Today I am very pleased to introduce to you the ever so lovely & creative genius that is Alexandra from the Bijou Bride. I had the absolute pleasure of working with Alexandra on the Whimsical Wonderland Weddings Earthreal Woodland shoot last year, which you can find here. The shoot is featured in 3 parts & I urge you to check out all three it’s utterly gorgeous (if I do say so myself!). Over to Alexandra to tell you more about what goes on in her Bijou Bride world…
- What did you do before you set up the Bijou Bride & how did you get into wedding planning & styling?
I’ve always been a creative planner, as one of my friend’s put it I “turn everything into an event” from girly nights in to Pancake day. It was whilst working at a major film company organising premieres, exciting team away days and so on as well as freelance fashion styling that I had that lightbulb moment. I realised that there was a career that would allow me to combine both my creative and organisational talents – wedding planning and styling. I had organised my own Midsummer Night’s Dream wedding (my middle name is Titania so needless to say it was a theme) within a 5 month time frame and been assisting various friends with their weddings when I took the plunge and enrolled in an International Wedding & Event Planning course. That was about 4 years ago now and luckily I passed with flying colours so the rest, as they say, is history.
- Tell us more about The Bijou Bride & the services that you offer?
My aim with The Bijou Bride is to help Brides and Grooms be unique, designing an amazing but honest Wedding that symbolises their relationship and creates lots of everlasting memories. No two weddings should be the same as no two couples are. My planning and styling services are bespoke from the works to hourly consultations, anything goes.
- What do you love most about what you do?
Everything! Seriously. I hate to brag but my clients are the best, I love sharing the journey to the big day with them and helping make sure it is nothing short of spectacular. Blogging is the other side of the business and I love discovering new talents, getting creative with other wedding talent and just sharing my thoughts. Stepping outside of the job it is also a dream to run your own company and see it grow. I am very grateful for it all.
- Have you had a particularly challenging brief to work on, if so how did you manage to overcome the problems involved?
Planning and styling a wedding in just two and half months was pretty challenging but super fun regardless. I created a design for the bride and groom as quickly as possible so then it was just a case of bringing it to life and thankfully I had some fabulous suppliers to work with.
- What would be your advice to those couples who have recently got engaged & don’t have a clue where to begin with planning or styling their wedding?
Talk, talk, talk. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of choice so I recommend putting down the magazines and shutting the laptop in favour of just talking through what a wedding means to you both, the best and worst weddings you’ve been to and asking if you were just throwing a big party to sum up your relationship where would it be? What would it look like? Sound like? Write down all your thoughts and feelings as they are great to keep coming back to. This is where I start with all my clients, then we have fun turning those thoughts into an overall look and feel for their unique Wedding day.
- What are your wedding trend predictions for 2015?
The trends are really contrasting this year, either bold use of colour – flashes of neon and vibrant hues or a focus on simple foliage against softer white tones. Mixed metallics are also still big news and great for those that want an elegant vintage feel. And after the Kimye wedding, flowers are going to be popping up everywhere from flower walls to hanging installations, trailing table garlands to bold chair backs. You’ll certainly have your work cut out for you Joanne!
- What future plans does The Bijou Bride have for 2015?
2015 is going to be huge. Firstly because of SNAP Photography Festival (http://www.snapphotofestival.com/) which I am helping my friend Laura Babb of Babb Photo with. Laura is such an inspiring person and seems to have boundless enthusiasm for the Wedding industry. So I’m feeling pretty fired up being a part of her team which means that everything else I’m doing it 2015 has to be bigger and better.
Of course I am loving that flowers are going to be BIG this year, thank you so much to Alexandra for guest posting for us today, check out the links below to follow The Bijou Bride’s gorgeous work.
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