Inspiration

OMG. Chantelle's dress!!! I'm a sucker for long lace sleeves and this Annasul Y gown is just beautiful. The low back adds the perfect amount of skin-on-show too, which is totally legitimate for a sunny destination wedding! Our stylish pair were lucky enough to marry in Le Marche, Italy, an incredible location as you'll see from the images. The whole vibe from this wedding is completely laid back and fun, it looks like everyone indulged in good food, good wine and good company, and very happy about it they look too. There are some beautiful couple shots, as the sun started to dip Chantelle & Tom escaped to a gorgeous cornfield and J&M Photography worked their magic... Oh and Chantelle's plaited up-do?! I LOVE it!

The Bride

I always dreamt of having a lace, long sleeve dress, with a vintage but sexy look. My inspiration was from Berta Bridal. I managed to find the perfect dress in Satin Bow Bridal, a Bridal shop in my local town. I looked hard to find the right earrings that were a vintage crystal on eBay by Anthropologie. I saw a picture of the shoes I wanted on Pinterest and looked everywhere for a similar pair with no avail so decided to create my own. I found a simple pair of satin, open toe shoes and a friend of my sister’s works as shoe buyer and managed to get the pom poms made in china which my Mum glued onto my shoes.

The Groom

The perfect occasion to get a bespoke suit made just the way you/your wife wants it ;) Chantelle, as with every part of the day, had a vision in her head and for me it was a Prince of Wales check suit, which luckily I agreed would look just right. I chose the cut and fit of my suit and sourced my shoes and matching gold jewellery to compliment navy tie and pocket square. I also got a gold pocket watch finish the look.

The Venue

My parents have a house in Le Marche Italy, which we have both visited on numerous occasions, enjoying the beautiful weather, scenery, amazing food and wine and the laid back culture. We thought it would be a perfect venue for our wedding and hadn’t thought about anywhere else. We were married in a local decommissioned chapel and had the reception venue in a local Agritourismo a few minutes from my parents’ house.

The Decor

We wanted the colour scheme to be rustic and vintage to fit with the setting. As we were married in June the seasonal colours for flowers were purples and blues. I did a lot of research on Pinterest picking up ideas but generally the feel was sporadic and mismatched. Although we had the perfect setting we wanted to create some personal little touches which included pictures of us over the years we have been together wrapped around a tree, small lamp shades and a mirror hanging from another tree with personally created signs offering sparklers, glow sticks and confetti.

The Flowers

Due to the rural location there are only two florists locally and Guisy is a friend of a friend so we decided to go with her. We wanted (again) a rustic feel with nothing too arranged or neat, using purples, blues with a mix of greenery. We had a team of people helping us decorate umpteen different sized jars and bottles to go on the tables and around the reception filled with flowers and candles. The chapel had spiral staircases which we wanted to decorate with soft Ruskus trailing down and 2 pedal stalls with trailing Amaranthus. Guisy did an absolutely amazing job, the church and reception looked beautiful and exactly what we wanted.

The Wedding Party

We wanted the wedding party to look stylish and different with a vintage feel. The bridesmaids wore individual dresses in creams and mint green with flowers in their hair. I wanted their dresses to be something that they would wear and feel comfortable in as well as fitting in with style. The Groomsmen all wore navy suits and waistcoats and different personally selected ties. The father of the bride and groom both wore navy check three piece tailor made suits.

The Ceremony

We had a civil ceremony conducted in Italian by the local Mayor and a friend Holly Beattie translated into English. We wanted the ceremony to be less serious but fun and happy. We chose songs that we liked to sing, It Must be Love by Madness and What a Wonderful World by Sam Cooke with accompanying piano played by Cameron Spowart (a close friend of Tom’s). He also played Ludovico Einaudi as I walked down the aisle which was the perfect sound track to the emotion in the room. The readings were performed and personally selected by the Mother and Uncle of the Groom. Both a perfect representation of our personalities and the time we have spent together.

The Entertainment

We knew we were going to be sitting down for a while with a traditional Italian style wedding breakfast so we created table games of 'I Spy' (capturing certain moments of the day on camera) and Tom and Chantelle Mad Libs. A close friend of the groom, Tom Angell, conducted Tom and Chantelle bingo reeling off facts about the couple in number format and he also did a creative reading. We had a DJ in the evening playing a selection of our favourites, accompanied by glow sticks, props and sparklers and fireworks at midnight.

The Food

Both of us are big foodies and one of the reasons we love Italy so much is because of the food. We wanted all of our guests to experience and enjoy our favourites. We selected 6 courses to make up an Italian wedding breakfast. We were quite adamant in what we wanted and made sure we worked with the chef to achieve our vision. We had an idea of the style of cake we wanted and tried a couple of local bakeries and ended up with a great guy who went out of way to make the cake we wanted and it was amazing! Neither of us like fruit cake so we were keen on having something we wanted to eat so chose a traditional Italian cake made from sponge and filled with layers of custard, cream and fresh fruit, yummy! None of this could have happened without the help of some dear friends of our Ken Bray and Danny Beattie who helped source and translate for us.

The Photography

J&M Photography, chosen for their amazing original style which they executed brilliantly. Our family, friends and us are all blown away with the photography, they captured all the amazing moments beautifully. Great people too!

The DIY

Every aspect of our day was extremely personal to us. Being creative people, we were very specific in what we wanted and went to great lengths to achieve it. We were lucky enough to have an amazing team of people helping us create the perfect day. We invited all of our guests to join us on the beach for a seafood lunch the following day which really topped off an amazing weekend! With the groom being a designer we couldn't have had an event without consistent branding. The website, invites, menus, games, order of the ceremony, posters, signs and thank you cards were all beautifully designed and branded by Tom. Most importantly, all our friends and family who made it out to Italy made it our perfect day!
Fern Godfrey

Written by Fern Godfrey

Bride: Annasul Y | Boutique: Satin Bow Bridal | Earrings: Anthropologie | Shoes: Elegant Steps | Bridesmaids: ASOS | Groom: King & Allen

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