Hello you lot 😉 Is this the first time you've dropped by the blog today? If that's a 'yes', then you need to go and check out this post and this post to ensure you get your wedding blog fill for the day.
Time for a real wedding on these pretty pages. Matt & Adrienne tied the knot on 5 August with a ceremony at St Mary & St Michael’s Catholic Church in Garstang, followed by a reception at The Priory in Scorton. I love that Adrienne has got stuck in on the old DIY for her wedding – I love that Adrienne's Mother was so involved, rehashing the dress design, creating a pretty belt to wear with it, and I love that instead of confetti, there were paper aeroplanes!
A couple of shouts out first to two lady friends who made these lovely images possibly. Firstly to Lucy Stendall {who I am going to insist on calling 'lovely Lucy' form hereon} who I've had the pleasure of getting to know as a friend over the past couple of months. She really is a complete sweet heart, truly passionate about her photography, very excited about this blog post. Loves her clients and loves what she does. That makes me very happy 🙂 I think she would make you happy too if you had her as your wedding Photographer.
Secondly, a shout out to my blogging colleauge Kelly of Boho Weddings and Events who helped Bride Adrienne plan and style her big day. Kelly is one of my fellow 'bloggers photoshoot' colleagues, and one of the bloggers who will be joining me at the Designer Vintage Bridal Show in Birmngham next month {see you in two weeks Kelly!}. More on both these ladies a little further in to the post. Now on to the wedding…
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2011, Lucy Stendall
Bride Adrienne here is from Texas (check out those cowboy boots later on!) and she married Matthew in a full blown nuptial mass before sharing afternoon tea with their guests at a cosy little local restaurant. It was an intimate afternoon wedding, oozing with charm. Now on to that lovely lace wedding dress , a purchase from Allure Bridal Couture, which Adrienne admits she "ripped to shreds and rebuilt & restyled" with a bit of support from Mum 🙂
"I didn’t really love this dress to begin with! But I was shopping for a wedding dress pre-royal wedding, so that mean that you pretty much couldn’t get a dress with sleeves at all ever (unless you had a bespoke dress made) and lots of lace (which is what I had always dreamed of) wasn’t really easy to find either…"
"I loved the shape and train on this dress, and the lace looks like all over lace but is actually lace appliqué, which was much more interesting.
The under layer was a peachy-pink satin that was stunning, and I loved how it gave the dress a warm kind of glow, and was definitely out of the ordinary. So when I ordered the dress, I ordered two yards of extra lace (just to be sure!) so I could do alterations…"
"If my mother wasn’t an amazing seamstress, this dress probably wouldn’t have happened or would have been eye-wateringly expensive to do the alterations on, because they were extensive.
What we changed:
* closed up the keyhole back
* removed the ribbon/broach thing at the bust
* added elbow length sleeves
* added a blue ruffle inside of the skirt- gotta have “something blue!”
* removed all of the buttons going down the back and realigned them (they came spaced out all the way down the train and we re-did them in a solid strip down the opening of the back)
I also found some matching soft peachy-pink silk to make a belt/sash out of at a fabric/sewing shop. My mom spend many hours hand beading and embroidering the belt that I wore! 100% bespoke and hand made.."
"My earrings were my something borrowed. They belonged to my late great grandmother. Vintage pearl with diamonds…"
"I wore Kate Spade 'Tessa in a soft pink' – the perfect colour! They were a purchase from Neiman Marcus on super sale – actually would encourage other brides to try this store on saksfifthavenue.com or nordstrom.com as they all carry lots of high end shoes- perfect for weddings! And they now ship to the UK! You can sometimes find some great buys that would totally warrant the shipping!"
Adrienne's Bridesmaid wore a dress that was a purchase from Nordstrom {though she can't recall the brand unfortunately}. This was coupled with a lovely peach pair of Badgley Mischka heels called 'Randall'…
"Matt is from London and I’m from Texas, so the North West of England seems a bit counter intuitive to have held our wedding. But, we chose to have the wedding in/around Garstang since that is where Matt’s mom’s side of the family is from.
Traditionally weddings are held near the bride’s family or near her home, but all of my grandparents have passed away and it was important to me to have his grandparents be able to attend.
The church was the same church where his uncle (who married us) was ordained a priest and several other family weddings and baptisms have taken place there.."
"I hired Kelly at Boho Weddings and Events. She was a lifesaver and bent over backwards to help me find the perfect suppliers! I planned almost the entire wedding from Texas and hired Kelly to be my boots-on-the-ground; really probably wouldn’t have been able to do it without her!"
Is everyone ready for the 'paper aeroplane' throwing shot?? 🙂
"We actually met online and made transatlantic journeys for the better part of three years to see each other. We got engaged in February 2011 in Oklahoma (he surprised me with a trip there), which is where we met for the first time. I moved to the UK at the beginning of July this year just before the wedding- so pretty much all of the wedding planning was done by email…"
"The Priory in Scorton was perfect for us for the reception- we really didn’t want the traditional hotel wedding reception (which is what most places want to give you and tell you that you HAVE to have! Yikes!) Julie, the manager of the Priory and the staff there were wonderful- very accommodating.
The Priory is a restaurant/small hotel in the square of the small village of Scorton- it had a really relaxed English country vibe that we loved- we really wanted everyone to be able to relax and have a good time!"
"Our Florist was Adi at Verdure Flowers in Manchester. Kelly our sylist, knew him as a contact from a wedding show, and I am so glad I went with her recommendation! Having amazing flowers was important to me and Adi was great. He bent over backwards to make sure everything was beautiful and I had what I was looking for.
I thought about going all shades of white, but thought that would look too stark so decided on white w/ soft peaches and pinks thrown in (inspired by the under layer of my dress). It took a lot of looking for inspiration pictures because I had something in mind that I hadn’t seen before… but after weeks upon weeks of blog browsing I had enough of a collection to communicate what I was looking for. I wanted big, opulent floaty displays in the church with garlands and then mix and match low vases at the reception. I loved the flowers, and everyone else did too! Everyone had fun taking them out of the vases at the end of the day to take home. Best favours ever!"
Best cake topper I have seen in aaaaaaages! Love it! A little bit of retro kitsch going on there…
"We topped the cake with a vintage cake topper. The cake topper was used by my paternal grandparent’s wedding…."
"I repeatedly heard from guests (and am still hearing!) that this was the best wedding cake people had ever had. I would agree… it was so delicious, I can’t wait for another special occasion so I can order another cake!
Our cake was a three tier cake w/ peach coloured butter cream frosting
Tier 1: lemon w/ alternating layers of raspberry and lemon curd
Tier 2: chocolate orange w/ chocolate ganache filling (tasted like a Terry’s chocolate orange…but better!)
Tier 3: coconut w/ lime zested butter cream filling
Really beautiful and completely delicious. We even enjoyed eating the leftovers the next day!"
Adrienne wore a beautiful cathedral length silk tulle with graduated lace edging…
"My mom and I made it- simply bought lace and tulle and sewed for a veerrrrryyyyyyy long time.
Making veils really isn’t that difficult of a job, especially if you’re looking for something simple. Saved loads of money! I can’t imagine what it would’ve cost if we purchased the veil that I wore…"
You can take the Bride out of Texas but you can't take the Texas out of the Bride!
Words of Wedded Wisdom…
"Pick one or two things that are really important to you and focus your energies on those things- it will save your sanity! (I definitely went crazy trying to micromanage every tiny little aspect to perfection). You won’t get everything you want done, and it will be ok! At the end of the day, you’re going to be married to the love of your life, and you (and everyone else) won’t remember the tiny details that you stressed over!
Also, savour the day. Everyone says it, but it really does go by faster than you think it possible.
For the overall styling, I wouldn’t say that I was inspired by a theme or an era, I really just went with my gut and what suited my taste- which apparently showed since everyone told me on the day that it “looked like” me! From the start I had a vision for my dress (which we executed with lots of time, patience and stitches!) and everything else flowed from that.
We are both Catholic, so there wasn’t a question about the ceremony, which was a nuptial Mass- however we still had quite a lot of choice for readings and music, and we chose the most traditional music, with most of the Mass parts in Latin. Music was sung by the Manchester Chamber Choir (it was ammmmaaaaazinggg!!!)"
Just a lovely little bit of wedding day pretty to share with you my friends 🙂
Congratulations to Adrienne and Matt on tieing the knot. Love conquers all in the end, including extremely long distances! Big love and thanks to Lucy Stendall for sending in these photographs too…
"I cannot say enough about Lucy. I found her on the recommendation of another photographer who was booked, and boy am I glad that the other one was booked.
My husband and I were talking about Lucy (who shoots with her husband Tom) while on honeymoon and both agreed that the best part about having them there was that it was like having your friends there to photograph your wedding. It was perfect."
More yumminess on the blog tomorrow 🙂
Much love all,
Annabel xXx
♥
Style Guide
Photographer – Lucy Stendall.
Planner/Stylist – Boho Weddings and Events
Venue – Priory in Scorton
Brides dress – Allure Bridal Couture
Brides veil – Made by the Bride and her Mother
Brides accessories – Earrings belonged to the Brides Grandmother
Brides shoes – Kate Spade via Neiman Marcus
Hair & Makeup Stylist – Elbie van Eeden
Groom – Moss Bros
Bridesmaid – Nordstrom dress + Badgley Mischka heels
Flowers – Verdure Flowers in Manchester
Cake – Diva Cakes
Transport – Fylde Executive Cars
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.
