On to part 2 of the elegant and sophisticated vintage wedding of Francesca and Mark and if you missed out on part 1 you can go view it here.
All of the beautiful images are courtesy of Lawson Photography.
Lawson Love
Our photographers were Pete and Laura from Lawson Photography. They had done the photography at our friends’ wedding and their photographs were stunning so it was a bit of a no brainer that we would choose them for our big day. They are lovely, laid-back people and not intrusive in the slightest on the day.
Dancing to Palm Court
Shelley Van Loen and the Palm Court Strings. They are a string quartet who will do normal classical music or what they call their ‘Palm Court’ music which is what we had. The Palm Court music is traditional 1920’s music. They will also dress up in 1920’s outfits if you want them to (think feathers and spats) – which of course we did.
They played as our guests were arriving for the ceremony, as I walked up and down the aisle and again during our wedding breakfast (afternoon tea). They even learnt a new piece of music especially for our day – the Jeeves and Wooster theme tune! They were fantastic and really helped to create the right ambiance.
For our disco we put a playlist of our favourite music onto an iPod and hired a PA system. Our friend also did a bit of live DJ’ing.
The Way You Look Tonight
Our music choice was slightly dictated by the fact that it had to fit in with the ballroom dance that we’d learnt especially for the wedding. We opted for Frank Sinatra – ‘Just the way you look tonight’. I liked the version done by Fred Astaire which was more ‘of the period’ but the Frank version was more upbeat and fitted better with the dance. Straight after that we had Luther Vandross – ‘Never too much’, which is one of the few songs that we both absolutely love (we’ve got such different taste in music).
Candy Striped Toffee
We put Thorntons Treacle Toffee into pink candy stripe paper bags and also gave each guest a sparkler. I’m not sure if this is just a ‘Northern’ thing but up north treacle toffee is traditionally eaten on bonfire night. We met the night before bonfire night and there were fireworks in the sky so the toffee and the sparklers helped to re-create the moment.
Afternoon Tea
We picked the hotel because it is an original art deco building and didn’t really need anything doing to it in order to fit in with our theme.
For our wedding breakfast we opted for an afternoon tea rather than a typical sit-down meal. We hired champagne saucers, bought 3-tier cake stands and placed glass bottles of traditional pink and white lemonade on the tables. We also chose to have champagne (including some pink) rather than normal wine.
In the evening we had fish and chips and ice-cream to fit in with the seaside location.
Doing It Our Way
Mark is a graphic designer so he handmade all our wedding invitations, the table planner, the place settings and our favour labels. This added a really personal touch.
My favourite parts of the day were saying our vows which we’d written ourselves and our first dance.
Writing our own vows took forever but it was so worth it because it made the moment very meaningful.
I’d done ballroom dancing for many years when I was younger and I’d always wanted to be able to do it with Mark. It isn’t really his kind of thing but he knew how important it was to me that we did it on our wedding day so he agreed (reluctantly) to take some lessons. As it turned out, he was a natural and if the truth be known, he actually began to enjoy it! He also said that it was good because he was concentrating so much on remembering his steps that he forgot all about the fact that all eyes were on him.
Many of our guests also got into the spirit of things and dressed in a 1920’s/30’s style. This really added to the sense of occasion and meant a lot to us.
My only other piece of advice would be to start your planning early and don’t make any impulse decisions. Make sure you take your time choosing all the important bits of your big day. This comes from the lady who is now the proud owner of two wedding dresses after changing my mind about the first one I bought (oops!).
You gotta love a huge chunk of unique chic….
With a big thank you to Fran her husband Mark and the lovely Lawsons for sharing this gorgeous Big Day with Rock My Wedding.
Many Congratulations.
Big Roaring 20’s Love
Charlotte xxx
I’ve been looking forward to the second part – lovely!
What font is that? it’s great! what a gorgeous wedding, thanks for sharing.
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I know I am a complete wet blanket but that b/w photo second from last made me cry! The whole thing is so beautiful – I love how you had an image and saw it through – and in every photo both of you are laughing/looking dreamy. Gorgeous! Congratulations x
Anna that photo is my total favourite too!! They were such a cute couple to photograph
Everything is stunning. Love your style, your venue, wow!
Lovely wedding and you just can’t go wrong with a Sarah Arnett dress – you were right to change your mind!
“What font is that?” – ITC Anna there is a free version here http://www.fontspace.com/category/Anna