Leah Wood’s marriage to Jack McDonald caused a bit of a media frenzy with all its A-list celebrity guests. I’m not usually into celebrity weddings but I was really interested to find out that Leah Wood’s dress was vintage 1930’s, and it really does look like a one off unusual design. The detailing on the top of the dress is really beautiful and I love the slits in the sleeve.

The dress code for the wedding was vintage, which is a great idea. And the theme for the wedding was A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I know themed weddings aren’t for everyone but I love them, especially colour themes - making everyone come in red and black or green and purple - I think it makes the photographs look fab!

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Organising a wedding is a big task, especially co-ordinating everyone and all your wedding suppliers. And then your wedding dress isn’t ready at your fitting and those relatives from Australia turn up unannounced and then the dog eats your bouquet! A lot of things can get you stressed. Here is a really simple technique to keep you calm and collected throughout. Firstly clear your mind by concentrating on your breathing. Start taking deep breaths and counting to 7 on an in breath and 11 on an out breath. The trick to make sure your out breath is longer than the in breath. Do this for a couple of minutes and you will begin to feel more relaxed. Then you can get things into perspective - things may go wrong but the focus of the day is on you as a couple so don’t let something small get in the way of your enjoyment! And if that fails open a bottle of wine!

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I love Elderflowers and my grandad used to make the most amazing Elderflower wine. Like most traditional English Fruit Wines it was quite sweet and you drank it in sherry-type glasses rather than wine glasses. I think this was mainly to do with the strength of the stuff! He made all types of fruit wines, using whatever was left over on the farm, from rhubarb to pear.

I was reminded of this when watching Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall make elderflower champagne on River Cottage Spring last night - how fab would it be to toast your marriage with a completely authentic english drink. And at this time of year elderflowers are everywhere, the picture above was taken of some growing wild in our local park, so just think of that low carbon footprint! I’m going to try and make some, I’ll let you know how it goes, it looks pretty simple (famous last words!) but having never made wine before it could all go horribly wrong! If you are feeling brave there is the recipe on rivercottage.net but I’m going to follow the recipe on a blog called www.catstripe.co.uk It could be a great thing to do with friends and family before the wedding and think how proud everyone would feel to be drinking their own wine at your wedding reception - although you would have to okay this with the wedding venue. It might be good to have a contingency plan just in case! For sellers of fruit wines in the UK see:

www.yorkshirecountrywines.co.uk www.thesussexwinecompany.co.uk or www.pennardorganicwines.co.uk

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I’m sure many of you have picked up on the trend that is Trash the Dress - it seems to have been getting quite a bit of press coverage at the moment with several photographers across the UK offering it as an additional service to their wedding clients. The concept comes from America and is basically about being allowed to let yourself go in your wedding dress after the formalities of the big day. I do personally feel that there’s nothing wrong with that and in fact did a shoot for a fab wedding venue near Leeds (Weddings and Wellies) where a couple enjoyed dressing up in their full kit for a shoot on the farm! I know that our model bride really loved the opportunity to put on her dress again but apart from a tiny mud stain, the dress was be totally set and ready for someone else to enjoy in the future after a quick clean.

The big concern from a green perspective is how far you take things - there have been shoots where girls have layed around Ophelia style in streams, rolled around in mud, had food fights and I’ve heard rumour of dresses been set alight (bride not still in the dress I hasten to add!). One of the biggest green issues with your dress has to be a consideration of both where it came from but then also what happens to it after the big day. The trend for buying second hand dresses is becoming more and more popular particularly when a donation to a charity such as Oxfam has the double benefit of raising some cash for a good cause but also that lovely feeling of being able to pass on a bit of happiness to another lovely bride to be. Purposefully destroying a dress for the kicks just isn’t green savvy.

I’d love to hear some of your opinions on the issue - do you think this is something that would ever catch on seriously in the UK or is just another hyped up marketing ploy? I’m always happy to offer a post-wedding shoot for newly weds - this can be for various reasons such as they got married abroad or they were let down by their actual photographer (always hate hearing about those ones!) but would never encourage or market a trash the dress service…. Be warned … The danger is if this American trend is let through the door then it gives scope for another big trend to infiltrate- the removal of the brides garter in full public view by the groom’s teeth- eek!

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For those not in the know I’m currently a member of the bride to be gang with the big day set for this September! So as well as chatting about all things photography I’d love the opportunity to share some of my planning experiences with you. So to start - the all important ring hunt….. I’m not a big bling girl and the idea of a status rock to waggle in people’s faces really isn’t me. And being determined to keep our wedding as green as possible we were also keen that the ring wouldn’t be something flown in from across the other side of the world with a nice big conflict diamond stuck on the middle for good measure.

We had an initial attempt in Leeds but everything was just too blingtastic so a chilled out trip to York was planned which was when we discovered the gem that is Porta Dextra - a gorgeous collection of jewellery & crafts from British designers with super friendly and helpful owners who totally understood our search for something simple. After lots of trying on I decided on a really lovely band with a diddy bit of bling set in the centre. After initial dealings with shop staff with the sales skills of an Apprentice contestant it was lovely to get back to good honest personal service. We did look at the option for vintage jewellery but everything was just a bit too flash for me - I did love the idea of a ring with it’s own history though. Another important decision has been to just have one band to act as both engagement and wedding ring - why go for two when one will do!  As with all things wedding the best advice I can give is stick to what you know you love and represents your personality and style and you won’t go wrong!  Happy ring shopping to all other brides to be out there… Over and out - Bridezilla Brabbs x

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  I love vintage but I know its not everyone’s cup of tea! My mum can never understand why I would want to wear something that had been worn by someone else! But to me, vintage clothing is just more unusual - you’ll never find anyone else wearing the same dress as you - and it shows how badly clothes are made these days. Vintage dresses just ooze attention to detail! So imagine my delight at finding www.vintagedress.co.uk. Just some of their styles are shown above and I thought for wedding dresses their prices were really good. I love the first 1950’s one - I want it!  And its a great way to know that your dress is unique, chic and green!

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We’ve all heard of conflict diamonds and the devastation they have caused in certain areas of Africa, (see our earlier blog) Ask your jeweller for a Kimberley certification to check where the diamonds have come from - its not a full proof system but definitely a step in the right direction. If they are vague - don’t buy from them, most reputable jewellers will know where there stones are from. Lots of Jewellers are now offering more ethical choices, but some are really pushing the boat out including:
cred jewellery whose philosophy is to minimise their negative impact on the environment.
Fifi Bijoux who offer ethically mined and fairly traded gold and precious stones, 
April Doubleday whose has a range of ethical contemporary wedding rings.
Or try a more alternative wooden ring see touchwoodrings 
Another great green wedding alternative is to find a vintage ring, or source a stone from a vintage ring and get it made into a new ring for you by a local jeweller. See www.london-victorian-ring.com for some ideas and a lot of the big antique dealers sell on ebay.Or does your mum or another female relative has a ring they don’t use that you could have re-made. Personally I love this idea as it makes the ring really personal and also ticks the recycle green box!

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Did you know that today is World Environment Day? It certainly hasn’t had much press! Last year the focus was on the melting ice caps and there was a polar bear ice sculpture in Leeds City Centre that slowly melted over the course of the day. But I haven’t seen anything this year - let me know if anything happened where you live.

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The average Sunday Dinner has travelled 25,000 miles to get to your plate and used 52 megajoules of energy (the equivalent of boiling a kettle for 700 cups of tea!) Buying seasonal produce from a farmers market clocks up only 376 miles and the eqvialent of 1 megajoule (13 cups of tea) So find your local farmers market at www.farmersmarkets.net

And remember to ask your wedding venue if their food is local and seasonal. If it not suggest they try to source local produce - remember the ripple effect - if you ask and then the next bride-to-be asks and the next we can hopefully make businesses a bit greener.

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The new trend in travel is slow travel and it’s a great greener honeymoon alternative. It involves spending more time getting to the destination of your choice and making the journey part of your honeymoon.

Personally I love train journeys and when I travelled India we could have so easily flown around. It would have definitely saved time as some train journeys were 2-3 days long. But now that I have come back, these train journeys are my favourite part of the trip. We saw amazing landscapes that we would have normally flown over. We got to know local people, shared a few local delicacies and stories. We also decided to get on and off the train at some smaller less touristy destinations, which really gave us a feel for India.

We all know that time is precious but surely on honeymoon like in life, the journey is as important as the destination.

To see how you can make slow travel part of your honeymoon see:

www.seat61.com - a fab website that tells you about overland travel anywhere in the world

www.luxury-trains.co.uk - obviously its your honeymoon so be green in style!

or just google the following classic romantic journeys:

The Snow Train, Paris to Bourg St Maurice
Prague to Budapest, via Bratislava
Catania to Rome
Krakow to Prague
The Glacier Express (St Moritz to Zermatt)
Oslo to Bergen (one of the top 10 train journeys in the world!)
Helsinki to Moscow
Sofia to Belgrade (this is part of the original route of the old orient express)

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