Ok how many of you all love candles? I know I am not alone! One thing I actually never really took any notice of is what the candles are made out of. I always thought … A candle is a candle! But how wrong I was!

I must say I am a sucker for the shop Dusk! I love the atmosphere and the smells in the shop and find it very hard to walk in without spending our weekly food budget on candles! I recently discovered though that dusk and many other candle makers are using a wax called Paraffin to pour their candles. Paraffin is an oil based wax and is not only bad for the environment to burn it is also supporting the already rich and greedy oil industry.

Soy however is a renewable source, is environmentally friendly and also supports our local farmers. By burning soy wax you are reducing the amount of harmful emissions being released into the earths atmosphere and also reducing your carbon foot print. Global warming is one of the biggest environmental problems we are being faced with and it is hard to imagine that even burning a simple candle is contributing to the problem.

A friend of mine has just started a soy candle business - Kellie’s Powder Room. Her candles are made from 100% soy based wax and contain lead-free wicks. I purchased some last week and was amazed at how amazing they were and honestly they are much better than the candles I have bought from Dusk and other candle shops.

Candles from Kellie’s Powder Room can be made to order in any fragrance, colour or container. There are over 70 different fragrances to choose from including - Apple Orchard, Bamboo & White Lily, Caramel Apple, Sandalwood, Frangipani and much much more! My favourite fragrance is Champagne Strawberries! As well as candles Kellie’s Powder Room make yummy melts for your oil burner!

These candles are a great idea for bomboniere, mother of the bride and groom gifts or just something special for yourself!

Kellie’s Powder Room is a small business and Kellie is starting with an ebay store before moving onto an online store. Please help support her business and help the environment and our local farmers in the process!

Visit http://stores.ebay.com.au/Kellies-Powder-Room

*note: I did not received gifts or financial benefit for this review, it is 100% honest and unbiased.

It has amazed me the amount of rivalry that goes on between wedding websites. Websites accusing others of copying their ideas or having “website envy”. Hearing all of these things really blew my mind.

When creating Beyond The Bride, I did not have any need or want to be like any other site. In fact my main focus was to always be different. To offer my members a completely different experience to any other wedding website in Australia.

Here are a few ways Beyond The Bride promises to be different:

* At Beyond The Bride we allow freedom of speech, we allow all members to write real reviews about their wedding suppliers and to mention wedding suppliers in our forum.

* We will always have free advertising space in our review section. We believe that even the smaller business should not be limited due to their small advertising budget and that just because someone can afford to advertise everywhere does not mean they are the best!

* Our online store The Wedding Parlour will always bring you low prices, we will always aim to be 10% below other wedding online stores.

* Beyond The Bride will always bring you the latest news and ideas without being biased to our advertising suppliers, we will never be affiliated with one supplier and will bring you the best articles and ideas we can find!

We promise we will always be different and will never enter into website rivalry, we do not aim to be like other sites … frankly how boring! We want our members and guests to have a completely different experience at Beyond The Bride.

If you have any suggestions for Beyond The Bride, please email me.

Jen xx

A very popular American bridal tradition has finally made it’s way to our shores!

Trash the dress is about capturing amazing photos without the fears you have of ruining your dress on the big day. After the wedding a professional photographer will follow the bride (and groom) on an amazing photo shoot where the bride in her wedding dress can take a dip in the ocean, roll in the sand, play in the mud or climb tree’s! There really is no limit!

I can hear some of you say “that is insane! who would want to do that?”. Before you write it off completely think about the amzing images you can create and the wonderful memories you will have of such a fun day. Most wedding dresses will only be worn once, boxed, drycleaned and kept in the hope that one day your daughter will want to wear it. In all reality, who will/did wear their mothers dresses? Fashion will change so much over the next 20 years, also your daughter might be the wrong size for the dress. Rather than having the dress only have one day to shine, why not create even more memories by doing a Trash The Dress session?

The great thing is you can go as far as you like when trashing the dress. Some brides choose to only get the dress a little wet or have a few photos taken against graffiti walls, others will decide to swin in the ocean, roll in the mud or even set the dress on fire!

Here are some amazing photos that were added to our Trash The Dress Facebook

Beyond The Bride has a wonderful online wedding store which can be found here http://www.theweddingparlour.com.au

The new year is always an exciting time for our store as it means we have lots of new products!! I thought I would share some of my favourites with you.

Crystal Stone Flutes

http://www.theweddingparlour.com.au/tube-stem-with-crystal-stones-flutes-p-916.html

Mini Gumball Machine

http://www.theweddingparlour.com.au/mini-classic-gumball-dispenser-p-921.html

Paper Wedding Gift Bags

http://www.theweddingparlour.com.au/paper-wedding-gift-bags-p-991.html

Monogram Window Cling

http://www.theweddingparlour.com.au/monogram-window-clings-p-969.html

Jelly Belly - Jelly Beans

http://www.theweddingparlour.com.au/jelly-belly-gourmet-jelly-beans-1kg-approx-900-beans-p-962.html

“We Clicked” Mouse Pad

http://www.theweddingparlour.com.au/we-clicked-mouse-pads-pack-of-6-p-958.html

Those are just a few of my favourite things! Ohh I sound like Mary Poppins! lol

I hope you love them as much as I do!

Jen xx

I would like to welcome you all to the Beyond The Bride blog!

Here you will find out all the latest news on Beyond The Bride and anything in the world of weddings!

Don’t forget to bookmark this page!

Jen xx