Old family wedding photographs - Part 1, Anne & Brian

I found so many lovely old wedding photographs during my nostalgic afternoon the other day that rather than put them into one big post i've decided to split them up into a few different parts.

The first selection of photographs that i'm going to share is one of my favourites, the wedding of my Great Aunt & Uncle, Anne & Brian.

Firstly, the dress - I love the gorgeous 1950's calf length wedding dress with it's delicate lace detailing, long sleeves and tiny nipped in waist.

I also love how young and in love they are, and how proud my great uncle (who only looks about 15) looks in the last photograph. It all looks like something from a romantic black and white movie, with my great aunt stepping into the shoes of Audrey Hepburn as the herione!









































































































































Leah x
twitter: @leahgoldenapple

Golden Apple
Creative design, Stationery & Wedding Invitations Leicester
Click here to visit the site

Old family wedding photographs - preview!

I've been digging through old family photographs today and I came across some really lovely old wedding photos so thought i'd share them with you!

Here's a little preview, of my Great Aunt & Uncle on their wedding day. Isn't it lovely?!










Leah x
twitter: @leahgoldenapple

Golden Apple
Creative design, Stationery & Wedding Invitations Leicester
Click here to visit the site

Girl Meets Dress - Part 1, Mission Accomplished!

Following on from my 'SOS' blog post yesterday, I am thrilled to say that I will now be wearing a truly wonderful dress for the Love My Dress Summer Soiree on the 3rd August! Mission Accomplished :)

All will be revealed soon over a series of blog posts - I am so excited!






























Leah x
twitter: @leahgoldenapple

Golden Apple
Creative design, Stationery & Wedding Invitations Leicester
Click here to visit the site

Par Avion - vintage air mail art for our new house!

We're moving house at the end of August!

To celebrate i've just made this new peice of art - I think it's going to look great above my desk in my new office!




































I made it using a selection of vintage air mail envelopes that I've collected, stuck onto a wooden board using PVA glue - you can find loads of them on ebay!

The oldest envelope is from 14th February 1938, addressed to a Mr Harold Cox. I like to think that it's a letter from his sweetheart (or secret lover!) thanking him for the beautiful blooms that he sent her for Valentines Day!

I can't wait to hang this up in the new house :)

Leah x
twitter: @leahgoldenapple

Golden Apple
Creative design, Stationery & Wedding Invitations Leicester
Click here to visit the site

I'm in a New York state of mind...

I'm being a bit of a daydreamer today. For some reason New York is on my mind - I'm desperate to go and can't stop thinking about it! It keeps popping up wherever I look!

New York themed things that I can't get enough of...

Music

A New York State of Mind by Billy Joel, one of my favourite songs ever...



Englishman in New York by Sting, an awesome tune with a super stylish video...



Film

Breakfast at Tiffany's. Love love love. Enough said.






















TV

Sex and the City - my favourite series ever. How I would love to live in New York, and work from Carrie's gorgeous apartment instead of my tiny flat in Leicester, followed by stylish nights out with the girls sipping cockails or picnics with the puppy and the boyfriend on central park.








































Food

As you may know, i've recently started working at wonderful local restaurant, Entropy. On a Sunday I serve up delicious breakfasts, and there is something so New York about enjoying Eggs Benedict and freshly squeezed orange juice to the sounds of Al Green on a Sunday morning, whilsy flicking through the sunday papers. I love it. Don't even get me started on their amazing steaks *drool*

























Leah x
twitter: @leahgoldenapple

Golden Apple
Creative design, Stationery & Wedding Invitations Leicester
Click here to visit the site

HELP! Love My Dress Soiree Outfit SOS!

There are exactly two weeks to go until the wedding event of the summer, the Love My Dress Summer Soiree. Annabel, writer of wedding blog Love My Dress is throwing a fabulous party, and with so many wonderful people attending it is sure to be a fantastic event!

















































I am so excited to be invited to this event, and cannot wait to meet so many of you, who I have been chatting to for months now!

Now for my dilemma... the dress.

I found the perfect dress.... I purchased it.... It arrived..... I hated it!

The sizing was all wrong and the material felt horrible. Unfortunately as it sometimes the case with vintage items it wasn't returnable and so I've now been left dressless!

The dress code is vintage glamour, and I am on the hunt for a beautiful dress, and after the first dress fiasco I have now been left with the teeniest of budgets.

So, friends, family, colleagues, aquaintances.... do you have a beautiful vintage dress hiding in a cupboard somewhere that you'd like to lend me for the event, just begging for a night out at a glamorous party? Or have you spotted the perfect bargain dress in a vintage shop somewhere? Or maybe you're a designer who would like to showcase one of your designs for the night?

If so please let me know! I'll love you forever :)

Leah x

Golden Apple
Creative design, Stationery & Wedding Invitations Leicester
Click here to visit the site

Staying Out for the Summer {friday faves}

It's Fridaaaaay!

Press play on my awesome friday tune before reading on... it's one of my absolute favourite summery tunes - I ♥ Dodgy!



Hope you've had a fandabbydosey week. Mine has actually been pretty awesome!

The best things I've done this week is create brand spanking new logos for The Wedding Reporter and Bonfire Night Bride, which they're both super happy with :) Make sure you check out their sites!

♥ Blog Recap ♥
Here's a recap of what you might have missed on the blog this week...

♥ Copycat? Or inspired cat? Telling the difference between copying & inspiration.
♥ {Design Case Study} The Wedding Reporter logo and website banner! What is says on the tin :)
♥ 10% off Summer Save the Dates! 10% off all save the dates booked before the end of August!
♥ {supplier focus} Interior stylist, Selina Lake! Interior loveliness :)
♥ {twitter post} Wedding Wednesday - Top 4! My favourite wedding tweeps this week
♥ Thank you bloggers!! Golden apple was featured on 4 blogs last weekend!
♥ One Big Family {monday musings} Goings on at Golden Apple this week!

That's it for now, as i'm having a well deserved day off today!

Leah x

Golden Apple
Creative design, Stationery & Wedding Invitations Leicester
Click here to visit the site

Copycat? Or inspired cat?

I have something to say!

Its about copying.
A lot of people are complaining about it on twitter, blogs, facebook etc so here is my take on it...

Imagine.

You fall in love with an amazing dress by a couture, high end designer. It's beautiful - exactly what you've been looking for!

BUT there's a catch...

It's £5,000! There's no way you can afford that.






























But then...

you spot it...

... a smiliar dress in a high street shop!

It's only £60, and it's so similar! And what do you do? YOU BUY IT!

You don't stand there and think... this is a copy, so I'm not going to buy it (or maybe you do - if you do then i'm not sure how you ever buy clothes!)

People follow trends and are inspired by other people's work. If a certain style is 'in fashion' and there is a demand for that style then of course other people are going to create similar items that will appeal to their target audience. The wedding industry is no different.

I'm not saying blatant, outright copying is okay, quite the opposite - it's completely wrong and totally unfair, but I don't think there's anything wrong with inspiration, or following trends! There is a difference!

So unless something is a complete carbon copy of something of yours, which is exactly the same then you can't really moan about it.






























I was sitting here earlier reading another post about copying and I thought...

"What if i've created something that's a little bit similar to someone elses without even realising?"

I do have a little search before I make a new design, just to make sure that i'm not treading on anyones toes, but I can't check everywhere. I could receive an email any day now accusing me of stealing an idea, when I actually haven't.

I even worry about using certain fonts in case somebody else has used it, which is ridiculous!

I think we all need to chill out a bit!! What do you think?

Leah x
twitter: @leahgoldenapple

Golden Apple
Creative design, Stationery & Wedding Invitations Leicester
Click here to visit the site

{Design Case Study} The Wedding Reporter logo and website banner!

I was so pleased when Emma from The Wedding Reporter emailed me asking for help revamping her logo recently! As you all know, I'm a massive fan of The Wedding Reporter (click here for my supplier feature) and I am also very honoured to be the creator of her printed wedding reports (find out more!)

♥ Before ♥
Whilst the previous logo was effective enough, Emma wanted something a little more special and striking to better reflect the idea behind the wedding reporter. We both agreed that the curly brackets worked really well, and so these definitely had to stay, and be incorporated into the new design.







♥ The Contenders ♥
Here are some of the ideas I came up with...

























♥ The Winner! ♥
And the winner is...




















♥ The Banner ♥
After completing the logo I then created a banner to fit into the wordpress site. Click here to see it in place!









To create the banner I used this gorgeous image of Emma's notebook, taken by the lovely Ali Lovegrove...

































It's been so lovely to help Emma create a new look for The Wedding Reporter, and I'm so happy to say that she is very pleased with the end results! :)

Do you fancy having a new logo designed for your business?
I'm offering a super duper discounted rate throughout the summer!
Click here for more details!

Leah x
twitter: @leahgoldenapple

Golden Apple
Creative design, Stationery & Wedding Invitations Leicester
Click here to visit the site

10% off Summer Save the Dates!

Getting married next summer? With around a year to go, why not send out some Save the Dates to give your guests a little taster of things to come!







































Save the date cards are availble in any of the designs on the site, and bespoke cards can be created too!







































Prices start from £1.75 per card, and what's more i'm offering 10% off for all orders made before the end of August!

Click here for more information!

Leah x
twitter: @leahgoldenapple

Golden Apple
Creative design, Stationery & Wedding Invitations Leicester
Click here to visit the site

Boring small print!
Deposits must be paid by the end of August to secure the discount. Discount is not applicable with any other offers but is applicable with the bulk order discounts on the site for ordering over 50/100 cards. A bespoke design fee is applicable for bespoke designs.

{supplier focus} Interior stylist, Selina Lake!

I've recently featured an interview with fantastic interior stylist, Selina Lake on the blog that I write for interiors shop, Strawberry House Interiors, and just had to share it with my readers, too! I've known Selina for a few years now, and have always been a big admirer of her work!

Selina is the bestselling author of two wonderful books - Romantic Style and Bazaar Style.
























♥ Who are you?
Selina Lake, Interior/ Lifestyle Stylist & Author

♥ What do you love most about what you do?
I work with amazing inspiring people, I get to travel, visit gorgeous homes and be my creative self!

♥ What inspires you?
Colour / Vintage finds / Blogs / Crafts / Florals / Love / Images

♥ What is your favourite piece of furniture or decorative item, and what’s the story behind it?
My vintage china collection! I love buying second-hand pretty floral patterned plates & Teacups and Saucers. I have loads already but everywhere I go I always end up souring antique, charity or junk shops for more items to add to my collection. I bought some amazing gold pattered ones a few weeks ago while on a work trip in Norway. I'm getting married soon and planning to use some of my found pieces at our Wedding Reception!!



















♥ What trends do you love at the moment? Do you have any tips on how our readers can create this look in their home?
I'm currently working on my 3rd book which is due to be released in Spring 2012, Homespun Style, so i'm loving the whole made by hand trend at the moment. There are so many crafters who sell their handmade homeware goods on Esty, Folksy & DaWanda, Homespun Style is all about decorating and furnishing homes with homemade items, recycled furniture and crafted details. It looks at craft style with a modern twist, I've used bold, cheerful colours and decorative details such as, Embroidered tablecloths, retro kitchenware, chunky knit, trims, ribbons, pom-pom embellishment and plenty of homegrown flowers.

♥ And finally… anything else you’re itching to tell us?
Did I mention, I'm getting married???? I'm very busy at the moment planning and arranging all the details for my Big Day. I've been keeping a Wedding Ideas Moodboard on Pinterest ... click here for the link!

























Thank you Selina! I love your gorgeous wedding moodboard and cannot wait to see your new book!

If you want to know more about Selina you can check out her website or visit her blog for fabulous interior inspiration.

Selina also has a new Etsy Shop, Selina Lake Living, check it out for some gorgeous handmade items, such as these lovely cushions...



















I hope that you've enjoyed and been inspired by this blog post as much as I have!

Leah x
twitter: @leahgoldenapple

Golden Apple
Creative design, Stationery & Wedding Invitations Leicester
Click here to visit the site

{twitter post} Wedding Wednesday - Top 4!

Today's wedding wednesday blog post is going to be a bit shorter (only 4 this week!) and a little less detailed than usual, as I'm a super duper busy bee today! I wanted to make sure that I still sent out some love though, so here it is...

@mrspandp
Alison Tinlin from Plans & Presents, for being wonderful and supportive over the past few weeks, and featuring in me in a very lovely blog post!

@ellestationery
Elle from Elle is for Love, as not only is she one of my most favouritest tweeters (offering me advice on everything from dog training to house renting!) but she also creates really beautiful stationery!

@Cloggins
Emma from The Wedding Reporter, for always managing to make me smile! I just recieved the fantastic news that her amazing business had a little mention in Perfect Wedding magazine this month!

@phoebewedding
Phoebe Miller, from So You're Getting Married - awesome wedding blogger full of fabulous ideas, and an all round lovely lady :)

Follow them on twitter! Or else!

Leah x
twitter: @leahgoldenapple

Golden Apple
Creative design, Stationery & Wedding Invitations Leicester
Click here to visit the site

Thank you bloggers!!

I was super duper pleased on Friday and Saturday to find that Golden Apple had been featured on not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR blogs over the two days!

Big thank yous to Military Wedding Discounts, Plans & Presents, Cake Toppers and Ruby Weddings for the lovely features!






























Click the links below to read the posts...
Military Wedding Discounts
Plans & Presents
Cake Toppers
Ruby Weddings

Leah x
twitter: @leahgoldenapple

Golden Apple
Creative design, Stationery & Wedding Invitations Leicester
Click here to visit the site

One Big Family {monday musings}

Morning all :)

So it's Monday again, and after a hectic weekend (without a day off since 25th June!) I have just treated myself to a very naughty breakfast from McDonald's. I'm now sitting at my desk in the sunshine enjoying a nice glass of orange juice, with the breeze billowing through the viole curtain, listening to this...



..I hope you're having a lovely Monday morning too!

It was an eventful weekend - I spent Friday night drinking delicious Prosecco in the garden with the best mate before going on to a party to watch my boyfriend DJ - the first booking through his new company, Scratch Wedding & Event DJs.

I then had two consulations on Saturday before working Saturday night, which was completely fully booked! Yesterday was more of a quiet day, with a relaxed brunch shift followed by an amazing Sunday lunch.

It's a bit of a short blog post today, as I have a big chunk of my TO DO list to tackle today, including 3 logos to design, typewriter wedding invitations to create and a website to complete. I am then off to my second job at 7pm!

Speak to you later!

Leah x
twitter: @leahgoldenapple

Golden Apple
Creative design, Stationery & Wedding Invitations Leicester
Click here to visit the site

I DON'T LIKE SPAM!!!

Spam. Greasy, fatty, slimy, weird meat type stuff... it's GROSS.

But that's not the kind of spam I'm talking about in this post.

I'm talking about the "please become a fan of my facebook page" spam that keeps getting slapped onto my facebook page.

And it's not just me.

LOADS of wedding businesses / bloggers have been complaining about it recently.

Some are even resorting to removing the walls from their facebook pages so that spammers can't post onto them, which is really unfair - it stops our actual fans from communicating with us!


I don't want ANY spam!

If you aren't fully aware of the correct Facebook etiquette regarding this, here it is...... DON'T DO IT!

It won't help your business - it will just annoy the people whose pages you're clogging up with your spam. I have almost 600 fans on my page, which by comparison to others who have 1000's isn't that many, but I got them by working hard to promote my business, so why should you get to just post your business on my page for all of my fans to see?

I'm not being selfish - I think that one of the most important things is promoting and helping each other, but you have to ASK first! If I like your business and I want to help you out (which I probably will if you approach me in the right way, by sending me an email to introduce yourself,or meeting me at a networking event or wedding fair) then I'll post it myself, or maybe even do a supplier feature on you! I'm sure the same will go for any other supplier that you might feel the need to spam.

OK, rant over - I hope that you enjoyed the Monty Python video - it made me laugh anyway! :)

Leah x
twitter: @leahgoldenapple

Golden Apple
Creative design, Stationery & Wedding Invitations Leicester
Click here to visit the site

Aimee & Mike's lovely Leicester city centre Wedding!

As soon as I spotted this gorgeous wedding whilst browsing facebook this morning I knew that I had to feature it on my blog, as it combines two things that I love - Leicester and Weddings. I am one of the very few people who is from and lives in Leicester that actually loves it - it's steeped in history and there are some really beautiful places to be found in the city if you just keep your eyes open for them!

The wedding took place at Leicester's Town Hall and afterwards at the stunning Maiyango Boutique Hotel & Restaurant. I love the little glimpses of Leicester's history that can be spotted throughout the images, and the cobbled streets on the walk between Town Hall Square and Maiyango are the perfect setting for this gorgeous shoot.

The Bride looks stunning in a cute and pretty 'short' wedding dress, which has beautiful floral detailing, accessorised with a chic and simple bouquet and gorgeous shoes. The flower girl is adorable in a little pink dress, and the groom looks dapper in a simple but effective smart blue suit.







































































































































































































What a gorgeous couple - I hope you had a wonderful wedding day :)

Thank you to Gary from SMD Photography for sharing these beautiful images - they are stunning!

Be sure to check out his website for more, and you can also follow him on Twitter & Facebook!

Leah x
twitter: @leahgoldenapple

Golden Apple
Creative design, Stationery & Wedding Invitations Leicester
Click here to visit the site

At the River {monday musings}

Urgh, it's a bit grim and grey today isn't it?!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and took advantage of the sun whilst it was around :)

I started a part time job this weekend to help me save some pennies - I am determined to go on holiday this year! It's at a gorgeous restaurant in Leicester, Entropy, and I've loved it so far. The food is amazing and I was also really excited to see that they stock Teapigs tea, as I've been mad about Teapigs for ages! You might remember that I came runner up in their Drink Real Tea poster competition last year. Find out a bit more about Entropy here.

To encourage the sun to make an appearance my song choice for today is Groove Armada, At the River, which also coincides well with my dreams of a lovely holiday. It was also playing at work yesterday whilst I was serving up amazing Sunday lunches and mouthwatering breakfasts!



I have an eeeenormous To Do list this week, which as well as some invitations and stationery orders includes creating report samples and an exciting project for the Wedding Reporter, planning & promoting the Leicester Wedding Club summer Garden Party, finishing a website and also finishing a couple of other logo design orders.

I'm also attending the Creative Coffee networking event on Wednesday (sticking to mid years resolution number 3) followed by coffee with my old boss which should be nice!

Look out for my very first real wedding on the blog later on, a really lovely Leicester City Centre wedding from the fantastic SMD Photography.

Hope you have a lovely week planned too! :)

Leah x
twitter: @leahgoldenapple

Golden Apple
Creative design, Stationery & Wedding Invitations Leicester
Click here to visit the site

Sunday ♥

This song + sunshine + garden + cocktails + friends + good food = perfect sunday.

If only I were actually doing the above - maybe next week!

Hope you're having a lovely day! :)

Leah x
twitter: @leahgoldenapple

Golden Apple
Creative design, Stationery & Wedding Invitations Leicester
Click here to visit the site

{Design Case Study} Military Wedding Discounts logo and website design

I have recently finished working on a really enjoyable and rewarding project for the lovely ladies over at Military Wedding Discounts.

The Military Wedding Discounts is a lovely idea that has been created to help members of the Armed Forces in both the UK and USA save money when planning their wedding.

They also donate 50% of the advertising fee to charity - Help For Heroes (UK Suppliers) and Operation Gratitude (USA Suppliers), so i think you will agree that this website is for a fantastic cause, so I was very pleased to be able to assist them with a fabulous new look for their brand.

♥ The Logo ♥

When creating the logo I wanted to ensure that I incorporated the military aspect in some way, whilst still finishing with an end product that was both pretty and attractive, and also relevant to the wedding market and appropriate for a wedding blog.

I put together a selection of ideas for them to choose from (one of them featured a camouflage wedding cake!) and they chose this one, which was also my favourite:
























To create the design I chose an elegant and delicate font that would contrast well with the bold army style font, alongside an illustration of a bride and soldier, on a pretty vintage blue background, which brings the design together really well!

♥ The Website ♥

Before:
Whilst the existing website was pretty enough, it was a little lackluster and didn't really reflect the style and feeling that they wanted to go for from the site.












After:
After creating the new logo, I then went into the site to give it a bit of a facelift, with a new banner incorporating the logo (featuring pretty lace detail,) a new background, a more attractive font, and new buttons and icons.












♥ The blog badge ♥

I also put together this additional blog badge, which will go out to all suppliers who feature on this fabulous site:
























Emma and Terri were so pleased with the end result, and there has been an amazing response to the new design from lots of others via twitter and facebook! I hope that you like it too :)

What's more, if you're looking to have a new logo designed for your business I'm offering a super duper discounted rate throughout the summer! Click here for more details!

Leah x
twitter: @leahgoldenapple

Golden Apple
Creative design, Stationery & Wedding Invitations Leicester
Click here to visit the site