When this supremely gorgeous country-garden inspired affair fell into my inbox I was literally agog.

Gorgeous Bride? Check.

Gorgeous Groom? Check.

Gorgeous Setting? Check?

Gorgeous Photography? Check bloomin’ check.

Can’t possibly keep it all to myself any longer….. really must share all of the oh-so-pretty loveliness with you all.

Francesca married David on the 12th September 2009 at the Parish Church in Hannington followed by an evening reception at Cranford Hall in Northamptonshire.

Francesa has kindly sent us a whole load of interesting planning detail that we will we post amongst the beautiful images courtesy of husband and wife team Christian and Erica of Christian Ward Photography.

Hair and Make-up

For my wedding planning I had a scrapbook where I put all my ideas, cutting out clippings and photographs for everything from hair to dresses to cakes. My hairdresser was Maggie Clinton from Holcot, which is the next village along from Hannington. I had a hairdressing trial and I took along the photos from my scrapbook, while she brought along her own selection. I explained the type of style I wanted and together we chose a relaxed up-do. I wanted my hair to look special for the day, but natural.

The Dress

My dress was by Pronovias, and I bought it from Serendipity Brides in Weedon, Northamptonshire. I tried on a lot of dresses both in Leeds where I live now, and down in Northamptonshire, before I found “the one”, but I knew the kind of style I wanted: slimline with a gentle fishtail and a sweetheart neckline, and with a vintage feel, possibly lace. Even when I found it I wasn’t quite sure: it had straps (which I didn’t want) and there was no corset (which I did want!), but my mum suggested looking at it without the straps, and in the shop there was a corset that I tried on with it, which made it perfect.

A Corsetiere called Mary Louise (who works from home and at the time was based opposite the dress shop) made me a beautiful corset to go underneath the dress and she also removed the straps and made the adjustments to the length to fit me perfectly.

Bargain Shoe Candy

I knew that nobody would actually be able to see my shoes on the day so I decided to go for something pretty but comfortable, they were from BHS.

A Perfect Veil and Something Borrowed

The veil was actually the one that went with the dress on the Pronovias website, but they didn’t have it at the Serendipity store in Weedon so they had to order it in from Pronovias on Bond Street. I wanted a lace veil with beautiful detail, but thin enough so that the detail of the dress could still be seen. I hadn’t actually tried it on until the day before the wedding, and when I was standing there in my jeans and with the veil on, I was really worried it was going to be too long! But on the day it was absolutely fine and was one of the things I got most compliments about, even from male guests and they’re not usually known for noticing wedding details! My bridesmaids helped me with it on the day, especially my twin sister Camilla, so that was a real help.

My necklace was given to me by my mum to wear on the day and has a really lovely story behind it. It was given to her as a little girl from two ladies in the village where she grew up in Cornwall. We think it was originally from India, and is made from silver and opals.

Green Grecian Goddesses

I went shopping with my bridesmaids. It was a little bit difficult because at the time I was the only person who knew that my friend and bridesmaid Carla was pregnant, and of course we had to choose the design with that in mind! Luckily they all liked the same design, which was nice and loosely draped in a Grecian style, from Monsoon. I’d had in mind that green would be nice for the dresses, and the Monsoon ones were more-or-less perfect except that the waist ties weren’t really in keeping with the style of my dress. So we ended up going to a haberdashery in London called McCulloch and Wallis and found some beautiful sequinned lace which was made up into replacement waist ties for the dresses.

Oh-so-pretty….

And just how lovely and vintage looking were the BHS shoes? an A.mazing find Francesca.

We have the reception and all of the stunning and unique details coming up tomorrow for your ultimate viewing pleasure.

Excited?

We are.

Big Love

Charlotte xxx

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