From this day forward...

I cannot believe that The Day has finally arrived! I have scheduled for this to post at 3pm today as that is the exact time that our darling daughter is getting married. This is our sweet girl in the Summer of 1987, happily playing on the beach on holiday. This really makes a lump come to my throat just looking at her aged 18 months.  She has grown into the best woman (and Doctor) you could meet. So kind, funny and generous  and I love her so very much.

 Yes after getting engaged in December 2010, amongst all the snow we had at that time, the months have flown by and here were are ready to see Milly wed her beloved Tom. I am so happy for her as she has found a soul mate in him. I have always dreamt of this for my own girl as I married my soul mate too in July 1981 and we celebrated our 31st Wedding Anniversary on Wednesday. It will be a very proud Dad who is giving away his darling daughter today. I shall watch with so much love and pride. Our son is an usher so we will all be a big part of her special day......4 peas in a pod ;0)


At this very moment Milly and Tom will be saying their vows and I will be standing in my outfit wearing these................

They are grey satin and I love them. There is nothing like new shoes and of course if a girl has new shoes then she just has to have....

a new bag of course.

This is my clutch bag, it's tiny and will just hold a few essentials; the tissues will be in there just in case.






You will have to wait until next week when I get a chance to sort through my photos until I can show you a few photos of the day but I thought I would take this opportunity to share my very last sneak peeks, as I could not risk them being seen by anyone in advance of today.

These are a couple of pieces I made related to the  wedding jewellery. If you have not read about my wedding jewellery the posts are here and here
Milly wanted a bracelet to wear which matched in with the bridesmaids necklaces. The photo below shows  what I made. I used one medium and 2 small sized  beads, the same design as I used in the bridesmaids' necklaces. I used the same freshwater pearls too and finished it off with a heart toggle clasp.

I decided that it would also be lovely to make a keepsake for the bridesmaids and also for Milly. As you know I love making bag charms and I had one of those light bulb moments in bed one morning that I could make them all a bag charm with one of the necklace beads in. So I did and here they are...

The one in the middle is for Milly the other 2 are for Megan and Laura, the bridesmaids. I do hope they like them.

 When the beads were being made by Laney we had to decide on sizes. Laney sent me 3 different sized lentil beads and we decided to use the smallest beads for the necklaces and one medium for the middle of Milly's bracelet. It did mean that I then had a large and a few medium sized lentil beads spare. I thought the large bead would make a great pendant for Milly as she really loves the bridemaids' beads. I thought a pendant necklace would be really different for her to use after the wedding. So this is what I will have given her yesterday when we spent a whole girlie day together at a hotel spa, her last day before her wedding.

I really hope she likes it. I bought a really good quality sterling silver chain to hang the pendant on.

So the only pieces of jewellery you will not have seen yet is her own necklace and earrings. We decided to keep these very simple indeed and to go for classic freshwater pearls. The pearls  were selected  for me abroad by a seller I have known for some time and they are just stunning.
Pearls are graded by their size, regularity of shape and lustre and these ones are just gorgeous. A+++ quality. They are quite large for pearls (8mm) and all I did was put some crystal spacers between. We both LOVE this necklace and she will enjoy wearing it after the wedding too.

It has a simple heart toggle and was made with lots of love by me for my girlie. Here is a group photo with her pearl stud earrings in too.

 

I also made her a lucky horseshoe which I will give to her after the ceremony. Her bridesmaids are carrying sunflowers and she has ivory roses and bright gerberas in her bouquet so this is a little of both.

I attached it to an ivory ribbon. It is a wooden horse shoe and quite traditional over here to give something like this to the bride just after she has said her vows.

As she will have been seen by all now I will give you one tiny sneak peek of the back of her dress......ready.........

This was taken at the second dress fitting so all the little beads have been tied off now and finished. This lacing takes some time to do but looks stunning. Milly wanted a dress that looked good from both the front and the back and she really did find it. You will have to wait to see the front ;0)





I will also share a photo from the practice hair day  to show the gorgeous flower hair comb we had made. We saw the maker at a wedding fair last year and just fell in love with her work.

This was taken at Milly and Tom's house in May. It just compliments her hair and her dress so well.













So now my last sneak peek just has to be their card which I have shown at the top of my post. That showed the box I made for it, here it is in all it's glory taken out of the box.

It's one of my easel cards and this is the front. I have used flowers to try to match Milly and her bridesmaids' bouquets, there is a bit of both here. I used lots of lace, punch cut vellum butterflies and lashings of glitter on the flowers to give them sparkle. It's hard to see in the photo but the backing paper I used is lovely matt shiny silver card.

I used my beloved Lili of the Valley Bride and Groom stamp and again used some of the colours that will feature at the wedding. I carefully coloured it with Promarkers.


I also used my recently acquired
calligraphy skills to write the sentiment inside.

There is something special here too - the white flower in the centre (and also on the lid of the box and the far right hand side of the front of the card) is taken from my headdress from my own wedding day. The headdress was broken and unusable but I cut out some of the flowers and used them here. It was wonderful to be able to use them in this way. It really is a card with a lot of love inside.There are 2 rings for the card to "stand" on.

Here is the easel standing up and also a view from the side.

 I would like to enter my card into the following challenges; (I will put up the links on Monday).

4 Crafty Chicks Wedding
Whimsey stamps challenge 49 Summer Fun
Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes
Dream Valley #37 Summer
Make it Monday  linky party 100
I love Promarkers #127 Gold, silver or bronze
The Stamp Man Challenge Blog Anything Goes
Coffee, Chocolate & Cards Challenge blog Rainbows and butterflies #18
Lili's Little Fairies A touch of romance


I know that you will all be thinking of us today.  I have been so touched by all the emails, comments, cards and even presents that you have sent. Thank you all so much. I find it hard to put into words how much our families are looking forward to celebrating Milly and Tom's Wedding Day today. I am so very proud of my Girlie and I wish her and Tom a lifetime of happiness together, full of love, from this day forward........

I shall raise my glass at the toast and toast all my blogging friends too...cheers!

(I have also not forgotten that my 2nd Bloggerversary was on Thursday. I shall be back with a post soon and a little celebratory giveaway. I am sure you will forgive me for being late with that, there was rather a lot going on at the time ;0) Thanks for being such a positive force in my life).

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane  (the Mother of the Bride)   ;0)
x