A Beautiful Welsh Wedding in the Wye Valley. . .

On Saturday 8th September 2012 our wonderful friends Hannah and Richard married in Trellech Church, Monmouthshire.  With hardly a cloud in the sky the Wye Valley was flooded with sunlight and warmth as the newly weds posed for photos.

This was also a very magical day for me as not only did I get to see my dear friends get married,  I also saw my very own "Festibelles" in action for the first time on four of Hannah's bridesmaids.

In the weeks running up to the wedding we had spent some time discussing the colour scheme  for the dresses that the bridesmaids would be wearing. On deciding to match the bridesmaid's dresses I sourced some beautiful sage green satin ribbon from the John Lewis haberdashery department, along with some synthetic pearls and pearl heart buttons.  

When the doors opened at 2pm on Saturday 8th September and we saw the beautiful bride enter arm in arm with her beaming father, I was so proud and relieved to see the bridesmaids, each wearing a Festibelle headband; better than I could have ever imagined.  The whole outfit worked so well and the colours blended perfectly. Success. 

Arriving in style

The girls wore the headbands throughout the day which was a great relief to me and they  gave me very positive feedback. I try, when making them, to coat the wire in as much cord and ribbon as possible to improve the comfort.

Beautiful Bride and Bridesmaid

Having  seen the success of Hannah's wedding and how beautiful all the girls looked I am very excited to progress my range and hopefully do more weddings. I am in the process of looking into winter flowers and headpieces to see what I can create for the coming season.

For any more information, pictures or my range of jewellery please see the following:

Etsy

Twitter: @emiloudesign

The morning after. . . and the sign of an incredible Welsh countryside wedding! 

Below are a couple of the proto-types I trialled before creating the final Festibelle headbands. 

Emi xx

A Quintessentially English Summer's Afternoon.

A summery Sunday afternoon. . . 

Sunday 12th August and a sunny 24 degrees, summers bliss. With a drowsy kitten on one knee, elderflower cordial on hand and all my materials in front of me I spent the afternoon creating my biggest Festibelle band yet. 

I have to admit that I was slightly afraid at how it might turn out; a giant sprawl of potentially blinding leaves and head sized flowers swamping facial feature one might have. . . However I am proud to announce that my anxiety was very much proved wrong and I was extremely pleased with the outcome!

In creation I used pale green ribbon to bind the cord covered wire and then used pastel yellow silk roses -which I tear dropped a glue type substance on to in order to create a delicate water drop effect- to finish off the dramatic head dress. I think pale green ribbon helped to create the most natural and organic look, however depending on the colour of ones hair you could use blond / brown / auburn coloured ribbon to make the floral band look even more natural.

My inspiration for all my Festibelle bands and particularly this one would very much be A Midsummer Night's Dream come "in to the woods" wedding. In fact I am very fortunate and excited to be making up some floral head dresses for a great friends wedding in the Welsh Valley in September. . . More on that next week. 

Emi xx

"I feel like the summer could finally be on its way!"

I thought I should write something as it’s been a while. Since I last blogged I’ve moved house to a new area of London- Barons Court. It’s such an amazing place to live and we have really found such a beautiful home (My boyfriend Ports and I). I have already gained so much inspiration from our flat and garden and the gorgeous stucco fronted buildings which grace the Kensington Borough.

Having experienced the usual “broadband” issues, we are finally online, up and running so I hope to be much more active.

One of my best friends Kate came around today and we ended up photographing her with my festibelle bands. I think they have come up so so well and have proved to me that the pale flowers and colours work well on blondes too.  

Would love to hear your thoughts and will blog again very soon! 
Lots of love, 
Emi xx

www.emiloudesigns.co.uk