Natalie and Jamie married on a beautiful sunny Sunday at Christ Church, Quinton followed by a reception at Hotel Du Vin in Birmingham.
I am more than a little bit in love with the cool, casual evening glamour and the relaxed floral arrangements, make sure you have a butchers at the oh-so-useful advice from Natalie at the end of this post too lovelies, ’tis very VERY wise.
More Bloom For Your Buck
I like flowers but didn’t want to spend lots of money. I found a local florist, Amanda of Amanda’s Flowers in Langley, that had recently set-up business after years of working in a family florist. The challenge was a natural look that tied together the variety of colours in the bridal party without looking too busy. I knew I wanted a hand-tied bouquet, but I hadn’t decided anything else. So, I researched colours and flowers in a couple ofmagazines and listed the ones I liked, then I looked on flower stalls to see what each usually looked like and how they might work together.
I then went back to the florist with images of the styles I liked, flower types and colours, and we worked out together which would work in button holes, corsages, my bouquet, the wrist corsgaes I wanted for the adult bridesmaids and the pomander I wanted for the flower girl. We used eucalyptus to match the green of the bridesmaid dresses and groomsmen ties, ivory and pink roses to tie in my dress and also my Mum’s pink outfit, white and pink lisianthus for an English country garden feel, and blue thistles that matched the colour of the Grooms RAF uniform.
The types were mixed and matched, with none of the girls having Thistles except for my bouquet, and none of the men having pink in the buttonhole except for the Groom. I was really pleased with the end results. I arranged with the florist to have extras ordered and collected these the evening before the wedding, then I went to the venue with a couple of friends and the Charity shop vases I had collected and we created table decorations for the tables. It was great fun and a good way of keeping the spending in check.
Sweet Soul Music
With lots of family and friends that are geographically spread we knew there would be plenty of chatting to be done so we didn’t have any entertainment until the evening, and this worked really well.
A talented school friend that sings in some of Birminghams bets music bars, Gayle Stevens, pulled together 2 experienced musicians and sang Soul and R’n'B tracks for the first part of our evening reception. Our reception was in a small bar which was full of only our family and friends, and the live music created a wonderful atmosphere.
Subtle, Warm, Vintage…
Hotel Du Vin has such a great atmosphere with it’s vintage green and gold decor mixed with contemporary design. It has lots of carefully lit dark spaces and empty champagne bottles dotted around as door stops, very little decoration was needed. They provided pillar candles and candelarbras for the dinner tables, and we also added Vanilla scented tealights to create a subtle, warm homely fragrance in the air.
I pre-tied 10 ribbons in ivory and green which were tied to the stair rail on the entrance to the courtyard where the drinks reception was held, and I filled old fashioned sweet jars with bonbons and fizzy sweets for guests to nibble on in case they didn’t like the olives provided! Other than the table decorations which were transferred to the bar in the evening, that was all the decoration we added.
Finding The One
We knew we would need to choose carefully when it came to a photographer, because we would be inviting this person to spend the whole day with us! We were prepared to splurge for good photographs because we both love taking pictures ourselves, and it was important to us that the photographer would help maintain the relaxed feel we wanted for our day, but we wanted to good value for money. I started searching for local photographers online after visiting many uninspiring wedding fairs, viewing portfolio galleries to get a feel for style and picture quality.
We chose Anna Hardy, a Birmingham based photographer at the time, after meeting with her and falling in love with her style. Her personable, friendly and relaxed character with her professional, flexible and non-invasive approach filled us with trust immediately, and we knew having her at our wedding would be like having another friend with us. Her pictures are truly addictive, capturing not just the image but the feeling of the moment. We weren’t disappointed, we have had so many compliments on our photographs!
Bridal Baking
I made the wedding cake myself, for £30! We wanted a cake that everyone would want to eat; we had no intentions of taking any home. So, my bridesmaid introduced me to the Good Food website and their recipe for The Ultimate Chocolate Cake; a rich chocolate sponge covered in dark chocolate ganache. I made a couple of practice cakes which were really popular with friends and colleagues at work. I experimented with leaving out the buttermilk which gave it an even richer chocolate flavour that we preferred, and tested how long it would stay moist…over a week!
I made the 3 tiers in the week before the wedding, then applied the ganache, stacking the tiers the day before. We pinned simple ivory ribbon around each tier just before taking it to the venue on the vintage ivory cake stand I bought from TKMaxx.
On the day, my sister cut fresh flowers from a bouquet which was a gift and arranged these on the cake when we arrived at the reception.
Our favours were small boxes of liquer chocolates to which we attached a funny photo of each guest, so instead of looking for a place name card they had to find their face! Although we opted for a sit down meal we still wanted to keep the atmosphere light, and using pictures which were also conversation starters really worked well.
Better Together
Our first dance was to Jack Johnson’s track ‘Better Together’. His music always reminds us of travelling, holidays and happy times. The lyrics to this track were really appropriate and we had always said it would be our first dance if we married.
Wise Words
Our wedding was special for us because our elderly grandparents were able to be with us on the day, because friends and family that live far away were able to join us and the people we love were all together with us, because it was as relaxed as we had wanted it to be in the planning and on the day itself which meant that we could enjoy every moment as well as our guests feeling welcome, comfortable and enjoying it too.
My advice: Keep the planning fun or it will start to feel like a chore, and no part of getting married should feel like that. It is great to get ideas from others and from magazines, but always remember it is YOUR wedding, there are no rights or wrongs, plan your day the way that you want it focussing on what is important to YOU. Don’t feel that you ‘should’ do or have something because that is when it starts to become just another wedding rather than your special day.
*sigh*
Like something out of a modern fairytale.
With thanks to Natalie, Jamie and the lovely Anna Hardy for sharing this beautiful Big Day with Rock My Wedding
Big Fairtytale Love
Charlotte xxx
The picture of the grandma just made me cry.
The flowers are lush, I love her bouquet
Oh. My. Gorgeousness!!!!!!
That is all.
just lovely x
Major tears in my eyes at the pic of the grandma *sob*
Lovely wedding, and Hotel Du Vin’s are lush hotels!!
I love how this day is so elegant yet so many key parts were done by the Bride herself…here’s proof that glamour needn’t be costly! Anna Hardy is phenomenally talented, I can’t imagine this day shot any other way. I adore this wedding, it really speaks to me. The Bride’s smile has turned my grumpy Tuesday morning mood right around!x
So elegant and classy, can’t believe how much the bride did of it herself. That photographer is seriously WOW! Might have to showing my photographer that this is the style of photographs I would love! Her words of advice are very wise indeed, I will try to act on them! X
That is one seriously talented bride. Well done to her for pulling it all together with such elegance and style! I was listening to the music my friend will be playing me down the aisle to and reading this, so the wee grandma pic had me in pieces. Had to regain my composure before typing. Today will be an emotional one I reckon. xo
Wonderful wonderful photographs. I love yesterday’s one of the couple during the service, today’s the flowers and great ones of Natalie and her tulle skirt. My absolute favourite, it’s been said earlier – the grandmother one. Generations being together and loving each other that, for me, is what weddings are about… Lovely x
The Grandmother one got me too!!
Fantastic photos and I hope I rock my big dress as much as this bride x x
Grandmother picture – gulp!
Beautiful wedding, fab photography. Another gulp for the Grandmother one.
(I hope mine is going to be able to be there…)
Congratulations, Natalie and Jamie! xx
Another tear at the Grandmother photograph. So *very* lovely.
I do so terribly miss my darling Mum and Dad. I’d give anything, everything to have them back again.xxx
Beautifully photographed.
Sigh. I am to tired an emotional today to cope with the pure beauty and utter all out love shown in the pics of this wedding!
Everything about it is just gorgeous.
Thank you Thank you Thank you!
x x
Hi lovelies, so glad you like it, I really fell in love with this wedding.
It’s interesting actually as I think Rebecca and I are so keen to show you the fashion and the details that sometimes we are guilty of missing out the important “guest” shots and that’s a real shame. We’ve certainly been making more of an effort recently to include them and the Nana in this post is a case in point – a beautiful moment.
As for Anna Hardy she’s a really nice lady, I called her up to pick her brains on something at the weekend and she was so friendly and helpful
Charlotte xxx
P.s Isn’t he just the coolest/happiest Priest ever?!
I’m not even religious and I want that Priest!
Gorgeous photography (helped along by the very handsome couple!) x
Awwww…. I love this even more today.
The photography is still dreamy/smudgy (I PROMISE that that is a compliment!) Natalie is even more radiant, the church and the hotel are totally perfect (Phil now wants a ‘Cigar Room’ in our 1880′s cottage…appropriate much?!) and the Grandma shot…
My maternal Grandparents couldn’t make it over from Ireland (where I’m from) as my Grandad was poorly. I was stupendously proud to wear their bracelet and our only teary moment in a day of smiles was my Mum and I putting the bracelet on. Our photographer got a gorgeous shot of my Mum at that moment, I sent it to my Grandparents and they ADORED IT. Sometimes it is the teeny tiny moments that make the day super special.
I think this wedding shows that spectacularly, lots of inspiration to be taken for the future-Marrieds!
Congratulations Natalie and Jamie!
x
This wedding shows what the whole day is about – the couple, family/friends and how happy you are.
I hope our happiness shines through as much as this at our wedding.
Feeling a bit tired and emotional today so this wedding has really cheered me up. Beautiful! And the Grandma shot gave me a real lump in throat moment. So adorable. What a wonderful photographer to capture this moment and so many others in this lovely day. It’s all about family, friends and love and this day captures it all. Oh and wonderful flowers!
That last pic is goooooooooooorrrrrggggeeeeoooouuuussss !
So lovely! I love seeing weddings happening that are local to me as well! Great photos and stunning bride!!
What a beauty this wedding is! Oh that Nanna shot was a real tear-jerker! Stunning! x
Wow! Thank you all for such lovely comments about our wedding, we had such an amazing day and it is great to be able to share it and help other brides-to-be with ideas after months of browsing sites like this for inspiration myself. We love our photo’s; Anna really is an amazing photographer, there are another 500+ and choosing our fave’s is really hard! Wishing you all a wonderful happy wedding x
wow… natalie you look fab, so pleased you like the flowers i did. the photographs are fantastic xx