It’s the final Part of this Sky blue and Peach rustic DIY extravaganza of a wedding. I knew there was plenty to stretch out over 3 posts but this one truly is a marathon of inspiring style and design.
Without further ado I’ll hand you back over to the extraordinarily talented couple – Becky and Steve.
Decorating The Wedding Breakfast
The place names were created using luggage tags we bought from a stationer; we printed all our guests’ names in the same script font that we had used on the invites – they worked really well and resembled the ‘Eat Me’ and ‘Drink Me’ labels from Alice In Wonderland.
One of my favourite things about the wedding was the miss-matching crockery that we hired for the entire meal – from dinner and side plates to tea cups and sugar bowls, every piece was completely different and totally unique. This really did give our wedding the truly vintage theme that we wanted and was so easy to organise, we hired all the crockery from a selection at The Crockery Cupboard and Idyllic Days.
We found an idea online that we thought was a great way to bring a bit of personality to wedding – we designed and created ‘In Case You Were Wondering…’ cards that we popped into home-made cork holders and displayed on each table. These revealed to the guests some interesting facts about the day – such as where the wedding ale was sourced. Not only did they look cute but they were also a great conversation starter!
Inside the barn – Bonbon dishes, bursting with flowers and draped with strings of pearls, were placed in the middle of the tables. On the top table we wanted something slightly different – we used old jam jars, vases and jugs that we had at home, filled them with flowers and scattered them along the front of the table.
Not Just Any Cake…
We decided to keep the budget down on the cake and didn’t want to splash out £650 for a fancy fruit cake or grandiose gateau. Instead we found a delicious sponge cake from Marks & Spencer – it was covered with a double layer of white chocolate icing and decorated with beautiful chocolate sugar-paste roses, it honestly tasted like heaven.
We did think about cupcakes but felt that the simplistic design of the cake was in keeping with the 50’s vintage theme.
Sweet Tooth Favours!
We did so much research on wedding blogs and in magazines during the planning of the wedding – there are so many fantastic ideas to borrow, no matter what type of wedding you want. One of the ideas I loved every time I came across it, was the sweet table – we bought tons of our favourite sweets, and used them to fill old jars, cake stands and Bonbon dishes. We bought brown sweetie bags and used a rubber ‘LOVE’ stamp to decorate them.
We also made a ‘SWEET LOVE’ sign by buying die cut card on ebay and ribbon from a haberdashery – the font was downloaded for free from urbanfonts.com.
Everyone also had their own fortune cookie waiting at their place on the table.
In and around the venue we also used a few other bits and bobs to personalise the day – we made signs, rented bunting from Idyllic Days and used objects and items from our home. We have a couple of retro Tea Chests that we use as bed side tables – they originate from Kenya (our honeymoon destination), so were perfect for us to use in the barn.
We decided against a formal guest book but instead had a message table where we provided tags and handmade origami hearts – we asked our friends and family to write us notes and peg them up. At the end of the big day we had tons of touching messages to treasure forever!
We also created a photo booth where we gave guests the opportunity to dress up and use props to take photos of themselves. It was a great way for us to see our guests having fun, as well as giving Steve and I a giggle after the wedding!
Dancing The Night Away
We hired a string duo to play before, during and after the ceremony. I walked down the aisle to Air by Bach, but due to the violinist being massively delayed we had to play it from my iPod and blast it into the garden. During the signing of the wedding certificate the strings played a piece called La Valse from one of our favourite films Amelie and walking back up the aisle we chose Arrival Of The Queen Of Sheba. The strings created a lovely ambience during the ceremony and reception drinks, they played a mix of old and new while we served Corona and Pimms to all our guests.
During the wedding breakfast we played old-school Jazz from an iPod playlist – songs included Four Brothers by Woody Herman and Dizzy’s Business by Dizzy Gilespie. This was loved by both the older and younger guests – with the two littlest dancing throughout.
For the evening reception we hired a fantastic singer called Aydenne Simone – Steve and I went to see her play in a tiny venue in Wimbledon and were blown away by her incredible voice. She played alongside her band The Jazz Culture Band – made up of a pianist, sax, drummer and guitarist. They played some absolute classics – Fever, Hit The Road Jack, Five-Ten-Fifteen Hours are just a few examples.
Late into the evening we had a disco – we compiled an iPod playlist playing songs that were guaranteed to get everybody on the dance floor. We transformed one section of the barn by changing the lighting, using blue bulbs and setting up a hired disco ball. It turned out to be a fab way of creating a bar vibe without having to hire any entertainment or furnishing.
Steve and I played around with the idea of doing something gimmicky for our first dance – we both love Tarantino and thought about re-enacting the famous dance from Pulp Fiction, when Mia and Vincent do the twist at Jack Rabbit Slim’s. After thinking about it seriously we agreed we could never pull it off and that it may diminish the elegance of the day – plus it’s been done many times before.
A song that means a lot to both of us is Eric Clapton’s ‘You look wonderful tonight’. When we were 17 we went on holiday with a couple of friends to Torrevieja in Spain – one night we decided to go to an English pub where they were doing karaoke and Steve surprised me by jumping on the mic to sing it to me in front of, what felt like, 100 people. It made the perfect song choice for our first dance.
Advice From a Newly Wed
You don’t have to spend a fortune to do things well – there really are tons of Do It Yourself ideas and templates online for the taking, which only make your day all the more personal and unique. Don’t feel that you have to go designer, you can find things just as beautiful and quirky on the high street – it really is what you make it.
I included that last image, no doubt intended for thank you cards, because I wanted to say thank you – to Becky and Steve for allowing us to share their day in all it’s glorious detail, and also to Guy Collier for capturing the details so beautifully alongside the moving images, which tell the story of this unique day so perfectly.
It’s a Peach, don’t you agree?
Yours Truly,
Rebecca
xoxo
Guy Collier is a Rock My Wedding Sponsor, however all real wedding submissions are chosen on individual merit and no part of this wedding has been sponsored.
