Morning all, and hoping this blog post finds you happy and well ;) I took a much needed day off from work/blogging yesterday and am going to use the energy I restored a little yesterday to deliver you a week full of wedding day pretty, lots of advice and inspirational imagery, starting right now! ;)
Actress Maggie Contreras and Photographer Patrick Bolton were married on a lovely sunny 4 June 2011. The couple met in 2006, on the set of the American comedy Scrubs - Maggie had moved to LA six weeks before.
"My friend the Los Angeles couture designer, Claire Joseph made my dress and veil. Claire handpicks one-of-a-kind fabrics: the silk organza is from a fabric show in France, the spun gold accent ribbon under the bust is from a French market, the small clusters are freshwater pearls and white gold and silver sequins from the 1930's. We began the process in a meeting where she asked me what I had in mind (the only thing I knew I wanted was the dress to come from her). The problem was I had too many ideas and couldn't make up my mind.
That's when she said "I have the perfect thing": a prototype, unworn but with a long history, that was never totally finished. It was mine. The color of the dress is hard to describe because there are two layers of fabric, each a different color, that combine to create this champagne that is somewhere between rose and flesh. It went with the uptown-bohemian/old world feel we were going for as the aesthetic of the decor..."
Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2011, Sarah Gawler
"The veil is one long piece of "the World's lightest silk organza (same material as the top layer of the dress) with clusters of accents mentioned above. It was built as a shawl from the dress, but when sewn on to a comb, worked well as a veil and of course matched the dress perfectly.
At the reception, we simply snipped off a few threads which secured the comb, and "poof!" a shawl for the night. Turns out London was so hot that night that I didn't need to cover up once!"
"Before he was injured, my father was a jeweler working in Tucson, Arizona, my childhood home town The sapphire necklace and earrings I am wearing is a set he made as a birthday gift for my Ma (sapphire is her birthstone and the stone we chose for my engagement ring)...."
"I went with a friend of mine (who was supposed to be the maid of honor but booked a play in LA and couldn't attend the wedding) to look for the shoes. I knew I wanted blue and that this season it would be hard to find. However, I only tried on two pairs the entire search and these Badgley Mischka's were the second. There were only two pairs in the entire USA that were the right style, color and size (or so I was told) so they had to be shipped and ended up arriving just a few days before I left for London!"
"Our florist? Ha! What a story! In short, it was myself, my mother and my sister. I wanted a loose countryside feel. I'm not a tight, overly-stylized bouquet type of girl. I'd rather be given a bunch of poppies and cornflowers cut from a field than two dozen perfect roses any day. Also, I have a slight obsession with succulents which are a dime a dozen in Southern California but are scarce and cost a pretty penny in Southern England. I had to have them in the wedding! What I like about them most is that you can cut them off, use them as decoration, and after, put them in some dirt and they will grow and thrive. Nothing better than being able to plant your wedding bouquet and button hole which is what I did just today. Yes, I took my plants through customs (naughty me) and brought them back home."
"All of the groomsmen wore a succulent with other flowers as detail and Patrick's succulent was taken from his father's home in Dublin. We went to the Covent Garden Flower Market in Vauxhall early in the morning two weeks before the wedding, then again five days before and finally bought our flowers two days before to allow them ample time to open up. We settled on (blue) hydrangeas, cornflowers, thistles, (green) amaranthus white lilyanthus (for my bouquet) and white fillers. At 9am during rush hour, two days before the wedding, you could have spotted three women on London public transport, each with a long cardboard box balancing on each of their heads, guarding their treasures like she-wolves guarding their pups.
We pruned them and put them in buckets of water in the garden. It was so stressful waiting and hoping for the buds to open. I found my Mom in the garden multiple times a day talking to them, perking them up, prepping them for their big day. The day before the wedding my mom sister and I made the arrangements for the church as best we could.
We pruned them and put them in buckets of water in the garden. It was so stressful waiting and hoping for the buds to open. I found my Mom in the garden multiple times a day talking to them, perking them up, prepping them for their big day. The day before the wedding my mom sister and I made the arrangements for the church as best we could.
"The morning of the wedding while I was getting dressed, and my maid of honour and two other friends were arranging flowers at the reception space, making all of the bouquets and button holes (which the best man came over and picked up from me), my mom and sister went to the church and hung the ribbon and blue hydrangeas on the front gate of the church. A few of Patrick's cousins helped them finish staging the flowers in the church so they could get themselves dressed. The bouquets and most of the flowers in the church were tied together with biodegradable twine and paper ribbon. Thank goodness we were staying right across the street from the church or this never would have worked out."
"Patrick and I did not want to see out wedding party in matching suits and dresses. IN OUR OPINION, not only is this an unnecessary expense, but unfair to those who are forced to wear something they didn't pick out for themselves and their body shape. To help keep colours co-ordinated, I went to the paint shop and picked up the little cardboard paint samples in the four colors of the wedding. We mailed them to all involved AT the start of the process so they would have an exact reference for the color.
The Matron of Honor and Maid of Honor were both in neutral/beige dresses which they found on their own. One from JC Penny and the other from Anthropology. The men were all in light suits (grey or blue) from their own wardrobe. Patrick gave each of them a sage tie to match his and I gave the women sage pashminas we found in the Shepherds Bush market for a few quid each.
The Matron of Honor and Maid of Honor were both in neutral/beige dresses which they found on their own. One from Anthropology, the other from a boutique in Tucson, Arizona, called Maya palace..."
"My mother gave me away. She is my best friend and did most of my parenting. Also, my Father has been wheelchair-bound for many years now and was not able to leave his care center in Tucson, Arizona.
I love Baroque music. Although I would have liked strings and horns (!!) I could only afford the fabulous organist Christopher Moore so I did a lot of research about what sounds good on organ while not being cliche. I walked down the isle to Jean-Joseph Mouret's Rondeau. It was originally written for the court of Louis XV. The blood-stirring piece is the first movement of Mouret's "First Suite in D," from his second book of Fanfares for Trumpets, Kettledrums, Violins and Oboes (published in Paris, ca. 1729). Not only is it a great Baroque piece, but I grew up listening to it on TV. It's the theme song to the American period drama murder mystery series Masterpiece Theater which I would watch with my mother in the evenings on our public television channel. I was able to give a nod to my past as well as my theatrical life."
"Patrick is wearing a traditional summer morning suit in the lightest fabric he could find. The patent leather shoes are from Church's. The cuff links are borrowed from his uncle. He was wearing a cravat tie in the sage green of the wedding colors."
"We were married at Our Lady of Dolours Servite Church on the Fulham Road in Chelsea. I am Catholic and my husband, having been raised C of E is now studying Buddhism and is influenced by Native American shamanic traditions. I first went into this church 5 years ago when I was at drama school in London writing a play based on the published diaries and memoirs of Joan Wyndham. The church is located just adjacent to the doorstep of the house she spent the later years of her life in and where her widow Shura Shivarg still lives (and where I'm now lucky enough to stay when I'm in town)."
"Joan grew up attending the church and thus it and an array of characters from there are featured in scenes in her diaries that I have used in my stage play and screen play {currently in development}. I'm now a parishioner of the parish and attend whenever I'm in London which is at least for one month each year. By chance, It turns out my best friend in London and her family (whom I met in LA) are parishioners as well. They introduced me to their friend Fr. Dermot MacNeice who who married us."
"We walked to the reception venue through the Brompton Cemetary. For those who didn't want to/couldn't walk we hired this beauty. It then picked up the walkers and took them the rest of the way to the reception. Our fiddler joined us for the ride..."
"The reception venue is the private home, gallery and gardens of Jonathan and Camilla Ross (daughter of Joan Wyndham and Shura Shivarg). It was because of my work with her mother's writings that we met and through love, respect and adoration for her why we have become very good friends. She is a divine sculptress and Jonathan runs the gallery and has one of the most impressive collections of holograms in the world..."
"We made our wedding favors. I was so proud of myself I created exactly what I wanted and it only cost me one quid per guest! Patrick and I wanted to give them something that would grow. We filled brown paper square wage envelopes from Rymans with English wildflower seeds which included my two favorite flowers: cornflowers and poppies. We created a stamp through Rymans which said "Thank you for joining us. English wildflowers. Plant and water. Watch us grow". We then attached a tag with a stamp of the two of us in silhouette which was the image on our invitation..."
Words of Wedded Wisdom...
"Hire a coordinator for the day. It's so worth it. I was blessed with Juliet Oldfield from Bedazzled Events.
Think outside the box and ask your friends to pitch in their time and talent as their gift to you. They'd be happy to. Do as much of it yourself as you have the energy for. It's so much more memorable that way. Make sure your future husband is represented aesthetically in it too. They always say they don't care but it's their wedding day...of course they do!
We chose to style the way we did purely by putting together the thing we like. It all happened to be and old-world feel inspired by posh bohemian sensibilities. Our friends are classy and slightly zany artists so our aesthetic reflected our environment. We also like to consider ourselves eco-friendly so many if not all of our decisions had that driving it..."
We chose to style the way we did purely by putting together the things we like. What emerged from our collection was an old-world feel, inspired by posh bohemian sensibilities. Our friends are classy and slightly zany artists so our aesthetic reflected our environment, since many of them helped us put the day together..."
Lovely photography from a classy and stylish day where the Bride looked radiant.
Thanks to Sarah Gawler for sharing these images...
"The lovely, fun and very talented Sarah Gawler photographed our day. Patrick is a professional photographer, so it was his job to pick who would photograph.
We knew we wanted candid shots full of life and movement catching the quite moments as well as the open-mouthed roaring laughs. Its always those sort of photos we seem to print and look at all the time and not the photos of people standing in lines looking stiff. We also liked the slightly desaturated 70's kodachorme feeling - also serving our old-world theme. So, naturally Sarah was our woman."
You can see more from Photographer Sarah Gawler here on Love My Dress here.
Have a good morning everyone ;)
Much love,
Annabel xXx
♥
Credits
Photographer - Sarah Gawler
Venue - Private home, gallery and gardens of Jonathan and Camilla Ross
Brides dress - Claire Joseph, Los Angeles
Brides veil - light silk organza/doubled as a veil in the evening
Brides shoes - Badgley Mischka
Brides accessories - Family
Groom - Traditional morning suite
Bridesmaids - JC Penny and the other from Anthropology
Flowers - The Bride
Hair & Makeup - Luke Anthony Sippel, 'Stylist in the City'
Transport - Wedding Bus
Co-ordinator {on the day} - Bedazzled Events
