Morning Lovely Peeps,

Now if last year is anything to go by, we have probably gained a few new readers in the past week. If your reading this blog for the first time (in-between glances at that gorgeous ring on your finger) then Congratulations! You're engaged! You are probably feeling a huge mixture of emotions right now. Something along the lines of huge excitement and happiness mixed in with a slight feeling of ' uh-oh......I've actually got to plan a wedding! ' It's a bit overwhelming isn't it? All the questions from friends and family about the date, the dress, the venue. You're probably thinking where the hell do I start? Planning your wedding can be a daunting task but don't worry. You have already managed to stumble upon our festival pages so you must be doing something right and no matter how overwhelmed you might be feeling right now, you are in for the ride of your life!!!! Trust me. Planning your wedding is sooooooo much fun and on your actual wedding day, you will smile in ways you have never done before.

So I guess I better tell you a bit about Festival Brides and how we aim to inspire you into planning a wedding that is all about you, your passions, your creativity and your heart.

Festival Brides all started in 2011 when I (Laura - I'm the blond one in case you were wondering!) got engaged and, along with my awesome fiance and now husband, decided to plan a mini festival for our wedding. I loved planning my wedding which is why I am so excited for you all! You are in for such a treat! You can read all about my wedding here.

Back then there was hardly any inspiration online about Festival Weddings, in fact we struggled big time to find suppliers, venues and ideas that we even questioned whether it was going to be possible. At the same time, Kelly was also planning her wedding and struggled to connect with the cookie cutter wedding industry with it's souless take on tradition and conveyor belt attitudes. Together, we decided to create a blog that not only celebrated everything that's great about a festival wedding but also with the aim to inspire our readers to have the courage to turn their backs on tradition and do things their way.

Now almost 4 years later, Festival Brides has grown into something I am hugely proud off. We are one of the biggest UK wedding blogs and have also taken a spot in the top 100 wedding blogs in the world. Yes WORLD! Excuse me while I start blowing that trumpet - toot toot! Our team of two also became 3 in 2013 when the RADiculous Clare (you'll learn over the next few months that she uses that word a lot! It's a good word.) joined us and has helped grow the blog into what you see today. She looks after our Instagram and Pinterest pages and also brings you the most awesome weekly wedding trend posts and monthly DIY tutorials. I know I'm a bit biased but I think her blogs are some of the best available on the big world wide wedding web. #justsaying!

Me looking up!

Kelly in a spin!

Clare standing pretty.

So, if you are looking for cool and quirky ideas for your wedding then you have most definitely come to the right place. Festival Brides is full to the brim with alternative wedding ideas and inspiration for both girls and boys and we don't stop there. Oh no! We also have our online wedding directory and our venues/land hire page (more on this later) so you can quite literally find everything you need to plan the most epic wedding on our site.

Festival Brides works a bit like an online magazine where each day we bring you new and innovative posts with ideas and inspiration, real weddings, styled shoots, DIY Tutorials and advice to help you plan the best day of your life. We also do a weekly style post every Wednesday as well as interviews throughout the month with our lovely sponsors so you get a chance to meet the people behind the brand before you book (they're the people with adverts to the right of the screen. If you haven't already I would give them all a click because each and every one of them rocks.)

On top of all that we run a regular feature every Monday called Independent Love Song where we share with you alternative first dance love songs. This is such a popular feature so definitely check it out. Most of the time this is me playing DJ but for 2015 we would really like to this to become more interactive so please do get in touch if you have a song to share.

Just to give you an idea, a typical week on Festival Brides looks a little bit like this......

Monday - Am: Real Wedding, Pm: Independent Love Song

Tuesday - Styled Shoot/Featured Supplier

Wednesday - Trend/Style Post

Thursday - Inspiration Post/DIY Tutorial

Friday - Festival Brides Love/Real Wedding

For 2015 we will also be introducing International Week which I am very very excited about! This will be where for 1 week in every month all our posts will be inspired by or promoting suppliers from a particular country. First up it's Australia and I can't WAIT to share it with you. We have an UH-MAZING real wedding as well as some very bohemian suppliers that I just know you are going to love. It's coming up in the third week of this month and you don't want to miss it.

If you are looking for something in particular then take a look at our categories which you can find to the right hand side of the screen underneath all our lovely sponsors. You can also try typing in keywords into our search bar in the top right hand corner of the site which is pretty good at finding relevant posts.

I mentioned earlier about our awesome Festival Wedding Directory. If you are looking for suppliers then this is the place to start. Our directory is home to the crème de la crème of the wedding festival industry. Any supplier worth their festival wedding salt will be in there so make sure you have a good look through.

Another string to our festival bow is our Venue and Land Hire page. Here you will find some beautiful unique venues that have been specifically hand picked by us for their individuality, quirky style and alternative ethos. We are very proud to be working with such fantastic venues so please do take a look and get in touch with us if you would like to learn more or would like to arrange a viewing.

Lastly but by no means least, to ensure you are kept up to date with all our latest news, inspiration and blog post make sure you follow us on Twitter and Instagram and also like our Facebook Page. We often run competitions across these 3 platforms so it's definitely worth keeping your eye on these. Also, if you haven't already discovered Pinterest then my lovelies, you are about to find wedding inspiration gold! I used Pinterest so much when planning my wedding. It is a fantastic way to collect ideas and also to help explain to other people what you're hoping to achieve. Clare looks after our Pinterest Page and really does do an amazing job of finding cool wedding inspirations. Make sure you follow her here.

So I think that's everything!!!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read through this post and I really hope you find our blog helpful in planning your wedding.

If you need any advice then please do not hesitate to get in contact as we would love to hear from you.

Oh and 1 last thing. We love to share our readers experiences so if you are planning a festival/outdoor wedding then let us know and maybe you could write about it on our blog? Email me for more details on how you can write for us. Equally, if you are getting married and are having a boho, festival, or outdoor style wedding then don't forget to submit your wedding to us. Real weddings bring so much inspiration to our readers so it would be great to share yours.

All that's left to say now is HAPPY WEDDING PLANNING!

Big Wedding Love

Festival Brides xxx

Image Credits - We Heart Pictures