It’s Friday Lovelies!
And we have even more rays of Jo and Olli type sunshine……
Hoo-bloomin’-rah.
So, things I love about part two: the Freddo favours, the edgy urban portrait shots, the fact Jo can wear a moustache made out of her barnet and still manage to look so pretty ( how does she do that ?! )….. the images with the cyclist. So random, so unexpected and yet so very cool.
If I was Simon Cowell ( which apart from a current obsession with high waisted trousers I can conclude I definitely am not ) then I would say ” I tell you what this is, this is On. The. Money “
Enjoy folks.
Crazy Sexy Cool
OH MY GOSH. We could seriously rant on about how amazing Chris and Dani Barber are until the cows come home!
I was frantically trawling the web for a wedding photographer with a difference and who should I stumble upon? These photographic whiz kids – that’s who! I could tell straight away by the images on their website that they were fun, modern and a little bit crazy; everything we were looking for.
We had an engagement session with them earlier this year. We felt so relaxed around them and the photos they produced were amazing. We had no doubt in our mind that they would create unique, fresh and emotional images of our wedding day; they captured it beautifully.
One of the photography highlights of the day was when Chris and Dani took Olli and me away for an hour or so to shoot our Bride and Groom photos. We walked through the city centre of Exeter, shooting at car parks, shops and outside restaurants. It was such a surreal experience and we had so much fun!
The photos look like something straight out of a glossy bridal magazine!
Mini Me
As much as I love cupcake towers, Olli insisted on having a traditional cake. There were tantrums at first but I am so glad that we did it! It looked so elegant and classy!
It was a 4 tier square cake and it consisted of alternating flavours of Traditional Fruit, Carrot with Cream Cheese Frosting, and Italian Pineapple and Coconut. A friend of the family made it for us; it was yummy!
It was covered flawlessly in white icing with a black satin ribbon on the base of each tier + strings of pearls draping over it. It sat on a glossy black cake stand, encircled with white votives + we scattered petals all around it.
We had the most fabulous ‘mini-us’ cake topper!!! The likeness was amazing! I ordered it from www.myminiyou.co.uk; you send them photos and they hand sculpt your figure!
Love Is All You Need
In lieu of corsages and buttonholes for guests we had some cute little buttons made by another Etsy seller. They were custom made in our wedding colours and read: ‘All you need is love’ and ‘Love is all you need’. To make them even cuter, I attached white ribbon with purple hearts to each of them. Olli and I had special ones made with our nicknames on them.
Everyone thought they were really fun and different; my friend still wears hers on her work blazer!
We also had favours on each guest’s table setting. We wanted something classy and luxurious. Of course they had to be black and white too! We chose miniature glass bottles of Jack Daniels for the men. For the ladies, we chose Champagne Truffles from Hotel Chocolat that were packaged in a white box with a black ribbon and a black wax seal.
As we had 2 young children at the wedding breakfast I made a little ‘goodie bag’ for each of them. They were filled with lots of little nostalgic toys like paper airplanes, race cars and mini magna doodles; they kept them entertained for hours!
Making Your Heart Skip A Beat
We had a pianist for guest arrivals, the ceremony and the champagne reception. Olli and I both love classical music performed on the piano and our venue has a glossy black grand piano adjacent to the ceremony room! We chose Andy Lawton for our Pianist; he was brilliant.
It was when I walked down the staircase to meet my dad before the ceremony and I heard the piano that my heart skipped a beat and I started to get so nervous! It really added to the day and heightened all the emotion I was feeling.
We also had ‘Mackie’, a jazz vocalist whom our pianist accompanied for our exit song and champagne reception. Mackie also performed 2 other live sets and provided background music throughout the whole day AND our DJ service in the evening! We couldn’t fault him; it was seamless.
They were both great and created a wonderful intimate atmosphere for everyone on the day.
Putting Your Stamp On
The ‘City Chic’ feel of the wedding was brought to life by the contrasting Black and White with Bright Purple colour scheme. It looked crisp, modern + elegant.
Our Order of Services, Seating Plan and Place Cards (which were custom designed in our colour-way by Balistic Blue carried the black and white theme beautifully and were accented with a bright purple heart. I liked the uniformity of them as they tied all the little details together.
Our venue was perfect for our theme; it had black damask wallpaper with French windows and grey pillars. I had 2 lines of bright purple petals that I purchased from ebay laid as an aisle; it looked so pretty and the colour popped against the decor. I decorated the ceremony table with a black tablecloth, white candles and damask covered vases.
In the reception room we had black table linen with white chair covers and black bow sashes. I hand stitched each table centre’s vase cover in damask fabric and I placed white votives around the vases. Each table had a little scatter of tiny crystals and little purple hearts.
We decided to hire a Black and White checked dance floor rather than use our venues parquet one. It was an extra expense but SO worth it. It pulled all of the colours together and looked very old Hollywood glamour!
Our DJ Mackie placed purple up-lighters around the dance floor to separate the space from the rest of the reception room and give it a club/party atmosphere.
We also had white voiles draping the ceiling to soften the look of the room. They were very subtle and gave a marquee type feel to the room.
Our venue had a number of bright yellow floral paintings hanging on the reception room, if we were to remove them you would have been able to see the hanging fixtures but there was no way they were staying up either! I found some black and white damask wrapping paper and Olli and his groomsmen made covers for them; it was so inexpensive and worked a treat!
We decorated the present table with black and white ornate frames holding photos from our engagement shoot. I also looped pearls and ribbon around a white birdcage which was used to hold wedding cards from our guests.
We had a terrace adjacent to the ceremony room so we used a purple heart garland outside to frame the French windows and we placed lanterns on each of the outdoor tables so guests could sit outside and enjoy the lovely spring evening.
When we look at the before and after photos of the venue, the transformation is amazing; we really put our stamp on a blank canvas. We were so pleased with the outcome.
We also had a ‘Silly Space’ (a fancy dress photo booth) which our photographers, Chris and Dani provided. It was a bright white backdrop with dozens of bright props; wigs, frames, glasses and masks! Everyone loved it and the pictures are so funny! Olli and I sported a Will and Kate mask each to honour the Royal Wedding!
We chose Florence and the Machine – ‘You’ve got the love’ for our first dance. It’s such an iconic and powerful song. I think people interpret the lyrics and meaning of this in different ways and for us it represents that no matter what happens, we’ll always have each other.
We chose to have a ‘last dance’ too. For this we chose Lemar – ‘Let’s stay together’ as we used to listen to Lemar when we first met (nearly 10 years ago!). That song is very special to us but we felt it was more suitable to end the night on a full on lovey dovey song and kick start the party with something more upbeat!
Enjoy Every Moment
To make our ceremony even more special we decided to write our own vows and we kept them a secret from each other until the big day! It was so emotional and I was very surprised at how romantic Olli actually is!
Our 3 year old page boy, Connor, was also our little ‘Flower Boy’ too! I filled a black top hat with purple petals + he walked in front of my bridesmaids + scattered them along the aisle for me. Being so young, we were unsure if he would actually do it but he did a fabulous job; I was sooo proud!
In lieu of a guestbook, we had white wooden letters that spelt ‘Mr & Mrs’ and we asked guests to sign and decorate them using Sharpie markers. They are going to be hung on our living room wall
We also provided a sweet treat for our guests in the evening with our DIY Candy Buffet. We collected old fashion sweet jars and tongs and decorated them with black ribbon. We filled the jars with sweets that colour co-ordinated with our theme and provided traditional black and white sweetie shop striped bags for everyone to fill and take home.
It was so popular, we thought we had gone overboard with the quantities but by the end of the night it was pretty much empty!
For future Brides, my advice is to start planning sooner rather than later as the time really does fly by, especially the last few months! Be super organised (do not underestimate the power of lists and spreadsheets).
Make sure you find the time to discuss all the exciting details with your partner; we chose to have ‘wedding night’ once a week!
And finally don’t forget what it’s all about! Relax, have fun and enjoy every second from buying your first Bridal Magazine to saying ‘I Do’
Venue – The Southgate Hotel Exeter
Pianist -Andy Lawton
DJ - Mackie
Stationery – Balistic Blue
Badge Favours – Off The Record
Photographers – Chris Barber Media
Ahem.
I really really want that headpiece.
And I want a badge and a Freddo and to be able to wear a moustache and look that H.O.T.
But most of all I want to wish Jo and Olli lots of love and luck for their future together, if their wedding is anything to go by then they’ve got decades of joy ahead of them.
Big Bright Love
Charlotte xxx
Part 2 was well worth the wait!
Jo and Oli must be so proud of how their wedding turned out
Loving all the little touches-from the Button corsages to the striking decoration, from the cake to the stationery and all the lovely little bits inbetween-including the Freddos! How cute is that?!
Love the fact that Jo spent so much time transforming a blank canvas into am amazing party space-even using wallpaper to hide the pictures.
The wedding looks like so much fun-I would love to have been a guest!
Jo, if you’re reading this (and thank you for the reply last night about the make-up!) would love to know where the heart garland is from-and could you tell me where you got those diamanté cravat pins from?
What a great start to the day
Xx
OMG Jo, Ollie and this whole affair is just beautiful!
I too have the strong damask print featuring on ALL my DIY stationary, table runners, postbox etc…
My big day in 2 months is taking a very similar approach in the monochrome scheme but my colour pop is fuscia
After 18 months of imagining this in my head I have been known to doubt my own ideas but seeing your gorgeous touches has put my mind at rest!
Would love to be in touch with Jo to discuss the loveliness of it all and swap tips?!
Thank you for brightening up my Friday x
Wow! Part 2 was even better! What great pictures and the ‘messing around’ shots are fantastic! I particularly love the cake shot!
Thanks for the lipgloss info! Will be going out to purchase that on my lunch hour today!
Happy Friday!
What a beautiful couple!! Oh my lord those photos are just amazing!!! You looked like you had such a good time and thats what really matters. I would full on have loved to have been a guest at that wedding! Stunning! xxx
Wow wow wow! Such an inspirational wedding! Lush photography, hot couple and fab details. Thanks so much for sharing. Right, I’m off now to make me some heart shaped bunting! xx
Lush, lush lushaly lush!
I think my favourite one is of groom with bouquet and the best man’s face!!! Pure comedy gold!
It just looks FUN with a capital F. xxx
So so so so so so many little details were planned and executed and I am seriously impressed! The whole day from design and colour scheme to fun and laughter just seems to flow perfectly! And the fat face image – amazing! What a gorgeous and hilarious couple! xox
Gah! I can’t even look at these beautiful people anymore, they are too gorgeous!
I love this colour scheme and these photos are amazing, truly, madly, jealousy-inducing amazing.
mrs r.now x x x
Holy wowsers.
My most favourite wedding ever ever EVER!!!
Loves,
Rachel xx
I love how the purple just pops off the photos. Awesome. I also love the shot that inc Chris Barber and the one of the elderley gentleman toasting with champagne. Sniff.
Happy Friday peeps! xoxo
yesssss, my grumpy mug got on rock my wedding. booyaahhhh
I just laughed out loud (at my desk!) at the photo with the shadow of the hand puppet!!! I’m now getting some funny looks across the office. Hilarious!
Love the moustache and fat face photos too. These are some of the most fun wedding photos I’ve ever seen. They’re amazing. Looks like such a fun day. x
Oh. The. Prettiness.
AMAZING!!! xx
This is absolutely beautiful and has given me goosebumps!
I love so many things…love the dress (really love it!), love the purple splashes (I hope my fuschia splashes look half as good)…LOVE the page boy scattering the petals (I have to steal that idea!).
What a stunning wedding…my all time favourite I think! x
I am in love with this wedding!!
It looks like it was a fabulous day! I love the photobooth shots, especially the moustache kiss one!
Lovely, lovely, lovely!!!
Xxx
I had been thinking that I had wedding planning burnout, after 6 months of thinking about NOTHING else, the last few months have been quite flat and I haven’t really done anything but this has motivated me to get my backside into gear…just over 3 months and still quite a bit to do…I better get on with it.
So. Much. Personality.
Love it!
I second MrsRecycleNow, I can’t look at the pretty people any more, it hurts my eyes, they are too pretty.
And ditto Shell, I want to know where the heart garland is from!
Px
What a gorgeous bride!
x
There are so many gorgeous photos!! Caramel freddie frogs are my all time favourite! They are sooooo tasty. Nom nom. Part 2 was worth the wait!
Bring on the weekend!
Xxxx
Heehee! Look at us on Rock My Wedding AGAIN!! I used to drool over over bride’s big days + there’s little old me up there with the best of them!
I’m sooooooo proud. Our wedding day was my biggest achievement to date + I am so thrilled that all you lovely lot loved it too (xoxo)
I’m seriously considering a career shake-up + pursuing something wedding related (just not too sure what avenue yet!) as I love ALL things weddings; they make me go a bit doo-lal!! I don’t think I’m quite ready to let go of the ‘W’ word just yet! (or ever)
Lots of smooches
Jo xx
PS: The tie pin was purchased through the tailors + I believe I found the heart garland in Wilkinsons
Adore this wedding – Jo you are a hottie!
congrats! X
Seriously- I’d actually ritually sacrifice one of my flower girls to look this fab! Love it ALL!
PS we nearly had myminiyou’s too!
love this wedding, such a gorgeous couple, love all the purple accents. The freddos are amazing and i love the photo booth pictures.
I loved this wedding. The couple are so obviously head over heels. It’s lovely to see
Love these photos, what a gorgeous couple! Their day looked like it was so full of fun, the freddos were brilliant and I loved the sock shot