My Roaring 40s

Lostwithiel Festival

May

Our house in Cornwall is in Lostwithiel, an ancient town on the banks of the River Fowey.

Last Sunday was LostFest, Lostwithiel’s annual festival of arts, crafts and antiques. It’s a real celebration in the town – a one day packed schedule of music, entertainment, art, craft stalls, food stands, antique shops and local exhibitions.

After all the rain we’ve had recently it was fantastic that the sun shone and people milled around enjoying the atmosphere.

I loved the fact that banners had been used to decorate the bridge.

And old friends caught up on the news between browsing the stalls.

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Speck laptop cases

May

Sometimes the best things in life are actually not the most beautiful but the most functional.

I’m a new owner of a Macbook Air. Like many Mac converts, I love the sheer thinness, sleekness and lightness of my Air. I stroke it tenderly.

But this love made me fear for its safety with an intensity that I have never shown to any computer before. I wanted to shield it from scratches and scuffs and keep it pristine.

So I hit upon the idea of buying a ‘skin’ to keep it safe. And it soon be came apparent that I couldn’t bring myself to shroud my Air in leopard print or shocking pink rubber. I wanted to see its beauty.

Then I happened to be reading an old post on the blog, 9to5 Chic, about what its author Anh packs in her travel bag and saw that she uses a clear shell for her laptop by Speck.

My research showed that Speck are not the cheapest clear cases out there, but a £30 something investment to protect my prized possession seemed worth it. Speck are an American company and I sourced my case via the Micro Anvika store on eBay.

It has already saved my Air twice as I have recently clumsily tripped over my laptop lead on two occasions and knocked my Air off my desk onto the floor. In both instances, my Speck case proved its worth by keeping my Air safe from harm.

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Rough Diamonds

May

High on my wish list at the moment are these stunning rough diamond earrings by New York based, Alexis Russell.

Alexis describes them as “kind of humorous and cheeky”.

I think they’re the perfect accessory – classic and understated, with a twist.

I love the simplicity of her design style. Here are a couple of my other Alexis favourites.

Hammered rose gold hoops

Black and white diamond bangle

[Images: All by Alexis Russell]

Alexis Russell discovered via A Cup of Jo

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Fabulous Dresses at the Met Costume Gala

May

This year’s Met Costume Gala seemed even fascinating and fashion forward than ever.

Here’s my favourite out takes from the fabulous dresses.

Laura Carmichael of Downton Abbey shone in Emilia Wickstead.

Tory Burch wore one of her own designs with contrasting green earrings

Cate Blanchett was show stopping in Alexander McQueen. I love the fact that she looks so at ease in such a dramatic dress with the simplest of hair and make up

This year’s Gala was a celebration of Prada and Elsa Schiaparelli, for the Costume Institute’s new exhibition, ‘Impossible Conversations’ and co-host Anna Wintour showed her sense of humour in a white Prada update of Elsa Schiaparelli’s famous lobster-embellished dress.

[Images: Kenton Magazine, Talking with Ami, Bohemea]

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Du Maurier Festival

May

The Du Maurier Festival is an annual celebration of the life and work of the author, Daphne Du Maurier.

The ten day festival takes place each May in and around Fowey in Cornwall where Daphne lived and worked. The event features a programme of talks and performances by writers, journalists, celebraties and musicians, guided walks, drama, community activities and free entertainment.

The festival began in the 1990s and I have consistently managed to miss it. So as a life long admirer of Daphne and her work, I’m chuffed to be able to attend some of this year’s event which kicks off today.

My selection includes Jane Dunn discussing her book ‘Piffy, Bird and Bing’, about the du Maurier sisters, Patrick Gale in conversation about his latest book set in Cornwall and Ruth Saberton and Fiona Walker chatting about the reality of life as writers, women and horse owners.

[Image: Emerging Writer]

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Our wedding – Wedding planning notebook

May

I’ve told the story of our wedding in a series of posts over the last couple of weeks – thanks for your patience! – and to round things off I thought I’d share some of the advice and sources that played such a big part in making our day a huge success.

Plan the party of your life
Early in the planning process, Richard and I were given the advice that we should plan the party of our lives.

We took this to heart, so ensuring that all of our guests enjoyed themselves became our central focus. It also made us think carefully about what we like and don’t like about parties and more conscious about creating a truly personal event.

Look after your guests
As our guests became our core focus, so we started investing time into ensuring that they felt looked after.

We got married in a relatively isolated village. We had many guests who weren’t local and didn’t know the area. We wanted to transport our guests with us on a river trip from the church to the reception. We wanted to get the guys to take off their ties at the reception and the girls to kick off their heels.

We thought through each scenario and put measures in place to take any obstacles out of the equation. We set up a wedding website to introduce our guests to the area and give them accommodation options. We arranged pick ups from train stations and airports. We arranged taxis and minibuses to get everyone to the church and to the boats. We purposely kept the marquee decor relaxed and Richard announced at the start of the reception that guys could take off their ties and jackets.

It created extra work for us but ensuring our guests felt looked after and didn’t have to think about how they were getting from A to B definitely paid dividends for us. It was the biggest contributing factor to creating the relaxed atmosphere that was so much a characteristic of our wedding.

Get inspired
I found a lot of standard wedding suppliers and ideas highlighted in bridal magazines to be very uninsipiring.

Instead I sought inspiration further afield and drew a lot of ideas from writers and suppliers in the US. My favourite wedding blogs are Snippet and Ink and Style Me Pretty which have loads of fantastic real weddings and mood boards of different style themes and colour schemes. I found both to be invaluable for ideas and inspiration.

I also sourced items through Etsy. I had heard about Etsy before the wedding and had written it off as simply a crafts website but there is such a huge array of all things wedding. I trawled for hours on the site to find my perfect wedding earrings.

Make use of Pinterest
I didn’t know about Pinterest when I was planning our wedding but wish I had done. I love it as a tool and it is the perfect way to clip ideas from all over the web and save them on specific boards eg flowers, bridesmaids etc.

The other tool that I made great use of in the latter stages of our wedding planning and wish that I’d known about sooner is Style Me Pretty’s Google Documents Wedding tools which provide you with easy to use spreadsheets for each element of your wedding.

Don’t try to change your personality
With so much “noise” out there about weddings, it’s easy to get swept along on a wave of having to have what everyone else has and doing the same as other people. Don’t fight your natural style.

The process I went through in having my dress made was key to making me realise that just because you’re getting married doesn’t mean you should change your tastes and personality. In actual fact, basing your decisions and choices on some of your favourite things adds to the day.

For example, I’ve always loved nautical flags but was very conscious of not creating a twee nautical theme for our very water orientated wedding. Once I had selected nautical placecards (from Els Cards in the US), I decided to leave it at that. Then in the final days before the wedding I bought a couple of strings of nautical flags, including one commissioned from the local sail loft which spelt out ‘Karen and Richard’. Rather than being twee, the nautical flags tie our wedding photographs together from the boat ride to the reception.

Similarly we eschewed wedding cake for Cornish ice creams which meant we were able to serve up Richard and my favourite flavour – ‘Very Cherry’ – from our favourite ice cream maker, Treleavens.

Ask for recommendations and contacts
Make sure you ask your family and friends for recommendations of suppliers. We really benefited from a network of local knowledge by asking friends and family for ideas of contacts. Everyone was really happy to help and it meant we ended up with a great roster of tried and tested vendors we could rely on.

Invest some time in making yourself look good
I was 40 when I got married and whilst I look after myself, I’m not someone who is obsessive about pampering and preening. In the lead up to the wedding, I took the time to get fitter and as a result lost a bit of weight. I also booked myself a series of beauty treatments, which were as beneficial for giving me some time to myself away from wedding planning, as they were to my health and looks.

But the best investment I made by far was having a hair and make up artist. Here is the fantastic Gillie touching up my make up in impromptu fashion on the quayside after our boat trip from the church. Working with Gillie gave me some quiet time on the morning of the wedding and our photographs are proof that she really did make the best of what she had to work with.

Enjoy the planning process
Finally make sure you enjoy the planning process. How ever well organised you are, it does get stressful at times. But it is such a special experience to plan your wedding make sure you savour every moment, good or bad!

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Our wedding – Wedding flowers

May

Getting our wedding flowers right was a big deal to me as I used to work for the Flower Council of Holland earlier in my career. However, flowers can quite easily become expensive so it was an aspect of our wedding budget that I couldn’t splurge on either.

Inspiration
Two bouquets heavily influenced my choice of wedding flowers.

Firstly, I remembered being bowled over by this stunning pink bouquet when watching the BBC series “Mistresses” a few years ago. It was carried by one of the key characters, Jessica, at her wedding.

Whilst I am very fond of white flowers, I loved the contrast of this bouquet with the wedding dress and the coordinating groom’s pink button hole and was eager to have a bold bouquet.

Secondly, when researching florists and wedding flowers, I stumbled across this bouquet designed by Anna Sawle. It made me think of sea foam and the kind of wispy wild flowers you find on cliff paths and I thought it would be a perfect starting point for the table arrangements in our waterside marquee.

I chose Fleurtations of Bodmin as the florist for our wedding. She came highly recommended by a friend of ours. The shop is run by Caroline Crabb who won Silver Medal’s at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in the florist of the year competition in both 2010 and 2011. She was very easy to work with and really took on board my ideas and added her creativity to bring them to life.

Bouquets and buttonholes
After initially discussing a pink bouquet with the florist, we had to have a change of plan once we choose blue bridesmaids dresses.

I heard her intake of breath when I called to say I wanted a blue bouquet.

But she came up trumps with a stunning bouquet of hydrangeas, scabious, gentians, cornflowers and agapanthus.

Unfortunately I left my bouquet on the boat we travelled to our reception on and by the time I got it back again, all our group photographs had been taken. So my beautiful bouquet makes plays only a small part in our wedding photos.

After discussing different options such as decorated hoops and baskets, we set upon mini posies for the little bridesmaids of a single hydrangea.

Our older bridesmaid, Katy, carried a simple ivory bouquet to contrast with her blue dress.

Richard and our ring bearer wore blue gentian buttonholes whilst the best men, ushers and our fathers wore white roses.

Decorating the Church
I dislike the standard pedestal arrangements that are usually used in churches as I find them quite morbid. So instead our florist, Caroline, suggested Grecian style pillars with candles and ivory flowers.

I ordered three pillar arrangements and the genius of them was the fact that they were easy to transport so we took them to our marquee after the service so we could enjoy them for the rest of the day.

The mother of two of our ushers, Carol, who regularly decorates the church in a nearby parish offered to help me to decorate the church.

This kind thought developed into an afternoon of ladies flower arranging on the Thursday afternoon before our wedding rehearsal.

In addition to the florist’s pillar arrangements, Carol together with two of Richard’s aunts and Lyn, my old boss from Sydney, (with a limited amount of help from me!) decorated the window sills and altar of the church.

It was very special for me to spend those hours in the church before the wedding. I loved the fact that their arrangements had different styles. And it meant that the church looked beautiful and full of flowers.

Table arrangements

For the table arrangements in our reception marquee, we took inspiration from the wispy blue and white bouquet I admired above and the florist created handties of ivory roses, ivory thistle, scabious and blue cornflowers which were placed in simple glass vases.

The day after the wedding, these handties turned into perfect ‘Thank You’ gifts for people who had helped us make the wedding such a special event. We handed them out during impromptu speeches at our relaxed Sunday party.

[Images: Bouquet, buttonhole and table arrangement photos by Green Photographic, blue/white bouquet by Anna Sawle, church arrangements by Sarah Harriman.]

More about our wedding:
The church
The ceremony
Our wedding – the boat trip to the reception
Our wedding – the reception

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Our wedding – The reception

May

We decided very early on in our planning that we wanted to have a marquee reception in my family’s boatyard, just as my sister had.

Whilst there is no denying that it was lots of hard work having to organise all the suppliers yourselves, it means that you can create a truly personalised party.

Our overarching goal for the reception was for it to be a relaxed affair. Richard has large family and I had several friends who were at the wedding on their own so we really mixed people up in the seating plan.

Fortunately the fact that the river trip had gone ahead meant that by the time everyone had got to the marquee after the river trip they were already starting to get to know each other and the relaxed happy atmosphere was already evident.

Photographs
We were very lucky to have Fowey Harbour as a stunning backdrop for our photographs.

Sarah and Bear of Green Photographic were superb at getting everyone together quickly and efficiently for group shots.

Richard had not one but two best men.

And we also had a cast of ushers to help us ensure that all our guests got safely to the church down to the creek and back to the marquee.

Getting the party started
Our little bridesmaids turned four the day before the wedding. Richard’s cousin’s daughter, Sienna, also shares their birthday so our reception kicked off with everyone singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to them. (I adore their expressions in this picture.)

After canapes on arrival, the caterers served meats, hot potatoes and delicious vegetarian options. We had bowls of salad on each table to encourage guests to share with one another. Afterwards we eschewed desert and wedding cake and guests were served locally made ice cream from a vintage bicycle.

We spread the speeches out between courses so that no one would get bored. My father went first and this is the reaction of my mother and I to his tales of when I was born.

He very movingly spoke about how I had gained so many great friends over the years from university and my time spent living in Bristol, Southampton, London and Sydney and got all of them around the room to stand up – a magic moment.

Richard and I both made speeches and his best men did a hilarious job of bringing to life many of Richard’s escapades and his love of cars.

The calm before the storm
Between the speeches, there was the most amazing light and the photographers managed capture some really special shots.

This picture below is the one that sums really sums up the spirit of the day for both Richard and I.

It was very much the calm before the storm as this shot of me with my friends shortly afterwards clearly shows. We felt blessed to have managed to squeeze all the outdoor elements of wedding in before the rain arrived.

The dancing
Richard and I chose “The Power of Love” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood as our first song which we have both always loved and Richard had on a cd in his car when we first starting seeing each other.

The full version of the track is about seven minutes long so our little guests got in on the action too.

A good friend of Richard’s father was our DJ for the evening and we had a great party with all the remaining guests on the dance floor at the end of the night.

Marquee decor
Our tables were named after a local class of sailing boat that both my father and I race. The boats I selected from the fleet all had a special significance to my family and our guests.

My friends, Harriet and Sylvia, helped me put together my vision for the table plan and table name settings. Harriet stayed up to the wee small hours the night before the wedding to finish the plan. Huge thanks to them both xx

As Richard and I met at our school reunion, we thought it would be appropriate to hang up a picture of our prefect photograph. It was fun for our school friends to reminisce over too.

We also displayed photographs of our parents and grandparents weddings. My parents and paternal grandparents were both married at the same church as us and Richard’s parents and maternal grandparents were married at the church across the harbour in Fowey.

It was very special to be able to show off our heritage and connection to the area, especially to our friends who know us from our far flung adventures.

[Images: Green Photographic]

Posted in Cornwall, Nautical, Our wedding, Weddings | Leave a comment

Our wedding – The boat trip to the reception

May

Our weather dependent trip to transport our guests from the church to the reception was a long held dream of mine. The author, Daphne du Maurier, was married at the same church as us and travelled to her wedding by boat and I wanted to do the same.

It was such an important part of the day that choosing a date for our wedding started with a book of tide tables. Finding a Saturday with a high tide in the mid/late afternoon sounds straightforward but as we wanted to avoid the school holidays in late July and August, our options were actually very limited.

We had done a trial run on a very chilly January 3rd when the tides were almost identical to September 10. We discovered that we had a limited window of time whilst the water was high enough for the boats to be at the creek – we didn’t want any to run aground – so we just transported our guests one way, from the church to the reception.

We were very privileged because my family own and run the Polruan passenger ferry on the river, so we had instant access to boat transport.

A few guests walked down to the creek from the church but most were driven down the windy lane by a convoy of minibuses. Some of the older guests travelled onto the reception by road but we estimate that 100 of our 130 guests joined us on the water.

We asked some family friends, Susie and Brian Appleton, if Richard and I could borrow their beautiful boat, ‘Guide’, to travel to the reception. Fortunately they were delighted to be asked and said that they would happily drive us down the river. When I saw Brian a couple of days before the wedding he was arguably more excited about the boat trip that I was!

We were bowled over and very touched by the amount of preparation they put it. From their nautical outfits,

to the champagne and nibbles,

the flags that Brian had ironed individually himself

and the white cushions that Susie had sprayed with perfume.

To add to the magic a couple of ducks stopped by to say ‘Hello’.

My father orchestrated the river trip so that the boats carrying our guests set off first

and we followed in ‘Guide’.

Then halfway down the creek the other boats stopped so we could sail past them – it was a fantastic moment to see everyone waving and cheering us on.

Richard and I had a little time to ourselves to chat and savour the journey.

This is the view as the creek opened out into Fowey harbour. For those guests who had arrived in the gloom and fog of Friday, this was their first time they had seen it clearly.

Even the local guests were bowled over by the whole river trip. I later discovered that those who travelled on the same boat as my father were treated to an impromtu commentary and stories about the river.

We had to wait for the guests to disembark on the quay in Polruan,

before we stepped off ‘Guide’ into a shower of confetti.

[All images by Green Photographic]

More about our wedding:
Morning preparations
My wedding dress inspiration
Creating my wedding dress
Bridesmaids and bridesmaids dresses
The church
The ceremony

Posted in Cornwall, Nautical, Our wedding, Weddings | Leave a comment

Our wedding – The ceremony

May

I was very lucky regarding our wedding service because Richard basically gave me a free rein to select what I wanted in terms of music, hymns and readings.

Although he was very happy to marry in a church, religion does not have the same meaning to him as it does to me so I was able to combine religious elements with more secular readings.

I was determined that the service itself was a standout part of the day. I know that sounds obvious but it’s so easy to get swept away in the details of the outfits, the venue, the party etc that was I really eager to ensure the ceremony was well thought through and personal to us.

Zadok the Priest
My choice of arrival music was a bit of statement. I have always loved ‘Zadok the Priest’ and had known for some time that I wanted to use it for our wedding.

It was played for the arrival of the bride at the wedding of Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark to the Australian Mary Donaldson which I watched when I was living in Sydney. And although my walk up the aisle wasn’t as long as Mary’s, our organist was just as excited as me about ‘Zadok the Priest’ and adjusted the piece to fit the length of the aisle.

Prayers and readings
Our prayers and readings were inspired the wedding of Kathryn Storke, the author of the wedding blog, Snippet and Ink. She shared all the details of her San Francisco winter wedding whilst I was planning ours and I was touched by a couple of her choices and stole them for our service.

My sister kicked off the service by reading ‘The Wedding Prayer’ by Robert Louis Stevenson

Lord, behold our family here assembled.
We thank you for this place in which we dwell,
for the love that unites us,
for the peace accorded us this day,
for the hope with which we expect the morrow,
for the health, the work, the food,
and the bright skies that make our lives delightful;
for our friends in all parts of the earth.
Amen

And Richard’s aunt read ‘On Marriage’ by Khalil Gibran

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another, but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together.
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.

I also featured another of Kathryn’s readings on the reverse of our order of service:

An excerpt from The Gift, Hafiz
Even after all this time the sun never says to the earth, “You owe me.” Look what happens with a love like that, it lights the whole sky.

As it was a religious ceremony, it was essential that we had a bible reading and I chose St Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians ch. 13 which I had read at my sister’s wedding and Richard’s father read for us.

We were also eager to include a nautical reference in the ceremony because of the close connection that both Richard and I have to the sea and our vicar helped us find a perfect maritime prayer that my brother read:

Lord God,
Be the boat that holds us in the sea of life.
Be the rudder that keeps us on the straight course.
Be the ballast that supports us in times of great testing.
May your Spirit fill our sails to carry us through each day and keep us fast to the anchor that is steadfast and sure ~
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hymns
Our hymns were traditional choices.

Dear Lord and Father of Mankind – my favourite hymn
Love Divine All Love Excelling – which our parents had at their weddings
Tell Out, My Soul – because I wanted a really rousing finale to the service!

Signing of the Register
During the signing of the register, the organist conjured up a medley of traditional Cornish songs and a few Irish pieces in tribute to my mother’s Irish roots.