Personalised gifts...

Glad to see that personalised gifts seem to be very much in vogue at the moment. One of our personalised wedding albums should naturally be at the top of every smart bride-to-be's list! But here's something pretty cool for after the big day! How about your own Mr & Mrs Cushion Covers by Minna's room from Not on the High Street.com? Other personalised gifts on the site include cuff links, a peronalised silver plectrum, a personlised silver key ring and what about that 'Special Place' where you first met - a personalised favourite place illustration by Letterfest from £38. Fine if it's a quaint pub in the Cotswolds, not quite so attractive to hang on the wall, would be a Lloyd's cash machine, or the local chippy!

www.notonthehighstreet.com

Target the Heart Exhibition

If you're looking for a unique gift for a loved on this Valentine's Day, there's a brilliant exhibition starting tomorrow, 20th Jan - 25th February at the Contemporary Applied Arts. The Target the Heart exhibition, in collaboration with the British Heart Foundation's Mending Broken Hearts Appeal, showcases the work of a group of artists who all use the heart as their common theme. From stunning, original pieces of jewellery, to beautifully crafted, decorative pieces for the home, this exhibition will surely tug at your heartstrings...ahh! 10% of the profits will be donated to the Appeal.
Seen here: Silver heart pendant by Catherine Hills, from £240, Katharine Coleman Sakura II vase, £5,900, 'Angel Doctor SAving Hearts' bronze medal by Ronald Pennell, £215 and Andrew Wicks porcelain vessel, from £1,160. www.caa.org.uk

I Love You More Than...

Looking for something a little bit different to give as a Valentine's gift this year? How about one of these fun, personalised prints? You can choose from a number of colourways, provide the name of someone you 'love more than' and then list up to four 'loves'.
Printed in full colour on textured fine art paper, the prints are supplied unframed and fit standard metric frames. Choose from the following sizes:

Small: 30x25cm, Medium: 40x30cm, Large: 50x40cm.

Personalised 'I Love You More Than....' Prints by Rosie Robins, £27. Visit: http://www.notonthehighstreet.com

Lady Gaga sports wedding-style ice-queen extravaganza!

Never one to let us down in the over-the-top outfit stakes, Lady Gaga had a hint of winter-wedding fabulousness about the ensemble she wore for the opening of the 'Santa's Workshop' she has created for the luxury department store Barney's, New York.
Like a pop-art Santa's grotto, everything on sale and display in the workshop has been created by Lady G and her creative team, including an oversized Lady Gaga-turned-spider!!, a boudoir in the shape of a giant wig and limited-edition, exclusive products, everything from chocolates and Lady Gaga stick-on nails.
If you're looking for an outfit to get you noticed, take inspiration from a woman who knows how to stop the traffic in New York.

Wedding photo albums made easy!

Most photographers today will offer you the option of providing you with a digital disc of your photographs so you can decide what to do with them after your wedding. It's a great idea - in theory. You have control over what sort of album you want to display your favourite photographs - you will undoubtedly have hundreds to choose from!
But, unfortunately, choice can often bring with it indecision. There are so many different types of wedding photo album available and even if you find one online, you've then got to decide which photographs to use, and work out how to use the software to upload them and make the album look attractive. Frankly, who's got the time!
You could just click the 'flow pictures' option offered with most online book publishers, but a computer isn't going to know that you want the picture of you having your make-up done before the one of you exchanging rings. You can get yourself and your pictures into quite a pickle before it's all been sorted out and you've got the wedding album you always dreamed of. Sometimes it's simply easier to call in the experts.

At Your Wedding Story Book we can create an album that is completely personal to you, that tells your own story. We'll listen to exactly what you want from your album, whether you have a particular colour or pattern that you want to incorporate into your design and prepare a book for you that will bring you pleasure for years to come. And all you have to do is post us your disc and leave the rest to us.
Why't leave your wedding photographs stuck on a disc, for no-one to see, or on your computer, thinking you'll get round to producing a wedding album one day soon. Take action now! Give us a call and let's see what we can do to help.

A couple of mugs!

Cornishware, the kitchen and domestic pottery range with the distinctive blue and cream stripes, has been adorning kitchen dressers since the 1920s. Someone in your family must surely have had some small piece of Cornishware - a sugar bowl or cream jug perhaps - and it's also highly collectable.
When the company was brought by T.G.Green & Co a few years back, they added a few more colours to the range and now, as well as the famous Cornish Blue you can buy a whole range in Cornish Red.
A great little gift to give your husband or wife to be on your wedding day - think of all those shared cups of tea you'll be enjoying together in the future - are these couple of mugs gift boxes. Someone put the kettle on please! www.tggreen.co.uk

Cake fit for a princess

Regular followers will remember I had been editing a food magazine for Tesco, which sadly folded in the summer. I also mentioned a wedding cake we created as part of a royal wedding party buffet for our May issue and promised to dig out a photograph of it. Well here it is! Someone in our office showed me the brilliant toy figure set that was going on sale at the time of William and Kate's wedding, at the Early Learning Centre - complete with Corgi dogs! They had to go on our cake!

This cake was truly delicious - peach and pistachio layer cake with white chocolate frosting. The rest of our buffet included chicken yakitori, panzanella, Thai beef bites, piedmont peppers, tuna platter, roast salmon with salsa verde and summer berry meringues. For traditionalists, here's the cake again minus the figures, so you can see the simple but really stylish fresh flower arrangement you could achieve easily yourself for a small, intimate wedding party. Am happy to pass on the recipe to anyone interested and thanks to Tim Winter for the lovely photographs and delicious recipes by Catherine Hill.