Hi De Ho folks and a hearty New Year wave from Mama Bear. Another year has bulldozed it’s way into our lives and there isn’t much point trying to hold it back screaming ‘too soon! to soon!’ I confess I am a tad frustrated. I still feel caught up in the cyclonic turbulence of Christmas and it’s ensuing obligations. My feet are running and I haven’t had a moment to take a breath and even begin to think about what another year means to me. My house is a stark reminder of the chaos I feel.
I recently read somewhere that orange is the new black. I don’t really like black but I’m happy to hear that orange is now fashionable. I have a bit of a bower bird attraction to retro orange and am guilty of collecting more than a few funky pieces. Last year I styled a rustic orange baby shower and since then I have longed to create a fabulous retro orange bridal shower using my vintage kitchenalia. If there are any adventurous brides out there who would like a quirky retro kitchen bridal shower, let me know!
What a wonderful afternoon we had a few weeks ago for my daughter’s 11th birthday. Last year she had her first ever birthday party, which was a spectacular Vintage Rainbow theme. This year, with a bit of encouragement from Mama Bear, she chose to have a horse party. She is animal crazy, and I love the idea of a rustic horse theme. Of course, to make it authentic, we needed to find somewhere to give the kiddies a horse ride. My expectations were blown out of the water by Jo and her amazing team from Seahorses Byron Bay. They provide up to ten beautiful horses for guests to enjoy. Even young children can groom and feed the horses before going on a spectacular ride along the glorious beach of Brunswick Heads.
When my beautiful young friend asked if she could come over to make flower crowns with my girls, two words immediately popped into my mind. Photo shoot. How could I let such an opportunity pass me by? Never! And as hubby and my two ninja black belt Taekwondo legend kids were off kicking butt in the UK World championships, I reasoned that this was the perfect time to bake and create.
Autumn is my favourite season. Actually, it’s a toss up between Autumn and winter. I Often walk past our lovely neighbour’s house and am always struck by the beauty of their deciduous trees which are one of the few signs of seasonal change here in our sub tropical climate. It just so happens that they also have a feisty horse called Mosey in a rustic paddock directly behind the trees. Each time I walk past I tell myself that one day I am going to set up a dessert table right in front of Mosey’s yard.
This is it. At long last here is the beautiful vintage barefoot wedding of my son and his precious new bride. I hope you have enjoyed walking through each element of this journey with me. It has certainly been an adventure. I was honoured to be so intimately involved with the organisation of this wedding, not to mention revelling in my Happy Place as chief dessert stylist. ( You can see my previous wedding posts here: Sweets table, Dessert table, Drinks station, Finishing touches and Getting ready )
I guess every mother feels the same when her child gets married, but I confess as I sat looking through these photos to prepare this post, I was fighting back tears the whole time. So many different emotions were rising up from deep within me. Firstly, such an overwhelming love for my brand new Daughter – in – Love, Chloe. She is truly so beautiful and so dear to my heart. I am thankful to God for hand picking her to join our family, and so happy that my son has found so rich a treasure.
Here we are in the final stages of preparation for our family wedding of the year! Everything is in it’s place, the finishing touches are being made and we are all set to go. I am getting excited about showing you the beautiful ceremony, which will be my next blog post. Hooray! For now, here is an overview of the marquee so you can see the bigger picture of how our reception area came together with all of the dessert, sweets and drinks stations.
Is there anything in the whole world prettier than a tea cup? Sigh.
Right from the outset I knew I wanted tea cups to be a significant feature of this wedding. My beautiful Daughter-in-love is a huge fan of tea and loves to drink from a tea cup, so I had the perfect excuse and justification to hunt and gather some fine English pretties. Score.
The main dessert table for our son’s Vintage barefoot wedding was the centrepiece of the whole reception. I used three old doors as the backdrop, with doily bunting draped across them. I used my vintage yellow fabric to make panels for the glass door in the middle, which tied in with the Sweets table, bringing cohesion to the theme. I also used a gorgeous yellow chenille bedspread as the tablecloth. White wooden letters saying SWEET AS brought a touch of fun to the display.