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The Chic Season…Part 2

March 8th, 2011

*sigh* it’s the swishy tiered frock again……

Enjoy part 2 of Justine and Toms’ elegant W-day lovelies whilst I figure out an excuse to get me one of THOSE.

Unless the only reason I need is that I really REALLY want one?

;-)

Discreet Pleasures

Amy Murrell was recommended to us by Henry, the groom’s brother. She was utterly fantastic from start to finish. I’m not great at having my photo taken and am pretty awkward, but she was brilliantly discreet and most of the time I was completely unaware that she was even taking pictures! She was great company during the getting ready process beforehand and worked as some kind of zen team with Alexis the hair and make-up artist! It was a real pleasure to have her there on the day – she felt more like a guest with an expensive camera than the official photographer which was exactly what we wanted.

We are thrilled with our pictures, which really capture the atmosphere of the day – and this from the one of those people who usually can’t bear to look at pictures of themselves!

A Job Lot

For decor we had lots of vintage glass jugs instead of vases and vintage glass candlesticks which I spent the previous 6 months buying up on e-bay. If anyone is getting married and wants a job lot of glassware – give me a call!

Fancy Treats

We had “Rocky Road” chocolate by Hotel Chocolat for favours……. Just a bit of a joke really!

Soul Shakers

At the reception we had The Emperors, booked though Alive Network. We wanted a band that would really get people up dancing so opted for a soul band with a brass section and they fulfilled the brief to a tee.

Village Cake

We had fruit and madeira cake 4 tiered with ivory icing – cribbed from a picture on the internet and made by a very clever lady called Shirley in Tom’s mum’s village!

The loveliest lyrics

For the first dance we chose “This Guy’s in Love with You” by Burt Bacarach, the Noel Gallagher version. Just a lovely, lovely song and reflecting the groom’s juvenile obsession with Oasis!

Wise Words

I would advise any future bride to just try to relax and enjoy it – probably not very helpful advice I realise, but I seem to remember dashing around trying to see and thank everyone for coming, worrying that I would seem ungrateful if I didn’t, when really I should’ve done what I wanted to do and just sat down with my girlfriends and had a very large glass of wine!

Entertainment – The Emperors

Photographer – Amy Murrell

Favours – Hotel Chocolat

A very large glass of wine indeed – make sure you do take that time out to relax on W-day you gorgeous lot, take a look around and soak up what you have achieved with all the hard work you both put in.

With huge thanks to Amy Murrell, Justine and Tom for sharing the seasonal chic.

Big I want A Swishy Frock AND some Rocky Road from Hotel Chocolat Love

Charlotte xxx

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The Chic Season…..part 1

March 7th, 2011

I don’t know about you gorgeous lot but when I think of a December wedding I immediately envisage a traditional Christmas colour scheme, rich reds, greens, golds…… a flash of silver perhaps?

Justine and Tom incorporated a pinch of festive cheer into their North Yorkshire Big Day but in general kept to a crisp white and ivory palette that was sophisticated, chic and timeless. And Justine is one stylish bride, with an ability to accessorize her stunning Rosa Clara gown to absolute perfection.

So a little thought for a Monday, don’t feel the need to go full on with “seasonal” shades just because the day your W-day is on falls into a particular month, just chose whatever colours/decor/pretty you darn well please.

Ok?

With huge thanks to Amy Murrell for the eye candy.

The Ivory Tower(s)

For shoes there was only one choice, ivory satin skyscrapers by Jimmy Choo!

Head Candy

My Headband was from Louis Mariette, I didn’t want a veil and as the dress had quite a 1920’s feel to it I thought a headband would be more in-keeping and I found this art-deco style one on-line.

A Glamorous Gown

It’s a cliché but I did know immediately when I tried my dress on that it was the one for me. I’d tried lots of more traditional dresses that just looked awful and that I didn’t recognise myself in. The Rosa Clara dress I loved the second I saw it – it was more like an evening/cocktail gown than a wedding dress and I just felt relaxed and comfortable in it – not the most obvious reasons for choosing a dress I suppose but important when I knew I would be feeling very self conscious anyway and the last thing I needed was to worry about the dress.

Glossy Locks

Alexis Daly was recommended by our photographer Amy and was brilliant. I didn’t want to look too “done”, more like the best possible version of myself, which Alexis did brilliantly. She was also a great person to have around on the morning – calm, supportive and encouraging. And great with the mums!

Frockalicious

All Groomsmen stuff was hired from Moss Bros – the only brief was that it had to be warm so we went for frockcoats (which sound awful and very Dickensian, but were actually really smart and suited everyone!)

Tom also wore a frock coat suit from Moss Bros, he didn’t want the traditional patterned waistcoat so the only nod to wedding attire was an ivory tie and pocket square. Usually a particularly scruffy individual, it was very nice to see him looking smart with polished shoes for a change!

Pale And Interesting

I chose calla lilies for the buttonholes, calla lilies and vendella roses for the bouquet, and vendella roses, sweet avalanche roses and eucalyptus for the table centres, all from www.thetopiarytree.com

Bridal Gown – Rosa Clara

Head Piece – Louis Mariette

Hair And Beauty - Alexis Daly

Reception Venue - The Black Swan

Blooms – The Topiary Tree

Suit Hire – Moss Bros

Photographer – Amy Murrell

I am having a big moment over the swishy tiered style dress right now, and Justine does it so well.

More chic coming up soon lovelies ;-)

Big Seasonal Love

Charlotte xxx

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A Planet Flowers Wedding… Part 2

March 4th, 2011

Welcome back and prepare to be absolutely blown away by this afternoons visual feast. Autumn brides take note and be inspired, flower fanatics enjoy with tea and cake. Scottish brides make note of all the suppliers involved (they are the best!) and cake-lovers, decor fanatics, colour scheme enthusiasts everywhere just enjoy the stunning wedding Gemma created, all captured perfectly by Blue Sky Photography,

Abundant Decor

On the walls we hung malus apple wreaths with velvet ribbon – I just adored all the textures!!

Again in the room we had our drinks reception we wanted it to be relaxed and autumnal!! The room had no furniture so we brought in a huge wooden side board unit and filled it with apothecary jars filled with autumn goodies like leaves, physalis, cinnamon sticks and malus apples.

We added lots of candles and vases full of malus apple branches, with the addition of a few personal touches like photos of our parents on their wedding day, some Old Letterpress Printer Blocks and framed poems written by grandmother it was such a great focus in the room.

I made huge wreaths of autumn leaves, physalis and birch that we hung around the room too – I am in no way a romantic but I read somewhere in one of many wedding magazines(!) that the wreath is a symbol of eternity and it just stuck with me so I decided to make as many as I could!!

As I am a wedding florist it was really important to me to do something different that I hadn’t seen before for the reception tables – the best way was to seat our guests on a long table – creating “tablescapes” for long tables is probably one of the most enjoyable things for me.

Having all that space just for me to play with is a joy! As we had chosen gorgeous dark grey linen from 88 events and had designed material ruffles for the back of the chairs I knew what ever we did it would have to be dramatic! We switched the autumnal vibe a little and although we still used lots of leaves and trees we turned it around and painted the branches grey.

We took the colour from the plum coloured plates and bowls we hired from 88 events and filled the table with plum carnation balls, vases full of callicarpa and black mamba orchids. Every other detail we made grey – all the candles and moss/ leaf details all grey.

I wanted it to be so full and abundant, so there was never a bare space – every time you could look at something different.

Detailed Photography

I know so many absolutely amazing photographers so this was the hardest thing to choose! When I thought about what we wanted from a photographer we knew we wanted lots of relaxed shots nothing posed or formal.

As I am a details girl and I knew I would be doing a lot of DIYing it was important that our photographer understood that I wanted a picture of all my little details that I worked hard on.

Lastly it had to be someone fun and someone that made us relaxed and that we were completely as ease with – before Chris even met Blue Sky I knew he would love them and how chilled out they were! Niels and Alie could not have done a better job for us; they really truly were part of the whole days experience.

It was like we had two more guests at our wedding that wanted to experience the day as much as our family did! We had such great fun wandering around the Hopetoun Estate – seeing parts we had never seen before.

They didn’t miss a single detail or moment that I wanted to remember.

Both of our families are cheese lovers so it had to be a cheese stack that our caterer Heritage Portfolio organised rather than a cake! I made a flower base for it to be stacked on and finished it with two personalized mice from The House of Mouse via Etsy.

I love Amy Atlas! I have been following her work for years so when the opportunity came up to do a dessert table I grabbed it with both hands! I decided I didn’t want to go for the normal sweetie table and instead wanted to make it more of a dessert table.

Using the ruffle idea that we had on the back of our chairs we created a huge back board for the table which we clothed in the grey again. I wanted to build it up with lots of heights and wanted to keep everything really neutral in colour letting the stationary bring the colour in. I knew for sure I HAD to have a macaroon tower but other than that I wasn’t too sure. The macaroon tower sat on a grey plinth my dad made to give it height rather than using a cake stand. All the other cup cakes, cake pops and meringues were made by the super talented Nicki at Cup Couture. She is absolutely full to the brim with dessert ideas! Everything tasted A M A Z I N G!! I didn’t want to ruin all the hard work that Cup Couture put in by putting everything on plates that didn’t fit in with the scheme so I went to TK Maxx and bought a load of random large really ornate photo frames which I lined with biscuit coloured paper and spray painted grey.

The result was excellent and they really looked the part – we placed these on different heights of flower pillars and along side the ceramic that we also painted full of cake pops it was finished :) Susan from Knotty Stationary made signs for all the bits and pieces bringing the plum colour back on the table.

Entertainment

We decided to have an acoustic guitar and solo singer through our ceremony and drinks reception – giving that informal rustic vibe. At the evening reception we had a live band to get everyone up and dancing! We also hired an air hockey table from Night Train Productions for the night reception. It was a huge hit and there was pretty much a queue all night to have a shot :) such a brilliant ice breaker!

Neither if us are big dancers so we decided to have a party song instead that everyone could get up to! My mum loves Barry White so we had “my first my last my ev erything” as our first dance. We put far more thought into our ceremony songs than our evening music – we just felt it was better letting the band doing what they do best!

A Personal Touch

We didn’t really have any favours, I suppose I felt the dessert table would do that job. Although I embroidered everyones names onto their napkins rather than having place cards and all the guests seemed to take them home if that counts!

The Finishing Touches

The venue lined the courtyard with fire buckets – with us getting married the day before Halloween they gave the fireworks night feel.

At the end of the night we had a sparklers farewell which looked brilliant and was one of my favourite moments of the day. We had baskets of blankets ready for guests to wrap up and keep warm with.

Our mini groomsmen held our rings in a personalised ring bowl from Paloma’s Nest – it was so cute, plus side is I have a ring bowl that can sit on my dresser now as a reminder of our day.

Instead of a guestbook we had a finger print tree where guests could “leaf their print” it went so well with our style and looked great hanging on the wall once everyone had left their thumb print.

We really wanted to have no stationary on our table so our great stationary lady Susan from Knotty Stationary designed a menu come escort card all in one – I loved them so much! We used an old mirror frame and hung them in the wall so guests could find their table and see the menu all in one :) Knotty also used the same handwriting design to make all our signage around the venue.

The food was seriously delicious our guests were blown away by the meal that Heritage Portfolio provided.

Advice from a Super Bride!

For me my day was made special by all the amazing people involved. We were extremely lucky as we knew so many brilliant suppliers in the industry. I suppose my advice would be once you have chosen your suppliers put your trust in them let them do what they do best as you will get so much more out of them that way.

We made our wedding as personal and informal as we could keeping things relaxed and I think that’s what made it for me seeing everyone laughing and smiling and being altogether.

Flowers and Decor – Planet Flowers

Photography – BlueSky Photography

Cake Topper – The House of Mouse via Etsy.

Dessert Table – Nicki at Cup Couture

Air Hockey Table – Night Train Productions

Venue – Hopetoun House

Catering – Heritage Portfolio

Paper – Knotty Stationery

Ring Bowl – Paloma’s Nest

Wow. Just wow. I’m not sure I have any words.

You know what though, for all of you sitting there thinking that you just don’t have the budget or the contacts for this, then start thinking laterally. If there are elements of this wedding you absolutely love and can’t do without, then budget for them, great floristry, photography, stationery and catering can’t all be DIY’d this well. However, if you can be sensible about what you want, prioritise your must haves, then think about DIY-ing the rest… Lots of the wreaths here are made of dried seed pods and leaves so could be made well in advance and I’m just loving the symbolism attached to them. Pumpkins and squashes can be grown easily on a big patch of land and if a cake table is a must, think about asking friends and family to contribute then pulling it all together with DIY plates and chargers like Gemma did. Add small touches that make a big difference like the ring bowl, tiny mice and straw flags for drinks.

Thank you so much to Gemma for choosing Rock My Wedding to showcase her insane talent and beyond beautiful wedding. We are inspired and hope all our lovely readers will be too :)

Yours Truly,

Rebecca
xoxo

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A Planet Flowers Wedding… Part 1

March 4th, 2011

Hello! I’m back! And how better to get back into Weddings (Thank you Adam for holding the fort!) than with my absolute favourite kind – a Florists Wedding. When I saw Gemma from Planet Flowers wedding on the BlueSky blog I literally almost died it was so so beautiful. Abundant, lush, bursting with colour and texture doesn’t even come close to describing it. I didn’t for a heart beat think Gemma would choose to share it with us so when she did I was ecstatic!

It’s been a joy to put together and although the florals are on a grand scale, there are a variety of styles involved. Autumn brides you’re in for a super inspiring treat and I think there might be a few more of you wishing you were having an Autumn wedding after you see this. Even better, Part 2 is coming right up this afternoon! DON’T MISS IT!!

Gem & Chris were married on Saturday 30th October 2010 at Hopetoun House, South Queensferry and all the stunning photography is courtesy of the lovely Niels and Alie at BlueSky Photography

A Reluctant Dress Shopper!

The wedding dress was the one thing that I really was not looking forward to organising! I am very much a fleece and jeans type of girl so the thought of going to try on a big puffy dresses was a slight nightmare for me!!

We went to so many different shops and tried on so many dresses they all became a bit of a blur but I quickly realized what I did and didn’t like and what would suit me better. I chose a Maggie Soterro dress that I spotted at a 2011 trunk show… never trying it on or infact seeing it in real life, (not the best brainwave I have had!)

When it arrived I liked it, but I wasn’t in love with it. Slightly depressed with the dress I took it to Mette at Freja Fashion who was already making my bridesmaids dresses. With in minutes of putting the dress on with Mette, she had pinned and pulled at it and took some details off and adding some details on and just like that she had turned my nightmare into a my perfect dress.

Mette at Freja Fashion also made me a jacket – as we were getting married in October I wanted a jacket to give the dress a wintrier look.

Last Minute Accessories

This was very last minute! I wanted a very natural look, especially with the bridesmaids wearing grey dresses and having boiled wool jackets I didn’t want anything to be overly bling! We found a small boutique jewellers shop called Asimi which had many pewter designs. I loved the organic feel of the necklace and the pewter shapes reminded me of leaves which was definitely a running theme! I bought a few hair accessories from etsy with leaves and few diamontes but nothing seemed to work. My mum played with some florist coil wire to recreate the look of the necklace and added berries and beads and made a hair accessory for all three of us which we couldn’t have been happier with! Because they were hand made the hair stylist was able to bend and mold them to the shape she wanted.

I don’t often wear heels so I went for mid heel Brianna Leigh shoe called Jaynie. I loved the little bow at the side of the shoes that matched my dress perfectly. They were really comfy but not very warm! Thankfully Chris bought me some grey uggs the day before so when we were out walking for photos I was able to wear them to keep my feet warm!

Sharon and Monica of Made-up came along to our hotel the day of the wedding – we completely and utterly trusted them just to get on with it! They knew best !

Freja Fashion Fabulous

I wanted my bridesmaids dresses to be the same but different (if that makes sense) my two best friends are completely different shapes so I wanted them to wear the same material but in slightly different styles.

We met with Freja Fashion early on in the planning and she got me straight away! From the first moment I spoke to Mette I felt completely relaxed and didn’t have a worry. The girls dresses were huge talking point with my female guests!

They were gorgeous, unique and so well made, fitting each girl spot on.

Grey Sprit

Chris wore the grey spirit tartan going with our very grey theme, (a grey theme sounds so depressing!)

Chris loves watches, so I found some really cool Vintage Watch Movement Cufflinks at Evy Designs which I gave him as a wedding gift.

The gents hired all the outfits apart from their ties. We matched the ties in with the the bridesmaids dresses.

Ceremony Decor

I love autumn it is by far my favourite season – all the autumnal flowers that are around, with all their colours and textures and leaves it’s just the best time of year in my view! Hopetoun House has an amazing lime-tree avenue so I used that as the styling concept for our Ceremony and drinks reception room. The areas we used for our wedding were all the converted stables of the stately home which fitted in perfectly with the feel we were aiming for.

The ceremony room looked out on to the driveway which was lined with autumn trees so I wanted to keep the flowers quite minimal not to take away from the brilliant view. We borrowed old school benches to use as pews that Chris refurbished and rather than having flowers at the end my mum grew white pumpkins which we placed at the end of each pew with autumn leaves.

We framed the windows with large birch trees and hung vials of cyclamen from them along wit h some grey clay leaves that Chris and I made together. Wanting this room to be quite dark, with lots of candle light – we piled up logs and placed candles and leaves through them and filled all the ledges around the room with frosted tea lights to give a glow all the way round the room. By far my favourite part of this room was our signing table.

My brother had rescued an old dining room table that was no longer wanted. So Lorry (my bridesmaid) and I layered the whole of the surface with leaves and covered the table legs in moss so it looked really organic – with the finishing touches of a rosehip and succulent ball and a few of the little white pumpkins mum grew it was more than perfect!

Flowers and Decor – Planet Flowers

Photography – BlueSky Photography

Dress – Maggie Sottero

Bolero Jacket – Freja Fashions

Maids Gowns – Freja Fashions

Grooms Tartan – Spirit Grey

Pewter Jewllery – Asimi

Shoes – Jaynie by Brianna Leigh

Make-Up – Made up

Watch Movement Cufflinks – Evy on Not on The High Street

Venue – Hopetoun House

Catering – Heritage Portfolio

Things I love about this wedding…

The irreverent mix of deep reds and pinks, vibrant colours and ultra modern grey combined.

Masses of non-florals – seed pods and dried goods.

Wreaths (more on the symbolism this afternoon – so romantic!)

The rustic setting for a more intimate wedding.

The styling… Um hello signing table?!

Mix and match grey maids with woolly shrugs, Love.

I think I just love everything about it.

What do you love readers?

Yours Truly,

Rebecca
xoxo

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An Autumn Inspired Edinburgh Wedding

November 30th, 2010

Things I love…

Autumn leaves and colours.
The team at Planet Flowers and their amazing floral designs.
Wicked Photography by Elemental.

And yup – this one’s got ‘em all :)

Louise and Nick were married on 16th October at St Giles’ Cathedral followed by a reception at The Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh

Au Naturel

I wanted to be completely natural. My hair was done by a local hairdresser (Ruth at U-star). I had a trial which made it look too formal so she did another trial a few days before and it looked much more me.

I got caught in the rain the night before the wedding and my hair looked exactly the same! I loved the fact that it took a whole 15 minutes on the morning of the wedding – perfect for the sort of person I am.

Make up was the same. I am quite lazy with things like that so I don’t wear much and I didn’t want it to make me look false. I absolutely loved what Louise (from EyeCandy) did.

Bespoke beautiful

I tried various dresses in places around Edinburgh and got some ideas of what I didn’t like. Then I scribbled a design on a receipt in a coffee shop and went to visit Mette Bailie at Freja Design. Everything about her dressmaking and the overall service was just fab!

I wore pearl earrings and necklace, given to me by my Grandparents years ago. I always wear the earrings, even when I was sailing half way around the world. The veil and tiara were borrowed from my sister.

I am not really a shoe fanatic. I wore Rainbow ivory Shelly style shoes because they were comfy and the they fitted with my dress.

Fire in Flowers

Gemma and the team at Planet Flowers were fantastic.

I knew I wanted an autumnal theme and it needed to fit the modern venue. I didn’t expect to be too bothered by the flowers, having never really taken notice at other weddings but they did such a brilliant job.

Lots of guests commented on the amazing table decorations, attention to detail and variety. So did many people on the flight home as I clutched my bouquet and a collection of physalis (chinese lanterns). I could rave for hours about how pleased I was with everything they did!

We had candles/flowers/fir cones/crab apples/leaves everywhere (except on the floor!)

Autumnal Style

Nick wore the same as the ushers but with a slightly different tie. He also wore houndstooth trousers with his morning suit, instead of stripy.

My husband’s mother is a fantastic seamstress and she made the waistcoats for the wedding party. (All 9 of them ) Being autumnal, we tried to tie everything into a burnt orange/autumnal colour scheme. They found the perfect colour in fabric and as they were done first (by a long time!) we decided we had better stick to it!

We got bridesmaids dresses from Ted Baker – the only place we found a burnt orange dress! I was keen to get something off the peg that didn’t look too “bridesmaid-y.” Their dresses were great but I was very lucky that they both have great figures for wearing that sort of slinky short dress – I don’t think I could’ve done it!

Mette who made my dress then used the remains of the waistcoat fabric to make a sash for our flower girl who wore her own dress.

Flexible Photography

We chose Elemental photography because we liked what we had seen on their blog and particularly didn’t want lots of posed photography. Christina was really friendly and chased up my initial enquiry. We liked the fact that they would give us the disc of pictures too.

They were very flexible with meeting up and always replied to emails – great when you are organising things from a far.

A Unique Cake

Nick’s mum makes brilliant cakes. I think I asked her to make our cake whilst drunk at a wedding about 3 years before we even got engaged!

We both love fruit cakes so that was an easy decision. We left the decoration decision to Val but she knew we wanted something relevant to our lives. It was incredible. There was so much perfect detail. Even the bride and groom were caricatures including Nick’s big forehead and my pearls!

Celidh but Contemporary

We had Callanish because we knew others who had used them and they were able to do a mix of ceilidh and contemporary music.

“You got a friend” – the Randy Newman song featured in Toy Story. We weren’t going to have a first dance but we watched Toy Story 3 whilst in Australia in the summer. We were just on a real high and decided the words were just what we wanted. And it was only 2 minutes long!

A Brides Advice

I would just say, that if you have a place or an idea in mind, stick with it.

I have always thought about getting married with the autumn colours at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh. I had to do quite a bit of convincing that this was a good idea and even then several still had their doubts.

Maybe they still do but I love that it was different, I love that people came and enjoyed Edinburgh for a few days either side and I love that we can go back there any time we like.

I for one am a huge fan of a seasonal wedding and Autumn is so ablaze with colour it makes for a brilliant pallet. The colours have certainly been done justice here by Elemental!

Makes you want to go kick some leaves doesn’t it?! Thanks to Louise and Nick for allowing us to share their day and to Elemental Photography for sending it in!

Yours Truly,

Rebecca
xoxo

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A Blossom Beautiful November Wedding…. Part 2

November 8th, 2010

Welcome back for Part 2 of this winter wedding with what are simply the most beautiful flowers… of course, I am biased, because Becky Hay, the beautiful Bride was the florist for my wedding, and I took a lot of inspiration from her wedding flowers for my wedding day. Please do go and check out her website for Blossom Flowers to see her talented work and in the meantime, I’ve saved the gorgeous florals for today… feast your eyes flower lovers.

These are a few of my Favourite Things

Ummmm….ready for the essay?!!!

Naturally, once we’d set a date, the flowers were one of the first things I chose and then we matched everything else to them! All the flowers were picked out and made by myself and my closest friend and ex business partner Rachel. The only thing I didn’t want to make personally were the bouquets and buttonholes which Rachel made for me.

I carried a large but compact hand tied bouquet. It included all of my favourite flowers – Lily of the Valley, Anemones, Hellebores, Ranunculas and Spray Roses with Camellia, Rosemary, Senecio and Myrtle foliage. The Hellebores were so out of season that I found a specialist nursery in Stockport who let me raid the plants for the odd early flower. I managed to get hold of just a few flowers – one for Ed’s buttonhole and a couple for my bouquet.

All of the other flowers were in shades of aubergine, dusky lilac and pink. The flowers included Orchids, regular and scented garden Roses, Hydrangea, pink Snowberry, aubergine Lisianthus and the occasional Gardenia for scent.

Every available surface in the venue was dressed with either a large arrangement or a collection of glass vases filled with arrangements of different sizes and surrounded by mirrored glass tea lights and delicate glass candlesticks.

The main table in the entrance hall and the large mantelpiece arrangement in the library were particularly memorable.

I’m told there was a small riot at the end of the night as the female guests were told to help themselves to the arrangements!

A Discreet Photographer

Michael Turner was our photographer. I’d met Michael through work and had seen some of the beautiful albums he’d put together for other couples. Neither of us are particularly confident and both of us are camera shy.

We liked his quiet style and informal compositions and were 100% confident that he would capture all the details of our day without us noticing.

The Best Chocolate Cake

Ed always tells me that I’m happiest when I’m around cake….it’s almost true! I LOVE cake and when I’m an old lady and can do whatever I want, that’s all I’m going to eat. It was therefore an important part of our day that we didn’t want to be left, forgotten on the tables, after everyone had eaten. So, we took the idea from a friend’s wedding and cut our cake immediately after our ceremony so our guests could enjoy a piece of cake or two with the champagne reception. This also cut out the cost of canapés.

The cake was 3 tiers – the fruit & sponge layers were made by Anne Archer, the mum of one of our ushers who Ed has known since birth. Anne also decorated the cake for us with hundreds of delicate hydrangea shaped icing florets. The chocolate layer was made by the Barbakan delicatessen in Chorlton. Ed & I believe they make the best chocolate cake ever and they very kindly agreed to bake it for our wedding day as a special request.

Winning Favours

I’m possibly a little cynical about favours as I often seen boxes full of favours that have been left by guests when I go to clear wedding flowers. We just wanted something simple and affordable that everyone would take home with them so opted for lottery tickets. The Ushers announced the numbers that night and it made us giggle as they announced the winners in the lottery of love too.

I placed candles & lanterns everywhere & Prestwold organised the roaring fires and the fairy lights in the Orangery so it was pretty magical.

So much made it special and personal. How can it not be when two of you declare your love for each other and promise to always be there no matter how rough life gets in front of everyone you both love?

Our day was made by our vows and our guests…..the venue, speeches, flowers, dresses, music, food, fireworks etc were amazing, but it was sharing those few special words with each other and the people who really know and love us that made the day. It’s a cliché but it’s true.

My advice…..

Involve as few people as possible when making decisions. You can never please everyone and sometimes it better to not ask at all than ask and then choose to ignore!

Serious amounts of planning and list making will pay off on the day itself.

Do try to schedule in 10 minutes with your new husband to take the day in together. Everyone says this and you think it’ll be easy to do it on the day – it’s really not!

Don’t underestimate the power of the Videographer – we nearly didn’t have one…..we’re so glad we were persuaded into it. It’s better to have one that you never watch than wish you had one – you can’t recreate it.

Don’t worry about what’s fashionable or ‘in’…stick to what you love/ like and you won’t go far wrong.

Trust the people you have hired…they are experts in their field and will work at their best if they know you trust them to do the job well.

Simply beautiful, thank you so much to Becky and Ed for allowing us the share the images and your words of advice and Happy Anniversary :)

Yours Truly,

Rebecca
xoxo

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