100 Layer Cake

This American blog focusses mostly on readers’ wedding photos, but handily catalogues each supplier for researching/purchasing/hiring. Expect bridal catwalk show reports, product pick posts and helpful round-ups of creative wedding guests’ fashion, seen recently.

One Wed

Not only do I adore the design of this site (no pink!), but the content is equally fresh and offbeat. Another American blog, it features weddings from all over the globe — recent posts include a simple Swedish wedding, couple-of-the-earth Spanish celebration (love her hair!) and classic, romantic French union.

Rock ‘N Roll Bride

English blogger Kat Williams is so obviously enthusiastic about her chosen subject, and I love her unique spin on the whole wedding malarkey. A lot of the real weddings she features include tatt-clad couples, and all of them have something different in their aesthetic — a strong vintage theme, or maybe American rockabilly, or just really offbeat photography. Just like her American counterparts, she posts lots of engagement photo sessions, which I love — I wish Jim and I could’ve had the courage to do the same! One of my favourite recent posts was of the Vegas wedding of two photographers, who got married after spending just 12 days together. I adored their whole look — isn’t the bride stunning?

Style Me Pretty

Chockablock full with amazing ideas for planning your own wedding, Style Me Pretty’s featured real weddings could be magazine photo shoots in their own right. A lot of the weddings are brimming with crafty ideas, but if you don’t fancy making jam jar place settings or your own wedding invites, just binge on the gorgeous photography — oh, to have those American venues here!

The Wedding Chicks

Saving the best ’til last, I found The Wedding Chicks the most helpful when planning our wedding. Sure, Amy and Jocey get sent the most beautiful real weddings with stunning ideas and imagery, but it’s the mix of content — recipes, product round-ups, news from wedding shows, hen do ideas…it’s never-ending. The site design is gorgeous, and — perhaps more importantly — they generously have a “freebies” section, with the most beautiful template-generators for customising invites, menus, place-settings and so on with logos and designs.

I used their designs for the place-settings board, the jam jar place-setting labels, and the table numbers at our wedding. Oh, and the big “K” you see as my blog logo? That’s a temporary header from their site, until I get the time to design this site properly. I just can’t rave enough about how useful and beautiful this blog is.

Turns out Martha Stewart can’t get enough of the 19-year-old American student’s blog either. Kaitlin was recently asked to present the recipe of the rainbow layered cake on Stewart’s colour-themed show, and I was bowled over by how smart and confident she was. For her first media appearance, she really impressed. If she doesn’t get her own baking segment on a cookery or lifestyle programme, I’ll be very disappointed.

I can’t embed the video of Kaitlin on Martha Stewart’s show, but you can watch it here. Otherwise, read Whisk Kid’s beautifully-written blog here, which combines lovingly-photographed delicacies along with small memoirs of her life.