A Candy Anthony Polka Dot Dress for a Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding – With A ‘Bake-Off!’…

Good morning! I have a big day of fabness on Love My Dress today to make up for a quieter day yesterday, and I’m starting this fabulousness with the wonderful wedding of Sarah and Adrian, which I am completely in love with 🙂

Sarah, a regular Love My Dress reader, and Adrian got married on 21st April this year at The Larmer Tree Gardens near Salisbury in Wiltshire.  I just love how Sarah looked the epitome of a care free bride in her lovely polka dot Candy Anthony 50’s inspired wedding dress… 

“I tried on the polka dot version first and fell head over heels. I toyed with a couple of other designs but the spots always made me smile and the nipped in waist and swooshy skirt made me feel brilliant so getting the dress was possibly the easiest part of all the preparations.  Plus I can’t speak highly enough of the girls at Candy Anthony.

They were lovely and kind, accommodating and professional and always made me feel gorgeous in my dress…”

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Lisa Dawn Photography

Polka dot Candy Anthony 1950s style wedding dress

“We hired a Morris Minor called ‘Doris’ from Premier Carriage.    It of the best decisions we made as Adrian and his best men were taken first, then my bridesmaids and then me with my dad.  Plus we had a little bonus spin straight after the ceremony as we clutched our champagne and giggled that we were actually husband and wife. She was gorgeous!”

I’m just adoring the pretty Paper Pompoms

Pink paper pompoms

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

“Our invitations & illustrations were by designer Mary Kilvert.  I came up with the overall designs for the menus and order of ceremony etc then downloaded the type writer font and sourced  the bakers twine, labels etc.

For the rest of the styling I had load of ideas but ran out of time a bit.  I sourced the crates and sweetie jars on ebay, made all the runners, cut over 1000 corners on my stationary bits and bobs and covered my hands in ink from all the stamping. I probably took on too much but I loved every single minute…”

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

“Our Florists were ‘The Flower Fairies’ {Sally Marshall & Ginny Ostle 07791 578645}.  Sally and Ginny are family friends who I’ve known since I was tiny.  Sally always said when I got married she’s do my flowers and it was so exciting to have such a personal input from both of them.  They were very patient, listening to my thoughts and ideas and helped translate the hotch potch of pictures and emails into reality…”

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

“I knew I wanted a spring feel with a country edge but not too rough and ready. I’d seen lots of pictures of coral pink bouquets with touches of white and yellow to keep with the spring feel and then sent a list of all the flowers that were definite ‘no’s. I also made them a little booklet of how I’d like the flowers to look. That’s a bit bridezilla isn’t it?! I had fun doing it though.

We had small posies in enamel jugs on the tables, hanging jars on crooks from Cox & Cox outside and filled birdcages on the piano in the pavilion.  I had an image in my head for the buttonholes to have little ribbons and on my search in VV Rouleaux I discovered come cute pale pink polka dot ribbon for the bouquets. So Sally and Ginny wrapped and tied that round the stalks. It was definitely one of the loveliest parts of all the planning….”

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

“We just chose things we loved as we went along although looking back I can see we have leanings toward bunting, baking, hearts, cats and a touch of the 50’s!  I’m also a sucker for all things quintessentially English: cream teas, village fetes, dog agility!   So we started by choosing pie and mash for our meal and I got some mini union jack flags for our bacon butties and it snowballed from there…”

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

Lovely dreses from up and coming new bridesmaids dress label, Maids To Measure

Maids to Measure bridesmaids dresses

“We chose our venue, The Larmer Tree Gardens, because we were after a relaxed outdoorsy wedding where we could have lots of input but also where the ceremony part would feel extra special.  We met Gail (who organises all their weddings), fell in love with the magical setting, I had tears in the Pavilion and we signed on the dotted line!”

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

“We got engaged in Northumberland! Adrian’s from Newcastle so I’ve been there loads over all our years together. But he was really keen to take me on a little road trip, showing me all the places he holidayed as child. I didn’t really twig at all.  On the day of the big proposal he’d had a big plan to have an afternoon picnic on Bamburgh Beach, with the castle romantically setting the scene in the background.

The reality was that on the day there was the worst sea fret ever and you could barely see in front of your nose.  It was a comedy proposal with us popping back to the beach throughout the day with the fret getting worse and me none the wiser.  We had to abandon the plan and had an awkward car journey back with me wittering about coming back another day and suggesting we just go ‘home’ for a nice cup of tea!  I couldn’t work out why he was in such a weird mood. Ha ha.  It finally happened at Eshott Hall the next day when he hid it in a pot of Pansies in the walled garden. He kept suggesting I smelt the flowers and I kept saying they didn’t smell.

I finally cottoned on the third time when I saw the tiny little box nestling in the middle!”

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...


“I knew very early on that I was after something 50’s inspired, girlie with ¾ length sleeves and lace.  I was terrified of the whole process to be honest. I had visions of being ordered to strip and forced to try on impossibly tight fishtail numbers while I got more and more flustered and pink cheeked. As a result I delayed looking and hadn’t been remotely excited about setting aside days to try on dresses.  I’d been exploring vintage dresses and whether I could get one altered?

And I’d approached a couple of dressmakers I’d seen mentioned on Love My Dress and other blogs. Candy Anthony had also been on my radar and when an email landed in my in box about a promotion, I dropped everything for an emergency appointment with my little sister.  Good job both our offices are close by!” 

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

“I wore classic pearl earrings and a superfine silver bracelet with three tiny charms (a bow, heart & horseshoe) from Joy Everley, just off Carnaby Street…”

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

“My bridesmaids wore the dove grey chiffon ‘Caroline’ dresses from Maids To Measure.

My Dad gave me away – I walked down the aisle to ‘At Last’ by Etta James. I adore the song but it was also a wee bit ironic since this marks our 15th year together. There’s no rush is there?!”

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

“We had a jazz band who played on the outside stage during the Prosecco, sandwiches and Bake off…”

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

“I love baking and had become a bit obsessed with the Great British Bake Off.  So, as part of the afternoon’s fun we’d organised a ‘Wedding Bake Off’, to involve everyone and as an excuse to eat cake. To keep the homemade vibe, I asked my mum to bake one of her legendary carrot cakes.  I thought it was going to be a normal round one tiered affair but before I knew it she was talking pillars and bases with the local cake shop and produced a monster! We were really nervous cutting it as it wobbled a bit and we were really giggly (which probably made it worse). The cake was really yummy.  My mum was a star…”

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

“Adrian and I are a bit (a lot) obsessed with our cats Bumble and Rafferty. As a surprise for him I had some mini cats made to sit on the top of the carrot cake with some ‘Just Married’ bunting from Etsy. They looked so cute!  We also had some stunning, imaginative cake entries which made such an amazing spread on our bake off table…”

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

“We hired the most amazing wedding DJ’s ever for the evening’s party.  The dance floor was packed the entire evening. They were awesome.

We danced to ‘Sweetest Feeling’ by Jackie Wilson. We didn’t want anything too slow or slushy and I’ve loved this track for such a long time. It was upbeat and perfect for twirling on the dance floor in my enormous skirt. We kept gesturing for everyone to join in but the meanies wouldn’t. They all wanted to watch, so we left to muddle through on our own, making it up as we went along.  As one of my special presents Adrian bought me a framed single of our first dance with a lovely message so I’ll always remember that moment on the dance floor…”

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

Words of Wedded Wisdom…. 

“I read a lot of words of wisdom in the run up to our wedding – dismissing many as clichés. They’re not. They’re so true. You do have to be careful you don’t lose sight of what you’re doing. You do have to stay true to what you both want to do. You will get stressed, loose perspective and worry about the weather. You will feel pressure to present some sort of perfect wedding. 

Everyone will notice the details. But it is one day, which will vanish in the blink of an eye. On the day you genuinely won’t care about the position of the flowers/forks/cake.  It’s really really good fun. The buzz of adrenalin and love from everyone around you is like something else. You need to soak it all up and do everything you can to speed everything else down.

There’s also a teeny bit of relief when you wake up the next morning and realise a). You really do have a husband and b). you’re actually going to get your life back!”

A Quintessentially English Afternoon Tea Wedding at The Lamer Tree Gardens...

Huge thanks to Lisa & Scott from Lisa Dawn Photography for sharing these images…

“They were brilliant – in fact we discovered the venue by stumbling across another wedding on their site. If you’re not used to being the centre of attention (who is?!) I’d thoroughly recommend taking advantage of an engagement shoot if you can. It all seemed a bit American to us but actually we had a huge amount of fun having our pictures taken around Brighton, where we met.

We felt awkward at first and giggled a lot but it meant on the day we knew what to expect. Lisa and Scott were very subtle and unobtrusive and just snapped quietly away in the background. Having amazing photos to add to our memories was something we decided was really important to us and I’ve never doubted our decision. They were helpful, friendly and professional from the very beginning. They also created a brilliant photobooth which everyone loved!”

Thougths my lovelies? Which is your very favourite bit of this wedding? Polka dot pretty dress, homemade cakes, florals or the whole job lot? 😉

Much love all,

Annabel

Heart

 

Photographer – Lisa Dawn Photography
Venue – The Larmer Tree Gardens
Brides dress – Candy Anthony
Brides shoes – ‘Eva’ by Rachel Simpson (plus the RS vintage looking shoe clips)
Brides accessories – ‘Ora’ by Jo Barnes + Joy Everley
Grooms Suit – A Suit That Fits  + Jones Bootmaker Shoes + notonthehighstreet.com cufflinks
Bridesmaids – Maids To Measure
Florist – The Flower Fairies (Sally Marshall & Ginny Ostle 07791 578645
Cake – home baked
Decor – Paper Pompoms
Entertainment – Stour Valley Stompers + The Wedding Smashers
Hair and make-up Artist – Katy Pheiffer
Save The Dates, ring cushion, bake off tea towels & Wonka Bars – Zeena Shah
Invitations & Illustr

ations – Mary Kilver

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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