Two Fabulous Frocks for a Vintage Loving, Artist Bride…

Anyone who regularly frequents this wedding blog should recognise 'Lady Love My Dress', as I like to call her 🙂 … that's her up there to the right of the banner on this page with her little peacock fan 🙂 'Lady LMD' was created by my wonderful Illustrator, Charlotte Thomson. Charlotte specialises in Retro and Burlesque Inspired Boudoir and Bridal Portraiture, Fine Art and Creative Graphic Design and I have always been smitten with the beautiful little illustrations she creates for my blog (the latest one being the Royal Crown and Engagement Ring!).

I love working with Charlotte, and if I'm honest, I nearly popped with excitement when I found out this talented, vintage loving Artist and Illustrator was getting married in October!  Charlotte tied the knot with her beau David last month, with a ceremony at Rushcliffe Registry Office in West Bridgeford, Nottingham, followed by a reception at Radcliffe Hall at Radcliffe on Trent, Nottingham. 

I love how the couple stuck to their guns and put their own original stamp on their wedding day style – and this included straying from a number of the usual traditions, including the dress…

"I knew I didn’t want something traditional, I knew I wanted something that was flattering and unique and tied in with the 1940s and 50s fashions that I love. When we announced our engagement my friend Susi Henson who runs Eternal Spirits instantly offered to make my dress, which was great as I had intended to ask her anyway, and so we worked together on the design.

I was initially torn between two ideas but in the end we went for a 1940s fitted style in a pale green/blue silk dupion with beaded Nottingham lace appliqués and covered button details.  The wedding itself was a mish mash of eras and styles, I suppose you would generalise it and call it 'Vintage', but that sums up both of us, we like old things, pop culture and in our house random things from different eras sit happily side by side and somehow 'work'."

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

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"One year after Dave proposed and six years (to the day) after we originally got together we got married at West Bridgford Registry Office.  We wanted to keep things simple with just close family and friends. I used to play on the park that surrounds the registry office as a child and used to pick up the confetti from outside, I remember the excitement when there was a bride or a fancy car there to see, so there was an element of nostalgia in us choosing to get married there.

We had our reception in Radcliffe Hall, Radcliffe on Trent, a little gem that we discovered with help from some friends. It ticked all our boxes – it’s a beautiful old character building, was great value and allowed us to organize our own catering and entertainment and do things OUR way. Having done events organizing for a living I was loathed to be tied into an expensive package deal, plus everywhere else we went we were told how to run our wedding, ‘how it’s done’, I got sick of being made out to be difficult just because we wanted to break with tradition and had our minds firmly set on what we wanted. When I’d lost all hope of having the wedding reception we’d been discussing for years up popped Radcliffe Hall, with all the freedom in the world….

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Charlotte styled her own hair and makeup by the way, using Mac Liquidlast eyeliner ("completely smudgeproof mascara, crying proof, weather proof for deep black 50s style wingtips!…you can actually go swimming in it, it wont budge!") and Bourgeois eyeshadows, blusher and foundation.

"Since I managed to pick such a weird colour for my dress I was very much expecting to have to settle for cream shoes, then on one of my regular trips to the local chairty shops I spotted a pair of brand new, label still on, unworn Clarks shoes in what were the exact same colour but just about a shade darker  than my dress. So the £10 charity shop shoes had their day!

We did away with traditional flowers as I'm not a fan of cut flowers, i don't like that they're going to die. So we sprayed terracotta pots in pastel colours and planted them with different garden flowers.  At the end of the day everyone took a pot home with them to keep.  My bouquet was all fake flowers – I remember playing with my mums bouquet as a kid as she had silk flowers and I liked the idea of being able to keep it forever…"

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Charlotte's earrings were a distinctive 1940s style braid/knot design, from Accessorize.  She also wore a necklace – Originally from John Lewis – her first year anniversary gift from David, which by coincidence matched the colour of her dress perfectly.

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"My friend Ellie Caunt is setting up a new handbag design business Red Anchor Emporium made the my beautiful bag with offcuts of fabric and lace from the dress, she embroidered the date and our names into the lining…"

What a beautiful idea!…

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A privately owned blue 1930s Daimler/Vauxhall was used on the day for transport – what an excellent colour-match! 🙂

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2010, Natalie Jayne Imaging

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

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"Teardrop by Massive Attack was due to play as I walked down the aisle, although what actually got played was part of Baby I need your Loving by The Four Tops – it was quite funny!!… "

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2010, Natalie Jayne Imaging

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David wore a from TM Lewin.  He also wore a waistcoat in specially sourced matching fabric and Tie by Eternal Spirits

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

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Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2010, Natalie Jayne Imaging

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Those pretty £10 charity shoes. What a BARGAIN!!!

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

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Charlotte wore a second dress on her wedding day, by Pin Up Couture from www.verycherry.nl – isn't it a beauty! Just love the print on this fabric…

"One dress wasn’t enough for me though! I spotted a gorgeous 50s reproduction circle dress in cream with bold yellow roses while google searching something for a client. After much searching I discovered  it was by a US company called Pin Up Couture – after even more searching I eventually found a shop in the Netherlands which had it in my size. Cue a crash course in Dutch and after that failed, a phone call to their Rotterdam shop where they speak far better English that I do! Eventually what seemed to be the only one left in my size in the entire world was mine!"

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I love Charlotte and David's cake – a combination of simple tiers decorated with beautiful vintage style paper roses…

"We wanted to decorate our own cake so to save time we bought blank cake bases from Marks and Spencer and decorated using paper flowers, ribbon and a pair of silver shoes which had originally been on my grandparents wedding cake!

The silver shoes on the top of our wedding cake were originally on my grandparents wedding cake and were also on my parents cake."

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"My parents spent a lot of time and effort collecting vintage china, cutlery and table dressings to make an authentic vintage tea party. They're now hiring out the tea sets to other peoples weddings and events. My Grandmother hand-stiched around 20 tea cozies, I made bunting and friends and family clubbed together the night before to decorate the venue…"

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2010, Natalie Jayne Imaging

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

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"My guests brought lots of home baked cakes along to the reception…"

YUM!

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"We wanted our day to be informal and fun for everyone, we did away with table plans and speeches (apart from a short one from my dad) and everyone mingled and chatted, danced and caught up with long lost friends who had come from as far afield as Penzance, and in one case, were home from serving in Afghanistan.

It was really special to have all those people in one room sharing our day with us…"

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Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"Don't let other people tell you how to do things, if you have a vision try to be true to it and dont let anyone tell you you're Wrong just because you want to do things a little bit differently. Also remember to have fun and remember to see beyond the big day itself, it's easy to get caught up with it being the be all and end all but really, it's about the rest of your lives..!"

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Thank you so much Charlotte for sharing your beautiful, original and vintage inspired wedding day with Love My Dress.  Charlotte specialises in bridal portraiture, and you can view some of here on Love My Dress.

Huge thanks too, to Charlotte's Photographers Candee Photography and Natalie Jayne Imaging.

See you again tomorrow morning folks 🙂

Much love,

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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