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Vintage Romance, Sunshine And Soul.

December 20th, 2011

Andrew & Katherine married on what was to go down in history as the hottest September 30th for 180 years.

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 also designed a ‘Cards & Comments’ table where people could write messages, take home CD’s to copy their photos to and send back to us, and leave cards in a vintage suitcase. I made a ‘Mr & Mrs’ feature where each letter was in a vintage frame and suspended from the mezzanine balcony. It looked great as we exited down the aisle. Our table plan was photographic – guests found the photo that matched their name rather than a table number. I also made cute candles out of a bunch of vintage china teacups that I bought from car boot sales.

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.

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Those Three Words.

December 15th, 2011

Rock My Wedding reader Dawn confessed to being a little bit addicted to our lovely blog in the run up to her big day back in July.

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.

As presents Alex brought all the boys cufflinks and matching Hugo Boss purple socks (this was his idea!) Loved it!

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.

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A Vintage Folk Affair.

December 13th, 2011

Kim and Chris were married at The Rectory Hotel at Crudwell in the Cotswolds and they married upon the exact 7 year anniversary of the very day that they got together.

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!

Kim and Chris

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.

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A Very Fine Romance.

November 23rd, 2011

So after yesterday’s “simple is chic” affair, this afternoon we’re showcasing the uber pretty lots-of-detail W-day of Clare and Stan. And before I say anything else I just want to mention the blooms. I freakin’ LOVE them. Especially all the tall wiry greenery mixed in with subtle hints of hot pink.

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

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B is for Brighton, Bandstand and Balloon!

November 3rd, 2011

Right, let’s talk polka dots…

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.

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The Prettiest Tea-Party….Part 2

October 28th, 2011

So I guess it’s pretty darn clear that Danielle and Kevin are super duper stylish (I can predict a whole statement peony trend on the 2012 W-day horizon already)…but they also know a thing or two about how to have an amazing reception.

And no I don’t just mean the decor (although that’s really quite lovely), I mean in terms of entertainment and the fact that every single guest looked like they were having a whale of a time. There was live Motown, there was a game of musical chairs, there was a bride with a smoke machine…..there was a trio of semi-naked chefs…..

Oh and “Host Your Own Roast”? one of the greatest ideas I have EVER heard.

This is the perfect post to get you in the party mood for the weekend lovelies.

Worth The Wait

The theme of the day was a vintage garden tea party with a very slight nod to the mad hatters tea party…. Kev and I have been together for 10 years, we’ve been engaged for about four….this was the wedding everyone thought wouldn’t happen, not because we didn’t want it but because something always came up to stop us saving and planning. I travel a lot with my job and have spent so much time in the last 4 or 5 years on tour, our house needed completely renovating and swallowed up so much of our time and money…but we finally decided enough was enough and it was now or never.

I don’t think either of us realised how big it was planning a wedding or how much we wanted it until it happened.

We booked a green vintage route master to bring our guests to the ceremony, and had them do another run for the evening guests. Myself, my mum and the bridesmaids arrived in a vintage white beetle that had the best hooter I’ve ever heard!

Art For Art

I left the photographer down to Kev, as an Art Director he deals with photographers all the time and knew exactly what he wanted from them on the day and after. He sent me a few links to have a look at and I loved Jon Mold’s work as much as Kev did.

We could not have made a better decision, Jon coaxed us into doing a pre-wedding shoot neither of us wanted to do. We went along with it as it was important to Jon. I was so ill on that day but we instantly felt like we had known Jon for years!

He was a complete pleasure to have at the wedding, I can’t tell you how much people loved him. Everyone thought he was our friend rather than that being only the second time we’d met him. In the day he’d been out and rekeyed a farm up the road for us to go to after the ceremony, he didn’t even bat an eyelid when I had a mini diva fit at him over my Louboutins ha ha!

Jon stayed till the bitter end as well, I don’t know how he was still standing. I’d discussed with him our desire to have a photobooth set up and how I’d been looking at hiring a booth and he talked to me about doing this himself and how we could do it much better. He was right but I think Jon underestimated how crazy our family and friends are and how keen they were to get in there.

We’ve kept in contact since of course and have a few exciting things up our sleeves.

Dreamy Decor

We hired some fantastic bunting from Bunting Queen that we hung across the marquee and my mother in law hand made metres and metres of doily bunting that we hung all around the garden.

We were lucky enough to have two huge tree’s in the tent, we hadn’t realised it until the tent had gone up but they made such fantastic features, infact I think they made the tent. (One was a weeping willow and we had to cut 11 foot off the top…..my poor parents looked on in horror as the tree surgeon gave it the haircut of its life….it now resembles a very large bonsai tree) We covered the trees in fairy lights and hung hand made doily pom poms (they looked like lace) in them and lots of vintage lampshades I’d been painstakingly collecting for months.

We Hung a couple of huge lampshades from the roof of the marquee and my sister in law had made an amazing HUGE tea pot that we hung from the tree as well. We also had vintage just married bunting that we hung behind the top table. I’d been buying vintage keys from ebay for months and we hung these from string in the trees as well.

We pulled out our vintage chesterfield from the junk room and borrowed another and some chairs from friends, we had those along with standard lamps and vintage suitcases set up in and outside the marquee. We used a vintage suitcase for our table plan and filled it with old brooches and pearls and raided our house for vintage cameras and shoe shine boxes and dotted these around for decoration.

Planes, Moustaches and Beehives

I wanted to continue the vintage/tea party theme for the girls and give them something they’d really like to keep and something I’d love myself. It’s horrible when you see favors left behind. I spent ages looking and finally settled on vintage teacup candles. I found a brilliant woman in Wales who trawled second hand shops and vintage fairs for me and hand made each one, matching the candle colour and fragrance to the cup. They went down so well with the ladies.

For the men we wanted something fun, we decided on stick on moustaches and little model foam airplanes for them to put together…As expected these were flying around during dinner and I nearly had a few wedged in the old beehive.

We also had some old school Alice in Wonderland fortune tellers on the table for people to play with in between courses.

Host Your Own Roast

We wanted a sit down meal but wanted it to be a bit different so we went for a ‘Host your own roast’ each table had a pre-selected Chef (Chosen by us), they received on their table setting some instructions, a chef’s hat, an apron and a knife set tied with a ribbon.

I’ll never forget when we walked into the tent announced as husband and wife looking round and seeing the chef’s with their hats on and moustaches. After the starter a huge fillet of beef was brought to each table on a wooden block and was given to the chef’s to carve for the rest of the table. It was hilarious and one of my favorite memories being able to sit back and watch and listen to everyone laughing and cheering their chef’s on. It was a real icebreaker.

Bespoke Buttercream

Kevin’s dad kindly made the cake for us, we were so lucky he was able to and was up for the job as I was pretty horrified at how expensive they were it was also really nice for us to have him be a part of the wedding.

I had an idea of what I wanted and knew I wanted it to look vintagey in terms of it being covered in brooches and pearls. I printed a few pictures from the Internet, did a few sketches and talked it through with him and as I hate fruitcake so we went for a buttercream. We got to taste it just before the wedding and so pleased we did as we didn’t even get left a slice!!

Dressing Fancy

Kev and I both love fancy dress and we always make our friends laugh by going to town if there’s a fancy dress party, we wanted to bring this to the evening reception so we filled one of the vintage trunks to the brim with wigs, masks, hats etc and around 11pm we picked a few friends to come with us and open it. Within seconds the trunk was empty and Kev and I sat on the sofas looking around giggling at everyone. With the photobooth accessories as well it was rather surreal.

Kev also made and had printed a huge black board with ‘The best day of our life’ printed on it and we left a stack of post it notes and encouraged everyone to write us a message and stick it on the board along side the guest book. We want to get this framed and have it in our house as a lovely memory of how rather odd and sweet our guests are.

Motown and An Old Skool Rave

This was one of the most important things to us – the music. We got let down 3 times on bands we had booked for the welcome drinks, not to mention some other entertainment we had planned like ‘the tea ladies’, it seemed like the end of the world at the time.

We wanted a ska band to play in the garden whilst everyone arrived and drank champagne from tea-cups…the last one we’d booked let us down a couple of weeks before the wedding so I decided to make a play list and play that instead …a lot less hassle. We painstakingly looked and listened to a trillion bands before Kev found the fantastic Motown Gold for the evening reception. They were an 11-piece Motown band – drums, trumpets etc and they were amazing! They really got everyone going.

We love Motown and thought it would set the night off perfectly and get all ages up and dancing.



We’d been after the wedding smashers but they were booked up so a DJ friend of mine recommended our DJ Rob – he’s a radio one producer and also organizes the White Wedding Club night in London so his record bag was bulging!

We went through the entire do’s and don’t before the night but he knew exactly what we wanted. We were thrilled with Rob and the play list, as planned it turned into an old skool rave up at the end, with dance music, lasers and smoke machines! It all got a little bit crazy with dance off’s and everything … I keep having brilliant flash backs.

I was lucky enough to borrow an amazing Funktion One sound system (which made this techy geek bride very happy) and a very good friend of mine who owns Coloursound Experiment sent a crew of people down the day before who spent about 13 hours putting up more fairy lights than I’ve ever seen in my life, they also projected hearts inside the roof of the tent and there were lights just everywhere, he surprised me with the lazar and smoke machine! We had a full on rave up!

Making It Ours

I think what made our wedding so special to us was that it was so personal. Kevin is a designer so he designed and made every single bit of stationary from our save the date postcards, our wedding tea towel invite to all the stationery on the day. The ‘You are the chef’ cards, the menus, the order of services etc.

On our name place cards we put our family and friends nick names as well as their name and they were pegged to their wine glasses with little union jack pegs, almost everyone took their name cards and pegged them to themselves.

All the stationery was made from recycled kraft paper and the actual invits were tea towels. We really liked the idea of people getting use out of them instead of throwing it in the bin after. We thankfully got a few spare as we’re going to get one framed and it’s a nice little reminder when we’re doing the washing up (!)

Having it in my parents back garden was so special to us as well and helped to create the laid back vibe we wanted. It was a total honor for our guests to comment on how friendly and chilled the vibe was. It was important to us everyone felt at home and relaxed.

I think the whole day really showed our personality, from the stationery to the lampshades to the lazar and smoke machine, it was just us being us rather than trying to be something we’re not.

Photography – Jon Mold assisted by Kim Hawkins

Stationery – The Groom!

Decor – The Bride!

Bunting – Bunting Queen

I don’t know about you gorgeous lot but Danielle and Kev’s big day really made me want to put on my dancing shoes (well a fancy pair of Laboutins to be precise…) so I may just do exactly that this evening….

Coming up later… a little bit of nudge nudge wink wink.

;-)

Big Naked Chef Love

Charlotte xxx

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