Are you ready for part 2 of Katy and John’s colourful Big Day? Yep? Excellent.

Pay close attention to Katy’s cute cardi (I want) and funky chunky necklace (also want) as right now at RMW HQ we are loving a bit of sorbet hued accessory statement for W-day.

And also the cake. This couple had one hell-of-a-cake going on with both lego AND love bird toppers……Love.

Taking The Plunge

I had two veils, both from Candy Anthony – a traditional pouffy tulle one for the ceremony and a birdcage veil for the reception. I wore a pair of vintage earrings as my something old and my Mum’s engagement ring as my something borrowed (something new was a necklace from John as a wedding gift, and I tied a little blue bow into my dress as something blue).

I wanted a bit more of a funky feel for the reception and I fell in love with Magpie Vintage’s bespoke necklaces – after eyeing up one in green for about 6 months and panicking that it would be sold, I finally took the plunge and bought it.

Breathe Easy

The photography was one of our top priorities for the day and our photographer was Neale James at Breathe Pictures. John and I are both pretty camera shy and didn’t want to be posed for formal shots, and definitely aren’t a ‘bridal party jumping in the air’ kind of couple, so we wanted a photographer that had a reportage approach.

Looking through his portfolio we loved the way that he managed to capture the emotion of special moments and we were thrilled that that skill was so evident in our photos too. Looking through the photos brings all the memories flooding back and he was such a calming influence on the day, making sure everything ran smoothly.

A Tower Of Treats

I’m a massive fan of cupcakes – I think the cupcake tower came as no surprise to our guests! They were made by Awfully Nice with icing in different shades of pastel colours and we had an iced sponge cake for cutting. I adored our cake toppers – we had a pair of felt love birds from Gifts Define on Etsy, and a lego bride and groom (I used to work at Legoland and as a self confessed geek, John was a big childhood lego fanatic). I also made cake pops following an online tutorial from Rhubarb and Rose – so cute and remarkably easy!

We definitely didn’t want the standard smoked salmon and chicken for the wedding breakfast and the food at Wasing Park is one of its best features! Galloping Gourmet, the caterers, did a wonderful job and our guests ate a lobster and king prawn tart, lamb two ways, Eton Mess (my favourite!), and even a palette cleanser of lemon sorbet with vodka shot and popping candy!

Queen Of The Dancefloor

We hired City Strut for the evening entertainment and they did a fabulous job keeping people on the dancefloor – I think John and I barely left it all evening! We also put John’s skills to good use and he mixed our own ipod playlist which was filled with Beastie Boys, Girls Aloud, Lady Gaga, Green Day, The Cure – an eclectic mix of all our favourites!

A special mention goes to my bridesmaid Louise, who despite being on crutches was the undisputed Queen of the dancefloor!

Time After Time

We debated long and hard over whether to have a first dance or not – we are both very awkward dancers and when we finally had a clumsy practice the week before I was worried that it would be the most unintentionally funny aspect of the day. However, I’m so glad we did it as it was one of my favourite moments. And bizarrely, because the dress photographs so well when moving, it even manages to look like we are ok dancers in the photos (I have no doubt that the reality was somewhat different!) We chose Eva Cassidy’s acoustic version of Time After Time which City Strut arranged for us beautifully.

John and I were childhood sweethearts and got back together after a 4 year break while we were at uni, so the song had special meaning to us – plus, we’re both children of the ‘80s!

Stamping Favours

Our favours were sugar mice which I tied a luggage tag to and hand stamped this with each guest’s name as well as a flying bird motif which we featured throughout our wedding stationary. As favours are so often discarded, I wanted something edible, cheap and cute, and this ticked all those boxes and doubled up as place names too. Word of warning though – don’t underestimate quite how long it takes to stamp 70 names!

Pom Poms and Vintage Inspiration

For our guestbook table, we managed to source photographs of the weddings of all our parents’ and grandparents’ weddings which we displayed in frames. Having lost my Grandad just a few months before the wedding it was important to me that he was present in some way. We had an instant camera and props which I DIY’d following the RMW tutorial from Verity – thanks very much!

I’m a bit of a sucker for felt (hence the cake toppers), and I had some custom made felt heart and pom pom garlands for the top table made by littlekittenhomemade on Etsy.

Taking Time Out

To save myself the anticipated stress of Table Plan rearrangements and last minute drop outs, I bought a large frame and painted the MDF board with blackboard paint and simply wrote people’s names on in chalk the day before the wedding. Although it certainly saved on that stress, it added a lot more as when it arrived it was much bigger than I’d ordered and transporting it from John’s work to our house, to my Mum and Dad’s, and finally to the venue, was a nightmare as no one had a car big enough to fit it! Luckily it survived the trip down the M4 tied to the roof of my father in law’s Fiesta!

Everyone told us to enjoy the day as it goes so quickly and it’s totally true – the day flew by! John and I made a conscious decision to spend lots of time together, so we had lots of time together to really take in the fact that we’d really done it!

Advice From A Candy Bride

One piece of advice I would give, is that once it gets to the day of the wedding, trust your suppliers to do their jobs and just relax and enjoy the day. When you put so much effort into planning and spend lots of time scouring wedding blogs, it’s easy to get hung up about the little decorative things, but the most important thing of the day is that you are marrying the man you love – anything else really is just pretty decoration.

Lots of little things I’d planned didn’t quite work out (chalk wasn’t put out with the heart shaped chalkboard for the photobooth props so it wasn’t used, my slightly barmy great aunt decided to change the perpetual calendar which displayed the date of our wedding as she thought you were supposed to record how many years you’d been married!?), but I was so caught up in enjoying the day that I didn’t even notice any of these things until afterwards, and I am left with so many happy memories of our wedding day that the memories are what I will cherish, not whether there was a heart shaped chalkboard for messages.

Entertainment – City Strut

Cupcake Tower – Awfully Nice

Cake Topper – Gifts Define

Statement Necklace – Magpie Vintage’s

Photography – Breathe Pictures

I’ve got to admit, dancing images are some of my favourites. Especially when there is a swishy pink underskirt involved.

More flawlessness coming up later this afternoon lovelies

Charlotte xxx

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