Pom Pom Studio - PLUS GIVEAWAY!

Oh it's so nearly the weekend! And boy are we looking forward to a bit of rest and relaxation after the week we have had! Not only has our bespoke design service been very popular in October and November, we are also trying to get our heads around Christmas! The shops are really in full swing with gift ideas and festive music, it makes us a little anxious that we literally have given no thought to it at all yet!

Henry and Flora have teamed up with the Pom Pom Studio to offer our lovely readers the chance to WIN not only a beautiful 6ft musical note heart garland, but also 15 gorgeous pom poms to decorate your wedding venue with! There are 5 large, 5 medium and 5 small pom poms and 90 colours to chose from!

Picture Credit: Paul Joseph Photography

Each and every one is handmade in the UK. These stunning decorations are the perfect way to decorate your venue, and make use of a tall space that might otherwise be left bare. And the Pom Pom Studio don't only make pom poms! They have a delightful range of garlands, lanterns, pinwheels and much more.

Picture Credits: 1. Dominic Whiten Photography 3. Doily Days

Give your wedding day that 'WOW' factor with some pom poms!

Picture Credits: 1. Holly Booth  2. James and Lianna  3. EtsyUK  4. Craig and Kate Photography

Not only are they so pretty, these pom poms are enviromentally friendly too. They are made from 'eco' tisue paper, and not only acid free but bleed resistant too. It is produced using an average 60% post industrial waste paper and 10% post consumer waste. And they are 100% recyclable!

Check out the Pom Pom Studio online here, follow them on Facebook here, and tweet them here.

  

To enter, simply drop us an email with the subject line 'Pom Poms' to hello@henryandflora.com ! 

T's and C's

• This is only open to UK residents

• You will win 5 large, 5 medium and 5 small pom poms, plus a 6ft musical note heart garland

• Winners will be notified by email

• This giveaway closes on 7th December 2013 at 11am GMT

Be lucky! 

Henry and Flora xx

Friday Top Five - Plus Giveaway!

Hello everyone, hope you are all having a lovely Friday and have fun things planned for your weekend!

This week's Friday Top Five is featuring wedding journals. 

Organise, record and store every idea you have and every cutting you collect. It's a unique momento of your special day and something to cherish as much as your wedding photos.

1. Wedding Planner Book, Posh Totty Designs - £25

With deep pockets on every other page and lined sheets opposite, it is beautifully presented in it's own lovely box.

2. Leather Wedding Organiser with optional personalisation, Oh So Cherished - £29.99

This gorgeous planner is crafted with pale ovory Italian leather and handbound by master bookbinders.  For an extra £1.75,  you can add a silver engraved nameplate to your book. What a fab idea for a gift!

3. Moleskin Wedding Journal, Moleskin - £16.99 

Inside a gorgeous pearlescent white cover with beautiful embossing, the Moleskin Wedding Journal consists of 216 ivory pages, a trio of bookmark ribbons and 162 themed adhesive labels. There is also a hidden Bridal Book in the back pocket - perfect for storing ideas to be kept secret from the groom!

 4. The Bride-To-Be Book, Fred Aldous - £16.77

The Bride-To-Be Book is designed for brides who want to preserve the magic and excitement leading up to the big day - the proposal, the stories behind the ring and the dress, the parties and all the fun celebrating with family and friends.

 5. Golden Heart Wedding Planner and Sticky Note Gift Set, The Paperie - £21.50

This step by step planner is the ideal companion to help organise your wedding day. It has prompts for everything so you won't forget a thing! It also comes with a pack of handy sticky notes which slot into the back of the planner.

***** GIVEAWAY! *****

The Paperie is a wonderful online boutique selling gorgeous social stationery, notebooks, journals and pens. In a world so full of e-mails and text messages, the art of handwritten correspondence is becoming a rare thing, and it is The Paperie's aim to keep the written word alive and to pass on their love of all things paper.

The lovely people at The Paperie have given us the Golden Heart Wedding Planner to giveaway to one of our readers! To enter, simply drop us an email to hello@henryandflora.com including your name and postal address, with the subject line 'Wedding Planner'.

Please note - Open to UK residents only! Giveaway closes at 11am (GMT)  15th November 2015.

You can follow The Paperie on Facebook here, Twitter here and read their fab blog here!

Have a fabby weekend everyone!

H & F xx

Friday Top Five: Moisturisers

Good morning and a happy Friday to you all!

We have a new feature on the blog today - 'Friday Top Five' where we shall showcase five of our favourite products of the week. This time, it's all about moisturisers. 

Alongside the healthy diet and drinking plenty of water, a hydrating moisturiser is essential for keeping your skin at it's best. Not only is a moisturiser essential for keeping your skin supple and radiant looking, hydrated skin will also create a fantastic base for make-up.

1. Elemis Pro-Radiance Illuminating Flash Balm - £32 for 50ml

Sweep on this soft balm and the benefits are instant! The finish has been created to deliver the optimum amount of sheen and luminosity for a healthy, vibrant glow. It's formulated with a powerful vitamin complex that helps protect against moisture loss, and the scent is a mood enhancing combination of neroli, bergamot and orange.

Our verdict: We loved the smell, although some people who aren't keen on a lot of scent might not. It didn't 'ball' under our fingertips when we applied it, like some balms can. Very light, and left our skin noticeably softer. 

2. Soap + Glory For Daily Youth - £12 for 50ml

A 6-in-1 'do it all' formulation, this is a light lotion with firming, toning, soothing and rejuvenating benefits. It fights wrinkles and improves elasticity. It smells gorgeous and is light but doesn't sink into the skin too quickly.

Our verdict: A beautifully light and simple moisturiser. Fab price from one of our favourite brands. Great packaging keeps it hygienic too. 

3. Bliss Triple Oxygen Ex-Glow-Sion Moisture Cream - £54 for 50ml

'Glow' to the extremes with this 'vitabead-infused' moisture cream with oxygen and micro-algae for an instant burst of radiance. It's formula provides an explosion of antioxidant vitamin E on contact as vitamin C and three forms of oxygen help deliver beautiful, younger-looking skin.

Our verdict: We were unsure of the beads to begin with, but after gently rubbing the mosituriser into the skin for 30seconds, they disapeared completely. The nest morning, our skin was so soft! It smells great too, well worth spending a little more for such a great result.

4. Clinique Moisture Surge Intense - £32 for 50ml

This light cream/gel plumps the skin with hydration for 24 hours. Fine lines, flakiness and tightness are diminished, and in their place is a supple and firm skin. Your skin looks and feels happier and healthier after just one 'drink'!

Our verdict: A classic product, we just love the gel like texture of this. It soaks in beautifully, leaving our skin supple and alive. We had comments the next day about how great our skin looked!

5. The Body Shop Vitamin E Nourishing Night Cream - £11 for 50ml

With rich wheat germ oil to replenish and revitalise skin, this nourishing cream replenishes moisture levels overnight, when skin is at its most receptive. It leaves skin feeling smooth and soft. A lighter night cream than some, it's fab for younger skin or people not keen on heavy creams.

Our verdict: The cheapest of our selection, this is a fantastic item for the price. The simple formula means it's suited to lots of people's skin type, and we were left with soft skin that didn't get oily half way through the day. 

What's your favourite moisturiser?

H&F xx

Wedding Blog Awards!

We are SO EXCITED to announce that we have been shortlisted for the Wedding Blog Awards, best wedding DIY blog! I don't think we have stopped grinning since we heard on Friday evening! 

We really want to thank everyone who voted for us in the first place, just to be nominated is incredible! If you can spare a moment to vote for us again, we would be so happy. You just have to select our blog 

"henryandflorablog.blogspot.co.uk" in the Best Wedding DIY blog

and enter your email address. 

We cannot thank you enough! Keep up to date with award info on twitter using the hashtag #weddingblogawards

DIY - Heart Shaped Sugar Cubes

We have some sweet treats for all your DIY fans out there. A fab ideas for wedding favours, these heart shaped sugar cubes are the cutest thing!

They are super simple to make, but look so gorgeous!

Gather together all the items you'll need. Let's begin! 

1. First off, pour out some regular caster sugar into a bowl. Obviously how much you'll need will depend on how many you want to make, but start off with half a cereal bowl amount - or about 150g.

2. Take your food colouring, and pour a teaspoon into the sugar. Stir it in until it's thoroughly combined. This can actually take a while, so have patience. If you feel like the sugar isn't 'wet' enough to combine the food colour, add a teaspoon of cold water. You want the final texture to be like damp sand. It needs to be even in colour so sticking to smaller batches of sugar will actually make this stage easier.

3. Once you are happy it's evenly coloured, tip it out onto a flat surface. We used a plate to avoid covering the floor with blue sugar!

4. Take the back of a spoon and press the sugar flat. Make it just under 1cm thick.

5. Now, take a clean cutter and press it into the sugar. You can get these from cake shops to cut icing and they come in a wide range of shapes.

6. Carefully, lift the cutter out - this requires a delicate touch!

7. With a little tap onto the baking paper, the sugar will pop out. Make sure they are on a flat surface and try to avoid touching them now as they are really delicate.

All that's left is to repeat the process to make as many hearts and as many colours as you need. Leave them in a warm place to go hard, and within 30 minutes, you can gather them into pretty bowls, decant into individual envelopes and give them to your guests! 

Here's an idea, why not have a beautiful bowl of them on each table when you give your guests tea and coffee? Or create a little pouch with 2 teabags in and some sugar cubes for your guests to take away with them and enjoy the following day?

Enjoy!

Henry and Flora x

Pinterest - Rustic Wedding Inspiration

To coincide with the release of our latest wedding invitation design - 'Chalkboard Charm', we have put together this Pinterest mood board, gathering together rustic, natural items that compliment our design.

Perfect for country, rustic themed weddings, we hope you enjoy looking at our favourite picks this week! See below for links to the items.

1. Chalkboard Charm Wedding Invitation - Henry and Flora

2.  Chalkboard Charm RSVP - Henry and Flora

3. Scented Cancle in Rustic Jam Jars - The Wedding of My Dreams

4. Wooden Log Tea Light Holder - The Wedding of My Dreams

5. Set of Five Wooden Heart Wedding Place Names - Letterfest   

6. Natural Lavender Mini Wedding Crackers -  FrouFrou & Thomas

7. 'Bride' and 'Groom' Chalkboard Signs - Sarah & Bendrix

8. 'Naked' Cake - Mai Fink, via Wedding Chicks

9. Rustic Dried Flower Wedding Bouquet - The Artisan Dried Flower Company

New Wedding Stationery Suite Design - Chalkboard Charm

We are so please to showcase our latest wedding stationery design - 'Chalkboard Charm'.  Sitting on a vintage chalkboard background, we have used a mix of stylish typefaces to create this wedding invitation design. A pretty wreath border is finished with a love heart at the bottom. It is printed on a textured card which really brings the background to life. 

It is available in three colour choices - peach, mint and pink. They are supplied with white envelopes free of charge. Coloured envelopes are available at an extra cost, please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any queries - hello@henryandflora.com

We have also included folded thank you cards as part of our range. Chalkboard Charm comes at 148mm x 148mm, leaving the perfect amount of space to thank your friends and family in this personalised card.

We feel it is the perfect blend of vintage charm and rustic elegance to create a really romantic feel. 

Invitation prices start from £1.90, and £1.40 for RSVP cards. Available to purchase now from our online shop www.henryandflora.com

H and F xx

DIY - Sweet Jar Place Cards

Hurrah, the seating plan is sorted! Phew! Now, you'll need somehow to show guests where they are sitting on their table. Folded place cards are a lovely idea, but we've found that unless you or a friend has beautiful handwriting you can be left disappointed with the result.

We have put together a nifty way of creating quirky place cards, that also doubles as cute little favours.

You will need:

Paper for the names (it doesn't have to be brown kraft paper!)

Assortment of fabric - we love mis-matching patterns and colours!

Sweets

Twine or pretty ribbon to tie around the fabric

Mini pegs - widely available

Scallop circle punch - available here

Paper flowers - available at most haberdashery shops

Letter rubber stamps - like these

Ink pad - available in many colours, we used white!

So, get the lid from the jar and cut out a circle of fabric that's about 4 cm bigger all round. If you are careful, you can lay several pieces of fabric on top of one another and cut 2 or 3 pieces at one. Then, fill the jars with your sweets and screw the lid on. Place the fabric on top and secure with twine - tying in a bow. Cut a scalloped circle from the brown paper with the punch, and start stamping your guests' names. We suggest finding the middle letter of the name and stamping that right in the middle of the circle. Then work your way outwards - this way you won't have an off-centered name! Fix to the bow you tied with a mini peg, and if you want, add a paper flower! You could maybe glue on a button or even sparkly gemstones!

It's a simple idea but will look so sweet sitting on everyone's placemats. Also, it's a great way to create something for your wedding yourself without getting too stressed out, as once you have all your materials gathered they can take less than10 minutes each. And if you have lots of guests, why not invite people over to lend a hand - you can get your own little production line going!

You don't have to stop at sweets, perhaps loose tea, coffee or even homemade jam is more your style! Simple, sweet, and tasty - what's not to love?

Vintage Rose - Wedding Stationery

We are proud to announce we have a new suite of wedding stationery available today - and it goes by the name of 'Vintage Rose'.  New to Henry and Flora, this set is square with the invitations measuring 148mm x 148mm, and smaller items such as the RSVP and Save the Date cards measuring 95mm x 95mm. They are all designed with a soft duck egg blue polka dot reverse.  Matching items are available, including menu cards, directions and thank you notes.

You can find this design, along with our other items, in our online shop - www.henryandflora.com

We hope you love them as much as we do!

Henry and Flora