And so ladies, onto our first Real RMW bride fashion feature!
Anna is a teeny tiny weeny little pot of lovely and chose the perfect dress and styling for W-day as we’ll think you’ll agree. Not afraid to make a floral statement Anna topped her gorgeous outfit off with a HUGE bouquet and the prettiest daintiest shoes.
Petite Perfection.
Accessorize Me
I think I devoted more time to thinking about what to have for breakfast on the day (a boiled egg and soldiers…) that I did to selecting my accessories. Please don’t think I didn’t care, I am in fact quite detail-obsessed. But with so much going on on my dress, I didn’t want to overdo it. I knew from the start that I wanted to wear a veil, and chose a long one to complement my dress and give me height. At 4’10”, you take any opportunity to add height!
A necklace would be overkill with the high halter-neckline of my dress. This just left earrings. I bought some beautiful sparkly danglers at my final dress fitting to tie in with the diamonds in my dress. They are still in the box. As I was being pampered to the max an hour or so before heading down the aisle, a friend appeared in my hotel room with some perfect shoulder-ticklers. The stones in these earrings matched those in my dress as though they were made to be worn together. Perfect.
Twinkle Toes
With size 2 feet, shoe shopping can be hard work. Finding chic wedding shoes seemed like impossibility. Then I discovered Emmy Shoes, conveniently located half a mile from my house. It was a girl’s heaven. I lounged on the chaise longue and eeny meeny miny moe’d their stunning collection of foot attire. Two months later, I untied the pink bow around my exquisitely wrapped silver pointy toe delights. They peeped shyly out from under my dress on the day and were just so comfortable. Hmm, I could easily become accustomed to bespoke shoes.
Pleasing That Inner Princess
There were two things on which I was adamant from the start: I was not going to have a strapless Cinderella-style dress. I have nothing against them, I just wanted to wear something a bit, well, different
I was going to have a dress that suited and flattered me, all 4’10”of me.
It was love at first sight. Jenny Packham’s Petra was the third dress I tried, and I was sold. It felt elegant and grown up, and dare I say, sexy. All the things I wanted to be on my wedding day.
My inner princess would secretly have loved to wear a big, ‘poofy’ dress. But I to be realistic. I am not a classic shape. I’m short and really a scrap of a thing with a bust. I needed a dress that started high to make me appear taller. The fabric needed to move and skim my figure without drowning me.
And the glitz, ah, yes, that just made me feel glam and satisfied that inner princess. Jenny Packham’s Petra was bought from Silk Brides, Lichfield.
Back to Black
As soon as the cork had popped on the celebratory champagne, and before being asked, my sister had decided she would do me the honour of being my bridesmaid. I was happy enough with this arrangement, and with only one bridesmaid I thought it would be easy to find a nice dress to complement mine. What I had failed to consider was that my sister is a nightmare to dress.
She has her own, somewhat eclectic style and is not a big dress-wearer. Furthermore I was determined to find something she would actually enjoy wearing and feel pretty good in. It was hard work but we did agree on a Dessy bridesmaid gown. It was beautiful, and elegant, and echoed the style of my dress.
And the drawback, it was black.
My sister loved it, I loved it. Opinions voiced by other people were not so positive. Including my husband-to-be who declared that black was for funerals. I trusted my instinct, my bridesmaid wore black. And she looked amazing. I’d like to say it was all intentional to match the timber framed 11th century coaching inn. But it wasn’t, I just wanted my bridesmaid to be happy with what she wore on our big day and I will never forget my little sister looking in the mirror, seeing herself looking really quite glam and exclaiming ‘I just look so elegant’.
Priceless.
All in One Place
With only 7 months “I will” and “I do” the venue decision had to made pretty sharpish. We wanted the wedding to be a big party, not a big chore, so it had to be guest friendly. Having the ceremony, the meal and the party all in one location seemed like a nice way of doing that. Despite living in and loving London, it didn’t feel like the right location. Craig grew up in a bustling market town with a lovely old (and wedding licensed!) inn at its heart. After visiting the Feathers in Ledbury it felt like the right place for an elegant but informal wedding.
Traipsing through the town centre past the old market house with all the locals going about their Saturday business appealed to our sense of humour. Our photographers were delighted by the idea too and came up with some really fun pictures.
A little bit of London wherever we go
Wanting to acknowledge the city we have made our home, I had the idea of a London Underground-themed seating plan. A very talented artist friend printed a huge copy of the tube map with each underground line representing a table and replaced the stops with our guests’ names. Needless to say, our London-based, underground-using friends were the first to be seated!
All images courtesy of Blue Expanse
How many other petite princesses do we have out there? and are you celebrating your cuteness or thinking tall?
Big I’m Small And I’m Proud Love
Charlotte xxx
Yay!!
“Petite Princess” I Love it!
At just under 5ft I know how hard it can be for dresses, but do not rule out the big puffy ones ladies. I tried on ALL styles and there was one massive dress that was a serious contender.
Good posture and high shoes!
xxxx
Another small one here! bride looks lovely, a great choice of dress and accessories x
Such a fab Real Wedding – bride is gorgeous, positive and knows what she wants; and I love the marketplace shot!
I’m 5’5″ so about average, but I’m more than a little wide, and my fiancé is 6’5″ so I have to be careful of looking *dumpy*. I’ve gone with a-line dress and 10cm heels – hoping that should do the trick!
Beautiful Dress!!!
Im 5ft1 (barely lol) and I have only tried on a few dresses so far…some big princess dresses and some not so much.
The are a few that I love (of both styles) and for me the hard part won’t be choosing a dress but choosing the shoes! Although I’m quite ickle I don’t wear heels all the time and they are usually not overly high.
My bridesmaids all tower over me though and I would love to find sky scraper heels that don’t hurt too much so I don’t look like a lil leprechaun (I’m Irish with red hair lol) on my wedding day.
Cute post. xoxo
Bless you lovely lady. You certainly don’t look too short in the pics. Great writing in this post. Plus, the seating plan is pure inspired genius.
I am 5ft1 (just) and thought that most dresses would drown me…but actually they didn’t and i loved most of them…but ‘the one’ just had that little extra ‘me’ in it! It’s definately worth trying dresses of all shapes and sizes.
I also have 4″ heels to add some height…(lets hope i can walk in them!).
Really like this real wedding…the seating plan is great.
I want that table plan! Would look perfect at my wedding, may have to steal the idea
I’m a stunted 5’2 and 3/4(!) and I tried on *everything*!!! Seriously, I tried on about 100 dresses and I would heartily recommend this approach to anyone who doesn’t have a paralysing fear of bridal shops, it gave me so much more confidence to say “actually, I’m going to have something made to measure!” and to have an idea of what I wanted.
Its short so no chickening out with flats for me, its gotta be skyscrapers all the way, especially as Mr Recyclenow2b is a lanky 6’5.
Anna looks amazing and I am seriously coveting that gaint bouquet
Thank you for all your lovely comments. I think it is sooo important to try on as many dresses as possible and speak to the (usually) ladies in the shop. I wouldn’t have considered my style of dress if I hadn’t been told by the boutique owner that I had to wear that style.
Yay for big heels!
xx
Anna looks fabulous and not weeny at all – the dress is stunning! I’m 5ft 1″ so was also worried about looking like a shortass but I think my seriously gorgeous platform 5 1/2 inch heels will help! One of My BM’s is also wearing black -I think it looks great at weddings! x
Anna, my ‘belle fille’, looks fabulous in her beautiful dress, great shoes, super ear-rings and wonderful flowers. The Feathers and Ledbury backdrop are the icing on the cake for our amazing ‘petite princess’.
I am due to get married next May, and at a teeny 4’8 i have been dreading the wedding dress experience! I have to say the bride looks gorgeous and the post has given some confidence in finding something suitable for my special day.
For anyone looking for shoes, i am a size 2 and get them from prettysmallshoes.com
xxx
So nice to realise there are other small people out there.. i somtimes think I am the only girl in the world who is tiny by the way people react when they see me!
I am 4ft 11″ and yet to get engaged but I already have panics about what kind of dress I will buy when the time comes. I want to look gorgeous and not swampped by a dress just like this beautiful bride.
Simply gorgeous! xx
Anna looked stunning at her wedding ( I know, I was there!), petite and gorgeous. I was honoured to be asked to design her table plan, thanks for featuring it!
Gemma xx