Welcome back for Part 2 of this Vintage inspired latino affair just oozing with personality. Read on for loads of inspiration and advice from the beautiful Bride Claudia, and some stunning images taken by Gill Taylor.

And what a handsome Groom he was….

Jonathan kept it all quite traditional and like his groomsmen, he opted for a Windsor Morning suit. He wore an ivory silk waist coat and accessorised with a Cadbury purple cravat and handkerchief. I also peeked another couple of accessories which were the Citizen watch and swarovski cuff links I had given him as a wedding gift.

But the best of all was his face when he saw me come down the aisle. He was so happy and so excited that I couldn’t wait to say ‘I do’…

We had three groomsmen and they were all dressed in traditional morning dress, in particular a Windsor suit, which we hired from Pronuptia. The silk waistcoats were a pale purple and all accessories (self-tie cravats and handkerchiefs) were Cadbury purple satin.

Fate and Photography

This part of the tale makes me believe in things happening for a reason…Our wedding pics were a priority to us as they will be seen in many years to come and remind us of our wonderful day. Therefore we booked our photographer almost 18 months in advance. However, three weeks before the wedding I received a call to say our photographer had broken his arm and was not able to shoot our wedding…yes, really!

No time for sitting around, I called in all my resources; bridal party, Facebook, Yell.com and everything in between. By the end of the day I had a list of 8 potential replacements. But there was one who stood out…introducing the fabulous Gill Taylor. From the first instant, Gill had a warm, friendly and professional approach. Understanding how fraught I might be feeling she responded immediately with a phone call to check in and introduce herself…and what a saviour she was!

The Gill Taylor Photography style is breath taking. Her pics have a timeless vintage feel about them. Her keen eye and experience ensures that she gets the job done with little hassle. Our guests loved Gill and we still receive compliments about her. Gill travels around the country and sometimes abroad and I would recommend every couple take a look at her work and if you can, try to have a chat with her. Several of our guests will be contacting her regarding portrait sessions…she really is that brilliant!

Classic Chocolate Cake

Neither Jonathan nor I like traditional fruit cake and from the very beginning we always knew our cake would be a chocolate extravaganza. We were fortunate enough that we found a local wedding cake designer, Eventiss Ltd. They worked with us to design the cake of our dreams. We had three tiers to our cake. The bottom tier, the largest, was the chocolate fudge layer. The middle tier was a vanilla sponge with fresh raspberry cream, for those with a little less of a sweet tooth. The top tier was a delicious black forest gateaux and to top it all of, the layers were all covered with white Belgian chocolate.

The design of the cake was relatively simple and was coordinated with the rest of the wedding colours, ribbons and was accented with ivory shimmer.

Just Dance

For the evening, once again we were quite lucky to have a resourceful group of friends. Our best man is a DJ in his spare time and he worked with us to trawl through our iPods and create playlists of our music which kept us dancing till the wee hours of the morning.

Jonathan & I have extremely different taste with many things, especially when it comes to music and we’re not a couple who have ‘our song’. So when it came to picking our tune, this became quite the challenge.

In the end we chose this song not only because the lyrics are beautiful and undeniably timeless, but it is from the movie Armageddon, which is one of the first movies we watched as a couple and is still a firm favourite in our movie collection.

By no stretch of the imagination are we dancers, but we had a friend choreograph and teach us step-by-step. It was so much fun and provided a great stress buster through the wedding planning process. Our advice to any couple is, ‘Don’t be afraid to try something out of the ordinary. If you can’t on your special day, then when can you….’

Chic and Unique…

We surprised our guests by adding little wild hibiscus flowers into the champagne drinks. Not only did the champagne turn to a lovely pink colour, but the flowers are also edible and provided a great talking point. We got them online at Real Indulgence.

Save the Date! – As many of our guests are from abroad, we needed to get our Save the Date cards out very early. We decided to get really creative and made little business card fridge magnets so that no-one would lose them.

We couldn’t find the invitations we wanted at a reasonable price, so I ordered a sample, deconstructed it and learned how to make our own ones. We added personal touches such as ribbon from South Africa and unique silver beads from our holiday in Australia.

Our top table was really brought to life when we hired a light curtain to create a glamorous backdrop. It took months to source but finally we found the perfect one from Wedding Creative.

We kept favours as simple as possible and chose little Belgian chocolate hearts which were wrapped in colours which matched our theme. Have to admit that at the end of the evening, there weren’t any left or wasted…chocolate is always a safe and an inexpensive choice.

Putting some personality into Proceedings

Remember it’s your special day and not your families’. When you look back on your wedding, you should feel that it was what you and your husband wanted and not that you were accommodating others.

Plan, plan, plan and then RELAX on the day….that is why you have a bridal party! Make sure you choose carefully and surround yourself with helpful and loving people. It’s their job to help you ahead of the day and then to fix little problems which may crop up on the day while you enjoy yourself. You have both earned it!

Wow – how fabulous are those dancing shots? Super glamourous and beautifully shot, not to mention the couple shots. Loving Gill Taylors work

Thank you so much to Claudia and Jonathan for letting us share your beautiful day and many congratulations from all of us here at RMW.

Yours Truly,

Rebecca
xoxo

Another wedding I’ve been waiting to bring to you for a while, for me, this was love at first sight. It ticks all the boxes for RMW – stunning vintage-look photography courtesy of Gill Taylor, a beautiful bride with a unique look and loads of steal-able style details. Read on and lust over the eye candy!

Jonathan & Claudia, married on the 26th September 2009 in Norwich, Norfolk. We had a traditional wedding with a church ceremony held at the Thorpe St Andrew Parish Church. This is a Grade II listed site. The reception was at the beautiful Caistor Hall which is a Grade II listed Georgian estate.

Flamenco Fabulous

My dress is from the Ellis Bridal Collection. When I saw the dress, I instantly fell in love with it, it also happened to be the first one I tried on. I knew this was ‘the one’ as it took my breath away and it was quite an emotional reaction. The dress was a cascade of lace with the most exquisite beading of crystals and pearls along the bodice. The style of the dress encompassed many aspects of my personality and was like no other dress I had seen.

When it came to the ladies, we had their dresses made by my mum. Once again we opted for the rich Cadbury purple colour and the fabric was organza with slight shimmer, lined with crepe bridal satin. As for the accessories, the jewellery was silver and diamante and the girls were asked to choose whichever shoes they liked as long as it was silver.

I Actually had two different ‘looks’ which involved an accessories change. For the ceremony I wore a pearl and crystal tiara and a veil which had a pearl trim and a slight shimmer throughout the fabric. This highlighted the intricate beading on the bodice of the dress.

For the reception, I removed the veil and the tiara and then accessorised my hair with a very large ivory silk flower from the Johnny Loves Rosie collection. I chose this as it added to the exotic ‘flamenco’ feel of the dress.

Tripping the Light fantastic

I am known for wearing high heels but also for not being able to resist a dance floor, so I knew that I was going to have quite the challenge to try to find the perfect shoes.

After many months of searching I found ‘the shoes’ online. From the Touch Ups brand and with a 3 inch heel, they’re not for the faint hearted but they were unbelievably comfortable throughout the day and into the evening. What made these absolutely gorgeous was the small details which included rhinestones not only on the t-bar strap, but also all the way up the heel. Nothing like a little glam on your special day…

Bonding over lipstick

Well, talk about surrounding yourself with great company…it just so happens that my best friend and Maid of Honour is a make-up artist and fashion stylist. This made life a lot easier as she knows my features and personality very well. Therefore I had someone who was going to bring out my best and had me feeling very comfortable.

As my dress was the basis of my look, I decided to keep my hair fairly simple so as to not take anything away from the dress. I chose to wear my hair in a low chignon to one side. This worked well with the tiara and veil and later enhanced when I wore a huge ivory silk rose alongside.

Colour concerns

I love flowers hence this was an important aspect of our wedding. When it came to deciding on our flowers, I was more concerned with colour rather than the flower type. I was extremely fortunate to have found a local florist team, Libby Ferris Flowers, in Norwich. Libby and her team are extremely creative, talented and professional and a pleasure to work with.

The bridal bouquet was a cascade of white and fuchsia orchids. These are my favourites and on the day they were elegant, robust and easy to handle. I wanted the bridesmaids’ bouquets to be uncomplicated yet bold with colour and so we chose simple hand-tied bouquets of milano roses with ivory silk ribbon wrapping. The buttonholes were single milano roses with a touch of ivy.

Table centres – these were just exquisite. As we were in a marquee, I wanted to make the most of the space hence we chose to have very tall centre pieces. For added height we chose bright pink gladioli which in full bloom created a cascade of flowers. Add to that, I sourced fairy lights which could be submerged into water in the tall lily vase to create a pillar centrepiece of light. These can be found online at Lights4fun.

Stop back tomorrow to see the rest of this gorgeous Bride and Groom, some stunning vintage look couple shots and loads more colourful details…

Yours Truly,

Rebecca
xoxo

Loads of the weddings we feature on Rock My Wedding are chock full of detail, the dream dress and a lot of money behind them too, with even an average wedding costing around 20K these days. When I stumbled across this wedding on Caroline Weiss of CandySnaps photography blog I completely lost my heart to the city hall wedding vibe and the sweet simplicity of the whole affair.

Sally and Simon had a weekday wedding in Edinburgh and this wedding has none of the usual details we harp on about but what struck me was the joy in the beautiful images captured by Caroline, and the honesty and love that seemed to ring through the day. Whatever this couples reasons for choosing a smaller pared back wedding it was beautiful for it’s simplicity. Over to Sally now to tell us all about it!

Sweet, Short and Simple

My Dress was made for me by my talented friend Yvonne Mullock. We picked a pattern and silk and made a few changes to the dress. We had a good times trying on different styles and doing the fittings.
Our wedding rings were made by jeweler Dot Sim from the same piece of White Gold.

Yvonne made a clip with a little net to go with the shoes and the dress, my hair was uncomplicated so it was the perfect little touch. I was able to chose swarzkovski crystals to match my Flowers and shoes as a small touch of colour round my neck. I’ve added a locket with a tiny photo of Simon in it from the day.

I had a hair cut a few days before the day but didn’t go for anything too complicated, I wanted to be relaxed and comfortable. My make up I did myself, treating myself to mac make up which I’ve been using since.

Rupert Sanderson Hope bar shoes in Damson. Suspenders ensured a shocking pink line running up the back of my legs.

We were married on the 20th March 2009, in time so we could plan a skiing holiday for our Honey Moon and within the year since getting engaged at Glen Coe on Simon’s Birthday, 17th April 2008.
We Were lucky that the Registry office in Edinburgh is really lovely. I pass it every day on the way to work and it still makes me smile. Our guests walked up the road in the spring sunshine to the Grain Store where we had a fantastic meal after our wee ride on a tandem which was a brilliant surprise.

Our wedding was perfectly small. There were thirty guests in total and some more friends and family came to watch the ceremony which was great.

We had Cala lillies in shades to match the shoes, a very striking simple bouquet from Narcissus, a gorgeous flower emporium up the road from our house. I forgot it in the excitement and had to turn back to collect it before the ceremony. It was thrown from the Balcony of the Hotel room later that night. Tiny white cala lillies were used as button holes.

Simon wore a Paul Smith suit. Dark Blue with a subtle pin stripe. His blue eyes were shining but he looked really nervous! I couldn’t wait to stand next to him and rushed in the door before the music we had chosen really started to play. Sigur Ros were cut off before they had a change to get going.

There is something so chic and simple about a registry office wedding. Very New York City Hall, and if it’s good enough for Carrie Bradshaw then why the hell not! I really love the timeless vibe that the location lends to these shots, a little bit vintage, a little bit Rock n Roll a whole lot classic cool. With the thought of looking back on your photos in 20 years and being horrified by a trend led appearance a chief concern for lots of Brides, what could be more timeless than this?

Ta da! Tandem!

I absolutely LOVE the surprise on Sallys face when she saw what was waiting for her outside! Sally and Simon’s friends had a great idea of how the newlyweds could arrive at their reception in style and keeping with their personality – Both of them love cycling so you can imagine that the super cute Tandem went down a storm here – Plus it allowed Caroline to really get some great shots with historic Edinburgh as a backdrop….

Caroline is a friend of Yvonne’s and we really liked her style. We loved the photos and the day would not have been the same without the tandem! It was great getting back from the Honeymoon to see the pictures. It all happens so fast it’s really important to have great photographs to remember the day by.

The Food of Life

Sally and Simon held a reception lunch at The Grain Store Restaurant. Laughter, love and great food. What more do you need in life?

I made a fruit cake from Nigel Slater’s recipie, feeding it with Apricot Brandy for weeks before the wedding. My auntie gave us playmobile bikes to stand on the top next to bride and groom.

We had a few purple heaters on the table as we had our meal, We like to get out and about in the hills of Scotland where it grows prolifically. A few of our guests took them home and planted them in their Gardens.

And at the end of the day, this wedding is simply what it’s all about.

Sally’s Advice? Enjoy your wedding! Remember it’s just the beginning of a lifetime of memories and adventures.

You, your new Husband, getting married and a lifetime of happiness, which is exactly what we at RMW wish Sally and Simon.

Yours Truly,

Rebecca.
xoxo

On to part 2 of the elegant and sophisticated vintage wedding of Francesca and Mark and if you missed out on part 1 you can go view it here.

All of the beautiful images are courtesy of Lawson Photography.

Lawson Love

Our photographers were Pete and Laura from Lawson Photography. They had done the photography at our friends’ wedding and their photographs were stunning so it was a bit of a no brainer that we would choose them for our big day. They are lovely, laid-back people and not intrusive in the slightest on the day.

Dancing to Palm Court

Shelley Van Loen and the Palm Court Strings. They are a string quartet who will do normal classical music or what they call their ‘Palm Court’ music which is what we had. The Palm Court music is traditional 1920’s music. They will also dress up in 1920’s outfits if you want them to (think feathers and spats) – which of course we did.

For our disco we put a playlist of our favourite music onto an iPod and hired a PA system. Our friend also did a bit of live DJ’ing.

The Way You Look Tonight

Our music choice was slightly dictated by the fact that it had to fit in with the ballroom dance that we’d learnt especially for the wedding. We opted for Frank Sinatra – ‘Just the way you look tonight’. I liked the version done by Fred Astaire which was more ‘of the period’ but the Frank version was more upbeat and fitted better with the dance. Straight after that we had Luther Vandross – ‘Never too much’, which is one of the few songs that we both absolutely love (we’ve got such different taste in music).

Candy Striped Toffee

We put Thorntons Treacle Toffee into pink candy stripe paper bags and also gave each guest a sparkler. I’m not sure if this is just a ‘Northern’ thing but up north treacle toffee is traditionally eaten on bonfire night. We met the night before bonfire night and there were fireworks in the sky so the toffee and the sparklers helped to re-create the moment.

Afternoon Tea

We picked the hotel because it is an original art deco building and didn’t really need anything doing to it in order to fit in with our theme.

In the evening we had fish and chips and ice-cream to fit in with the seaside location.

Doing It Our Way

Mark is a graphic designer so he handmade all our wedding invitations, the table planner, the place settings and our favour labels. This added a really personal touch.

My only other piece of advice would be to start your planning early and don’t make any impulse decisions. Make sure you take your time choosing all the important bits of your big day. This comes from the lady who is now the proud owner of two wedding dresses after changing my mind about the first one I bought (oops!).

You gotta love a huge chunk of unique chic….

With a big thank you to Fran her husband Mark and the lovely Lawsons for sharing this gorgeous Big Day with Rock My Wedding.

Many Congratulations.

Big Roaring 20’s Love

Charlotte xxx

Nothing makes me jump up and down with joy more than when a bride and groom infuse their Big Day with their unique style and all the things they adore….

And that is exactly what Francesca and Mark did for their wedding in November 2009, choosing a stylish 1920’s/30’s theme and surrounding themselves by the people they love.

Now clearly we worship W-days here at RMW HQ and delight in all the Real Weddings we post for your viewing pleasure, sometimes though the photography really really shows the pure unadulterated emotions of the day and we get a little teary and choked up.

This folks is one of those weddings.

All of the perfect images are courtesy of Lawson Photography.

Mary Jane’s

My shoes were called ‘Grace’ and were an ivory, leather mary jane style. I bought them from Rachel Simpson. They had a smallish heel and were extremely comfortable all day.

Retro Glamour

Whilst at the Jo Thorne event I met Sev and Roz from The Hepburn Collection. I showed Sev my ‘mood’ book which had a few different 1920/30’s hair styles in it and he got straight to work, showing me what he could do. I really liked what he did so after getting confirmation that he was willing to travel from Surrey to Bournemouth I booked him to do my wedding hair. On the day he gave me a real retro glamorous look – blonde, shoulder length and wavy with loads of volume.

My make-up was done by Sharon Ross who was recommended to me by my neighbour. I was really pleased with the finished look – brown smokey eyes, false eye-lashes (to add ‘drama’) and red lips to go with my short, red nails.

Valerie and Sarah

My dress was called ‘Valerie’ and was by a UK designer called Sarah Arnett. I wanted a silk, 1930’s style dress to fit in with the theme of my wedding however I’d been having difficulties finding one that I felt good in as most of the styles from that period are bias cut – not the best style for someone who’s pear shaped!! However, this dress was a twist on a bias cut as it fitted at the hips and then dropped straight down to the floor rather than going in below the hips and back out again at floor level. It was also silk and 1930’s style – perfect!

Sarah Arnett stocks her dresses at a number of bridal shops around the country (listed on her website). The dress itself was everything I’d hoped for and more.

A Sweet Avalanche

Our flowers were done by Parkwood Florist in Bournemouth. I had a trailing bouquet with sweet avalanche roses. The ladies had single avalanche rose button holes, Mark had a double avalanche rose and white bouvardia button hole and the men had white bouvardia button holes. Our tables centres were 80cm tall, clear glass lily vases filled with robellini palm leaves and peacock feathers.

Big Day Jewels

I bought a tiara, bracelet, earrings and necklace from Jo Thorne. I chose to buy my jewellery from Jo after going to one of her open days at her studio in East London. Her jewellery is all solid silver and handmade. She also uses a lot of mother of pearl and cubic zirconia (which is what I chose). I loved her pieces because they are pure quality and a real investment that can be passed down to other family members. A lot of the other pieces of wedding jewellery I’d seen were really tacky and cheap looking so it was a real relief when I discovered Jo. The pieces I chose also had an art deco influence which again fitted in with my theme. I also have to say that Jo is a lovely lady and really helpful.

Expressing Personal Style

The wedding was a black tie do. Mark’s best man and the two dads both wore tuxedos (my dad opting for a cream double breasted dinner jacket). They all bought their own suits.

I had ‘best ladies’ rather than bridesmaids. They bought their own dresses which meant that they could express their own personal style. They all looked absolutely stunning. One opted for a black, beaded knee length dress (1920’s style) and the other two opted for long slinky dresses (1930’s style), one in scarlet and the other in gun-metal grey.

Reminiscing on the 20’s and 30’s

We were keen for Mark to stand out from the crowd. He is not normally one for wearing suits and wasn’t overly enthusiastic with going for a full-on 1920’s/30’s look (he’s an understated kind of guy!). After much searching we found Marc Wallace (based in Parson’s Green, London) and he had a black 3-piece suit made-to-measure. Marc’s collection at the time was described as ‘reminiscing on the 1920’s style, together with a contemporary urban chic’. This was absolutely perfect for us as it gave Mark the modern look he wanted whilst keeping my obsession will all things 20’s/30’s in check.

He teamed the suit with a white Marc Wallace shirt which had a subtle floral self pattern and a white tie. Paying that bit extra was well worth it as the suit fitted Mark perfectly and he looked so sharp!! I don’t think he ever believed he could feel that good in a suit (being a jeans and t-shirt guy normally).

We have all the extra details and to-die-for couple shots coming up in part two so stay tuned – it’s vintage at its very best.

Big Art Deco Love

Charlotte xxx

True to my pseudonym, I’m in 2 minds about wedding DVD’s. Or should I say I was in 2 minds for my own wedding, about being the subject of one. Not a natural flirt with the camera, and having some strange pre-wedding privacy issues, I couldn’t stand the thought of being followed around with a camera shoved in my face, or worse, my friends wondering exactly which celebrity bridezilla I thought I was, as a virtual paparazzi descended on my intimate celebration. That said, having grown up with a video camera in the family I could not overlook the treasured memories we have of family members now sadly no longer with us, which are beyond priceless. I knew I wanted my day captured in some way for the future.

In the end, I settled for 2 trusted family members taking on the role of videographers and I now have several hours worth of shaky, not terribly well lit, video footage loaded onto my iMac, waiting for me to find a few extra hours in the day and edit into something resembling a wedding film.

Not a day goes by that I don’t thank goodness that I did get someone to do it. The wedding doom-mongers joke not when they say the day goes by in a flash, and so many things are on that film that I don’t remember happening or didn’t see. But If I could change anything about the day, it would have been to have it done professionally.

As the saying goes, (not that I’m one to ordinarily advocate overspending, )

‘The look on his face… Priceless’
(I’m talking that top of the aisle lip tremble and well timed tear from an appropriately emotional Groom,)

‘For everything else… there’s Mastercard.’

Never was a truer word spoken.

And if I had followed my own advice back then, who would I have had do the honours at my wedding I hear you say? Reel60. Without a doubt.

Super 8 HD show reel from Reel Sixty on Vimeo.

Kings of cool wedding films, (note the word ‘film’ there – we aren’t talking about some cheesy montage of stiff footage and tinny voices,) Reel60 shoot a slick professionally produced representation of your wedding day on film. I’m not cinematography expert but I darn well know what I like.

This I LOVE.

And the super cool icing on the cake? Their retro spin with the use of super 8 cine film. For those having a vintage inspired day, it really doesn’t get any better and even without any retro influence the nostalgic romance of these wedding films makes certain they will be something you will want to watch again and again for generations to come with no loss of quality as Reel60 expand into HD and even Blue-ray!

I’ve just noted that they offer a service to edit your footage of any event, maybe a family party or perhaps my own wedding footage will be winging their way for some Super 8 style and the Reel60 romance treatment.

Do you love Reel60’s retro style?

Yours Truly,

Contra
xoxo