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

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

Made In Belfast.

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

Decisive And Laid Back.

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

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

Silver With Pearls.

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

Rocketdog Pumps.

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

The Vintage Bride.

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

Copper Broccoli.

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

Grey And Navy.

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

All The Wee Details.

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

Sweets And Soups.

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

Personal Performances.

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

This Is A Party, Not A Dance.

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

Stripey Straws.

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

The Black Box.

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

Home Made Desgins.

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

Venue Made In Belfast and The Black Box

Dress Alyce designs

Shoes Next

Bouquets and decor Copper Broccoli

Suits Remus Uomo

Photography navyblur

Stationery The Groom

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

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

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

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

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

Adam.

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

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

Maybe I’ve got retro on the brain…

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

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

The Cobbled Streets Of Chester.

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

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

Ric-Rac Detailing.

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

A Time Gone By.

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

Lady Dragon.

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

Sort Of Wavy, Sort Of Curly.

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

British Blooms.

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

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

A Little Help From Our Friends.

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

Charcoal And Pale Green.

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

A Late Booking.

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

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

No Cake.

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

Hey Mr DJ.

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

God Only Knows.

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

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

Generous Pals.

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

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

A Cello Bass Bride.

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

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

Beg And Borrow.

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

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

Venue Chester Guildhall

Dress bhldn.com

Accessories bhldn.com

Shoes Vivienne Westwood

Hair Essensuals in Chester

Blooms wigglywigglers.co.uk

Florist Snapdragon

Photography McKinley-Rodgers Photography

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

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

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

Adam.

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

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

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

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

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

Easy Breezy Up-Do

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

I Always Knew

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

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

Aqua And Grey

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

Something Borrowed And Something Handmade

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

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

A Gift From The Groom

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

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

A Flash Of Ditsy

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

A Genius Talent

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

HOT Flowers

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

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

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

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

A Day Of Entertaining

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

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

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

A Significant Reminder

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

Mini Bunting

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

Retro Favours

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

The Prettiest Public House

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

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

Advice For Future Brides

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

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

Lomography Love.

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

Browns Gown – Justin Alexander

Brides Accessories – Handmade and on Etsy

Maids Dress -Monsoon

Grooms Suit -A Suit That Fits’

Florist – Hot flowers

Gospel Choir -Cornerstone Gospel Choir

Fiat 500 – www.weddingclassiccars.co.uk

Venue – The Marlborough Pub

Photographer -Joanna Brown

You like?

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

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

Big THAT dress Love

Charlotte xxx

Kate and Adam choose the lesser known but stupidly beautiful “I Will” from The White Album. In her report Kate included a few lyrics but I’ve jumped in and stolen them to put you all in the mood:

Love you forever and forever
Love you with all my heart
Love you whenever we’re together
Love you when we’re apart.

So simple, yet so effective. I don’t think you could sum up that sentiment any more succinctly – and Lenon and McCartney made it rhyme the show-offs!

Anyway – on with the show. Today’s images are all by the simply marvellous S6 Photography.

Rock my Wedding; you gave me much joy searching through your pages while I was getting ideas for my wedding and I may add, I’m still slightly obsessed …

The Right Decision.

We wanted to keep our day really intimate, it was really important to us both to just have the people who mean a lot to us and that did mean not having all the extended family and friends, which was sometimes a difficult decision, but definitely the right one in the end. We also decided that we wanted the ceremony quite late, we got married at 4.30pm, and because of that we skipped the sit-down meal part – which I had worried about a bit, but so many guests told us how much they loved the informal feel to the day and the meal was not missed at all – phew!

We found the perfect location in the Leopold Hotel, which is a beautiful boutique hotel in the centre of Sheffield. It’s an old grammar school which has been restored, so is a lovely mix of vintage and modern – just what we wanted.

Heavy Cream And Lace.

I knew from day one what sort of dress I wanted, I’m quite particular in the style of dress I usually wear and someone gave me some great advice; on your wedding day you should look like ‘you’, but just a more polished, glamorous ‘you’ – this really stuck with me and because I never wear strapless in the ‘real’ world, I didn’t want to do it on a day when everyone would be looking at me and taking photos! So, I knew I wanted something with lace and sleeves (which was also appropriate given the time of year) and something with a bit of a 60’s style as I absolutely love the 60s, especially the clothes!

I found the ‘one’ on Etsy while looking for something else…it’s an original 60s dress made entirely of gorgeous heavy cream lace and was just perfect.

Lace And Pearls.

I have really short hair, so I felt a headband would have looked a bit wrong and any sort of clip would have just fallen out, but I really felt I needed something in my hair to finish the look off, so I didn’t look like just a normal day. My hairdresser, Leigh, from the Cutting Room in Rotherham has cut my hair for years so I know she does a fantastic job, and on the day she not only made me look lovely, but my mum, sister and sister in-law. It was a real pleasure having her there and we had such a laugh getting ready together. Leigh made me the most beautiful headpiece to wear. I gave her some bits of old lace and she lovingly cut out the tiny flowers and pieced them together to make the larger flowers which were joined together by wire and small pearly beads…then the best bit; she ‘stitched’ it into my hair!!

Adam bought me some gorgeous pearl earrings as a surprise, which he gave me a few weeks before (as he was worried I wouldn’t like them – as if!!) so with the lace and pearls in my hair, it really tied the whole look together.

Chunky 60’s Styling.

Because of the style of my dress, I felt the usual dainty, sparkly ‘wedding’ shoe wouldn’t really look right, so I wanted something a bit chunkier in keeping with the 60s style. I also needed something with a bit of height as I’m quite short and wanted to be able to look into Adam’s lovely eyes, not his chest! After searching, I eventually found a cream patent, mary jane style shoe in Topshop… I had wanted to treat myself to some posh shoes, as I do love my shoes, but when I came across these they just seemed so right and I think they looked perfect with the dress.

Ribbons In Her Hair.

I decided to play a bit of dress-up with my sister (my beautiful bridesmaid). My hairdresser did the most amazing beehive style up-do for her, which looked fantastic. I bought some ribbon in similar colours to her dress which Leigh then tied around her hair and clipped a bow which she had made in the same ribbon onto the side.

When it came to make-up, my sister and I decided to do it ourselves, although I don’t usually wear much, I do love make-up and enjoy putting it on. We treated ourselves to some lovely new Benefit stuff and I did the make-up for us both.

Wed In Red.

My favourite colour is red. So it was a bit of a given that we’d have red at the wedding. But, I didn’t want to go down the route of pillar box red and red roses etc, so we decided to have a dark red/burgundy, autumnal colour scheme, which actually fit perfectly with the venue too, as their décor is all dark reds and browns (which may have been why I loved the venue so much….!) I met our florist Sasha from Forget me Not some time ago so she was a perfect choice to do our wedding flowers. For my bouquet I asked Sasha for something naturally tied and not too structured and she made the perfect arrangement for me using some gorgeous red tipped roses, deep red (almost purple in fact!) calla lilies and dark red and green berries and foliage, which were all tied together with a lovely ribbon. My sister had just a smaller version of mine as I liked the idea of having them the same.

A top tip for all you brides to be; Sasha made me a smaller bouquet up as a little extra for me to throw, such a great idea, as the lucky girl who caught it got to keep a little memento from the day (and a reminder to her other half maybe…!!)

Terracotta Arrangements.

For the evening, we had four large tables in the room, but because we didn’t have a meal we didn’t need to have full place settings or anything. I do love flowers though so knew I wanted some flower arrangements for the tables, so my florist made up four terracotta pots of flowers, using slightly different colours to my bouquet; more orangey/reds which looked lovely and made sure everything wasn’t too matchy matchy. I wanted to get the most out of these flowers and use them for the ceremony also; so there was a large fireplace in the room which I placed two of the arrangements on and placed two on the table at the front. Reusing the flowers is a good tip if you want to keep your cost down and get the most out of your flowers.

My Only Bridesmaid.

My sister was my only bridesmaid, it felt right only having one as our wedding was small and we didn’t have a large wedding party as such. She was the best person to have by my side throughout the planning, getting ready (including all the prep of having our nails done and hair practices etc running up to the day…we had such fun!!), and on the day itself. She was a true star and also kept me on the ground a bit when I had a few bridezilla potential moments! She was also the entertainment for the morning when getting ready – having us all in stitches! I really wanted to play on the 60s style with her whole outfit, and I couldn’t find a traditional bridesmaid dress that I liked and wanted her to be comfortable in it too – so I went for a very ‘non-traditional’ short dress from Topshop, which she wore with black tights and skyscraper shoes! It was a lovely silky material which hung beautifully, with long floaty sleeves in a mink colour. The colour really set off the brighter colours of the bouquets, as well as the boys’ suits and together with her beehive I think she looked absolutely fabulous!

Simple Suits.

Adam had two best men (greedy I know!!) and we wanted to keep their outfits quite simple too and because of the autumnal colour scheme, grey or black would have looked totally wrong and neither of us particular liked morning suit style jackets – we also thought it would be a nice touch to buy them their suits which they could keep afterwards and hopefully get more wear out of them.

A Reason To Go Bespoke.

I’d seen Adam in his suit beforehand as I was quite involved in this part – but when I saw him stood there waiting for me, it was one of the most amazing moments of my life, and even through the tears (I cried pretty much all the way down the aisle) I could see he looked gorgeous!

Adam has always wanted the experience of having a suit made, so obviously our wedding was a perfect opportunity. And looking back, it is definitely worth the extra money to do this as we had such a good time during the fittings etc, which was mostly because of the amazing Fiona Greene at Greene and Clark, she was fantastic right from the start and helped us choose the perfect cloth, colours and even the lovely dotty cravat and hankerchief.

Simple And Beautiful.

After searching through loads of photographers’ websites, I came across S6 Photography. Jon’s images are simply beautiful and I knew straight away I wanted him to shoot our day and Adam agreed instantly. He managed to capture the day as it happened so when we look at them (and I can’t stop looking at them!) they tell the complete story of the day, and have provided us with a lasting memory of some fabulous, and sometimes extremely funny, moments which we can now remember forever.

Mum Made.

My amazing Mum (with a little help from me and my sister) made cupcakes for us, I didn’t fancy having a traditional cake and Mum had recently been on a cupcake making course so it was an obvious choice and was a great way for her to be involved in the preparations. The day before the wedding the three of us spent the morning in my kitchen decorating 100 cupcakes with red fondant and chocolate hearts and lots and lots of glitter!

A Good Mix.

The entertainment was something we took a long time thinking about. Adam and quite a few of his friends are what you may call ‘amateur’ DJ’s! And usually at parties and weddings etc they all chip in. But, we thought it would be nice to take all the stress out of this (because it usually ends up with them setting all the equipment up themselves and clearing away at the end of the night) and hire a DJ. We went with the company that the hotel usually uses 1DJ1 and they allowed us to give them a complete play list which was great – when we sent our invitations we invited all our guests to request a song to be played later on so it ensured a good mix of music and would hopefully get everyone up dancing!

I Will.

Adam absolutely loves The Beatles… I mean really LOVES them! So, they were an obvious choice for our first dance, especially with the 60s inspired outfits. He’s also a sucker for a good love song lyric, I don’t mean soppy love songs but ones which really mean something. We chose ‘I Will’ which is the most beautiful song, the lyrics are lovely, but it is not your usually soppy love song and meant we could have a bit of fun with the dancing – by throwing in a couple of spins! We had chosen the song quite early on, but a couple of days before the wedding we had a bit of a panic that we hadn’t practiced in any way. Adam is not without rhythm, until it comes to slow dancing with me…then he turns into a piece of cardboard and he was sooo nervous about this part of the day. So, we stuck the song on and had a little dance around our room, planning where we could do a few spins – it was lovely to take a bit of time out to have a dance, when do people ever do this normally?!

No Frills Vintage.

I really wanted a slightly vintage feel to the wedding, but without too much of the ‘frills’
The venue was beautiful in its own right and I really felt it didn’t need too much in the way of decoration, as it had all the original features such as oak panelling around the walls and a large fireplace with a clock in the centre. We had a little side room to the main ceremony/reception room where the food and cakes etc were which I decorated with red heart shaped bunting and sprinkled rose petals on the tables.

Something Really Special.

Apologies for a really soppy moment coming up…Adam is the most generous, caring, loving person I have ever met, and I know his close family and friends think this too. He’s had some tough times in his life and when I looked round the room during the speeches there was something really special going on – it’s difficult to explain in words, but the people who know him and have been there for him had a real sense of pride about them, which I’ll never forget. My Dad, who has always got on really well with Adam, had a lot, and I mean a lot, of love for him that day – it was brilliant!!

We tried to give each guest a record which would mean something to them, either the song or artist, and we had quite a bit of fun going through them all and deciding who to send what. A couple of days after posting these, I was bombarded with texts telling me how much people loved them, so a great success I think!!

Venue Leopold Hotel

Dress Etsy

Shoes Topshop

Hair Cutting Room

Blooms Forget me Not

Tailor Greene and Clark

Photography S6 Photography

DJ 1DJ1

I LOVE the stationery – when I first saw it I though, cool – they’ve had stationery printed to look like 7″ singles. When I found out that in fact they had got hold of a load of actual vinyl and sent them out with home made labels on I nearly had an accident.

I am SO Stealing THAT idea.

What Idea? My Idea… yeah… my idea.

Adam.

And if I’ve said it once I’ve said it a hundred thousand times, we just can’t ever have enough pretty on RMW… This welsh wonder has it in spades and then some, from Joy’s exquisite lace frock to the pale and interesting colour palette and feminine florals.

I want to be a guest at this wedding. I want to receive an invitation decorated with real petals. I want to stand amongst the streamers and the lanterns. I want to have a slice of delicious cake adorned with sweetpeas. But most of all I want to have every moment captured by Charis and Owen from O & C Photography.

Delicate Jewels

I had a hand made deco style Swarovski crystal headband from Fabledreams that I bought in Bordello after seeing it in the window. I felt that a veil would be too much for the delicate nature of the dress. I also wore a diamante Ivory and Co “waterlily” bracelet from Queens and Bowl and an aquamarine stone on a silver chain as my “Something Blue”.

I did my own make up after having a MAC wedding make over session to and my hair was done by my amazingly talented friend Prem who works out of Daniel Hersheson in Mayfair.

Unstructured Antiques

My dress was antique French lace and made by Jane Bouvis I found it at a vintage wedding fair – literally pouncing on it after seeing another bride try it on next to me – I was polite and asked if she was going to take it before I swiped it off her! I bought it 10 minutes later and then had a panicky few months before I could find time for a fitting wondering if it could have been that easy. Once I picked the satin slip and tried it on again I knew I’d made the right decision….it was so unstructured, different and delicate.

For shoes I had the lovely (and extremely comfortable!) “Flo” ivory mid heeled shoes from Rachel Simpson that I bought from Queens and Bowl.

The Tale Of Two Ceremonies

Our outdoor ceremony and reception were held in June 2011 at Plas Glansevin following a civil ceremony at Brecon registry office earlier in the afternoon, with just us and two witnesses (my maid of honour and one of the best men).

Blush and Brown

The groomsmen bought their own suits to work with the brown suit my husband Va chose. My maid of honour wore a gorgeous blush coloured dress from French Connection. There was no colour scheme or theme we just wanted a very relaxed country-style wedding.

Mis-matched Simplicity

My bouquet and the buttonholes were antique pink roses. I only had one formal arrangement which was over the mantelpiece in the grand entrance hallway – for the flowers on the table I’d decided that I wanted something much more simple, so we went with colourful pastel wildflower blooms that were placed in mismatched vintage glass bottles and home made hanging jars. All the flowers came from a fabulous florist in LLandeilo called Pinc – who after just one meeting completely understood the look I wanted to create.

A Swoon Groom

Va wore a bespoke tailored brown suit from Reiss, with a well cut white shirt and gold/taupe tie – I would have swooned whatever he wore!

It’s Never Too Late

We left this a bit late so there were a few frantic phone calls and lots of photographers who couldn’t do that date helpfully recommended others thy knew. We ended up going with O&C Photography and we were so glad that we did – they were such lovely people to have there on our special day and truly captured all the happiness of the day.

In Love With Strings

The Cambria String Quartet played us down the aisle and back and carried on through whilst the canapés and drinks were being served. I had song (Spiritualized’s “Ladies and Gentlemen”) that I’d wanted to walk down the aisle to since falling in love with it about 6 years ago.

For a small fee they re-arranged it for strings for me along with another song that I wanted played after the ceremony had finished (Hoppipola – Sigur Ros). It was incredible when I heard them played.

DIY Decor

This was a totally DIY wedding as the house we hired is self catered and once the keys are handed over it’s yours for the weekend. We transformed it with lots of little touches that Josie at Savior Weddings helped me style, from ribbons and white lanterns in the beautiful oak tree we married under, fairy lights, candles, lace runners, vintage tea cups and medicine bottles, bunting and hand-made hanging mason jars to a huge banner to match our invitations that my friend and designer Louisa Pendergast hand painted for us that was hung to hide the open kitchen in the dining room.

None of which could have happened if it wasn’t for my good friend Estelle who managed it all (and me) along the way and on the day and my lovely niece Niki who made sure every table setting was absolutely perfect.

In Love With Lemon

The three tired cake was made by our friend’s cousin (who also happens to be a professional cake maker) and was Victoria sponge with buttercream for two layers and lemon sponge with lemon curd filling for the middle layer – my mum LOVES lemon cake. The cake was quite simple with delicate piped icing and a simple ivory ribbon on each tier. The same roses from my bouquet were the topper for the cake.

Perfect Party Tunes

For the reception we had a friend who is and Odissi dancer perform a very special and sacred Indian Temple dance followed by two great friends who are simply my favourite party tune DJs.

For our first dance it was Fleetwood Mac’s “Songbird” which just popped into my head one day, so I played it to Va and we both knew it was perfect for us.

Fancy Treats

For favours we had seeded flower paper favours that people could take away and grow in their gardens and printed with a thank you message.

The delicious four course meal (and hand made after dinner truffles) was crafted by the team at Alistair Hugo who got up very early to travel all the way from London to do the catering – Hugo just happens to be married to my niece.

Planning From Afar

Having so many of our family friends involved in orchestrating the wedding made it really special to us – we received such incredible help we were blown away and it allowed us to have wedding we dreamed of on a relatively small budget. We really wanted our wedding day to be relaxed, fun and intimate, almost as if it had “just happened” during a country weekend away with friends and this is something I really think we succeeded in doing – although it took a fair bit of work to get us there! My advice? If you have talented friends and family don’t be afraid to ask them and don’t get too hung up poring over every little detail – if trust your own instincts as to what you want you can make decisions quickly.

Being in London and planning a wedding in Wales with very little time on my hands (I think I’m in the minority of brides to be told I wasn’t talking about my wedding enough) meant that I had to let go a little bit – most of it was done over the phone and by email and we never tasted the cake. Trust other people to know what it is you want to create and let them get on with it – I didn’t see the decorations or flowers at the venue until we came down the drive in our vintage Jaguar but they were absolutely perfect. Oh and have fun!

Brides Gown – Jane Bourvis

Brides Accessories – Queens and Bowl

Maids Dress – French Connection

Wedding Venue – Plas Glansevin

Catering – Alistair Hugo

Photography – O&C Photography

Styling – Savior Weddings

Entertainment – Cambria String Quartet

Blooms – Pinc

That final portrait….I did have myself a little cry.

And for anyone out there who is considering an outside ceremony like Va and Joy, I think streamers are a budget friendly and easy option for decor and would look equally as effective in white as they would in a selection of bold brights.

Big Joyful Love

Charlotte xxx

Quite a claim to fame! Lucky then that their guests could enjoy the sunshine for as long as possible in such a beautiful outside space. Albert Palmer was invited to this scorcher of a vintage garden party, and luckily he brought his camera along (otherwise the bride and groom would have been understandable pretty miffed…)

Katherine provides the narrative to accompany these gorgeous relaxed images.

All Change.

We dramatically changed our venue 3 weeks before the wedding as our old venue redesigned its interior badly without telling us and our theme suddenly didn’t go with the new gentleman club vibe they had brought in(!). Luckily, Priston Mill had their only Friday of the year available on that date so we switched venues! The staff at Priston Mill were amazing and so accommodating considering our very late booking.

Stateside Style.

My dress was by Allure Couture – an American designer, bought from Louisa at Victoria Park Bridal, Bath.
I always knew I wanted full lace with capped sleeves so it was simply a case of narrowing it down. When an American friend bought me a stateside wedding magazine as an xmas pressie this was the first dress I looked at and I just knew it was THE ONE. After a long search in UK for stockists I eventually found a bridal shop (Victoria Park Bridal in Bath – AMAZING) that stocked the range, although NOT this particular dress. I was devastated when I learned I would have to pay quite a lot of money to order the dress in to try on and I decided that it was just not meant to be. But then a week later, Louisa called me to say that another bride had enquired about the same dress (she had never had an enquiry about the dress before), the bride was prepared to pay the fee to order it in and did I want to try it on whilst it was in the store? I of course tried it on and fell in love with it immediately. Tears, smiles and I ordered it straight away. A bit of a long winded story but worth telling I think. Fate was obviously on my side…

Birthday Treats.

My 30th birthday was 6 days after wedding so my mum bought me beautiful drop pearl and diamond earrings and all of my girlfriends chipped in and bought me a stunning vintage pearl bracelet from a boutique in Westfields, London. My beautiful hair slide was bespoke and made of vintage 1920’s & 1930’s brooches, earrings, and hair pins. I found it at a vintage wedding fair. It is made by Sheena Holland.

Andrew’s ring was made of coconut shell. We bought it from a street stall in Guatamala a month after he proposed. It cost 49p!

Talent On Tap.

My good friend Laura (who is conveniently an awesome hairdresser) did my hair. I wanted simple and elegant as I knew the hair piece was going to do all the talking…
My make up was done another friend, again, it was very simple and subtle. I don’t usually wear much make up and I wanted to feel myself on the day. She nailed it making me feel glam and special but still myself.

Rose Confetti.

It had to be roses. I wanted a variety of colours reflecting the bridesmaids dresses. I used a local florist Stems who completely ‘got’ the theme that I was going for. My bouquet was loosely tied with lace adding to our relaxed vintage approach. We had limited flowers in vintage tea pots on the tables. It was all that we needed as we also dressed the tables with vintage crockery, candelabras, and photo frames. We decided not to have button holes as we felt it as a tradition that didn’t quite fit in with our relaxed approach. All of the ladies at the wedding were given a rose head at their place setting which they later used the petals of for confetti.

3 Different Designers.

I always wanted my bridesmaids to have different coloured dresses and after a VERY long search we found the perfect dresses in the perfect colours for my beautiful ladies. The dresses were by 3 different designers which made colour matching tricky and we didn’t actually physically see all of the dresses together until the day before the wedding! The hard work paid off though as they looked stunning. The younger bridesmaid dress was from Monsoon and she looked so pretty in it.

Overwhelming.

Andrew wore a 3 piece Ben Sherman suit from Debenhams which was a BARGAIN! Finished off with a white pocket handkerchief he looked so sophisticated. I got half way down the aisle and was suddenly completely overwhelmed by emotion seeing my love standing waiting for me.

Creative Style.

What can I say? We knew Albert was good but his amazing ability to capture every special moment has blown us away. Absolutely stunning and we feel extremely privileged to have had him at our wedding. There are so many photos that we want to frame, we simply don’t know how to choose. Cannot praise his wonderful creative style enough.

We Lurrrrve The Cheese.

We are not really cake eaters…. But oh my do we love our cheese! We had a 6 tiered cake of our favourite cheeses. It was provided by the lovely venue who decorated it with figs and grapes. Andrew’s granny Dorothy also made us a yummy fruitcake decorated with pretty pink flowers that we cut and served to the guests which went down a treat.

It’s All About Soul.

I was born in the wrong era so it had to be a soul band. Not only that but they had to be loud and fun. We hunted high and low and found The Dedications through LMMUK. We went to Manchester to see them play and they had such great energy. They created a brilliant atmosphere and so many people asked us where we found them on the night!

Perfect Words.

We chose ‘You’re Amazing’ by Bruno Mars as our first dance song. An unlikely choice as most of my friends thought we would go with an old love song from my collection! We just felt that the words were perfect as Andrew always says he loves my smile…

Red Tape Stops Play.

For Favours we chose gold heart shaped sparklers only to find out that we couldn’t light them inside the venue!! All of the ladies at the wedding also had a rose head with their vintage tea cup which they could then use the petals as confetti.

Magical, Romantic and Elegant.

I wanted a vintage theme which is slightly overdone these days but it’s always been my dream. I find the vintage theme so very magical and perfectly reflects how I feel a wedding should be; romantic and elegant.
We hired vintage china crockery from Aunties Vintage China. Sue was so helpful. We also hired a gramophone that played on and off throughout the day – a massive hit and set a lovely relaxed feel to the day. Sue even gave us a CD of vintage songs that we played inside before the ceremony. A truly personal service and highly recommended.

We tried so hard to personalise our wedding with many small details and hopefully it paid off overall.

A Personal Touch.

We tried our hardest to incorporate many small design details into our wedding but without a doubt our ceremony was the best part of the day for us. The ceremony was so magical. A beautiful butterfly arrived and began circling us throughout the ceremony – it made it all the more special. We had friends and family write readings for us which made the service so personal – even Andrew wrote a beautiful poem that his sister read. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room! Our personal vows topped it off; perfect in every way.

Try and make your wedding about you and your man as much as possible. It is truly reflected on the day and makes it all the more special.

Dress Allure Couture

Boutique Victoria Park Bridal

Hair slide Sheena Holland

Venue Priston Mill

Florist Stems

Suit Ben Sherman

Photography Albert Palmer

Now I’m a bit of a vinyl fiend, so seeing shiny rings and Decca logo’s is my idea of geek wedding heaven, but for those of you less…. well geeky there is still lots to love here.

Katherine mentions that vintage is slightly overdone but it was her dream. I must comment on this – certainly vintage is still a very popular direction to head down and if you are glued to the blogs and glossy’s you may well feel it’s time to change the gramaphone record. But you shouldn’t feel like that. Just as much as you shouldn’t decide on a vintage theme for the sake of it, you shouldn’t shun a theme that you love because it’s popular. If it feels right, and you want it – just do it.

You can tell from Andrew & Katherine’s wedding that they really embraced their theme and the result is a style the suited them. Above anything that anyone tells you – you have to pick a theme that reflects you as a couple. That is how you’ll end up with a wedding that looks as comfortable and natural as this one.

Adam.

I think team RMW will have to take our share of the blame for some of Dawn and Alex’s early indecisions (apparently daily doses of pretty can make choosing hard!) but it’s fair to say that Dawn and Alex have managed to create a very pretty, very RMW worthy wedding indeed.

And of course they did it their way.

All the gorgeous images today are courtesy of Lisa Dawn Photography.

A Weekend Away.

Our wedding took place at a gorgeous boutique hotel called Stanwell House in Lymington. We discovered the hotel during a day trip to Lymington just before we got engaged and vowed to come back and visit some day! We loved Lymington as a place and wanted to make our wedding a bit of a weekend away for our guests.

Classically Subtle.

My dress was designed by Suzanne Neville, brought from their Guildford branch. I had always had a good idea of the style of dress I wanted. Something simple and classic with subtle detailing – I’m not one for too much bling. When I tried on the dress it was the fit of the bodice and the cut of the dress that sold it to me, I felt absolutely amazing in it! I also brought a lace bolero which I wore for the ceremony and dinner.

Side Tiara.

I tried on some veils at Suzanne Neville and although gorgeous, they are just not me. It also completely changed the look of my dress. I had always thought that I wanted some kind of vintage clip in my hair but then I spotted my side tiara. I saw it initially in Suzanne Neville but opted to get it straight from the supplier which was Halo & Co.

Killer Heels.

Aside from Alex (and my dress), my shoes were my next wedding love! They were my wedding present from Alex (chosen by me though – he’s good but not that good!) and brought from Miu Miu. I wanted shoes that weren’t typically weddingy, that I could wear again with my skinny jeans. They are a light dusky pink with cutout details and killer heels. I was slightly concerned that the flagstone floor of the ceremony hall could cause a catastrophe, but all was fine! I did have to change into my purple flipflops though for the walk to the harbour where we had photos together.

A Calming Influence.

I was really lucky to have my childhood hairdresser doing my hair on the day. She offered to help as my wedding present and did an amazing job. We had a couple of trials based around a style I’d found in a magazine. After some dodgy makeup trials, I opted for buying all my makeup from Bobbi Brown and my friend Jennifer (who is fantastic at makeup) did it for me. They were really helpful at Bobbi Brown and taught us new wedding looks. It also meant that I had a whole new set of honeymoon make-up! It really helped calm me down having people I knew around me on the day.

Vintage Vase.

I wanted a very relaxed and natural feel to the whole day and also with the flowers. My whole theme for the flowers came when I found a vintage cut glass vase in Cath Kidston. I brought that one and then set about hunting in charity shops, antique shops for the remaining 8! The centrepieces looked beautiful spilling out of the vases and were created by a local florist Jasmine Designs in Lymington . Alison there was very helpful and worked closely with my Mum, who is a florist and created the rest of the flowers including my bouquet, bridesmaids and numerous arrangements around the venue including some in jam jars outside and other small cut glass vases. The flowers we used for my bouquet were Memory Lane, Amnesia and Avalance roses, double lysianthus and eucalyptus. The bridesmaids had the same but without the avalance roses and the centre pieces were designed to theme in with those colours. My Mum finished my bouquet with ivory ribbon, lace and pearl pins to tie in with my dress. She also sewed in my Granddad’s RAF button so that he could be a part of the day (it was also my something old).

I was so pleased with the flowers and it meant everything to me to have my Mum make them for me. She is an absolute star, not only for staying up till the early hours the night before making them but for all her help with all my wedding plans. I couldn’t have done it without her.

From Length To Length.

The bridesmaids colour was one of the first things I decided on. My favourite colour has always been purple and although most of my plans and themes changed a lot in the early stages (mainly because I kept seeing more ideas on RMW) I always wanted purple to be one of the main colours. The bridesmaids dresses were from Coast and were brought on our very first shopping outing – which I was very shocked about. I started early as I thought it would take ages! My initial thoughts for the bridesmaid dresses were that I just wanted everyone to feel comfortable and not be worried about how they looked, so I was up for them all having different styles but the same colour. We tried the dresses on in Coast and they were the same fabric and colour but different lengths. 2 of my bridesmaids preferred the long and 2 the short, so that’s what we did. I think it looked lovely and they were all able to enjoy the day in their own style and get on the dancefloor with me in the evening!

A Twist In The Tail.

We thought initially that we would buy the boys suits (well at least Alex’s) and we had both thought that we’d go for a lounge suit. In fact initially, I was dead against going for tails. However, we thought we’d try the hire shop Simon James in Woking just to look at all the different options. Alex tried on a normal suit and looked amazing and then Simon suggested trying a tails suit. As soon as he came out in it I burst into tears – in a good way! Alex loved the look too as he felt like the Groom! We wanted to make it a bit more modern though so we opted for ties not cravats and the best men and ushers had waistcoats to match the suit colour. Alex’s tie and waistcoat was ivory to tie in with me.

Alex looked absolutely amazing in his tails and everytime I saw him trying it on I cried! I couldn’t wait to see him at the end of the aisle on the day and he looked awesome. Alex got into the wedding theming too by wearing purple socks and purple diesel wedding pants!! He brought new cream cufflinks to tie in with his waistcoat and tie.

Informal And Fun.

Lisa of Lisa Dawn Photography was our photgrapher and she was fantastic. What made us decide on her was her style of photo and philisophy to wedding photography. We didn’t want to be standing around for hours on end having formal photos taken when we could be enjoying the day with our guests. We only had 15 formal shots and that was by far enough! Lisa and her husband Scott take fantastic informal photos that really tell the story of the day and capture it perfectly. She also appreciates all the little details, so I have some beautiful photos of all the things I made for the wedding.

Whisk & Woo.

Our cake was a wonderfully delicious pile of cupcakes stacked on vintage cake stands. They were made by my very talented university friend Emma Pullen who co-runs a cupcake business called Whisk & Woo. She made me the cupcake toppers to tie in with the theme and wrapped the cupcakes in lace too. We had 2 different colours, pink and cream and they were topped with pearl looking goodies and hearts. Inside the cream cupcakes were strawberry jam – yummy! We didn’t have a top cake to cut, instead we just fed each other cake. It took all my will power not to shove it into Alex’s nose!

Moonriver.

We hired Richard Stevenson an acoustic guitarist to play me down the aisle and during our drinks reception. I walked down to Moonriver as I love Audrey Hepburn and he played us out to Jack Johnson ‘Better Together’. Richard did a brilliant job and his music provided perfect background music for our reception.

In the evening we had a disco recommended by the venue. On our invitations, we asked our family and friend for their favourite song and gave the list to the DJ so that he could play some of their and our faves.

The Perfect Version.

We chose ‘Chasing Cars’ but sung by Natasha Bedingfield as our first dance. We both really love the song and the words and thought that her version of the song was perfect. We followed it with OutKast Hey Ya to get everyone straight onto the dancefloor!

Sweets And Stickers.

We didn’t have traditional favours, instead we had a sweet bar for everyone to help themselves to. I made stickers for the bags with Alex and Dawn written on and the date so that people could take their sweets home if they wanted. I think most people just stuck them to themselves though! I also made gift bags for the people staying at the hotel which included a guide to the new forest, tictacs, drinks and biscuits incase they were peckish or hungover!

Lace And Linen.

I loved organising the details and the decorations and was constantly creating more and more projects! Mum made lace and linen bunting for the ceremony hall and we had fairy light draped around the trees and in the wedding breakfast room. I brought lots of cream wicker hearts which we used to decorate the ceremony hall and the gardens. We had flowers everywhere in cut glass vases and tealights along the window sills. Outside we had little flower arrangements on the tables and jam jars decorated with ribbon to hold more tealights. My parents and us spent an entire year eating nice jam and mango chutney to get enough jam jars!

For the seating plan I made luggage tags with ribbon and different vintage style buttons at the top. They had their name and the table number they were sitting on. Once they found their table they could just sit wherever they wanted. The luggage tags were pinned inside a huge vintage picture frame with pearl headed pins.

The Icebreaker.

My Mum also made lace and linen napkin rings which had cream, dusky pink or purple ribbon tied around. On the table I also put boxes with tiny luggage tags saying ‘Open Me’. Inside were pictures of all out guests, either with us or a photo that reminded us of a memory we had with them. We wrote personal messages to all our guests on the back on each photo. Everyone really liked that touch and was quite a good ice breaker for people who didn’t know each other. That was our favourite project and we really enjoyed looking at all the photos and going over the memories we had with all our friends and family.

In the evening, we also had a polaroid camera and my bridesmaid Jade went around taking photos of all the guests for our guest book. They came out brilliantly- thanks to Jade!

Dont’ Worry About Aunty Doris.

We were fortunate to have a really supportive network of friends and family who really let us do our own thing. Remember that ultimately if you and your husband are happy with everything you have planned and created that’s all that matters. As fun as all the planning is, it’s standing at the front of the aisle and looking at the man you love that you remember – not whether a napkin is wonky, a tea light is missing or whether you’ve upset Aunty Doris by not inviting her!! (P.S I don’t have an Aunty Doris btw!)

Venue Stanwell House

Dress Suzanne Neville

Shoes Miu Miu

Tiara Halo & Co

Photography Lisa Dawn Photography

Florist Jasmine Designs

Cake Whisk & Woo

Suit Hire Simon James

It’s always a challenge to come up with ideas that help your guests break the ice, but everyone loves photographs. Everyone!

So what better way to get your friends and family mingling than to give every guest a photograph that links them to the bride and groom in some way. That’s a sure fire way to get some great stories told and re-told around the tables.

It also makes your guests feel extra special to know that you have prepared something personally for them.

Adam.

After a pre-wedding party on 9 September 2011 at The Potting Shed, a pub down the lane from the venue, the big day arrived. One party down, one to go…

Joanna Brown of Browns Photography was there to capture those moments forever.

Hand Dyed Silk.

My dress was designed and made to measure by Dana Bolton of Once upon a time. I couldn’t find anything I liked in the shops, particularly as I knew I wanted long sleeves and 30/40s feel to the dress, something vintage, with lace, and unique. Dana helped sketch out my ideas and bring it together and when she showed me the hand-dyed silk and chiffon she had in a pale blush I was sold! When I tried on the finished article I just knew I had the right dress for me – magical!

Local Jewels.

My earrings were from a shop in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham (where I am from). but the name of the shop escapes me – sorry! I had bought them ages ago and never intended them for the wedding but as the dress and look came together – they felt right! My hair comb was made by Jurgita at Lavender by Jurgita who I found through etsy!

After having my hair trial I thought that I should have comb that echoed the vintage look and the pearls would tie in with my pearls on the dress – and could sit in the rolls of hair at the back. I use etsy a lot so when i searched for vintage hair combs, and saw the style of Jurgita’s I thought they would be beautiful and set my hair off!

Sharing Shoes.

My shoes were actually my something borrowed – from my good friend Manana who got married in 2009. She and then our good friend Beth (we all went to uni together) wore them for her wedding in May this year – so I decided to carry on the tradition. They are originally hand made by Emmy.

Flawless Attention To Detail.

My make-up and hair were done by Katherine Jennings who was local to Cotswolds and recommended by the venue. She was brilliant and we had a three-hour hair and make-up trial before the wedding. She took really detailed notes and photographs to be able to re-create it on the day, and understood exactly what I wanted from the pictures and descriptions I showed her. I knew I wanted really simple make-up (just to look as flawless as possible and a bit dewy were my only requests) and I think she did a really good job. My hair went down a treat with the guests on the day and was in theme with the vintage and 30s/40s look of the dress.

Heather And Herbs

We had a pseudo theme of heather and herbs for the wedding that was reflected in the stationery. All staionery, table plans, save the dates and invites were made by my extremely talented sister Kate Blake.

So we asked the florist to include heather in all buttonholes and my bouquet as well as any nice smelling herbs. The heather was to symbolise Haworth moors, where we have been going walking together since we first met and where Chris proposed in July last year. The herbs – our love of cooking! Other than that we described colours and flowers we loved, that we wanted texture and size and smell. She interpreted the brief so well and provided all the jugs for table centres, jam jars, wicker hearts, hanging jars of flowers etc – the cream candula roses in the buttonholes and bouquets were a perfect match for my dress colour and she pulled out the vintage lace details for the hand-tied posies and my bouquet! Sara Tuckey of Aqua florist was also local and recommended by a friend who used her for her wedding in August this year! She was really professional and reliable and extremely enthusiastic about our wedding!

Pretty In Pink.

Chris had two best men who wore their own suits with ties and shirts from Thomas Pink. The ties were pink and matched the design of the groom’s and father of the groom’s ties (all in different colours).

The bridesmaids wore dresses hand-made to a 1940s original voque pattern I found on the internet. I sent the pattern and measurements to Cynthia at heart my Closet – again found on etsy – and the dresses returned in a month. Both bridesmaids had slight adjustments made locally and bought their own shoes and belts to suit their personalities. I must admit, colours and matching were not something we focused on but rather would the colour (teal!) suit the people involved and above all would people be comfortable?! The flowers for the bridesmaids hair were provided by Sara, My sister’s grey and white shoes were hand made by Roni Kantor at Roni Kantor vintage and Laura’s were from a charity shop in Birmingham.

Finishing Touchces And Flowergirls.

I bought my bridesmaids bracelets which they wore on the day from Joy Everley in London. Flowergirls Poppy and Molly (Chris’ nieces) wore dresses from Monsoon and their cream chiffon and crochet tops matched my dress to a tee! Flower wands and head dresses again provided by Sara.

Made To Measure.

My dad wore a three-piece tailored suit by Paul Smith with tie to match. Shirt from Thomas Pink and brogues made by Barker at Jones the Bootmaker.

Chris wore a made-to-measure three-piece suit in petrol blue from Gieves and Hawkes, including made-to-measure shirt and handkerchief. His shoes were made by Jeoffrey West and bought in Manchester. Tie from Thomas Pink.

Capturing The Moment

Our photographer was the truly wonderful Joanna Brown of Browns Photography. My sister found Joanna on the internet and after having looked at her work online we were hooked – by the mood, atmosphere, use of colours, and love that went into her photos. She really seemed to be able to capture the moment, in a natural and emotional way which was what we really wanted – nothing staged or impersonal or indeed too literal. We looked at lots of great quality photos but them seemed to be missing that heart we saw in Joanna’s. Her vintage and unique style really fit in with the rest of the wedding too.

We met her at her home, shared tea and cake and our vision for the wedding. We had a ball on our pre-engagement shoot in Bournville and by the time the wedding came we considered her a friend! So we felt relaxed to be ourselves and share the raw emotions.

Sponge Suprise.

Our cake was made by my sister and was a surprise! We had a cake table and asked people to bring home-made or bought cakes for everyone to share. My sister made a vanilla sponge cake with a lemon curd centre and vanilla buttercream topping. The cat couple had sat on the shelf in our nan’s house all those years we were growing up and meant she was also present even though she has now passed.

Folk Vibe.

We had The Old Time String Band play live before and after our wedding ceremony to ensure the day got off to a jolly start. We knew we wanted live music and a folk vibe that we love and also suited the theme and overall tone of the day. As we were getting married late we knew a dj and band were not an option for later so started the entertainment early. As we wanted the reception outside we thought it would offer a festival vibe – which contiuned into the silent disco.

Shhhh!

Our dj was dave from diskojuice. He specialises in ‘unqiue or alternative’ wedding music. Like the band I found him on the internet but met him in the summer to discuss our tastes and thoughts for the wedding. He wanted to get a sense of us as much as we did of him. Like many of the people who contributed to our wedding, we considered him a friend by the time the day arrived – having sat in our living room the weekend before (me dying of flu) going through song choices!

As well as kicking off and maintaining a really fantastic party he organised, at our initiation, a silent disco because our venue had to stop live music by 11.00pm. It was inspired and the guests had so much fun its gone down in friend history!

Will You Still Love Me…

Our good friend Colette has been learning the ukuele and playing in a band so we asked her to play our first dance. The song came about by accident. Three weeks before we attended her brothers wedding and the next day we had a good old fashioned irish sing along and she played, Will you still love me tomorrow. We asked if she would play that as it was a little tongue in cheek – which we wanted in order to deflect attention – and we had everyone singing along with us! it was the moment and friendship that was more significant than anything else. we also used up all our personal songs during the ceremony!

Rustic Treats.

For Favours we had blackcurrant jam made by me my Mum and my sister and various herb packets put together by my mum and sister and matched to the various herb named tables on which each person sat!

We let the venue speak for itself – with all its vintage accessories and knick knacks decorations weren’t necessary beyond what my mum, sister and Sara provided, including candles in jam jars and hanging flowers etc. The marquee was lovely and the chairs and lighting were all provided, at the venue’s recommendation by Ken at Elegant Marquees.

A Team Effort.

Our wedding was so special because we love each other and our friends and family and they all played a part – not just family members. Everyone contributed by making things, bringing cakes, playing music, singing along, delivering speeches, by making recommendations, coming to dress fittings with me, lending me their shoes. The wedding was the culmination of months of hen and stag do’s, celebration dinners and planning sessions that meant everyone knew each other and already felt comfortable to share in the joy of the day – even the two best man speeches turned into a team effort including wives of the guys!

Be Yourself.

My advice to brides is make sure you make decisions together and enjoy the process – the creative bits, meeting new people, and learning what is important to each of you. Be yourself and make decisions that make you happy. Concentrate on the overall vibe of the day not so much the minute details – how do you want yourself and people to feel as they come away? Well fed, well-entertained, well-watered? Invest in those things….. and not everything has to match!

xxx

Venue The Rectory Hotel

Dress Dana Bolton

Shoes Emmy

Hair and Make-up Katherine Jennings

Photography Browns Photography

Entertainment The Old Time String Band

DJ diskojuice

Marquee Elegant Marquees

It sounds like Kim and chris’s big day not only bought them together, but it bought a whole community of friends and family together too. And that surely is what it’s all about. A big day. Everyone you love in one room. A big bloody party. Together.

If you are organised enough a pre-wedding party can be an absolute hoot. I’ve been to one such shindig that involved kayaking in Wales for 4 hours (elderly relatives and packed lunch included). It was brilliant fun and successful bonding exercise. But no matter what you do – it’s a great way to get your guests mingling and socially warmed up before the big day its self.

Adam.

Clare’s parents did a stellar job of decorating the reception venue themselves the evening before the big day and there are plenty of DIY decor ideas for you gorgeous lot to steal, the heart-labelled table plan and contemporary typography on the place names are particularly covetable.

Oh and then of course there is the fashion. Clare is doing that whole sexy lace sleeve thing whilst her maids are divine in mis-matched floral print tea dresses.

We Heart Pictures? We heart you. Thanks for sharing the loveliness with the RMW community guys.

A Beauty Rescue Mission

Here was where I buried my head in the sand and thought it would all just sort itself out! Why? – well, I’ve got crazy curly hair that I wanted curly, but not fake curly- I’ve had so many bad incidents that I was scared to even approach a hairdresser! Anyway, 4 weeks before the wedding, I decided that I couldn’t do my hair myself, nor could I guarantee straight eye-liner if nerves got the better of me!

Dilly at Pinkgloss came to the rescue. Mum and I had a day trip to Chipping Campden to visit their studio and Dilly was amazing. She understood exactly what I wanted and, within an hour!, hair and makeup was perfect. On the day she was a star – so calm, professional and a genuinely lovely lady.

Something Borrowed Something Pink

My beautiful friend, Becci, leant me her very own veil – the lace trim matching my dress perfectly. My earrings were last year’s Xmas pressie from Stan – pearl drop, with a diamond stud. My most precious accessories were my Grandma’s ring and bracelet – although I wear the ring everyday, the silver bracelet only comes out on special occasions.

Shoes were not crazily high, but just right for dancing! They were Rachel Simpson vintage T-bar design in pink and gold. As some of the money went to Breast Cancer Trust, I thought: pretty, can wear again and all for a good cause.

A Fine Romance

My dress was a ‘forget me not’ design. The lace top was from Stephanie Allin ‘a fine romance collection’. I never had a set idea of what I’d like when I got married. However, after only trying a couple, it had to be ‘all about lace’ – I fell for the vintage, soft look it gave. The organza on the length of the dress added a special, almost ‘pre-worn, old’ feel, which I liked.

Rock My Vintage

Stan wanted a simple, classic suit that he could wear again. Therefore, we went for navy blue suits, white shirts, pink spotty ties and tan shoes. We didn’t hire anything, as most of the men had a blue suit and Stan had one made.

For bridesmaids dresses, I wanted something a bit vintage twee / floral / tea dress-esque. Finally found some lovely designs on www.rockmyvintage.co.uk We picked two different designs and had four bridesmaids – two in each dress.

The Only Theme Is Floral

The wedding never had a theme from start to finish – more an eclectic mix of things that we liked. The venue had a ‘country feel, relaxed’ vibe about it, so I tried to tie in the flowers in with that. Flowers were important – both our Grandmas loved pretty flowers so, as they weren’t with us to celebrate, we wanted to do them proud. Jan Phillips, a florist based in Montgomery, created just what I wanted, off the back of a thrown together brief! She was recommended to me, and I’d recommend her 1000 times over.

I had a bouquet of cream roses, dusky pink hydrangeas and wax flower. Buttonholes were cream roses, with pink hydrangea spurs and wax flower. My bridesmaids had lovely bunches of gypsophila, which looked lovely against their patterned dresses. The florist then ordered in a mix of gypsohila, hydrangeas, wax flowers, freesias, roses – my dad then arranged them all in a perfect haphazard way into a mix of tea cups, jars, bottles, vintage jugs and dotted them around the rooms. Doing the table decorations ourselves saved a lot of money and it was fun!

We Heart Our Pictures

This was the only disagreement that we had in our wedding planning process. The discussion was along the lines of: Stan – “I don’t want one, they get in the way” Me – “We’ve got to have one to capture all the memories….”

Long story short, I won! We found Charlie & Hector, who are the lovely duo behind ‘we heart pictures’. Their style of photography was just what we wanted – best of all, they understood it was our special day and just fitted in to the day, making it so easy for us. Having got the photos back, I can’t believe how many beautiful and memorable pictures they captured, as it felt like we hardly saw them. In hindsight, we have both realized that having the photographs of our day is invaluable. We can flick through them and remember things we’d forgotten, or look at things that passed us by on the day.

The Perfect Decor

My mum and dad were amazing at helping out with the décor. I’d seen some heart shaped bunting I liked, so they set about making some with heart cutters and vintage card. It looked fantastic. We also had lots of jars and bottles dotted around with flowers that my dad arranged the day before. I bought some ‘just married’ and ‘happily ever after’ signs that we hung on the fireplace/mirrors in the venue (from etsy). The venue has a lot of character, so not much was needed to make it feel special.

Charitable Favours

For favours, we decided to donate money to Breast Cancer Trust. We made little cards for the tables, thanking our guests for joining us to celebrate and telling them where we’d donated money to. We also got everyone a badge to wear, which went down a treat – ‘I’m next’, ‘My shoes are killing me’, ‘I love the groom’, ‘Hello ladies’, ‘50p a dance’…

A Magazine Worthy Sponge

I knew what I didn’t want, but was struggling to find something that shouted ‘eat me’! Until I saw a picture in a magazine that looked divine – a big Victoria sponge, oozing jam and uttercream, covered in strawberries and dotted with flowers! My godmother, Frankie, had very kindly offered to make our cake and she did us proud! It looked better than the magazine and tasted delicious!

The church was in a little Shropshire village called Chirbury, whilst the reception was across the Welsh border in Montgomery, Powys.

We had an acoustic duo singing at the church, as well as doing two sessions in the afternoon and early evening but we decided to break with tradition and didn’t have a first dance.

Lucky 14

Last year, we went to 13 wonderful weddings – the message I got back from many of the friends was ‘do exactly what you want…’, so that’s what we did. We wanted a small wedding with our closest friends and family, so we stuck to our plan.

We liked that we had time to have a chat and relax with everyone. The best piece of advice I got came from and old school friend – she said, when the last few weeks get manic with home DIY wedding projects, stay chilled and remember that your guests will never know what all your plans were – therefore, it’s ok if you don’t finish your favours …. Try and enjoy the run up to the big day as, all of a sudden, it’s over!

Brides Lace Top – The lace top was from Stephanie Allin

Brides Shoes – Rachel Simpson

Maids Dresses – Rock My Vintage

Florist – Jan Philips in Montgomery Tel: 01686 668645

Favours – Donations to Breast Cancer Care

Photography – We Heart Pictures

Yes the Maids-dress boutique name amused us no end too….

Anyone else opting for mis-matched florals?

Big I Want Some Pink T-Bar Shoes Love

Charlotte xxx

Polka dots are one of those designs that seems to have always just always been there – I’m not sure anyone has ever claimed to have invented the polka dot, which incidentally is good for Rock My Wedding, as they would very likely be be suing us right now

One thing is for sure though, the polka dot is synonymous with fashion and fun. Polka dots are as striking and stylish as they are care-free and casual. And I think that sums up Nicky and Andy’s wedding perfectly. Oh by the way, 10 points for guessing what their theme was based around…

The Ozone.

Our wedding was on 23rd June 2011 at the Brighton bandstand. My wedding dress was from a independent shop called The Ozone in brighton and it was made by Hilary Morgan.
I liked the length and shape of my dress (sort of 1950′s style) It’s Ivory as I didn’t want pure white. It was the first dress I tried on and I just knew it was the one.

Accessorise with Silver.

My veil came from the same shop as my dress. I liked my tiara because it was simple and understated. I wore some extra silver earrings and bracelets from Claire’s accessories

I was also given various things to wear. My sister gave me a necklace to wear which she wore on her wedding day. Andy’s Mum gave me a white handkerchief, which had been given to her on her wedding day by her Mum. I was also leant a garter (white with a blue bow) by my Maid of honour Lucy.

Once Worn.

My shoes were second hand Marks and Spencer kitten heels from a shop called Red Mutha in the Brighton lanes.

I did my own make up on the day after having my hair done at my usual hairdressers RJ’s on the morning of the wedding. I had my hair down, pinned at the back with the veil, and lightly curled.

Polka Dot Theme.

We wanted to have flowers and buttonholes which fitted with our black and white polkadot theme, after a bit of research we found out about button-bouquets, and had some made by Tanya at BlueButtonBride. We found a polkadot dress made by ‘Hell Bunny’ for Lucy (our maid of honor) at Grenwich Village in Brighton. Where we also found ruffled petticoats for the bride and bridesmaids. We got the bridesmaids dresses form BHS, we chose them as they looked like miniature versions of my wedding dress.
Knowing how difficult it can be to find a suit that fits well, we decided not to hire them, and to let everyone to be comfortable in their own suits. For the groomsmen we picked up some polkadot ties to fit in with the theme from Woods of Shropshire.

Suited And Booted.

Andy’s suit was tailored by Gresham Blake, with a polkadot lining and small red touches. The polkadot shirt was from modasoda and the polkadot tie. The spotty shoes were from irregular choice.

Tino And Pip.

We found Tino and Pip at a wedding fair. We chose them because we liked the informal style of the pictures they had on their website. When we met them we were pleased to discover that we really liked them personally too, and they had a real enthusiasm for all things wedding. Our friend Leila made our cake, it was three layers, a big fruit cake at the bottom, chocolate in the middle and a small battenberg on top. All were covered in black and white icing with black and white chocolate buttons to make polkadots.

Top Bananas.

For the bandstand we got The Top Bananas to play before and after, the ceremony to entertain our guests. It was very windy and everyone was impressed at how they stayed on their stilts. They even did the wedding march for us. In the evening we had DJ Alan Meadows.

Seeing Spots.

At the Bandstand we had Polkadot bunting and balloons, organised by the Bandstand cafe. At the Terraces we had more polkadot balloons from Balloonatics.

We designed name cards with a similar design to our invitations and had them printed on moo.com business cards. And pegged them to the glasses with wooden pegs we had painted red. For our table plan, we wanted to keep away from using table numbers, so we went with colour coded circles on a pin board. And matched them up with table decorations made from cheep ‘tat’ ornaments from charity shops, spray painted the same colours.

Keep Your Eyes Peeled.

We tried to keep our wedding relaxed and fun, and it was our lovely friends and family who braved the wind and rain in good spirits that made our day special. Start planning early, and keep your eyes peeled for extra little touches that could fit with your theme. We got the big things done quite quickly and early, the rest we spread over the best part of a year.

Do or make some of the stuff yourself, little hand made touches really make you feel like the day is more yours. Don’t be afraid to change your plans if necessary. when it started raining, and it became clear we would have to move our ceremony to the downstairs cafe, we had to throw away most of our plan and quickly decide an alternative running order.

Boutique The Ozone

Dress Hilary Morgan

Shoes Marks and Spencer

Hair RJ’s

Tailor Gresham Blake

Photographers Tino and Pip

B is also for budget – with second hand shoes, family and friends lending a hand, budget business cards for name cards (great idea by the way!) and lot’s of D.I.Y – Nicky and Andy have created a very personal and distinctive feel to their wedding that didn’t have to break the bank.

The key to success, as Nicky suggested, was that they took their time and looked out for items that would fit their theme over the course of a year. You will always uncover bargains if you give your self the appropriate time to find them.

Adam.