Happy Halloween!

Oooooooh I've been busy recently.....too busy to even update Guide to Being a Scottish Bride! If you're a follower of Little Tiger Creations's blog you will know why there's not been a lot happening on here! If you're not a follower.....why not?!

We've now officially hit the 5 month mark till our wedding and I am pleased to say that the to do list has shrunk so much!
The latest accomplishment was booking the hairdresser for the wedding, my main fear with this was that I hate hairdressers. The best advice I have been given so far is to make a "scrapbook" of ideas and styles you like and you think may suit you to show to the hairdresser. Collect as many as you feel are necessary and then sit down with someone who knows you well, for instance your mum and go through the ideas one by one. Decide what it is about the style you like, ask your mum if she thinks it will look ok on you....lets face it, there's no one like our mum's brave enough to tell us the truth!!
Once you've whittled down the images show them to the hairdresser and s/he will suggest their professional opinion and advise you what will suit you. Then it's time for the trial! Make sure you've got all the bits and pieces you need for your trial though, otherwise you could delay things!

For your hair trial you will probably need the following:
* Tiara/ tiara comb
* Veil
* Hair decoration (clip, slide etc)
* Jewelled pins if you are having an updo

Good luck with your wedding hair!!

Magnolia Stamps

I spoiled myself with 2 Magnolia Stamps tonight.....couldn't help it, they're just so lovely!!




Can't wait to get cracking with them and creating cards with them!! So easy pleased aren't I?! I'm also pleased to announce that some of the cards I'm creating will appear for sale on the Little Tiger Creations website

On a more wedding related note, it's now officially 5 months and 29 days! Where is time going?!

Place cards and table plans

Depending on the formality of your wedding banquet, you may opt for a seating plan to direct guests to their assigned tables and seats. Many people choose to have a seating plan to keep things organised and it also helps the serving staff. If you make the venue aware that a “Mrs X” on table 5 is a vegetarian they know to serve her the vegetarian option instead of putting meat down in front of her.



It also looks nice to have organised tables, the hard part comes when you start to plan the tables. Do you mix and match families? Are there similar people you can seat together? Are there divorced parents and stepparents to be considered? Often it is a good idea to have parents hosting their own tables, this can work out well as it makes them feel a very important part of the day.



The hardest choice you have to make as the bride is to decide if you want your place card to read “Bride” or “Mrs X”!!



Table plans come in so many designs and styles, often the hard part is picking what you want! It’s often a good idea to sit and work out what you want, the budget you have and take it from there. Many stationers charge roughly £70, but you can buy the bits to make your own from Confetti for under £30! It just depends on what you want from your table plan. My own table plan is being designed, created and perfected by Little Tiger Creations (well if you have a crafty friend you might as well abuse them!)



There’s some fantastic programmes for making your table plan up available on the internet. I used Top Table Planner to create mine and it was great to use, really straightforward and easy to use. But if you’re strapped for cash you can use Microsoft Excel to make a rough plan.

Wedding Invites

An Inviting Quote

We all know how important wedding invitations are, they are the first glimpse of your big day and generally set your colours and theme into place. Sometimes we are so focused on this whilst also trying to follow the rules imposed by etiquette that we forget to make them ‘ours.’ Your wedding day should reflect who you are as a couple and the invitations are a great place to start this.

A fantastic way of doing this is to include a famous quote or lyrics from a song that means a lot to you both. If you choose song lyrics, these could hint as to what your first song would be.

Where you place a quote depends really on your style of invitation, if you are having a wallet style you may wish to include the quote on the back of some of the pages to add ‘a little something,’ a standard folded card design then the left hand page can be made more interesting with a quote, the possibilities are endless and only limited by your (or your stationers) imagination.

Here are a few of my favourites to get you started:

What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart

To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.

Once in awhile, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairy tale.

Love is not just looking at each other, it's looking in the same direction.

And I'd give up forever to touch you, cause I know that you feel me somehow, you're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be, and I don't want to go home right now.

Written by Jac at Little Tiger Creations for Guide to Being a Scottish Bride

Supplier - Little Tiger Creations

Little Tiger Creations

What makes your company so unique and stand out?
I would say our attitude sets us apart from other companies, I love doing this and always give 100% to the task. Sometimes I end up more excited than the brides!

What are your main influences?
Everything! Colours I see during the day, fabrics, photographs. I love finding colours and themes I like and trying to apply them to cardmaking. Generally I discuss colours, themes, likes and dislikes with the clients and expand the designs from there.

Why did you go into business?
I was bullied into it! After my wedding I started getting phonecalls and emails asking me to produce their wedding stationery or an order of cards. I thought well if I'm going to be doing it I may as well make some money for the work I do and Little Tiger Creations was born

Can you tell us a little about the person behind the business? Name, age etc? Favourite place to relax?
My name is Jaclyn but everyone calls me Jac, I recently turned 24 and I'm from Dumfries in the South West of Scotland. I moved to Glasgow when I was 18 where I worked in the financial sector, after the announcement that I was to become an auntie I decided to move home to be closer to the family. I now have a wonderful little house in suburbia where I am probably the closest to a crazy cat they will get. My favourite place to relax is at my bureau. From there I can wind up the husband, cuddle the cats, create cards and listen to very loud music.

Is your business solely for weddings? Or do you diversify?
We will try anything! We have recently completed a Christening invitation order and have a few birthday products being designed. I love trying new things and trying to help clients out as much as possible. If we've never done it before, we'll happy to give it a go!

What is your favourite piece of work and why?
I have to pick only one? I don't know if I can do that, my other bits and bobs might feel left out... Ok you twisted my arm. I love the Disney characters Christening guest book that I designed for my niece!

Are “Bridezillas” really a nightmare to work with?
I hate the term but these ladies are amazing to work with. These ladies know what they want, when they want it and best of all they are organised.

What are the best clients to work with?
I've never really worked with a client who wasn't great to work with. I particularly enjoy working with brides as I love their enthusiasm and willingness to help in the design process to ensure the finished product is absolutely perfect.

Who would be your ideal client?
Gerard Butler - Just so I could talk to him on the phone!

Finally, what words of wisdom can you pass on to the brides out there?
Lists are your friend. Getting panicky and overwhelmed is bound to happen, if you have a list in black and white you know exactly what is to be done, what is to be paid and what is done and dusted. I found having that calmed me right down during a fluttery spell, it also eliminates that nasty 'have I forgotten anything?' feeling. Also - don't suffer alone, brides have done this before you, they managed to get through it alive and well...if you're struggling, ask!

Get in touch

Just a short note to say a quick hello and thanks for the lovely comments and emails I've had over the past month, they're very much appreciated and I hope to get back to you all as soon as I can.

If you want to request a topic for a blog please get in touch through scottish.brides.guide@googlemail.com I love getting your emails and look forward to many more!!

Here at 'Guide to Being a Scottish Bride' we're hoping to start bring you some "behind the scenes" gossip and profiles of some Scottish wedding businesses that have been mentioned in past blogs, for example Little Tiger Creations, David Kane Photography, At Home Bridal etc so watch this space for more. And keep your eyes out for more guest blogs from Jac at LTC - she's caught the blogging bug I think!!

Save the Date

To send or not to send?

Deciding when to send your invitations out is not always easy. The standard timescale used to be 2 months before the big day but with busy schedules, holidays and life in general getting in the way, 8 weeks is often not enough notice for those you wish to attend.

Realistically invitations really need to be sent three to four months before the big day to allow people to organise and clear their schedules in order to attend. Sometimes even this amount of notice isn’t enough as holidays can be booked up to a year in advance. The solution has been Save the Date cards, informal announcements which precede your invitations by several months. These cards are now being viewed as an obligatory part of the invitation process but with tightening budgets are they something that you will need to send out?

Save the Date cards are a wonderful touch and incredibly useful in some situations but you should always keep in mind that those you send a Save the Date card to must be invited to the event. Sometimes people have found themselves regretting sending the cards out too early as their relationships have changed and they would no longer want to invite a certain person to the event. It is incredibly important that you make the list of which people you are sending cards to very carefully.




Here are a few situations where Save the Date cards are ideal:
· Events scheduled near bank or religious holidays often require a Save the Date to be issued in order to ensure that your guests will have sufficient times to adjust their plans in order to attend. Remember that different religions have different days of importance throughout the year and whilst you may not celebrate that day some of your guests will.

· The busiest months for holidays and weddings are June, July and August. Advance notice for guests is often greatly appreciated as it allows guests to change any pre-booked holidays without excessive charges or ensure that they can organise annual leave from their place of employment.

· Some guest may have to travel a long way in order to attend your event, which will be a costly affair for them. Booking travel arrangements and hotels are often cheaper the further in advance that you can book them. Also if your event is abroad, the more time you allow for your guests to make arrangements, the better chance they will be able to attend your event.
The decision is a personal one and one that should be thought about with great care. There are many pros and cons to the process and these have to be considered in relation to your event.



Personally, I choose to send them to those I am 100% positive that I would like to attend, mainly close friends and family or important business associates. From there you will receive an indication of who will be able to make it and who will not, meaning that you will have a better idea of numbers well in advance of the event.

Written by Jac at Little Tiger Creations for Guide to Being a Scottish Bride

Why not pop onto Jac's website and check out more of her designs, or have a look at her blog for ideas?

Stationery (part 2)

And so to continue, we've covered a few of the pieces of stationery you might need for your wedding, now let's review the others you may want.

* Order of Service cards - these are rather useful no matter what type of ceremony you're having. For a religious ceremony you can include the hymns, readings and any other information relating to the ceremony. For a civil ceremony you can detail the readings and any music you might be having for the ceremony.

For our wedding I decided to try and make these myself, so with advice from Jac at LTC I bought little bits and pieces (card, vellum, leaves for decoration and squares of cards) and gave it a go. I have to admit it was scary at the time, but thanks to Jac they've come out great!

* Photo Upload cards - these are a relatively new category of stationery. Basically they're little business cards or notes that you can have made up to put on the tables at the wedding reception to ask people taking any digital photography to upload the pictures on to a special Photobucket account, or other website. (Just make sure the cards have the weblink and any required password noted on them!!)

* Table plan and Place cards - Clue is in the name on this one! If you are having a formal wedding banquet then a table plan and place cards are a great idea. You can decide where to seat everyone to make things easier for the caterers (in case you have any one who has a special menu - vegetarians etc). It's also nice to try and "mix" both sets of families up so that they can get to know each other.

* Thank You cards - self explanatory really but an absolute must. These really are essential for any bride and groom to buy/order/make etc. It's polite to thank people for presents and for being generous on your special day, but I leave it up to you to decide whether or not you thank people for attending the event as well as those who gave gifts or whether you just thank those for their gifts.

Stationery (part 1)

When it comes to planning a wedding a very important element of the planning is your stationery. Do you simply buy it off the High Street? Do you get a bespoke design? Or have you a crafty ability and can make it yourself? These are all things you have to consider.

The next thing to think about is style. Do you want it to complement the theme of your wedding? What sort of colours are you having for the wedding, how would you like them to compliment your stattionery.....oh the mind boggles and to be quite honest there's to much to think about your head begins to hurt!! Lets simplify it a little:

Stationery you will more than likely need -

* Save the Date Cards - these are great wee cards that you send out approximately a year before the wedding (especially if your wedding is at certain times of the year when people might be otherwise busy like summer holidays, Eastertime or even if it's a midweek wedding). These can be simple little postcard notifications ordered from the likes of Vistaprint
Or if you're more crafty you can make a wee card yourself to let people know when your wedding is, where it is and any other details you feel might be important (for instance if you have a wedding website).

* Invites - the most important piece of stationery for a wedding!! These are pretty much as you suspect to invite people to the wedding. For this you can go along the Vistaprint route - less personal feel but cost effective and less stressful as you work from the styles and designs on their website to create your own (unless you're creative and want to upload a design you've created yourself).

Or you can take the route I've taken and order stationery from an online business. Here you can work with the designer to create something specific and tailored to your needs, you have a greater level of control over your design. Many people this this is a more expensive route to take, however many companies will offer discount or packages if you are ordering ranges of stationery from them.
For bespoke stationery or even standard handmade stationery I would recommend Little Tiger Creations who is run by a very lovely and helpful Scottish lass, Jac who got married last year and so understands the struggle to get stationery the way you want it at a cost effective price.

*RSVP Cards - Simply cards you can have made to send out with your invites for people to tick a box to say they will/will not attend the wedding. This is especially a good idea if you think certain family members or friends will forget to RSVP. If you're as bad as me, it might be an idea to stick some stamps on certain ones so that they have no excuse not to RSVP.
Tip: make a wee note on each card with a number or letter in the corner so if they forget to note on who they are you can identify the sender - for instance number 1 might be your mum so stick a "1" in the bottom corner of the RSVP but make sure it's somewhere only you will notice and not the recipient and remember to keep a note of who all the numbers correspond to!!

This concludes part 1, more to follow later!!