Our Wedding
Cheryl The Bride: Our wedding was a beautiful collision of friends and family being insanely talented and generous. We are lucky enough to be surrounded by musical, artistic, imaginative and hard working people and they helped us turn our dream wedding into a reality.
We were both very sure we wanted something spectacular and a bit unusual, mixing together the things that fused us together and made us know we were right for the other.
Our friendship group is big and close, so we each had 12 bridesmaids and groomsmen...a lot, but some people we just couldn't have there without playing a special role.
The Fashion
I designed the bridesmaids dresses from my love of 60's and 70's vintage fashion. I knew straight away the short, V neck, bell sleeved lace would suit all the beautiful and different body shapes of the 12 bridesmaids. My sister was eight months pregnant so I wanted her to feel comfy and cool but also gorgeous. They all wore brown wooden platform chunky sandals, but had bare feet for the ceremony. It was really important to me that the girls felt amazing. I wanted the girls in the same colour as me, ivory ish, like little Woodstock fairies!
Incredibly, our good friend
Tanya is a dressmaker and offered to make them! She was incredible, patient and didn't freak out when I upped the number to 12! (All from all across the world, so fittings etc were not easy) that portable sewing machine was Tanya's best friend for the month of June! She has made so many beautiful dresses for brides and she created my dreamy dresses to perfection. The girls were breathtaking too.
I needed a big dress. Which I think was a shock for every single person at the wedding. I love vintage and 70's style, but I just wanted a big massive dress. I saw my dream dress on Pinterest but it was literally a myth, I couldn't find it. Then all of a sudden around the corner from our flat (after months of traveling about the country) I found the skirt! The shop was
Bella Nuvia bridal boutique in Oxton village. My mum and I had the perfect dressing buying experience, they made us feel really welcome and my mum and dad were so happy buying the dream skirt for me. I also got my lovely long veil here too, very thin with a tiny trim and a train that went just past the hem of my dress. I had a beautiful pair of shoes my nan bought me from Kurt Geiger, silver with little heels, but I didn't really wear them! I never really wear heels so I didn't want to feel too different. None of the bridesmaids wore shoes for the ceremony and I didn't want to either, so I was bare foot most of the day. I loved it. Hate wearing shoes, my feet were so dirty ha.
I had a daytime top and evening top, both handmade by one of my bridesmaids Billie's mum, Audrey Hughes. She was amazing, it was so special having her involved so closely. I loved going around to hers and having fittings. The long sleeved day top was a design I had in my head with intricate little daisy lace with scalloped edges and tiny sparkles. Audrey made it a very low V shaped on the back because I really wanted my back out.
The evening top, which I wore with a forest leaf crown and matching arm cuff, was another more dense lace but more of a crop top with a high neck and big leafy shapes all entwined together. Audrey actually had this lace from the time Billie was born, so we used that, which I thought was beautiful. I was in love with both tops. It was a mish mash of all little styles I've loved in fashion for years and I tried it all on just before the big day and it worked so well.
The headdress and cuff was handmade by another friend
Samantha Cousins. She also made a template for the bridesmaids gypsy grass crowns, which we took and all got together and made 11 more! All plastic so we could make in advance and save the pennies.
The Flowers & Decor
I bought 12 little plastic bouquets of yellow, blue, green daisies and gypsy grass for the bridesmaids. I wanted them to be able to keep them and the cost was kept down so much by opting for fake flowers. I bought all the table decorations from Inspirations too, lots of long rows of ivy, and made everyone I know save all their jam jars for candles! I had 100s and still use them now! We used the jars for table decorations and also for decorating the room we had our ceremony in.
I wanted a very wild, natural looking bouquet, real flowers, with hints of wild daisies and blue to match Danny's suit. My friends
Lindsey and Dan did an amazing job, so personal and they worked so hard.
The Beauty
My friend Jessy Hulme did my makeup, she is beautiful and her face always looks flawless and I wanted her to be involved, so she did a very natural dewy look, which I loved. My friend Courtney Chan was my hairdresser, she does so many brides so I'm so lucky! She gave me messy up do that wasn't too curly or neat, as I wanted it to look natural and I never have neat hair! I was lucky as my friends just knew me well enough to make me look like me, but a bit nicer haha. I wore a few rings because they're special to me and I always wear them and my auntie jeanie blue garter form her wedding!
The Groom & Groomsmen
Danny's suit was an amazing find from
Paul Smith, perfect colour and easy to match the flowers. Light brown shoes also Paul Smith. Amazing tailoring by Peter Harland in Liverpool city centre, he did a really beautiful job and took great care too.
All groomsmen bought their own Granddad collar white shirts, dark trousers and we got 12 pairs of navy blue braces.
The Venue
Camp and Furnace was the venue. Best wedding venue ever! We wanted a festival feel, as we got together at Glastonbury, but with a bit of a psychedelic, cool twist. Big old warehouse, huge ceilings, stone floor with old caravans dotted around the place and big huge bear statue. Amazing spaces for ideas and so professional. Such a cool place and right in the middle of Liverpool. They bent over backwards to help us, I think we both had quite mad ideas, and they didn't once tell us no!
They gave us free reign with the wedding room upstairs, so the day before the wedding, Danny and a few fabulous groomsmen spent the day hanging sheets of gold fabric we bought from ABakhan, 100s of lights that
Adlib kindly provided us with, cleaning Persian rugs that we borrowed from our friends vintage shop Resurrection and making our designs come to life. I cried when I saw it.
The Reception
The reception was downstairs and the day was gloriously sunny so we had champagne and homemade tiffin made by our great friend Abi Bendall outside.
Camp and Furnace events coordinator Maria Hughes was amazing, she unveiled the room for our guests, as it was hidden by a huge black curtain, and everyone gasped. Adlib had let us borrow more lights so the room looked like a magical forest, with a karaoke caravan in the corner, manned by a cardboard cutout Rod Stewart (mother of the bride is obsessed)! All the tables were trestle with benches, just plain paper white runners did the job, with jars of candles and jars with plastic blue or white flowers and some ivy. Really simple, so cheap and looked great. The top table was filled with ivy and fairy lights.
The Food
The starters were on the tables as everyone sat down, sharing boards and tapas. Bridesmaid Billie had also enlisted the help of her nan to make mini pots of tequila jam as favours, as Danny and I love tequila! Then mains of roast chicken with all trimmings and dessert of brownies and cream! The speeches were done before the main course and were amazing.
Our hippy style daisy trimmed wedding cake was three tiers, handmade by Helen Castree, Daniel's Dad's wife. It was just perfect with a peace sign made out of hand carved iced daisies.
The Entertainment
Then we had an early evening DJ Bernie Connor, a well known scouse face, playing in front of a huge screen with a collage of videos Danny made. After dinner, my uncle Arthur Raynor played a fabulous set of 50's and 60's songs, which was so much fun. Later in the evening we had our friend Jules Bennet dj, sending us all into a frenzy!
The Transport
We were lucky to have Danny's Uncle Hayden drive me and my Dad in his very own vintage 1950's Riley car. It was perfect and even more so because his uncle drove us at that special moment. Our family friend Keith Lloyd gave us his minibus from the Brunswick youth club he runs, to ferry the bridesmaids, mother and grandmother of the bride.
The Ceremony
Our friends from the band Drenge Rory Loveless and Rob Graham, were kind enough to play for our guests as everyone got to the wedding. I was 45 minutes late...blame the 12 bridemsaids!!! They played harmonium and sitar on two big cushions on the floor beneath the lights, as we wanted an Indian vibe as it's a place I love. We all walked in to George Harrison's If Not For You, and everyone cheered us down the aisle!
We chose EE Cummings, I Carry Your Heart as a reading by my wonderful friend Kjell Eldor. He read it beautifully, it's a special poem for us. Nathalie Reese, a bridesmaid was our final reader, I asked her to go rogue and choose her own! She took the John Cooper Clarke (who we all love) poem, I Rely on You, and changed it slightly to suit me and Danny!
We walked out to another George Harrison song, What is Life, and everyone literally danced out! The ceremony was my favourite part, so full of love and happiness.
The Stationery
Our invitations were made by our beautiful friend Chloe Moyse. We wanted it like a 1960's gig poster as music is a huge part of our lives and she made the best thing we've ever seen.
The Photography
My best friend faye helped me find the perfect photographer. She had met
Marcos when she lived in Madrid and she showed me his website. I didn't look any further. He agreed to fly to Liverpool for the wedding and was so, so generous and just knew exactly what we wanted. He took us out the day before in our VW van and took great shots of us on the last day of being boyfriend and girlfriend, so so special. We wanted very natural, fun filled, party pics, and each photograph he took captured the whole vibe exactly. It was the best day ever and all my family loved him!