Eagle eyed Love My Dress readers may recognise the couple who feature in this afternoon's wedding. Alison and Michael have already graced these pages see, when their beautiful farm engagement shoot, photographed by Blackbox Photography, was featured on Love My Dress in October last year.
Alison and Michael tied the knot on 11th August at Rossorry Parish Church Enniskillen, where five whole generations of my family on Alison's Mother's side had been married. What a wonderful family tradition to have carried on. Their reception took place at the Lough Erne Golf Resort, just beside Alison's family's farm, which is soon to be made famous in June next year when it will host the G8 summit! The couple even stopped off at the farm after the ceremony for some photos. I adore the elegance of this wedding, Alison looks so incredibly elegant in her beautifully beaded Jenny Packham dress...
"On 30th April 2011, my Mum, Sisters and I visited a wedding dress boutique still on a high after having been part of the crowd witnessing the royal wedding on ‘The Mall’ outside Buckingham palace. Towards the end of my one hour appointment I tried on a very structured satin Suzanne Neville dress called ‘Idolize’ which my mum had suggested I try.
It felt really comfortable to wear and as soon as I walked out my mum and two sisters eyes welled up with tears. I thought ‘wow this is the one’ and twirled and pranced around. Whilst biting my lip at the cost and the impending decision I was offered 10% off if you purchase on your first appointment. I fell for it, paid my deposit and left the shop glancing back at the dress on the hanger with butterflies in my tummy...."
Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Black Box Photography
"Over the next few months I became an avid reader of Love My Dress, and became a bit obsessed with wedding dress designer Jenny Packham, and was beginning to wonder if I had maybe rushed into the other dress; six months before the wedding my mum and sister flew over to London to accompany me to an ‘accessories appointment’ during which I could try on a sample of my Suzanne Neville wedding gown with all the accessories the shop had to offer. But it just didn't feel right at all, and after a sleepless night, I told my mum how I felt and she admitted to feeling the same.
We both sat on laptops looking up alternative dresses but I just kept coming back to a Jenny Packham dress called ‘damask’ which I had seen featured here on Love My Dress on the Fetcham park feature. After making a few enquiries I was able to try it on in my size in the Jenny Packham ready to wear boutique a few days later."
"Thankfully I was able to transfer part of the deposit paid on the Suzanne Neville dress towards the Jenny Packham dress. Michael thought I was mad and just being indecisive but I am so glad I went with my heart and pushed for the dress I loved. I used my inheritance money from my grandfather to pay for it and I know he wouldn’t have minded one bit. He loved style and fashion and I’m sure he would have been proud of me on my wedding day.
I adored the detailed beading on the dress particularly the dropped beads around the arms. It was really comfortable to wear and felt extremely glamorous. I also loved the sound the beads made as I moved. I felt fabulous!"
"I discovered Vicky Trainor through Love My Dress, and adored her 'Vintage Drawer' crafts. I ordered one of her DIY kits and was inspired to have a go at making the table names, place names and reception signage myself. It turned out to be a huge project and required the help of all of my family with my sisters Jenny, Lauren and Nikki, my mum, mother-in-law and my Nana Brown all putting in a huge stitching effort! I loved the finished product and the mis-matching and individualised name places we were able to create."
"Some of our friends said they redecorated their bedroom using their place names as inspiration. The place names acted as our wedding favours as well as a few pairs of flip flops for dancing later in the evening."
"Finding the bridesmaids dresses proved to be the most difficult decision of all and led to many a blazing row with all my sisters sacked and reinstated at least twice!! Having my sisters meant that they could be 100% honest about what they they did and didn’t like. They each had very different ideas about what they wanted – one said nothing strapless, two said they would only wear full length, and the other vetoed anything satin! My mum and mother in law later declared their hatred of the colour celadon – a sage green shade from Dessy – which I had settled on and thought would compliment my pale pink blooms. In the end just 3 months before the wedding we finally settling on powder blue full length strapless Belsoie bridesmaids dresses. We bought the dresses from a lovely shop in Hillsborough, Northern Ireland called Petticoat Lane."
"I had a very strong idea about what I wanted my wedding flowers to be. I had in my head the notion of loose, billowing, natural looking, pastel coloured arrangements with mainly homegrown flowers. Thankfully the florist was keen for us to use our own blooms so my mum began planting rows of sweet pea and dahlias and we begged, borrowed and stole suitably hued hydrangeas from friends and neighbours gardens."
"My Nana Moore was always an ultra stylish lady and I know she would love to have been at my wedding. She died several years ago but I wanted to remember her in some way on my big day. When she died she left me a grafton tea set dating back to the 1920's. I was inspired by floral arrangements in teacups from a wedding featured on love my dress and my desire for a vintage themed wedding grew from there. We spent our 20 month engagement trawling ebay, etsy, charity shops and vintage wedding fairs for tea sets, embroidered table cloths and vintage suitcases.
During our evening reception one of my aunties commented that ‘nana was with me all day today’ and we both shed a tear. I’m so glad that the vintage touches evoked memories of my nana in other members of my family.
My Auntie Melanie made the cake which we had professionally iced. My sister Jenny and family friend Sheila made the Guinness, carrot and white cakes which also went down a treat."
"What a fantastic service we received from our stationery supliers, Hello Lucky – Iain was always on hand to answer any queries and our guests commented on the beautiful design of our invitations ‘noveau peonies’."
"Our photographers were Black Box Photography. We have known The Lous for years having gone to secondary school together. We booked them about 4 days after we got engaged in December 2010. We had such a good vibe from them and absolutely loved their work. They were absolutely brilliant on the day. Louis turned up in the cutest wee bow tie and Louise was such a calming influence on the morning of the wedding. It was just like having close friends photographing our wedding rather than wedding photographers. We trusted them entirely and we are absolutely thrilled with our wedding photographs. We couldn’t recommend them more highly and are just sad that our photographic journey with them has ended."
"My dad Charlie walked me down the aisle. Our journey to the church wasn’t much different to any other. His chatting to the driver about the age of the vintage car really put me at ease with the normality of it!"
"The flower girl dress was a No1 Jenny Packham from Debenhams. When my mother in law first showed it to me I wasn’t sure whether or not it would all look too sparkly and blingy next to my dress but when we had a full dress rehearsal with the bridesmaids I realised it was perfect. My flower girl Holly loved how it floated out when she spun around. Her wee face was a picture throughout the wedding day. She had an absolute ball and danced the night away until 1.30am!"
"Our table trivia went down a treat. We thought of an interesting/amusing fact about each of our guests and put them in a box at each of the tables. Each guest then read out a fact and the others had to guess who it related to. Throughout our wedding meal we could hear hoots of laughter throughout the room, making Michaels efforts until 2am the night before the wedding getting the trivia prepared, all the more worthwhile!"
Words of Wedded Wisdom...
"When the day comes, relax and enjoy every second. One of my main worries was about walking down the aisle but as my cousin’s wife Rebecca pointed out no one is there to judge you. They are all there because they love you so take it all in and feel the wave of warmth and happiness from your guests as you walk in to church and let it carry you down the aisle to the love of your life waiting for you with a big smile on their face! It really is the most incredible feeling. The ceremony was our favourite part of the day. It gives me tingles on my neck even thinking about it now!
Someone also advised me that when the day comes there is nothing more you can do. You have to hand over responsibility to all the suppliers from the make up artist to the hotel staff. Let them take the stress away from you and do their jobs.
Don’t rush into the dress! Don’t fall for 10% off on your first appointment or feel pressurised into making a quick decision. Go away and have a look for the dress online- see if there are photos of it on blogs etc and see if it still fills you with the same feeling, then go and try it again. In a few months you might feel so differently about it, as I did, and it was a costly mistake."
"Don’t be afraid to have a go at DIY projects yourself. I never thought of myself as particularly arty but I have a new found love of all things crafty. My wedding projects brought all generations of the family together – I got my Nana roped into making the place names and the flower girl enjoyed helping to stamp the children’s name tags with the ink and letter stamps! Celebrate one month wedding anniversaries during your first year of marriage to help to keep wedding blues at bay and to remember that amazing day you had together not so long ago – even if it’s on a week night just going out for a simple dinner is so important so that you don’t pass each other by in the craziness of working life.
Read wedding blogs! Don’t bother with magazines, leafing through page after page of tacky adverts. Choose a couple of blogs you like and read them religiously. I thank you Annabel for so providing so much inspiration and for opening my eyes. If we had an endless pot of cash I would love to have been able to hire an ‘on the day coordinator’ to help set up the function room and to coordinate timings on the day.
The ceremony was our favourite part of the day. There was such an electric feeling in the air, we were both so happy and it was so meaningful saying our vows to each other. The Rev. Arthur Barratt was also brilliant, making jokes about my lateness and generally making the mood feel light and cheery whilst not taking away from the seriousness of the marriage ceremony. I also really loved the point at which Michael picked me up and spun me around on the dance floor. It just summed up how we felt all day – elated! I also enjoyed just really letting my hair down and pulling off some crazy moves later in the evening."
Elegant, chic and rather a little big gorgeous don't you think?
Thank you so so much Alison and Michael for sharing your beautiful day with us all, I'm genuinely thrilled you were able to come back and be featured after your fab engagement shoot and I'm so pleased Alison that Love My Dress was so helpful to you in planning your wedding.
Lovers out there reading this, anyone else wearing this gorgeous Jenny Packham dress on their wedding day, or planning on some DIY embroidered decor like Alison?
Much love,
Annabel
Photographer - Black Box Photography
Venue - Lough Erne Golf Resort
Wedding Dress - Jenny Packham
Brides Shoes & Hair Accessory - Emmy
Grooms Suit - Ludlows, Lisburn Rd Belfast + Mulberry cufflinks
Bridesmaids - Petticoat Lane
Flowergirls - No1 Jenny Packham, via Debenhams
Florist - Timothy Elliott Flowers (no website)
Cake Designer - Bride's Aunt
Entertainment - Glen Houston Entertainment – Band – Backbeat and DJ - Kevin McMullan
Cars/Transport - Bygone Days Wedding Cars
Hair and make-up Artist - Rachael Spence
Stationery - Hello Lucky
