What are your favourite ideas and personal touches so far?

Good Morning ladies!

I was wondering whether anyone would like to share their favourite ideas? What little touches have you planned that you are particularly excited about? Or any suppliers or plans for the day that will make the day special/personal?

I'm still quite early on in my planning but here are a few of mine...

- My father in law to be has a rose garden at his house... I hope to use his roses to make button holes for all the guests and leave them on their beds on arrival at the hotel explaining he has grown them for the day and saying we would be delighted if they would wear them

- I hope to take polaroid pictures of me holding big individual letters and in silly poses in the garden and string them up to spell something like 'I can't wait to marry you' in my h2b's room on the morning

- My h2b and I love the hummingbird bakery in london so I am hoping to get individual cupcakes (they put them in really sweet boxes) to put outside people's rooms on the morning they leave/give them to them after the brunch on the following morning with a little 'thanks for coming' tag (instead of a cake on the day I think)

- I'm going to put on a pre-ceremony afternoon tea and drinks as it's in a hotel so people can check in then come downstairs for some champagne and scones before walking over the lawn to the chapel

- I am currently reading up about traditions... I want to incorporate some really classic British wedding traditions - I like the meanings of all the different flowers, I think I'll go with Lilly of the valley for my bouquet... I like the idea of my Dad walking me over to h2b for our first dance... Still investigating more!

- We're not going to do favours I don't think... well sort of, I think we'll have individual menus on the napkins tied with a ribbon etc and at the bottom we will say that instead of a favour we have donated on their behalf to Macmillan ... my father has been helped by them as has h2bs grandpa so hopefully people will understand why

- we are considering having a joint stag and hen do and hiring a big country house in somerset where my family is from... have a big supper on the Fri eve together with a quiz, perhaps do stags v hens paintball on the sat am then separate for the afternoon and evening etc... invite our parents, make it quite a family event too...

So that's a few of my thoughts so far... I'd love to hear your ideas too, so much of a wedding fits a standard format (although lovely) so I am really excited by how people are making it personal to them...

Oh also, I am very keen to make h2b's Mother feel really involved (she has no daughters) so any ideas of how to do so would be most gratefully appreciated!

Happy Friday, Emmy xx

Hi Emmy,

All your ideas sound lovely!

My MIL has 3 sons and has never really been anywhere other than numerous football games with them, so I have invited her and my own mother to a surprise 'Mother Hen Party.' I've put on the invitations to meet at Hyde Park Corner, and we are going to have a stroll around the Hyde Park rose garden, followed by afternoon tea at the Park Lane Hotel, and then a visit to David Hockney's exhibition at the Royal Academy of arts. I hope that it will give her and my own Mum a real opportunity to get to know each other as well!

Hi Emmy

You have some lovely ideas, I especailly like the idea of the joint hen & stag so that both families get a chance to spend time together. I've never like the idea of a stag - men behaving badly, their last nite of freedom etc!

Maybe you could ask your h2b's mum to make something for you. I've asked my h2b's sister to make my ring cushion as she is very crafty and it makes her feel a part of the wedding too.

I made my own invitations and am in the process of making my cake toppers.It's really fun to add your own personal touch to things. H2b's mum passed away from breast cancer so in her honour we have bought place cards which come with the pink ribbon badges which everyone can wear. Our flowers are also pink for this reason.

My mother in law to be only has boys. I invited her to come with us when My wedding dress arrived and I was doing my first try on - today actually. She really appreciated it and we went out for a nice lunch after.
It depends what your MIL2B is into. Mine as well as his dad are in a choir so we have asked the choir to sing at the church as well. Maybe utilise a skill she has i.e. crafts, making cakes etc. Or even asking if she knows a decent florist, cake maker etc. will make her feel involved.

I stole an idea off someone else on this site which I might use: a canape evening reception rather than a buffet or bacon butties as it is so hard to get the numbers right for buffets etc. My sister has so much waste with her buffet but I also don't want to under order either. I also think its a bit more chic to have canapes as well as cheaper.
The venue is being a bit difficult about it but I am going to stand my ground. Some venues like to do every wedding to the same formula and don't like it if you stray away from it as I am finding out. but why should we all be the same!

all my decorations and flowers are orgimai so i am going to make an extra 100 small pieces for button holes for everyone which will be on the order of service for them to wear all day so there's a real group feeling.

more than anything i am looking forward to making my own dress (just about starting, finally) as of all the things that i will make for the day this will be the most special and have had all the work gone into it

some lovely ideas we've found a lovely florist who's going to grow our flowers at a Hall gardens and has invited us to go to meet her on the day of our wedding this year for a cup of tea and to see what's around that time of year, it's made us feel really special... I'm going to ask our best woman (the bridesmaids mum) and my 3 bridesmaids to come over and bake butterfly biscuits for the favours thought it would be fun and quite personal to give... still got lots of planning and thinking to do though.... this forum is brilliant I'm just loving everyones weddings they're all so great xx

Hi everyone, I love all your ideas for including everyone in the planning. We've done lots of things ourselves for our wedding and asked H2B's mum, H2B's grandma and my Grandma to make a tier of our wedding cake so everyone was involved. We also went to Cornwall and made our wedding rings H2B made mine and I made his, we're both excited about getting to wear them soon.

What a lovely thread. Excuse the funny hour, I have a minging cold and cannot sleep so am cheering myself up by looking at wedding sites. I am new to posting on BBB, so hi!

Re making H2B's mum feel involved, can you find her some little jobs to do e.g. my mum is writing out all the address labels and name tags, things like that may seem trivial but people love helping. Could you take her shopping (if not for your dress, maybe for your shoes for example) and/or invite her to one of your dress fittings?

My personal and favourite touches are...
- A lot of friends and family are involved in our day so we have got a lot of freebies and discounts but it's also making it a real labour of love.
- We have some sentimental items including a pendant my dad gave my mum when they were first married which I'm tying to my bouquet, and a cake knife and vase (which is going on the cake table) that belonged to H2B's nana.
- We are getting married in a cinema and serving popcorn and ice-cream after the ceremony.
- We've chosen music for the ceremony that's very us e.g. the True Romance theme for my entrance music and Heroes by David Bowie for the recessional.
- We're serving afternoon tea for the evening buffet - cheese and biscuits, savoury scones, and cream tea!

Nats I'd love to see your origami buttonholes! I am doing a lot of origami for my day too

I love this thread - there's some really lovely ideas here! I'm trying to incorporate some personal touches to our day but would love some more ideas.

We're designing our own wedding rings for a start. My h2b bought me a very beautiful diamond which needs to have a ring designed to fit around it. We're planning on having our rings engraved with surprise messages too.

My sister and I are baking heart-shaped biscuits for favours which we're going to ice and paint mine and my h2b's initials on.

I'm having place names made by a family friend who has cut heart-shaped pieces of wood, is painting them in a very pale pink to go with our theme then is painting our guests names on each little tag. We're then having some lovely gold ribbon that we bought on holiday threaded through a little hole on the top and tied in a bow.

I'm also going to put small bottles of champagne, hand made chocolates and thank you notes together as little welcome boxes for all the guests who are staying at our venue and will have them put in their rooms for arrival.

I'm a solicitor and my firm does a lot of legal work for the football team my h2b supports so I've arranged for the players to sign a card for him to open on his wedding day and they're also signing a shirt for him. I'm still trying to think of something else to do for him for the morning of the wedding.

Lastly, my cousin runs a fab company based in Bournemouth which is a slightly different (and much more classy) take on the photo booth idea - he sets up a mini photo studio to take silly pictures on your wedding day with each guest getting unlimited prints and a guest book being created for guests to sign next to their picture. He's coming all the way to North Wales for us and I'm very excited! Go to http://www.the-photo-lounge.co.uk/ - it's fantastic!