A French Lace Wedding Dress Made by the Mother of the Groom

Morning everyone, the sun is shining today, about blooming' time!  Well, from carefully crafted and beauitfully designed country garden affair, to simple, pared down elegance this morning with the May time wedding of Jessica and Bartosz which took place at D'overbroeck School in Oxford.

The photographs were sent in by Victoria Phipps, who we warmly welcomed as our new sponsor earlier in the week.  This wedding appeals to me for it's clean and elegant charm.

Jessica's dress was bespoke, made to measure in delicate French lace, by Bartosz's mother…

"I
knew I wanted something feminine and elegant and I had tried on a
similar dress that took my breath away. I feel so lucky to have a mother
in law with the skills to recreate it for me!"

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Victoria Phipps

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

Those pretty maids all in a row there are wearing dresses from ASOS

"I wanted our wedding to feel quite traditional English Country
Garden but at the same time make it very personal to us- I didn’t want
it to be the sort of wedding where you could replace the bride and groom
with any other couple and it would all still work. My favourite colour
is light blue so I chose that for my base and went from there, adding in
touches of cream, pink and peach."

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

"When I was younger I worked at a local florist during the
school holidays, so they did all the flowers for us on the day.  I asked
for spring flowers which looked as though they had just been picked
from a garden, in dusky blue and peachy pinks.  My bouquet had fresh
jasmine, garden roses, herbs, peonies and lily of the valley in it and
the smell of them really helped to calm my nerves before the ceremony."

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

"Our photographer Victoria Phipps
was absolutely amazing! I really don’t like having my photograph taken
but from the moment we met her at our engagement shoot I felt completely
relaxed and happy in front of the camera. We will treasure the photos
forever."

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps


French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

Jessica and Bartosz met then were both working at Bank Restaurant
in 2007. She was working on the cloakroom and he was behind the bar.
Bartosz commented on Jessica’s napkin-folding skills, and she thought he
was wearing too much aftershave… The rest, as they say is history.
Three months later they were living together in Islington. Over three
years later, Bartosz proposed on Brighton beach.

"We
were engaged for 11 months, but I had to spend 3 months of that time in
New York away from Bartosz on an internship which was quite hard! Lots
of late night emailing to caterers etc!"

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

"My husband is Polish and his parents do not speak English, so I
surprised them all by standing up and doing a speech in Polish thanking
everyone for coming and celebrating with us. I don't speak Polish at
all, so I had to learn the whole thing phonetically. The photo of my
husband's face when I started speaking is one of my favourites – he
looks so shocked!

I also really loved that at the end of
the night we kicked our shoes off and walked barefoot along the road to
our honeymoon suite hotel – it was such a lovely moment –talking about
the day and remembering the feeling of being surrounded by everyone in
the world you love, when each of them has chosen to be there with you to
celebrate your wedding, it is one I will never forget
."

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

This was one wedding that was truly a family affair – Jessica's mother mae the couple's wedding cake…

"Fruit cake because she makes such a great one (lots of alcohol!!). I
know some people don’t like fruit cake though so we also had homemade
brownies and cupcakes for people to nibble on as the dancing went on."

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

Words of Wedded Wisdom

"Someone
told me to take 5 minutes with your husband to step outside and just
take it all in before it’s over. I’m so happy we remembered to do this, because such a large part of our family lives abroad we did spend quite
a bit of the reception talking and catching up with people separately
which meant this was one of the only moments we truly had to ourselves!
 

I
think it also important to also personalise your wedding as much as
possible – everyone remembers the unique touches. If people have put a
special effort into your wedding, make sure they are thanked in the
speeches. There are definitely some people I forgot to thank properly
because so many people helped us make the day possible.
Some things won’t go as planned, no matter what you do, but at the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter!"

I
think I held back on a few little things – like having a particular type
of chair or having fairy lights in the marquee etc because I didn’t
want to go too much over our budget –looking back, if I were to do it
all again I would just go for it! You only get one day and even if no-one
else will notice, if it’s important to you, just do it!"

French lace wedding dress made by the Mother of the Groom Photography by Victoria Phipps

Simple, chic and elegant, but some wise words by the bride just now on remembering to stick firm to what you dream about on your wedding day.  What are your thoughts ladies – and gents??

Much love,

Annabel


Heart

Photographer – Victoria Phipps
Venue – D'overbroeck School in Oxford
Wedding Dress – Made by the mother of the Groom in French lace
Brides Veil – Alissa Brides
Brides Shoes – Pink by Paradox London
Grooms Suit – Zara Men + Paul Smith shoes
Bridesmaids Dresses – ASOS
Florist – Daisies Flowers Oxford
Cake Designer – Mother of the bride
Vintage blue Morris Minor – belonged to a friend of Mother of the Bride
Paper poms – PomLove
Hair and make-up Artist – Isis Day Spa
Stationery – All made by the bride

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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