Hanky panky

Just thought the mid-christmas panic craziness was a good a time as ever to introduce a third wedding hanky to the range - have had a lot of requests for this as a custom message so I decided to make it a standard design that you can now order. Ta-da!

Colourful Californians

I designed these wedding invites for a rad couple based in California last year.  The bride wanted colour and something really representative of them as a couple.  They got married in a field of wildflowers in October. Swoon!!!

Darren & Natalie's temporary tattoo wedding favours

 I've worked with some lovely couples this year on wedding stationery of all different shapes and sizes.  One of my faves was this batch of temporary tattoos that I did for Darren and Natalie Clucas who got married this August.  They wanted some fun favours to leave on the tables for their guests to use.  I created 80 bags of bright colourful tattoos which featured illustrations of things that had significance to them as a couple. (their cat Sydney of course starred in the mix!)

You can see photos of other wedding stationery I have designed over on my website.

Honeymonster

A couple photos from our honeymoon in Copenhagen.  This time last year I was wrapped up in tremendous stress & anxiety planning our wedding.  When the day finally happened and everything came together it was a massive sense of relief and I think you can tell from my face that I was so content just being US again - it sounds small but I can't tell you how happy we both were waking up the first morning realising that we'd slept through the night without waking up panicking about bridesmaid shoes or whatnot - we finally felt rested, restored and happy.  And married!

Going on seven months

Seven months have flown by since our wedding day and apart from wishing I'd recorded the actual speeches either via video or just sound recording, my brain has created a montage of moments which are the closest to a wedding video I'll ever have.  (And hearing from people who have watched wedding videos from 10 years ago, it's probably for the best!)

There's certain moments from the day that stand out, as I'm sure anyone who has gotten married will agree... moments that you never planned to happen or anticipated happening - and certain moments which I didn't get to witness but knowing that they happened make me smile... because hopefully they added to someone else's memory video for the day.

I made these handkerchiefs for my Mom and for Richard's Mom, for them to receive in the morning of the wedding day.  The mother-in-law hanky was delivered to her hotel and my mom's went in the taxi with my bridesmaids for her to open on her way to the Town Hall.  I can confirm both hankies brought on happy tears - result :)

Because these were tried and tested by my nearest and dearest, I have since started making these hankies available through my etsy shop and Not on the High Street account - and I must say they've been very popular.

Do your wedding memory montage a favour and add some happy tears!

Flowers!

It's taken me almost six months to make my way through our wedding photos and I'm enjoying breaking it all down into tiny segments to show you.  Today: flowers!

Flowers are fun.  If you're planning a wedding or event, I can't advise you enough to go visit a flower wholesaler, choose some damn flowers you really like and just go for it.

For all of the stress I put myself through during the planning of our wedding one of the best memories I have is going with my best pal to this massive flower warehouse, freezing our butts off in this giant refrigerator room of flowers and loading a huge cart up with whatever we liked.  We chose cabbage flowers, wax flowers (they have tiny SQUARE flowers, we chose pink and white. They are like origami! How awesome are they!?) thistle (come on I was marrying a Murdoch) purple and red berries, protea, bright orange thistles, and a handlful of others I can't remember the names of unless I dig out my (very affordable) invoice.

We made bouquets for my five bridesmaids, buttonholes for the men and parents and filled around 20 jars and vases with flowers for the tables.

 We did all of the flower arranging over the course of two days and in the meantime kept the flowers in the cellar in water.

One small piece of advice: cabbage flowers and protea weigh an absolute tonne. Perhaps not ideal for bouquet-throwing florals!

Don't sweat the small stuff.

You know and I know at least five brides who have had complete breakdowns over glass jars.  Or chair covers.  Or hay bales.  I'm not saying I didn't spend an unspeakable amount of time discussing glass jars with my sister - but if I could pass on an itsy bit of advice to anyone planning a wedding, it'd be to not sweat the little things.  We made a pretty special day and there was no theme or bizarre colour scheme and there were no hay bales.  I guess I'm lucky in having creative people around me - dishing out jobs so that there was space in my brain to think about other things really made for not just a lesser stressed out Nicola but most importantly our day was a reflection of us and the people we love. 

(This cake is PINK INSIDE. And lasted less than 24 hours.)

On the day before the wedding I threw together our table menus and order of service. Placenames by the wonderful Caroline Dowsett.  Cake by my most amazing sister in law Charlie Hackett.  Flowers chosen by me and a mad Irish bridesmaid two days before the wedding in a freezing cold flower wholesaler's fridge.  Glass jars, pretty necklaces and confetti by my sister.  Photos by our pal Stu. Smiles, memories, and Tom Petty: unforced, un-themed and just exactly how we wanted it.

What a year!

A lot of things happened in 2013! I didn't realise how many things happened until I wrote it all down. 

Ok so we'll start with the bearded fellas. 

I made and sold over 500 pocket manfriends.

Over 1,000 people placed orders from my etsy shop.

I sold over 30 yards of fabric and 102 feet of wallpaper through Spoonflower to customers around the world.

Worked with some cool customers and clients on some amazing projects including:
Lots of custom pillows (Grumpy cat Cindy above)
Lots of custom portraits (Sara and her dawgs, below)

I was one of a team of three illustrators for a children's television programme called Let's Play.  I created backgrounds for characters to walk around in.

Other things that happened:
My boyfriend proposed to me and I cried and said yes and wore the ring on my middle finger because it was a bit too big

Ran my first marathon and smiled pretty much the whole way around:

Visited and booked the place we wanted to get married in the space of ten days

Spent a week at mom and dad's in France. So much blue sky. 

 Met my running internet pals in real life and turns out they are not internet paedos.

Wedding stress got the better of me and I cut my hair short in a moment of insanity/clarity.  Actually stress generally got the better of me and things got a bit bad.

Went away to France with five of my very best friends for a pre-wedding weekend (This is called a hen do by most normal people) of food and laughing and running and relaxing.  Got an extra surprise when my sister appeared, who I thought was still on the other side of the world in Asia.  I cried.  I always cry.

Turned 30 and celebrated by going to eat Nandos and ice cream.

Ran my second marathon and achieved my goal of doing it under 4 hours.

My mom came to visit and helped me and I went back to the doctors and things started getting better.

I acquired not one but two amazing interns this year who have helped me so much, packing orders folding tote bags and stuffing pillows not to mention keeping me company and making me smile.

Suzie and Caroline!

Survived planning a wedding and everything came together.

Was rewarded for all the wedding stress and anxiety with a weekend of family and friends which was absolutely perfect.  Found strength and support from friends and felt so much love towards my new husband.

I'm reluctant to put too many photos of our wedding on the internet but here is one! 

Went to Copenhagen for some time together and a chance to sleep, eat, and enjoy being married.

Spent Christmas in Harrogate and celebrated the New Year with a trip to A&E for an xray of my foot (which I hurt three weeks prior) only to find out I've been walking/running around on a fractured metatarsal.  A cast and crutches - perfect start to 2014!

Anyways.  Thank you if you've bought from me in 2013, if we've worked together, if our paths have crossed.  It's been pretty full-on! Here's to happiness and laughter and helping each other out and being there for each other when we most need someone.  Here's to success and achievement and family and love.

Cheers!!