Hi everyone :) Hopefully by now you'll have seen my latest reader giveaway and also view the simply stunning yellow and green colour inspiration shoot of this morning - all very beautifully Audrey don't you think?
Now this latest real wedding feature is a rather special one, because couple Tom and Beth are former Love My Dress competition winners! ;) Yes indeed, they won their wedding photography package through Love My Dress last year, when the very kind and lovely Hertfordshire wedding photographer, Kim Hawkins offered her services for free to one lucky couple.
Tom & Beth eventually tied the knot on 21st May this year with a church service at Our Lady and St Edmunds Church in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, followed by a reception and celebrations at Caswell House in Brize Norton, Oxfordshire. I love their cute pink wedding day style too :)
Beth wore a the 'Signature' dress, by Justin Alexander...
"I bought the dress from the same Bridal shop in Norwich where my sister got her wedding dress. I thought choosing a dress was going to take me a long time, but once I tried this dress on I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I loved the close fitting fishtail shape, the sweet heart neckline and the beautiful embroidery – but most of all it was the way it made me feel – like a 1950’s Hollywood starlet!!"
Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2011, Kim Hawkins
"We hired Green and Gorgeous for bouquets, button holes and reception decoration. At first we struggled to find a florist that was willing to do something away from the traditional standard flower format – within out budget. Jo understood us immediately and just came up with so many good ideas of how to create the look we wanted. Jo got so excited about our ideas, it was so refreshing – we came away from our first meeting buzzing and we knew they were the florist for us..."
"Well we had lots of cake! I fell in love with the idea of a cake table while wedding blog browsing and it seemed the perfect way of getting friends and family involved in our day. We rounded up some ‘willing’ bakers who bought their beautiful creations to the reception and laid them out on the cake table. The effect was amazing – we were so touched by the serious effort everyone had gone to – the cakes look fantastic and tasted it too!"
"It also allowed us to incorporate a bit of a vintage English afternoon tea into the day as well – we had the traditional starter and main course as normal and we then followed the main course with the speeches. After the speeches came the cakes! All 10 of them! We had a cake on each table and it was served with tea in vintage tea cups – it was a great way to end the meal with everyone mingling around the room trying all the different cakes. Brilliant, we absolutely loved it!
"My lovely mum organised for her friend to make a beautiful three tried traditional fruit cake. She’s a very talented lady and made all the beautiful flowers herself by hand. Also a stunning cake..."
"To justify my Jenny Packham headdress I had to cut the budget for my shoes. I looked all over the high street for some peep toe platforms but couldn’t find the right pair for my budget – in the end I was really lucky to find some gorgeous ex-sale stock Karen Millen silver peep toe platforms on eBay – I just loved the vintage shape of the front and also the fact they were cover in Swarovski crystals!"
"I found bridesmaids dress shopping really stressful! I knew I wanted them in something a bit different from a traditional bridesmaids dress but found it so hard to find on my budget. I eventually bought these from Zara, I looked high and low for some modern, pretty long dresses that would suit all of my maid’s shapes and also fit into our modern vintage theme.
I was so lucky to find these in Zara and hunted them down across London – the colour of the tulle was perfect for our theme and the fact they had a beautiful lace neckline made them so feminine and flattering. I did have to get the waist bands changed from black to Ivory but it was worth it as they all looked so so beautiful on the day. I just loved seeing them all come out of my old bedroom at my parents’ house, looking just stunning with big smiles on their faces – it’s one of my favourite memories of the day...."
"I collected crystal pins and combs from lots of shops. I told the girls they could get the hairdresser to do what they wanted with their hair and provided them with a goodie bag of bling to play with!"
"My dad organised for a Vintage Bentley to take us to the church and then Tom and I to the reception. Was a very special treat and a beautiful car."
"Tom loved having a bespoke suit made just for him and he looked pretty amazing in it! He went to Cad & the Dandy on Saville Row..."
"We met – at school when we were 11, (I think I have fancied him since I was about 14) we were in the same form thought school .But didn’t get together until the very last day of sixth form. (we have been together nine years). Tom proposed to moe on Valentine’s day, at the top of the London eye – Tom had secretly hired out a whole pod – put chocolates and champagne inside and then got down on one knee at the top! Very romantic!"
"The flowers in the church were done by Tom’s mum. We gave her a list of the flowers the florist was using then she worked to create a beautiful arch over the church door and some large arrangements inside and then put lovely wild arrangements in cut glass vases (that my mum had collected from car boot sales) on the windows sills – the effect was stunning and we were so lucky to have her to do this for us...."
"When we initially looked round Caswell House they had only just stated renovating the barns – we had to wear hard hats! But the grounds and the setting were so beautiful – perfect Cotswolds countryside. We saw just how much time and effort Kate and her team were putting into every detail of the barns we knew we had found somewhere very special. It fitted into our vision of an English country wedding perfectly – and it did not disappoint on the day; all our guest were as thrilled with the venue as we were..."
"Tom and I knew from the start we wanted quite a traditional format to the day – but that we wanted to do it our own way with our own little details. We wanted to create a really relaxed atmosphere, make the day great fun and really memorable for our guests.
We chose a vintage modern aesthetic and wanted to capture some of the fun of a traditional country fete in our day. The barns at Caswell were so naturally beautiful with traditional Cotswold stone, we wanted the flowers to look like that had been ‘freshly picked’ from an English country garden."
"Green and Gorgeous grow all their own flowers on a farm in Oxfordshire – so everything is locally grown and they pick flowers to suit your theme/colours form their gardens the day before the wedding. It meant we could get exactly the English country garden look we wanted. Also they have a huge collection of beautiful vintage vases/ jugs and pots – fitting right into the vintage part of our theme. Jo worked so hard and we cannot say enough how grateful we are for the beautiful arrangements she created, just stunning. To fit in with our village fete theme Jo suggested hanging lengths of ribbon from the beams in the barn where we ate – it worked perfectly and created such a feel of a celebration. Also I loved the visit the week before to pick out final flowers and colours and my mum got to design her own corsage..."
"I had many décor dreams (from all the wedding blogs I was looking at!) In the end I decided it was best to focus on some key things and do them well. I wanted to make some giant white paper flowers for the main reception room (to cut the cost of flowers) so organised some craft weekends where I fed my friends with cake and wine and got them as my craft salves for the weekend in return. They were brilliant and worked so hard to make the flowers – they looked just beautiful on the day.
"A very talented friend of mine made the little newspaper birds for the cake table – little bride’s, grooms and bridesmaids that were just so amazing. Everyone loved them. The Sweet Love Table that we put together at the last minute was a hit too (placed by the guest book it got everyone over to sign!)..."
No guessing what cake that is then? :)
Words of Wedded Wisdom...
"Doing it yourself is hard work – but so so worth it! Involve as many people as you can – exploit their talents, it makes your day so much more personal and people really do love to get involved and be part of your day. It also makes the build-up much more fun. Wedding blogs are by far the best places for inspiration - and don’t be afraid if your perfect day involves something a bit out of the ordinary like a giant tea cup for sitting in – people love the novelty of it and you might be lucky enough to know someone who can make it a reality!
Big big thanks to lovely Kim Hawkins for her immense kindness and generosity...
"Kim was just brilliant on the day, she captured all the different parts and the special moments of our day perfectly. She was very professional and kept us moving effortlessly though the day – but to a carefully worked out schedule! She was also not at all fazed by our last minute addition of a huge, handmade tea cup- which we got some brilliant photos with! We were absolutely delighted with our photos and will treasure them forever."
Tom & Beth, I'd like to congratute you on your lovely wedding day - I'm so delighted I got to play just a small part in it :)
See more fabulous pink colour inspiration on Love My Dress here :)
Much love all,
Annabel
♥
Photographer - Kim Hawkins
Venue - Caswell House in Brize Norton, Oxfordshire
Brides Dress - 'Signature' dress, by Justin Alexander
Brides hair accessory - Jenny Packham
Brides shoes - Karen Millen silver peep toe platforms via EBay
Grooms suit - Cad & the Dandy
Bridesmaids dresses - Zara
Flowers - Green and Gorgeous
Cake - Friends & family
