A Backless Wedding Dress, a Birdcage Veil and a Touch of Art-Deco…

Some Brides just have 'it' don't they? Style, confidence and that look about them that makes you look twice.  I see so very many wedding images here at Love My Dress 'HQ' but I don't think I'll ever stop experiencing that little thrill when I find myself browsing through a set of images that have been submitted that I know I just have to feature.  Like these images 🙂

Jude and Dave had a beautiful city chic style wedding on 8th of May 2010 at 'The Swan at the Globe', Bankside, London; "The Swan at the Globe was the venue that we felt most relaxed and at home in, plus we loved the sound of their food and drink menus. Some of the other venues we saw around London were too grand and big whereas the Swan seemed to have just the right balance.  My theme was based loosely around art-deco and vintage 20s and 30s styles which is a period I particularly love. I wanted to reflect some old-style Hollywood glamour and have a chic “city wedding” feel to the day. I used feathers, diamante and satin bows in as many details as I could to pull the theme together. I had a mainly monochrome colour scheme and added silver grey and fuchsia pink-purples as they were colours that were present in the reception room."

June and Dave hired the lovely Catherine at Lily and Frank Photography to capture their special day on camera; "Catherine was the first photographer that we visited and we didn't look at anymore after that! She was so friendly, enthusiastic and extremely professional… it felt like having another friend at the wedding rather than just a supplier and I just knew she would take marvellous photos, and she didn't disappoint!"….

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2010, Lily & Frank Photography

I just adore Jude's bird-cage veil and backless wedding dress ensemble – so chic!  

Jude's dress was a Maggie Sottero design, from the Destinations collection…"I had been looking for a dress that was a bit unusual but so far had only fallen in love with dresses that had huge price-tags (I had tried on and adored various dresses by Claire Pettibone, Jenny Packham, Sarah Arnett and Stephanie Allin).  But I decided I had to forget the expensive ones and stick to the budget so I set out to look for a dress that had the vintage glamour, slinky satin look in the more affordable designers such as Maggie Sottero.  

This dress had a small amount of corsetry built in to give a lovely hourglass shape and with the low-back and neckline I felt glamorous and sexy! It also didn’t have lots of layers of underskirts so it felt light and comfortable. It was also a more simple dress than i imagined I would buy but it did mean I could be more extravagant with accessorising it!

I had toyed with the idea of wearing a short non-white dress but talked myself out of that because there really isn’t another opportunity in life to wear a white gown with a train so why miss out!"

Lipstick and Curls…

"My main inspiration came from old black and white photos of glamorous ladies in slinky art deco gowns, complete with feathers and beautiful diamante jewellery ~ and also more recent icons such as Dita Von Teese and Paloma Faith.  I took these photos when I went for a trial with my Hair and Makeup Artist, Natasha from Lipstick and Curls.  These girls are specialists in vintage styling and she completely got the look I was going for and I couldn’t have been more delighted with the wonders she worked with my hair and make-up!

Amanda (who is Natasha’s business partner) styled all of the bridesmaid’s hair into retro curls. I would highly recommend lipstick and curls to any bride who wants an authentic vintage look.  I also had a full set of lash extensions before the day so I didn't have to wear any mascara!   Various makeup was used on the day, but included Chanel foundation, Mac powder and Benefit blusher."

 

"My shoes ended up being a bit of a bridal drama which is a very long story but in the end I had to rush into the shops the day before and buy new shoes which I bought in Clarks of all places!! I actually thought they were very pretty and I liked the fact that they were silver grey so I will be able to wear them again and matched my handbag too…"

Birdcage Veil…

"My birdcage veil came from an Etsy seller called AnnLeslie in Connecticut and I attached a beautiful feather fan clip to it from another Etsy seller EMBridal based in Melbourne.e. 

The feather charleston style hairclip I wore in the evening came from Etsy seller LuluSplendor in Melbourne.  I  also had diamante and pearl pins and diamante on spirals in hair which came from Claires accessories."

"The four Bridesmaids were my sister Rayne and three best friends Jac, Nic and Suz. They wore black knee-length dresses of their own choosing from Coast (which means they will definitely be able to wear them – everyone needs an extra LBD!).  The girls wore dark silver-grey hair clips/bands in two different styles from The Little Things In Life and matching chunky beaded necklaces in black and silver from New-Look…"

The Groom…

"Dave wore a dark grey 3 piece suit from Jeff Banks We also bought the same shirt and ties for him and the two best men from Jeff Banks so they co-ordinated but we ask the boys to wear their own suits and shoes. Both the white shirt and silver tie had a light floral print sewn into it which was weddingy without being too girly for my rugby playing husband!"

Nice Day for a White Wedding…

"I loved being able to choose favourite songs for our ceremony.. I walked down the aisle to “We’re going to be friends” by the White Stripes, signed the register to “They say it’s spring” by Blossom Dearie and then we walked back up the aisle to “White wedding” by Billy Idol. One of our favourite memories is one of our friends shouting “tune!!” as we walked past!"

 

With this ring…

"Our rings were designed by Rebecca at Harriet Kelsall Jewellery ~ my white gold wedding band was made to fit around my engagement ring that Rebecca had designed a few years before and Dave's ring was a brushed palladium band. HK jewellery have a workshop and shop in Hertfordshire where the most amazing jewellery is hand-made… I couldn't have wished for a better and more personal service. It didn't cost much more than an "off the peg" ring  and my rings are a one-off unique set that no-one else in the world has, I just love them!! (and I'm looking forward to going back in a few years to get a matching eternity band too!)"

Flowers…

"The wonderful Ruth at Stem Flowers provided our flowers. My bouquet was a shower of white calla lilies, white Akito roses, black bear grass, silver-grey feathers and diamantes. We had large flower displays in both the rooms that we used at the Swan. The drinks reception room had vases of white lilies interspersed with tall black twigs and black leaves.

The bridesmaid bouquets of white peonies, silver-grey feathers and diamantes were put into small vases in this room after the photos which meant they were on display for the whole wedding.  The Balcony room had two grand arrangements of lilies, orchids, black ostrich feathers and black leaves… the large vase also had submerged orchids. 

As it was a city wedding I wanted chic, dramatic and OTT flowers. Because I was trying to stick to a tight budget my florist suggested using white lilies due to their large size and relative cheapness which meant I could afford grander displays on my budget."

 

Decor…

"The tables during the meal were scattered with the same pinky-purple bougainvillea petals that we had for confetti. These petals were just beautiful, one box went a very long way and they reminded me of a many wonderful holidays abroad. I would highly recommend the company I bought mine from Passion for Petals – these were also perfect for tables because they aren’t dyed so wouldn’t stain the table cloths if they got wet!

The venue supplied beautiful tall candelabra for each table so my florist decorated them with a long twist of black wire that had crystals and beads threaded onto it and then attached individual orchid flowers along the wire. This look echoed the unusual light feature in the  room which was made of twisted wire and winged light bulbs!

Other decorations included clear jewels (from Ebay), black paper petal flowers and tea-lights scattered across every surface I could find. I also bought two very tall cylinder vases and put giant church candles inside with bougainvillea petals around the bottom. These stood at either side of the aisle."

Sparkly Glittery Cup-Cakes…

"We had a wonderful tower of 100 dessert cupcakes supplied from Lola's Kitchen, in 14 different flavours.  In the evening these were stacked onto a tiered clear Perspex stand (from Ebay) and white artificial roses were dotted over the tiers.  These cakes were absolutely beautiful and photos won’t ever do them justice because they were covered in edible glitter so they just sparkled under the light and each flavour was just to die for. I made a “cupcake menu” so that everyone could choose their favourite flavour and our guests were able to take these home at the end of the evening in white cupcake boxes that I had decorated with wide black satin ribbon band and added a tag with our names and wedding date on."

  

"I bought large MDF letters (also from Ebay) that spelt out “MR & MRS” which I painted white and propped up along ledges in the balcony room."

 

Everybody do the Charleston!…

"We had a 5 piece jazz band for the evening reception called The Charleston Charlies who were a 1920’s themed band who then played more varied songs as the night went on. We booked the band through Warble Entertainment.

They all came dressed in black tie and were wonderful entertainment ~ we were worried our friends wouldn’t dance but everyone threw themselves into it and was lovely to see everyone on the dance floor like “Strictly come dancing”! It felt like we had stepped back in time to another era.  It was a great party atmosphere but somehow felt different to weddings that have DJ’s. I think those that normally don’t like a disco were able to enjoy sitting and watching the band and were also able to chat too…"

Words of Wisdom?… 

"Choosing a top-notch photographer like ours, but having a package that just includes the images on a CD rather than an expensive album is definitely the best decision we made because it meant we could afford to have Catherine take hundreds of wonderful photos that we will have on disc forever. Later on we can make our own album using sites such as Blurb in our own time and at a cheaper price.  My advice would be to look for photographers that keep an active and up-to-date blog as you really can get to know them by the way the write and you can also see so many of their images from lots of different weddings.

Final Thoughts…

We wanted our wedding to feel as relaxed as possible with as few formalities as we could get away with! We ditched many wedding traditions – we didn’t have a reception line, very few formal group photos, we weren’t announced into the wedding breakfast and also there was no cake cutting!

A tradition we felt we would like to include was the first dance so that everyone knew they could start dancing themselves!

Finally we wanted a day that our friends and family would say “that’s so Jude” or “that’s so Dave”.. they could see our influence in all details of the planning and feel they were part of a really special and unique occasion."

 

 

Oh how I love looking through happy, beautiful wedding photographs like this 🙂

Jude and Dave – huge congratulations to you both!  Thank you so much too Jude for sending so much information my way about your beautiful wedding – and thanks once again to Photographer Catherine over at Lily and Frank.

Annabel 🙂

♥