Love My Dress Wedding Blog

Giant Balloons And A Blue Cardigan For A 1950's Inspired Bride And Her Quirky Village Fete Style Wedding

Good morning beautiful! As you read this, I'll be sat getting my hair coiffed (by no other than Monsieur Severin Hubert of course) and makeup applied so that I look the bees knees ready for a rather important business meeting this afternoon - plus (the scary part), I'm getting some photos taken for Love My Dress!  I will then be visiting Elizabeth Avey and Ruth Shaw of Harriet Wilde later in the afternoon with my photographer colleague Naomi Kenton (blog post to follow people).  Which means that I need to leave you with something beautiful whilst I'm off on my latest London adventures.

And so here we are - please join me in saying hello to Eleanor and Dave, who tied the knot on 13 April 2013 at Errol Park in Perthshire, Scotland. I just love these images for their quirky nature - and any bride who chooses to wear an electric blue cardigan on her wedding day deserves a BIG gold star in my books. These photos were submitted by the always lovely Zoe Barrie.

"Very soon after getting engaged I came across Love my Dress. I was heavily influenced by all the beautiful weddings featured (and Pinterest) and still read it now despite no longer having a wedding to plan.

We also didn’t have a particular era in mind when styling our wedding, but I do personally love all things vintage and quirky. Our initial loose theme was ‘village fete’ and I have always known I wanted bunting. Everything else just came around as we went along."

Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2013, Photos by Zoe

"Our Photographer recommended Pyrus Flowers to us. I was looking for a local supplier of some lovely ‘meadow’ style flowers. Pyrus grow their own local blooms from their flower garden in East Lothian. They created such beautiful and unusual wild displays for the table centres, and the bouquets matched the relaxed look so well, and smelt amazing too!"

"Dave got his Kilt made for him in his family Tartan. He purchased everything he was wearing, including the accessories from Keith Scott Kilts in Dundee."

"I wore the Rachel Simpson 'Lola' shoes in blue Suede, which beautifully matched my cardigan from French Connection."

"My lace head piece was actually a bracelet from Stitch From The Heart on Etsy.  I removed the clip and sewed vintage button and beads onto it. This was then just pinned into my hair on the day."

"My Dress was Audrey by Blue Bridal Wear which I purchased at Ivory Whites in Perth. I always knew I wanted a dress with sleeves, with a vintage feel. Originally I was looking for a tea length dress as I love that 1950s style, but having tried a few on I decided they didn’t really suit me.

When I tried on Audrey I just loved it, the material was amazing and so luxurious and I loved how simple it was, perfect for adding a bit of colour and interest with some accessories. It just felt so lovely on and had that ‘spin’ factor!"

"The Balloons were a slightly last minute decision, about a week before the wedding I came across a blog post about Geronimo Balloons, who are a US company who make amazing tassel balloons, I loved them and decided to make my own version of them, I think they turned out really well."

"We didn’t really have favours, however everyone got a drumstick lolly with their name on it as a place setting, I think they may be my all time favourite sweet!  We also gave the bridesmaids a bath bomb from Lush wrapped up in vintage scarf tied into a bow, I saw this in their store and thought it was such a lovely idea and you get the bonus of being able to wear the scarf after too!"

"We had a humanist ceremony, which I think is a great benefit of getting married in Scotland. We created our own ceremony, chose some readings that our friends read out and wrote our own vows. It was lovely being able to produce such a personalised ceremony that was unique to us.

One of my favourite parts of the day was when my Dad sang during the ceremony. I grew up with him singing, and it was really special that we could include that in our day. At any family gathering the guitars always come out and we have a good old singalong. He sang “The Road and the Miles to Dundee” a traditional Scottish folk ballad. I was his dad’s favourite song and also fitted us so well, as Dave and I met each other at university in Dundee."

'The bridesmaid dresses were from Monsoon Bridesmaids Hair Accessories.  Their headbands were also form Stitch from the Heart on Etsy."

"I have always enjoyed crafting and creating. I have a background in design so wanted to create as much of the décor and styling as I could myself. With help from my bridesmaids we produced over 100 pinwheels to use in the table centres and around the venue, I love the whimsical look they have, my mum also kindly sewed a whole lot of bunting that we draped around the venue."

"We also created our own Photobooth. I wanted this to have a vintage feel so I sourced an old photo frame and mounted it onto a stand, then cut out various moustaches and glasses and attached them to sticks. This went down so well and it was really very simple to make.

I also made all our invitations, the table Plan and table names. The tables were named after Chilli varieties as we both love hot food!"

"Right form the word go we wanted somewhere that would let us do our own thing, not be tied to suppliers and tight timescales. In fact our first requirements when looking for venues was that we could have a hog roast, this actually turned out to be surprisingly difficult to find in the area. We looked at several places around the Dundee/Perth area (where we live) as well as in the highlands (where I am from) but when we came across Errol Park we new straight away we had found our perfect venue. They don’t do many weddings and we loved the idea of making it our own. The location was beautiful and the contrast between the grand house and beautiful gardens where we held the ceremony and the old circular stable block for the reception really ticked all the boxes.

The courtyard looked lovely lit up with the bonfires at night, and the old stable complete with feeding troughs as the bar was quirky and fun, as well as the large clock tower looking over us all, it was all just perfect!"

"I actually came across our photographer Zoe on Love My Dress, I was looking for a relaxed, quirky photographer that could capture the details of our day. I knew straight away when first chatting to her on the phone that she would be perfect. She is just so friendly and of course her photos are amazing. The images are just perfect, she really got the vibe that we were going for and I think this shows in the photos."

A 1950s Style Tea Length Wedding Dress For A Vintage Inspired London Bride

Good morning lovers, did you get a chance to view the brand spanking new collection of vintage inspired shoes by Agnes and Norman on Love My Dress yesterday? If not, I encourage you to go take a peek, because for the next 2 weeks only, you, my lovely, as a Love My Dress reader, are entitled to a whopping 25% off any style of shoe design. That's a rather fabulous little saving there that I wouldn't want to miss out on!

Oh how we love a beautiful vintage inspired wedding - this morning's nuptials took place on 8th December at Islington Town Hall in London. where Clare and Greg tied the knot before going on to celebrate with their friends and family at a reception hosted at The Blacksmith and the Toffeemaker on St Johns St, London.

"I worked with dress and costume maker Annie Kelley.  I chose a vintage 50s tea dress pattern (found on Ebay) and then Annie suggested a few modifications in line with what I wanted.   I knew I didn’t want a traditional wedding dress. I tried on a couple but they were just not me. I looked at some off the peg dresses in high street shops but nothing felt right."

Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2013, Alexa Loy

"I’d seen a few 50s tea length dresses online and really liked them but I wasn’t brave enough to order one without trying it on. With only a couple of months to go I was starting to wonder if I’d find anything at all. A friend gave me the contact details of a dressmaker she knew. Annie mainly makes costumes and textile art but when I told her what I was looking for she agreed to make it.

We went to Berwick St in London and searched through loads of fabrics and lace. At first I wasn’t sure about lace but Annie found some lovely ones.  We also decided to avoid white and finally went with a vintage pink colour which really made the dress come to life. She ended up hand stitching a lot of it which made it feel really special. It was great collaborating with Annie and ending up with a truly unique dress.

I made my own birdcage veil from supplies I found on Etsy at Squirlgirl Millinery Supplies. The headpiece was from Vintage Styler."

"I bought my shoes at Fur Coat No Knickers, they are by Rachel Simpson. As soon as I saw them I knew they were perfect. Just the right amount of 50s vintage style."

"We met on a dating site and I was just about to give up as I had been a quite a few dates that didn’t work out, when I saw his profile. I knew there was something different about him from his first message. We started emailing and then met up in London a month later (September 2010) and that was that. We spent a few months travelling back and forth from Leicester (where Greg was living) until he found a job in London and we moved in together. (August 2011).

We had talked about getting married and Greg asked me in June 2012. He was very traditional – getting down on one knee and he even asked my dad’s permission the day before. I loved it! We decided we didn’t want to wait too long to get married and picked early December as it meant that there was less time for me to be nervous and just enough time to get everything organised."

"I looked at lots of real wedding blog posts to get some ideas of what style I like and didn’t like. Greg left it to me to pick the style but we both wanted something fun and informal and liked the vintage weddings. The pub we choose to have our reception in, The Blacksmith and the Toffeemaker, was a little bit vintage/retro so we worked with that. The main aim was to make it a great party that was relaxed with the minimum of tradition. 

We both wanted to get married in London. I have always lived here and Greg loves it since moving down from Leicester. We choose Islington Town Hall as the Council Chamber is beautiful and felt very welcoming. My dad’s family are from Islington and I went to school there so it has always been a part of my life."

"For the reception we decided we wanted a pub venue to keep it relaxed and informal but also somewhere that served great food. We trawled lots of different pubs in the area but couldn’t find one that was right. On the way back from yet another viewing we passed The Blacksmith and the Toffeemaker. It wasn’t on our list of possibilities but we had a look inside and really liked the place. It was very friendly and the decor was a great mix of retro and vintage. We had a chat with the landlords (Matt and Mark) who said they had never held a big wedding reception  n there before but were up for the challenge.

We decided we would hire the whole pub out the day. It was great being able to plan what we wanted and Matt and Mark were fantastic. They had just hired a new chef and we got to decide exactly what menu we wanted. The food was amazing too."

"Clarissa Harris (tel 01708475958, no website) provided our flowers. I’ve known Clarissa for years. Clarissa is a florist and also teaches floristry. I knew immediately I wanted her to do the flowers. I wanted something informal with a vintage feel. We picked vintage pink, ivories and different greens I discussed everything with Clarissa and she came back with a list of plants and flowers that were perfect.

I bought different sized jam jars to display them in. When I saw them on the day I was blown away they were just beautiful and exactly what I had hoped for. My bouquet was amazing. The flowers were one if my favourite things about the wedding."

"We looked at lots of different stationery designs. We wanted something fun but not to silly and cool but not too pretentious. Finally we found a scrabble design theme invitation by Happy Whale Designs from New Zealand on Etsy which fit the bill perfectly. Belinda the designer  was brilliant. We ended up getting her design the rest of our stationery based around that theme. With the New Zealand time difference often I'd send her a request in the evening and by the time I woke up the next day the proof would be waiting.

Luckily Greg works in the print industry so he got Belinda's designs printed for us. I carried on the scrabble theme making all the place names and table numbers from wooden scrabble tiles sourced on ebay."

"In keeping with our vintage theme we used vintage glasses to hold tea-lights to decorate the tables along with vintage place mats and table runners. We looked in lots of charity shops in the weeks running up to the wedding and there was always something there. On a weekend away in Wiltshire we discovered Beulahs Vintage Attic which was a treasure trove.

We were in there for hours. I would recommend it to London vintage brides who don't want to pay London vintage prices!  For the drinks reception following the ceremony I hired some vintage teacups and urns from Classic Crockery."

"I enlisted some friends to decorate the pub with bunting and pompoms to make it more festive. On one of the walls I put up framed wedding photos from my mum and dad's wedding, my maternal grandparents wedding and great grand parents wedding. When I was searching for the photos in my parents house I came across some wedding decorations from their wedding in 1972. There were some brilliant things in there so I choose a few pieces and hung them around the pub too.

I also discovered my mums wedding dress from 1972 and her mother's dress from 1942. I hung them up along with my dress in the morning and got Alexa to photograph them. I loved seeing them together and how different they all looked."

"Our photographer was Alexa Loy. I came across Alexa's work after a friend posted up her wedding pictures that Alexa had taken on Love My Dress. I really loved the colour and relaxed style. She seemed to really captured the day. We had a chat on the phone and then met up over a drink and Greg and I knew that she was just what we were looking for.

Alexa provide an engagement shoot as part of the wedding package and it was great to get used to the camera as usually I'm very camera shy. Alexa's enthusiasm for her work is infectious. On the wedding day she made it fun and relaxed and our photos are just gorgeous.

Fifties Style Fun for A Relaxed And Intimate Wedding For Four...

It's a bit of a fifties-fest on Love My Dress today. This morning, we had red shoes, fur coat and no knickers (!), and this afternoon, we have possibly the most intimate wedding ever to feature on our blog, that of Mr and Mrs Targar who tied the knot on 17th September last year at Gateshead Civic Centre, followed by a reception at the Hotel Du Vin Newcastle upon Tyne.  The couple had a grand total of two guests at their wedding, choosing to keep it small, sweet, fun and relaxed...

"We wanted the day to purely be about the fact we were in love and wanted to spend our lives together.  Big weddings aren’t our style we wanted something intimate, fun and relaxed with only our closest present on the day. We wanted a day in the city we love that reflected our style and personalities."  

Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2013, Katie Byram

"My shoes were a pair of ivory knot platforms from Next for £38!! Bargain and really suited the style of dress..."

"Everything had been chosen by the two of us to reflect everything we wanted and who we are, the VW camper from Lovedub Cars was really fun, the dress was amazing and the hotel and backdrop of Newcastle quayside was the perfect setting. Mostly it was nice to have a relaxed and fun day that didn’t go too quickly that we could spend with two friends that mean the world to us. Walking round Newcastle on a Monday afternoon in a wedding dress and suit and seeing everybody’s reaction was so much fun.

I would have spent more on flowers as they were a bit of an oversight at the time. My flowers were, I admit, a disappointment, but in planning our intimate day, they had been way down our list of priorities really."

"My wedding dress designer was Tracey Salt of Chanticleer brides who I met at Kathryn S. Trueman Bridal & Occasions in Morpeth at a designer weekend. Both ladies are amazing!

My friend Louise was working at Kathryn S. Trueman at the time and myself and Kaye went along to the shop, I had tried on a few dresses before and was beginning to worry I would never find a dress that suited my size 14 figure and 5’1 height but Louise showed me the dress and I feel in love with it, it felt like my dress and that was that! Tracey did some alterations to include a wide halter neck."

"My bridesmaid, Kaye was 5 months pregnant by the wedding day and got a beautiful navy maxi from Asos, which looked beautiful..."

"Our photographer was Katie Byram.  Many of the photographers I contacted didn't quite get our four person wedding concept.  But then I saw Katie’s website and saw lots of styles we liked and so I made contact.  Katie was so excited at the thought of being involved in such a small wedding and invited us over to her studio with our two guests Kaye and Dan to go through options and see more of her work. After that meeting we knew Katie would be perfect for us, so glad we chose her the photos are just perfect!!

Katie is such a friendly and excitable photographer she felt like the 5th guest on our day and would recommend her to everyone!"

Red Wedding Shoes And A Flirty Fifties Frock

Good morning my loves! Did you have a sweet and lovely long Easter weekend break?  Whilst mine was full of family time and crafting, I can truly say I'm raring to get back in to work this week and have a full on few days ahead of my book launch next week. Excited? Check? Nervous and getting more nervous? Check and double check!

The wedding this morning is special to me because not only was the dress supplied by Laura and Emma of Fur Coat No Knickers who I think are just brilliant, and who also contributed their gorgeous designs to Style Me Vintage: Weddings - these photographs were shot by our brand new sponsor Sarah Lafford of Assassynation - whose work I have enjoyed featuring on Love My Dress for almost three years now!

Helen and Tim tied the knot on 1st December 2012 at The Town Hall Hotel in Bethnal Green London.  Helen chose to wear a flattering 1950s original vintage wedding dress - a fabulous find from the girls over at Fur Coat No Knickers...

"I discovered Fur Coat No Knickers through visiting wedding blogs like Love My Dress, and I genuinely can't recommend it highly enough. I was a bit anxious having gone to a few other vintage shops that I wouldn’t be able to find a vintage dress that wasn't for teeny tiny girls – but Emma and Laura instantly found me a rack of amazing dresses that fitted perfectly, and then proceeded to customise every detail to how I wanted..."

Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2013, Assassynation

"Benjamina Fedaraviciute from Indeco Flowers and who were recommended by our venue, were our florists.   I have to say I was a little nervous about choosing flowers as neither Tim nor I have any idea about flowers, and I really had no idea about what kind of thing I might like – other than red! However we went along to New Covent Garden Flower Market to meet Benjamina, accompanied by one of our green-fingered friends, and after flipping through a stash of Benjamina’s magazines realised that we liked arrangements that didn’t feel too ‘done’.

We then went round the market choosing the types of flowers that we liked – and decided on a mixture of Piano roses, Grand Prix roses, anemonies, rununculus as well as some seasonal greenery so it felt quite fresh and natural.  Tim also suggested including some strands of rosemary in his button holes which we thought was a nice touch!"

"I only had one proper bridesmaid, my best friend Jo. Her eldest daughter, and my goddaughter, Sylvie, was also a flower girl. My bridesmaid Jo just wore her own red shoes in keeping with the dress, and I bought Sylvie some sparkly red ballet pumps from BHS.  Once I had decided on the red shoes and flowers theme, I also thought it would be cool to put Jo in red, and ideally lace so it had a similar look/feel to my dress. I also didn’t want a traditional flouncy ‘bridesmaidy’ dress - so I spent a little while searching on the high street and online for the right red lace dress. The one we found was originally from Marks and Spencers but I bought it on eBay for £20 – bargain!

 For Sylvie we chose the Fairy Bridesmaid dress from John Lewis in white, with red sparkly shoes and a white cardigan. She loves dressing like a princess so this was perfect!  We also bought some flower clips for Sylvie from Accessorise."

"Every dress fitting at Fur Coat No Knickers was such a lovely experience.  Visiting the girls with my Mum and best friends and drinking bubbly and getting excited – part of my wedding prep memories that I will always treasure.

I always had in my mind that I wanted a short, fifties style dress with a tight waist and a big skirt, because I know that style suits me and also it would fit in with the venue’s vintage style. I did try on a few modern, longer dresses but they just didn’t feel like me and I knew I wanted to be comfortable and able to dance on the day, and also show off awesome shoes. I was torn between this dress and another, more sparkly number from the shop, but in the end I was really attracted to the simplicity of this one:  short, vintage, white, lace – perfect.

The girls, Laura and Emma, were amazing and added some incredible customised features – changing the sleeves, the length and adding some beautiful buttons down the back. What a privilege to have an incredible vintage dress fitted to your every need! I loved wearing the dress and felt amazing in it all day."

 

"My shoes were ‘Marilyn’ in red, by Rachel Simpson, purchased from  from Fur Coat No Knickers. From looking early on in the planning process at wedding magazines and blogs, I had the idea of a short white dress with red flowers and amazing red shoes.

I saw these shoes online and was really pleased that Fur Coat No Knickers were able to order them from me – they looked amazing and were also really comfortable – and hopefully the fact that they aren’t in wedding white satin means I will be able to wear them again as well!"

"Tim’s basic objective for the day was to look and feel as much like Don Draper as possible. He knew he wanted quite a tightly cut, vintage-feeling suit, and we were fortunate enough that one of our friends worked for Tommy Hilfiger and helped him find the perfect suit, from Ralph Lauren.

Tim also bought some vintage cufflinks from eBay which he was very proud of, and also wore red socks to match my shoes and flowers!"

"We had two readings – one that was more formal and one that was a bit lighter in tone. The first was 'Union' by Robert Fulghum. When we started looking for readings I was keen that we found one that reflected our relationship, that acknowledged that we had been together for a long time, and that  - and this is really important to how I viewed the whole day – getting married was just an affirmation of how we felt about each other and how we had supported each other throughout our relationship rather than anything suddenly life-changing."

"My Dad gave me away - because music is a massively important thing for us, we picked all the music on the day very carefully. I walked into the ceremony room to The Universal by Blur - I am a huge Blur fan and everybody associates them with me and me with them, so this was the obvious choice. We signed the registrar to Clair De Lune by Debussey, which is Tim’s favourite piece of classical music, and we walked out as a married couple to the theme from Rocky (Gonna Fly Now by Bill Conti)!

That was something we kept a complete secret from all of our guests because we knew it would work best as a surprise – and it was a fantastic moment when it started playing and everybody laughed and cheered us!"

"This reading was really the only one I found that captured that for me - the line about “all those promises that are unspoken matters of the heart. All these common things, and more, are the real process of a wedding” just really said what I wanted – that the marriage ceremony was just a way of formalising all those unspoken, and spoken, commitments we had made to each other over the many years of our relationship. Tim’s Dad – who is a Vicar and therefore used to public speaking – did this reading for us, and he was amazing at it!

The other reading we had was 'Recipe For Love” by Anonymous – it was just lovely and sweet and also Tim is an amazing chef so it was appropriate! My brother read it for us."

"Tim also designed the place cards and table plans in the same font and style, and we bought a white vintage-style picture frame to present the table plan in. Another DIY project was the table place names - we are both big music fans, so we decided to have each table name as one of our favourite albums."

"Our venue, The Town Hall Hotel, was everything for us – we knew we wanted to get married locally because everyone says the most important thing about planning your wedding is to make sure it feels like ‘you’ – and East London is our favourite place in the world - where we have lived for years, where Tim works, where we go out, where our friends live. But the amazing thing about the Town Hall is even though it is minutes away from our first flat together, and is surrounded by scruffy estates, once you are inside it feels so unique and special – it felt like ‘us’ but a special version of us, which how I think you want your wedding to feel. The Town Hall was at the top end of our budget but once we saw it we knew there was nowhere else we wanted to get married.

We definitely made the right decision – the staff were all amazing from beginning to end. And now we have a special place with amazing memories just around the corner where we can celebrate our anniversaries!"

"The Town Hall tended to dictate the style of the day more than anything – particularly in terms of its vintage detailing, and also by the fact that it was so spectacular with so many brilliant features, that we tried to keep our own styling pared down so as not to detract from the venue.

So where we did have to make style choices – over our outfits, or the look of the flowers, we tried to keep with a vintage theme, but mostly we wanted things as simple as possible – so no flowers in the ceremony room, or seat covers in the reception!"

"Our photographer was the amazing Sassy from Assassynation.  I cant really express how incredible Sassy was and how delighted we are with her pictures – so hopefully her pictures speak for themselves – and if not, this testimony we wrote will.  Tim is a great photographer himself and we always knew we wanted a particular style from our wedding photographs – cool, stylish and not cheesy – and Sassy completely nailed that.

Our favourite photographs from the day were when me, Tim and Sassy left the reception to take some shots on Columbia Road in East London – our favourite street in London – those pictures are so fantastic and it was lovely just having that time away from everybody to focus on being together. Everyone who has seen our pictures thinks they are amazing – I could look at them all day and we will treasure them forever."