Rustic Romance

The Other Side Of The World.

January 23rd, 2012

In the midst of planning their Australian W-day it became apparent that groom Martin’s family who are from England, would be unable to travel the-half-way-around-the-world distance to make the celebration. Determined to continue with their dream destination in the country where bride Mel originated the couple decided to hold their special day there and follow a month later with a blessing and reception in the UK… the best of both worlds if you will.

Mel was adamant that just because it was essentially the “second time” they would be saying I do it should be no less significant and planned a quintessentially “London” inspired affair with a relaxed and autumnal back-drop. I have no idea how you could plan a wedding in Australia whilst in London, and I certainly haven’t a clue how you would then plan a second wedding just a month later, these two deserve an actual round of applause because let me tell you, this big day is as pretty as they come.

When I saw Mel’s Cymbeline gown I got goosebumps, when I first laid eyes on her bouquet I wanted to run off with it, and when I peeked at her unstructured plaited up-do I wanted to wear my hair like that for the rest.of.my.life.

And that was before I saw all of the rustic potted plants and portraits taken in the perfect golden late afternoon October light. Oh and this will be the first time where we’ve had a wedding submitted and the bride has taken her future husband with her to find “the dress” – it sounded a lot of fun actually….

With thanks to photographer Dominique Bader whom Mel and Martin discovered on Rock My Wedding.

Powder And Paint

My Mum and I had our hair and makeup done at the Powder Room on Columbia Road. The ladies there all wear these fabulous pink and black vintage style outfits, and are so lovely and accommodating. Of course, I hadn’t remembered that Columbia Road becomes a bustling flower market on Sunday mornings, so we ended up becoming part of the tourist attraction that morning!

My makeup was very simple, with a bit of 60’s style eyeliner and a little pink lipstick. Most importantly, I wanted to look like ‘me’ and to steer clear of anything that I thought would be too ‘bridal’, as it just wasn’t my style! I had already had one terrible experience with a traditional bridal trial, and wasn’t going anywhere near it again!

My hair was braided and then pinned across the back of my head; a style that Beth, at the Soho Powder Room, had suggested at my trial and one that I had really loved. I had originally planned to wear a floral headpiece at the blessing, similar to the one I wore at our Aussie ceremony, but it didn’t work out on the day. Instead, my Dad and Mother in Law helped me put a single cream rose, some eucalyptus leaf and a rosehip spray in my braid just before we left for the church, which tied in to the bouquets and buttonholes perfectly. Who knew my Dad had last minute bridal hairdressing skills?!

Vintage Elegance

My dress was from Blackburn Bridal Couture in Blackheath, and was by the French designer Cymbeline. Everyone at Blackburn Bridal is incredibly helpful and the store itself is so relaxing to be in. If you are a London bride, I would really recommend you take a look!

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t actually enjoy the process of shopping for a wedding dress much at all! Everything I found just wasn’t “me”, or just wasn’t in our budget. I wanted something that was vintage in style, was elegant but wasn’t too stuffy, and would work just as well in an Australian garden wedding as it would inside a London church. So many bridal stores I visited just didn’t get what I was talking about at all- huge ball-gown dresses in an Australian garden? I don’t think so!

I actually gave up shopping for dresses, until I suddenly realised I was close to that ‘6 month minimum’ ordering period. I knew I had to get my act together and find something, so, panicking slightly, I went back to Blackburn Bridal, as I had loved their dress selections when I had visited many months before. Mandi, the store manager, picked out a few dresses for me, and one of them was the Exalto dress. It didn’t look like anything much on the rack, but I trusted her judgement and tried it on. It was so comfortable to wear, was made of the most beautiful lace, and most of all, I could actually see myself wearing it on my wedding day in both countries!

Of course, one downside of planning an overseas wedding meant that all my close friends and family were out in Oz while I was dress shopping in London. Buying my wedding dress without a trusted second opinion was more than a little nerve-wracking, so Martin came with me to see a few dresses. I would really recommend taking your partner with you, it was actually a lot of fun! He completely loved the Exalto dress as soon as I put it on, so that settled it for me, really! It ended up being as great for a Spring outdoor wedding in Australia as it did in the middle of London in Autumn, and I must say it felt just as nice to wear it the second time around!

Stepping Out In Style

For jewellery I wore a beautiful diamond necklace that my parents had given me before our Australian wedding as a wedding gift. I knew early on that I wasn’t a veil-wearing bride, although I did try on a few beautiful ones at Blackburn Bridal, and was very nearly swayed in my last minute wedding panic, but decided against it. From the state of my dress after the first wedding, I don’t think the veil would have survived until the blessing, anyway!

My shoes were “Carmen” by Rachel Simpson, from Fur Coat No Knickers in central London. They are off white with a T-bar strap and a vaguely Art Deco design across the toes. I rarely wear heels and knew I needed shoes that would be as easy to wear at an outdoor wedding as they would be in the city- not an easy task, as it turned out! I chose these as they not only looked lovely, they were comfortable too, and had the added bonus of an invisible platform on the sole, so I was able to cheat the heel height and still be able to walk! They were almost ruined by the mud from the Australian wedding, but the dry cleaner was able to clean them up for the Blessing for me- I don’t think you can notice at all!

Pretty Darn Dashing

Martin wore a lovely light blue bespoke suit from King & Allen. We had such a hard time choosing something that would suit both a Spring garden wedding in Australia and an Autumn city wedding in the UK; so much so that we still didn’t have a suit almost a month before we left for Australia. Like my dress, we knew we wanted something non-traditional, but were getting nowhere fast on that front.

At the last minute, we discovered King & Allen, who are a bespoke tailoring company based in the U.K. We made an appointment for a fitting and consultation, chose the fabric type and colour from a swatch, and the tailor measured Martin up for the suit. An hour later we had paid and nervously crossed our fingers while we waited for his suit to arrive, well aware that we were leaving for Australia just after that and would have no other option if it didn’t work out. When he tried it on four weeks later, it fitted perfectly and was so well made- it hung beautifully and he assures me that it was incredibly comfortable to wear too. I must admit that when we first saw it, it was much more blue than we had expected it to be, but this is always bound to happen when you can only go by small fabric swatches! The suit is so unlike anything else we had seen before, and he has had many compliments on it- we are both so glad that we took a leap of faith and chose it.

He also wore a white shirt with light pink stripes (which matches the lining of his suit) that we bought from TM Lewin, a blue patterned tie that he borrowed from my Dad, and some silver cufflinks that were my great grandfather’s. As a special touch, the jacket has our wedding date sewn into the lining.

All in all, I think he looked pretty darn dashing, if I do say so myself!

More Bloom For Your Buck

We decided we wanted to spend as little as possible on floral decorations, as hosting two weddings in quick succession really stretches your budget. The Union Chapel is so huge that we really struggled with how to decorate it at first- you could literally spend thousands of pounds on flowers for them to fade into the background. They also had the large stage still set up for their concerts, so we needed to work around that as cheaply as possible. In the end we decided to just let the venue speak for itself, and to add things where we could afford to.

We found 2 matching wooden lanterns from North One Garden Centre in Islington and set them up on the two front corners of the stage. We then surrounded them with rosemary bushes, flowering heather and white cyclamens that we bought from Homebase before the wedding. It definitely didn’t disguise the black stage, but it tied in nicely to the decorations at the reception, had an autumnal feel to it and felt like a link to our garden wedding in Australia. As a bonus, we now have 2 lovely lanterns that we can use in our flat, and we have kept all the plants on our balcony as a little reminder of the day.

For the reception we scattered little pots of heather, herbs, violas and forget-me-nots around the bar (also from Homebase). To save time and money we didn’t bother to replant many of these- instead we stuck burlap ribbon around the plant pots and tied it with twine, which linked in to our invitations and Order of Service booklets that we had hand made and tied with twine. We also used recycled glass jars for tea light candle lanterns and scattered them amongst the flowerpots in the bar. The bar normally has some flowers in vases around the venue anyway, so we also used these in our decorating scheme.

Our bouquet, buttonholes and corsages were all from Angel Flowers in Islington and featured a mix of cream roses, black viburnum berries, rosehips, oak leaves, and some eucalyptus leaf as a nod to the Australian wedding. We wanted all the flowers and plants to have an ‘autumnal’ feel to them, particularly as it was an easy way of tying both weddings in the opposite seasons together.

The Most Important Supplier

Our wedding photography was incredibly important to us- in fact I would say it was the most important decision we made in the planning process! We honestly cannot recommend Dominique Bader highly enough, and we feel so lucky that she was able to photograph our day for us!

Having seen a lovely engagement shoot of hers that was featured on Rock My Wedding (Emily & Pete’s), we contacted her to explain our plans for our wedding blessing. Luckily for us, she was still available on the date we had chosen! She was very personable and professional in her emails, and her photos were just so beautiful, that we knew she would capture the day perfectly.

We decided to include an engagement shoot in our photography package as well, which was so much fun, and something we would definitely recommend to other couples. We were able to spend time with Dominique and her lovely husband, Samuel, before the big day, which really helped us relax in the hectic lead up to the wedding. We got on really well with them both, and had such a lovely time on the shoot, that we could have easily planned another one straight after it (if we could have thought of a legitimate reason, of course)!

On the wedding day itself Dominique (and Samuel!) worked tirelessly in the un-seasonably hot weather, and were completely focussed on ensuring we had a great day and beautiful photos to remember it by. We had many of our guests comment on what a lovely couple they were, and they put everyone at ease while they were taking the photos.

Before we started the search for our photographer, a friend said that we should try to keep in mind that it will be these pictures that we will keep coming back to over the years, because they will document the very beginning of our brand new family. Dominique is able to take pictures that are not only beautiful, timeless and elegant; most importantly she is able to get to the true ‘heart’ of important moments like these. It makes us so happy to know that we will have these photographs to reminisce over in the years to come- we honestly could not have hoped for anything better!

Canon in D

We actually left the music at the reception entirely up to the bar staff, and it was great background music for the day.

The Union Chapel staff very kindly let us use their fancy sound equipment for the service, so we set up a couple of playlists and asked a good friend to be in charge. We used the same music as at the Australian wedding; I walked down the aisle with my Dad to ‘Canon in D’, and we walked back up after the ceremony to ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’. Canon in D is actually one of Martin’s favourite pieces of music; it is so beautiful, and gets me teary every time I hear it!

Canon in D actually featured many times during both our wedding days- without us knowing, Martin’s brother had made a slideshow from their old family photos to play at the Australian wedding that was also set to Canon in D.

During the ceremony, Martin’s Mum sang a hymn that she had chosen especially for the day, which was incredibly touching. Martin’s brother did a reading, and my Dad read a poem; ‘The Master Speed’ by Robert Frost, for us as part of the ceremony. When I read that Frost had written the poem before his own daughter’s wedding, it seemed only fitting that my Dad should read it at our wedding…

It’s All Worth It

As it was a blessing ceremony, and not a wedding, there weren’t any legalities that we needed to cover, so we could really do as we wanted with the content of the ceremony. At the same time, we wanted it to be as important and meaningful as the first one; particularly as this was the first time Martin’s family would be able to be there to share it with us. At first we really struggled with how to make both ceremonies as ‘valid’ as the other, and worried that repeating the same vows at the wedding blessing would seem forced, or worse, only a pale imitation of the ceremony we had in Australia. We came to realise that it didn’t matter whether we were signing anything at the end, it was important that our families and friends were there to witness us take this new step in our lives together, and for us, repeating our marriage vows and exchanging our wedding rings again made the most sense. We ended up having a ceremony that was very similar to our first wedding, but was definitely not a pale imitation of the sentiments we felt and shared that day!

Looking back, we can definitely say that our second wedding ceremony was no less emotional or valid than the first, and that having two wedding days actually added to our memories and experiences of both of these days in ways we could not have imagined before hand. If you and your partner are also considering planning more than one wedding ceremony, I will not lie to you- it can be tough and emotionally exhausting, and there will probably be more than a few occasions when you both just want to start screaming and call the entire thing off, but it is very much worth it in the end, I promise! I wouldn’t trade the memories I have from both my wedding ‘days’ for anything!

I would also say that we were both so much more relaxed at the blessing, despite the fact that a few things went wrong- just as they did at our first wedding! I now wish I could travel back in time and tell my overly anxious, not-yet-married-self to stop worrying so much, but I will just have to tell your nearly-married-selves instead! Things are bound to go wrong, or get forgotten about on the day, but no one will notice or care, if I’m honest! And more importantly, when things don’t always go to plan, people will eagerly jump in to lend a hand in whatever way they can. In the middle of all that crazy planning, it is easy to forget that no one is there to judge your flower arrangements, or turn their nose up at the cake you serve (or forget to serve!) They are there because they care for you both and want to share this special moment with you, and will do whatever it takes to make it a truly special day for you both. So try to relax and enjoy it all, whatever kind of day(s) you end up having!

Blessing Venue – Union Chapel

Reception Venue – The Four Sisters

Make-up – The Powder Puff Girls

Brides Gown – Cymbeline at Blackburn Bridal Couture

Brides Bouquet – Angel Flowers

Brides Shoes – Carmen by Rachel Simpson

Grooms Suit – King & Allen

Photography – Dominique Bader

Is anyone else opting for fruit-filled blooms?

And how about a Cymbeline gown?

If you answer yes to either of the above I want you to tell me ALL of the details in the comments box below. And I can’t pretend I won’t be green with envy.

Big Two Weddings Would Be Lovely Right? Love

Charlotte xxx

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Posted in Rustic Romance

Tags: Angel Flowers Florist in Islington Carmen Bridal Shoes Rachel Simpson Exalto by Cymbeline King and Allen Grooms Suit The four sisters wedding reception venue London The Powder Puff Girls wedding make-up Union Chapel Marriage and Blessing London

The Garden Of D.I.Y Delight.

January 18th, 2012

I really like back garden weddings – not only are they a good budget friendly option, but they are also a blank canvas. There are endless possibilities and if, like Tom and Esme, you like to get stuck in with a bit of D.I.Y then world is your oyster. Well, ok – your friends back garden is you oyster, but you get the idea!

Tom and Esme married in August 2011 in Brigstock, Northamptonshire and decided to employee the services of Martmari Photography to document the occasion. Good choice guys, looks like they did you proud.

Stress Free.

I know how lucky I am when I say that choosing my w-day dress was a pretty stress free experience. I enjoyed a lovely day with my Mum and sisters trying on stunning dresses in two bridal boutiques and I couldn’t fault the service in Quello, Kenilworth. Then I had a not-so-nice afternoon trying on dresses at various high street places. I lined up an appointment in a shop just outside Birmingham (which has now closed down) that was having a sample sale. I did the usual sift through the dresses on offer, picking out a couple to try on when I saw my dress: Mori Lee, style number 2510. I knew that it was the dress that I would be getting married in the second I noticed it. Please don’t hate me fellow brides!

My amazing Mum haggled down the price and after a celebratory large glass of wine in a cafe next door, I was on my way home with my dress! I loved the shape and how it accentuated all of my best bits and the fact that it was simple but with a bit of sparkle, but the main reason I fell for it was because I knew my now husband would love it. And he did.

My Usual Style.

My something borrowed were earrings from my Mum, who also gave me a grey beaded bracelet that she had made. My very talented sister made me and my bridesmaids butterflies for our hair, which was the perfect surprise because despite collecting various clips and slides, I couldn’t find the ideal hair accessory anywhere. I decided early on that I wouldn’t wear a veil because it didn’t fit into the ‘look’ I had in mind and I’m glad I stuck with my decision. I was really pleased that everything went together, and how I would wear/use everything again because they’re very much in fitting with my usual style.

Grey-Loving Bride.

I found my shoes in the Phase Eight sale just after buying my dress and they were the perfect choice for this grey-loving bride. I had always known that I would wear coloured shoes (in fact, it was seeing brides wearing non-ivory shoes that got me addicted to RMW), despite hearing many protestations from friends and family members.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions.

Hair and make-up – What to do… Who to have doing it… What to have – were really difficult decisions for me. After finding pictures of the hair style I wanted, I knew that it would be best done by a professional, however finding someone to do it was a very different question! We were on a strict budget and although my dress was a bargain, I didn’t want to spend loads on ‘just one day’.

I went through every option: teaching a friend to do my hair how I wanted it, going to a local salon in the morning and finding a mobile hairdresser to come out to the hotel. We got married in my husband’s parents’ village, which is not close to where we live, so asking my regular hairdresser wasn’t possible. I felt so frustrated with the lack of options – either the hotel where we were getting ready was too far away, or salons wouldn’t take me on a Saturday (er, what?) or the people who would come out specialised in ‘traditional bridal hair’ (read hair scraped back into a huge bun of tight curls, you know what I mean…). Argh!

Finally, I remembered that a school friend’s sister had got married the year before and someone had come out to do her hair. After one phone call it was all sorted and Matt from M&Arc Hair & Beauty, Peterborough, aka my knight in shining armour, was booked. I had a quick trial that was perfect and on the day he wizzed through me, my bridesmaids, my Mum and my husband’s God Mother.

Make-up was a similarly difficult to arrange. I umm-ed and ahh-ed for weeks over whether to buy new make-up and do it myself, or to find a make-up artist. In the end my husband decided for me – he hates it when we’re getting ready for a night out and I get all flustered because my eyeliner goes wrong/the shoes just aren’t right/my hair’s just not wavy enough, so he declared that I would be getting a professional in, no matter what the cost. Bless him! He was completely right and although it was expensive, choosing Sheelagh was one of the best decisions I (he) made – I was able to pamper my bridesmaids, our make-up stayed perfect ALL day, she was a true professional and ultimately gave me a peace of mind that was priceless. I couldn’t recommend her enough.

A Dab Hand With Blooms.

I have a confession to make: flowers were low on our list of wedding priorities. Don’t get me wrong, we wanted pretty flowers and I had my favourites, but I knew that we wouldn’t be spending hundreds and that other things had priority budget-wise. Luckily for us, my Mother-in-Law, a family friend and my sister are all a dab hand with blooms and so took over the task for us. I sent them pictures of a bouquet I liked, a bridesmaid bouquet and several images of table flowers with these instructions: hydrangeas, pink roses, pinks, whites, pale green, light yellow, soft colours. Jars and bottles with individual or a couple of stems of all different heights.

We were blown away on the day – they did the most fantastic job. My bouquet was so stunning and the flowers on the table were EXACTLY how we had imagined them. They ordered the flowers from a local florist who gave them near wholesale prices, with a few extra roses bought from Asda and Sainsburys at the eleventh hour. I still can’t believe that they were able to turn my ideas into reality!

My Mum snuck out of the hotel on the morning of the wedding to decorate our ceremony area with wild flowers, sage and lavender. It was a lovely surprise for me and it was just enough to compliment the already beautiful setting. My ‘flower team’ also made a large hydrangea display for the ceremony and later for the dinner marquee. We also had a hanging basket with gypsophila at the entrance to the garden.

Highstreet Maids.

I knew that I didn’t want the bridesmaids or the groomsmen to all look exactly the same, mainly because I knew that I wouldn’t get my two sisters, best friend and 12-year old family friend in the same dress. My Maid of Honour and I went shopping a while before the wedding and fell in love with a purple one-shoulder dress from Coast and were able to find two in the exact same colour but different styles in Monsoon, with the fourth made by my Mother-in-Law. I loved how the four of them looked!

We bought ties for the groomsmen and our Dads, and asked them to wear white shirts and grey suits. Coincidently quite a few other guests turned up with lilac ties or wearing purple dresses, so it all tied in quite nicely!

Geek Chic.

Another bargain was Tom’s suit, bought from Charles Tyrwhitt just after we got engaged in the summer sale. He needs extra long sleeves and this is one of the only places that sells well-cut shirts in different lengths, so he got himself a white shirt from there too. Easy. Unlike his tie, which took around 8 months to find! In the end we found the perfect Ted Baker one on Ebay, the only one we both agreed on! His shoes were more expensive than mine from Loake.

As a present, I had some cufflinks made for him through the excellent website Sonia Spencer. Tom is a Research Chemist and a bit of a geek, so I designed (with help!) periodic table cufflinks – ES for Esme (Einsteinium) and TM for Tom (Thulium). I don’t know if anyone else got the joke, but he liked them!

An Easy Decision.

After Googling ‘Photography Northamptonshire’ we came across Martmari and wow, were we glad we did! It was a really easy decision because Martin and Marina lived near to where the wedding was going to be, we loved their style (I would describe it as detailed reportage, but with a classic edge) and they were offering a really good deal.

A pre-wedding shoot made us confident that we had chosen well and on the day they were absolutely amazing. They were so professional and interested in getting the best shots of all the details, not in-our-faces, but always close by when we wanted a photo taken. Plus, we couldn’t be more in love with the results – the photos are just beautiful. All of our family and friends have been raving about them and their work since the wedding and I really hope that they become more widely known and as successful as they deserve to be. Please book them!

Man Cake.

My wonderful husband made our wedding cake! After a few practices and some complicated sketches (what can I say? He’s a scientist!), he designed a three-tier square cake: bottom layer his signature fruit cake, second layer my favourite date and walnut and the top layer of my Mum’s chocolate cake, all covered in pale blue/green buttercream and handmade icing roses and petals. It was perfect – well done Tom!

Art School Hero.

We had a jazz band all lined up to play at various points during the day, who cancelled on us six weeks before the wedding. What a nightmare. With no more money in the budget we called on Tom’s old Art teacher, who we knew used to be in a band. Thankfully he agreed to reunite his Rhythm and Blues band and they did an amazing set that got everyone on the dance floor, so much so that our carefully put-together playlist didn’t get a look in.

Throughout the day we had music playing from an iPod and various leads and speakers that I won’t even try to describe because I had no part in setting it up.

Please Forgive Me.

We chose our first dance song after a romantic meal on New Year’s Eve. In fact, Tom suggested it as he said that he used to listen to it a lot when we first got together (we were 16) because it summed up the way he felt about me. Can I have a collective ‘awww’? It was David Gray’s Please Forgive Me. We followed it with Barry White My First, My Last, My Everything, because that song always gets me dancing!

Crafty Favours.

My Mum is a stained glass artist and she, along with her husband, very generously made us some Rennie Mackintosh inspired glass roses for our guests to take away and hang in their homes. We weren’t too bothered about favours, but these looked lovely hanging in the tree and we were happy to take any leftover home with us. We also made ceramic name plates for everyone, all of which were taken by our guests, so I guess they were the favours really.

Reduce, Re-use Recycle.

We wanted to spend as little as possible on decorations, partly because we were cheap-skates who didn’t want boxes of wedding only paraphernalia in the house afterwards and partly because we didn’t think the beautiful garden needed much decorating. So everything that you can see we already owned, borrowed from friends, made ourselves or bought after hours searching on the internet for the cheapest option.

We used fabric (aptly named ‘Esme’ and bought in the sale) from Laura Ashley kids’ department for decorations in the form of bunting, the table plan and our ‘lovers’ seat’ during the ceremony. Fairy lights were borrowed or bought cheaply from Ikea and strung liberally around the garden (battery or solar powered ones for outside) and we clipped loads of photos (all ordered through various photo-printing websites using discount codes/free print vouchers etc) of us with our friends and family in our ‘tea tent’. My Maid of Honour made a frame out of cardboard, which was a huge hit (I know that no-one reading this will think that a frame for posing opportunities is original, but none of our guests had ever seen it before, so I would definitely recommend giving it a go).

Tom made a map of the venue on Photoshop which we displayed on an easel. Signs to direct our guests were stencilled and painted on old bits of wood, and we made some letters from plywood that we decorated ourselves to spell either ‘TEA’ (for during the afternoon tea part of the day) and ‘T&E’ later. (Those are now on our kitchen wall, spelling ‘EAT’.) Random bits of ribbon were tied around trees, lights and anything else that stayed still long enough and we had candles wherever we could – simple and cheap, but effective.

The biggest DIY project we did was to collect boxes and boxes of glass jars and etch them with designs of butterflies, bows, teapots, martini glasses etc. It took a whole weekend for me and my Maid of Honour to do these, but it wasn’t difficult to do or expensive (you can buy a whole bottle of etching fluid online for around £8 and we didn’t even use half) and it was so worth it because they looked lovely.

When I look at all that written out, it looks like we did loads! I suppose we did, but because we spread everything out over the whole of our engagement – buying candles whenever we saw cheap ones, printing the photos whenever there was an offer and doing the DIY projects over several months – it didn’t feel like too much. Tom is very creative so this was a really good excuse to do something together and for me to learn to enjoy making something. Making things for our wedding gave me confidence in my creative and design skills and I’ve now got loads of ideas for ways to use some of our leftover wedding bits in our home.

Make The Most Of It.

Our wedding ceremony was incredibly personal because we had a Humanist ceremony outside with our own vows. We got legally married a couple of days before in a registry office nearer to home, but this was our REAL wedding. We knew that there were quite were concerns about what the ceremony would be like, but in the end a lot of people found it very moving and we absolutely loved it. We were also lucky enough to be offered the use of a family friends’ garden for our wedding so we could personalise it exactly how we wanted to.

My advice to future brides is this: put your money into the things that matter to you. For us, it was food and drink, which were both perfect for us on the day. Enjoy planning and make sure you really make the most of it, by which I don’t just mean spending hours talking to your girlfriends about dresses and shoes (although you should also do that!) but also involving people and making fun weekends out of DIY projects or boring wedding related tasks. For example, we held a wine tasting with our Maid of Honour, Best Man and their partners where we blind tasted about 14 wines and we invited all of our parents to try our wedding meal a few months before. People really DO want to help with your wedding, so let them in whichever way they can (financially, practically or emotionally) and you will be pleasantly surprised by the secret skills your friends and family have.

Our wedding was incredible, not because it was perfect, but because it was OUR day and I got to marry the man I love. But I never want to do it again!

Venue Backgarden!

Dress Mori Lee, style number 2510

Hair M&Arc Hair & Beauty

Make-up Sheelagh Powell

Shoes Phase Eight

Tailor Charles Tyrwhitt

Cufflinks Sonia Spencer

Photography Martmari

Well, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of the groom making the cake before – another Rock My Wedding first for you today folks!

Lots of details that I really love here – from the so-geeky-they’re-cool cufflinks though to the hanging stained glass, in fact all the little D.I.Y projects… Even the first dance song really strikes a chord with me – brilliant choices all round.

Tom and Esme did so much by themselves and with the help of friends and family. We have here a wedding without the cost of reception venue hire, no florist, no cost for evening entertainment and with the help of old ‘Heston Blumenthal’ with his bunsen burner and testube – no expensive cake costs… and does it show? No. It. Does. Not. And all this saving allowed Tom and Esme to really splash out on the food and drink and give their loved ones the party of their lives!

Tom, Esme (and of course all of your talented friends and family), we salute you.

Adam.

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Posted in Rustic Romance

Tags: Charles Tyrwhitt tailor M and Arc Hair and Beauty Martmari wedding photography Mori Lee Phase Eight Sheelagh Powell bridal make-up Sonia Spencer bespoke cufflinks style number 2510 Bridal Gown

A Raspberry Red And Apple Green Wedding.

January 16th, 2012

Sonja and Shane married in September 2011 at Hellens Manor in Much Marcle, Herefordshire.

They chose Hellens Manor for its countryside setting and gorgeous amenities – a medieval manor house with party barns in the beautiful countryside of Herefordshire. The venue allowed Sonja and Shane to decorate and do pretty much anything and everything they wanted, they even rigged up a whole new lantern based lighting system for the day (all conceived and created by Shane and his helpers).

Today then, we are off to the cider county, and to document this dreamy rustic day we have Gemma from Gemma Williams Photography, and may I say you are in for a visual treat that is good enough to eat.

Lovely Memories.

From the word go we knew we wanted to stay local to our Herefordshire home and keep it a very relaxed and country wedding, full of personal touches and fun. We wanted to make it not only an amazing day for us, but for all our guests to enjoy and leave with lovely memories.

Living in the heart of the Apple and Cider County we went for a country apple theme. From the invitations to the favours right up to the flower arrangements, apples galore!

We decorated the barn the day before with all sorts of things I found on ebay over the last year – lots of candles, lanterns, wicker hearts, metal buckets and paper lanterns for our ceiling lighting. I had my heart set on bunting in our colour scheme and my dad offered to help us. He spent weeks sewing our gorgeous bunting – 150m of it! This lovely splash of colour welcomed the guests to the barns and was a major part of our decoration.

The colour scheme was a gorgeous raspberry red and apple green. My bridesmaids Tina and Simone (my best friends from Germany) were wearing the Allure dress from Coast in sage green. For contrast and to carry through the colour scheme I asked my florist to make raspberry red bouquets for them – which looked absolutely stunning.

Shane and his best man had beige linen suits from Moss Bros. I loved the relaxed and ‘sunny’ look of these suits, very laid back. The ties (rented from Moss Bros) mirrored the sage green of the girls’ dresses.

Rose Detailing.

The dress, well, that was one of the first worries I had. I am not a very girlie girl and don’t really do dresses. So knowing what to go for was rather tricky. I’d decided to go to the National Wedding Show last March. I hate shopping at the best of times and it was all a bit over whelming for me. I tried the odd dress on, just to make an effort.

After 4 hours I still wasn’t any closer to finding my dress and saw myself leaving without one. About to go for a late lunch, a strapless ivory dress caught my eye. I tried it on and my friend who joined me for the day thought it was lovely. I still felt really awkward, not being used to wearing a massive dress. As I took the dress off and put it back on the hanger I could feel some tears coming up and felt rather emotional about the dress… it felt like I was putting MY dress back onto the hanger… that was the sign.

The dress was a gorgeous strapless design with rose detailing at the bust, layers in the skirt part and the best bit was – it held my tummy in nicely! It was from Grace Couture in Nottingham, from their Art Couture collection.

I had it altered a couple of times, the train shortened, the layers of netting taken up, all just to make me feel a bit more comfortable. The outcome was the most gorgeous dress I could have hoped for, it made me feel like a million dollars and I enjoyed wearing it every second of the day.

Elegant Simplicity.

I chose quite simple but elegant jewellery from Pia in Cheltenham. A lovely freshwater pearl necklace and bracelet.

For my hair I bought some little diamond and a small feathery, ivory fascinator from Hat Trick in Hereford.

Something Old, Something New…. Something Missing?

I have to admit, I was missing one of them. My shoes were my ‘something old’ (advantage being: nicely worn in and comfy!) Ivory closed toe sling backs, bought a few years ago at BHS. My ‘something blue’ was a pair of knickers Tina bought me, as a joke! She asked me to wear them (with a smile on her face), but after spending a small fortune on my bridal lingerie in Montpellier, Cheltenham, I decided not to wear them but to keep them in my little make up bag instead. My ‘something new’ was a surprise present from Shane…we agreed on not buying each other presents, but on the morning of the wedding our son Bayon walked in with a little bag labelled ‘Something new…I love you’. A gorgeous pair of diamond earrings (to go with my engagement ring) that nearly made me burst into tears! The one thing I was missing was the ‘something borrowed

…hmmm, I did borrow Simone’s hairspray, does that count?!

Me… Naturally.

My hair was done by my friend and professional hairdresser Debbie. With years of experience and running her own salon in Ledbury, I couldn’t have been more confident in letting Debs loose on my hair. We went for a relaxed hair up-do. By curling my hair and giving it more volume, Debs managed to get even my short hair up. It looked gorgeous – everybody commented on my hair and I loved it! Big thanks to Debs. xxx

I did my own make up, as I wanted to be me on the big day. My new Dior foundation and lipstick finished the natural look off nicely.

Only Time.

Lots of tea lights were lit along the barn walls for the ceremony, lanterns lined the aisle either side – Enya’s ‘Only Time’ was my entrance song. One of the most important decorative parts of the ceremony was our ceremony arch.

Thanks to my bridesmaid Simone and best man Justin, it all came together at the end and looked absolutely stunning on the day. To make it a personal ceremony we had a German and an English reading and some gorgeous music performed by Hannah and Rob (Hannah plays the sax, how cool is that?!) and to make it a little bit more special for the German guests, I said my ring vows in German.

A Country Cottage Feel…

I fell in love with Dawn Horsted Flowers, I loved her style of using country and cottagey flowers and herbs. Using just some hydrangeas, Dawn made simple and stunning bouquets for the bridesmaids. My posy had roses, herbs and hydrangeas in pink and greens. The centre pieces and two other arrangements were designed to go with our colour and wedding theme – raspberry red and apple green and of course apples were part of all of the flower arrangements – eye catching, different and earning plenty of praise from our guests.

Shane’s dad supplied a load of green/pinky hydrangea heads from his garden. We used them throughout the venue, we dotted little jam jars with ribbon around the barn and filled them with the hydrangeas. I tied a few of them into our ceremony arch and decorated our cheese cake with them too.

Remembering…

As well as having a selection of family wedding photos on our cake table, we arranged some photos of loved ones who sadly are no longer with us, next to the guest book. This was a lovely way of remembering our family members and friend who couldn’t share this special time with us.

Quirky And A Little Different.

Instead of favours and a traditional table plan, we brought in a miniature apple tree that we were given by friends for the birth of our son Bayon. I bought some chalkboard apple tags on ebay. These were used as name/escort cards, hung with jute twine off the branches. Guests had to find their apple (which they kept as a favour) and find their table. We let them chose their own seat at their table, which was a lot less hassle than trying to figure out, who should sit next to whom.

Best of Taste catering served fantastic canapés during our drinks reception. Our wedding breakfast was a three course meal including pork with cider sauce (to go with the theme). For the evening snack they served fish and chips in cones – a massive hit with all our guests!

Traditional Fun.

Being German meant my family and friends planned a few little traditional surprises for us. Wedding traditions are big in Germany. During our reception drinks and canapés my mum presented us with our ‘wedding candle’ and read out a beautiful poem for the candle ceremony. Very touching, very moving, many guests mentioned how lovely it was. Next we had to cut a big heart out of a sheet – with the worst possible nail scissors! My favourite of all and probably the most well known German wedding tradition is the ‘sawing of the log’. As a sign of ‘working together’ and ‘getting through difficult times’ we had to saw through a (thankfully rather skinny) log with a double handed saw. Great fun and the Brits could probably not believe what was happening!

Helium balloons with little address labels attached were released after dinner. We had two replies, one from a couple just 20miles down the road in Tewkesbury and the other one from a Belgian couple who found one of our balloons on a beach in France!

All Good Things Come In Threes…

Although we invested in a rather nice leather guestbook, we also wanted something a little different. We arranged some curly willow branches in a hurricane vase as a Wish Tree. Guests wrote wishes on to little cards and hung them from the branches. I also found this gorgeous idea of a guestbook thumbprint tree on the internet. Shane luckily is arty enough to draw a nice tree. We bought some ink pads from ebay for guests to ‘leaf’ their thumbprints and sign their name. This idea went down a storm and everybody commented on it. The finished art work is now on our wall for us to enjoy.

The Cutting Of The Cheese…

We both aren’t the biggest fans of traditional wedding cakes especially the icing. Cup cakes and muffins, individual fruit tarts and a cake buffet had all been discussed in detail, but didn’t really tickle our fancy. We finally decided on a ‘cheese cake’, basically three tiers of whole cheese wheels. Mouse Trap in Hereford helped me chose the right cheeses – it had to stack nicely. In the end the three tiers were: Little Hereford (bottom), Vignotte (middle) and a Welsh goat cheese as top tier.

Having spent months looking for cake tops, a friend of mine recommended Sunfish Handmade Caketops up in Scotland. And what a find! Fantastic attention to detail, superb understanding of what we wanted and fast turnaround. Helen made ‘us’ and told ‘our little story’ on a cake. The cake top shows Shane and myself, our son Bayon is waving our country flags. As additional details we had a backpack made (we went travelling around the world for a year) with a little Swiss flag on it (Shane and I met in Switzerland). The stack of books represents our jobs: antiquarian book dealers and if you look closely enough, you can even read the title ‘Beau Rivage, Room 101’ – this is the hotel I used to work at in Geneva and Shane was one of our VIP guests in room 101!

This little cake top means a lot to us – it is our story! It’s now standing on our mantelpiece.

Greatest Day.

Herefordshire’s top DJ Roddy Hankins did the evening entertainment for us. We briefed him on what style of music we liked, gave him our first and last dance and some of our favourites.

Neither of us likes to dance – well I do, but need a good drink before I get on the dance floor. Shane didn’t want to do a first dance at all, but best man Justin had us make a decision two days before the big day. I would have gone for ‘Cotton Eye Joe’ doing a barn dance style routine. It would have been hilarious and gone so well with our country theme. Shane wasn’t impressed in the slightest. In the end, we decided on Take That’s Greatest Day and no dance routine. We actually asked all our lovely village friends to not leave us on the dance floor for too long by ourselves. They were fab and followed suit, joining us after about 10 seconds into the song. Thanks girls!

After not wanting to have a first dance at all, we actually spent quite a lot of time on the dance floor together and I really enjoyed dancing with my hubby. Our last dance didn’t go to plan though, as we forgot to give Roddy the CD for it. In the end, knowing that I am a Take That/Robbie Williams fan, he played ‘Angels’ instead. Nobody minds a bit of Robbie, eh!

Untraditional Fun.

Well what can I say?! We nearly didn’t go for a photographer, just to keep our costs down… but I am so glad, we didn’t! Shane came across Gemma Williams Photography on the internet and we both fell in love with her style and attitude towards weddings straight away. We met up with her to discuss a few things and signed her up. A few weeks before the wedding we sat down for a final chat with Gemma and went through some details and ideas of what we were planning, hoping and looking for.

We believed Gemma would get us the images we wanted, the style and untraditional fun shots, which would document our special day beautifully. Due to the weather we only had a very short portrait session during the meal, when the sun came back out for a moment we went for it, Gemma ran from A to B and was so excited about finally doing all our fun and personal shots. We had a right laugh with the donkey, our wooden signs and of course our moustaches – we couldn’t stop laughing, we had such a ball.

Gemma was probably one of our best, if not the best, investments for our day… the images are exactly what we were looking for. Every single shot was cleverly taken. We love every single one of them… and I have to admit, I still look at them every single day – they just make me happy! Thank you Gemma for being such a fantastic and professional photographer and wonderful person!

Stick To What You Love.

Make it your day, make it personal. Don’t do what others tell you to do and don’t do things to make others happy. Stick to what you love, fancy and believe in. Don’t think about what others may say! Add personal and loving touches here and there, something different and something funny, to reflect the true you. Guests will highly appreciated your thoughtfulness, attention to detail and ideas – and they will love thinking back to the special day they were able to share with you.

The things that everybody commented on were our flowers, the ceremony, fish and chips, all our German traditions, our guestbook thumbprint tree and of course the moustache bar.

My favourite part was walking down the aisle and finally looking up at my hubby-to-be for the first time – gosh I was a nervous wreck – I’ve been waiting for this day for nearly 9 years! We both really enjoyed all the German games and had great fun cutting our cheese cake. I can’t really pick out, what I enjoyed most, every minute of it was special.

The year leading up to the wedding was very stressful indeed. Planning, organising and purchasing everything on my own (Shane was busy renovating the cottage, landscaping our garden and running our antiquarian book business all on his own!)… but would I do it all again! Oh Yes, I can’t wait for our first big anniversary party…

Without the help from families and friends, we couldn’t have pulled this off. Our biggest thanks to our friends and family who helped made this day happen and made it so special. xxx

Venue Hellens Manor

Dress Art Couture

Boutique Grace Couture

Shoes BHS

Jewellery Pia

Fascinator Hat Trick

Blooms Dawn Horsted Flowers

Catering Best of Taste

Cheese cake Mouse Trap

Cake Topper Sunfish Handmade Caketops

Photogrpaher Gemma Williams Photography

That cake topper really is something else, and what about those laneterns?

A great bit of rigging there by Shane and his crew.

We talk about colour pop a lot here at Rock My Wedding, and today you have an absolutely classic example of colour pop perfection. The Rasberry and Apple zing off each other and give the whole event a fresh fruity vibe.

Thanks to Sonja and Shane for sharing this one with us.

Adam.

17 comments »

Posted in Rustic Romance

Tags: Art Couture bridal designs Best of Taste wedding catering Dawn Horsted Flowers wedding flowers DJ Roddy Hankins Gemma Williams Photography wedding photographer Grace Couture bridal boutique nottingham Hellens Manor hereford wedding venue Mouse Trap cheese herefordshire Pia jewellery cheltenham Sunfish Handmade Cake toppers scotland

Rock My Rainbow.

January 10th, 2012

When I spoke to Steve Gerrard about Rhiannon and Jack’s wedding, he said – “you are going to love this, it’s got RMW written all over it and top it off – there’s a *ahem* swearword-ing rainbow in it” (yes sorry, Steve is a bit of a ‘rock star’ and as such has got quite a potty mouth on him, but you get the idea).

Confident I thought… then I had a look at the images. And it’s all there, from the Suzanne Neville dress to the Sex And The City shoes to the blooming great big red bus to the some-how-bigger-than-a-bus cake (seriously check that bad boy out!!!), it just looks like a perfect day.

Even if you discount old Mother Natures brazen display of technicolour, we are dealing with something pretty darn special here folks. To top it off, Rhiannon is a massive, massive, massive RMW fan so we’ve made her day today – just as much as she is about to make yours. In fact when she heard that her wedding was going to be featured she said:

“AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY DREAM HAS COME TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

What a lovely story – everyone’s happy then! Grab a cuppa and dive in.

I should just mention there are two stars on the blog today – Steve Gerrard (star 01) was assisted by the stupendously fab Emma Case (star 02). You guys both rock.

Rustic And Relaxed.

Our wedding was Thursday 18th August 2011 at St. Margaret’s Church Great Barr and then reception at Packington Moor Farm, Lichfield. Packington was the one and only venue we looked at, the week after we got engaged! We wanted something rustic, relaxed and somewhere that looked fantastic even without all the trimmings. It is a working farm with stunning scenery, farm shop and a beautiful honeymoon and guest cottage.

I’m In Love With Suzanne Neville.

I tried on so many dresses I lost count. I had always envisaged a vintage lace gown but every time I put one on I just didn’t feel anything. I was about to order a stunningly designed Beverley Williams 1950’s dress from Honey Cole Bridal in Staffordshire, when I noticed a new dress in the window as we pulled up. It was really simple but beautifully shaped. The shop had just received the new Suzanne Neville line and needed someone to try them on (of course I obliged, would have been rude not to!) Then I fell in love… with a designer. Suzanne’s dresses have the most amazing fit of any designer I tried (and that was a lot!)

I’m not a fussy, embellishment kind of gal, so I finally settled on ‘Nobility’, a fishtailed, button backed, beautiful neck-lined gown. The added bonus was that my Nan (who has early Alzheimer’s) decided it was her favourite and it didn’t matter to me that she couldn’t remember it afterwards; I knew she helped choose it. Plus my Mom cried (added bonus).

Melon Head.

As the dress was so simple I wanted a full length veil, but refused to spend the £300 necessary to get one! Luckily, Honey Colel were having a sale and Bev, the owner, earmarked one with beautiful vintage crystals at the bottom. Now… I have a strange hang up about my head (it is physically quite large) so I tried on some head bands etc but felt really uncomfortable. Then I stumbled across a beautiful vintage hair comb from Liberty in Love and it had just the right amount of sparkle and didn’t draw attention to my melon head. SOLD.

I wore my Nan’s earrings, beautiful pearl and diamond screw ons and a stunning Topaz bracelet my Mom had bought for the day.

The Shoes That Carrie Wore.

I actually bought my shoes a whole year before my dress! I have a very unhealthy obsession with 1. Shoes and 2. Sex and the City, so it was therefore only right that my shoes were Manolo Blahnik ‘Something Blue’ like the ones Carrie wore marrying Big.

A Half Up Do.

I really wanted to look and feel like me on the day of the wedding. I don’t wear lots of make-up usually or have elaborate hair, so my hairdresser Chris from Harris And Gibbs created a half up do that was as natural as possible. Unfortunately for my hair, my dad had booked a convertible as a surprise, so a 30 min journey in the wind somewhat dishevelled my hair. But you know what? I didn’t care a bit!

My make-up was done by the genius that is Katy Messer from Make Up By Katy. She created a flawless, natural look (with no eyeliner on the bottom as I’m a crier!) and it stayed on all day and night; no touch ups required. Anyone reading this, book Katy… she is phenomenal and a damn nice lady!

Seasonal And Natural.

Jack and I are both English teachers, and as such, are swept away by romantic landscapes and nature! We both knew we wanted wild, naturally grown flowers that were in season and I stumbled across The traditional flower company, based in Uttoxeter Staffordshire when attending a wedding fair in Birmingham.

Sam, who owns the farm, grows everything herself and the best part is you get to go to her farm, walk amongst her beautiful paddocks and choose your flowers two weeks before; it’s a real hands on approach. We chose an eclectic mix of wildflowers for the table centres in china teapots. They were stuffed with herbs and smelled sensational. I asked for blue hydrangea and lavender in the arrangements, but apart from that I just asked Sam to do what she does best! My bouquet was one of my favourite things of the day (I have since freeze dried it!) We had blue cornflowers and lavender for the button holes (Jack’s a man’s man so I was told… NO pink roses for buttonholes) We also had vintage milk churns stuffed with flowers in the reception venue.

My Mom did the flowers for the church and they looked fantastic.

My Grandfathers Clock.

I am obsessed with all things Doris Day and chintz so where else would I go for Bridesmaid dresses than Vivien of Holloway? All my girls were very different shapes and sizes, but the shop caters for all ranges. My sister who was maid of honour had a flouncy purple petticoat and my other two bridesmaids (best friends) wore white petticoats underneath to give it a real 50’s shape. We had a flowergirl, Tanwen, and a Page boy, Jac who wore exactly what ‘Big Jack’ wore.

Once we worked out the cost of hiring suits it seemed a better option to just buy the suits. We got our beautiful navy suits from Slaters in Birmingham: waist coat, trousers and jacket all for under £100 each…they even did free alterations! All of the groomsmen wore pocket watches that meant something: The best man wore his grandfather’s, Jack’s dad wore his father’s, my dad wore my Gransha’s; it felt like everyone was with us.

If I Know What Love Is.

Jack wore the same suit as the groomsmen and as he loves blue we found the exact same colour tie as my shoes… woo! He wore a vintage pocket watch I’d gotten him for our first anniversary inscribed with… ‘If I know what love is, it is because of you’. He literally took my breath away as I walked down the aisle to see him. I know we are all biased with our men, but I think he is the most handsome man in the world (Johnny Depp included )

The Legend.

Our photographer Steve Gerrard is a legend. We wanted something fun, relaxed and artistic… dare I say it uber cool. It was important to us not have lots of staged shots. He was without doubt one of the best parts of the process; I urge anyone to book him. It was more like having a best friend at the wedding who happens to be a genius photographer. He even brought along his ‘fun booth’ where guests could dress up like crazy nutters and get papped. We also lucked out in being able to have Emma Case as our second photographer. I am not afraid of saying that I have since become a Steve Gerrard stalker and frequent his blog daily…

The Cake That Jacks Mom Built.

Our cake was the talking point for many of our guests and it was made by Jack’s Mom, my fabulous mother in law. She is so creative and just understood exactly what we were going for. The cake was around 4ft and contained four different cheeses, 3 different pies, a fruit cake and a whole lot of goat’s cheese! She had even surprised us on the day by baking our favourite quotes onto the side of the pies (how I’ll never know!) and even carved our initials into a piece of tree trunk to separate the layers. We served it with the Hog roast we had at night and it went down a storm!

Cut The Purse Strings.

We hired Engima String quartet to play in the church and during the drinks reception. They even wore four different Vivien of Holloway dresses! Our budget was pretty stretched by the end so we decided against a band. We really didn’t notice the absence of one as we had a fantastic DJ that kept the dance floor full late into the night.

Dead Ringer For Love.

Our first dance was a tough one. We have really eclectic taste so we decided on something that just summed us up: Meatloaf and Cher’s ‘Dead Ringer for love’ Jack is the biggest Meatloaf fan, so we just let our hair down and danced like loons.

Charity Favours.

For our favours we decided to make donations to three different charities that were close to our hearts: CRY (for my cousin Gareth who died suddenly at 21), STROKE UK (for my Dad’s twin sister, who had passed away a couple of years previously and Macmillan for my Gransha. Everyone received charity badges for the various charities.

Anyone For Tea?

In terms of décor we wanted to re-create an English tea party. I am not a fan of three course meals so we had a starter, then traditional afternoon tea all served on Vintage china which we hired from our florist. We had sugar cubes with pink/red hearts for the vintage sugar bowls, tiered cake stands etc and I bought a giant pack of cardboard spoons that we placed on the teacup and saucer which had trivia questions on it to break the ice. In terms of food, Packington really outdid themselves; it looked like the Ritz!

Our tables were named after our favourite authors and their books were left on the table held together with twine. We also had confetti stamped out of old books scattered on the table and mobiles made out of copies of Macbeth and Pride and Prejudice.

For our table plan, Jack and his Dad created a replica blackboard and hung it with our school ties. All the names were written in chalk and we even found a wooden apple for teacher’s pet! We also had an amazing sweet bar, also done by the mother in law, which went down well with our Rugby playing guests for some reason!

Our Day, Our Way.

We tried to add little extras to the wedding to reflect what we love. Rock my Wedding played a huge part in the inspiration of these (every morning I was logged onto RMW by 9am… more stalkerish tendencies… meeep)

We hired the traditional red bus and put a giant tub of Pimms and G&t on board, along with a basket of Welsh cakes to reflect our Welsh Heritgae (yes booze and cakes sums up my family).

Jack and I also put together personalised newspapers for the guests to read in church. It had articles on how we met, our engagement and trivia about the wedding party. We even mocked up some fake adverts that involved the wedding guests. My sister laboriously made lots of confetti cones and tiny flags that said ‘woo, hooray and yay’ on them.

What really made my day (and something you can often forget when you’re stropping over the placement of a teaspoon) was marrying the love of my life. My favourite part of the day (apart from when the Rainbow appeared!) was the ceremony; everything else was just a bonus.

To all other brides… It’s so easy to get caught up in the trivia of a wedding, when all that really matters are that the people who love you, are with you for that one perfect day and where imperfection only makes it more ‘you’. Yes, my hair went crazy and yes, I’m sure I was a sweaty mess on the dance floor, but I wouldn’t swap it for anything in the world. It was our day, our way.

Venue Packington Moor Farm

Dress Suzanne Neville

Accessories Liberty in Love

Boutique Honey Cole Bridal

Shoes Manolo Blahnik

Make-up Make Up By Katy

Hair Harris And Gibbs

Blooms The traditional flower company

Maids Vivien of Holloway

Photography Steve Gerrard with Emma Case

Quartet Engima String quartet

I make no apologies for the length of this real wedding report – there was no way that you could possibly miss out on this trove of pretty.

Those maid dresses are amazing, the bouquets are a feast of colour, and that little RMW Love Bug that makes an appearance is spot on too…

Thank you to Steve Gerrard and Emma Case for being super stars, and thanks to Rhiannon and Jack for letting us share their big day, their big bus and their big darn cake.

Adam.

47 comments »

Posted in Rustic Romance

Tags: Emma Case wedding photography Harris And Gibbs bridal hair Honey Cole Bridal boutique Liberty in Love bridal accessories Make Up By Katy wedding make-up Packington Moor Farm Steve Gerrard Photography Suzanne Neville bridalwear The traditional flower company Vivien of Holloway bridesmaid dresses

A Colour Pop Family Affair.

January 4th, 2012

After yesterdays pale and interesting sophistication I thought we would do a one-eighty and inject some colour pop cool with Sara and Ali’s West Sussex affair. I’m not sure why exactly but we don’t tend to feature that many celebrations where the kids are key – i.e weddings that are just as much about the children having a good time as the adults.

Well prepare for some immense cuteness this afternoon folks as what with having a gorgeous one-year-old Max, Sara and Ali have made sure their day was about all ages. And as well as that they also had a brilliant guest book idea (feel free to steal – I would), beautiful D.I.Y blooms and some serious giant yellow balloon action.

Oh and the cake. Who doesn’t love a cake with lego?

All of the pretty images are courtesy of Mark Osborne.

Slightly Fancy

I did my own make up, though I went for a consultation at Bobbi Brown a few weeks beforehand, I highly recommend their long lasting makeup – the mascara and gel eyeliner did not budge even with gallons of tears. My hair was up, but just pinned the way I would on any slightly fancy day, my main aim was to be totally me, the me that Ali asked to marry, so no backcombing here. A local hair and makeup artist, Rachel Goddard was recommended to me, and she was a wonderful calming spirit to have around during the morning.

Feathers And Frippery

I met Ali at a wedding 5 years ago, and I was wearing a black feathered headpiece made by a friend, Bernadette Winter. When she was designing and making it for me, we decided it was totally Hitchcock. When Ali first spoke to me at that wedding, he said ‘nice hat, very hitchcock’ . And the rest was history…

So it seemed only right that I should ask Bernadette to make a bridal version of the original hairpiece. Based on one vague email and a couple of ‘idea’ pictures, 6 weeks later I received the most exquisite hairpiece in the post, made from ivory feathers and vintage jewellery and buttons. It was the perfect contrast to my plain dress.

Like A Glove

I wore pearl drop earrings by Glint and my Dad also gave me a beautiful moonstone bracelet just before he walked me down the aisle, which was totally magical.

I had my son Max in October 2010, so wasn’t ready to shop for a dress until April 2011, when I could just about squeeze into a ‘normal’ bra! When I got round to going to a shop, I was happily clueless as to how long it takes to get a wedding dress, but quickly put to rights by the sales assistants who pretty much all informed me that I wouldn’t be able to order anything for a September wedding, and would have to have a sample dress. That was all very well, but I’d seen a dress on ebay by Sarah Arnett (the ‘Claudine’) which I was pondering over, and decided to take a risk and spend a few hundred pounds on a dress I’d never seen in real life, unfortunately Sarah Arnett is no longer making bridal gowns so there was no chance of trying one on elsewhere. Ultimately, the dress arrived, it fit me like a glove, was made from miles of beautiful ivory silk and was everything I was hoping for. It felt good re-loving a dress from another wedding, and let’s just say I made a substantial (around £1400) saving on the original price of the dress.

Stylish Colour

My 4 bridesmaids are all very stylish women. Add that to the fact that they were in 3 different countries, had entirely different colouring and body shape (including one being 8 months pregnant), and I knew there was no way I could decide what these girls should wear. Ali and I had decided long ago that there was no colour theme, more an all-colour theme (I write a blog, colourlovingmother.blogspot.com, so I couldn’t exactly stick with one…) So I sent my lovely ladies a spec, that they should select dresses that weren’t full length, and that were part of a palette of jewel colours, and I left them to fend for themselves. This turned out perfectly, as we ended up with vintage, ebay and personalized, totally styled the way they were comfortable, and it turned out that the colours worked brilliantly together.

We found different peacock feather headpieces for each of them, again, with such different hair, they couldn’t all wear the same style. We decided the hues of the peacock were suitably rich to match the dresses, plus, my Mum’s maiden name is Peacock, so there were was a whole muster of peacocks at the wedding! For the groomsmen, they wore their own suits, and we bought them different patterned Liberty ties.

I’m not a heels girl and I wasn’t about to try and survive them on the one day of my life that I wanted to be comfortable. So I picked up a pair of flat gold Grecian style sandals in a sale a few weeks before. I also ordered a bespoke pair of bright yellow converse high tops, with ‘Mrs C 030911’ embroidered on the side, which I changed into when the sandals got too much (seriously, the flattest sandals in the world still hurt me after a while, I think I missed out on the shoe gene…)

Like Father Like Son

Ali bought a black 3 piece suit from Mr Start in Shoreditch, they make beautiful quality suits and the waistcoat took it a notch even further from your everyday work suit. His shirt and tie were from Paul Smith: we loved the contrast of the floral shirt with the striped tie. I also managed to get our son Max a floral shirt on eBay, perfect to match his Dad!

D.I.Y Blooms

It never occurred to me that I should use a professional florist. I totally admire their skill, but I just wanted to do my own, that was part of the fun to me. So my Dad and one of my bridesmaids Michelle came with me to New Covent Garden Market at stupid-o-clock on the Thursday morning before the wedding. I had an idea of the types of flowers I wanted, the brightest colours, but all from an English garden. I had been down to the market a week before to make sure they had what I was looking for. It was so much fun stacking up a massive pile of the best blooms, including small sunflowers, delphinium, pink ranunculus, and centifolia roses – my alternative to peonies, which I’d wanted, but were totally out of season. I managed to get a bunch of craspedia (billy buttons) from a local florist who ordered them in for me, the happy yellow balls echoed the round yellow balloon theme that featured in our invites, on our wedding website and in real life at the wedding. My bridesmaids, my parents, and I did all of the flower arrangements on tables and around the barn, in jars that we’d collected all year. The chap’s buttonholes were made up of billy buttons and ranunculus, while the bridesmaids bouquets were a combination of pink and purple hydrangea – so simple, one or two heads makes an instant bouquet! My bouquet had the hydrangea, roses, ranunculus, thistles (for our Scottish contingent), billy buttons and some daisies. My sister came up trumps remembering all her skills from a week’s work experience in a florist at school, and arranged, wired and bound all of the bouquets and buttonholes.

Just Great Pictures

So many people call themselves ’wedding photographers’ and seemed to have such varying levels of quality that I was concerned I wouldn’t find someone. However, Mark Osborne’s site showed that he was simply a very good photographer, I loved his colour balance and his composition, and the fact there was no messing, just great pictures. He and his girlfriend Jo were wonderful on the day, they were in control enough to get all the shots they needed, without being pushy – it must be so tough making sure you’re covering all of a brides possible expectations. But the majority of the day they were so discreet, some of the pictures that have come out were at brilliant angles where we had no idea where they were.

Plenty Of Cake

We decided that having one cake wasn’t really what we wanted, and that we would have tea and cake as our dessert (tea is so important to us that Ali promised to make me tea every day in his vows). So I put a call out to our closest cake-making friends and relatives, to ask them to make us something. Everyone did us proud, the cake table looked utterly amazing, with a stack of gingerbread, brilliant brownies, and amazing apple cake amongst others. Ali’s Auntie and Mum did us a surprise cake that featured tiny modeled icing elements of different parts of our life. It was such a treat to have something so personal that took so much time, no-one could cut it at the wedding, it was way too impressive! (tasted fab too, when we eventually ate it…)

Pretty Prints

I wanted to get my love of colour onto the tables, so I’d known for a while that I wanted multicoloured napkins as favours. I bought fabric by Amy Butler and Heather Bailey, as well as other offcuts, and was planning on making them myself, but my wondrous mum stepped in and whipped up enough napkins for everyone. We put the name-tags on luggage tags tied around the napkins, and included a poem with instructions for people to take them away and reuse them.

Something Borrowed

We borrowed lengths and lengths of bunting from a friend, which initially I was afraid would be overkill, but it looked fab and totally in keeping with the multicoloured patterns that reigned elsewhere. I bought vintage floral sheets to use as tablecloths and we used remnants from the napkin-making to decorate the jars that we filled with flowers. We also included individual big yellow balloons dotted around, as I’d designed a logo that featured a family of robots carrying yellow balloons, which appeared on our stationery and the wedding cake. The poms we had in the bar tent were recycled from a wedding a couple of weeks earlier who had left them for us, we just puffed them up again and moved them to where we wanted them.

A Perfect Ceremony

The most special part of the day was the wedding itself. You’d think that was obvious, but we had so many comments afterwards about how the ceremony was the ‘best bit’, when people are sometimes used to sitting through a service in order to get to the cake (and wine). The humanist celebrant we used, Kevin Murphy, made the ceremony immensely personal, and encouraged us to write our own vows. It just meant that every part of the whole standing-up-in-front-of-everyone-and-making-a-promise thing felt totally honest, these were promises we could keep because they were all about us and were our words.

..And The Perfect Venue

Rumbolds Farm in West Sussex was the only venue we looked at, it ticked all our boxes and Susie who owns the farm was wonderfully helpful and flexible to our needs. We wanted to get married outside in a humanist ceremony, and the farm had a choice of areas we could use. In the end we decided against doing it next to the lake in a wood as we didn’t want to cause any stress at all for guests not too firm on their feet. The lawn in the garden was blooming and perfect, and the bridal suite was divine!

Rockability

We had the rockabilly band ‘Derriere’ play in the evening, we were worried as we’d just found them online and taken a risk that they would do a good show. I’m a singer and Ali’s a DJ so the music meant alot to us, we were so lucky, they were phenomenal. Everyone danced from the moment they began and demanded an encore. I don’t think they were used to that kind of reaction from a wedding crowd. After the band our friend Toby flexed his considerable DJ-ing muscle and kept us all dancing until it was time to go down to the bottom field for a bonfire.

Do It Your Way

I would recommend to every bride and groom to be totally confident about doing things your way. People weren’t sure when I said I wanted to walk in to everyone playing kazoos – the bridesmaids led them in ‘You are my sunshine’ (or something approximating it). When we were deciding the music, I just couldn’t think of any song more fitting, and as we were getting married outside, I wasn’t sure of having a recording playing. Kazoos were the answer, it set the scene for the joy of the occasion, and essentially, I didn’t care if anyone thought it was a batty idea, it made me happy.

Do it your way and enjoy every minute, you don’t have to do everything the magazines and blogs say, it’s your day and your budget, spend it on the things that really matter to you.

Brides Jewellery – Glint

Brides Headpiece – Bernadette Winter

Venue – Rumbolds Farm

Photographer – Mark Osborne

Blooms – D.I.Y

And did I mention the shoes? how cool were they?

And the stationery… I vote more couples should have a W-day logo

Big All Ages Love

Charlotte xxx

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Posted in Rustic Romance

Tags: Bridal feather headpiece Derriere Rockabilly band Mark Osborne Wedding Photography Rumbolds Farm wedding venue

Rustic Garden Beauty.

January 3rd, 2012

Right you lovely people, it’s the first wedding of 2012 and boy have I got a corker for you…

That crazily talented chap Mister Phill shot my favourite wedding of last year, so what better way to start this year than with another tremendous Mister Phill affair? This time he is shooting with Nichola Rogers, and we find ourselves in the beautiful countryside setting of Oxfordshire.

Our first newly weds of the new year are Hannah and Damian, I’m going to pass you over to Hannah right now.

A Rare Moment.

We got married at Friars Court, Clanfield in September 2011. We had seen a few wedding venues but wanted somewhere that reflected what we wanted from our day – a place that was personal, informal and intimate. We instantly fell in love with Friars Court, a beautiful 17th-century stone farmhouse with gorgeous, sprawling gardens surrounded by a moat in the Oxfordshire countryside. It wasn’t just its rustic beauty that attracted us, but the potential to make it unique and special to us.

With so many nooks and crannies, there were many options for how and where to get married, but I had always wanted to get married outside and the rose arbour provided the perfect setting. It also meant a very long walk, across two bridges in heels(!) but this gave me time to take everything in and appreciate the moment – it was pretty amazing seeing everyone’s reactions, including Damian’s smile when I came into view from across the moat!

We were aware that we would be spending a long time in one place, as we had both our ceremony and reception at Friars Court, so we made full use of the venue, emerging from the house to confetti and cheers, having games and drinks on the lawns, and using the marquee and cosy Garden Room as indoor areas in the evening. With so much scope for personalising and transforming we initially felt a little overwhelmed by the task of planning the day, but this helped us to focus on the aspects that were important to us – being creative, surprising our guests, and having a rare moment of being centre of attention as a couple – and doing it all together definitely made it even more meaningful and memorable!

Understated.

I had lots of fun trying on many different dresses – from big meringues to slinky, sparkly gowns – dresses that I knew wouldn’t suit me and I never intended to wear! It was a lot harder to make a serious choice, especially for someone who is renowned for her inability to make decisions – but I did know I wanted to wear something that I’d feel comfortable in and that reflected my character. So, I looked for dresses that were understated, slightly different to the norm, and subtly elegant.

Friends and family recommended bridal shops and I browsed online, looking both in London and back where I grew up in Bucks. The experience of finding a dress was also important to me – I wanted to enjoy this once in a lifetime shopping trip with my mum and sister, so the decision I made was also influenced by where I looked. Mirror Mirror, with shops in Angel and Crouch End – provided really fantastic, personal service helping me to think about the style of my wedding from atmosphere to accessories. In the end (after trying on numerous lace dresses!), I went for a simple but beautifully-fitted chiffon dress, Abaco by Pronovias. I loved the elegant neckline and the natural feel to it, but it was my mum’s reaction that really let me know it was ‘the one’!

Something Borrowed.

As much as I didn’t have a clear idea of how I wanted to look, I strongly held on to what I knew I didn’t want – anything fussy, glitzy or bling! I had intended to just wear a few fresh flowers in my hair, but the dress needed a veil. I chose to wear the veil my mum wore at her wedding (cut and simplified to one long length at the base of my neck), and was very happy – both with the final look and the sentiment of wearing something given to you by someone you love. On that note… I also wore a pair of pearl earrings that my husband-to-be had given me for my birthday a few days before our wedding.

The Footwear Challenge.

Unfortunately, I’m not a shoe fan so finding wedding shoes that both looked good, felt good and allowed me to clamber over a bridge and down the grass aisle was quite a challenge! I went for classic Rainbow kitten heels in Ivory – and can now dye them green to match the grass stains I acquired! They didn’t last all night though, and I happily changed into a pair of cream flip-flops when all that mattered was being on the dancefloor with my friends.

Natural And Simple.

I was originally planning to do my own make-up, but was very happy to hand over to someone with far more expertise than me! Amanda Head is a professional stylist and make-up artist who has recently set-up independently, and offers excellent service and value for money.

She travelled to our hotel on the morning of the wedding to make everyone from my sister to my grandma looked beautiful, and was a very patient and reassuring presence – despite having glandular fever! I had a hair and make-up trial a few weeks before the wedding and Amanda listened to my request to stay natural and simple, whilst letting me know clearly what would work and what definitely wouldn’t! For my make-up she used light, rosy colours, that I wouldn’t have thought of trying, but that made me look fresh and radiant. My hair was pinned back in low, loose curls with a few cream roses at each side.

The Blooms.

There are so many options, from the flowers themselves, to the colours, arrangements and styles, it was hard to know where to begin. Luckily we had Cindy Warne, a local florist who also got married at Friars Court, to help us decide. She was able to let us know what worked well at the venue, whilst encouraging us to let her know what we wanted.

Sticking to the natural, rustic style of our wedding I asked her to mix cream roses with garden flowers and foliage, in warm yellows and oranges. Cindy created stunning, delicately hand-tied bridal and bridesmaid’s bouquets – I loved the sprinkling of daisies she added for a unique twist! She also arranged yellow and cream garden flowers in small, hanging jam-jars to line the aisle – subtle yet gorgeous touches. Cindy also provided us with simple, cream rose button-holes and wired rosebuds for my hair.

We didn’t want to spend a fortune on flowers and didn’t feel we needed to, given we got married in a garden, but we did want to use flowers as centerpieces on tables and bring the outdoors inside to decorate our marquee for the reception. Cindy was brilliant in providing us with cut flowers and foliage to arrange ourselves on the day (well, my very lovely friends and family arranged on the day!) Small posies of flowers in jam-jars were placed in birdcages, and a neighbour’s generous offering of ivy cut the day before to drape around the cages finished the look.

Traditional Tails.

Choosing the suits was probably one of the easiest and quickest decisions we made (such a contrast to choosing a wedding dress!) We both liked traditional tails in charcoal grey; Damian wore an ivory waistcoat and cravat and his best men wore grey waistcoats with green cravats, hiring everything from Moss Bros.

My lovely little sister was the only person I needed beside me as a bridesmaid, and this made choosing her dress a far easier task as we could focus on what she liked and suited her. Green was an obvious choice, in-keeping with the setting and feel of our garden wedding, and she looked stunning in strapless Grecian-style chiffon dress from Dessy. We used this green as a central colour to match to flowers, decorations and the men’s cravats.

Legendary Status.

Mister Phill is now a bit of a legend amongst our friends… he was Damian’s lecturer in cinematography at university, and is now a renowned photographer with a big business in ‘ex-students’ weddings that is rapidly expanding! It was lovely to already have a connection to someone who will share the most intimate moments of your day; however, Phill took the time to get to know us as a couple, meeting us for a pre-wedding photo ‘de-sensitisation’ shoot! Over breakfast, he asked us not just about our hopes for the wedding, but also about our interests, characters and lives together. This thoughtfulness and understanding translates through his photos, which provide not just beautiful images of the wedding, but document the story and process of the day – from solitary moments of morning nervousness, to the uninhibited joy on the dancefloor at the end of the night!

Phill was assisted by Nichola Rogers providing us with another perspective of the day and making choosing photos to print a very hard task! Having two photographers made it possible to record both Damian and I getting ready; Phill and Nicola synchronized their cameras so we could literally watch the day’s events unfold simultaneously – a really fascinating insight into that final morning!

Double Trouble.

The wedding cake was quite far down on our list of priorities, although we were looking forward to making decisions about the flavours!! We were very lucky as one of our best friends, Nyk Huxley, just so happens to be a patisserie-chef-in-training, and offered to make our cake as a wedding present! She did a fantastic job making us a beautiful, three-tiered, white-iced glory of a cake… comprising vanilla sponge, carrot and walnut cake, and a crowning tier of fruit cake – delicious! She also provided us with and constructed a phenomenal cheese tower, which was cut and eaten in the evening… who says you can’t have your (two) cakes and eat them?!

Strings Attached.

We looked into lots of different options for music and entertainment, and were overwhelmed by the number of choices! In the end we asked a string quartet from Oxford University to play during the wedding and drinks reception. They were absolutely wonderful, both in the lead-up to the wedding and on the day, arranging the songs we wanted during the ceremony and playing a mix of modern and classical music in the gardens. A beautiful accompaniment to the serenity of the day!

We wanted the evening entertainment to have a different feel, reflecting the atmosphere in the marquee as we focused on celebrating with friends and family. We had heard The Wedding Smashers DJ at a number of events before, and liked their energy and passion, as well as their old-school sounds! We gave them a playlist of music we enjoyed, but wanted them to do what they do best by judging the atmosphere and shaping the mood of the night – we were not disappointed! From dancing-with-dad cheesiness to a full-on mash-up, some of our greatest memories are dancing with our friends and family after the happiest day of our lives!

A Song that Defines You.

Damian and I have a few meaningful, yet highly embarrassing songs that punctuate our relationship over the last ten years – but none that we were willing to use for our first dance! It seemed like a big decision to make – a song that defines you as a couple – and we admittedly left it till the last minute to pick a song! However, we needn’t have worried…. the song that we did choose, ‘Tonight, Tonight’ by The Smashing Pumpkins, fitted the moment perfectly reminding us of growing up together, enjoying love and life, and not caring what anyone else thought!

Home Made Favours.

Practically we didn’t want to spend lots of money on a token gift, and it felt more important to spend time and effort creating something that we enjoyed and that would make our guests smile. Simple… we love food! We made jars of caramelised red onion chutney, and apple and tarragon jelly, which fitted with the English country-garden feel of our wedding and made for a tasty reminder of the day!

Rustic Touches.

We decorated the venue ourselves, with the help of some very special friends, who helped us to add small, but personal touches to our wedding… home-made bunting, wicker hearts hanging from ribbon in the trees, a trellis of photos of our adventures together, and a ‘wish-tree’ on which to hang our wedding wishes! Jeffrey, from Friars Court, was also fantastic in helping us transform his venue into our own creation, whilst also providing endless reassurance and encouragement throughout the process.

Compromise And Sacrafice.

Organising a wedding was far more stressful than I anticipated, but this reflected how much it meant to us to have a day that everyone we cared about enjoyed and remembered us by. We quickly learnt that not everyone shares your ideas or expectations of the day, and whilst some compromise and sacrifice is inevitable (weddings are magical – your budget, for example, will disappear rapidly!), it is really important to hold on to what is important to you. For us, it was about the atmosphere and creativity of the day, rather than the quality or finish – although making things and seeing the effect when they all come together was really enjoyable!

As much as we were focused on everyone else having fun, we were also very aware that it was our day and we made sure we spent some moments together to take it all in, and excitedly say to each other ‘is this really happening?!’ We also prepared ourselves to be the centre of attention, which was quite a daunting task, but we enjoyed the day so much more for letting go of any last-minute worries or expectations. As a result we have really happy memories of our wedding, of the surprises and mishaps, as well as the bits that went to plan!

Of everything that we encountered, the most important part of the wedding for me was planning it with my husband – not only did I learn a few new things about him along the way (he is scarily skilled with a sewing machine!), but it reminded me of all the reasons we chose to get married!

Venue Friars Court, Clanfield

Boutique Mirror Mirror

Dress Abaco by Pronovias

Shoes Rainbow Club

Hair and Make-up Amanda Head

Flowers Cindy Warne

Photography Mister Phill and Nichola Rogers

DJ The Wedding Smashers

A good start to the year no?

There are lots of nice little home made pieces of inspiration here to help you lot kick start a super creative 2012. We have got a perfect outdoor venue which helps remind me that I love England as I sit here in the dark January drizzle and of course some of the most perfect photography in Weddingdom.

Hannah mentions at the end there that the most important thing for her was being able to plan every step of the way with Damian, who was involved from the start. I’d loved to have seen a little behind the scenes shot of our groom sat slaving over the old Singer… I guess sometimes Mister Phill doesn’t get every shot!

Adam.