A Marie Antoinette Inspired Bride in Pink…

Good morning everyone :)  Some of you may recognise this latest beautiful wedding from a recent feature in You & Your Wedding Magazine.  Bride Nicole is also a huge fan of Love My Dress and visited often to find ideas and inspiration as she was planning her July 2010 wedding to Husband Gareth.

In keeping with her Marie Antoinette theme {that was inspired by the Sofia Coppola film}, Nicole opted for a designer dress who truly knows how to celebrate the renaissance style…

"My wedding dress was Marseilles, by Ian Stuart.  It was actually my second wedding dress; I originally brought a Je'Taime by Veronia dress in pink, but then had major dress wobbles!  So mum and I booked up a visit to another bridal shop called Always and Forever Bridal and I tried on countless white wedding dresses!

One partiucular dress by Ian Stuart caught my eye but it was pink so I dismissed it immeiately, as the colour had been what put me of the first dress purchase!  I tried on a few more dresses and still nothing.  Don't get me wrong, the dresses were all gorgeous but just not me!  Then mum brought in the dress I had previously dismissed, the pink one! I really didn’t want to try it on but didn’t have much choice as she was practically pulling it over my head.  I walked out of the changing room and there was my Mum, crying away.   I stepped onto the stage and that’s when I started crying too. The dress was amazing so detailed and stunning and so different to my last dress.

I just loved it as soon as it was on and totally got that feeling of 'the one'!"

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2010, Segerius-Bruce

Nicole's Hair and make-up Artist was Jo Bull from 'It's All About You'…

"I can't recommend Jo highly enough; at my hair and makeup trial, I showed her a picture of Kirsten Dunst in the Marie Antoinette movie, and she completely recreated the look!"

"I am a massive shoe addict and knew I may have a problem narrowing down to a single pair of shoes for the day! So instead – I had two!

I chose a really rock n roll pair by Christian Louboutin for the day, and a gorgeous more subtle pair of Jimmy Choo heels which were like gloves to dance the night away in…"  

"My favourite flower has always been the rose, as they remind me of my Nan, so they were simply a must at our wedding! I asked for my bouquet to resemble a big fluffy pastel ball of peonies & roses – and it was truly gorgeous! I also asked if they could attach my locket  to my bouquet which which had pictures of my Grandparents in so they could be close to me on the day.  

We had rose buttonholes for all the men and a posie of 3 avalanche roses for the bridesmaids and a ball of roses for the flowergirls…"

"My parents live in France and it holds such special memories for Gareth and I – we were originally going to be getting married there but it proved too difficult due to the rural location.  I loved the costumes, makeup, hair, colours & the shoes (which were apparently made by Manolo Blahnik) from the film, so Marie Antoinette was me bringing a little bit of France into our wedding…"

"I wasn't initially going to wear a necklace, because I couldn't find one that matched my Nans earrings (my something old).  However, the day before the wedding, I spotted the most gorgeous necklace that matched perfectly with the flower bead detailing on my dress.  It was by Jon Richard in Debenhams…"

"My mum let me borrow her gorgeous engagement ring which was my something borrowed.  She brought me back the most gorgeous bright doll box from france to store my engagement ring in such a lovely keepsake!"

"I had a gorgeous pale pink rose, which I found on the internet.  Unfortunately the website no longer exists, so I was very lucky to have found it when I did! I struggled to find a flower that matched my dress colour – and have a collection of hair flowers that didn't make it.

My veil was purchased from the same place I bought my dress, Always and Forever Bridal;  it matched my dress perfectly with gorgeous lace like crystal edging that really caught the light…"

"I remember that on the morning of the wedding, I was stressed and panicky, and then my Dad came in the room with a huge smile – he took my bouquet and asked for his photo to be taken, which made me laugh and realise I had nothing to be stressed or panicked about at all; I was marrying my best friend, the man I love was giving me away to the love of my life, in front of the people I love.  

From that moment my cares and worries about things going wrong and the weather got squashed by my huge feeling of sheer love and happiness…"

"Our wedding car was a gorgeous pristine 1965 Cadillac calais – it was actually a lovely gift from a close friend Paul Moss who hires it out for weddings.  Unfortunately he hasn't got a website but his contact number is 07932409133. I remember the trip to the church being dream like it was so smooth and comfortable  and most importantly it fitted both Dad and I in with plenty of room left over…"

The couple chose the beautiful St Mary's Church in Bedfont, to tie the knot…

Gareth wore a light grey suit from Marks & Spencer and a pink waistcoat/cravat from British Home Stores…

Nicole's Bridesmaids wore Floor lengh sage green dresses from British Home Stores …

"We also hired a helicopter from EBG Helicopters to take us to the reception!  We kept the helicopter a surprise from everyone which made it more fun.  It was a dream of my Mum's to travel in a helicopter, so we decided to take her with us as a surprise wedding gift…"

"We moved on to the Hilton Hotel in Cobham in Surrey for our reception – we chose this venue because of the gorgeous wooded grounds for the children to play in, the accommodation rates & Hire rates etc, and the amount of guests they could accommodate for.  In fact, it took us nearly a year and over 30 venues before we finally picked ours!

I think it’s very easy in getting side tracked about the glamour & grandness of some venues that make you lose the meaning of what a wedding actually is to you – and what you need from a venue.  Thankfully, Gareth helped me see the positive & negatives about the venues we visited – and our venue came up with all positives!  What was important to us was having all of our loved ones celebrating with us and with certain venues it wouldn't have been possible either too small or too expensive or just simply not child friendly enough.

We cant thank the Hilton enough for making that possible and also for all the little touches that I feel we wouldn't have got elsewhere…"

"We made most of the venue decor ourselves, which was really fun and gave us such a huge amount of satisfaction.  We had vintage/Classic cars for our table names and, having decided there was already to much on the tables, I designed some wine labels.  We found a 'Mr & Mr's sign on ebay which Mum & Gareth painted white and Gareth covered in the Laura Ashley fabric…"

"For the table plan, I asked the Florist if they could fill our wire mannequin we brought from next with flowers; they added some of our Laura Ashley fabric to the back and we attached table names made from the same Laura Ashley design as the fabric, only in wallpaper format, and with a pink bow to match the invitation boxes hung by pearls.

I was actually up making these till 1am the morning or the wedding…"

"For the table decorations, we asked 'vintage regal', and our florist was brilliant!  We had antique hammered candlesticks and big chunky silver candelabras filled with antique hydranges, peonies & roses etc on the top table, and on the other tables, we had gorgeous raised mirrored plynths with little antiques jugs holding an individual flower in each. The flowers were from Seventh Heaven Events…"

I love this delightful cake with iced roses! How pretty…

"We had a gorgeous pink & white 4 tier cake with pearls and roses from Waitrose – a lovely gift from Gareth's Nan – and which consisted of two vanilla sponge layers and two fruit layers.  It must have been tasty as it had all disappeared by the end of the evening and we didn't even get to try a bit!

My sister made us an amazing cake topper made from polymer clay a perfect representation of our dog that coordinated with our theme…"

"We danced to 'Stand By Me' by Ben E. King – it's a shared favourite song and spookilyy appears at all the major events in our lives;  when Gareth proposed, when we met, our first date to name a few – and so we had no doubt it should be our first dance song. It just somes up the way we feel about each other…"

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"Don't be afraid to be different!  Break the mould and have your day your way!

I'm sure this has been said before but id like to say it again as its something I found myself doing, but, DONT SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF!  Just remember what the day is about!  Not to show you can throw the best party but hopefully for the same reasons as me because your marrying your soulmate, best friend your everthing in front of the people you love!"

What a charming, delightful wedding and utterly beautiful Bride! If that smile doesn's suggest a lady very much in love and enjoying herself on her wedding day, I'm not sure what does.

Nicole, thank you so much for sharing your wedding experience with us, I can't tell you how gorgoeus you look! Huge congratulations to both you and Gareth 🙂

These beautiful photographs were taken by Husband and Wife Photography Team, Chanelle and Craig Segerius-Bruce…

"We spent months trying to find a good photographer on our shoe string budget when we stumbled upon their website.  Looking through their previous weddings gave me heart pulpatations with excitement!  I was in love!

However our tiny unrealisitic budget wasnt going to stretch.  Thankfully Gareth's Father & Step Mother saved the day and let our dream become reality! If we could do it all again, I kid you not, the dress and shoe fund would be out the window!  Chanelle & Craig were wonderful so discreet and made Gareth who hates having his photos taken  completley at ease!

We can not recommend them highly enough and thank them for our beautiful images and treasured memories…"

Thanks Chanelle for once again allowing me to reproduce your beautiful photography on Love My Dress.  You can view more from Segerius-Bruce on the Love My Dress Wedding Blog here.

Have a lovely day everyone 🙂

Annabel xXx

♥