Morning all! Hoping you are feeling rested after your weekend and raring to tackle the next few days.
I'm opening up this week with a really pretty wedding, that of Elspeth and Miguel, who tied the knot on 16th June 2012 at Saint Barnabas Church, Church Road, Swanmore in Hampshire, followed by a reception at Hill Place, also in Swanmore. The lovely Tarah Coonan sent in these photographs.
I was drawn immediately to these images for that beautiful headpiece that Elspeth wears...
"I wore a handmade hair accessory (handmade by Kirsty from Aurora Designs, also at La Belle Angèle, that was very art deco and completely made the outfit! It went so well with the vintage elegance of the dress.
My headpiece was unlike anything I’d ever seen a bride wear before and as soon as I saw it I knew it was perfect for me. It was made with crystals and was quite sparkly but not in a trashy way, with mesh leaves that framed the hair and face and gorgeous little pearls, too - which I love!"
Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Tarah Coonan
"I wore two pairs of shoes! I treated myself to some ivory Louboutins (Something I swore I’d never be frivolous enough to do!) and also some comfier heels encrusted with Swarovski crystals - if you can’t get away with a bit of extra sparkle on your wedding day, when can you?! I needed plenty of height as Miguel is 6ft2 - a foot taller than me!"
"We loved Hill Place,
from the moment we first went to see it – so much so that we pretty
much built our whole wedding around it even though neither of us live in
Hampshire! Tricky! Lots of Saturday’s making trips from London to
Hampshire and back! We kept thinking about Agatha Christie’s Poirot (!!) - 1930s period -
art deco - elegant parties with glam and sophisticated women in floor
length satin gowns smoking from diamond encrusted cigarette holders!
Jazz music etc!
I love neutral tones, classic colours of
soft creams, blush tones, muted pinks and peaches, antique pinks – and
we knew those colours would work well at the church and especially at
Hill Place. I guess a lot of the look of the wedding came from Hill Place itself and also my love of the 1920's and 30's era and Art Deco style. A modern colour scheme or bright bold colours wouldn’t have worked with the house."
"We planned and organised everything ourselves but Hill Place arranged for us to have help on the actual day from Marie at Isabella Weddings. Marie was really lovely and helpful - her last minute help/advice and champagne pouring skills (!) were invaluable."
"We knew that we wanted a very classic look with a lush romantic feel to it and plenty of candlelight - and weren’t interested in having a really rigid colour scheme with only one or two colour variations. We told our Florist, Emma Lappin Flowers, the flowers and colours we liked - scented stocks, roses, peonies - and she gave us ideas from there.
The floral scheme was creams, palest peach and pinks, ranging from the slightest blush/nude pinks to more dusky vintage style pinks. The key flowers in the scheme were roses, stocks (for pretty scent) peonies, bouvardia, astilbe, larkspur and lisianthus. Chosen because they have a soft, romantic, classic, muted look and also because I loved the idea of having some delicate scent. Heavily petalled, romantic, natural elegance was the desired look/theme for ALL flowers."
Elspeth wore a Victoria Jane for Ronald Joyce gown, that she discovered via a bridal shop in Norwich...
"I didn’t want strapless as lots of brides seem to go for that and I wanted something that I felt fitted my personality as well as my figure! I loved the designs I’d seen with back detail - to give the ‘wow factor’ as I walked up the aisle! I found 'the' dress in a bridal shop in Norwich - La Belle Angèle.
I went in with some pictures of the styles of dresses I liked and the assistant looked at some of my pics and said “Oh we’ve got that dress”, pointing to one of my favourites. I said, “One with a cowl back detail like that you mean?” and she said, “No, that exact dress!” It was about the third dress I tried on! I tried others in other shops but none of them made me feel quite like that one did. I felt like a 1930s film star!"
"We wanted to do a silly photo booth because we thought the photos would be brilliant, and would enliven the evening photos of people dancing, which can get quite samey. But it costs a lot to hire a professional one. So I created my own from an old wicker hamper, a disposable camera and a load of fancy dress props – straw boater, a truncheon, cloche hat, clown hat, trilby, bowler, silly glasses, a pipe… and I even attached a few fake moustaches and beards to sticks!
The photos are brilliant! And it really amused the guests. Plus it got people who didn’t know each other talking and laughing and posing for pics together! Even some of the older generation joined in!"
"Our photographer Tarah Coonan is an old school friend of mine as well as a professional wedding photographer, which was perfect as she knew us, understood what we like/don’t like and was able to put us at ease. Neither of us are very comfortable with having photos taken but we knew Tarah so that made us more relaxed about it. Plus, she’s very good at snapping away unobtrusively so was able to capture some lovely shots of people without them even knowing!"
"I hired Kim at Beauty Call to do my hair and makeup. Kim was very friendly and made me feel like gorgeous - an extremely difficult undertaking!! Knew what I was trying to explain and really helped me get the vintage glam look I wanted."
"We wanted to get married in church, that was very important to us as we both have a strong faith in God. We wanted a wedding in the country but not one that was styled to be country-fied, we wanted a sophisticated and a little bit glamorous day - to contain many of the traditional formal aspects of a wedding – speeches, toasts, cake cutting, first dance, sit down meal etc - but were keen for it to still feel relaxed and non-intimidating. Happy guests having fun was a top priority! We wanted it to be elegant and classic with a vintage feel."
"We met in a pub in London through a mutual friend. I was actually with someone else at the time so, although we both knew there was a lot of chemistry there, we didn’t get together for about a year after that.
We knew quite early on in the relationship that we wanted to get married so we’d talked about it a fair bit before it happened. But it was still a complete surprise when Miguel got down on one knee in the ruins of Saint Benets Abbey on the Norfolk Broads. We started organising the wedding a month later - in September 2011 - and got married about 10 months later."
"We used lots of tea lights and church and pillar candles for mood lighting – we placed in votives and crystal holders on mantelpieces and tables and down the edge of the big stone staircase in main hallway at Hill Place. Also hurricane lanterns with big candles and sprinkled petals on steps outside main door.
We used silvery-coloured antique-style holders and mini vases with one or two roses in each also dotted about everywhere..."
Words of Wedded Wisdom...
"Apart from the moment when we were pronounced man and wife, then probably hearing the bells as we walked out of the church together was our favourite moment of hte day - it sounded so beautiful – like the old-fashioned films that always seem to end with a wedding that I’d seen as a little girl!
Also, there are silly things that really don’t particularly matter in the grand scheme of things! Like checking the caterers were offering guests ice with their soft drinks or decorating the table with the table plan on it with flowers because it looked a bit bare. More hairspray and pins in my hair! Because it had started to fall out by the time we got to the reception! (The gale force winds didn’t help!)"
A lovely way to start the week, don't you agree? What do you *you* love most about this wedding?
Have a lovely morning everyone,
Annabel
Photographer - Tarah Coonan
Venue - Hill Place, also in Swanmore
Wedding Planner/Stylist - Isabella Weddings
Brides dress - Victoria Jane for Ronald Joyce via La Belle Angèle
Brides headpiece - Kirsty from
Aurora Designs via La Belle Angèle
Bride's shoes - Louboutins
Grooms Suit - Austin Reed hire - Austin Reed Hire Wear
Bridesmaids Dresses - John Lewis Uma dress in champagne with embellished shoulder detail
Flowergirl Dresses - Debenhams wedding – Tiger Lily range
Florist - Emma Lappin Flowers
Cake Designer - Linda Walker - Little Love Bites Cake Co (the business seems to have closed down)
Transport - Convertible E-type Jag, deep blue
Hair and make-up Artist - Kim at Beauty Call
Catering Company - Vanilla Catering
