Inspiration

I can't even......WOW. So much joy, kudos to photographer Maryanne who captured so much light and happiness, it radiates from every single image. And also some hero worship for Adelaide's Mum Sasha, altering her daughter's beautiful original Victorian gown to fit like a glove AND growing and putting together all of the stunning blooms. How much talent can one woman possess?! This is a real home-grown, back garden family festival affair that I am completely head over heels for. I defy you not to instantly fall in love with the love.

The Dress

Adelaide The Bride: My dress is vintage victorian handmade cotton lace altered in the 30’s from Pennies, totally made over and adapted to fit me perfectly by my amazing mother, Sasha. Pennies have all sorts of wondrous things but specialise in incredible original beaded 1920’s flapper style dresses, which aren’t really my style, so I wasn’t expecting to find the dress there. It was only the second place I’d been in to, and I went with my sister Phoebe to enjoy beginning to look more than anything else really. Pheebs had asked me on the way what sort of thing I wanted and I gave her a description (vintage, lace - but good lace, 3/4 length sleeves and long, but not voluminous). Then while we were in the shop Oliver, who sources all the amazing vintage pieces at Pennies and had just got back from a buying trip to Paris pulled the dress out of a bin bag. Phoebes said “That looks exactly like what you said you’d like” and she was right. I was anxious about buying something without having done a lot of looking around, but I know how rare good vintage is so I just took the plunge. It fit pretty well but my clever mum altered it to fit me perfectly. She said it was like archaeology, as she worked on it she could see how it was constructed and how it had been altered over the years. It was almost more difficult to find the slip to go underneath, in the end I bought a generic cream silk slip and mum tea dyed it the right shade, and shortened it for me, as I wanted to highlight the transparency of the lace with my legs visible through it.

Jewellery

My jewellery consisted of feather earrings, Bee necklace and ‘love’ and horseshoe rings all from Alex Monroe, whose designs I love. But none of it new for the wedding. John gave me the feather earrings as my first birthday present from him, and the Bee was from my sister as a gift at her wedding last year, the rings I wear all the time. John chose my engagement ring and wedding band from Barbara Tipple, and we really enjoyed visiting their workshop under the shop in Albermarle Street, apparently that whole area of Mayfair has hundreds of jewellery workshops under the streets and pavements.

Accessories

My shoes were by Kurt Geiger. I found it really tough to find something with just an inch of heel, for running around in the field and dancing all night. My gold toenails are done with Minx gold foil which is amazing, so shiny and lasts for over a month usually, it's my summer treat and always gets lots of comments. I didn’t wear anything in my hair, a great friend of mine, Jennie Roberts did my hair, I know her from working as a Fashion Stylist, she’s incredibly talented, and her lovely children and husband came to the wedding too.

Florist

I was so lucky, my incredible mother grew almost all the flowers herself, she has an amazing garden and grows all sorts of organic vegetables as well as beautiful plants and flowers. We went to the wholesale flower market in Brighton the day before the wedding and got some extra bits for filler. Mum made the most amazing enormous display, and all of the bouquets, our family friend and florist Lorna helped with the arrangements, including the gypsophila balls and the table flowers and made the buttonholes for all the guys. My sister and friends Flora and Virginia, Johns Mum Dru and I did the table flowers using vintage bottles and jars that I have collected over the years. Mum also dried petals for confetti.

Bridesmaids Dresses Groom/Groomsmen

My sister Phoebe (7 months pregnant at the time) was my Maid of Honour, she wore a simple dress she chose by COS. Then we had small people as our Bridesmaids and “Boysmaids” (Ava coined that term) - Ava, Matilda, Julia, Ida, Hector, Tama & Max. I put the girls in little flower printed dresses I found by John Rocha for Debenhams. I loved the look of the flowery dresses in the long grasses, they looked like little posies! The girls wore silver glittery shoes from Next and I made their fresh floral headpieces while I was having my hair done on the morning of the wedding. The boys I put in little linen shirts and shorts with braces from H&M and sandals from Next.

Wedding Planner

We didn’t need one! John and I had a pretty good idea of what we wanted, then loads of our friends and our families mucked in to help pull it all together. My amazing parents put so much into the wedding, my dad and John and I spent long days cutting down trees and cutting new paths in his small patch of woodland for the children to explore, and dad logged 36 hours of mowing in the two weeks before the wedding cutting paths in the long grass.

Stationery

Our lovely friend Lucy Norman designed our invitations for us, with an illustration of John and I on the other side by illustrator Rosie Curran she drew us at Green Man festival in her illustration Photo Booth and we asked her to bring it to the wedding but unfortunately she was booked for that day. Our friend Adam very kindly printed the invitations and our thank you cards for us.

Entertainment

Our friends DJ’d and the dancing went on for hours. We ended up with guitars and acoustic singing around the bonfire at 3am

Photographer

The very talented Maryanne was our photographer, she was amazing, she worked so hard! She captured amazing moments that we missed and stayed all night, through the dancing to the sky lanterns that we released at the end of the night. Here’s the review we left her: “Looking through our photos is almost as much of a joy as the day itself. But on top of that we have the luxury to look again and again. Maryanne captured amazing moments we didn't have the chance to see on the day. She got it all, the funny, the poignant, the romantic. She did exactly what we'd hoped, and a whole lot more. We will treasure these images for the rest of our lives. Thank you Maryanne!”

Videographer

Our friend and film director Leanne Welham also took polaroids on the day that I treasure, and made a Super8 film that we can’t wait to see!

Extras

John is a musician and he and the best men totally took me by surprise by serenading me during the ceremony with an acoustic version of “So Proud” by Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions. The best men pulled John’s guitar from out of the hedge behind us and sang do wop chorus for him, I found it hilarious, but it was incredibly romantic too. We also released some live Monarch butterflies in the ceremony, it was great watching the children holding them and a couple landed on people’s hair or brightly coloured clothes. We also rented Bell Tents for people to stay in from a great company called The Tipi Hire Company. Our traditional marquee was from a fantastic company called BSW Marquees.co.uk. Our caterers were an excellent local firm Three of a Kind Caterers.
Charlotte O'Shea

Written by Charlotte O'Shea

Vintage Lace Wedding Dress: Pennies Vintage | Jewellery: Alex Monroe | Engagement Ring & Wedding Band: Barbara Tipple | Bridal Shoes: Kurt Geiger | Bridesmaid Dresses: COS | Flower Girl Dresses: John Rocha for Debenhams | Flower Girl Shoes: Next | Page Boys: H&M | Groom Suit: Reiss | Marquee: BSW Marquees | Caterers: Three of a Kind Caterers | Stationery Illustration: Rosie Curran | Bell Tents: The Tipi Hire Company

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