Hen and Stag Party Organisation

James' brother (and best man) organised his stag party in its entirety with a little help from one of James' mates in San Francisco to coordinate those on the American side of the Atlantic. Since I wasn't involved in the organisation nor the event I can't really comment on it much but I know that they spent just under a week in Las Vegas and had a fantastic time.

Being the control freak that I am, I was going to organise my own Hen Party, despite protestations from my bridesmaids that I wasn't allowed. Then being in a foreign country and a very different time zone got in the way so I gave in and handed over to Polly (the organisation queen). I decided to keep it very small and only invited my 4 bridesmaids but even so they didn't all know each other very well and somehow also managed to be impossible to contact! So I found a date we were all free and then Polly researched where we could go and booked us (the best bargain deal of course!) the Girl's Night In package at The Aztec Hotel in Bristol.

The hotel itself is lovely, decorated in country manor style, and the weather was amazing as well - so warm we were sat outside in just bikinis, in April! They have a beautiful pool and spa and the deal was cheap enough that those of us who wanted could get treatments on top. I got a facial and a pedicure and my pedicure lasted the 2 weeks until the wedding :)

The package was great, we got an extra suite to gather for dinner and DVDs and they brought us champagne and tapas style food to our room and then chocolate fondue and icecream with a wide variety of dipping items. My bridesmaids also brought a massive selection of snacks and drinks from a list of my favourites.

Needless to say we didn't manage to finish them all (though we tried until we felt sick!) but we did keep most for the wedding day and got through most of the rest while we were getting ready!

The Wedding Ring

This is the beautiful and interesting solitaire ring my husband proposed to me with.Whilst it wasn't what I had imagined when dreaming up engagement rings, it was far nicer than what I had thought I wanted :)

Unfortunately, when I started looking for a wedding band to go with it, I began to question my love of the ring. Next to a straight, traditional wedding band it sits completely wonky so I started the hunt for a shaped band that would fit next to it.

Pretty soon it became clear that stores simply don't have rings the right shape, despite many of them selling engagement rings a similar shape to mine. I found curved rings designed to fit around other shapes that worked pretty well..

...and I found the exact right shape in H. Samuel in Shrewsbury in England, only to be told that the ring was only for sale alongside their matching engagement ring. I asked to try it on anyway and found that the ring was actually the mirror image of the shape I needed anyway.

I started searching on the internet and found several candidates but the problem was I couldn't try them on to see how well they fitted against my ring so I was reluctant to go for it and continued my search in shops.

Eventually, after hearing from jeweler after jeweler that I would have to get one made, we decided it was probably worth the money to get one that would be a perfect match. So, after getting some recommendations, we went to Union Street Goldsmith in San Francisco and got them to make a custom ring.

James, on the other hand, has always been self-conscious about his hands and has never worn any jewelry in his life so he decided he didn't want a wedding ring at all. I wasn't particularly bothered by his decision but it turned out to be quite a controversial one. The vast majority of our friends and many family members were shocked by his decision and we both ended up having to explain his choice on many occasions.

Wedding Accessories

The jewelry was the first part of the wedding that I thought of making myself. I had a clear idea in my head of what kind of headdress I wanted and I couldn't find one anywhere, thus decided to have a go at making one. From there it spiralled into me making all the jewelry for myself, my bridesmaids and my mum and eventually into me setting up a jewelry business! Buoyed by the success of my jewelry I gained the confidence to have a go at making many of the other things for the wedding, some of which are already described in previous posts.
I showed my bridesmaids pictures of the types of jewelry I could make and asked them to choose styles of pieces they wanted. I also gave them the choice of pearl, silver or blue, or combinations of the three, and hoped that the result would be fairly different styles which, nonetheless, clearly all went together.

These earrings and necklace were made for Laura along with a matching hair comb similar to the one I made for Lizzie. The necklace is on tigertail wire with silver and glass pearl beads spaced out along it. The earrings are made with the same beads and some delicate wire wrapping on the bottom pearl.

This 3-strand necklace and bracelet set were made for Joey and follow the same silver and pearl theme as Laura's. The slightly smaller glass pearls are set either side with silver beads and spaced apart with silver foil-centred seed beads.


The hair clip is much more decorated than the others, using pearl and silver seed beads to create flowers.

This very simple design was for Polly. The earrings and pendant are made with glass beads and blue and pearl seed beads. The bracelet is made with the same beads but simply arranged in a circle.







And this charm-style bracelet and necklace were made for Lizzie with blue glass beads in two shades and small glass pearls on a silver chain.






These hair pins and comb were made to match with the same blue and white glass crackle beads






After much deliberation over if I wanted pearls in my jewelry or not I eventually decided to stick to materials which would match my ring. Even with this decision made I still got through quite a few designs before finally choosing.

Finally I went for these earrings which are a cluster of swarovski bicone beads attached to a large jumpring, each with a round-ended head pin. The bracelet is very similar - a silver chain with a combination of different sizes of round and bicone faceted swarovski crystals attached along the length.
After testing out different tiaras and hair bands I eventually decided on a simple hair comb encrusted with more swarovski crystals to match the other pieces.



Once my mum had chosen her outfit (brown and cream with a hint of pink) she had a very clear idea of what she wanted in the way of accessories.

All the fascinators in the shops were far too large for mum's taste so I made her this, much smaller and very simple design from 2 different patterns of pheasant feathers.

 Mum also described to me a necklace she had seen in a shop which was perfect but too long. Freshwater, uneven pearls coloured with brown and pink simply strung into a single strand necklace and bracelet to match. The clasp and findings are brass so as to blend in better with the overall effect.





It took a long time and a lot of thought but I'm happy with the jewelry I made and it looked perfect on the day. Our photographer was very impressed with it all and took several pictures...

My wedding shoes were not handmade but they were a bargain. I spotted them in Next many months before the wedding for only 20 and decided to buy them even though there was plenty of time for me to find nicer ones (and regret my decision) before the wedding. In the end I didn't find any nicer ones, even in far more expensive shops, and I didn't stop looking at shoes either!

I'm not sure what to do with them now, though. They could be suitable for wearing to other people's weddings depending on my outfit. One of my friends suggested using them to display my jewelry on at craft fairs so I think I will look into that further!