House of Istria hair accessories and a vintage wedding fair....

Yesterday we had the absolute pleasure of attending the Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair, at Bristol Zoo (my childlike self adores this location). The queue to get in at opening time was out of the door; it was a hugely popular occasion and for good reason; Ali and Katie from Bristol Vintage cherry-pick only the finest and most unique suppliers to attend.

The highlights of my day included a whole heap of fun playing around in a photo booth with the gorgeous Emily from Fishee Designs. Emily literally has the best photobooth I've ever seen! A kitsch haven of vintage props (empty frames, 50's telephones, and of course the essential 'tache- on- a- stick) with a beautiful bunting strewn vintage backdrop, and at the best price I've heard of for a photobooth too. How I wish I'd met her before my wedding day! Oh and anyone with pink hair gets our vote, because we wish we had it. Other highlights include seeing one of my oldest friends and talking through his wedding plans with his lovely fiancee, sampling some wonderful chocolate cake, listening to the sounds of a Spanish guitar player, daydreaming about the gorgeous vintage wedding dresses and meeting some very wonderful people!

Although we were rushed off our feet, I did take a few minutes to grab a few quick snaps-

Out totally gorgeous assistant Kyli, wearing our Swarovski crystal headband Lucia.


One amazing vintage dress, paired with our pale golden ivory headband Mari.
Can you see those 40s inspired pin curls? One talented lady- Beehive Brides- was on hand to provide fancy vintage hairstyles for lucky visitors!

Bride to be trying out our polka dot side sweep birdcage veil Lula.

The beautiful people that are Britten (luxurious feather fans and accessories- truly unique and so so gorgeous)! and the talented luxury wedding planner Matthew Oliver


And a few more...

Look at that cake!


A very bad photo of some very good vintage china from Bristol Vintage

And some more of our pieces, Ruby and Mari...



A big thank you to Bristol Vintage lovelies Ali & Katie and hello to all we met on that beautiful sunny day! Hope to see you all again next year! And 2013/14 brides, make sure you diary this event for next year- it really is one not to miss.

So, almost done for our Monday blog.. except we really couldn't not mention a wonderful competition by the lovely Lauren of Lady Amy Wedding Design, who is offering the winner of her competition a FULL wedding planning service. Do visit her site to find out more, her wedding planning is second to none!!

Well, happy Monday everyone! Have a fabulous week.

Charlie @ House of Istria xx

House of Istria updates and Cotswold Weddings...

We confess; our blog has taken a back seat because we are super-busy. So thank you to all of our loyal readers who are still with us! We will be back with more inspirational wedding finds, beautiful quotes, and pretty things very soon- in the meantime here is a little House of Istria update.

Crazy January
Firstly, a wedding fayre at Cheltenham Regency Hotel, where I met the beautiful Sarah from Montague Press- (brides, you must consider her invitations, they are amazing- see them here) and Sarah aka Nicole James Photography, a lovely photographer whose work I am looking forward to seeing.

Following on from that was a shoot with Sarah at new Cotswold wedding venue Hyde Barn (so new it isn't finished being built yet! Due for completion in spring) with the Hyde Barn wedding planner Annie Delaney. Pick up a copy of this months Cotswold Style magazine to find out more about Hyde Barn, and to see us listed as one of Annie's recommended suppliers. The shoot itself will appear in next months Cotswold Style.

We were in another feature in Cotswold Style this month, as part of a shoot for The White Rose boutique. Photographer Spencer from All In The Image worked his magic, and it still looked fantastic- Well done Spencer. Also with The White Rose we attended a bridal styling day at the boutique which was lovely; my favourite part of my job is meeting brides to be. So this is our accessory display in The White Rose

and this shot features our accessories for another shoot we were lucky enough to take part in this weekend, for Wedding Ideas magazine, along with some other sparkly designers. Fingers crossed we get picked for the cover!


So as well as the above, throw in attending a very successful industry tweet up(thanks to Karma Kars and Photoglow) and designing pieces for the upcoming bridal shoot byLady Amy Wedding Design, PLUS preparing for the AMAZING vintage wedding fair at the end of this month in Bristol, (at the ZOO, nonetheless)! hosted by vintage tea party lovelies Bristol Vintage, as well as fulfilling our orders (current turnaround time 4 weeks so make sure you get your orders in nice and early) and you can see why blogging has taken a back seat...

Our Little Secret
Our lovely new range that we have been secretly working on- as yet to be named but this might give you a clue as to what it might include! ;)





Istria Baby will be available for pre-order from May.

Xx