Today we are sharing a beautifully classic marquee wedding with a stunning Bride and unusual Angelina Colarusso dress which I am really lusting after.

Pippa and Dom were married in September in her local church and held the reception on her family’s farm. Here’s Pippa to tell you all about the planning behind the day and thanks to Andrew Fletcher at Contemporary Images for the photography.

Deciding on the Day

Dom and I both come from pretty large families and so from the very start we knew it was going to be a big wedding. The most important thing for us was to share such a special day with all our nearest and dearest, oh and to throw a bloody great party that we would remember for the rest of our lives!

We chose Andrew Fletcher at Contemporary Images to document the day for his informal and unobtrusive style, which suited our vision of the day.

An off the shoulder number…

They say that when you find the one, you just know……. Idly flicking through my cousin’s Brides magazine, in the day’s before I was a bride to be, I stumbled across my perfect dress. Despite having no engagement ring in sight, I was determined that if and when I did get married, I wanted to do it in that dress!! When it came round to the dress hunt I did try on a few others that were lovely but as son as I put on THE DRESS that was it. My Mum’s face said it all and after 5 fittings I became the proud owner of Angelina Colarusso’s Ava dress. It is quite a simple dress but has a real 1950’s Hollywood feel to it that made me feel incredibly glamourous!!

My dress was very simple and elegant and I wanted to keep the accessories subtle too. I bought a gorgeous Crystal Dragonfly hair clip from Basia Zarzycka (just of Sloane Square – totally worth a visit as it’s a real Aladin’s cave of costume and bridal jewellery) other than that I kept it simple with pearls (the earrings borrowed from my Mum and the necklace a wedding gift from Dom.)

The Look

I wanted to do my own make up on the day as I wanted to make sure that I looked like me and not a generic bride. Having said that, a wedding does call for new makeup and so I booked myself in for a bridal make up lesson at MAC on the Kings Road and left with lots of tips and a whole new makeup bag!
Because of the style of my dress, and my hair clip, I wanted an “up do” for the big day. As the dress was very glam, I decided to look to the red carpet for inspiration and found a great photo of Eva Longoria Parker on which to base my wedding hair.

Classic English Blooms

The wonderful Shelly from Katie Peckett in Sheffield completely got my vision of simple and elegant flowers with a relaxed feel and the final result was stunning. We chose ivory roses, hydrangeas and eustoma with lots of eucalyptus and ivy for the church, reception and bridesmaids bouquets.

I wanted something a bit stand out for my bouquet and so chose a mixture of differing roses and eustoma in various shades of pink.

Louboutin to the Rescue!

I bought some beautiful peep toe shoes from Pronovias, and I loved them. Then came the dance class that ruined them a mere 7 days before the wedding day. I desperately searched the high street for a replacement of the right colour and heel height but failed. Luckily (or not so luckily for my bank balance!!) Cristian Louboutin saved the day and I walked down the aisle in a beautiful pair of ivory peep toes. I’m a total Louboutin convert!!!

Traditional Attire

We didn’t really want to tie ourselves to a colour scheme and so kept it to ivory. The ushers wore traditional morning suits with Pale blue waistcoats from Pakeman Catto & Carter of Cirencester with pale blue and pink striped ties.

My three gorgeous bridesmaids all have differing skin tones and hair colours, not to mention body shapes, and so finding a dress that made them all look and feel gorgeous was quite tricky. Eventually we found Jim Hjelm’s range and a stunningly simple chocolate brown floor length dress that flattered them all resulting in 3 very happy bridesmaids!

The Taste of Simplicity

We had a very simple cake with 3 layers, one carrot cake, one chocolate and one lemon. It was actually more popular than we had expected!!

Creating the Perfect English Wedding…

The entire inside of the marquee was ivory, form the carpet to the chair covers and everything in between. The only colour came from the table names (made by Dom and I the week before the wedding), the ribbons that tied the napkins (lovingly tied by my Mum and I in the week before the wedding) and the flowers (which were ivory and green)

We knew that all of our guests would provide the colour and so we wanted a simple elegant background for them!

Dancing the night away…

I love to dance and for me a good wedding needs a good band. My parents had been to a wedding recently and had seen “Stak it Up” playing. They were really impressed and so we hired them along with a DJ to ensure that the dance floor was packed all night. From the 2nd song all the way through to 1:30am the dance floor was full of people enjoying themselves (and throwing some rather spectacular shapes in some cases!!) which really made the evening go with a bang!

My Advice to Brides…

Everybody said to us that we should stop to take time out during the day as the day goes so fast. Whether it was because we did this or for some other reason, the day didn’t fly by and we were able to really enjoy ourselves.

Enjoy the planning stages – you’ll miss them when you get back from honeymoon!!
Make sure that you wear in your shoes well and don’t have a dance lesson in them before the wedding day!
Use your budget wisely. We made food, drink and music a priority and all the guests really appreciated it.

Thank you so much to Pippa and Dom for sharing their perfect English Country Wedding with us. Although we don’t often feature such a classic day we know you readers aren’t all planning a hoe down in a tipi so I hope this inspires the classic Brides amongst you…

- And seriously, how gorgeous was that dress??? – Pippa you really exemplified the elegant classic Bride.

Many Congrats to you both,

Yours Truly,

Contra.
xoxo

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