A 1940s Style Bride Who Designed Her Own Dress…

Good afternoon! Is this the first time you've stopped by Love My Dress today? If so, you may not yet be aware that I launched the annual Love My Dress reader survey today – and to help encourage responses, I am giving away a prize valued at £750! You can respond to the survey here – it will only take 5 minutes and your comments and feedback are so important – thank you so much 🙂

For now, let's get back to the issue of weddings 🙂 David and Ruth tied the knot late October this year with a wedding at St Bartholemew's Church in Oakridge Near Stroud in the Cotswolds, chosen, Ruth told me, because it is the prettiest of the fours churches that her Father is Vicar of.

This wonderful wedding was photographed beautifully by Nicola of Daffodil Waves Photography and I simply LOVE it! It is full of personality and cute, quirky features, and I just adore that Bride Ruth was inspired by some of my favourite childhood books in styling her day; the Brambly Hedge series.  Infact the whole thing really stole my heart 🙂

Ruth told me about her fabulous dress…

"I designed the dress myself and had it made by Milly Bridal through 'My Wedding Dress For Less'.  My Bridesmaid Gemma and i did a lot of searching for the right dress, sadly we couldn't really find anything suitable. There aren't many shops that offer alternative and vintage style dresses outside of London. I was really inspired by websites like Dolly Courture, Whirling Turban and Honeypie Boutique

In the end, I decided to design my own as I had quite definite ideas of what I wanted, including sleeves and a green underskirt. The whole process was really intresting and it was great to receive a trial dress so I knew that I would love my own dress…

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2010, Daffodil Waves Photography

A 1940s Style Bride Who Designed Her Own Dress...


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"My make-up was done by Dominique who has a beauty studio in Oldbury but also does home visits for wedding make-up – telephone 07753931967. Dominique used mainly MAC with a few Benefit products thrown in for good measure.

My 1940s inspired do was done at Gyles Allen in Nailsworth – telephone 01453 835750."

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Flowers were by Sorori Design

"I first met Maria at a wedding fair and we got talking about organic and locally sourced flowers – which they specilise in. This was perfect for us as flowers were really important to me but David was really concerned about the carbon foot print of using imported flowers.  The flowers fitted perfectly with our no colour theme theme, they were locally sourced seasonal british flowers.

This was particularly practical as the church flowers were being sourced and arranged by the Churches flower arrangers led by Mary Fern and the flowers for the reception were provided by a local flower farmer who lives round the corner from my sister. Because everyone stuck to the principle of seasonal british flowers they complimented each other seamlessly with out being too matchy."

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"My veil was made with off cuts of lace from my dress and some pretty enamel earrings and a broach that my sister Jemma bought me to match my shoes.  My shoes were from Kurt Geiger and i got them in the January sale reduced from £120 to £35. They were the very first thing i bought and i love them!"

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"My underwear was from Lucile & Co in Manchester who stock truly beautiful underwear, ranging from A to H.  My stocking were from Debenhams Jasper Conran range and were cheap and faultless lasting all day without a single snag.

My petticoat was made by Honeypie Boutique, the colour was perfect and I personally don't think there is a joy on earth that can surpass dancing with your boy in a swirly whirly petticoat BUT my bridesmaid's petticoat's which I bought after mine, were much better made and at a fraction the cost…"

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"The brilliant Charlotte at Ceekay Creations made all the bridesmaid dresses, with fabric that i picked up from a local fabric warehouse. Their petticoats also came from ebay from the brilliant Ceekay Creations, who stock a wide range of colours and lengths.

I bought my bridesmaids pearl jewellery from Element Jewellery, the bracelets had little silver rose clasps that complemented the pattern on their dresses.  Each of the grown up bridesmaids provided their own black cardigan, shrug or wrap and the little bridesmaids shrugs came from Sainsbury's and their Mum just replaced the blinging crystal buttons with pretty jet style ones…"

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Meanwhile, the Groom gets ready…

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"David's suit came from Charles Tyrwhitt of Jermyn Street, London. His shirt was from Gap and his and  all the other ties came from Marks and Spencer.  We bought David's five Best Men's ties and one for my Grandfather (who gave me away) and David's Dad from Marks and Spencer. They're all the same stripey school tie style but in different colours…"

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"We had the reception at the Old Lodge on Minchinhampton Common, it a family favourite of ours. It's run by a small company who have a selection of really great country pubs in the Stroud area."

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"I had the necklace customised specially for me by Luxede Luxe on Etsy, it's really cheesy but the two birds are David and I, the nest is our relationship and the eggs are our future together. It did lead to a hilarious moment when David's sister Amy called across the room to me that she wanted to show their family friends my 'ovary necklace'…"

hehehe!! 🙂

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"We had a cheese and fruit cake tower. The cheeses came from the helpful cheese mongers at The Cheese Shed, and the cakes were made by the amazing Gill Wimperis a local caterer."

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"Our friend Tim designed our stationery and the animals for the table centres. We had a lot of help from friends collecting bricabrac for the tables, including a very successful trip to Morcombe which is the best place to find awesome china. We were really lucky that our venue has a lot of character so our few touches went a long way.  Sadly the paper windmills we made were obliterated by the rain, but when you have an autumn weding it's the risk you take. We also had chocolate animals that complimented the british wildlife animals Tim designed."

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Fantastic Photowall…

"Our Photographer was the awesome Nicola from Daffodil Waves, with her trusty accomplis for the day Adrian Giernalczyk. Nicola's approach to photography really captures the humour and humanity of her subjects. She set up a fantastic photowall booth which are guests really loved – even people who usually hate having the photo had a ball!"

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Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"Decide between you what you really want and personalise the day as much as you can. All our guests spent the day saying with surprise how 'us' the day was, which was great but really made me think how that should be the same for all weddings. It's a celebration of your relationship but also the individuals that make up that relationship.

Also if you can surprise each other, David didn't know about the crepe stand and it was really nice to have some suprises for each other."

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What a fantastic day, so full of originality 🙂

Thank you so much Ruth for sharing all these details with us – you looked AMAZING on your wedding day – congratulations to you and David on your wedding 🙂

Huge thanks to to Nicola from Daffodil Waves Photography for allowing reproduction of these fabulous photographs on the Love My Dress Wedding Blog 🙂

Have a great afternoon all 🙂

Annabel xXx

Annabel

Annabel View all Annabel's articles

Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.

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