Real Weddings

« Older Entries

Sky Blue Peach… Part 3

September 2nd, 2010

It’s the final Part of this Sky blue and Peach rustic DIY extravaganza of a wedding. I knew there was plenty to stretch out over 3 posts but this one truly is a marathon of inspiring style and design.

Without further ado I’ll hand you back over to the extraordinarily talented couple – Becky and Steve.

Decorating The Wedding Breakfast

The place names were created using luggage tags we bought from a stationer; we printed all our guests’ names in the same script font that we had used on the invites – they worked really well and resembled the ‘Eat Me’ and ‘Drink Me’ labels from Alice In Wonderland.

One of my favourite things about the wedding was the miss-matching crockery that we hired for the entire meal – from dinner and side plates to tea cups and sugar bowls, every piece was completely different and totally unique. This really did give our wedding the truly vintage theme that we wanted and was so easy to organise, we hired all the crockery from a selection at The Crockery Cupboard and Idyllic Days.

We found an idea online that we thought was a great way to bring a bit of personality to wedding – we designed and created ‘In Case You Were Wondering…’ cards that we popped into home-made cork holders and displayed on each table. These revealed to the guests some interesting facts about the day – such as where the wedding ale was sourced. Not only did they look cute but they were also a great conversation starter!

Inside the barn – Bonbon dishes, bursting with flowers and draped with strings of pearls, were placed in the middle of the tables. On the top table we wanted something slightly different – we used old jam jars, vases and jugs that we had at home, filled them with flowers and scattered them along the front of the table.

Not Just Any Cake…

We decided to keep the budget down on the cake and didn’t want to splash out £650 for a fancy fruit cake or grandiose gateau. Instead we found a delicious sponge cake from Marks & Spencer – it was covered with a double layer of white chocolate icing and decorated with beautiful chocolate sugar-paste roses, it honestly tasted like heaven.

We did think about cupcakes but felt that the simplistic design of the cake was in keeping with the 50’s vintage theme.

Sweet Tooth Favours!

We did so much research on wedding blogs and in magazines during the planning of the wedding – there are so many fantastic ideas to borrow, no matter what type of wedding you want. One of the ideas I loved every time I came across it, was the sweet table – we bought tons of our favourite sweets, and used them to fill old jars, cake stands and Bonbon dishes. We bought brown sweetie bags and used a rubber ‘LOVE’ stamp to decorate them.

We also made a ‘SWEET LOVE’ sign by buying die cut card on ebay and ribbon from a haberdashery – the font was downloaded for free from urbanfonts.com.
Everyone also had their own fortune cookie waiting at their place on the table.

In and around the venue we also used a few other bits and bobs to personalise the day – we made signs, rented bunting from Idyllic Days and used objects and items from our home. We have a couple of retro Tea Chests that we use as bed side tables – they originate from Kenya (our honeymoon destination), so were perfect for us to use in the barn.

We decided against a formal guest book but instead had a message table where we provided tags and handmade origami hearts – we asked our friends and family to write us notes and peg them up. At the end of the big day we had tons of touching messages to treasure forever!


We also created a photo booth where we gave guests the opportunity to dress up and use props to take photos of themselves. It was a great way for us to see our guests having fun, as well as giving Steve and I a giggle after the wedding!

Dancing The Night Away

We hired a string duo to play before, during and after the ceremony. I walked down the aisle to Air by Bach, but due to the violinist being massively delayed we had to play it from my iPod and blast it into the garden. During the signing of the wedding certificate the strings played a piece called La Valse from one of our favourite films Amelie and walking back up the aisle we chose Arrival Of The Queen Of Sheba. The strings created a lovely ambience during the ceremony and reception drinks, they played a mix of old and new while we served Corona and Pimms to all our guests.

During the wedding breakfast we played old-school Jazz from an iPod playlist – songs included Four Brothers by Woody Herman and Dizzy’s Business by Dizzy Gilespie. This was loved by both the older and younger guests – with the two littlest dancing throughout.

For the evening reception we hired a fantastic singer called Aydenne Simone – Steve and I went to see her play in a tiny venue in Wimbledon and were blown away by her incredible voice. She played alongside her band The Jazz Culture Band – made up of a pianist, sax, drummer and guitarist. They played some absolute classics – Fever, Hit The Road Jack, Five-Ten-Fifteen Hours are just a few examples.

Late into the evening we had a disco – we compiled an iPod playlist playing songs that were guaranteed to get everybody on the dance floor. We transformed one section of the barn by changing the lighting, using blue bulbs and setting up a hired disco ball. It turned out to be a fab way of creating a bar vibe without having to hire any entertainment or furnishing.

Steve and I played around with the idea of doing something gimmicky for our first dance – we both love Tarantino and thought about re-enacting the famous dance from Pulp Fiction, when Mia and Vincent do the twist at Jack Rabbit Slim’s. After thinking about it seriously we agreed we could never pull it off and that it may diminish the elegance of the day – plus it’s been done many times before.

A song that means a lot to both of us is Eric Clapton’s ‘You look wonderful tonight’. When we were 17 we went on holiday with a couple of friends to Torrevieja in Spain – one night we decided to go to an English pub where they were doing karaoke and Steve surprised me by jumping on the mic to sing it to me in front of, what felt like, 100 people. It made the perfect song choice for our first dance.

Advice From a Newly Wed

You don’t have to spend a fortune to do things well – there really are tons of Do It Yourself ideas and templates online for the taking, which only make your day all the more personal and unique. Don’t feel that you have to go designer, you can find things just as beautiful and quirky on the high street – it really is what you make it.

I included that last image, no doubt intended for thank you cards, because I wanted to say thank you – to Becky and Steve for allowing us to share their day in all it’s glorious detail, and also to Guy Collier for capturing the details so beautifully alongside the moving images, which tell the story of this unique day so perfectly.

It’s a Peach, don’t you agree?

Yours Truly,

Rebecca
xoxo

Guy Collier is a Rock My Wedding Sponsor, however all real wedding submissions are chosen on individual merit and no part of this wedding has been sponsored.

22 comments »

Posted in Rustic Romance

Sky Blue Peach… Part 2

September 2nd, 2010

You lucky lucky things – there’s so much more to come of this particularly pretty peach affair that it’s a three parter. First up we have the perfect ceremony with it’s details and a little bit about the photographer extraordinaire (and I should add a thoroughly nice chap) Guy Collier. Thanks goes to him for all the images today…

Wedding Day Chaos…

On the day itself the ceremony was delayed by over an hour and a half due to 2 x massive accidents on the main roads leading to the venue, as well as a Hindu festival resulting in a flood of cars in the area. As a result almost all our guests were seriously late and our celebrant and string duo were massively delayed.

The bridesmaids and I were getting ready in one of the rooms facing out over the garden where our guests and family were slowly arriving. I felt like Rapunzel trapped – but the delay only made me all the more eager to walk down the aisle and declare my love for Steve in front of all our friends and family.

Finding The Perfect Venue

Steve and I did a lot of research into the venue – we knew what kind of wedding we wanted and felt strongly that the venue should reflect the feel of the day. We are both true romantics so were eager to find something picturesque and magical. I have always envisaged getting married outdoors in an English country garden and Bury Court Barn really did tick all the boxes.

The garden is truly stunning and the building is a beautiful old converted barn surrounded by fields, so perfect for the informal wedding we were hoping for. Even the oasts looked like turrets from the outside and it really did feel enchanting.

The flowers were one of our absolute favourite elements of the day. Our florist was one of our best friends Charlotte Cox, married to Kavarn the Best Man. I cannot even begin to describe how amazing she was – the flowers were incredible, exactly what we had asked for and she was a massive help on the big day itself. She is truly talented and I cannot recommend her enough. We were desperate for something delicate, pretty and wild to tie into the venue and surroundings. We knew exactly what we wanted and Charlotte worked with us to bring everything to life, advising on what was possible and which flowers were in season.

To tie into the colour scheme of the day we used a selection of cream and peach Roses and Freesias – classic and simple. Peach Carnations were also added to the list – although they have had bad press with being cheap, they really are beautiful and look totally vintage and delicate; as a result they have been making a big comeback in the last year or so. But I also wanted something to lift and enhance the neutral colours – I love the way peach and blue complement each other and so we used Delphinium to inject electric blue into the scheme as well.

For a contrast in texture and to encompass the wild English garden look we were striving for, we threw Hypericum berries into the mix. Charlotte also recommended incorporating Rosemary – it’s a beautiful shade of grey and the sharp shape was a striking contrast to the delicate flowers we had chosen.

The bouquets were stunning – I chose to have the same flowers as the bridesmaids so all were consistent. The groomsmen had matching button holes but Steve had an Avalanche Rose which was a slightly different colour to the others.

For the ceremony we used bird cages filled with white Hydrangeas and stunning pew ends which we hung on the back of the chairs.

The Ceremony

The thing that meant the most to me was that Steve and I were lucky enough to get married outside in a beautiful English garden – it’s the only way I have ever envisaged getting married and it really was stunning. Due to the ridiculous UK laws, the only place you can legally get married outdoors is Scotland – we therefore had a Humanist ceremony which was truly fantastic.

We wrote our own vows and the celebrant’s script focused on our love for each other – it was entirely personal and very intimate.

Guy Collier Photography

We decided that we were not going to have a professional video done, but that photo’s were more important to us, as we felt these would be looked at more often and be a constant reminder of our special day. This meant we had more flexibility with our budget and it was therefore vital that our photographer would not only capture the emotion of the day, but also provide beautiful shots in the style of photos that we like best.

After checking out loads of online photo’s of other weddings, we soon realised that we were quite fussy on what style of photography we were after and that it would be hard to find someone suitable.

We were given a recommendation from someone who had used Guy Collier for a family wedding and after going through these photo’s, realised that he was just what we were looking for. After meeting Guy, discussing his style of photography and looking at other examples of his work, it soon became obvious that he was the perfect choice for us.

Guy was great through the whole process. He was very efficient and always came back to us promptly on any queries prior to our big day.

On the day, Guy was amazing. He was so enthusiastic and adjusted brilliantly to the change in timings that occurred. He even worked with the caterers to ensure everything ran smoothly. We never felt directed or staged and this really showed in the photo’s we received.

Everyone commented on how discrete Guy was and after seeing the photo’s they did not even realise they had been taken. This was so apparent in the pictures, as you could see the true emotion in everyone, which just could not have been otherwise achieved.
The final portfolio of pictures were exactly what we were hoping for. They are absolutely stunning and we almost couldn’t believe it was our wedding we were looking at.
Guy really managed to capture moments in time that had bagfuls of emotion and the pictures convey all of the feelings throughout the day.

We can’t thank Guy enough for the beautiful shots and amazing memories – we would recommend him to anyone.

A Blog-roll of creativity…

We wanted to make the day as unique and personal as possible – trawling through wedding blogs such as; Rock My Wedding, Martha Stuart, DIY Brides, you can find endless ideas and suggestions to borrow and recreate. We pulled together an enormous scrap book full of all our favourite ideas and spent time before the wedding designing, printing, cutting and gluing.

The ceremony took place in the beautiful gardens at Bury Court – we chose to get married in front of a tree overlooking the vast fields and landscape behind. We filled bird cages with Hydrangeas and hung them from the tree with peach ribbon. The venue had some old cricket chairs that we used for the ceremony; we hung pew ends on each of the aisle seats along with a bottle of bubbles.

The venue also had a massive green bench which they kept out of sight from guests, I absolutely loved it and asked them if we could move it outside for the ceremony.

We also created an Order Of The Day for each guest – we wanted something quirky so decided to give them a double purpose and create them as fans. We downloaded a template online, designed both sides in Photoshop, printed on to card and glued together with a lolly stick in between. It turned out to be really hot on the day so the guests got their use out of them.

I asked my mum to make us a ring pillow for the ceremony too – we found some vintage fabric and a doily in an old antique shop and then bought the ribbon from a haberdashery; another unique element of the day that I will treasure forever.

What’s that I hear you say? It’s just too beautiful… there can’t possibly be more?

Well there is. And it’s even better.

Yours Truly,

Rebecca
xoxo

Guy Collier is a Rock My Wedding Sponsor, however all real wedding submissions are chosen on individual merit and no part of this wedding has been sponsored.

8 comments »

Posted in Rustic Romance

Sky Blue Peach… Part 1

September 1st, 2010

We owe a massive thank you to Guy Collier this week for submitting todays wedding, which not only put me in the uncomfortable position of scraping my jaw off the floor when I first clapped eyes on it, but also only went and got the whole of peach week started…

(via email….)

Rebecca: Guy Collier Submission – peach and blue, DIY, puff ball BM’s. LOVE. IT!

Charlotte: Oh My Actual God. See us Brits can do it! He needs to send you every single image he used on the blog – they are all amazing.

Some days later…

Charlotte: Have just had immense idea when I was in the shower, about time – maybe my all day headache kicked my brain into gear!…… How do you feel about peaches and cream week on RMW?????

Another day later…

Rebecca: As I never got around to replying to your email I thought I would give some attention to this particular idea of yours – Awesome! Really love it :)

(- Embarrassingly, this is actually how our conversations go, and Thank God – we also still get just that excited!)

Guy also very kindly kept the images off his blog until we could spill the beans and share it with you… which is what I’m about to do right here, right now.

It’s just Peachy!

Becky & Steve were married 30th July this year and created a ridiculously pretty day….

Sweetheart in Sung

I absolutely loved searching for the dress – I had been told some horror stories about girls never being able to find a style that they were happy with, but dress shopping really was so much fun! I took my two sisters and mum with me and we spent a whole weekend running from shop to shop; I must have tried on roughly 50 different dresses. The first thing we did was to pick out a few different styles (traditional, vintage, Grecian, fishtail) and once we knew what suited my shape then started to delve into designs.

I found my dress first thing on the Sunday morning from Confetti and Lace in Farnham, Surrey. My sister actually picked it out and as soon as I put it on I knew it was going to be the dress I got married in. It was a traditional style – sweetheart neck and corseted waist with a flowing trail. It has stunning detail around the bust; rather than Swarovski crystals it had pearls and beautiful golden crystals, which definitely gave it the vintage twist I was looking for. I adored everything about the dress! The designer was Alfred Sung and I was the first bride of 2010 to get married in it.

Finishing touches

Finding the hair accessory was one of the hardest decisions to make – it is essential to find something that matches the dress but that doesn’t take anything away from it. I have always associated old-school veils with religious weddings so ruled this out straight away – likewise I am not a fan of tiaras so that meant looking for something not so ordinary. I tried tons of head bands, hair slides and retro style veils and fascinators. Eventually I came across a pretty little pearl beaded headband from Monsoon which I felt worked perfectly and complimented the dress – informal but delicate and pretty, it was a bargain at only 15 quid!

Pearly Queen

The shoes took a lot of thought and deliberation – I toyed with the idea of wearing electric blue shoes to add something quirky to my outfit, however I felt it may tarnish the elegant and traditional look I was trying to achieve. I searched long and hard…from designer to high street to vintage boutiques, but couldn’t find what I was looking for. Eventually I went into Monsoon (while searching for hair accessories) and discovered a gorgeous pair of ivory peep-toe heels with the same beautiful pearls that were stitched onto the headband. Honestly for all brides that are on a budget or looking for traditional accessories, go to Monsoon – they don’t have a massive range but their stuff is very cute.

Big Bouncy Curls and Glamour Puss lips…

For my hair, I had decided the first time I tried on my dress that I would wear my hair down on the day. Big, loose curls were what I wanted and my hair stylist was absolutely brilliant at transforming my straight bed hair into gorgeous bouncy curls. For the bridesmaids – I let the girls choose their own hairstyles, they all looked stunning. They all went for an ‘up’ do with a lace braid, which looked fab with their dresses. Keira Cox, our friend and sister of the Best Man, did such a brilliant job. She did my hair and all three of the bridesmaids on the morning of the wedding and was so much fun to have around.

For my face…I did consider doing my own makeup but Guy (our wonderful photographer) advised me to get it done professionally. I was after a 1950s glamour puss look – I tend to wear liquid liner and bright lipstick on a night out and wanted something similar but toned down.

I had heard some great things about Benefit, love their range and use loads of their products. I had a trial with them and they were brilliant. The girls were lovely and did a perfect job of giving me the glamorous look I had asked for. Even better, they came to the venue on the big day and the whole cost was redeemable against product – so I got to cherry pick all my favourite Benefit goodies to take on Honeymoon with me.

Peachy Puffs

The bridesmaids wore ‘birdsong puff hem bandeau’ – dresses from Coast – I absolutely adored everything about the dresses, they were totally delicate but were also quite fun. When the girls were all dressed up, with their hair and make-up done they looked like they could be subjects of a Degas painting, which I loved!

Ellen and Jemima, the older bridesmaids had matching peep-toe heels and Clementine-Rose, the youngest, wore little satin ballet shoes. Everything was champagne in colour and tied in perfectly to the rest of the wedding.

Grey Groomsmen

The groomsmen wore the same grey suits as Steve – we gave them pale peach ties with hankies to match, tying into the colour of the bridesmaid dresses, keeping everything consistent. The suits were hired from Stafford Tailoring but we asked the groomsmen to wear their own black shoes.

…And a Vintage Groom

Steve looked so very handsome – as I walked down the aisle I kept thinking how dashing he was. Because we wanted the wedding to be informal and laid back we knew we didn’t want tails and cravats, instead we chose a beautiful grey pick-on-pick suit, with lighter grey stitching around the seams. We found a lovely pale blue waistcoat that worked with the suit perfectly and helped with the vintage look and feel we wanted.

We wanted Steve to stand out slightly from the groomsmen so picked him a gorgeous tie and retro cufflinks from Paul Smith. The tie was pretty and floral and the cufflinks injected a bit of fun into Steve’s outfit by bearing a 1950’s naked sailor pin-up.

Peachy perfect right?

Just wait until you see the rest… accents of blue, DIY overload an outdoor (yes, outdoor!) ceremony and so many reception details I might just burst with excitement.

Don’t even get me started on the florals!

Yours Truly,

Rebecca
xoxo

Guy Collier is a Rock My Wedding Sponsor, however all real wedding submissions are chosen on individual merit and no part of this wedding has been sponsored.

19 comments »

Posted in Rustic Romance

A Fruitful Affair…..part 2

August 31st, 2010

Not only do I love the whole soft filled-with-love glow that Liz and Laurence’s wedding seems to exude but you’ve got to hand it to them for all the do-it-yourself pretty that went into creating this utterly peachy Big Day.

Oh and some of the most original and gorgeous favours I have ever seen……LOVE.

An In-House Baker

My mum made the cakes, three layers strawberry, chocolate and lemon Madeira cake and my good friend zoe mannering handmade each individual icing flower (each individual one took 40 minutes!!!) We loved the idea of having as many things hand made by our friends and family as possible!

An Abundance Of Florals

We decorated the entire venue ourselves (thank goodness I had 5 bridesmaids) we picked wheat from a local field and lavender from a local farm. We tied ribbon and buckles round random jam jars that we had collected for months and filled them with wheat and lavender. We also took flowers from all the bridesmaids mums gardens and filled the ceremony room with lots and lots of vases! I loved this look and it was on a total budget but had a really dramatic effect.

A Fruity Number

Borrowed blue press did all our stationery and favours. We went for a beautiful little ribboned box with a note written on the box saying ‘Laurence & Liz the perfect pear’ inside the antique box was an ordainment pear to hang up as a decoration when you get home. Borrowed blue were fantastic and so helpful when it came to coming up with ideas to suit our theme, we couldn’t have asked for more from them.


Breaking The Ice

Laurence came up without a fab idea of naming the tables after cocktails and then popping a jug of the relevant cocktail on each table, this went down REALLY well with the guests and was a great ice breaker.

Creative Talent

My photographer was Jay Rowden, i had worked with him at ITV when he was a creative there and knew instantly of his talent in photography! We were over the moon when he agreed to shoot our wedding and ecstatic over the results, we really couldn’t have asked for more! We really didn’t want the traditional line up approach which suited jay down to the ground, he’s got a real artistic eye for capturing the detail.

Making The Night

We had a DJ – Graham McManus and a live band The Kingsdown Band, both were unbelievable and totally without doubt made the night!

The Way You Look Tonight

For our first dance we went for the Tony Bennett version of the way you look tonight, played live by the kingsdown band which was amazing!

Make The Preparation Fun

What I really loved about our day was the amount of friends we had involved, from spending the entire day before decorate the venue to cake baking and dress making it was truly individual….no one will ever have the same as us!

My biggest tip would be always ask yourself can I do it myself, if the answer is yes they why not give it a try! We had sooooo much fun preparing for it all!

Did you not just love the PEACH?!

With thanks to Liz, Laurence and Jay Rowden for sharing the W-day lovely with Rock My Wedding.

Big Glowing Love

Charlotte xxx

15 comments »

Posted in Vintage Inspired

A Fruitful Affair…..part 1

August 30th, 2010

I have a lot of love for Jay Rowden the photographer of todays peach infused Big Day, not only do his emails make me laugh out loud but he has also been incredibly patient after making him wait over a month from his initial submission to posting on the blog….. and then making him wait another couple of weeks as we knew Laurence and Liz’s wedding would be ideal for this weeks theme.

Mixed with dirty golds, champagne, pinks and a striking navy blue this W-day makes peach perfection…not to mention all of the budget D.I.Y details, a unique vintage-inspired dress and some of the prettiest maids we have ever featured.

This is sure to make a lovely relaxing bank holiday Monday even lovelier.Promise.

Vintage Inspired

My dress was from berktex bride but I made quite a few alterations such as the brooch and the neck line – I didn’t want to spend a small fortune and knew I wanted a vintage look so when I put this dress on I simply knew it was the one!

Glowing Simplicity

I did my own make up and my good friend Ruth O’Brien who has just set up her own wedding hair company did my hair. We went for lose curls set back off my face again to keep it simple as the dress had quite a bit going on!

It’s All In The Name

My shoes were From Emmy shoes and called Elizabeth which I thought had to be a sign considering that’s my name! I chose a three inch heal and fell head over heals in love with them and went for the dirty gold trim in an ivory colour, amazing! Love them so much I am going to dye them afterwards and keep on wearing them!

Hand Made And Borrowed Blue

My mum hand made the veil from French silk with a gold thread trim other than that no tiara, I wanted to keep it simple. I was Iucky enough for my husband to buy me a beautiful single pearl necklace the morning of the wedding which I wore and my mum leant me her mothers vintage sapphire engagement ring as my something blue.

Blue Champagne

Laurence was in navy blue tails with a champagne coloured waistcoat and cravat he look amazing!

The Perfect Venue

We were married at Winters barn in Canterbury on July 31st, it was a beautiful venue.

Strike A Pose

My mum handmade all five bridesmaid dresses in a latte/champagne colour, we found the patterns from vogue dresses and the guys were in moss bros hired navy blue suits with ivory waistcoat and cravats.


Country Chic

My florist was a company called Flowers by Caroline based in Kent. I told her I really wanted a country feel with peonies and vintage roses and she excelled I was over the moon with the flowers especially the little flower girls who had flower balls on ribbon.

So very pretty.

And how well does a chanpagne bronzy gold hue suit a blonde? I feel the need to go invest in some new Peaches and Cream week inspired fashion!

Plenty more fruity dream coming up in part 2

Big Dirty Gold Love

Charlotte xxx

21 comments »

Posted in Vintage Inspired

Peony Perfect… Part 2

August 27th, 2010

Welcome back for Part 2 of this ridiculously pretty, peony festooned day. There are a ton of details packed into these images and Karen’s account of how they all came to be is well worth reading, as she and her mum made nearly every aspect of the decor. Super impressive.

More than a Highland Fling…

Scott’s Canadian but he quite fancied wearing a kilt, however, he wanted one which meant something to him instead of renting a tartan with which he had no connection. We did some research and found a kiltmaker in Stirling who could make him a kilt in Canadian Maple Leaf which is the tartan used by the Canadian Forces Pipes and Drums.
House of Henderson is a family run business and the service we received was outstanding. Mr. Henderson took so much time and care to make sure the whole outfit was perfect.

I gave Scott a set of cufflinks which were made from a vintage map of Toronto. One showed The University of Toronto where we met in September 2001 and the other showed the intersection of Queen Street and Woodbine Ave in the east end neighbourhood of The Beaches in Toronto, where we had our first home together.
When I saw Scott waiting for me at the bottom of the aisle I thought he looked fantastic and I was so proud to be marrying him (but I was quite worried about him in his 8yds of wool and tweed waistcoat and jacket as it was about 26 degrees on the day and the room we were married in was like a greenhouse!)

Scott’s Best Man, Euan (who is also my sister’s boyfriend) wore a Grey Spirit kilt and charcoal tweed jacket which we rented from Slaters. I chose the Grey Spirit tartan to tone in with the morning dress which both of our Dads and Scott’s brother Jason wore.

The pink peonies wouldn’t do for the boys’ buttonholes (there was no convincing them!) and so I chose classic cream, antique rose for the boys in morning dress and a simple thistle for Scott and his Best Man Euan who were in highland dress.

Love Lillian and Leonard

I found our amazing photographers in a completely unrelated internet search. I was blown away by their beautiful photography and was convinced that they would be based on the other side of the world. I was shocked and so excited to read that Lillian and Leonard were in fact based less than 50miles from our home and there was no question from that point on that we would even consider someone else!

We met Cara and Nye in a coffee shop in Glasgow and told them all about our plans. They were so sweet and genuinely interested and this confirmed everything I’d felt when I had first found their website.

When we arrived home from Glasgow Cara had emailed to say that another couple, who knew we were meeting with them that evening had beaten us to the line and had rushed a deposit to them by electronic transfer while we were having coffee! (Our first lesson in the cut-throated-dastardlyness of wedding planning!)

Amazingly they decided that for the first time ever they would photograph two weddings in one weekend. I still pinch myself when I realise how lucky we were that they agreed to do it.

I told Cara (of Lillian and Leonard) that I knew the photographs would be beautiful and surprising and special but when they arrived they were entirely beyond our expectations. Both she and Nye took such care with them and although it’s hard to explain, I feel like our photographs have given us back some of the memories we thought had slipped away in the midst of all the excitement. We can’t thank them enough for the beautiful images they’ve created for us. They are more than wedding photographs really; some of them are works of art.

Cheese and Cake

Our cake was made by my wonderful and immensely talented Mum. It was a gorgeously rich and boozy fruitcake on the bottom, then a carrot cake in the middle (which was entirely devoured on the night and I didn’t see a scrap of it!) and the top was a delicious chocolate fudge cake.

It meant a great deal to me to have my Mum make the cake. She worried and fretted over it for weeks and she drove it ever-so carefully down from our family home in a village just outside Dundee, through country lanes and over the occasional speed bump! It arrived at Gean House safely and was masterfully put together the day before the wedding.
We used champagne ribbon, peals and vintage-style brooches to decorate it and I brought my ‘junk-shop-chic’ theme through by placing a tiny Royal Doulton teacup on the top which was filled with peony blooms.

Our second cake was a cheese cake from J Mellis Cheesemonger in Edinburgh’s Morningside. All of the cheeses were either Scottish or Irish. Unfortunately our beautiful Cashel Blue was a victim of the heat and had to be hurried back to the fridge before it collapsed!

The mice on top of our cheesecake were made for us by Lynn at The Little Mouse Gift Gallery. I sent her a sample of Scott’s kilt and she made a little gold tie and grey jacket to match his outfit. My sister made the bride mouse’s dress from a sample of my dress and I was absolutely delighted with how they turned out.

Fruitful Favours

Our favours were mini jars of home-made jam. I’m originally from Tayside where I can confidently say the best berries in the world are produced! Combine that with my wonderful and very talented Mum’s legendary jam-making skills then we knew we were onto a winner with the favours.

They fit the hand-made theme beautifully and I gave them a vintage, home-spun feel by adding little cloth caps and mini luggage tags which were each stamped with the word ‘Thank You’.

DIY Diva

It was important to me to be on top of absolutely every detail and I wanted everything to gently tone into the hand-made, vintage-inspired theme without being too obvious about it. We had a loose colour palette which influenced our choices but I wanted to steer clear of being too restrictive with colours.

My Mum and I made what seemed like hundreds of fabric love hearts and we used them to decorate the Garden Room where we hung them in all of the windows. They also decorated small mason jars which held candles and they were lit throughout the house in the evening.

We made matching bunting for the top table and our jam favours were covered in the same fabric.
We scoured charity shops across the land for pretty tea cups and filled them with peonies and they decorated the windowsills in the Garden Room as well. The tea pot on the top table came home with me from Canada. It was one of many used to decorate a fundraising afternoon tea which I helped to plan and was a gift from the charity involved.

Our attention to detail even extended to the bottles of water on the tables. We found lovely aqua-toned cordial bottles and they looked beautiful beside the antique mason jars. We even brought our own ice! We found ice cube trays which made sticks of ice and we made bags of it in the weeks before the big day. All the venue had to do was to re-fill the bottle and pop a couple in to keep everyone nice and cool!

Creative Care

Our wedding was special to us because we had a hand in absolutely everything. We kept the vendors down to a bare minimum allowing us to retain the creative control over every aspect of the day. (In a very relaxed and non-bridezilla fashion of course!)

Working on all of the projects with my Mum was very special and we’ve both said how much we’ve missed each other since the wedding, even though we speak nearly every day!

Keeping everything so personal meant a huge amount of work (I’ve estimated the stationery alone took the equivalent of working from 9-5 for three weeks complete.) I wouldn’t have done it any differently though. I loved every minute of the creative process from the initial concepts to tying the very last ribbon!

I’m glad we took the time to really think about the ceremony too. We knew that was the most important part of the day and we spent a long time considering how we wanted to be married. It would be easy to be carried away with the smallest details when planning the ‘party’ but I would advise future brides to think seriously about that all important 45 minutes where you and your fiancé make your vows.

We were advised by a close friend to really take time to think, during the ceremony, about the words we were saying, and to be ‘present’. He was absolutely right, when I took Scott to be my husband I meant every word and it was incredibly powerful to hold his hand and know that this was the person I was going to share the rest of my life with.

Phew!

Just how much pretty can one blogger take?! I’m overwhelmed with the attention to detail here and what really does it for me is the fact that this was truly a DIY wedding without a single suggestion in the photos. Incredibly professional and well done.

Thank you so much to Karen for writing about her day in such detail and Scott for agreeing for her to share it, and massive thanks to Cara and Nye of Lillian and Leonard, who I remain in awe of – such beautiful images.

Yours Truly,

Rebecca
xoxo

31 comments »

Posted in Vintage Inspired