We’ve been ‘Pin’ happy for the past couple of weeks creating gorgeous boards on the brilliant Pinterest and we have to admit it’s become somewhat addictive following so many creative people and pinning beautiful images! So for those of you planning your wedding and looking for lots of Inspiration to help you with your planning sign up to Pinterest and get following us The Bridal Lounge. Below are just a few of our favourite Inspirations!

Image Credits: 1. Plum Pretty Sugar 2. Style Me Pretty 3. Style 4. Sombre Lily 5. Everelle

Today we are focusing on a lovely Dublin based business called Me Auld China, suppliers of beautiful vintage china.  Me Auld China is definitely one of our favourite suppliers as they have a gorgeous colourful collection of pre-loved and  genuine vintage china which are available for hire for all occasions catering up to 300 people! Their collection includes trios, cake-stands (1 to 4 tiers), jugs, sugar bowls, teapots, and coffee pots.

Me Auld China is famous for their beautiful hand made cake stands which are created using vintage and antique china plates. The cake stands are available through some great stockists in Dublin (Find in Temple Bar, Bow & Pearl in Ranelagh and The Trinket Box in Lusk). They also sell them at a number of markets in Dublin such as The Dublin Flea, and further afield throughout the year.

They also provide a bespoke ‘Pimp Your Plates’ service where they can transform your own plates to create a very personal and unique cake stand. This service is a very popular way of creating a truly special piece from say, china inherited from Granny or a lovley plate hiding at the back of the cupboard.

They have pimped many plates and they always get a brilliant, and sometimes emotional reaction. For example, brides will create cake stands from their Granny’s china for their wedding day, and then have a lovely momento to remind them of both their big day and their family. The plates can either be delivered to Me Auld China at a market, or they will make other arrangements for delivery and collection. It’s simple!

For more information on this great service and hiring for your special occasion get in touch: Email meauldchinainfo@gmail.com or visit www.meauldchina.com

Image Credits: 1. Me Auld China 2. Brosnan Photographic 3. Brosnan Photographic 4. Me Auld China

There are so many gorgeous ways to style and decorate your wedding and one of the most effective ways is with beautiful table settings. I particularly love this decor style below with a burlap table runner (Burlap is one of the hottest trends at the moment!) and a mix of coloured frosted glass tea light holders and vases.

Adding wild flowers in a mix of different herbs and other plants not only cuts down on the flower bill but is also something a little different for your table centres but with gorgeous results or you could mix wild flowers with coloured glass vases or coloured wine bottles!!

If you choose simple neutral coloured flowers for your table centres you can incorporate colour to your table by adding gorgous coloured napkins on each guests plate.

I love these two next table settings and how bright coloured flowers in the one colour is mixed with simple table settings keeping the overall look elegant but gorgeous!

Another lovely idea is to use a table runner topped with lanterns and simple flower arrangements. Lanterns or glass storm vases are a lovely cost effective way to add a great visual effect to the overall look of a reception room.

If you would love to recreate any of the looks above don’t forget to ask us about our Decor Hire Items as we have all the pieces you need to create the gorgeous decor styles above!

Image Credits: 1. One Wed 2-7. Style Me Pretty

We recently met with a couple who are planning their wedding and not only are they looking to create a small and intimate event with their closest family and friends but they want to plan a special ‘meal’ rather than a wedding reception where they can chill out and enjoy great food and company. This got us thinking that the meal is the essence of your wedding reception and sometimes so much attention goes into little details such as favours, or the colour of the napkins etc so when putting this blog together we decided to pare it back and look at the wedding reception as a family meal rather than an elaborate event.

With that in mind – this lovely little blog for you today could be saturday supper,  sunday brunch or a special wedding meal we love the simplicity of the table setting with the natural flowers, jars of pickle as favours and menu cards. Enjoy. Ax

Image Credits: Sunday Suppers Blog

We thought it would be a good idea to have a weekly blog dedicated to all the gorgeous products we have at The Bridal Lounge which are available to rent from us for your wedding decor needs!! We have lots of beautiful pieces that we think would be perfect for your wedding decor so today we are kicking off with these gems – mini frosted bud vases, frosted tea light holders and beautiful place name baubles all available to rent for your table settings or general reception decor!

If you would like to find out more information on hire prices, quantities and date availability please drop us an email to hello@thebridallounge.ie

Enjoy X

First off – Happy New Year!!! We hope you all had Christmases as lovely as we did, didn’t it fly by! So now here we are – a new year, tonnes of resolutions and so many ideas and so much inspiration to share with you all we’re pretty much going to burst! 2012 is going to bring plenty of lovely surprises and developments that we’re all very excited about too… but more about that later! For the moment, we have some gorgeous monochrome ideas for you today – all inspired by one of our favourite flowers that’s in season right now – The Anemone! It’s the simplest yet most perfect flower to create softness in a black and white theme, the gentle flower gives a feminine edge to the masculinity of this colour combination and it’s also perfect for either an uber-modern or super-girlie, vintage style event – talk about versatile! Enjoy, enjoy and looking forward to a wonderful 2012 with you all! Aoife & Deirdre x

First up a beautiful ‘Like Water for Elephants’ inspired shoot by Green Wedding Shoes shot by Marilyn Nakazato. We love the vintage vibe of the bouquet with a mix of white lilac and blousy ivory roses, not to mention the brides fab hair and strong lip and general 1920′s fabulousness!

Delicious Design – Flowers aren’t just for bouquets and table-centers. The simplicity of the anemone makes it perfect (either fresh or sugar-crafted) to include on a graphic black and white cake. Super, super easy to do yourself even – just find beautiful black and white ribbon and add a couple of flowers for instant design perfection! (Images L-R : Peggy Porschen, Instyle Weddings 2008, TheKnot, CakesforWedding.)

Wild and Loose – The word Anemone comes from the Greek word for wind, as the ancient Greeks named the flower ‘Wind Flower’ because they thought the flowers bloomed as a result of the wind blowing on them! So what better format for an Anemone bouquet than these gorgeous windswept, natural shapes. It’s almost as if they were scooped up from a meadow (albeit a very stylish meadow!) (Images – 1&2 Kate Holt at Flowerwild, 3&4 – Krista Jon Couture Florals Via GreenWeddingShoes)

Again – a headturning head piece – super stylish, modern and simple, we love it! From SiboDesigns via Etsy.

Team black and white floral centerpieces with sleek black glassware and accessories for a modern alternative for your event. Images from Brides.com.

Black and white has always been one of the classic combinations for an elegant wedding invitation, but here are two with a twist that incorporate the anemone – graphic and simple but so effective! (L-R : MewPaperArts at Etsy, Robin Ott at Minted.com)

And finally, some beautiful details in this amazing inspiration shoot styled by Canvas&Canopy Events and featured on RuffledBlog.

Ideas, Inspiration and Information from The Bridal Lounge

Happy Friday!! Well we’ve waited ages and ages to bring this gorgeous wedding to you, so you’ll have to excuse us for being far too excited for a windy November morning, and you’ll just have to bear with us when we include lots and lots of stunning pictures by Magda Lukas (there were way too many for us to choose from!!!) Summer and Paul came to us at the start of last year to get a little bit of help putting their wedding dreams in place for their gorgeous wedding in The Village at Lyons on the very lucky 11.7.11! A truly international pair (Summer’s from Taiwan, Paul’s Irish and they live in Amsterdam!) and an artistic couple to boot, they had a really clear idea of what they wanted and we were more than happy to help put it all together. Colour was the defining feature, and Summer’s palette of sugary shades with stronger pinks for the flowers and Bridesmaids dresses set the scene. The French Touch did a stunning job as ever, and blousy blooms and wildflowers filled the beautiful dining roo and made for one of the most beautiful bouquets we’ve seen for a long time. We nearly skipped for joy when we saw the stationary and paper goodies by Rifle Design – they perfectly captured the feel of the day and touches like the wooden sign by with handmade letters by James Tyrell and the oversized balloons courtesy of Balloon World added a vintage and quirky vibe! There were so many things we loved about this day – Summer was such a gorgeous Bride with hair by Michelle Grimes, and Geisha inspired make-up by Naomh Kirwan. She looked so spectacular in Vera Wang that we were nearly disappointed to see her change after dinner, but her second dress was just as fabulous and obviously a safer choice when drinking that pint of Guinness! The evening finished with dancing, a fun photobooth and a lantern release with wishes for the new couple released to the starry sky…. Perfect! Congratulations again to Summer and Paul, and thanks to Magda for sharing all the beautiful shots with us! Have a great weekend, Aoife & Deirdre x

To see more from this beautiful wedding visit Magda’s blog here, and also check out Christina Brosnan’s blog here as she was second shooter on the day and has some fab shots too!!

This is the perfect example of a really personal wedding, with tonnes of intimate and quirky details… Minnow Photography captured all the gorgeous touches – we love everything from the taupe and turquoise colour palette to the location – a turn of the century electrical parts factory that’s been turned into an antique storage space with studio spaces and workshops for craftspeople! Just shows how amazing an alternative venue can be as a backdrop for a wedding or event! But our favourite thing? (apart from the wedding dress the Bride made herself!!) The spools of threads as the guest placecards!! Perfectly in synch with the surroundings and the colour scheme, and it’s definitely the first time we’ve ever seen anything like this! Enjoy, Aoife & Deirdre x

Photo Credits – from Minnow Photography (via StyleMePretty)

Well it’s that time of year again…. sharpened pencils, new schoolbags, brown-paper wrapping for the squeaky-new schoolbooks! We might be a bit beyond the classroom these days, but it didn’t stop us studying hard to bring you some ‘back-to-school’ wedding inspiration!! Now pay attention… there’ll be a test on Friday ;0) Enjoy, Aoife & Deirdre xx

Photo Credits : From Top L to R -

1. Martha Stewart Weddings , 2. Meg Smith Photography via Snippet&Ink, 3. Brookelyn Photography via OnceWed, 4&5. Union Photography via Project Wedding, 6&7. Invitation Suite by Paper+Cup Design via Martha Stewart Weddings, 8&9. Kate Triano Photography via Elizabeth Anne Designs, 10-12. Meg Smith Photography via Snippet&Ink.

Ideas, Inspiration and Information via The Bridal Lounge

 Every so often a wedding comes along that makes us very giddy and excited and today’s wedding does just that – not only because it is a wedding filled to the brim with complete gorgeousness but also because the beautiful bride Claire wore a stunning Delphine Manivet gown and veil as worn last weekend by Lilly Allen! It’s not too often a bride can say they wore it first!! The dress was the perfect choice for the style of wedding that Claire and Jon planned and from the sounds of things Lilly Allen’s day wasn’t too different either (english cricket and afternoon tea in the cotswolds countryside). We just love the simple style of the dress complimented by the most stunning veil and flower corsage! This is a wedding that oozes style, personality, quirkiness and all round prettiness – captured perfectly by the brilliant Rosie Parsons. We would love to have been guests at this wedding – or even to have had weddings like this ourselves!! Enjoy. Aoife & Deirdre Xx

Image Credits: Rosie Parsons