Our wedding cupcakes

While I'm on the topic of cupcake toppers, here are the cake toppers from our wedding cake! I printed these by hand using hand carved rubber stamps bought from Craft Pudding on Etsy. We also printed our Thank You cards with the same faces!

We chose chocolate cupcakes over a white iced traditional cake, because we both love chocolate and I often make brownies for my hubby! We have Karen's Cakes in Paignton to thank for making our delicious wedding cupcakes. Karen came to our rescue and managed to squeeze making these in at short notice and everyone loved them!

Mum and I made the cake stand using silver cake rounds/boards with my wedding ribbon pinned on. The levels are made using polystyrene cake rounds which can be bought from cake suppliers - I bought mine from Crafty Cakes in Exeter. We made this for around £30 which is less than it costs to hire a plastic cupcake tower stand!

Wedding photos credit Lumen Photography

Wedding cupcake toppers {free printables}

Last weekend I made cupcakes for our friends' double 30th birthday party...and entered the world of party printables! This is a very exciting place indeed, especially if you enjoy making things and like the idea of personalising cakes.

These little flags actually came from a 4th July party printable from Creature Comforts blog, which I downloaded and then added my own text using Photoshop. You have to allow plenty of time for cutting and gluing to the toothpicks (this is the fun part for me!). Thank you to John Barwood Photography for taking these great photos at the party.

Here are some lovely FREE printables that would work really well for wedding cakes/cupcakes.

Gorgeous vintage labels - download from Miss Cutie Pie's blog.

Love the little bow on the cute cake toppers - download from Little Flamingo's blog. 

Change the text to your names or your wedding date - download from Thirty Handmade Days blog.

Please share any links to FREE printables in the comments below. There is also a great range of editable cupcake topper designs that you can buy on Etsy!

You name it!

Wedding name pictures, by Helen Leslie, £35

Launched today! I just love this beautiful personalised wedding name picture, handcrafted by local illustrator, Helen Leslie. The lovebirds and bunting are so sweet! Helen's pictures make an ideal and unique wedding gift, as they feature the names of the bride and groom and their wedding date, and can be personalised further with colours or details from the wedding's theme or invitations.

Helen's illustration stems from a love of drawing and combines original hand-produced drawings with some Photoshop wizardry to create a distinctive style. She also has an amazing range of baby name pictures and greeting cards - visit her Facebook page to see for yourself!

Wedding greeting card, by Helen Leslie, £2

Choosing our church

It was by chance that we found the lovely church that we chose to get married in, when Mr B spotted it's spire through trees, as we drove back from Budleigh Salterton one day. We had churches on the brain, having spent a few weeks doing a tour of East Devon churches, using our now cherished book, The Pilgrims Guide to Devon's Churches.

Clyst St George is a very small village (a church and school, no shops!) set close to the A376 and surrounded by fields. We went to have a closer look and the quaint church appealed to us immediately. Once inside, we knew it was the one for us!

Clear glass windows create a light and airy atmosphere, with only a few featured stain glass windows in Pre-Raphaelite style. The simple and light wooden decor suited Mr B's more modern tastes, while I was in awe of the medieval tower and traditional relics. As we learnt more about it were both facinated by the history of the church and how the community came together to rebuild it after being bombed in WW2.

After attending a service there we enquired about getting married at the church and were put in touch with the Church Warden to make arrangements. As they were in the process of getting a new vicar at the time we had to wait patiently for a few months to meet them and to confirm our date, but it was worth the wait.

There aren't a lot of references to the church online, so I'll be sharing some details and photos in case you're interested!

For those looking for a church online try Find a Church - The UK Church Directory.

Real Wedding - Pretty in Pink, Devon

I'm starting my Spring themed posts with the wedding of Elena and Brett, who got married at Huntsham Court, in Devon, last April. The flowers and champagne were inspired by the Bride’s pretty pink shoes, which she showed off perfectly with a mid calf length dress. For favors they gave guests flower seeds in vintage style little packets, and used luggage tags for name places. To entertain their guests during the drinks reception the couple chose a Spanish guitarist.

Their special day was beautifully shot by my favourite wedding photographer Elizabeth Armitage of Lumen Photography. We chose Elizabeth to be our photographer after seeing her stunning portfolio - we know she'll capture our special moments and romantic setting perfectly - and we can’t wait!

Thanks to Lumen Photography for sharing these photos.

Real Brides Wedding Show 2009

Mum and I were on a mission to find Bridal hair and make-up services, when we went to the Real Brides Wedding Show at Westpoint, in Exeter last month. We were successful, plus we found inspiration for a few other wedding details such as, chair styles and vintage china for our reception.

The catwalk show of local bridal dress shops was the main event of the day, and I managed to capture some to show you. If you like any of the dresses, you can just about see the shop names on the screen behind the models.

Next Real Brides show: 20-21 February 2010

Real Brides Show Westpoint Part 1

Real Brides Show Westpoint Part 2

South West is best!

Welcome to my blog about South West Weddings! I am a bride-to-be living in Exeter, planning a wedding for June 2010, in East Devon.

Since getting engaged in November 2008, I've been scouring the internet for inspiration and advice for our special day. Most the of the wedding blogs I found were American and I couldn't find any brides blogging about my region of England so...I thought why not start one?

Here I will share my findings of all things wedding related in the South West, as well as online suppliers, and my own wedding plans. Hopefully this will be useful for couples getting married in this region (Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire).

Please share your ideas and recommendations with me too! You can email me via bridebug and follow me on Twitter.

We already have one big thing in common...getting married in the beautiful South West!