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What Kelly Did… Staved Off The Winter Blues.

February 2nd, 2012

Hello lovely people, Adam here.

I’m just barging in on Kelly’s post to remind you all that it is retro week here on RMW and anyone who comments on todays post stands the chance of winning a notebook or retro film camera from the super cool people at lomography.com. Have a look at our retro week introduction post for full details. You can also learn how to enter the lomography.com competition where you can win a couples shoot styled by Rock My Wedding and shot by some of our favourite photographers.

Right, that’s all the ‘business’ out the way – as it’s retro week who better than Kelly our vintage real bride to update you on her latest W-day shenanigans. Wow, it’s like we actually plan all this or something…

Afternoon lovely readers.

Doesn’t Christmas and New Year feel like a distant dream, as we are thrust full force into ‘gloomy’ January and February? According to professionals, about now we should be depressed, broke, failures with out new years resolutions and erm, cold. If you’re planning a wedding though, the realisation of ‘oh-em-gee-I’m-getting-married-this-year’ has probably hit you full on in the face and the previously somewhat distant concept has become, well, very, very REAL. Down in the dumps? Didn’t think so.

NYE saw our ‘engagement’ anniversary. Last year it was sunscreen, straw hats and sparkly rings in Sydney and this year it was thermals, rain and wine in London. Now, I’ve never been one for setting resolutions. We’ve all heard the stats that 90% of them fail in the first two weeks, so why set your self up for a failure? Well this year is no ordinary year…

The year of 2012 will see the London Olympics (don’t mention tickets), the apocalypse (Mesoamerican Calendar, what?!), the Diamond Jubilee (how cool), and the wedding of Kelly and Andy (!) so, in an attempt to look half decent on the wedding day, get myself healthy and improve my energy levels, off I went and investigated gym memberships. Unsurprisingly, it was cheaper to pay up front for the year (at this point Andy rolls his eyes and gives one of his ‘knowing’ looks) so that’s what I did. Paid-up-front-for-the-year. Gulp. I am hoping that now I have publicly declared my year long sign-up, the shame of quitting will be too much to bear haha!

Maid-Up

Meeting up with friends and family over the festive period also meant some important wedding talk. I am very lucky to have four beautiful ladies to be my best girls. There is Samantha, my maid of honour, twin sister and best friend. Djamilla, one of my oldest been-through-it-all-together friends. Samm, Andy’s oldest sister and super cool friend and Becca, Andy’s younger sister and super trendy friend.

So when it came to choice of bridesmaid dresses, I was somewhat worried. You couldn’t get four more individual people if you tried. So with carefully thought out wisdom, I gave them three different options to choose from:

  1. Was a skirt and top option, bit different but thought I’d throw it out there
  2. Was the option of the same or similar colour but different style dress
  3. Was everyone wears the same dress

Each of the girls came back with their decision, and they all agreed on option number 2. But did they mean ‘exactly’ the same colour or ‘roughly’ the same colour. Now most people know I love a bit of a moodboard, so I sent them the next one:

First option being the same fabric but different style, and the second option was the same colour ‘palette’. Again, they all agreed (am I lucky or what to have such agreeable gals?!) that they would like a different dress but exactly the same colour. So after trawling through websites, I picked out some dresses I liked that could all be made with the same fabric. All that was left was for the girls to pick which style they wanted:

The girls duly made their choices and that was as far as I got. Roll on several weeks and I’m browsing on-line and I come across a short-style cream dress. My heart beats a bit faster. I zoom in. I look at the different views. I click on the on-line catwalk and my mind whirrs. I love this dress. It fits better with the style of the wedding. I can imagine each of the four girls wearing it. It has lace and pleats and a little belt! So even though the decision about BM dresses had been ‘somewhat’ made, I emailed it to the girls and awaited their reactions… They loved it too! (Bridesmaid dresses. Check).

Inviting…

Lastly, if you remember my last post about invitations, we went for design number 2. I would love to take the credit for the design, but it is a mish-mash of ideas I’ve seen and liked whilst browsing on-line:


First left image courtesy of The Natural Wedding Company

They have been a labour of love and there is still more to make, but we are really happy with them. In total, they will have cost about £20 to make and I’d encourage anyone, particularly if you are on a budget to give it a go. As long as you have good quality paper and a craft knife, you’d be amazed at what you can produce.

Big I’m-off-to-the-gym-(ahem) Love,

Kelly (Reds) xxxxx

P.S. I’ve also been a busy bee making some ‘props’ which I am quite pleased with (big satisfied smile alert). Excuse the look I am making, I think I’m ‘trying’ to pose!

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Posted in Kelly - Vintage

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It Takes Two Baby.

February 2nd, 2012

Here at Rock My Wedding we showcase all sorts of styles of wedding, from vintage-inspired to ulta modern, from rustic rural to city chic. Weddings with a handful of guests right up to mammoth sized ceremonies. I don’t think we have ever had a ceremony with zero guests though… Until today.

Leading up to the wedding, Stephen and Julia were stressing about saying their vows in front of even a small number of friends and family, so they made the decision to have no guests at this part of their day, and simply have the minister marry them. navyblur their photographers became their two witnesses.

Afterwards, Stephen and Julia threw confetti over each other as there was no-one else there to do it…… genius.

Made In Belfast.

We married on Monday 10th October 2011 at Willowfield Parish Church, Belfast. Our reception for close family and friends was at Made In Belfast Cathedral Quarter restaurant. We then had an evening party with a dj and acoustic live music at The Black Box, Belfast.

Decisive And Laid Back.

My wedding dress was by Claudine for Alyce designs. I picked it from the 2nd shop I went to and within a few days of getting engaged. We only had a 6 month engagement so I was just very decisive and laid back about entire process. For a girl who’s perfect dress would come in the form of jeans and T-shirt, I didn’t want to get too hung up on looking for something I wasn’t going to be really particular about.

I’m planning to sell it and buy something that we will use all the time and have that as a reminder of our day as opposed to letting the dress go to waste hanging in a wardrobe. The bridesmaids dresses were by the Dessy Group. They were also picked in the 2nd shop! My favourite thing was probably the navy cardigan I wore that I’d bought two days before the wedding.

Silver With Pearls.

I wore a tiara and veil that came from the same shop as the wedding dress… They were the only ones I tried on and I hadn’t really planned to get either. The jewellery was very simple, mostly silver with pearls. The pearls worked really well with the navy bridesmaids dresses and the necklace I wore was one I already owned and just decided that morning to put it on.

Rocketdog Pumps.

My shoes were from the Next Occasions collection, as were the bridesmaids. We tried to do the wedding well but without spending a fortune for the sake of it. I eventually changed into my comfortable Rocketdog pumps.

The Vintage Bride.

The Vintage Bride (Kelly McClean and Claire McEvoy) did our hair and make up. I found them by chance, went for a trial and booked them there and then. They were really great on the day and just added to the laid back atmosphere that morning.

Copper Broccoli.

The Bouquets, hair pieces, button holes, tiered cake stand, dessert and lemonade display for the evening reception were all done by the fabulous Copper Broccoli. We could not have done the majority of wedding without them. The entire evening reception was pretty much orchestrated by them! They also did a lot of running about on the day for us. Incredible! I also love that the fabric bouquets can be kept forever.

Grey And Navy.

The groom and groomsmen, Stephen’s brother Chris and two friends Martin and Jamie, were suited by Remus Uomo. They were grey suits with navy ties. The bridesmaids, my sister Lyndsey and my two friends Ashley and Beulah, wore navy Dessy dresses by Alfred Sung. I wanted the dresses to be quite plain but also something that the girls would love and be able to wear again.

All The Wee Details.

We had navyblur as our photographers. We love their work and felt they were perfect for the entire feel of our very laid back wedding! They put two people who really hate getting photos taken very much at ease. We knew they would capture all the wee details that were important to us, like family and friends present, the cake pops, whoopie pies, lemonade in jam jars, acoustic open mic sessions, quirky decor in the Made In Belfast restaurant. They are super friendly AND were also very excited to be our witnesses for the ceremony! They were more than photographers on the day and were so willing to help out with whatever needed done.

Sweets And Soups.

Neither of us wanted to do the traditional ‘cutting the cake’. We got cake pops and whoopie pies instead made by Cupcakes and Fairycakes, Belfast. We also had The Soup Kitchen Belfast (whom we met at St Georges Market) provide amazing homemade soups at the start of the evening reception.

Personal Performances.

We had an acoustic open mike set up in the cafe area of the Black Box. Musician Ruth Trimble performed, along with family and friends. David MacDermott DJ’d for us. We loved that everything was so personal and tailored to us.

This Is A Party, Not A Dance.

We didn’t want a first dance. Our aim was to throw a big party to celebrate our marriage rather than specifically focus on the ‘wedding day’ part. All of the guests commented on how relaxed the whole day was and they liked that it was very personal to us.

Stripey Straws.

We decided not to have any specific favours, Stephen made the name places, which were flags on red and white stripey paper straws.

The Black Box.

We decorated The Black Box with bunting, we had lemonade served in jam jars, copper broccoli bouquets on the tables in cafe, photos of me and Stephen as kids and growing up. We mostly wanted to allow the amazing venues to speak for themselves.

Home Made Desgins.

We would like to think our wedding was very us. We planned it the way we wanted it yet didn’t spend an unnecessary amount of money. Stephen did the invites, table plan, name places etc. We were very laid back about most things, almost anti-bridezilla! I think that the most important thing for us was just being married after the 10th. We didn’t want to get sucked into forgetting that its just one day in your life. A big thank you to our families who supported us and really did let us do whatever we wanted, including having a completely private and empty church to accommodate a shy bride!

Venue Made In Belfast and The Black Box

Dress Alyce designs

Shoes Next

Bouquets and decor Copper Broccoli

Suits Remus Uomo

Photography navyblur

Stationery The Groom

Lemonade served in jam jars with stripey straws! stickers with silly sayings, whoopie pies, flying saucers, kinder eggs, Top Hat light shades… I could go on. There are so many lovely retro elements to this wedding.

The venue is really what catches my eye here – I can understand why Stephen and Julia decided to be reserved on the additional decorating – Made In Belfast is so retro cool – it really is a complete package. The odd little personal touch here and there, including Stephen’s kick-ass design skills did just enough to put their personal stamp on things and truly make it their day, their way.

I do have a quick Heath & Safety point to raise today about using naked flames at your wedding reception… they don’t mix well with tissue wrapped bouquets…

Lucky after a bit of huffing and puffing the inferno was safely contained without incident. (It was probably a good time to have about 100 jam jars of lemonade lying around the place too…)

Leave a comment for us today and you might just win a Rad, Fab, retro camera or notebook from lomography.com.

Adam.

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Posted in Vintage Inspired

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Friday I’m In Love.

February 1st, 2012

As you are probably already blissfully aware, it is Retro Week here at Rock My Wedding. To celebrate we have teamed up with lomography.com and we are giving a whole bunch of lomography cameras and goodies away to lucky commentors on every single post this week.

Our real weddings this week all have bags of retro elements and inspiration and today’s vintage-esque shindig is no exception.

We have a buttercream vintage-inspired dress from the bridal arm of Anthropologie, currently one of Charlottes most favourite sites on the inter web, bhldn.com. Matched perfectly with some beautiful crochet gloves, which although I know herald from a decade long before the 80′s still make me think a teeny-tiny bit of Madonna…

Maybe I’ve got retro on the brain…

Also, having read Natalies report I was reassured to find out that I wasn’t the only kid who collected novelty shaped rubbers in the 1980′s… Random fact of the day peeps.

The classic imagery laid out before your eyes is all by supertog team McKinley-Rodgers Photography. Enjoy.

The Cobbled Streets Of Chester.

Jez and I have been together for a long time, and once he had popped the question and I had said ‘YES’ we didn’t want to hang around so we were married just three months later! We wanted to celebrate in the city where we live and where we met and we had decided that Chester Town Hall was the perfect setting for our civil ceremony, but refurbishments meant that we had to do it this summer or wait almost a year – so we just went for it. The ceremony was wonderful – really easy going and personal. After an initial ‘moment’ when my dad, my bridesmaids and I walked into the room, I couldn’t stop smiling – nay grinning – like a Cheshire Cat. We took a risk in writing our own poem for one of our readings and my brother – who read it – had initially described it as ‘a bit left field’, but because everyone there knew us, they got it, and it went down a real treat.

For our reception, we all wandered through the cobbled streets of Chester to the beautiful Guildhall – the former parish church of the city – where we had a very tasty informal late afternoon tea of little sandwiches, crisps and scones which our amazing deli-owning friend Chris put on for us, followed by lots of mingling, dancing and catching up within the beautiful setting of the Guildhall. Pie, mash, gravy and peas were served for a good northern supper later.

Ric-Rac Detailing.

My dress is the ‘Fondant Tea Dress’ from Beholden by Anthropologie – with a name like that who wouldn’t want it? I loved it the moment I saw it online, and when it arrived just a few days after I was delighted – in fact could just have eaten it! I had been trying to find a vintage dress but time was running out, and I found that most bridal boutiques asked for far more time than I had to play with. My dress was a mix of a beautiful vintage inspired shape, made with fabrics and techniques that I already adored. The buttercream silk felt so light, the delicate sheen of it contrasted beautifully with the tiny tulle frills and ric-rac detailing, and the pin tucks gave the dress a naive twist.

A Time Gone By.

I chose accessories from Beholden too. I just fell in love with the crochet ‘unabashedly’ gloves that are presented with the Fondant tea dress online. They really are from a time gone by, and complement the dress perfectly. After a couple of emails backwards and forwards with bhldn.com stylists I also decided on the ‘Bow-Topped’ bolero as it was made with the same buttercream silk as my dress, and I felt it would balance out the look. It fitted perfectly and was exactly what I had been looking for without even knowing it. When I started to research mid-century looks I saw a lot of shorter veils. The unconventionality of the dress meant that my veil needed to be a bit different too so I decided on a birdcage veil. I like to make things – I knit, crochet and sew (a little) – and I had my mum’s cream veil that I thought I could use as the basis for my own creation. A quick search on the internet threw up a few different ‘how to’ guides so away I went. A £2.50 haberdashery spend and a few hours of head scratching, needle threading, 70s lace flower and ric-rac positioning later, and my very own creation was born. I also had my something old into the bargain.

Lady Dragon.

I knew that I wanted my shoes to stand out because of the length of my dress. Making a statement with my tootsies was surprisingly difficult. I wanted a mid-heel height, comfort and style. Apparently, these three things don’t come together all that often. Three purchases and two returns later, I had my perfect pair – my Vivienne Westwood Anglomania Lady Dragon shoes. They were the perfect height, the perfect colours and better still, they smelt AMAZING. It was like a nostalgia trip into my novelty rubber collecting 1980s childhood!

Sort Of Wavy, Sort Of Curly.

I was completely open about what to do with my hair and in fact didn’t even think about it much until the Wednesday before we got married. My hair length was quite restricting – in a not short, not long kind of way (that would be mid-length then), so I just let the people at my regular hairdressers, Essensuals in Chester, play around. They curled it, tied it up, took it down, put it up again in a different way, and then when they took it down for me to leave, there it was! A sort of wavy, sort of curly, down do which was a little bit different but still very much me. That was that. I did my make up myself. I just kept it simple and comfortable as I wanted to feel myself but spent a bit longer getting my foundation right using a primer beneath it and a translucent powder over it to keep it in place. My one new item was a gorgeoups lippy from Mac called Lady Bug (ooh I do love a good lipstick name).

British Blooms.

I intitially wanted to do all of the flowers myself. Bad idea! I tried to make a buttonhole for Jez a couple of weeks before but after one hour it had drooped hideously. If I couldn’t make a buttonhole work there was no way I was going to attempt a bouquet on my wedding day. We were so pleased with our final decision. We bought five large boxes of freshly cut British flowers from the fabulous wigglywigglers.co.uk and filled decorated jam jars for the table decorations. My mum and I had put the jam jars together a couple of weeks before armed with titbits of ribbon I never throw away, buttons, some lace I found at a vintage fair and a glue gun.

The bouquets and buttonholes were created by a local florist. The ladies at Snapdragon listened to my very open brief (just a week before the wedding I might add), – ‘just gathered’, British blooms, no particular colour scheme – showed me a picture of an edible bouquet which also had herbs in, which I loved the idea of, and then created the pretty, simple bouquets and buttonhoples wrapped in lace and ric-rac that I’d provided them with. I’d specified very little really, but I was absolutely delighted with the results.

A Little Help From Our Friends.

Getting married at such short notice, and wanting to play by our own rules, we decided to ask a few people to help out in the bridal party, but wear what they felt comfortable in. This worked really well for our wedding. Everyone felt comfortable, looked great and complemented each other beautifully! Their buttonholes and bouquets distinguished them very nicely so that people knew whom they could ask for help and directions.

Charcoal And Pale Green.

Jez found his wedding suit in John Lewis’s own range. It was charcoal grey with a little bit of a rock ‘n’ roll satin trim around the collar and pockets. He loved it, felt comforatable in it and better still, will defintately wear it again! He wore it with a beautiful shirt from a local outfitters in Chester – G:Rooms – and a pale green tie. He looked just perfect. Perfectly Jez. To top it all off was his unique and priceless smile. He smelt pretty good too in his ‘Midnight in Paris’ scent. I caught myself leaning in towards him a few times during the ceremony just to get a little sniff.

A Late Booking.

When we finally decided to have a photographer, we knew the kind of style we were looking for. We were keen that our photos would capture our day through lenses that were sympathetic to our own vision of our day. McKinley-Rodgers Photography seemed to have the perfect style for us. Their gorgeous website and online portfolio enticed me and what we found were photographers who had just the right tone for us.

Penny’s charming emails and telephone conversation convinced us that we had made the perfect choice. We weren’t even able to meet before the wedding as it was such a late booking – literally a few weeks! – but Pen was just superb on the day. Easy going, intuitive, discreet and just generally lovely.

No Cake.

Although Jez is a BIG cake fan, we decided not to have a wedding cake. Instead we invited our friends and families to bring a cake to the table for everyone to enjoy. It worked great. We had allsorts of beautiful cakes that people just devoured. We were going to cut one of them in trad style, but in the end, we lost track of time, and nobody noticed anyway!

Hey Mr DJ.

Jez is very much a music fan – so much so, that the line ‘a CD a day is good for us. it is not ridiculous’ found it’s way into the poem in our wedding ceremony! He bought some software – ‘Djay’ for his Mac – taught himself, then taught our friend Mike, and away they went. Hours of playlist building, software learning, tea drinking, PA and light hiring. Good music, good friends and good (and some not so good) dancing – a perfect mix!

God Only Knows.

Our first dance was to the Beach Boys’ ‘God Only Knows’. It’s a perfect old classic which we just love. The lyrics are so lovely and singable. I thought I’d be really worried about it, but in the end we really enjoyed our moment.

When we eventually decided we would have favours it was purely based on what I accidentally found browsing the web. Paper hearts? Embedded with the seeds of wild flowers? YES please!! The hearts looked really pretty, and hopefully, people will be planting them as we speak so they can continue to enjoy them.

Generous Pals.

Our reception venue is such a beautiful grand building in itself, with stone archways and a cavernous vaulted ceiling, that there wasn’t a lot that we could possibly do to make it more beautiful! However, a few of our fabulous friends and family came along the night before and transformed the white linen covered tables into pretty, understated pieces of art adorned with vintage mismatching crocks borrowed from a fabulous friend, tea lights, borrowed from another fabulous friend, and decorated jam jars filled with a higgledy-piggledy assortment of freshly picked British blooms.

With the seed paper hearts in the cups the tables were complete. We adorned the edges of the room with just a little bunting – again borrowed from generous pals – and the room was complete. Just lovely. Very pleasing.

A Cello Bass Bride.

One of my favourite things about our day was performing in our very own little concert! Jez plays guitar and is in an on-off band with our great friend Mike. Befittingly they’re called ‘Things That Never Happen’! They had played a few songs at Mike’s wedding a few years ago – including ‘Just Like Heaven’ by The Cure. They decided to re-form for this occasion, and how befitting in true rock ‘n’roll style to do a response in the form of ‘Friday I’m In Love’ also by The Cure – after all, it was Friday and we were in love.

I wasn’t happy in the sidelines providing tea, so I suggested that I play a bassline on my cello which I started to learn last year. It was a challenge as I’m certainly no virtuoso, but I thought it would be fun and worth it in the long run. It was SOOOOO brilliant doing it. I didn’t dare look up at our friends and family in case I missed a note or got a giggle fit, but I think they all enjoyed it judging from the applause! I think it was a real glimpse into us and our world – particularly for people who we don’t see all that often.

Beg And Borrow.

Three months is not a long time to prepare for a wedding, but it’s definitely achievable and I would advise anyone who wants to and can do it to go for it. We chose the things that were really important to us to get right – the venues, the ethos and the people – and everything else we were pretty easy about, spending where necessary but also very happy to beg and borrow, craft and thrift. When our photographers asked us to describe our wedding in three words, we replied with ‘our own rules’. And that would be my advice for any betrothed couple.

We didn’t have a massive budget, or lots of preconceptions about what we wanted our day to be like, so we just hatched our outline plan and things unfolded as we went along. We worked it all out together. If you stay true to your own rules, work together and don’t get too stressed, then your individuality and personalities will shine through. And when you look back on that day, how it will make you smile!

Venue Chester Guildhall

Dress bhldn.com

Accessories bhldn.com

Shoes Vivienne Westwood

Hair Essensuals in Chester

Blooms wigglywigglers.co.uk

Florist Snapdragon

Photography McKinley-Rodgers Photography

We bloody love The Cure at RMW, infact Charlotte and I can often be found jumping about to the sounds of Friday I’m In Love when really we should be doing something more sensible like writing a post.

I think we may have touched on every single decade in retro week with this beaut of a wedding! – share your favourite part of Natalie and Jez’s day with us in the comments box and just like every post this week, you could win a stupidly cool retro camera or notebook from lomography.com.

Spread the retro love peeps… even though it’s Wednesday not Friday.

Adam.

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Posted in Vintage Inspired

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The Sweetest Thing.

January 31st, 2012

After yesterdays contemporary and quirky take on W-day retro this morning we’ve done a complete one-eighty and gone all super feminine on you.

I adore the summer affair of Frank and Amanda (known as Framanda to their friends – I know! love!)… so much it’s been literally hell having to wait until Retro Week to feature it. I think it’ll be worth the wait though folks, so many ideas for you to steal on the fashion and floral front.

One of the reasons this celebration is one of my favourites ever to grace the pages of RMW is it is jam-packed with a whole bunch of my past and current favourite big day bits and pieces. Firstly Amanda is wearing THAT dress, possibly the most immense 50′s inspired gown on the whole of the planet. Secondly they have not one, not two, but ALL of my most lusted-after blooms of the moment, hydrangea, lisianthus and tonnes and tonnes of gypsophila…. a bunch of gyp in a tea-cup stacked on top of some old books has to be one of the simplest yet most effective table centres I have seen in a while. And then there’s the car, an original Fiat 500, the cutest car of the 60′s and early 70′s. (Possibly never mentioned the fact I like old cars – it’s a bit of a step away from make-up and clothes and the like…)

And lastly? lastly all of this pretty happened in a pub. Yep a pub. Just goes to show, you don’t have to have the fanciest country manor venue to shake it up in the style stakes.

Add all of the above to a witty write up and you’ve got yourself a generous slice of blue polka dot perfection.

With huge thanks to photographer Joanna Brown for just being generally awesome.

Easy Breezy Up-Do

My Fabulous hair was done by my hairdresser Mark Westbrook from Westbrooks workshop and wonderful make up was done by Sharon Robinson tel:- 07950885638 they both did the most amazing job, I couldn’t have asked for anything more. Simple and Perfect!

I Always Knew

As soon as my other half proposed I searched the inter-web for a 50s style dress.

I knew I didn’t want a long beautiful dress I just don’t think it would have been me…. if you know what I mean. Anyway, sitting in my office and suddenly it appeared on google…….eek!!!!!! I knew I had to find a supplier in the UK who had it.

Once I found it I popped it on and knew instantly it was the one, the designer is Justin Alexander style number 8465.
I’’m also planing to wear the dress every Christmas to pop the tree up in … making me a very large fairy ;)

Aqua And Grey

Our lovely bridesmaid Claudine wore a aqua dress from Monsoon and my little niece wore a sweet pink dress from BHS with my nephew as the dashing pageboy in his cute little grey suit. Knowing that we wanted a suits that would fit perfectly and for everyone to feel comfortable We decided not to hire them and to let everyone rock up in there own. (Plus we didn’t really want everyone matching on the day I think it added to the quirkiness).

Something Borrowed And Something Handmade

For my hair I made three little flowers, they are ivory satin with Swarovski crystal center bits (which I also sell on my little Etsy shop) and quickly whipped up a bird cage veil. I wasn’’t originally going to wear a veil but after much deliberation with Claudine ( my cheif Bridesmaid) and Joanna ( My lovely photographer lady) we thought it would finish the look off well.

My jewellery was from pilgrim and I had a little brooch on my bouquet which was from my Aunty Pauline.

A Gift From The Groom

When I think back on the things that really stood out for me it was the surprise that Frank had arranged before we got to the church.

On his list of thing to do for the wedding transport was one of them, he kept saying that my dad and myself were going to be picked up by the local cab company down the road. I belived him…there was a knock on the door from the taxi man and stepping outside we both looked up and down the road trying to find the him and his car. We spotted him a few doors down but we couldn’’t see the car as my own little car was in the way……..(now I have a fiat 500 the new one and my car is small so I was really confused!) My Dad was the first to spot the car and it was an original fiat 500……..I loved it eek!

A Flash Of Ditsy

My lovely gorgeous hubby Frank wanted a fab suit for the occasion so we trundled off to London town to a tailors called A suit that fits’ . He really loved the thought of a beautiful grey tailored suit with a flashy deep purple lining. His fab little ditsy print tie was from Reiss. The night before the wedding I also gave him a little pocket watch as a pressie he really did look amazing.

A Genius Talent

I love love our photographer Joanna Brown. I literary spent months searching for the perfect one and as soon as we meet her we knew we had to have her do our photos. She’s a very talented lady and made us feel completely at ease. I loved the fact that she did a photo booth as well…. pure genius!

HOT Flowers

Our florist were Roger and Sue from Hot flowers. I know how creative both Roger and Sue are so I knew they would do
a wonderful job. We created a mood board to show them our theme and for us to draw inspiration from too.

We wanted a vintage style bouquet for myself and little white rose button holes for the groom/groomsmen and vintage table centers in teacups and lovely little perfume bottles (which I searched the width and breadth of the country for in brick-a-brac/charity shops)… with the lazer cut butterflies and humming birds perched in the flowers.

Our colour theme was soft pinks, white, creams and some lovely dirty greens. Hot flowers picked a fab array of flowers to match, pink and white roses, green hydrangeas with Lisianthus etc… The teacups were then popped on top of some old books with a lazer cut table number and small jars with candles in.

I spent many a lunch time designing the table numbers, table names, table plan, menus, wedding invites, order of service etc ….. I also made good use of the Lazer machine I have at work whilst consuming a large number of chocolate pots for the candle holders. Dieting before the wedding wasn’’t an option…. Yikes!

A Day Of Entertaining

At the church we decided to hire Cornerstone Gospel Choir to raise the rafters and get everyone dancing down the aisles. I was really conscious of walking down the isle to the wedding march and both myself and Frank feeling very nervous so Cornerstone suggested “going to the chapel of love” by the Dixie cups which was the best. When the music came on everyone was smiling :0)

During the wedding breakfast (which consisted of the best burger in London!) I made the kiddies little goody bags to keep them entertained stuffing them full of toys and colouring in books.

After everyone had finished munching Joanna our photographer set up a Photobooth which was to the joy of our friends and family and not forgetting the wee nippers who loved it too.

For our evening entertainment we hired a lady called Kate Westall who sang our first song beautifully for us and a fabulous array from Bob Marley and Stevie Wonder to Jill Scott. She definitely got the crowd going and even the locals in the pub were up and dancing with us!

A Significant Reminder

Our first dance was Take That, Rule the World. The reasoning behind this was I love the film Stardust and unfortunately had made Frank watch it a billion times when we first started dating. Ever since then when ever we hear Rule The World it reminds us both of each other…. Although I’m still looking for the DVD he hid from me many moons ago!

Mini Bunting

I had already made the cake toppers before we had even decided on what cake to get. My dad got on the blower and asked if he could help us on the list of things to do. It was fabulous as we just wanted an iced white fruit cake so I could pop the cake toppers on top and the little bunting…. Loved it!

Retro Favours

We wanted the favours to be vintage with something from our childhood. Looking into vintage toys we came across Magic fish (!) and we just love mini eggs too…. The combination was a wee bit odd but we loved it and hopefully it took our guest back to the good old days!

The Prettiest Public House

The venue itself needed no real decoration its simple stunning down to its chesterfields, old painting and posters and cosy corners. We reserved the outside bit which was covered (just in case the rain wanted to join in on the party) it has wonderful chandeliers hanging down over the tables so seeing that, we though that little tea cups sitting on stacked old books with some pretty lazer cut butterflies and birds would do the job nicely.

Natalie who runs the Marlborough pub and her team did a awesome job putting our wedding decorations up and co-ordinating our day for us. I seriously don’t know what I would have done with out her.

Advice For Future Brides

We wrote a list of things to do in order of importance then we divided it between myself and the groom and stuck it on the fridge. ( crossing things off the list is very satisfying and stops the panic!)

I did a lot of D.I.Y for the wedding to save money. The invites, order of service table plan…etc…but please ask for help I don’t know what I would have done with out my family and friends.

During all the hustle and bustle of the day take 10 minutes out with your hubby to take your special day in.

If things go wrong it really isn’t the end of the world….Keep calm and carry on!

Lomography Love.

And to finish off, some dreamy lomo shots that Joanna took with her Diana F+. Perfect for Retro Week.

Browns Gown – Justin Alexander

Brides Accessories – Handmade and on Etsy

Maids Dress -Monsoon

Grooms Suit -A Suit That Fits’

Florist – Hot flowers

Gospel Choir -Cornerstone Gospel Choir

Fiat 500 – www.weddingclassiccars.co.uk

Venue – The Marlborough Pub

Photographer -Joanna Brown

You like?

And are you joining my gypsophila and lisianthus fan-club?

Don’t forget folks, cute cameras and brilliant books up for grabs from Lomography on every post this week so get love leaving.

Big THAT dress Love

Charlotte xxx

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You Are The Gin To My Tonic.

January 30th, 2012

Welcome to the bright and beautiful big day of Claire and Jonathan, our first little piece of W-day retro pretty. Claire chose a 50′s-esque gown from Fur Coat No Knickers which she had “pimped” (her words!) to perfection and Jonathan went for a suit in the style of Sean Connery’s James Bond in the famous 1960′s film Goldfinger.

And if the fabulous fashion wasn’t enough Claire and Jonathan mixed old school cinema decor with contemporary colour pop blooms and a generous helping of personalisation. Love.

Oh and they chose what is possibly one of the cleverest (and funniest) ways of allocating people to their table that I have ever seen (have a peek at the end of the post if you want to join in…)

All of the quirk is courtesy of the Queen of Kitsch Julia Boggio.

Making A Style Statement

It really was the hair and make up that brought it all together. Jo Neilsen is a freelance make up artist who is an old friend and she was an absolute genius. We decided we needed a statement ‘do and it was actually Sadie who suggested the blonde hairpiece to make the side bun – I was a peroxide blonde for many, many years and it was a nod to that and it really worked. The amazing hair combined with the simple, yet immaculate make up really made the look work and I didn’t have to touch it up once.

I wore my Nanna’s pearl necklace and bracelet. The girls at FCNK sourced a fabulous diamante brooch to decorate the back of my sash and I had diamante pins in my hair to match.

Pimp My Gown

The girls at Fur Coat No Knickers created my dress. I knew I couldn’t carry off a traditional wedding dress and after a couple of disappointing visits to “proper “ wedding dress shops a friend recommended FCNK. As soon as we got in there I knew this was the place for me. I was worried that being on the larger side there wouldn’t be any vintage dresses to fit me but Laura and Emma were fabulous. We settled on what I lovingly called my “Corpse Bride” dress. It started life as a very long, high necked, long sleeved gown with gorgeous vintage lace and the girls “pimped” it to perfection. Although I love 50’s dresses I didn’t want to feel as if I was dressing up so we decided to go for the quirky graduation at the back which I loved. You can never really see what you look like in your dress until you see the photos and I absolutely loved it.

The Perfect Platform

My shoes were Jimmy Choos!! Gorgeous sparkling platform peeptoes. I am a nightmare when it comes to shoes as everything hurts! My bridesmaid Sadie almost killed me several times when we thought we had found “the ones” only for them to “pinch a bit here” or “rub a bit there”. The Choos were amazingly comfy, looked fab and didn’t make me tower over Jonathan. Perfect.

The Name’s Bond

We asked the ushers and best man to wear grey suits and white shirts. We picked the ties from Duchamp and they worked perfectly even though Jonathan wasn’t sure about wearing a pink, flowery tie to start off with!

Jonathan got his 3 piece suit made for him by October House and it fitted him perfectly. He chose the style of Sean Connery’s grey suit in Goldfinger – his favourite film.

A Cinema Ceremony

We couldn’t have confetti so I also made lots of ribbon wavers and signs saying “woo hoo”, “yay” and “Mr and Mrs Grant” for people to wave after the ceremony. I put everything in popcorn boxes and left them on the chairs in the ceremony room.

There was a display table with a brilliant sign I found on Etsy saying You Are The Gin To My Tonic, some vintage “C” and “J” playing card cards and also displaying our invitations which we got from Royal Steamline – we had different ones for the day and evening and the evening ones were perfect with a black and white chequerboard design to match the floor in the Temple.

Flowers And Fairy Lights

Athena at Rebel Rebel did my flowers and what a job she did! Andaz as a venue has a lot of features and each room is totally different so it didn’t need much decoration – just something to make it look a bit more weddingy! I had decided on pink, yellow and red as my colour scheme as I thought these colours would go with every room. The ceremony room is all pale blue and cream with a big bold print on the wall. When we went to see Rebel Rebel it was around valentine’s day and they had the big, red heart made from fairy lights in their window – I loved it and we agreed we could have this in the fireplace for the ceremony rather than plinths or flowers. The fairy light theme continued for dinner and we had gloriosa lilies suspended in water with little waterproof lights in them – it looked fabulous.

Jonathan had a single gloriosa lily as his button hole and the wedding party had a mix of red, pink and yellow roses. My usherettes had beautiful wrist corsages in contrasting colours and Sadie had an amazing bouquet of spiky dahlias that matched her dress perfectly. My bouquet was full of pink, yellow and red spiky dahlias and it was exactly what I had imagined.

Bold Brights

My girls followed the colour scheme brilliantly and were quite happy that I had decided against the traditional bridesmaid dresses. As there were three, we had a pink, a yellow and a red. Sadie bagsied the red being chief BM and we found the perfect thing in Karen Millen and even got the matching red and pink shoes. My usherettes Heather and Abby got their dresses from ASOS and we decided on gold shoes to match mine. As thank you gifts I got the girls vintage pearls to wear that also matched me.

The Right Decision

After listening to (and seeing) so many horror stories about poor photography at weddings, I knew that having a great photographer was an absolute must. After deciding and booking Andaz as our venue I knew I wanted Julia Boggio to take our photos as she had shot the Andaz brochure which was stunning. Jonathan and I went to visit Julia and her husband James at their studio in Wimbledon and we knew immediately we had made the right choice. We had a lot in common with regards to loving films and everything vintage and we booked immediately. It was absolutely the right decision and the photos really speak for themselves.

I had also seen Julia’s wonderful Vintage Boudoir package and I knew this would make the perfect gift for Jonathan. About 3 months before the wedding I snuck off to Wimbledon for a fabulous day of being transformed in to a 50’s supermodel and we had so much fun at the shoot. After the shoot I went back for a viewing session with James and we decided on a beautiful brochure featuring 10 prints for me to present Jonathan with on the morning of the wedding. Choosing the final shots to be put in the book was really hard so I had another image enlarged and framed. I asked Sadie to hang this in our bedroom whilst we were on honeymoon so when we got home it was another surprise for Jonathan. He was blown away!

A Plan Of Pornstars

I really wanted there to be a DIY element to the day so I decided to make my own orders of service, place cards and table plan. Jonathan and I thought it would be funny to put everyone’s names down using their porn names (first pet and Mother’s maiden names) – there were some crackers.

I also made two very big boards full of photos of everyone who was at the wedding surrounded by red, yellow and pink hearts. This was really to give people something to look at and feel part of the day during the reception – it was a great conversation starter!

Magical Music

Our first dance was “To The End” by Blur. On holiday last year we were talking about the key pieces of music we needed to have for the wedding – going down the aisle, coming back up the aisle and of course, first dance. We decided to let the iPod decide and hit shuffle and decided that the next three songs would be the ones we would use. What a lovely story that would have been but the first song was Gold Digger by Kanye West and I think another was a song from Les Mis so it didn’t really work. However after a few attempts “To The End” came on and we knew we had to have it especially as we were going to be in the Temple and it had that wonderful ethereal sound that made it very magical indeed.

The other two songs we had were for walking down the aisle – You Only Live Twice by Nancy Sinattra (my Mum heard it on the radio and knew it would be perfect – she was right) and One Day Like This by Elbow for when we walked down the aisle together married after having seen their epic set at Glastonbury this year.

Having Your Favourites

I decided to make the cake myself – firstly as part of budgeting and secondly because I love baking and cooking and thought it was worth giving it a go. The girls came round the day before and we all made it together – it was lots of fun and we were very impressed with how it looked. It didn’t form part of the meal so was really just a gesture to cut. It was chocolate with rich chocolate buttercream and fresh raspberries and we had it with the evening buffet.

We also had a pork pie cake. I am a major pork pie fan so to have this was really my dream (yes really). Jonathan’s parents sourced the three tiers locally and each were different – pork and apple, pork and pickle and plain pork. Sadie got the little piggies and made their wedding attire and the picnic blanket and it really was the star of the show.

Important Advice

It’s your day – do what you want. Remember you will only get to do it once and you don’t want to think back and say I really wish we had done that now.. better to regret something you did do rather than you didn’t do.

Pick your battles – there will be some. Whether its with parents, suppliers or between the two of you – think about how much you really, really want it. If your gorgeous groom really doesn’t want to wear pink socks that’s probably OK, but if you are adamant he must, must wear a grey and not a blue suit that is probably the one to go for.

Going DIY is brilliant and is a great budget trimmer – if you enjoy making and doing then do it, but don’t get stressed about it and don’t let it take over your life. Of course you want the day to be perfect but will people really notice if you hand sew every single one of the invitations in thread that is exactly the same colour as your lipstick? Will people really be upset if their order of service is a fraction of a millimetre smaller on one side than the person next to them? Probably not. Attention to detail is great, but enjoying the planning and fun leading up to your wedding is better!

Get a good team around you. I honestly couldn’t have done the wedding without my bridesmaid Sadie, my usherettes and my Mum. They weren’t all involved all the time but they each had a big part to play in their own certain way. And of course, involve your groom. Jonathan wasn’t a particularly hands on groom and even if yours isn’t tell him what you are planning and what you are worried about. Jonathan brought me back down to earth so many times and made me remember we were getting married and not putting on a big production – he kept me grounded.

Brides Gown – Fur Coat No Knickers

Brides Shoes – Jimmy Choo

Grooms Suit – October House

Photography – Julia Boggio

Maids Dresses – ASOS

Venue – Andaz

Stationery – Royal Steamline

Blooms – Rebel Rebel

So what is your “Porn star” name (first pet + mothers maiden name)? mine is Poppy Meredith, Vix’s is Sophie Llewellyn and Adam’s is… Flopsy Wedgebrow.

No – I’m not even kidding.

Don’t forget you can win a sexy camera or London notebook for leaving some love on this post folks!

Big I’ll Have Mine With Ice And Lemon Love

Charlotte xxx

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Posted in Contemporary Cool

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What Céline Did… Scrap Books And Flowers.

January 26th, 2012

I’m getting married this year!!!!!

I will officially become Mrs. Céline Kimberly in 177 days. Wowzers!
For most of 2011, I was as cool as a cucumber about all the wedding planning but after making a list of to-do’s at Christmas, it hit me that my slow and steady approach just isn’t going to cut it. After all, everyone knows the devil is in the details (I have actually had nightmares about forgetting confetti cones. Seriously)!
The hardest thing about organising a wedding so far away is having to compress a lot into short spurts. Fortunately, we were in Brittany over Christmas and we made sure to stay busy: we met with the florist, we visited the church again, we organised the Friday night rehearsal dinner and we started choosing readings with our lovely priest. All in the space of two days!

Pinterest & Scrapbooks.

One of the ‘details’ I wanted to start bringing together over Christmas was how to decorate the church and the venue and I would never have succeeded without the help of Pinterest!

When I started researching decoration ideas (and it’s worth pointing out that creativity in this area is seriously lacking so I started early in the hope that research would solve my lack of talent!), I struggled to catalogue my ideas effectively. I would constantly be bookmarking web pages, taking screen shots, printing pictures with the intention of gluing them in a scrapbook and I’d end up sending dozens of emails to my mum and Tom with all these ideas. This was not only inefficient and haphazard but the daily email deluge soon overwhelmed my mum and Tom!

That’s when Pinterest came along, which saved my life and future marriage….
It’s essentially an online scrapbook where you ‘pin’ images to your boards. All the online pictures you pin are still linked to the original source and all the boards are public so people can start following yours and in turn you can follow theirs. Seriously, it’s the future of scrapbooking. My mum has registered to the website too so we can easily communicate ideas to each other!

Pretty Things.

Now I had the tools, I needed the inspiration….

A blank wall is one of the scariest things that could happen to me (I am very jealous of Shirley’s talent!) so I was relieved that the rooms in the Noë Verte are already well decorated enough that I didn’t need to add too much to it.

My ideas have been constantly evolving and what I liked 6 months ago I now find a little bland so I have been trying to avoid buying any item rashly. However, several ideas have (thankfully) stuck. The biggest one has been this beauty of a candelabra, which I found in a shop called Home and Pantry in Camden Passage, Islington:

I initially wanted to rent candelabras to limit costs (I need eight to form centrepieces for half of the tables) but all the ‘glass’ ones I could find in France were actually plastic and therefore quite unstable. So I took the plunge and bought these ones with the plan to sell them after (one of my bridesmaids has already laid claim to one of them!). I have to say I’m really really pleased with them and I think they’ll look super pretty as centrepieces. I’d like to have the arms covered in foliage and flowers though I have yet to see a picture of that so I’m not sure yet if it’s possible…. The venue owner did emphasise that the candelabrum should be above eyesight so we may put a box underneath it to give it extra height and surround the base with flowers too. It’s still a work in progress but here are some pictures of candelabra arrangements that I quite like.


Photography by Eliza Claire.
This is bigger than I am aiming for but I like that’s it’s not just a ball in the middle.


Image from love-ina-mist.co.uk
If we need to give it more height, we could add a crown of flowers at the base, though again this is bigger than I imagine it!

So that’ll form the basis of the decoration for the reception room. The outside courtyard will be covered in flowers at this time of the year and I don’t want to overcrowd it. I’m going to focus on finding lanterns to go up the stone staircase and I’d like to put a couple of flower arrangements placed in old milk jugs on half of the tables outside:


Milk jug | The Inside Story. Lanterns | Martha Stewart.

Our ‘Brief’ Meeting With The Florist.

Now that I had these initial ‘props’ and a large number of pictures of floral arrangements we really liked, we met with our lovely florist (who’s actually just our local florist – that was the easiest decision ever!). Tom recalls this meeting as lasting 10-15 minutes… of course, in reality it lasted about an hour and a half!

As with decorating in general, I don’t know much about flowers…. All I know is that I love hydrangeas, peonies and roses and I like pinks and greens and whites all bunched together (I’m still considering adding blue to that mix by the way, I can’t decide). I brought along my Mum’s brand new iPad with my Pinterest ‘flowers’ board up on the screen and showed her A LOT of pictures.


From top. Bouquet | Photography by Michele Beckwith. Table centre | Photography by Belathée Photography. Table centre | Photography by O&C Photography. Bride & bouquet | Photography by catherine. Flowers | from Flourish And Green. Pew ends | Photography by Julian Kanz Photography.

I was a little worried at first as the wedding trend in France is for contemporary and modern weddings. Fortunately, I had brought the candelabra along as well as the iPad (I know, that’s a lot of accessories!) and she immediately understood that we were going for more classic with a twist of vintage. And from then on, she suggested lots of exciting mixtures that all sounded amazing (even Tom was enthusiastic!).

She mentioned a lot of flower names but I’ll be honest, I’ve forgotten quite a lot of them…. I just know there’ll be lots of hydrangeas (they’re local to Brittany so we may end up just cutting them for our neighbours’ gardens), roses like the ones in the pictures and roses posing as peonies as peonies will no longer be in season. We’ll be seeing her again in April when she’s going to try out two different candelabra decorations for us to see, so that should be exciting!

January Happenings.

Christmas was busy busy but we still have plenty of to get on with in January and February. We’ve been choosing the ushers’ and bridesmaids’ outfits and looking at wedding invites. I have to be honest, wedding invites have been incredibly hard to choose. We wanted to keep with the travel theme and somehow use maps, but there are so many options out there! Also, we’ve found it quite hard to decide how to incorporate both French and English into the invites – any ideas?

On a more personal note, I’ve decided this year to be fitter and, more importantly, healthier (I say as I tuck into a chunk of cheese…. Uh-hum!). The wedding pressure is part of the problem although, to be honest, I think there’s more pressure from the honeymoon than the wedding!! However, it’s actually more about feeling better in my own body than it is about physically looking skinnier. At the moment I spend all day sat at a desk, I’m too tired after work to go to the gym and I spend at least half of my weekend just sleeping… Oh and I love food.

So it’s time for some life-changes. I’ve switched gyms (I was never going to the other one!), I’ve signed up for a couple of personal training sessions to help kick-start a routine and I’m learning to eat/cook better food. I find the latter hard, especially at work, but I’ve been trying some of M&S’s new ‘fuller longer’ range for lunch and I’m actually quite impressed so far! I don’t tend to eat ready meals (we don’t even own a microwave!) but they’ve been pretty decent. Does anyone have any good books/ideas to recommend for tasty and healthy food??

Phew, it has been a busy few weeks! So who else has been using Pinterest (and what’s your username so I can go steal some ideas?!) and who else has found the decorating part of the wedding a little daunting? I hope I’m not the only one!

Celine xxx

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Posted in Celine - Delicious Destination