Vintage Inspired

A Fruitful Affair…..part 2

August 31st, 2010

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

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

An In-House Baker

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

An Abundance Of Florals

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

A Fruity Number

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


Breaking The Ice

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

Creative Talent

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

Making The Night

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

The Way You Look Tonight

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

Make The Preparation Fun

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

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

Did you not just love the PEACH?!

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

Big Glowing Love

Charlotte xxx

A Fruitful Affair…..part 1

August 30th, 2010

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

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

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

Vintage Inspired

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

Glowing Simplicity

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

It’s All In The Name

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

Hand Made And Borrowed Blue

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

Blue Champagne

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

The Perfect Venue

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

Strike A Pose

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


Country Chic

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

So very pretty.

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

Plenty more fruity dream coming up in part 2

Big Dirty Gold Love

Charlotte xxx

Peony Perfect… Part 2

August 27th, 2010

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

More than a Highland Fling…

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

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

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

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

Love Lillian and Leonard

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

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

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

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

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

Cheese and Cake

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

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

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

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

Fruitful Favours

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

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

DIY Diva

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

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

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

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

Creative Care

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

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

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

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

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

Phew!

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

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

Yours Truly,

Rebecca
xoxo

Peony Perfect… Part 1

August 26th, 2010

So the peony worshipers out there, (Um…. that’ll be me then,) are in for such a treat today. We have a vintage inspired day to share with peonies a-plenty, and wait for it….

…they’re all DIY.

Thats right folks, DIY flowers, and this is a perfect exercise in how to do them well; Keep it simple, stick to one striking bloom and make it pretty. That combined with a peony stamp for the stationery which I failed to source for my own big day but am loving seeing here, tie the vintage not-a-colour-scheme-in-sight theme together beautifully.

Karen and Scott were married on 22nd May 2010 in Alloa, Central Scotland and all the beautiful images were taken by Cara and Nye of Lillian and Leonard.

Arts and Crafts

Our venue, Gean House, was one of only two we looked at. We knew immediately that it would be perfect for our wedding and we really only looked at the second venue because we felt we had to consider more than one!

Gean House is an Edwardian Mansion with many Arts and Crafts features. The beautiful detailing in the House presented us with a perfect backdrop to set our vintage inspired, hand-crafted wedding.

Scott was happy to go with the flow and let me take the lead on designing the day and I took my lead from the House.

Vintage Gorgeous

My dress was from a gorgeous boutique in Perth called Alison Kirk Bridal. It’s by Justin Alexander and again, it was in the second shop we visited and I did know it was ‘the one’ deep down but I felt I had to see more just to make sure!

Someone described my dress as looking as if it had been lovingly stored in a trunk and tucked away in an attic for 70 years and I think that describes it beautifully. It was utterly unique in any of the shops we looked at and it absolutely delivered the antique feeling I was going for.

I really didn’t think I’d find what I was looking for in a standard wedding dress shop and I was completely surprised to find it without any fuss whatsoever!

Shoe Bargains

My shoes were the bargain of the wedding!

I dreaded wedding shoe shopping because of my ‘super-model-proportioned feet’. I always dread shoe-shopping, even though I love shoes. The closest I came to a proper bridezilla melt-down was when a distracted and pretty unhelpful shop assistant insisted on brining me size 7s when what I needed were size 8s (probably more like an 8.5 if I’m being entirely honest) and told me that I could just stretch them out by wearing them around the house with a pair of thick socks! I got out of there as quickly as possible and 25 minutes later found my perfect shoes in Debenhams for under £30! They were cute and vintage and fantastically high and I had no hesitation in telling Scott exactly how much they cost!

Birdcage Beauty

Because my dress was very detailed I wanted to keep my jewellery simple. My ‘something borrowed’ was a pearl bracelet I’d given my twin sister Linda when she graduated from her latest degree(!). (‘Pearls of wisdom’ to celebrate her becoming a teacher.) Scott gave me a pair of beautiful diamond earrings from Tiffany and Co. which perfectly complemented my engagement ring.

I bought my veil when we were in Canada, visiting Scott’s family, the summer before the wedding. I knew I wanted a vintage-style birdcage veil and found that they weren’t that easy to find in Scotland. Scott’s Mum and I went of a tour of bridal boutiques in Belleville where they live and I found something wonderfully unique and bought it on a whim! It was lovely to be able to share that experience with her.

The veil was quite troublesome though and I had to call in the help of the amazing and incredibly talented Joyce Paton. I’d met Joyce through a fundraising event I had worked on and she’d offered to take a look at my veil and help to whip it into shape! In the end she completely re-designed it for me! However, when it was fitted, ‘post-hair’ I just didn’t feel 100% comfortable with it over my eyes and so my very clever hairdresser, Rhona McCallum incorporated it into my hair for me and it looked great! So I had my veil but with a twist!

Hair up

Rhona from Rhona McCallum in Alloa and her assistant came to Gean House to put up our hair. I wanted something quite classic and simple. My twin sister Linda wore a beautiful crystal butterfly clip from Glitzy Secrets in her hair for no other reason than she loved it! As I don’t normally wear a lot of make-up I decided that I wanted to do my own in order to make sure that I looked as much like myself as possible (only a rather more polished version of myself). As a relative novice in the make-up department I relied on the wonderfully patient Rosie at MAC in Harvey Nichols to give me several vital tutorials!

Peony Pretty

One thing I knew for certain before we were even engaged was that I would have pale pink peonies and mounds of them at our wedding.

Our wedding stationary was all handmade and I found a stamp maker in New York who made perfect peony stamps and I used them in the design for everything. The peony became an unofficial ‘motif’ for the wedding.
I arranged the flowers myself, with the help of my beautiful and hugely talented friend Stella who was dragged off a flight from Toronto at 6am the day before the wedding and put to work immediately! (She was also responsible for the gorgeously tied bows on our wedding cake.)

I wanted to keep the flowers simple, not least to save time in the arranging but also to give a sense that they were cut from the garden early in the morning and casually placed on the tables. I wanted to create a feeling of a gathering at home for our wedding and the flowers played a really important part in developing that sense of simplicity, familiarity and domesticity.

I fell in love with my aqua blue mason jars, which came via ebay from the USA. Some were over 70 years old and each was marked differently.

I also arranged single blooms in a collection of vintage tea-cups which were gathered up from charity shops the length and breadth of Scotland! The Indian Tree teacups were a wedding gift to my parents, as were the blue-spotted ones (the latter survived an IRA bomb just before my parents’ wedding and were given as a gift by the hotel my Mum was working in at the time!)

Lipstick Lady

My twin sister Linda was my only bridesmaid and I was happy to let her select her dress. We had originally thought she would wear a shorter cocktail length dress but we soon realised that as she was the only bridesmaid she might become lost in the crowd in a shorter dress! She needed something to make her really stand out.

Our early thoughts were to find a dress which would pick out the colour of my gorgeous aqua blue mason jars. However, when Linda tried on the sample dress in the store in ‘Lipstick’ it suited her beautifully and the decision was made! The dress originally had a clumsy halter neck strap. This was chopped off by our seamstress and it completely changed the whole look.

It was a coincidence that her dress matched our stationery perfectly but it was a happy accident and there was no one more delighted to be wearing pink (with pink shoes!) than Linda!

I think I have been very very kind today, showing you so many of the pretty peonies stamped all over this day.

But don’t think that means there’s nothing for tomorrow folks, oh no siree! There’s details a-plenty to share, style from the boys and more stunning photography, including the ceremony snaps from Lillian and Leonard.

Pop back tomorrow to brighten up your Friday morning and kickstart the bank holiday weekend. :)

Yours Truly

Rebecca
xoxo

A Wonderland Wedding… Part 2

August 25th, 2010

Welcome back for a completely elegant, vintage take on Alice in Wonderland for a Wedding. Aside from a jaw dropping venue which lots of you might think is a little aspirational, there is an absolute ton of UNIQUE here, which is exactly what we’re about here at RMW. This Bride was creative and did it her way.

And what a Wonderland she dreamed up.

All images courtesy of the ever talented Allister Freeman.

Floral Fancies

My flowers were thanks to Lily & May.

I asked for a natural vintage look and wanted them to look as if they had been picked from the garden. We used various varieties of roses, freesias & wax flowers as well as incorporating Rosemary and eucalyptus in the bouquets and table centers so they smelt wonderful!!

Due to the tea party theme my centrepieces were hand tied poses arranged in vintage teapots, so that my guests could easily take the poses away with them at the end of the night!

Classic Documentary

We chose Allister Freeman for our photography. We love his natural documentary style and the way he manages to capture all the emotions of the day so well in his photos.

Allister is also a thoroughly nice guy and we both felt totally at ease having him around us all day – which is very important!

Tea Party cake

The cake was made by a family friend. We separated the tiers and displayed each on a different height vintage glass cake stand.

Vintage Flair

We used a great company – Vintage Flair to hire vintage crockery. Our tables were set with a teapot flower arrangement in the centre and then each place setting was a teacup and saucer with a vintage napkin. Each table had a cut glass water jug with a ‘drink me label’ attached to keep with the theme & I made a little figure of each of the Alice in wonderland characters as table names.

Our table plan was actually lots of vintage picture frames grouped together and we even had vintage tablecloths to some of the tables!! The girls from vintage flair helped me with many of the ideas and even set everything up for me on the day.

We also had a hat dressing up box so that all our guests could try out various mad hats during the day & as James is a graphic designer he created all invites & menus to our own design.

Ring Me…

Yes well I went a bit over board on this one, making everything myself but it was well worth it!!! Each seat in the ceremony either had a hand made tissue holder (complete with emergency tissue) or bells for our guests to ring as we walked down the Aisle as husband and wife.

Then the favours for the wedding breakfast were hand made tea bags. The tea bag labels doubled as the place setting.

Dancing up a Storm in a Tea Cup

For entertainment we chose a disco – our guests love to chuck a few shapes on the dance floor!!

Our first dance was to ‘When I fall in love’ by Nat king Cole. James mimed the words to me as a joke early on in our relationship and after that it just became our song!

Putting a unique stamp on your Day…

I think it was all the personal hand made touches that made our day unique. Our guests loved our home made touches & really embraced our theme which meant everyone also had a great deal of fun – it’s a special day and its important that you enjoy it and make the most of it – we certainly did!!

Thanks again to Allister Freeman for submitting this elegantly unique and creative affair, and to James and Jane for letting us share their beautiful day! I am in total awe of the little characters Jane made to hold the table names – super skill!

Yours Wonderfully Truly,

Rebecca
xoxo

A Wonderland Wedding… Part 1

August 25th, 2010

Yes, folks, thats Alice in Wonderland.

Not all Wedding themes are in good taste it has to be said (even though I love a theme), but this one was executed beautifully by Jane and her husband James. Those of you who just adore pouring over beautiful imagery will also be noses pressed against the screen, Allister Freeman submitted the wedding to us and I struggled choosing a selection for the blog. They are heart stopping. In fact, it’s fair to say, this is the kind of wedding that I came back to again and again in my own planning; Enjoy the breathtaking elegance.

All the stunning images are courtesy of Allister Freeman.

Finding a Theme

James and I (Jane) were married on 14th May 2010, at Gosfield Hall, Essex. We knew we wanted a vintage/English theme to match the venue but didn’t want to end up looking like a period drama! It was important that our wedding had a sense of fun as we enjoy being silly so we came up with a Mad Hatters tea party theme, (complete with mad hat dressing up box for the guests which was a great laugh!!)

Intricate Styling

My hairdresser, Nathan, (Silhouette du Barry, Chelmsford) did wonders with my hair – it was so intricate and probably photographed more by my friends than my dress!!

My make-up was thanks to a great makeup artist called Blu. We went for a modern vintage look to compliment the dress and hair. She also did the makeup for my bridesmaids and mother.

Pearl tones

My dress was from a great little shop in Colchester called ‘The Wedding shop.’ It was one of the first dresses I tried on and it was the colour that I fell in love with! (An unusual pearl tone.)

Packham Pretty

I did not want a veil and instead chose an amazing diamante hairpiece from Jenny Packham.

This was then topped off with a vintage necklace passed down to me by my grandmother (my something old) and some stud earrings compliments of e-bay!!!

Better than a Whirlpool!

After a great deal of searching I ended up with Jimmy Choo’s. Satin, very high and with a really lovely silver strap detail. Completely worth the investment but as my dad pointed out I could have bought a washing machine (all be it a cheap one) with that money!!!

Not sure that would offer quite the same enjoyment!!!!

Midnight Dreams

We picked a midnight navy for the bridesmaids and groomsmen. The bridesmaid’s dresses were made to my design by Ali Rouse at Unique Dress and the groomsmen’s suits were from Next.

James wore a three-piece suit from Paul Smith. He looked very handsome waiting for me at the end of the Aisle and was surprisingly calm!! He was also very proud to show me that he had matched his socks to the lining of his suit!!!

I know! I’m such a tease!

So far, so normal, right?

Just a tiny taste of what’s to come in the Grooms Mad Hatter hat as shown above. There’s so much more to come in Part 2 and you don’t have to wait long as it’s later on today!

Yours Wonderfully Truly,

Rebecca
xoxo