Pronovias Lace For A Relaxed, Vintage and Retro Inspired Wedding On A Boat

Good morning sweet blog readers, how does this find you? What an absolutely beautiful weekend it's been.  The sun has shone bright, even if it has been cold.  I spent my weekend with family, my beloved Mum, Sister and nieces – how about you? I love to open up each new week with a beautiful real wedding.  Today's wedding appealed to my wild-flower loving nature, those bouquet's would look perfect in my office!

Louise and Scott tied the knot on 1st September last year at Guildhall in Poole, followed by a reception on the Purbeck Princess boat through the Greenslade Pleasure Boats.  These photographs were sent in by the talented Hampshire Wedding Photographer, Hayley Savage…

"My dress is by Pronovias White One. I bought it from La Boutique in Beckenham,
south east London.  "When I looked at dresses online I had thought I
would go for a tea length style dress. But when I started to try them in
bridal shops I quickly found that full length dresses made me feel more
like a bride.

I had always had my heart set on a lace dress and
although I did try other fabrics – it just had to be lace.  And I really
wanted sleeves on my dress but found it hard to find the perfect dress
with sleeves as so many of them were straight forward strapless."

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2013, Hayley Savage Photography

"I love the Pronovias dresses
and could have chosen so many of them. When the shop offered to make cap
sleeves on the dress I wanted – I was really excited. I ordered it 11
months before the wedding so I could only envisage what my final dress
would look like. The staff at La Boutique could not have been more help
and the seamstress who made my alterations and sleeves was a dream
maker.

When I tried it on a couple of weeks before the wedding – I was
overjoyed with the final version. I loved everything about my dress –
the Spanish style lace, the beautiful beading, the scalloped edging, the
elegant train. It was definitely my perfect dress. Many of my friends
said: “it is definitely a ‘Louise dress’.’"

 

"Scott and I
met in our first year at Bournemouth University where we were studying
journalism degrees. After university Scott went travelling for a year
and we both thought that would be it for us. We kept in touch and when
we returned it seemed like he had never been away. We moved in together a
year later.

We got engaged in December 2009. Scott proposed to me on
Lymington Quay, in the New Forest, while we were on our way to visit
family. It was sentimental as that was the same town that my parents had
met. We put the wedding on hold as we had decided starting a family
would come first. And only a month after our little boy Elijah was born
we booked the wedding date and I started wedding planning! We were
engaged for just under two years."

"We live in Bromley, south
east London where we moved to because of our jobs at the time but we
wanted to get married somewhere which was personal to the two of us. We
met in Bournemouth at university so decided the south coast was a
perfect location for us.

We also had our heart set on a boat trip as
part of our wedding. We adore the Jurassic Coast and Scott loves boats
after growing up on one as a young child."

"I love everything vintage and wanted bits and pieces
incorporated in our day. I was not worried about a specific colour
scheme and was definitely not one for colour matching everything. I
decided on navy blue for the bridesmaid dresses as thought it made sense
with being near the sea but I wasn’t going to go for a nautical theme.

My bridesmaids were all so different in their styles that I knew
finding matching dresses everyone liked and felt comfortable in would be
a struggle. I loved the idea of different styles in the same fabric. I
asked them to choose their own and just asked for them to be navy blue
chiffon. They were from Monsoon, Debenhams and Traffic People."

"My earrings were by Alan Hannah.
Scott bought me the matching bracelet which I opened on the morning of
the wedding as my wedding gift. He had said that he wanted to buy me a
bracelet, and although I had another one on standby in case I hated it,
it turned out that he had taken my earrings in to match it to the
bracelet."

"I was obsessed with bouquets and to me this was an important
element to my wedding. I really wanted colour and asked for blues and
pinks with some greenery. I also loved the country garden look. When I
met Rhea at New Street Flowers
she skipped around the florist with excitement at my suggestions. She
delivered them herself on the morning of the wedding which I thought was
lovely. I was extremely pleased with the result. They were more than
beautiful.

Every time I looked at them throughout the day I smiled and I
couldn’t put them down. She included a Keano rose which smelt of candy
floss and the eucalyptus which also smelt gorgeous. I also loved the
button holes which were blue delphinium – they were so different and I
thought looked lovely on the men."

"My hair piece was by Jon Richards at Debenhams. 
I love the way it was understated in hair and after deciding that I
didn’t want a veil I knew that I wanted to hair piece to dress my hair
up.
Brides Other Accessories (necklace, bracelet, earrings
etc – please list each separately)."

"We loved the thought of doing something different on our wedding
day and a boat trip seemed perfect. We couldn’t have been luckier with
the weather on the day – it was glorious. Our guests said they felt like
they were in the Mediterranean.

I love everything retro and vintage style. Most of the
decorations we made ourselves. On the boat we decorated with
multicoloured bunting across the ceiling and pink, white and blue pom
pom balls."

 

"We chose to do a cake buffet for the wedding. I didn’t really want a
tiered cake and thought most of them were ridiculously overpriced. At
the same time – I love cake and thought what better way to celebrate
than lots of different cakes. We went a bit overboard and there was lots
left over. We actual got them from two different bakeries.

The main
cake was a big carrot cake which is my favourite type of cake. There
were also cupcakes, fruit cake, bakewell tart, doughnuts, lemon cake,
sponge cake, chocolate cake and Dorset Apple cake – I think we covered
all the options."

"Our photographer Hayley Savage
was absolutely fantastic. She took so much interest in our wedding day
from the moment we met her. She was really excited about the elements
that we had included in the day. Hayley followed me on Pinterest where I
had a wedding board of pictures I liked. Her enthusiasm and hard work
on the day was second to none. So many of our guests commented on how
brilliant she was and how she never seemed to put the camera down yet
you barely noticed that she was there.

When I booked the
venues I hit a stumbling block of where we would have our bride and
groom pictures taken as we didn’t have any grounds. As we had a boat
trip booked out of Poole Harbour, I called Brownsea Island to see if
they would let us have our wedding pictures taken there. They called me
back the next day and said they were happy to let us come on to the
island (for a small fee). We scheduled our arrival just as the last
tourist boat had left for the day.

"They greeted Scot and I with
champagne and chocolate covered strawberries. Our guests relaxed on the
jetty while Scot, me and Hayley were whisked around the empty island on a
buggy cart. It was hilarious and exciting. We had already looked around
the island previously to choose our favourite places for pictures. We
had photos on the beach, photos looking over the cliffs, photos in the
woods and photos in a field of heath. It was one of my favourite parts
of the day – getting to spend some quality time with my new husband
while being whisked around a deserted island.

Hayley was
having so much fun and I think this energy came through in our
pictures. She took some amazing shots throughout the whole day. When we
went through our wedding photos – I couldn’t believe how amazing every
picture was. She is an amazing talent and we feel extremely lucky to
have had her as our photographer."

"Our favourite part of the day was definitely the ceremony.
Walking down the aisle and seeing my gorgeous man beaming back at me was
overwhelming. Saying our vows and finally becoming husband and wife was
amazing. Also, our little boy Elijah, only 18 months old, was a little
terror and wouldn’t leave our side during the ceremony. He had no idea
what mummy and daddy were doing.

He was rolling around our feet on the
floor as we were saying our vows – it was a great moment. We were stuck
between the emotional feelings of saying the vows and wanting to laugh
out loud at the situation. We wouldn’t have had it any other way. He is a
part of the two of us as a couple and it was beautiful having him with
us at that moment."

"We had two readings. Scott’s sister Sarah read a reading called Maybe. He chose this as he thought it reflected us.

I read my own reading to Scott – which was really special. The
ceremony was my absolute favourite part of the day. I read ‘The Future’
by Emma Salmon.

'In my future I see you and me,
And a house and garden filled with trees.
I see dinner parties surrounded by friends,
And a vegetable patch we love to tend.
I see cosy nights in front of the fire,
And a four-poster bed for when we tire.
I see our kitchen which will be the heart of the home,
And a Victorian bath brimming with foam.
I see muddy wellies by the front door,
And the kids eating cookies and asking for more.
I see nights in the garden camping under the stars,
And shelves full of mismatching local jam jars.
I see family picnics outside with the dog,
And a little blue shed containing the logs.
I see us sat by the window watching the snow,
And reading the papers and learning to grow.
I see pictures of family in quirky frames,
And letters on the kids' doors spelling out their names.
I see laughter, pain, kisses and tears,
And helping each other to confront our fears.
I see you as my friend and also my lover,
Your confidant and your children’s mother.
I see a wonderful future for you and I,
And it's cloaked in love until we die.'

It
was perfect and represented us as a couple. My favourite verse was ‘I
see us sat by the window watching the snow, And reading the papers and
learning to grow.’ It was very emotional reading it and the tears were
rolling down my cheeks by the end.

Knowing that I was going
to do a reading, Scott decided to pick one for his sister to read as a
surprise to me. It was beautiful and again a lovely addition to the
ceremony."

"We didn’t have a sit down meal instead choosing to have fish and
chips on the boat. They were ordered from Parkway Fish Bar in Poole
courtesy of the boat company. They pulled the boat into Lake Pier in
Poole to collect the fish and chips.

As soon as the boat pulled in you
could smell the fish and they were steaming hot when we opened them. Our
guests loved it and so did we! What a better place to have fish and
chips but on the coast."

"I bought my wedding shoes from Faith at Debenhams.
I love a bit of bling and fell in love with the diamante bows on the
front. I also wanted to be comfortable in my shoes for the whole day
especially with our venue changes! The heel was a perfect height and
they were leather so I knew there wouldn’t be risk of that new shoe
pain!"

"Scott made strawberry jam and marmalade for our wedding
favours. We bought 100 hexagonal jam jars, ordered personalised stickers
with our names and the date of the wedding on for the front of the
jars.

We also filled some of the jars with sweets. We bought gingham
patterned fabric in a variety of colours to cover the tops and we bought
jute twine to fasten the fabric to the jars. We were really pleased
with them and felt lovely to give our guests which we had put lots of
time and effort into."

"Scott loves ale and
we both had our heart set on a pub for the evening reception. We wanted
our wedding to be laid back and relaxed and knew that a pub setting
would offer us that. I called the Blue Boar in Poole to find out if they
hired function rooms. When Amy at the pub showed us around we were
blown away by the beautiful brickwork in the cellar bar and the intimate
feel of the room which was exactly what we wanted for the wedding.

When
she told us it was £150 to hire it for the day we almost fell over with
shock. After being given ‘wedding prices’ at various venues we couldn’t
believe our luck to find something so perfect and ridiculously cheap."

"For the pub – I collected my own vases and made
the table flowers up the day before the wedding.  We also put up bunting
in the pub. I used mini blackboards for signs. I made a ‘just married’
sign with letters from a card shop, with mini pegs and jute string.

We
bought an old wicker basket for the guests cards and used the same
letters for the ‘cards’ sign.  We also made confetti cones. I bought
real confetti and made the cones with paper. My gorgeous niece, who was a
flower girl, gave them out and the guests throw it while we stood on
the steps of The Guildhall."

"We chose
the You and Me Song by the Wannadies for our first dance. There was
never any question as to what our first dance was as this was our song
from when we were students at university. Our verse used to be ‘You and
me, always and forever’.

I love that it is a love song with a rocky
beat. We swung around the dance floor with our little 18 month old boy –
it was perfect.
What was your very favourite part of the day and why."

"For the guest book we collected postcards in Bournemouth and Poole
all featuring the local area and some of favourite spots that we had
been to when we were ‘dating’. We asked our guests to send us a message
on a postcard rather than the traditional guest book."

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"I would say without a doubt research, research, research. The
best ideas are other peoples! Looking on wedding blogs and wedding
magazines for ideas is paramount. Also, do the wedding you want to do
and not the wedding everyone expects you to do.

Our wedding was
different and so many of our guests commented on how much fun they had
because it was so laid back. We didn’t do a sit down meal, the cutting
of the cake or the throwing of the bouquet – which was questioned by
some of the older guests throughout the planning process. To me a
wedding day is about getting married and sharing that day with friends
and family – how you choose to do that is entirely down to you as a
couple."

What a delightful way to start the week! Thank you Louise and Scott for sharing your beautiful wedding day with us.

And huge thanks also to photographer Hayley Savage for sendign in these lovely photographs.

I was a bride that tried on Pronovias when I was on the hunt for my wedding dress, do I have any more Pronovias brides reading this now?

Also a note about Louise's earrings were by our sponsor
Alan Hannah, who has an superb collection of beautiful wedding accessories available for brides on a tighter budget.

Have a lovely morning all,

Annabel

Photographer – Hayley Savage Photography 
Venue – Guildhall in Poole + reception on the Purbeck Princess boat via Greenslade Pleasure Boats
Wedding Dress – Pronovias White One via La Boutique in Beckenham
Veil/Headpiece – Jon Richards at Debenhams
Brides' shoes – Faith at Debenhams
Bride's accessories –
Grooms Suit - Topman + Shoes, shirt and tie were from Next
Bridesmaids – Monsoon, Debenhams and Traffic People
Flowergirl Dresses – both from Marks and Spencer and their headbands were from Claire’s
Page boy/young male assistants outfits – Jacket from Marks and Spencer
Florist – New Street Flowers, Poole
Cake – Huckleberry’s Kitchen, Poole and Bennett’s Bakery, Poole.
Transport – Greenslade Pleasure Boats
Makeup Artist – Heather from Eye Candy
The rest of the outfit was H&M – trousers, bow tie and shirt