So here we have the second part of this gorgeous Autumn wedding with a whole host of unique and chic ideas for you to be inspired by.
I am particularly loving Monica’s D.I.Y touches and continual sense of fun, it really looks like everyone who attended had a truly amazing time.
As before all images courtesy of Laura Stevens at www.laurastevens.co.uk
A Halloween Dream
First of all I think I need to state that we got married on Halloween, this will account for the colour scheme, the odd pictures of kids in costumes, pumpkins and Dave’s spinning bow tie. The spooky date was not planned it just happened to be the last weekend of Half term (I teach) and I wanted the week before to sort out final preparations which I really needed. The theme gave us so much to play with when planning and the guests thoroughly enjoyed themselves. At least we have no chance of forgetting our anniversary.
Cakes and Great Balls Of Fire
Dave’s mum made the cakes! as can’t beat a bit of Yorkshire home cooking!
We wanted something fun. We don’t have a ‘song’ and we didn’t want to dance to a slow song. We went through various 50’s songs as that was the style we thought would be most joyful and achievable to 2 people with no dancing ability! Great balls of fire won, we had 2 dance lessons learnt a routine and did NOT practice enough!
Our first dance was to ‘Great balls of fire’ and we hire the help of a local choreographer to teach us a routine. Dave has two left feet and no sense of rhythm so I had to lead. I am not saying that I am in any way good but we had a great time doing it and made a lot of people laugh (at us!) The photos make us look much better than we were thanks to Laura, I am dreading viewing the video, I have asked them to edit as much as they can!
Potted Plants
I wouldn’t call myself a keen gardener, most of my house plants do not survive, I think I just don’t give them enough of my time, therefore they die. For my birthday a friend of mine sent me three little terracotta pots from muji with seeds to sow, sure enough a week later little green shoots were emerging. ‘PING’ What a lovely idea for wedding favours! All I needed to do was find 140 baby plant pots. Unfortunately one month before the wedding I was away at ‘Hen Cottage’ and left my lovely fiancé in charge of the budding favours. Upon my return, while unpacking the car of hen paraphernalia I took a closer look at my little babies and noticed there was considerably less than before……
Dave informed me that the poor little plants had been taken by the wind and whisked around the garden a number of times then scattered into a muddy mess. (I thought back to Saturday and remembered we needed to tape down the letter box at hen cottage as the wind was whistling at us all weekend) Dave had done his best to rescue what he could from the driveway but they all did look a bit like we’d found them in a reject bin. To the rescue, was a lady at Studley Royal Garden Centre who potted 70 orange violas at a bargain price of £30. What a saint. The men were happy with their mini bottles of wine.
Unique Place Settings
The place settings were prepared in the summer holidays when I had a good idea of the guest list. Roof slates were purchased at 60p each and hosed down in the garden. We threaded ribbon through the existing holes and wrote guests names with chalk pen (we provided chalk on the tables at the wedding so the guests could write their own messages) Most people took these home with them to use as notice boards or placemats. I designed a table plan and had a blackboard screen-printed to fit in with the slates. The names were hand written on the night before with chalk to cater for any last minute changes.
A Little piece of Advice
We loved having so much control over all of the details of our wedding, it was very much DIY but it was extremely tiring! If we were to do it all again we would have definitely hired a wedding coordinator. We would have loved more time to greet our guests on the Friday before the wedding.
If you are contemplating a videographer just get one, we love ours and my husband has eaten his pessimistic words (I began married life dishonestly, I didn’t tell him the price until he had seen it and he agrees it was worth every penny)
A big Thank You to Monica and David for sharing their beautiful day, if you have any questions then please drop us a comment – I’m sure Monica will be around to answer any Big day queries.
Big Potted Fancy Dress Love
Charlotte xxx
I love it – I fell in love with Suzanne Neville too!
Where did you source your slate tiles from? I’ve been looking for something similar to use as part of a photowall but haven’t found anything as cheap as 60p each!!
Oh I love the slates – what an unusual idea but so effective. Photo Booth idea is so cool!
Thanks for coming back to me – I will definitely have a look at second hand.
Love the second part too!
Mel x
the slate tiles are a brilliant idea and the potted plants are so sweet. The cakes look really yummy I often think wedding cakes can look nice but they just dont taste great but those look delicious. I dont know why more brides dont get second hand dresses as it’s so much cheaper and they still look exactly the same the dress looks fab she looks stunning xx
You look so pretty! Like everyone above I really like the table settings, what a clever idea
x
I agree -fabo – and yes where did you get the slate tiles from so cheapo?!
Wow lovely wedding, thanks for sharing Monica.
I love the slate placemats/placenames too, this would be well suited for us as the family business is tiles….I have just sent a text to my H2B to check if we have something similar in stock!
Also love the Cherry Brandy Roses…..they would suit my theme perfectly, thinks i’ve just found my bouquet flowers!
Thanks again for sharing x
You are all very lovely!
I bought the slates from a builders merchant in Harrogate and they were much heavier than I thought, I could only carry 4 at a time! I think the price I stated was before VAT so maybe that’s why they sound so cheap.
Really glad that our pictures and plans have helped future brides, best of luck with your big day ladies xxx
Monica hindsight is a fab thing, lots of brides say that after the wedding day, about having a wedding coordinator for on the day. I specialise in that just because of feedback like yours. It also gives brides a chance to chill out before the wedding if someone is taking the stress of coordinating suppliers before the event too.
I absolutely love the unique ideas that you used to make the day your own. I imagine your guests really noticed them. x