The Wedding _ 18 August 2012 _ Lake Garda _ Italy

So after all this planing, the wedding has now taken place!
It was a perfect day and I couldn't have wished for anything more. We all had a great time, filled with lots of love and happiness. Seeing the international guests interact made it all unique. All the decorations fit perfectly together and I am very happy with the overall result. I got many compliments and many that said it was the best wedding they'd ever been to.
I don't have the official photos yet, but here is a little taste of what our wedding looked like.

18 August 2012. Castello Scaligero. Lake Garda. Italy

Here is the first kiss. Uploaded instantly to FB. I was very impressed by the effectiveness there.
I designed the dress myself. 

 At the end of the ceremony we sang That's Amore together with all our friends and relatives. It was a lot of fun and a great way to end the ceremony!

 A kiss at the end of the ceremony. 

 Walking up the stairs. We are about to become husband and wife! Look at the stunning view in the background!

 The ceremony venue. My brother Liam in the middle of the picture. 

 I love this photo. The beautiful bridesmaids and groomsmen as well as the adroable flowergirl! 

 Just before the wedding. A friend comes in to take a sneak peek!

 Some of the decorations. From the left: The wedding ceremony fan (with a summary of the ceremony, names of the wedding party, and text to That's Amore), The wedding invitation with the cartoon, a pearl bracelet I made for the bridesmaids, a ivory hair flower with pearls, pearl earrings, a note for the guests about the buses taking everyone to the venue.  

 The table decorations: A terracotta pot with the table numbers and grass growing out of it, a milk bottle vase for the Protea with burlap and lace, a jar with a candle with the same style decoration, as well as a mini-milk bottle with fabric flowers in it. 

 Cheers to the bride and groom!

 The road sign with the distances to the main cities where our guests had travelled from. 

 Playing with the beautiful flower girl. Crazy facial expression. 

 Here come the wedding party. The bridesmaids and groomsmen and the beautiful flowergirl Lima (who's dress I made but it was a tad too big). 

Our wedding cakes. I loved the way these turned out. The restaurant owner thought I had gone completely mad when I told him my idea, but he even asked to keep the logs for further events in the future. I collected these seeds for months before the ceremony, as well as the tins with babies breath flowers in them. I had also made the cake toppers (that were supposed to be kissing).

So what do you guys think??

Wedding inspiration _ unique invitation cards

This is the wedding invitation I made. The cartoon is of us. Me pulling my husband to be away from his dish of pasta to get to the altar. It has a fun feeling to it and shows our personalities quite well. I have included many details into the invitation that will later be shown at the wedding. 

This is the card when its layed out. You fold it in 3 parts. The bride and the address become the outside, and the groom eating the spaghetti is on the inside, as a surprise. 

This is the outside of the card. Showing a bride pulling what seems to be a rope... 

Only to find out that she is pulling the spaghetti. Her fiancè is eating, as usual (Italian). 

This is the inside of the card. It is full of useful information about the wedding.
- On the left page we have the map with directions on how to get there. It is a map of Lake Garda, a cartoon aeroplane shows nearby airports, the "spaghetti" continues and becomes the highway, as well as a dividing line on the other 2 parts.
- The addresses of the restaurant as well as the ceremony location are written on the bottom left page. The same symbol is then shown on the map.
- A road sign on the top left corner shows the distances that our guests are travelling to come to celebrate with us. This is to make them realise that we are very well aware of how fare they are travelling. It's also a fun topic to talk about during the dinner. I have made a real sign that will be placed in the garden of the restaurant where the guests will enjoy a refreshing drink and snacks before the actual dinner.
- A fiat 500 car has the text "just married" on the side.
- A cartoon of the castle has 3 flags: The Italian, The Swedish and the Australian, showing our nationalities. The real sign can be seen here.

The center of the card has the actual invitation details, time, date, place, etc.
In the center of the middle page we put the link of our wedding blog where people can get more info about the wedding, transport, accommodation, gift registry, etc. The bottom flowers are also shown again on the wedding blog and include the colour theme for our wedding.

The right part of the invitation is the RSVP page. Guests can fill in whether they are coming or not, if they are allergic or vegetarian, etc. Hardly anybody actually sent it back, as it meant cutting off the cartoon of the groom on the back.