A 1930s Inspired Wedding Dress for a Rustic, English Country Wedding…

Well hello hello!!! You may have noticed it was a little quiet around these parts yesterday; with the exception of this beautiful Maggie Sottero bride that is.  Apart from the fact I'm working flat out on something right now – we had a little news that well, kind of distracted us a bit! We found out that Love My Dress won the 'Reader Recognition' award via the annual Perfect Wedding Magazine Awards!! I personally spent most of the afternoon doing a happy dance around my office 😉 You can read more here -  just to say, Franky and I are incredibly grateful for all of you who found a way to vote for us, thank you.

So! On with the show! This morning's wedding is that of Claire and Simon, who tied the knot on 24 March 2012 at Ashton Memorial in Williamson Park, Lancaster, followed by a reception at The Inn at Whitewell near Clitheroe in Lancashire.

These lovely photos were submitted by photographer Debbie Walwark, who I had the pleasure of meeting recently when I went to give a talk to a group of professional photographers about working with bloggers and wedding blogs in general

I just LOVE the fact that Debbie got her beautiful 1930's inspired wedding dress from my friend Rachel over at London's based Heirloom Couture {one of THE bet placed to source original vintage and replica bridal wear in the UK}…

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Debbie Wallwork

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

"I tried on over 100 dresses before I met Rachel from Heirloom Couture. I didn’t really know what I was looking for but everyone told me ‘you’ll know the one’ and, whilst I’m usually more practical than this, I trusted the advice. Most of the dresses I tried on were just too fussy – I wanted to wear the dress rather than the other way round; it has to be right for your shape as well as your style!

I tried on a 1930's slim dress from the Heirloom Couture made to order collection and I loved the classic elegant style. Rachel made some great suggestions for emphasising the waist on the dress and incorporating the lace sleeves. I absolutely adore the neckline on this dress and delicate scallops of the Chantilly lace. I also love the buttons down the back…"

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

"My mum’s friend did all the reception flowers, as well as the venue decor. She bought the flowers from wholesalers and supermarkets and a lot of the greenery came from her garden. As we had no colour scheme but were incorporating colours in the best woman dress, the ties and the decor, we opted for white flowers and lots of greenery. F

lowers included tulips and roses, as well as some stocks and the odd hyacinth. We both love cycling in the country and we wanted country flowers and seasonal blooms where possible. We saved money doing it this way too and received lots of comments about how impressive our flower displays were!"

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

"My bridesmaids wore dresses handmade by a local dressmaker in Lancashire. Sally, aka ‘best woman’, found an image of a dress in a magazine and talked to the dress maker about a similar design. She chose the material and the colour too as we wanted her to have something which was ‘her’ and she was happy in.

They also wore 1930's style vintage shoes in bronze, which had been purchased in Australia…"

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

"Whilst, there was no ‘theme’ as such, I wanted our wedding to have a rustic, country vintage feel and, most of all, to be full of personal homemade touches and to incorporate items from within our families.

We had hundreds of books and Beano magazines, all belonging to my Dad – Simon’s mum and Claire’s Grandma dug out their china for the cups and saucers – lots of them were family heirlooms so it was great to have them ‘out’ for the occasion. We also used lots of jugs and candles to create a country style yet warm feel to the marquee (as it was March we wanted to get a balance between fresh and spring like but also cosy – although it was unseasonally warm and sunny in the end!). .."

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

"As favours, we gave home-made courgette and apricot chutney. The courgettes were grown on our allotment the previous summer. We had a huge number of them and once we’d exhausted every possible use for them, it made sense to make them into chutney for our wedding favours. Everyone who knew the ridiculous number of courgettes we’d grown last summer was amused that we’d found yet another use for them.

My mum made all the jar covers from scraps of pretty fabrics and we tied a luggage tag on each one with brown gardening string…"

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

"My Grandma had a bit of a production line going on the bunting. It seemed that from the moment we announced our engagement, she dug out the fabrics she’s been hoarding for years (she never throws anything away) and got to work on the bunting.

Every single triangle was perfect and all were made from fabrics which represented pieces of family history – Claire’s auntie’s trousers from the seventies, her bedroom curtains from when she was growing up, bedsheets, cushions and old dresses…"

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

"Our photographer Debbie Wallwork was fabulous; so professional, calm and great fun to work with. From the beginning, she helped to create a relaxed atmosphere; we barely knew she was there on the day, proving how professional and unobtrusive she was!"

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding


1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

"Simon and Claire met in Sydney in 2006 when they worked together. They spent many Sunday afternoon chatting about everything from books to travel to how best to cook eggs. Simon left Sydney to move to Western Australia, giving Claire his email address so she could get in touch if she ever came over that way. A month or so later she got in touch with him and they met up in Margaret River in WA and spent a few days together. One night over a few beers, Claire was talking about how she really wanted to cycle around Ireland – at some point in the future. Simon replied “If you do it this Summer, I’ll come with you.” It was March at this point and, having had some beer and thinking he’d forget about it in the morning {ha!}, Claire agreed…"

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

"She left to travel around South East Asia and was surprised to find that Simon emailed regularly. And even more surprised that of all the family and friends she should have been responding to, it was always Simon who got the first reply. Simon drove half way across Australia to catch a flight from Sydney to the UK.

In August 2007, they set off from Dublin to cycle around the coast of Ireland. And somewhere, on a road in rainy Ireland, they fell in love…"

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

"Claire’s Grandma also put together the table plan, using the same style and stationery as the invitations (which had buttons and vintage tandem bicycle stamps on the front)…"

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

"My mum made the cake. She went to icing classes to learn how to do the details but to be honest, she had it in her before the classes! She’s always been so creative and is great at making cakes. We gave her free reign on the design and the colours although we agreed that neutral colours work best.

Loved that she opted for daisies – they’re so fun-loving, which is what we wanted our wedding to be! It tasted pretty darn good too…"

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

"Our firt dance was to Fly me to the Moon by Julie London. The lyrics are just brilliant – this is such a happy song about being head over heels in love and it’s so beautifully sung. We always bop along to it in the car and we just thought it was perfect for our wedding…"

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

"My dad spent weeks compiling a continuous CD to play throughout the meal, which included all of our favourite songs. He loves music and knows our taste well so I trusted that he’d do a great job. Guests were asking for copies of the wedding ‘soundtrack.’ My uncle (dad’s brother) who is a DJ and my dad did the DJing in the evening.

Again, this was incredibly well planned to include all the music we loved. Although, there were some amusing moments where my dad was so busy dancing he forgot to change the records over! We love to dance and it was great to have so many of our family and friends dancing with us…"

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"Stay true to yourselves and tell your story; make your wedding and your marriage a celebration of the two of you. Make it personal. There will be pressure from family and friends to conform to certain rituals so stay strong on the things you’re most passionate about and know which aspects you might be willing to compromise on. Give everyone a small role – it will help take the pressure off your wedding party and they’ll enjoy it too.

I had four friends who were in charge of circulating the Buddhist Prayer flags at the reception – a small job but it meant they all got signed and we didn’t have to worry about it. I also created a day brief detailing what should happen when, which is useful if you need guests to move from one location to another.

Friends and family know I’m super organised and laughed at me for this but so many commented on how smoothly the day went – they had just enough time to savour every aspect but there was ‘no standing around and waiting like there usually is at wedding’ (quote from my friend!). I planted the brief with chosen people, who I knew were organised too, and ask them to be informal ushers within their groups…"         

1930s style wedding dress, rustic country wedding

Huge thanks to Debbie Wallwork for sharing these photographs and congratulations Claire and Simon – I wish you a lifetime of love and happiness 🙂

Readers, tell me, are you planning anything similar to Claire and Simon? You can see more 1930' inspired weddings here, it is my fave era of them all.

Much love all,

Annabel

Heart

 

Photographer – Debbie Wallwork
Venue – The Inn at Whitewell near Clitheroe in Lancashire
Brides dress – Rachel Spencer, Heirloom Couture
Brides shoes – Rachel Simpson’s 'Mimi'
Brides Hair Accessories – Simple diamante pins for my bun
Grooms Suit – Debenhams
Bridesmaids – Local dressmaker
Flowers – Family friend
Cake – Bride's Mum

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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