Good morning everyone, I hope this email finds you well and rested after the weekend.
The couple sharing their beautiful wedding with us today met at university almost 10 years ago...
'Tom told me it was love at first sight when he met me, but it took me a little longer to fall for his charms! On 14th June 2010 Tom proposed in France. We went for a little mini break in Ile de Re, a small island off the west cost of France. It was a huge surprise and massively unexpected!! I'd almost given up hope! Very romantic... by the seafront in the harbour town, just before we went out for dinner. It was the sunniest, warmest evening of the holiday and the perfect setting for a proposal! I loved the ring Tom had chosen, I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect moment. Of course I burst out in tears and couldn’t answer for about 5 minutes so just nodded profusely!!'
Love My Dress Wedding Blog - PHotography Copyright (c) 2012, Tino & Pip
Louise and Tom were married on 17th September 2011 in Rolvenden, a small village in Kent. Their civil ceremony took place at Great Maytham Hall and was followed by a reception five minutes away at The Great Barn.
'We fell in love with the barn first as it was so rustic and in a gorgeous rural location - it fitted our needs exactly as we had the freedom to treat it as a blank canvas and put our own stamp on it. A LOT of work, but worth it! Great Maytham Hall was a perfect contrast - the two couldn’t be more different! The gardens and views in particular made us fall in love with this venue!'
'I think the styling and theme all fell into place once we chose the barn venue. I wanted lots of colour - hence the flowers bridesmaid dresses etc - and as little white as possible! We hoped for a rustic and relaxed feel, and just for everyone to have fun!'
Louise wore a Pronovias gown in the style 'Adela', bought from Teokath, in Canterbury.
'I was totally against lace initially as I didn’t want anything too traditional, but after trying on so many different styles I did end up trying on a few lacy numbers. I loved the general fishtail fit and this seemed to be a common characteristic of Pronovias design, so I ended up searching online and then hunting down shops that stocked the styles I liked.'
''Adela' was one of the ones I really wanted to try on as it had such a romantic feel to it, the neckline and cap sleeves were gorgeous! When I tried it on I fell in love with it instantly, started crying, and knew it was the one! It was the only dress I had tried on that I could instantly imagine myself in at the wedding, and I knew for certain Tom would LOVE it!'
Louise paired her dress with shoes from Rainbow Club Couture and wore hair pins from Liberty in Love to which she attached her own pearl string beads. 'It was a civil wedding so I didn’t want to be too formal and wear a veil, but I wanted a bit of sparkle!'. She added further glamour with a pair of earrings from Chez Bec and a friend's swarovski bracelet.
Tom wore a suit from Italian Connection in Tunbridge Wells {call 01892 538668} and shoes from Jones. Sticking with the relaxed theme of the wedding, the groom asked the male members of the bridal party to wear whatever they wanted. Louise tells me 'he just wanted people to feel comfortable.'
Louise's Dad gave her away and the couple hired a sting trio for the ceremony.
'We wanted contemporary music as well as traditional classical. I researched into how some of my favourite songs sounded as a string version, and absolutely loved 'God Only knows' by The Beach Boys. It was fun, happy and upbeat which I thought suited our day perfectly. The only problem was that as I was an emotional wreck that day, as soon as I heard the song start I burst into tears! Seconds before I got to the aisle! It was all so perfect... they were happy tears!!'
The amazing colourful dresses worn by Louise's maids were from Asos and Monsoon, and adapted by the bride's mum.
'The adult bridesmaid dresses were one of the first things I bought for the wedding and they basically formed part of my overall vision. I wanted something quirky and individual for the girls to wear and something that was casual enough to wear again. I loved the bright colours and flower pattern of the dresses, and don’t regret my choice one bit, despite some initial reservations by the bridal party!! Still love those dresses! The little bridesmaids/flower girl dresses matched my own lace more, with a purple/mauve accent to tie in with the adult dresses.'
The bold floral pattern on these dresses was offset perfectly by Louise's choice of blooms for the day. Flowers were provided by Lara Hayes from Darling & Wild.
'Lara did such a wonderful job with the flowers - I absolutely loved everything she did. I had a theme of sunflowers which I thought would go well with the barn and rustic style of the wedding. As the adult bridesmaid dresses were so vibrant I picked colours which I thought would go with the dresses and the general theme, so yellow, purple and green were the main influences. I chose terracotta round low pots for the table flower decorations, which went well in the barn, and we had bunches of sunflowers all over the barn and grounds, and flowers in old coal scuttles. Tom got hops from a local farm to decorate the barn with too. I wanted my bouquet to be pretty and informal, but didn’t want roses to feature as I think they're too formal, so opted filler flowers instead. I chose purple scabious, wax flower, flowering mint, statice and hydrandea.'
The bride and groom were responsible for decorating much of the venue, with help from family and friends. They used hops purchased from a nearby farm and authentic Vietnamese hanging lanterns hired from Carolyn at Chicks that Chop. They also included vintage crockery and props from Rosebud Vintage and bunting made by the mother of the bride.
'We wanted something a bit different for the table names and seating plan, so we decided on favourite places or significant place names relevant to the guests on a particular table. For example, my bridesmaids table was 'Linekers' in Lanzerote, where we all went for our first ever girlie holiday when we were 17! The bridal table was 'Saint Martin de Re' were Tom proposed to me in France, and so on. We also had a children's table, but couldn’t think of a name so opted for 'Little Slees' as they were all children from my family (Slee), and we randomly found somewhere on google maps called slee for the map!'
'The place names were handmade, and we found maps of the places to write the table names on, which were mounted onto garden canes and stuck into the flower arrangements. We didn’t want a traditional seating plan, so opted for an arrangement on one wall of the barn, where we hung the table plans onto string with cute clips, and had old photos of when Tom and I were little in between.'
'As we had an assortment of desserts we wanted to match the style with vintage crockery. The place names were luggage tags tied onto vintage cups'.
The couple opted for a dessert table with an array of cakes and treats, most of which were homemade by the mother of the bride and the groom's sister. The remainder came from Cook in Tunbridge Wells.
'My mum put sooo much effort into the cakes, and prepared about 9 in total, in addition to little biscuits. She's German so cakes are a must in every celebration - the more the better for her. I didn’t want one traditional cake which we cut, as I always feel is a waste as nobody eats it, so we had an assortment of cakes and sweets for pudding instead of a formal dessert. Vicky, toms sister, made cupcakes and brownies which were delicious also. After this we had local cheeses and biscuits.'
The bride also made all the favours with her parents one very long, exhausting weekend just before the wedding.
'Tom and I have a black cat called Smudge, and we wanted her to be part of the wedding in some way, so we decided on biscuits as favours. Also, black cats are lucky so it was that sentiment that we wanted to get across to guests as we set out on our new life together! It was a LOT of work, but worth it to see people's faces when I told them we made them! We wrapped them in cellophane bags with coloured tissue paper and decorated them with raffia.'
The couple booked a DJ for the evening and had their first dance to 'You Are the Sunshine of my Life' by Stevie Wonder.
'Tom and I were petrified about the first dance, more so than anything else on the day! We just expected to sway around and wish for it to be over asap, but when it came to it, we loved every second! We were so absorbed with each other we forgot about everyone else and had a right old boogie!'
Words of Wedded Wisdom
'Just enjoy the day and don’t worry too much about all the little things - nobody will notice on the day if anything isn't as perfect as you want it to be! I got soooo worked up about the details, which were hugely important to me, as it made our day so special and showed our personality, but I wish I could have been more relaxed on the day!
The vibrant colours of this wedding really appeal to me, as does the informal feel the couple managed to create. You can tell the guests enjoyed themselves, can't you? And those bridesmaid dresses were an inspired choice!
The couple's photographs were submitted by Tino & Pip. Having spent a fair bit of time with this duo recently, I can assure you they are among the loveliest people working in the wedding industry right now {and not just because they gave me a lift back from the pub the other day!}. Louise and Tom will back me up on this one...
'Penny and Martin were fantastic, we loved there laid back contemporary style of reportage photography. Their website and photos of previous weddings were just what we were looking for, they captured those special moments from the day perfectly. We were over the moon with the photos! Cant wait to see the albums!'
Are any of you planning a relaxed, rustic affair? Do you love the sunflowers as much as me? We'd love to hear your thoughts...
Much love,
Franky
Photographer - Tino & Pip
Venue - Great Maytham Hall and The Great Barn
Wedding Dress - Pronovias via Teokath
Bride's Shoes - Rainbow Club Couture
Bride's Accessories - Liberty in Love and Chez Bec
Grooms Suit - Italian Connection, Tunbridge Wells {call 01892 538668}
Bridesmaid Dresses - Monsoon and ASOS
Florist - Darling & Wild
Cakes - Homemade by Mother of the bride and groom's sister.
Paper lanterns - Chicks that Chop
Vintage Crockery - Rosebud Vintage
Hair -Sarah at Viva in Goldhurst
Make-up Artist - Harriett Rainbow
Catering - CBH Catering
