♥ Company Name: Camilla J Collins – Hair and Make Up Artist

♥ What inspired you to start your business?

I was initially trained in TV, Film and Theatre hair and Make up at renowned make up school, Greasepaint. After graduating I went straight off into the filming industry and during that first year I learnt a lot from coming up against problems and finding creative ways of overcoming them. I was throwing myself on every project I could, be it a photo shoot, music video, short film and then…along came a wedding! It was while I was assisting of this first wedding that I felt something different, not one part of that morning felt like work to me… it was so wonderful to be in environment with such excitement and to help create beautiful make up and hairstyles that were so greatly appreciated! After the first wedding… I assisted on another.. and another and so it continued. After a year or so I had built up a bridal portfolio and decided to build myself a website and see if I could get my own clients in… That was a few years ago now and I haven’t looked back since.

♥ What do you enjoy most about your job?

I pretty much love EVERY aspect of my job as I am constantly doing something different. I love the whole package my bridal business presents from speaking with clients during their initial enquiries to meeting them at their trial and working with their ideas to create their perfect look. There is nothing more rewarding than working together and creating something special and tailored to the individual that they just love, and not to mention, making them feel a million dollars! The wedding day itself is always an exciting time, lots of fun, smiles and laughter – It’s just the perfect environment to work in.

When I am not working on private clients for weddings and occasions I am often working on photo shoots or film sets which is yet another exciting environment to work in with lots of creativity spinning around. I am very privileged to have a very versatile job which allows me to work on all sorts of different things, keeping my work fresh and also encouraging me to learn constantly and keep on the ball.

♥ What has been the best moment of your business?

I am not sure I can think of one particular moment that is the best as every job and every client is different and I always take something new from each one. I love taking on new creative projects and just throwing myself into them, I always learn something new and have fun with it.

♥ What are your business plans for the future?

Doing more and more of what I am doing now! I am constantly looking to expand what I do, working with new people, getting new and ideas and creating new things. I just want to progress and be the best that I can be!

♥ Can you give us a ‘Typical day in the life of….’?

This is actually very tricky because NONE of my days are particularly “typical” and constantly vary. My bridal work is mainly on the weekends, so as soon as Thursday evening hits and most people’s working week is coming to an end, mine is just about to get started! I’ll often be up nice and early for weddings, venturing on a little mini road trip to Oxford, Hertfordshire, Essex or wherever that morning’s bride is getting ready. There is always a buzz of excitement when I arrive at the venue… breakfast is underway and I am confronted by a room full of excited girls, usually walking around in their bridal themed dressing gowns! I always start with the bridesmaids and mothers first and come to the bride last. To be honest the morning always whizz’s by as I get pretty engrossed in what I am doing and with quite a few people to get ready in a rather short space of time, I need to be on the ball and working efficiently. I usually stay to help the bride get into her dress so I can attach her veil after if she has one. With the more elaborate dress designs, any extra pair of hands are welcome, it can often take up to 6 people carefully maneuvering a dress onto her bride so as not to ruin her hairstyle. When the bride and her bridal party are happy and all touch ups have been done I say my goodbyes and off I go, usually smiling all the way home… or on to the next client!

Don’t Forget – You get an AMAZING 15% off Wedding day Hair & Make Up Services and 10% off other services when you mention ‘MILITARY01′.

♥ Company Name:  La Mac

♥ What inspired you to start your business?  

As us women all know, we can’t resist a new handbag or piece of jewellery  for a little treat and I’m exactly the same. I decided to start a business from home after not returning to work after my maternity leave. I wanted something that I could manage from home but so I still had my time with my little boy. I chose jewellery and accessories as it’s something I love myself but felt I couldn’t afford treats for myself anymore now I was a stay at home mum. I spent a lot of time looking into various suppliers to be able to supply excellent quality items but keeping the cost down for people  at the same time.

I then decided to add a wedding collection too as I was planning my own wedding at the time and found it hard to find good quality items on a tight budget.

This inspired me to go out and find gorgeous items so all us mummies or people with low income could still afford a little treat now and again without breaking the bank.

♥ What do you enjoy most about your job?

I love it when customers send me pictures of them on their wedding day wearing accessories we sourced for them – it’s great to see them on their special day after getting to know them through messages and emails.

I also love attending home parties and charity events that we often do, it’s lovely to get out and meet people and for them to view our items in person – great chance for us to get some feedback too!

♥ What has been the best moment of your business?

I remember my first home party booking was very exciting but felt very proud when I finally got my website up and running after a lot of hard work. It was great seeing my first order come through and knowing my website was now ‘out there’.

♥ What are your business plans for the future?

I plan to continue to grow my business as I have done over the past year. We have a lovely customer base now who I think of as friends so here’s to many more ‘friends’ coming on board.

♥ Can you give us a ‘Typical day in the life of….’?

Once I’ve done my ‘mummy duties’ on a morning, I catch up with all my emails and messages and get back to people.

If I need to process any orders or source items for people I do that next.

After lunch I pack all orders up with the “help” of my little boy

Don’t Forget – You get an AMAZING 15% off all orders when you mention ‘Military15′

Marks & Spencer’s might not be the first shop that comes to mind when starting to search for your bridesmaid dresses – it was only by chance that I came across their Bridesmaid collection when looking for my cocktail dress last week.

I’m blooming glad I did though – they have some beautiful styles to suit all shapes and sizes in a lovely range of colours too! Following on from my cream theme a couple of weeks back, I thought I’d share my favourite long and shorter length dresses (3 of each) in lovely neutral colours which would compliment any theme this spring/summer….

Clockwise from top left…

♥ Sleeveless Flared Hem Belted Maxi Dress – £89.00

♥ Crossover V Neck Pleated Maxi Dress – £99.00

♥ V Neck Pleated Maxi Dress – £99.00

♥ Pleated Fit and Flare Dress – £79.00

♥ Slash Neck Floral Lace Shift Dress – £69.00

♥ Pleated Fit and Flare Dress – £79.00

Dressing your maids need not be a huge expense as many high street shops are showing us and with many of the styles being as versatile as they are, it’s a nice thought that your chosen ladies will be able to wear their dresses after the wedding too making the investment an even bigger bargain!

I’m loving that Mint dress – maybe this could help as part of my ‘dress fear’ cure…….. Any excuse eh!

Much love,
Emma xXx

It feels like AGES ago that the hubby came home and told me about the cocktail night at his work – as a matter of fact, in all fairness to him, it was ages ago but me being me has just left everything to the last minute and now I’m in a panic trying to find the perfect dress!

Me and dresses aren’t really the best of friends as I’m sure I’ve told you before! We don’t meet often and never feel too comfortable in each others company so I think it’s pretty fair to say that wearing a dress isn’t something I look forward to much!

It isn’t that I don’t like dresses themselves – far from it! I LOVE dresses and only wish I had the confidence to wear them more often. I can actually count on one hand the number of times I’ve rocked a frock – Holy Communion, Wedding Day, and two awards ceremonies. Actually maybe I should set myself the task this summer of wearing a dress at least once a week and see if I can cure myself of this fear once and for all!

Anyway, having now left it to the last minute means that I only have 3 weeks (21 DAYS!!) to lose 6 stone, grow my hair 4 inches and hardest of all, find a dress that I’m happy with.

Knowing that I’m highly unlikely to be the only person in this position at the minute,  I think it’s only fair to share my findings and help you be slightly more prepared than I am.

So, having spent all last night on the Monsoon website, here’s my favourite shortlisted six….

Clockwise from top Left…

♥ Katrina Cornelli Dress – £99

♥ Laura Schiffly Bodice Dress – £65

♥ Karlene Sequin Dress – £169

♥ Romy Bandage Dress – £129

♥ Lucinda Lace Peplum Dress – £119

♥ Isla Dress – £69

Am I the only person in the world that dreads having to wear a dress? Once I’m all ready and have had the obligatory pre-party drinks, I must say I usually feel much better but am going to try make it my mission to be fully cured of this phobia by the summer ball – mmmm we’ll see eh!

Much love,
Emma xXx

♥ Company Name: Simply Inviting

♥ What inspired you to start your business?

As with a lot of wedding businesses, I was inspired whilst planning my own wedding.  I come from a design background so I’d decided to make the stationery myself.  What I didn’t anticipate though was the frustration encountered ordering countless samples of various invitation styles and receiving some pretty shocking materials!  Colour matching, working out the perfect size for the inserts, it was a minefield – and that’s coming from someone who knew what they were doing!

I had my idea shortly after my own wedding after I’d had requests from friends who attended if I would help them make their own wedding invitations.  I realised that people were keen to make their own invitations, but didn’t really know where to start. I had the idea of making a wedding invitation kit which supplied all the materials to make a particular design, which is much easier than ordering various bits and pieces to see how they look together.

♥ What do you enjoy most about your job?

I love it when customers send me photographs of their invitations once made up. I get a real buzz knowing how pleased they are with them, especially those who were convinced they’re not ‘arty’ at all!

♥ What has been the best moment of your business?

It has to be the very first order through the website. A lot of time and effort went in to building the site, willing it to appear in google  search results, so that first order that came through made me realise it had all been worthwhile.

 ♥ What are your business plans for the future?

I plan to grown the business, offering save the dates, table plans etc.  I’ll be attending some wedding fairs in the autumn and growing my customer base from there.  Exciting stuff!

♥ Can you give us a ‘Typical day in the life of….’?

I try to compartmentalise my day, otherwise I can get to the end of the day and wonder what I have done.  A lot of my enquiries and orders come through in the evenings so I spend the morning responding to emails, facebook comments etc as I think a quick response time to enquiries is very important.

The afternoon is spent sketching new designs, making contact with potential new suppliers ordering samples etc.  I usually end the day with a trip to the post office to send out swatches and samples and go home to start my evening job – being a mum!

 Don’t Forget – You get an AMAZING 10% off all orders when quoting discount code MILITARYWEDDINGS

Image source: Pintrest

Hope you all have a lovely relaxing Easter break stuffed full of fun and chocolate!

See ya 9.00am Tuesday!

Much love,

Emma xXx

Hello lovelies,

It’s been a little while!

I’m so sorry for the lack over posts over the last week but I can promise that although you haven’t seen much on the site, there’s LOTS of exciting things happening behind the scenes which I can’t wait to share with you VERY soon and in the meantime, daily posting schedule resumes on Tuesday.

Easter has always been a very family orientated time for us. It’s not often throughout the year that we all manage to get the same time off work together so we take advantage of this weekend and make the most of it!

Sadly, it doesn’t seem as though we are going to be blessed with the same scorching weather we had last time we hosted it back in 2011 – we had to make a mad dash to Homebase to grab a gazeebo to ensure my Nan didn’t get burnt.

This isn’t going to stop us having fun though!

My lovely aunt Kaff (You will know her from previous posts here and here) came up yesterday and the rest of the clan will be arriving later this evening. SOOOOO excited!

As well as getting to see the FAB parentals, I will also get to see my gorgeous Nan (she turned 92 last week – she looks amazing eh!) and my brother too who I’ve not seen since Christmas so really looking forward to catching up with him!

The next few days will be a very welcome break from a full on couple of weeks full of family fun and maybe a sneaky bit of chocolate too!

So what are you plans for Easter?

What ever you do, I hope you all have a lovely time and see ya back here at 9.00am Tuesday where I will be introducing you to another FAB supplier!

Much love,
Emma xXx

When a friend first spoke in theory about having black dresses for her bridesmaids if she got married back nearly 10 years ago, I couldn’t imagine how it would look as my first thought at the time was that brighter colours were usually associated when dressing the bridal party.

Now however, having seen the trends change ALOT since then with both black and white becoming a much more popular colour of choice, my opinion has changed completely. It just looks so elegant and timeless and along with black being an extremely flattering colour, there is also the added bonus that your lovely ladies would be able to wear their dress again after too!

Here are a few gorgeous examples I found in House of Fraser…

♥ Little Mistress Little Black Dress – £33.00

♥ Hobbs Twitchill Dress – £119.00

♥ Ted Baker Black Pleated Hem Dress – £150.00

For those who prefer a little colour to break it down slightly, check out these lovely numbers here…

♥ Strapless Applique Dress – £60.00

♥ Eliza J Black Lace Dress with Peplum – £150

Would you think of having Little Black Dresses for your Bridesmaids? Have you already decided on this theme?

Much love,

Emma xXx

♥ Company Name: Hey Sweet Thing

♥ What inspired you to start your business?

I have always had a passion for all things sweet and so when I got married the first thing on my list was a candy buffet. After lots of searching no one could offfer me something thing other than a standard, pre determined set up at sky high prices; it was my day and like every bride you don’t want your day to be a carbon copy of someone else’s so…..Hey Sweet Thing was born

♥ What do you enjoy most about your job?

The best thing about my job is meeting the couples, at shows, at consultations or via facebook. I know how important a wedding day is and that’s why it’s so important to me that every detail from start to finish is perfect and individual to you.I can’t lie I do enjoy going to the wedding and seeing everything come together….and THE dress of course

♥ What has been the best moment of your business?

Every time I get feedback telling me how much everyone loved it is THE best moment from me.

♥ What are your business plans for the future?

Hey Sweet Thing will continue to grow and you will find me at many more shows in the area. I want to take on some new challenges and themes and widen the area we currently cover. You are only limited by your own imagination after all.

♥ Can you give us a ‘Typical day in the life of….’?

I get up feed my son Oliver before getting on the laptop and replying to emails and Facebook enquiries. Depending on whether I am meeting a couple that day depends on if I set off armed with sweets to meet them or do marketing and phone calls from home. Weddings typically only happen at weekends so I save all my energy for then.

Don’t Forget – You get an AMAZING 10% Military discount & a FREE sweet tree on all candy buffets booked (All buffets are for minimum number of 50 guests)

Wedding Day Dance UK has launched a 6 week course of online wedding dance tutorials, which are absolutely free! The complimentary tutorials cover many aspects of a couple’s first dance, including how to choose a first dance song and how to avoid first dance disasters!

The lessons are designed by professional wedding dance experts and aimed at beginners.

The tutorials are delivered directly to inboxes, teaching couples lessons such as the secrets of a confident first dance and how to enhance their first dance.

For more information click here

The URL to subscribe to the free wedding dance tutorials can be found here

ABOUT WEDDING DAY DANCE UK

• Wedding Day Dance UK provides dance lessons for a couples first dance
• The service is available nationwide & lessons are private and suitable for beginners
• A variety of first dance lesson packages, with 300 choreographers across the UK
For further information or to make a booking please contact us:
www.weddingdaydanceuk.co.uk
info@weddingdaydanceuk.co.uk
0845 130 9726

Don’t forget – You can save 10% off any package with the FAB Wedding Day Dance UK when you mention ‘Military Wedding Discounts’. You or your partner will need to show proof of military service.
“We (Wedding Day Dance UK) are very proud to offer this discount to all serving members of the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force, MOD Civil Servants, Reservists, Cadets, Veterans and their partners”.