Well hello, and top of the morning to you! I know that many of you will have already returned to work, but for most, today is the first working day back in the UK after the Christmas break. Same here! I simply had to kick start the working with and 2012 with a wedding that epitomises the very essence of Love My Dress; glamorous, beautiful and elegant. This wedding was submitted by the amazing Scottish wedding photography duo, Mirrorbox Photography. I love so much about these images, the colour that pops, those smiles, the way that Mirrorbox have captured all those perfect moments – laughter and smiles, not to mention those wrist corsages!
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2011, Mirrorbox Photography
Bride Gemma, who told me she spent many nights looking through Love My Dress for inspiration in the run up to her own wedding, tied the knot with Jon on 28th August last year, at The Kingshead Hotel in Richmond North Yorkshire – chosen because this was Jon's Gran's hometown.
Gemma's sassy, original 1950's vintage wedding dress – a purchase from La Rosa Vintage, Haight-Ashbury of San Francisco in the USA.
"I loved that it was an original 50’s dress that will have had many stories to tell. We also wanted a vintage theme wedding and didn’t want our attire to be too ‘stuffy’…"
Gemma wore flowers in her hair, provided by Amy Fairburn of Ripon North Yorkshire…
"We both knew that we wanted colourful, country bouquet style flowers, made with flowers and herbs instead of your traditional roses or lilies and Amy made a great job of bringing our ideas to life…"
Gemma and her Bridesmaids were styled by the wonderful Le Keux Events Company, who specialise in original vintage pinup styles…
Gemma's Bridesmaids also wore original vintage (lucky girls!) – 1950's dresses purchased from a vintage wedding fair by Unforgettable Vintage. They also wore clip-on pearl earrings and a necklace that were purchase from a car-boot sale.
"My shoes were designed by one of my best friends Poonam Burman, a shoe designer living in China , designing for Into Designs. I gave her ideas of what I wanted as she was fab in sending me many sketches. I was so happy when the UPS van delivered them. She even customised the shoe with ‘Gemma Loves Jon’ inside – how amazing!"
"The night before the wedding a very close friend’s wedding ring who had passed away 5 years earlier was given to me by her husband as a gift. This made me feel that she was sharing our special day…"
Gemma's necklace and earrings were also both original 1950s vintage – and purchased from Etsy…
Jon wore an Oxford vintage shirt from Uniqlo, a bow tie and brogues from Urban Outfitters, trousers from American Apparel and a vintage tweed waistcoat and braces from a vintage shop in New York. He also carried a vintage Rotary pocket-watch. Jon's groomsmen also wore vintage shirts from Uniqlo, and vintage bow ties from Freshman’s Vintage Store in Sheffield – their vinage tweed waistcoats were from the same New York shop as Jon's…
"My father, John Hosty gave me away. It was a moment that I’ve thought about a lot of the past few years with his very ill health and I was so so proud of him and will treasure that moment forever…"
"We met a long time ago at University, typical ‘Boy meets Girl’ on a drunken night out. Years later we bought a house together, then on my 25th birthday Jon gave me a huge surprise by proposing to me …wow there were a lot of tears!
Just after this we had a 2 years of family illness in which my father was fighting Cancer and Jon’s mum was very poorly when a routine op went wrong and she was fighting for her life. We always thought we would have a destination wedding in the USA however with the Parents being ill this was unrealistic.
We then set a date and had around 6 months to organise the Wedding.
We are both so chuffed to have all our parents , family and friends there ….and looking back Our Wedding Day was perfect. We wanted our wedding day to mirror us as a couple and we both love all things vintage so it made lots of sense to combine the two…"
In terms of decor, Gemma and Jon really went to town on a vintage tip…
"We had some Mr and Mrs Poterajko Bunting made for the top table from Etsy. We purchased Paper Bags with a heart design to light up at night and we also purchased vintage cupcake stands.
We made our own table plan from a vintage frame and Cath Kidston fabric and used vintage photo frames with original wedding pictures of our Parents , Grandparents and Great Grandparents. Family is important and we wanted to incorporate our family heritage into the wedding.
Vintage Postcards of Florida (our fave hol destination) were used as our guest book and we used a vintage suitcase for guests to put their cards in – as well as the postcards they had written on…"
The couple gave their guests Macmillan badges on their name cards as favours and gave a donations to the charity for each guest. This was due to Gemma’s father being very poorly over the past few years fighting Cancer . It was also a way of showing all our friends and family how touched we were of all their support over the past few ‘hard’ year."
"We have had compliment after compliment regarding the band we hired – Kelly & The Sensations. We also had the pianist play music though the wedding breakfast full of all of our favourite tracks.We choose Bic Runga ‘Sway’ as it’s a song that reminded of when we first met at Uni sang by our Band Live which made it ‘magical’"
Word of Wedded Wisdom…
"We would say ‘make the wedding about you both’ , it isn’t about what you ‘should have and do ‘ but it should mirror your style and you as a couple. Also we are both very ‘precise’ people but try your best ‘not stress about the small things’ and enjoy every single second of your day!"
Oh how I love these wedding photographs! Gemma and Jon, thank you so much for sharing your beautiful story. I am so touched that all those you love were able to be with you at your wedding 🙂
Big thanks to Mirrorbox Photography for sharing these photographs…
"It took us months of searching to find the certain ‘style and look’ that we wanted. These girls are amazing , had so so many compliments surrounding our wedding pics , they captured our ‘style’ and ‘humour’ and encapsulated the best day of our lives."
Are you planning a wedding that takes influence from the 1950s? How do you plan to incorporate the styles of this bygone era in to your day?
You might want to take a peek at the following categories for more similar inspiration: 1950's, colourful weddings, real weddings.
Much love all,
Annabel
♥
Photographers – Mirrorbox Photography
Venue – he Kingshead Hotel in Richmond North Yorkshire
Brides dress – La Rosa Vintage
Shoes – Into Shanghai Shoe Design and Consultation Co., Ltd
Accessories – Original 1950's vintage, purchased via Etsy
Groom – Uniqlo + American Apparel + original vintage
Bridesmaids Dresses – Unforgettable Vintage + Monsoon shoes
Cake – Edwina Cakes, Richmond Yorkshire
Flowers – Amy Fairburn
Hair & Styling – Hair styled by Le Keux Events Company
Entertainment – Kelly & The Sensations
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.
