An £80 Dress and Vintage Style Lace for a Relaxed, Elegant and Peach Perfect Wedding…

 

 "Don’t feel you have to stick to the traditional way of doing things. I didn’t have a chief bridesmaid, Tom didn’t have ushers, we didn’t have a receiving line, the men's suits didn’t match, but it was all still wonderful…"

Good morning my loves, I do hope this early morning blog posts finds you well.  I've a wedding to pop in to the pot of peach pretty today, with the most charming and delightful nuptials of Becky and Tom's, which took place on Saturday 14th April this year, at High Elms Manor in Hertfordshire.

Following on the from the budget theme of yesterday's real wedding feature, Becky's wedding dress was a complete steal and fabulous find from eBay

"I was lucky enough to find my dress on ebay. I had been checking regularly for a few weeks when it came up for auction, and I got it for the bargain price of £80! I bought the gold silk sash separately, also on ebay. (Self-confessed ebay addict).

Luckily it fitted pretty well and was the right length, though I’m only 5’2, so I just had to get the shoulders taken in a bit…"

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Julia West

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"I had a clear idea of what I wanted for the flowers – again nothing too formal, and something vintage-looking with flowers in muted pale colours. I wanted to have pretty glass vases and candle holders for the tables and other areas, and two large urns for the ceremony room. My mum and I spent hours searching charity shops and car boot sales for cut and pressed glass vases. I love pink-green hydrangeas but they weren’t in season so I decided to go mainly for roses, though we did have a couple of hydrangeas in the urns (Urns bought from Roundwood Trading)…"

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"I ordered the flowers online from a wholesale florists called Triangle Nursery. It is not guaranteed as they buy everything fresh from auction and they couldn’t get exactly what I wanted but they were very helpful in offering alternatives. We had a mixture of single stem and spray roses in white, cream, pale pink and peach, waxflower, some miniature chrysanths, Lisianthus and two types of eucalyptus. In my bouquet I included some Viburnum, Nigella (Love-in-a-mist) and Hypericum…"

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"My shoes are ballroom dancing shoes in a flesh coloured satin. I do this as a hobby so it made sense to buy something that I could put to good use afterwards. I also bought these online, from Holbrook Dance shoes…"

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"My vintage style hairband was from Monsoon.  I bought a lovely pearl brooch from a vintage fair in St Albans, and a pearl droplet choker from a charity shop, but in the end decided to go for a simpler look. As my dress had quite a high neckline and long sleeves it didn’t really need any accessories.

I knew I wanted a vintage style lace dress that was pretty but understated, and when I saw this one it seemed perfect. I loved the buttermilk silk slip under the lace which gives it a lovely tone, the long sleeves and the low back with all the buttons…"

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"My flower girl dresses were Ivory chiffon and lace with cap sleeves, from Monsoon. They have a beautiful range which are very reasonable.  I brought butterfly headbands from Monsoon to match.   I bought the flowergirls some really lovely bracelets from  a seller called HurleyBurley on Not On The High Street, which is one of my favourite websites. They are pearl and silver, with a small silver heart. I also made them a dried rosebud pomander each. I got the dry oasis foam balls on ebay and the ivory dried rosebuds from Daisy Gifts…"

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"The beautiful cake is by Fiona Cairns and was from Waitrose. The top layer was a fruit cake and the fairy cakes were vanilla sponge, all iced in the most gorgeous shades of pale pink, green and cream, with stunning sugar-craft decorations. I absolutely loved it – it looked so pretty and was perfect for our theme."

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"I collected a lot of crochet mats to use under the vases and for the table centrepieces. Mostly from ebay and car boot sales. I also got hold of some vintage advertisements from two books I found in Oxfam and various online sources, which I framed in simple clip frames and used throughout the venue. I bought a ginormous gold framed tapestry on ebay for £15 which I then covered with lace and used for the seating plan. The other gold frames for the table numbers were bought online from Friargate frames…"

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"The tall candle stands came from a floristry supplier. I also used some ivory ostrich feathers on the tables and some pearl strings on the cake table along with a cream wooden birdcage which I already owned. Other details included vintage print paper bags, wicker picnic hampers, soap roses.

As a graphic designer I designed, printed and put together all of the stationery items myself, from the invites to table numbers, seating plan and place names. I used a vintage flower image backed with a damask print and tied together with hand-dyed silk ribbon and mother of pearl shell buttons…"

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"We fell in love with its rustic charm of our wedding venue, High Elms Manor, and the fact that it was more individual and flexible than a lot of other places we looked at. I knew the décor would work with the vintage theme I wanted."

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"I did my own hair and make-up, mostly because I wanted to look like me, and not too ‘overdone’…"

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"Tom wore a navy pinstripe lounge suit from HRH Holmes and Son, Hitchin.  The gold silk ties and hankies, and leather tan belt and shoes also came from HRH Holmes and the white shirt was from TM Lewin…."

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"We wanted the whole wedding to be relaxed and not too formal so we did away with a lot of conventions. Tom didn’t have any ushers. His best man was his brother, Sean. The wedding party all had matching gold silk ties and hankies but wore their own suits…"

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"We met through Guardian Soulmates online dating site. Fitting then that so much of the wedding planning was also done online?!"

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Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"Also look into doing things yourself as sometimes it’s not as hard as it seems.I would recommend using a venue that is relaxed and flexible and preferably one that allows you to bring in your own caterers as this can save a lot of money.

There are many many bargains to be had online! I am an ebay addict, but other less obvious places such as floristy suppliers also offer some great products.

I love anything vintage, especially the glamour of the 20s and 30s. Gorgeous dresses and tailoring. Everything was so intricate and beautifully made. I also love faded muted colours so I wanted to use these in the scheme.  For the children I provided finger puppets, vintage nursery rhyme snap cards and colouring pencils and paper, depending on their age."

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Huge congratulations Becky and Tom, I just love your wedding photos – you are both beaming with love and adoration and happy, I'm so pleased for you both.

Thanks to the simply lovely and very talented Julia West for submitting these photographs…

"My very good friend and conveniently very talented wedding photographer, Julia West. We have known each other for over 15 years, having met at university. She is a brilliant photographer and has done an amazing job…"

Well, it's another one in the folder of peach pretty my friends! Come on you peach fans, where are you? And how clever was Becky finding her dress on eBay – has anyone else done the same?

Much love all,

Annabel

Photographer – Julia West
Venue – High Elms Manor in Hertfordshire
Brides dress – eBay
Brides shoes – Holbrook Dance shoes
Brides accessories – Monsoon
Groom – HRH Holmes and Son, Hitchin
Flowergirls – Monsoon
Flowers – Triangle Nursery {self styled}
Cake – Fiona Cairns, Waitrose
   

Annabel

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.

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