Credits:   Directed & Styled by Susan Brierly Bush • Photographed by Frank Veronsky • Hair & Makeup by Depasquale The Spa

At the beginning of the year I was asked by the very talented stylist Susan Brierly Bush, if I would recreate my Trick or Treat bouquet for a photo shoot.

I was tickled pink to see the result, what a gorgeous photo and styling.  The entire set of pics is really stunning and inspiring.  Titled a Bride for All Seasons.  You can view the entire feature here.

New Jersey Brides

At the beginning of March we exhibited at the super cool Most Curious Wedding Fair, held at the Truman Brewery in the hub of Brick Lane, London.

Billed as   “…the Wedding Fair for the style savvy couple”  

We were there for a bustling two days filled with such inspirational talent and creativity.

One of the highlights was watching our bouquets in the fashion shows styled by Katherine McNeal.

“Most Curious carefully handpicks its merry gang of exhibitors who range from the very coolest of the established brands to up and coming makers working from their bedrooms, kitchens, studios and raw imaginations.”

And we met some truly amazing suppliers that we highly recommend  …….

PINGLE PIE

For couples planning a stylish and offbeat wedding, Kim’s hand painted designs are lovingly created using a mixture of traditional and modern mediums.

The fully personalisable wedding stationery at Pingle Pie will be the perfect accompaniment to your personality filled day.

VIRGINIA THE WOLF

Virginia the Wolf makes bespoke jewellery and fine art pieces from ethically sourced animal bones and skulls. Our ethos is to reunite art and science through elegant design and an inspiration for the beauty of nature. Each piece is distinctly unique, as we believe our customers are too, but the true allure lies in the grace of immortalising these creatures into wearable treasures and ornate furnishings to cherish forever.

Honeybomb Vintage Wedding Boutique

Honeybomb Vintage Wedding Boutique presents a unique caboodle of glamorous, sexy, kooky and classic genuine vintage wedding dresses, which have been hand selected and imported from all over the world. These gorgeous gowns are lovingly cleaned, restored, primped and primed ready for you to rock on your wedding day! Book a private appointment at our cosy and quirky boutique in the heart of Chester city centre and have some fun trying on the vintage dresses of your dreams!

CROWN AND GLORY
Trend led, fashion forward hair accessories handmade by Sophie and her team in Cornwall! Think blooming florals, glitter encrusted silliness and beyond, including a range of alternative bridal hair accessories created in collaboration with queen of alt weddings, Kat Williams of Rock n Roll Bride. As loved by Grazia, Company, Teen Vogue, a whole host of celebrity fans…we could go on, but no-one likes a bragger!

DORIS LOVES
Doris Loves offer a whole range of delights, from a Temporary Tattoo Station to spectacular battery powered light-up letters. With over 70 letters in stock we can spell just about anything! Our new luxury range of LOVE letters offer something truly unique. This range has more lights, new fonts and now COLOUR – ‘RED & WHITE’, ‘GREY & YELLOW’ and ‘imitation GOLD LEAF’. With plenty more ideas in the pipeline!

COMEUPPANCE
Comeuppance creates lovingly handmade paper decorations. Bespoke and made to order they add an individual and personal touch to any celebration. Everything can be altered to personal preferences creating something special and truly unique.

Super Cute Macaroons

LITTLE BEAR CAKERY
Little Bear Cakery is an award winning East London cake business run by pastry chef Clare. Incorporating her love of the 3 fs… feathers, flora and fauna, Clare loves experimenting with different materials and textures as well as drawing inspiration from fashion, wedding and lifestyle trends

Boxless Booths
Think outside the box for your wedding with Boxless Booths. A pop-up “photo booth” without walls, we transform any space into a studio with your own photographer, studio lighting and equipment, and bespoke props and backdrops to make each “booth” unique to you. Our goal is to create a fun and interactive way for you and your guests to capture your special day. Unlimited prints make great party favours too.

OH MY HONEY

Oh My Honey creates fabulous fifties style frocks that are handmade in the studios in Brighton. Specialising in bridalwear, designer Louise O’Mahony can make bridesmaids dresses in fabrics and colours of your choice to go with your wedding theme, and has a range of beautiful and quirky wedding dresses that can be altered to your particular tastes. Vintage inspired designs, made with modern figures and trends in mind.

Mad’moizelle BeeBee
French wedding planner, Mad’moizelle BeeBee is specialised in tailor-made events that are nothing like the run-of-the-mill weddings in France and is not afraid of ponytastic, glitter-studded weddings! With Mad’moizelle BeeBee’s guidance, hints and tips, organising the most beautiful day of your life in France is a breeze! Why not let us take the weight off your shoulders and help with planning your big day in France?

I could go on… for a full list of exhibitors look here

A most Curious Wedding Fair

Photo Credits:

Pingle Pie, Katherine McNeal, I heart Van time, La Cabine de Margaux, Roberta Matis

As I type there is a flurry of snow falling outside,  so it seems like a very good time to share a little magic with you.   At the end of last year the hugely talented Georgina Webb from 

The brief was to create a bouquet fit for Cinderella at a fairytale wedding.

The bouquet incorporated many themed brooches, including a pumpkin coach, fairy, mouse, glass slipper, masks and even a working diamante clock face (for the strike of midnight!).

The colours were a mix of gold, blue, pink and purple (as well as  lots of glass and sparkles!).

Needless to say I had to include my handmade, trademark seed flowers for added detail!

I designed a matching buttonhole for Prince Charming, keeping with the themed colours.

There were matching Grooms men button holes, in the singular complimenting colours of blue, purple and pink.  

Each bridesmaid had a co-ordinating fairy wand!

There are so many fabulous pics taken by Shannon Robinson (SLR Photography).  To see many more and for a fab write up on the fairytale shoot, visit Ruby’s blog!

Credits:

A beautiful venue, fab suppliers and lovely brides to be.

Photo:  JS Photography, Model:  Dixie Dread, Dress:  Get Cutie 

Well, what a spectacular day! Bride as a Button, has returned from exhibiting at the Quaint, Queer & Weird Wedding Spectacular in Brighton. The venue was the stunning Proud Cabaret, formerly the Hanbury Ballroom, with it’s very glamorous & boho decor. It was very much like entering a secret club, brimming with alternative wedding inspiration and amazing talent. It was our first time exhibing within the realm of Alternative Weddings and was great to be amongst the colourful & creative suppliers.  There were Burlesque entertainers, birds of prey delivering wedding rings across the room, latex wedding dresses, crocheted gems, astounding cakes, a rocky horror hurst and even Del Boy Trotter!

We emerged to daylight at the end of the fair, enriched with inspiration, to what seemed a very ‘ordinary’ outside world.

I received a fab email from the lovely Claire at Belly Button Boo  Stationers & Event Stylists.  The brief should I choose to accept it, was to create a bouquet for their styled table at The Wedding House of Wallingford, that incorporated pastel brights and candy stripes.

The table aimed to be bright, colourful and full of the joys of a summer wedding celebration.  Inspired by their latest bootique stationery collection ‘Hitched and Stitched’.

The range draws inspiration from the recent sewing bee trend with a vintage edge.  We’ve mixed up bright colours, clashing patterns and lashings of fabric, and teamed them with haberdashery straight from your grandma’s sewing basket!

A lucky window arose in my schedule, so it was my pleasure to accept the mission and the ‘Hitched & Stitched’ bouquet & matching button hole was born!

Claire sent me through these pics courtesy of SLR-Photography.    I just love the cake from The Glorious Bakeshop covered in tiny iced buttons!  I think the styling is gorgeous, but you can view for yourself, as the display will be on show at The Wedding House Wallingford until September!

On a beautiful sunny day in July, we were honored to be invited to exhibit at the Vintage Veils, Top Hats & Tails fair , at The wedding House Wallingford.  The venue was an amazing 3 story Victorian house set in the heart of Oxfordshire, which is home to an array of carefully selected suppliers, brimming with talent and creativity.

When you walk through the door the welcome hits you, as well as the feeling that you are amongst a very special bunch of suppliers.  Their collaborative  Rapunzel shoot was recently featured in Rock ‘n’ Roll Bride.  Styled by  ‘blog academy’ graduates Shannon Robinson, (aka SLR Photography) and Georgina Webb, (self confessed lover of all things Ruby; and creator of the sparkly world that is  Ruby Wedding Design).

We were serenaded with the amazing voice, that is Oxfordshire’s strictly star Nikki Loy, and privvi to an in-house  Fashion show filmed by Chris from Oxford Wedding Video, featuring some familiar button bouquets

For a full list of suppliers just follow the links!    Here are a few more pics from the day, by SLR Photography.

I worked with gorgeous bride to be Ella and fab photographer Martin Plant  of Alter Ego Portraits, to create a wedding planning shoot with some good old Gatsby Ritz!

The story behind the shoot is really gorgeous and can be read in The English Wedding Blog here.  It’s a real heart wrencher though – so be warned!

Martin captured some stunning pics, I just love the dramatic and theatrical use of lighting.

How romantic are these shots with the Pettibone dress, very Downtown Abbey darling!

What another very fun filled day, being a runner & assisting with styling, another part of my job that I truly love.  Thanks Ella & all the best!

Being a big fan of Martin’s vintage style photography, I was overwhelmed when he agreed to give up his time and help with the project.  The timescale was very tight, with only 3 weeks to prepare and work on the concept.  During which time my pc died on me and with it hours of work lost!

But I picked myself up, encouraged by the fab Brides of Wellingborough, coming on board.  As well as the beautiful folk of my husband’s family, aka Cousins ‘Eve’ and ‘Freyda’.  Not forgetting, artist, stylist and total cool dude ‘Tommy’, who all agreed to model for me!

My concept was to reflect a very simple 1950’s style, inspired by my style icon – Audrey Hepburn.  Choosing the classic Lou Lou Tea dress from the fabulous Brides of Wellingborough,  red open toe shoes, victory rolls with loose curls and traditional red roses for the hair.

So we headed off to some old outbuildings at Delepre Abbey to rock up the traditional 50’s style in a classically beautiful, Hepburn sort of a way.

The bouquet was designed with a mixture of red, white and black buttons and hand made beaded flowers; finished with a red and white polka dot trim to coordinate with the Vivien of Holloway dress of our bridesmaid.  

Ruby Red

Peggy Sue

Mini Red

Martin captured some awesome pics and we were delighted to see them featured in Brides Up North blog, which you can link to here.

I hope the photo’s will be inspiring for all those 50’s style brides to be, planning their Wedding.

The whole experience was amazing and what a fun fun day!!   I will never forget the buzz when Martin called “it’s a wrap” and the surreal sight of Eve and Freyda  in the Abbey grounds, strolling along side the dog walkers, with their victory rolls and petticoats a swinging!!

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Photo credit:  Martin Plant, Alter Ego Portraits

I know it sounds cliched, but when I think about it, my love for buttons started as a young child, when I would play for hours with my grandma’s button box.   She had a set of traditional balance scales and I would weigh them out to imaginary shop customers.   (Oh those were the good old ancient days (according to my children) long, long ago, before  the invent of X-boxes and Ipod’s).

I remember being fascinated by the shiny buttons, which were from my granddad’s old WW2 uniform.  I loved the sense of history behind them and all the different colours, shapes and styles.    I was also completely fascinated with my mother’s jewellery box and charm bracelet.  Not only was it brimming with sparkles and bling, but was packed full of charms that all had a sentimental story to tell.

So I guess looking back the button love has always been embedded in my psyche.

Originally from Reading, I studied art and art history at A level, graduated from Derby Uni with a BA Hons in Visual Cultures and then fell into a career in project Management, for a medical communications company based in Oxford.   I met my husband, started a family and moved to rural northamptonshire in 2000.

Knowing my love for arts & crafts, my friend and fellow creative, Anna (Above & below) asked me to help make the table decorations for her wedding in June 2012, which were all made from buttons and beads.  It was great to see everyones reaction to them at the wedding.  In fact most of the tableware made it’s way into pockets and handbags, as memento’s.  They really created a buzz, with guests and friends asking if they could have a bunch made!  I became hooked on buttoning thereafter and decided to set up my own business making button bouquets.

So I have never looked back!  All thanks to Anna!  I love returning to my creative roots and being part of so many big days!   I get to work with fantastic suppliers and brides from all over the country.  Every day I receive such amazing ideas from my brides to be, from Batman to vintage inspired bouquets.I am a massive fan of Audrey Hepburn and all things that are handmade, vintage and retro.  I’m passionate about up-cycling, giving jewellery and buttons a new creative lease of life.

I thoroughly love my job and feel lucky that I have now discovered what it is I wanted to do when I grew up!  Mrs Anna Malin – you are the best! xx