Back in July 2011, I featured a rather fabulous 1920s speakeasy inspired hen party for a bride to be called Lorna Hayes. Lorna also happens to be a professional Singapor based wedding planner and stylist with a penchant for getting things absolutely perfect, so you can imagine the task she set for herself in planning and styling her own wedding (though do not, she encourages you not to do this and to hire a planner if you can!).
I deeply adore these photographs - they ooze 'sex in the city' style glamour and are bursting at the seams with wedding day elegance.
Lorna and her beau Rich tied the knot on Saturday 18th June 2011 at Botleys Mansion, near Chertsey in Surrey and these gorgeous wedding photographes were sent in by one of my favourite wedding photographers (total fan girl moment here today!), Jodie Chapman...
Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2013, Jodie Chapman
"I knew exactly what I wanted for my dress so I drew it and headed to Shirley Li of Flamingo Bridal in my home city of Singapore to execute my vision. Shirly had beautiful creations that were in a similar style to what I wanted so she seemed the most appropriate choice. I wore a mermaid cut gown with champagne satin covered in ivory lace.
The back and sleeves of her dress were sheer lace only and ribbon was sewn on the front of the gown to create the look of a bodice and to give me length!"
"I wore a pair of coral coloured python skin peep toes by Nicholas Kirkwood. When it came to my shoes, I wanted something completely unexpected and something that would pull together the bright colours of the bridesmaid gowns. I also wanted to wear a British designer for my footwear so these shoes from Kirkwood were perfect!"
"I wanted our wedding to look like a grand and typically English from the outside but then upon closer inspection a light-hearted fun affair with lots of colour, games and a relaxed atmosphere. I looked to Liberty of London for inspiration. Arthur Liberty opened the shop in 1875 selling ornaments, fabric and objets d'art from Japan and the Far East. I love how Liberty’s brings items and themes from the East where I now live and marries it with quintessentially English style and tradition. I associate Liberty’s with colour and prints and that is exactly what I wanted my wedding to display. From the colourful bridesmaid dresses, the Liberty ties, the liberty printed table runners, napkins and brightly coloured fabric envelopes containing the guests favours.
My husband, all the groomsmen and both the fathers wore matching suits that we had tailor-made here in Singapore. The modern three-piece suits in darkest chocolate brown were finished off with an apple green and coral floral print skinny tie from Liberty’s and a plain coral silk pocket square."
"The jaw dropping part of my gown though was the 250 metres of net tulle three-tiered skirt that went over the lace dress for the ceremony. I always wanted my princess moment but also knew I would not have the patience to be lugging a Cinderella gown around all day.
As the ceremony finished and the pictures had been taken I slipped off my 'cloud' skirt as I like to call it, let down the train of my beautiful full length lace gown and made a second entrance as the wedding breakfast commenced. Two looks for one, perfect!"
"The flowers were predominantly pale pink and white peonies with large pale pink dahlias and a few roses in large silver fish bowls. The bridesmaids carried a reverse of what I had with a focus on white flowers with a touch of pale pink.
Peonies and dahlias are my favourite flower and very hard to get in Singapore. The reason for picking June as our wedding month was to ensure that peonies were plentiful!"
"We had a civil ceremony; My bridesmaids and I walked down the aisle to Badly Drawn Boy; I love NYE and after the ceremony had finished Rich and I left the ceremony room to The Source feat Candi Staton, You got the Love."
"I searched Singapore’s Arab Street for brightly coloured silks for my four bridesmaids. I then sketched four 50’s style prom dresses all with slightly different details on the backs to give each girl a dress that was individual to them.
It was colour-blocking heaven! Shirley Li from Flamingo Bridal made the flowergirl skirts and they were teamed with cream t-shirts, ballet shoes and a coral sash."
Echoes of Lorna's 1920s speakeasy inspired hen party present on her wedding day!
"Our tables were named after our favourite restaurants around the world! Thinking of this theme was an easy decision as food and travel are out two biggest passions. We had Yantra, my favourite Indian restaurant in Singapore to Maze in New York where Rich took me for my 29th birthday.
Petrus was where Rich took me for my birthday back in 2004 and the top table was named after Quanjude… the most amazing Peking duck restaurant in Beijing!"
"All the stationery was designed with a good friend, Peter Stephens, who is a graphic designer at Paper Tiger Press. Emily from Paper Tiger Press then handled the printing for me. The invitation, RSVP card, menu, place cards, drinks card voucher for the evening bar and thank you cards were all a three-colour letterpress. Coral, blue and grey.
Our wedding stationery was one of my favourite things from the day. I wanted something colourful and ornate with swirls a plenty, but at the same time I wanted it to look clean and modern and I loved the end result. All the guests were all talking about the wedding program with its funny stories and photo’s of all the bridal party. It was also the place where we remembered our grandparents who are no longer with us. It was everything you needed to know about the day and the people that are important to us."
"I had table runners, napkins and pouches made from two shades of beautiful printed cotton. They were lines with satin and bought colour to the otherwise white table settings. The cotton pouches that contained the favours had the place cards attached with mini blue wooden pegs."
"I wore pearl studs from Tiffanys. I felt the dress was dramatic enough so I kept my jewellery simple."
"Rich and I met and started dating 8 years ago whilst working at the same company in central London. We had to attend a meeting together outside of London and on the way back our trains were cancelled so we were forced to go for a drink together! We got talking about our families amongst other things and quickly started to fall for one another. I loved his sense of humour and a few months later he told me he loved me.
Ups and downs and various career moves took us to opposite sides of the globe, Rich to New York and me to Singapore, but not even a 12-hour time difference kept us apart.
Five years ago I moved over to New York to be with him again and then two years ago we settled together back in Singapore."
"I have heard many girlfriends say it over the years, but “I honestly had absolutely no idea” that Rich was going to propose when we were on our holiday to the Philippines in May 2010.
It was whale shark season in Donsol, a great time of year to climb Mount Mayon at Legazpi and we were in the closing weeks for beautiful sunshine skies in Boracay. It was an amazing trip that took a lot of planning from me so I had no time to conceive that Rich might be planning a proposal. On the forth day of our trip we were in beautiful Boracay and had a table booked for dinner at Rima restaurant at the Shangri La Resort. After leaving our hotel for dinner Rich forgot “something” and had to return to the room.
We got to the Shangri La and Rich then wanted to wander! I wanted wine. He tried to get me to walk down to the beach and through the tropical, hilly landscape. These ideas were met with vehement rejection, reminding him that I had climbed a volcano the day before and walking and climbing were not going to form any part of this evenings activities!"
"We got to a secluded bar spot. I rested my weary legs whilst sipping on Sauvignon Blanc, bliss! However, I cannot relax for too long and within 5 minutes I had pulled out my pad and pen (that comes everywhere with me for when inspiration strikes) and started to list our favourite holidays over the last 7 years! New Orleans, Key West, Cambodia, Beijing all came up.
Then Rich said that Boracay was his favourite place because you only get engaged once. I was confused at first, but when he got down on one knee and revealed a Tiffanys box from his pocket it all became clear…7 years after we first started dating Rich was proposing! I was getting my man, my love and my wedding! Let the planning commence!"
"Our wedding venue Botleys Mansion was near Heathrow and we had lots of guests flying in from Singapore and New York and wanted to make it as easy as possible. I also wanted one venue where we could get married and have the reception all in the same place for ease."
"In-between the starter and main course we conducted a pub quiz! 20 questions were read out by one of Richy’s groomsman and they were all questions about us. Each table were provided stickers with their team name (e.g. Team Yantra, Team Quanjude) and everyone wore them for the remainder of the day, including me! Everyone got really involved and it was great fun seeing reactions when the scores were read out! The winning table got a couple of bottles of champagne to enjoy!"
"With the help of Katja Berg at Roseberg Flowers, I created a wedding tree in the entrance hall to Bolteys Mansion. This was a huge branch placed in a large white, ornate clay pot. Hanging from the branch (mini tree) with string was a collection of 16 small white ornate frames; each frame containg a photograph of the wedding of every one of our married guests."
"Everyone in the evening dancing with all the parasols that I bought
in China Town, Singapore to Rhianna – Umbrella! The dance floor was
awash with “Umbrellas!"
We hired the entertainment act 'Just Dance' through The Alive Network. They were incredible! They really made the evenings party special."
"Our first dance was to Fleetwood Mac's 'Everywhere' - an
amazing song which allowed Rich and I to have a bit of fun whilst we
danced our first dance, instead of the traditional slow dance which
would not really suit our personality. I think “Everywhere” sums up all
our moves across the world to be with one another; we have lived in
three different continents together and travelled from New Zealand to
Canada and Beijing to Florida; 'I wanna be with you everywhere'..."
"Start early! I think the things that made the largest impact on the day took a lot of time but were not expensive. From the table runners and napkins that I had made in China town, to the 20 page wedding programme, the wedding tree for our guests, the pub quiz and the entire tailor made bridal party dresses and suits. These things required a lot of organisation, collating a lot of information (measurements, fabrics and wedding photos) but were not too expensive and gave a real wow factor!
Also double, triple, quadruple check things with your suppliers. Ask them to confirm everything back to you in writing to ensure they understand what you want for your day. Hire a planner or make sure you have a trusted friend who has been there the whole way through and can take some of the stress off of you on the day.
And finally, get yourself a wedding planner! "I was the wedding planner and stylist for the day, which I would not recommend! Even on the day I was unable to relinquish control of any of the elements"
How absolutely elegant is all this? I truly love Lorna's sense of style - just the right amount of glamour and colour and fun - perfection!
Thank you so very much Lorna for allowing your beautiful wedding to be shared with our readers. And thank you too Jodie Chapman for once again gracing these pages with perfection.
I'd love your thoughts readers - anyone else dreaming of their own cloud skirt now?
With much love,
Annabel
Photographer - Jodie Chapman
Wedding Planner/Stylist - Lorna Hayes (the bride!)
Venue - Botleys Mansion, near Chertsey in Surrey
Wedding Dress + Veil - Flamingo Bridal
Brides' shoes - Coral coloured python skin peep toes by Nicholas Kirkwood
Earrings - Tiffany
Groom's Attire - Tailor-made here in Singapore + coral floral print skinny tie from Liberty’s
Bridesmaids - Flamingo Bridal
Flowers - Katja Berg at Roseberg Flowers of Copenhagen
Cake - Robin at London Cake
Entertainment - 'Just Dance' through The Alive Network
Catering - Botleys/Bijou Weddings
Photobooth - The Mighty Booth
