Good morning beautiful people. I hope you have had a lovely relaxing weekend and got a chance to catch up on my weekend post full of lovely imagery by Naomi Kenton? What have you been up to? I have spent almost the entire weekend cleaning. I know! Goodness knows what's going on, I'm no usually quite this organised, but I was having a bit of a 'moment' and figured a clear house = a clear mind.
Anyway, do so love to open up the week with an absolutely beautiful wedding. Just look at that bride below? How radiant does she look? This is Abi, who was and still is a regular reader of Love My Dress and sourced many of her ideas and several of her wedding day suppliers via these pages. Abi married her beau Adam on 24 March this year with a truly elegant occasion that celebrated art deco and glamorous fashions of the 1920's and 1930's with the splendid Eltham Palace playing backdrop...
"Love My Dress is my FAVOURITE blog and I’ve been reading since before I even got engaged. I got so much inspiration from Love My Dress and still read it everyday as my wedding obsession is still going strong I love all things vintage, so that was always going to inspire our day. However, everything fell into place when we found our venue. We purposely didn’t have a ‘theme’ but I wanted the day to nod towards an art deco/ 20’s /30’s style, just so everything worked together in harmony.
I was worried that I’d be cold (although I didn’t really have to worry about that as our wedding was during the heatwave in March (apparently the sunniest March since 1929!) so I bought a gorgeous vintage fur ivory shrug from Annie’s Vintage Clothing store in Islington..."
Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Annamarie Stepney
"The flowers were really important for me. When looking at other weddings, it’s always one of the things I feel brings a whole day together and so I began collecting snippets from magazines and book marking pages from websites with my favourite flowers mainly in blue and purple hues .
Our florist, Sam from Violets and Velvet did an amazing job at making my floral dreams a reality; she made the most beautiful vintage inspired bouquets and displays. I even loved my bouquet so much and I couldn’t bring myself to throw it and instead took it home to press some of the flowers!"
"It took me ages and many internet hours trying to find the perfect veil. Originally, I was set on wearing a long cathedral veil as every time I put one on with a dress in the shops I visited, I felt like a bride. However, the back of the Kristene dress was so beautiful, so I started to think that I didn’t want to cover it up, which helped me decide that I’d wear a birdcage veil instead.
I spent a lot of time researching and came across Agnes Hart on Etsy. I loved her designs, and Rae at Agnes Hart was very patient with me as I was quite indecisive choosing the perfect brooch for the headpiece! In the end, I chose a pearl brooch set in gold which worked really well with my other accessories..."
"I decided to treat myself and ended up choosing an amazing pair by Emmy called ‘Eva’. They went perfectly with my dress and were very comfortable!"
Abi picked the absolutely perfect dress for her - I honestly can't imagine another dress suiting her any better. This design is 'Kristene' by the celebrated US bridal wear designer, Claire Pettibone {UK retailers always get a thumbs up from me if I find ou they stock Claire Pettibone!}...
"I tried on a lot of dresses, and I knew I wanted an original vintage dress or a vintage inspired one. I eventually narrowed the options down to a few dresses, one by Temperley, one by Jenny Packham and the other by Sarah Janks.
It was an agonising decision but eventually both my mum and I decided that the Claire Pettibone dress was the one. I especially loved the intricate detailing of the lace overlay and the beautiful train. It was a real pleasure to wear, and really didn’t want to take it off!"
"Adam grew up in Edinburgh, so he and his groomsmen all wore their own family tartan. I’d given Adam a pair of mother of pearl art deco cufflinks as a gift a few years before so he wore them as they tied in with the day nicely.
I chose Maids to Measure dresses after reading a glowing report on Love my Dress and seeing that they had won the Wedding Industry Award for Best Newcomer. They were brilliant as my order had a tight turn around but they accommodated everything I asked for. I chose the ‘Georgina’ design in Grape-a lovely dusky purple. I felt they were very elegant and had a bit of an ‘old Hollywood’ feel to them..."
"Eltham Palace in Eltham, London. We chose this venue because on first viewing, we both fell in love with it! The combination of an Art Deco house and a Medieval banqueting hall makes this venue really unique and interesting.
We were especially taken with the Lemur ‘Mah-Jongg’ who lived in the Art Deco house with the owners when they first built it, he even had his own quarters. We both love history and I have a real thing for vintage particularly the Art Deco style, so it was perfect...."
"I’m very lucky that my sister Carolyn owns her own company (Carolyn’s Cake Company in Lancaster, Lancashire) making wedding cakes. I’d seen some ‘Art Deco’ style cakes with geometric shapes and patterns and sent her a few ideas.
She made the most beautiful cake and managed to incorporate the art deco style using geometric shapes and patterns. It was tiers of chocolate and vanilla sponge with a buttercream filling..."
My Grandad is sadly no longer with us as he passed away when I was fourteen, so my mum found a photograph of him and popped it in the locket so he was still very much part of the day..."
I love this sequence of photographs with Abi having her hair styled by the brilliant Severin Hubert...
"I found both my amazing hairdresser and make up artist through Love My Dress. Severin Hubert at The Hepburn Collection did mine, my mum’s and my bridesmaid’s hair. He created a mood board for the bridesmaids and I was happy to let Severin and the girls do what they wanted, although all the styles had a vintage twist..."
"For me, I wanted a perfect Marcel wave and he really delivered that. I love wearing vintage clothes, but I can never quite get the hair right, so I had to have it for my wedding day!
Thanks to Severin, my hair was amazing and a real work of art...."
"I had Katy Messer at Make up by Katy, who I found via Love My Dress do my make-up and she did a fantastic job. My make up was absolutely perfect! I was originally going to go for red lips, as I’m a red lips kind of girl, but after meeting Katy and going through different options, I decided to go for a slightly softer look, whilst still being quite striking. I was so thrilled with the result!"
"As Eltham Palace speaks for itself, we didn’t have to do much. I did, however collect lots of different cut glass vases and bowls from charity shops and antique stalls to put all the flowers in. I also had a table in the great hall where we had the reception with a decorated vintage suitcase to put cards in, framed photographs of family weddings and a few little trinkets..."
"I bought our flowergirl a cute little dress from an Etsy seller called Gilly Gray combined with a sash from Maids to Measure that matched the bigger bridesmaid’s dresses. The dress was made really well and to her specific measurements..."
"My Dad walked me down he aisle, to music from the Pixar film ‘Up’. Adam and I were watching it and I mentioned that it might be a nice option. I then googled it and found out that the piece of music was called ‘Married Life’ so that was that..."
"We met whilst doing a theatre show, but didn’t start going out immediately. It was around a year after that we started going out and around two weeks into the relationship that Adam told me he wanted to marry me one day. A year after, he asked me to marry him by taking me to an amazing meal at Claridges! The way to my heart has always been through food!"
"My Earrings were lent to me by a good friend of mine. They were gold and pearl drop and were originally her Grandma’s. I wore a freshwater pearl bracelet with an art deco clasp that looked similar to my engagement ring from Gillian Million...."
"We wanted to give our guests favours that they would use, so we decided to make chutney for all of our 100 guests. Little did we know how much work this would be! We bought jars from thejamjarshop.co.uk and a friend of ours made the labels for us, based on ‘Tiptree’ jam labels.
They looked great on the day so it was absolutely worth it and our guests really appreciated it! We’ve had texts from loads of people since saying they had some of the chutney with cheese and it was delicious. It did cause a few arguments though and our flat reeked of vinegar for rather a long time, so I’m really, really pleased they worked out so well!"
"We chose a version of ‘You Belong To Me’ by Tori Amos. We had a few options for our first dance song as we love music, but all the songs that are special to us, didn’t necessarily have the most appropriate lyrics so it wasn’t incredibly straight forward, but in the end this one felt right..."
Words of Wedded Wisdom...
"I’d say relax and trust your own instincts. If you like something, go for it. I loved planning my wedding, but I got a little stressed at times due to pressure from mainly myself to make everything perfect. On the day it really doesn’t matter, things won’t necessarily work out the way you intended but chances are you won’t notice.
Also, don’t be afraid to ask for help and delegate jobs to people. I like being in control, so found that part hard, but once I started to delegate, I realised that having even small jobs ticked off my list made a difference..."
What a simply beautiful wedding to start the week with. Huge congratulions Abi and Adam, and as always, immense thanks to the lovely Annamarie Stepney for these wonderful images...
"I found Annamarie through reading various wedding blogs. We loved her style and after meeting her, decided to book. She’s so friendly, warm and positive as well as being brilliant photographer who captured our day perfectly!"
Let's show Abi and Adam some love my friends by leaving a kind comment below. I'd also love your thoughts on the whole deco styling in this lovely wedding. Who is going for something similar?
Much love all,
Annabel
Photographer - Annamarie Stepney
Venue - Eltham Palace
Fur Shrug - Annie’s Vintage Clothing store
Brides dress - Kristene by Claire Pettibone
Brides veil/headpiece - Agnes Hart
Brides shoes - Emmy
Groom - Family Tartan
Bridesmaids - Maids to Measure
Flowergirl - Gilly Gray with sash by Maids to Measure
Florist - Violets and Velvet
Cake - Carolyn’s Cake Company in Lancaster
Favours - homemade Chutney in jars from thejamjarshop.co.uk
Entertainment - woodwind, ceremony & drinks reception + Scottish ceilidh band for the evening
Hair Stylist - Severin Hubert
Makeup Artist - Make up by Katy
Catering Company - Relish
