found out that dresses with straps/sleeves were rarer than I first thought (this was 2 years ago mind, fashions have now changed and strapped/sleeved dresses are a lot easier to find – I was just so ahead of the times!) I was forced to try on some strapless styles, and what do you know, some of them actually looked pretty good!

·        Despite what Sex and the City or Friends may tell you, buying off the rack is not a cardinal sin.  If you order a dress through a good bridal shop they will still alter it to fit you.
·        Think outside the box – Monsoon do an awesome and affordable range of wedding dresses, and Oxfam and Barnardos have specialist wedding dress shops stocking second hand dresses.  We actually went to a friend’s wedding last October and she got her dress from Barnardos, it was so gorgeous!
·        Don’t feel like a terrible bride if you don’t instantly know your dress is the ‘one’.  I first tried it on in a bridal shop in London with my maid of honour, Carly.  It wasn’t a magical ‘oh my god this is my dress!’ It was more like “hum…well this is the first dress I didn’t absolutely hate” (!)  I found it really difficult to make a final decision on the dress, and my mind was only made up when the woman in the shop said my other choice of dress was a much more popular style, and that they don’t sell many of ‘my’ dress it made the decision for me! There was no way I wanted something the same as everybody else!
Similarly, don’t feel cheated if your Mum/maid of honour/the lady in the shop doesn’t cry. No one cried at me when I put a dress on…but on the day they all really let it all go, and that’s what counts!

·        Customise! – This is your dress; decorate it (and yourself) how you want! I’m talking neon pink earrings, bunny ears and converse trainers (or whatever floats your boat!)…don’t be a ‘typical’ or ‘classic’ bride…how very boring.
·        If you are going for a ‘traditional-esque’ wedding dress - and by that I mean a dress you would buy in a wedding dress shop, as apposed to something completely unbridal, I would highly recommend buying it from a reputable bridal store or getting it made by a seamstress that you have met face to face.  What I’m saying is, if your dream dress is £1000 in the shop and only £100 on mycheapweddingdress.com there is probably a reason for it. Think cheap copies made of cheap material by cheap labour.  Not nice.

·        Finally, and if you take nothing else away from my rambling, take away this - it is your dress… and probably the most important dress you will ever wear in your life (well, as important as any dress can be!). If you don’t like what you see in the mirror when you’ve got that white dress on then walk away from the bridal shop and straight into your favourite boutique/charity shop/high street shop. I can not even begin to describe some of the amazing, weird and wonderful wedding dresses I’ve featured over at Rock ‘n Roll Bride – some of them have to be seen to be believed!  Just wear what you want…It is your day after all!

 
Feeling uninspired? Come check out some of my favourite wedding Rock n Roll dresses that I’ve featured recently. 

Say hi to Rosie Parsons, our friend and fantastic wedding photographer, who suggests that capturing great images doesn’t have to end just because your wedding day is over… Over to you Rosie…

As a photographer, I know that sometimes there isn’t time to do a huge amount of arty photographs of the bride and groom on an actual wedding day, so I love the idea of getting the bride and groom back into their wedding outfits (whether it be a day or even a year after the event) for a special shoot solely devoted to getting amazing and artistic shots of just the couple.

You don’t have to worry about the dress getting damaged, or elderly relatives standing around in the sun while you’re having your picture taken. You can afford the photographer of your dreams because you won’t be commissioning them to cover an entire wedding, just the equivalent of a portrait session and you can go to locations that you’d never have had time to do on your actual wedding day. What’s not to love?! 

Yesterday I got together for one of these shoots with the fabulous Helen Ward, an amazingly talented Bristol based illustrator (check out her blog at www.birdface.net ) and her hubby, fantastic graphic designer Tim Ward. They got married a year and a half ago at the very cool Paintworks in Bristol. Helen’s a really creative person, and her wedding really reflected that. I loved Helen’s gorgeous lime green wedding dress by Bristol based designer Daniela Benson. and bright red shoes!

For the shoot we revisted Paintworks’ event space (with permission!) where Helen and Tim’s actual wedding took place and then headed down to Bristol docks for a vintage railway theme. Here Helen wore a stunning white dress by another Bristol based designer Gilly Woo Couture and husband Tim looked brilliant in his top hat and tails! Multi-skilled Laila Hoegseth Pettersen did a great job with Helen’s hair and makeup on the day and the beautiful flowers were provided by Eco-friendly florists Bella & Fifi who created two absolutely stunning bridal bouquets for the shoot. 

If artistic images inspire you contact the photographer of your dreams and see if they offer these types of session!

All images: Rosie Parsons