So, one of the things I would look for in a photography, if I had my day again, would be the ability to take some so-cool-it-hurts portraits. I know there’s a reall tendency to veer towards the ‘classic’ for a wedding day but why is that??? I know when I planned my day one of my over-riding concerns was that I was YOUNG! There was no way I wanted to look dolled up like a little girl in her mums make-up. I wanted the photography to be fun and age appropriate and something I could hang on my wall. And I think this couple, Elisa and David, totally got that from Brett Harkness.

Hold on to your hats because these are some of the most smack-you-in-the-face-cool Wedding portraits I have seen so far….

Sunshine on a Rainy day…

The theme for the wedding was yellow and silver, cream/ivory as an accent if needed. The yellow was tied in through the flowers. My bouquet was soft yellow and cream colour roses, with the stem wrapped in sheer ribbon. The bridesmaids had the same but just the soft yellow colour roses. The groom wore a single cream colour rose and the groomsmen wore the single soft yellow colour rose.

Sifting through various websites, I fell in love the hydrangea and rose combination. To pull everything together for the table centres, in a tall vase was: 6 soft yellow coloured roses, 6 cream hydrangeas and 1 orchid inside the vase. Draped around the flowers were a strand of crystals with a crystal ball hanging from the end. (The picture does it more justice!)

The fabulous florist was Wanda Shipley from the Forest Florist and Country Accents in Forest, Ontario Canada (20mins from where I live), I knew when she was the right vendor when the first thing she told me was that the hydrangeas needed to be in water so they’d last- no other vendor told me that. It’s kind of an important detail!

She worked hard to get the right shade of yellow for the roses- keep that in mind when selecting a colour scheme for your wedding- shade matters in pulling everything together!
Another interesting note, I had come to find out that she did my parents wedding too (35 years ago!)…it was meant to be!

Portrait and Photographic Perfection

Brett Harkness was amazing, definitely the premier photographer in the UK. We had record rain fall the day of our wedding and he captured the most beautiful pictures I’ve ever seen. He does such fab work and we were very lucky he was available for our special day. Have a look at his website and you’ll know he’s the right one for your wedding!

Limoncello Layers

To stick with the colour theme, the cake was a lemon flavored sponge cake moistened with Italian liquor called Limoncello. The filling was lemon flavoured as well.
It was 4 tiers, covered in yellow fondant and adorned with fondant pearls in an ivory and silver colour. Each layer was wrapped with a sheer ribbon.

Only the top layer was real. The rest was fake. We had pre-arranged slab cakes done in the same way as dessert for guests. Our selection was inspired by a bridal magazine. They had a feature spread of different wedding cakes.

Dancing the night away!

During the cocktail hour we hired a 4 piece jazz quartet. I love Frank Sinatra type music-it always puts me in a good mood. An upbeat jazz quartet provided for great ambience and went well with the gourmet hors d’oeuvres being served. Our guests really enjoyed the quartet.

We hired a DJ for the evening. He played dinner music and also was the Master of Ceremonies. He did a phenomenal job. He entertained our guests and had everyone on the dance floor the entire night with his great song selection. It was an amazing party and that was what Dave and I were trying to achieve.

Dave and I both love Keith Urban and as soon as the song Memories of Us came out (which is supposedly for Nicole Kidman) we fell in love with it. The words are so beautiful.

Do me a favour!

Of course we had favours! Being of Italian heritage it’s tradition to give a little something to guests.
We chose a merino-inspired blown glass bottle stopper all the way from New York. There were no two bottle stoppers alike because of the blown glass process. We had them professionally wrapped with shimmery soft yellow paper, sheer ivory ribbon with a flower sticker on top finished with some bling.

Shining Decor

The décor for the wedding was inspired by the yellow and silver colour scheme, which included a lot of bling! My ideas were brought to life by Victoria Sebbin, from Victoria’s Décor and Event Planning (Sarnia, Ontario, Canada)

The ceiling at the hall was covered with 20 panels of veiling/tulle, with each panel meeting at the large chandelier in the centre of the hall. Around the chandelier was twigs and hanging from the chandelier were what looked like 100 crystal strands. It was breath-taking and definitely set the tone for the evening.

Our head table looked enchanting. Lots of tulle/veiling, draping, gathering, and of course bling! Framing our table were 2 large urns filled with twigs soft yellow roses, and hydrangeas.
Candles were everywhere. We had crystal votive candles around the table centres and cake. Candles are a must-have. They provided an essence of romanticism.

We had a 5 step bottle chiller sculpted out of ice. In each “step” we had different liquors. Guests were given a chilled shot upon entering the hall. Once the cocktail hour was over, it was converted with twigs, hydrangeas and bling, which flowed with the rest of the décor.

Our place cards were placed on large crystals in shades of yellow, white and silver. This is an easy DIY. I purchased the place cards (ivory colour) from a local stationary store; I used clear labels to print the guest names, and then placed them on the place cards. It had serious wow factor. Guests loved it.
Our invitations were made by Laura Paladino. Her invitation selection is beautiful with a variety of price points. I selected the French Vanilla set. It was ivory coloured paper with raised silver ink. I also added a motif at the top and put a swarvoski crystal in the centre. To follow the stationary theme (another DIY and cost saver) I purchased ivory stationary from the local store and had menus and church programs printed. I added the swarvoski crystal to the menu (complimented the bling of the hall). For the church program, I added a satin yellow ribbon because we were “tying the knot”. Each stationary item had the same motif and silver ink to keep things uniform.

Advice from across the pond…

Pay attention to the details!

- Elisa

Thank you so much to Elisa and David for Sharing the day with us, and all your planning tips. Thanks also to Brett Harkness for the stunning images. Congratulations from all of us here at RMW.

Yours Truly,

Contra
xoxo

One of the highlights of our job here at Rock My Wedding is that we get to look at beautiful weddings all day, and one of the best parts of that for me is staring, literally open mouthed, at the photography. We try and showcase both inspiring weddings and outstanding photography which is what makes me pretty excited that this one is a keeper. Although all the way from Canada there are so many great ideas and pretty detail in this wedding that I had to share, so over to the lovely Elisa to tell us all about her wedding planning and the day she married David..

And the extraordinaire UK photographer behind the stunning images? Brett Harkness. I think the images speak for themselves…

Calling Canada

Our wedding was August 8, 2009 in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. The ceremony was at St. Michael Roman Catholic Church and the reception was at the Dante Club Hall (my parents also had their reception at the Dante Club.)

Blue Eyes…

I had no idea what I wanted to do with my hair! After multiple trials (and 4 days before the wedding!) I finally decided. My hair was edgy and chic, but also appropriate for my dress. I needed a lot of volume and height up top because of my hair texture, and so it would last the whole day.

As for make-up, I usually don’t wear a lot to begin with so I wanted something soft and natural looking. I didn’t want to look different than what I usually do. I had seen in a bride magazine about adding the ‘something blue’ in the make-up so I picked a soft blue eye shadow, rosy cheeks and lip gloss to complete the look. And of course, can’t forget the fake eyelashes!

The Dress

My dress! It’s Sophia Tolli’s ‘Gemma’ dress. It has a hand draped sweetheart bodice with a dropped waistline, beaded empire band of Swarovski crystals with matching floral beading throughout the full skirt, corset back, and chapel length train.

As soon as I put it on, I felt like a million dollars! It had understated elegance with tasteful details. The silhouette was perfect for my body. It was the perfect balance of traditional (with the full skirt) meets modern (draping of fabric details, drop waist). Just a quick note about the designer, Sophia used to be the head designer of Maggie Sottero and has now branched out on her own and the dress falls within an affordable price point.

Glittering Glamour

The jewellery chosen to compliment my dress was a diamond cuff bracelet, crystal and diamond drop earrings and crystal hair jewel.

The hair jewel was purchased at the bridal store. The earrings and bracelet were purchased from a jewellery kiosk in a Toronto mall. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on jewellery for one day- and it was perfect!

To finish off the look, I wore a one piece cathedral length veil finished with hand sewn crystals around the edge. I didn’t do the 3 piece cathedral veil-too much material! The one piece was perfect. I like the dramatic look of the full length.

Bring on the Boys!

The handsome groom David aka “babe” wore a charcoal Hugo Boss suit, Hugo Boss white dress shirt, ivory Hugo Boss silk tie, Burberry dress belt and cufflinks, finished with black dress shoes.

He looked amazing! Watching him as I walked down the aisle is something I’ll never forget. I was teasing him during the planning process that he was going to cry when he saw me…sure enough, he did. As I began to walk down the aisle, I could see his chin quivering and tears coming down his cheeks. Before I knew it, the whole church is getting teary eyed. It was such a beautiful moment that I’ll cherish forever.

The groomsmen purchased made-to-measure suits from a local men’s store. They were a light grey colour. They wore a white dress shirt, silver silk Hugo Boss tie, black dress shoes. The yellow was tied in with their boutonniere.

UK Shoe Heaven

I ABSOLUTELY loved my wedding shoes from Dune. They have a fab selection of wedding shoes from sandals to peep toe. I wore KROSS (great alternative to the Jimmy Choo or Louboutins). The diamante peep toe sold it for me. They were comfortable and easy to walk in and they are a nude colour so I will be able to re-wear them.

Canary Yellow Chic

The bridesmaids wore a yellow silk cocktail length dress made by Nicole Miller. The dresses were purchased from a specialty dress store instead of a bridal store.

I don’t know about you guys but I’m loving this. Wickedly cool yet feminine hair. Blinging yet classy accessories. Short and chic maids dresses and a super slick groom. What more could you ask with photography this good to top it off?

Bring on Part 2 tomorrow.

Yours Truly,

Contra
xoxo

This is a Rock n Roll wedding if ever I saw one and that’s why Kat from Rock n Roll Bride has chosen it to feature on her funky edgy and unique site and kindly let us post the reception details in this here part 2…..

It’s like a lovely little collaboration in wedding blog land if you will and believe me we’re more than a little bit thrilled to be sharing the love with another Big Day blogging chick that rocks.

Before you have a peaky at what we have to offer you REALLY need to head on over to Rock n Roll Bride RIGHT NOW to see all of the gorgeous preparation and ceremony details. Then come back to Rock My Wedding for a second helping of fabulousness….

The gorgeous Emily and John got married at Woodstock Town Hall followed by an evening reception at the The Great Barn in Oxfordshire….

All of the “knock-your-socks off they’re so darn hot” images are courtesy of the supremely talented Marianne at Marianne Taylor Photography.

Divine Venues and 1950’s Dresses

The wedding venue was the oh-so-cute Woodstock Town Hall, with standing room only for guests.
 
The reception venue was the Great barn in Anyho which was a 17th Century barn that has been converted to host events. My dad used to go for dinner there with friends after fishing but that was before it was converted, when they had to keep there jackets on because you coudl see daylight through the holes in the walls!! But now the fully restored barn complete with two roaring fireplaces it much more cosy!

We wanted to make sure the bridesmaids had a dress they would wear again and I personally have never been a fan of the traditional pastel bridesmaid’s dresses… but we found the amazing dresses we chose in Ted Baker, the shape and 1950’s look was perfect. 

The Perfect Dress and Shoes

The shoes are Christian Louboutin ‘Rolando’ style in light gold leather and my dress was “Rock n Roll” by Ian Stuart, I wore it with a lace shrug.

Bright Blooms And Little People

We wanted the day to be modern, relaxed and fun, we have lots of nieces and nephews so it was a very family orientated day.

We decided to go for bright coloured table centres because we wanted them to be a bit different and to stand out from all the christmas decorations at this time of year. My godmother organised all the flowers brilliantly. I always felt that wedding flowers can look so clinical and we really wanted to make them feel much more personal and homely in the reception, all the table bunches were taken home by the guests at the end of the night. Also with the bouquets, we just wanted somethign a bit more funky and went with the striped black and white ribbon for the bridal bouquet, which I think looked brilliant and really elegant but with a touch more personality.

Rock n Roll Baby

The theme was really ‘rock n’ roll’ I hate to say – we had acoustic metallica playing as guests enetered the town hall and heavy metal was mentioned in virtually every speech! Our first date was to see Metallica in Dublin!

Cool as hell right?

And just to make you all smile on what may be a grey and miserable day…. I’l leave you with a little picture from this A.mazing wedding that is cute as hell…

Everybody altogether now say “ahhhhhhh”

Thanks to Kat at Rock n Roll Bride and Marianne Taylor for sharing.

Hope you are all having a fabulous Wednesday.

Big Love

Charlotte xxx

And on to the second part of this piece of IMMENSE pretty. Seriously I could go on for ever and a day but you can just see for yourselves…. ( oh but must mention the dress…..one of THE most spectacular I have ever seen)

Keata and Jason held their wedding blessing and evening reception at the Crooked Billet Pub in Wimbledon with 35 close friends and family and the beautiful bride is going to share with us all of the detail behind this gorgeous affair…

All of the completely stunning images are courtesy of Segerius Bruce Photography.

Floral Perfection

We used Angel Flowers in Islington and they are the best florist in the world and they are so amazing to work with! The bridesmaids had a beautiful posy of Amnesia roses, with spray sweet Avalanche, Cool Water roses, and a touch of Amelia, with nice foliages such as compacta dracaena, eucalyptus and hints of cochlea. The stems were wrapped with hot pink ribbons.

For my bouquet I chose my favourite flowers which are white duchess tulips, I had an enormous bunch of those tied together with white organza ribbon.

Crystal Delight

I chose a high-fashion platform shoe with Swarovski crystal trimming by Benjamin Adams I absolutely love Swarovski crystals- they’re so lucky and not to mention super fabulous at creating unique and quirky jewellery pieces. I went to a Swarovski crystal party before the wedding on Regent Street and splurged. I wore a Swarovski crystal headband which was a beautiful alternative to a tiara, a Swarovski crystal cuff and baguette style Swarovski crystal stud earrings.

The One

I bought my dress from Teokath in Wimbledon. I whittled my dozens of choices down to 3 dresses! and then on my 28th birthday, my mom was visiting from South Africa and I took her into the boutique to try on the 3 dresses…..then I rushed through the fitting of the 1st two to get to ‘my’ David Fielden dress and then didn’t want to take it off…. I absolutely knew it was the one, It was stylish and fashionable and felt fabulous and like I was going to have the time of my life wearing it!

Feathers and Champagne

My bridesmaids wore Grecian style choc brown maxi dresses from Planet, they also wore marabou feather boas around their shoulders.

I gave my 3 bridesmaids a goody bag each which contained a bottle of Veuve Cliquot champagne which came in a traveller bag made from neoprene and leather. After use, they removed the inside and transformed the case into a handy bag! It also contained a pair of Miss Selfridge hot pink panties with their star signs embroidered on them and a set of decorative ceramic stars which can be filled with aromatherapy oils and hung anywhere to enjoy their favourite scent.

Big Day Style

We themed our wedding “A London Love Affair” as we wanted to pay homage to the city that we fell in love in, as well as were we’ve built up our lives and mutual friendships! We’ve both lived in London for approx 8 years and we’ve had amazing romantic and fun experiences here!

Being South African loads of our friend thought we’d head home for a beach wedding of sorts, but our two favourite times of the year in London are August- usually at the height of the summer and holiday season, so we had our engagement party then. The other is December because you simply can’t beat Christmas in London! the dates practically chose themselves!

Cookie Love

I had read once that a couple had a pick and mix sweetie bar at their wedding and I got the idea to do a cookie bar. I bought large Perspex glass jars and wedding themed cookie cutters (bride, groom, wedding cake, wedding ring, church, angel, the word ‘love’ etc) and gave 1 each to my 2 sister-in-laws, mother-in-law, mother, aunt, bridesmaids and best men who were all ordered to fill them with cookies and bring them to the wedding.

Guests were then invited to fill little clear plastic bags with their cookie choices during the night to take home. I left pink and brown ribbon out too to tie the bags closed.

Fix You

Fix You by Coldplay was our first dance. It’s our song and has been ever since it was released shortly after we started going out. We’d both had messy break-ups before we got together and the songs release was so perfect for the time in our lives when our hearts had been mangled and we’d lost faith in relationships.

When you try your best but you don’t succeed

When you get what you want but not what you need

When you feel so tired but you can’t sleep

Stuck in reverse…..

We were both sceptical about going into another relationship but as the song goes, ‘when you are too in love to let it go’ was the epitome of what we were both going through!

The Most Memorable Moment

For Jason’s speech he wrote and composed a song for me and then sang it to me in front of our guests. It was the most beautiful, sincere, romantic gesture that even had some of the boys in tears!

I am more than a little bit in love with Keata and Jason’s London Love Affair…

And if anybody is wearing the same David Fielden number I will be VERY jealous.

Thanks again to Chanelle from Segerius Bruce Photography. You Rock.

Even More Big London Love

Charlotte xxx

As a general rule we try and keep our content new and fresh however when Chanelle from Sergerius- Bruce Photography emailed Rock My Wedding I actually squealed. Like OUT LOUD….. When I was on my own.

( yes I know – geek)

Why I hear you ask? Because Chanelle and her husband Craig are un Bl*ody believably talented and “A London Love Affair” is one of my most favourite weddings ever.

A London Love Affair has already appeared in our favourite Bridal glossy – Cosmopolitan Bride magazine and one of our favourite wedding blogs – RocknRoll Bride. The very cool pink -haired RocknRoll Bride herself Kat Williams got in touch with us a while back as it transpires she and Chanelle are good friends and they got a chatting over dinner and Rock My Wedding were mentioned……

It’s lovely meeting such nice kind people in blog land. And a big BIG “thank you” to Kat for all her help, advice and support over the past few weeks, you rock Pet

Anyway back to Big Love in the Big Smoke….

This is a special two parter for us actually as Keata and Jason were married on the 13th December at Merton Registry Office followed by the “Wedding” on the 20th December at the Crooked Billet in Wimbledon Common. We will be sharing all the city chic eye candy with you folks today ( seriously like some of the most gorgeous couple shots I have seen EVER)….and all the sumptuous details of the Wimbledon wedding day tomorrow.

You’re in for a treat.

Love At First Sight

Very few people know that my love for Jason date’s back a little before anyone might have guessed and he may even have known I existed! A pimple faced teenager first laid eyes on her dream man aged 13 when she met him through her cousin and his best friend.

Not much had changed almost 4 years ago when my aunt set us to meet after we had both stumbled in our previous relationships… approximately 12 years later after first being introduced we met outside Sainsbury’s near Holborn tube station to go have some drinks… when he walked up to me I just thought Oh My Goodness, he is still tall, now even more insanely good looking, incredibly successful, still a hockey player and yes, he still had a car…and let me not forget to mention one of the nicest guys anybody could ever have the pleasure of spending time with.

The Proposal

It was 10 June 2008 and practically one of the only sunny days the summer managed to rustle up, so I called him from work on my lunch break and suggested we head up to Wimbledon Common for a dinner picnic. We both raced home after work to change, pack a picnic bag and grab some blankets.

On the way to the common we stopped at M&S to get some picnic food. One of our picnic staples/favourites is M&S’ lemon cheesecake twin pack which Jason insisted we get. I was a little less reluctant as I was, as always, counting calories! We found a beautiful spot near the pond and set up ‘picnic camp’ for the evening. After we’d finished eating the wind picked up and Jason pulled the back of the picnic blanket, which we were sitting on, over my shoulders… and pulled out the lemon cheesecake. Not feeling up to dessert Jason managed to convince me to have just one mouthful. Being the Princess that I am I insisted he feed it to me, but he insisted on handing me the box!….

When I looked down I noticed the most sparkling gorgeous platinum baguette diamond ring and I could absolutely not believe my eyes! The next thing he looked at me and with big puppy dogs eyes asked, ‘will you marry me?’ Lots of shrieks, tears and laughter followed. By then the wind was blowing gales and I was shivering! We decided to head home so I could change into the outfit I had always more or less imagined I’d be wearing when he popped the question.

We caught a cab back up to Wimbledon Village and proceeded to celebrate the rest of the night with Laurent Perrier Rose in the Dog & Fox!

Gorgeous Couple. Gorgeous Wedding. Gorgeous Photography.

And you haven’t even seen part two!

Big London Love

Charlotte xxx

Before I begin I want to say a special congratulations to Alex D who was the photographer for this lovely wedding, Alex is due to have a gorgeous little baby…..literally at any moment….. so I wanted to get her work up sharpish!

So on to part two of the fabulous wedding of Emily and Dung and lots more unique planning details from the stunning bride:

Special Jewels

I wore a gold necklace of my Mums as my something borrowed and my grandma gave me a gold bracelet which I wore on the day also. She didn’t know I was going to wear it until the day and was really pleased to see it again!

My tea ceremony hair accessories were a dragon fly from Evita peroni hair accessories and in the afternoon I didn’t have a tiara but wanted to wear something that really stood out, I had a long veil made over in Hong Kong.

The Brightest Blooms

Our florist was Jasmine at the Designer Florist. We decided on deep green as our main colour theme but with a really vivid orange as an accent colour. Basically inspired by the beautiful bird of paradise flowers. I wanted to use tropical flowers particularly as living in Hk we are surrounded by them constantly. We chose orchids for my bouquet/ dungs buttonhole. The bridesmaids had orange calla lilies and birds of paradise as their bouquets. The rest of the buttonholes used gerberas as these were the brightest orange we could find in the UK in October!

Minimalist Decor

The table plan was written on an antique style mirror which was difficult to organise but totally in keeping with the décor of the manor.

We had lots of international visitors at the wedding (dung is Australian Vietnamese). So with people from Australia, hong kong, America, germany etc we wanted to give them a taste of the best the UK has to offer. Getting married in beautiful English countryside in a stunning old Manor House hopefully made our wedding truly memorable for them.

Sweet Treats

Our cake was made by CAKE in Chester.

They truly can do anything you desire so we carried through the birds of paradise and dragon fly theme on the cake too. It was beautiful and as dung doesn’t like fruit cake we had 3 tiers chocolate, lemon and then chocolate orange as the top layer. Everyone commented on how gorgeous it was both to look at and to eat. You can’t ask for more than that.

Our favours carried through the dragon fly theme (we had dragon flies on all our stationary too). They were small bamboo dragon flies from Vietnam which are designed to balance perfectly on any surface so they were balanced on the glasses in the reception.

Kissing The Prince

Our first dance was Prince Kiss which may seem unusual but we both wanted to make sure above all that the day was fun, and that we and our guests had a great time. Prince was the first concert we went to see together, we love dancing to that kind of music together, and the dance we put together was certainly memorable. At one point dung did a headstand and I pulled out a chair! The dance will be loaded on YOUTUBE soon so you should be able to see it as ‘Dung and Emily 1st dance’.

Advice for brides

Getting married in Chester and living in Hong Kong in some ways made life more difficult and in some ways made it easier. I simply didn’t have the time to go to 20 different suppliers so i researched them all on the internet narrowed it down to 3 and visited only them on trips back to the UK. It made making decisions a lot easier and when you consider I was only in the UK for 8 days prior to the wedding (2 of which were my hen do) it just proves you don’t need to spend hours trailing around the shops in despair. The internet makes life so much easier!!

I for one will be looking for the dance on Youtube Emily – sounds a whole heap of fun and looks beautiful….

Thanks again to Alex D for the submission and the lovely Bride and Groom for allowing us to feature their Big Day on Rock My Wedding.

Big Love and Kisses

Charlotte xxx