Fran and Nathan's Wedding

We had the pleasure of being a part of our friends Fran and Nathan's wedding day on 3rd December, in Exeter. Their joyful ceremony in Belmont Chapel had a festive touch when during the signing of the register a choir started singing Christmas carols spontaniously (reminded me of a scene from Love Actually!).

With nearly 300 guests the atmosphere was buzzing! After the ceremony we all had tea and cakes, a warming treat that showed the community spirit of the event as the cakes had been made by friends.

They had a lively reception in the fabulous function rooms at Exeter Castle, which were decorated with bunting and fairy lights which looked magical.

There was a lovely personal touch to everything and their scrabble theme was cleverly used in many ways (as you can see below in my instagrammed pics!).

Handmade order of service booklet

 The happy newlyweds

 The wedding VW!

Exeter Castle

Handmade bunting bar

 Amazing room lit with fairy lights and bottles as candle holders

 Amazing scrabble themed wedding cake

 The Groom's cufflinks

Gifts thoughtfully wrapped

Congratulations Fran and Nathan!

More scrabble ideas...

Downloadable Scrabble printable

Cut out the letters to make your own words for messages on cards!

Powderham Castle Wedding Show

The Powderham Castle Wedding Show is coming up in a few weeks, which reminds me, I wanted to blog about the show after I went in 2009! Better late than never...

It was the first wedding show that Mum and I went to back in the early days of wedding planning, and was our introduction to a whole new world to us...the wedding industry!

The castle, which has been there in one form or another since 1066, is an amazing location for a wedding show. Bagpipes were playing some merry tunes as we crossed the moat, and then we were presented with some shiny vintage wedding cars and camper vans in the courtyard.

Inside, a wedding reception display set up in their grand hall, trying to entice people to have their wedding reception there. We'd just come from visiting Cadhay so there was no chance of that (and no budget for that)!

There was a great array of wedding suppliers in the castle and even more, maybe hundreds, in a huge marquee in the garden. From wedding florists and jewellery, to a Master of Ceremonies and venues, everything you could need was there.

Halfway through Mum and I needed a cuppa and a nice sit down! Lucky there were plenty of caterers and vintage teacups handy. After watching the lively bridal fashion show and dance demos, we were pleased to see Liz Armitage of Lumen Photography was there so I could show Mum her beautiful albums.

We came away from the show feeling inspired by the lovely vintage ideas we saw (see pics above), as well as being a bit bombarded by lots of sales people!

Powderham Castle Wedding Show
Saturday 26th - Sunday 27th March, 2011
Open 10am to 4pm
Tickets are £5.00 in advance or £7.50 on the day
Powderham Castle, Kenton, Exeter, Devon, EX6 8JQ