anniversary love: anniversary time capsules

Recently I shared with you a little wedding love of Love In October’s beautiful wedding day. I briefly mentioned that my husband and I presented anniversary time capsules / envelopes on each of our reception tables for our guests to sign. On each envelope read the date of our first year wedding anniversary and inside were little paper love birds and a description that read...

'This is our anniversary time capsule for our... 1st Anniversary... 

please write down your thoughts, well wishes or predictions for our future together... 

and we promise not to open this envelope until that day'.

All of our guests wrote little notes, well wishes and predictions for us during the night that were emotional, sweet, meaningful and very funny... that we could read together on our first year anniversary.

Our first year anniversary was spent trekking in Nepal so we decided to leave them to open on our second year anniversary. It was such a wonderful experience to read these notes from our nearest and dearest and relive moments from our day. I recommend to everyone to have an anniversary time capsule at your wedding (or even baby shower or naming ceremony)... it is so lovely and so much fun.  

(Photography by Jenny Cuerel of TWK Studio and Love In October)

wedding love: a sweet country wedding - part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of all the lovely details of Love In October's first project… our wedding. I hope you enjoyed Part 1 yesterday. 

For our wedding portraits, we had gorgeous scenic photographs taken in a field overlooking the Glass House Mountains at sunset. 

For guests to find their seats we had a polaroid ‘welcome’ sign and sweet white frames with the table listings. Our tables were decorated simply in white with small glass vases filled with Bells of Ireland and White Lilacs. On each table sat an envelope titled ‘1^st Anniversary 18-10-10’. These anniversary time capsules contained little love bird cards where guests could leave love notes or well wishes for us to open on our first wedding anniversary.
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For favours, guests were given personalised gingerbread men and women that also acted as place settings. They were also given handmade badges (to match the groom and groomsmen) which many of them wore on the night.

Together with my mother, my bridesmaids and my mother-in-law, we created a delicious ‘love is sweet’ dessert bar complete with macaroons, mini cupcakes, chocolate cake pops, chocolate brownies and shortbread cookies. We also provided ‘sweets’ bags for guests to take home as many sweets as they could fit. Our two tiered chocolate mud wedding cake was adorned with a miniature married couple made to look like us... me in my wedding gown and my husband in his suit jacket, boardshorts and thongs (flip-flops)!  

Our first dance was amazing and magical. Our bridal party joined in with us.  By the end of our first dance nearly every one of our guests was up dancing with us. 

favourite wedding detail: Our handmade wedding badges... creating them and seeing everyone wearing them on the day. My favourite... 'I heart chocolate cupcakes'. 

favourite wedding moment: Walking down the aisle with my parents and seeing my now husband at the end of the aisle waiting for me... and finally becoming his wife. Also I absolutely loved our first wedding dance together.  

your wedding day ideas and inspiration: I spent many hours looking through wedding magazines and wedding blogs. It was where I first found and fell in love with Green Wedding Shoes and Style Me Pretty. 
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event design & styling: Love In October / photography: Jenny Cuerel of TWK Studio / location: Maleny Manor / gown: Darb Bridal Couture / bouquets: Julie Vine Flowers / hair: Tess Knight / make-up: Lash Creative / cake figurines: Cake Inspirations / paper goods, badges and dessert bar: Love In October

I am so excited to have been able to share with you our wedding and the love and inspiration behind the start of Love In October. I am even more excited to be celebrating our first birthday very soon!

(Photography by Jenny Cuerel of TWK Studio)

wedding love: a sweet country wedding - part 1

With our first birthday just around the corner, I thought it would be a great opportunity to tell you a bit more about how Love In October started. The idea for Love In October developed from my passion for all things detailed... weddings, stationary, tea parties, picnics, flowers, desserts and more. This detail love really started with the planning of our wedding… the many wonderful hours spent researching, dreaming, planning and creating. Like many other brides this didn't stop after our special day, so Love In October was born! So in two parts I thought I would share with you all the lovely details of Love In October’s first project… our wedding.

My mister and I were married just under two years ago... in October of course! When first starting to plan our big day we wanted to create a day that celebrated our love story. We chose to have a small intimate wedding with our closest family and friends. As we both share a love of the country and where we grew up, we wanted our day to have a sweet country feel. We also wanted our day to reflect us as a couple and have our guests feel like they were a special part of our day. 

I was incredibly lucky to have worn a beautiful handmade wedding gown by Darb Bridal. Brad created the most gorgeous custom gown for me that reflected my personality. My fabulous bridesmaid and flowergirl dresses were handmade by my mother.

Julie of Julie Vine Flowers created a beautiful bridal bouquet of white arium lilies. On my bouquet I pinned my something blue… blue birds that my mother wore on her wedding day as her something blue… and later my sister wore on her wedding day too. My bridesmaids carried a vibrant bouquet of green calla lilies while my flowergirl held a single white arium lily to match mine. For my something old... a ring my now husband gave to me a long time ago, my something new... my wedding gown and my something borrowed... a gorgeous bracelet that I borrowed from a close friend (she wore it on her wedding day as well as lending it to two other of our close friends for their something borrowed).

The groom and groomsmen wore dark grey suits with white shirts (with their chesties underneath). To give it a less formal feel, the groom opted for no ties. We wanted to do something a little different to the standard floral boutonnière so we handmade badges for the groom, groomsmen, father-of-the-bride and father-of-the-groom. 

We quickly feel in love with our chosen venue, Maleny Manor as it had that sweet country feel that we wanted. It had breathtaking views of the Sunshine Coast Hinterlands that was our backdrop for our ceremony. In our ceremony we performed a ‘tying the knot’ where our mothers tied our hands together to symbolise the coming together of our two families.

Please pop back tomorrow for Part 2 of our sweet country wedding. 

(Photography by Jenny Cuerel of TWK Studio)