Liberty Print Peach Petals and Kingfishers ~ A 1970’s Vintage ‘Annabelinda’ Wedding Dress

I love to open up each week with a really very beautiful wedding. You need to prepare yourself for this one, the bride's style is unlike anything I've seen before – and I utterly love love love love love it.

Hannah and Matt got married on 29 September 2012 at St Margaret's Church in Binsey, just outside of Oxford, followed by a reception at Wytham Village Hall.

When Hannah herself sent me these photographs to tell me how much Love My Dress inspired her wedding planning, I was just bowled over – that dress! The veil! In fact, her veil designer (Hannah had one created especially based on an original 1970s veil pattern) was a key find via these wedding blog pages…

"I wore a vintage Annabelinda dress, bought at the Annabelinda shop in Oxford.   Sadly,
Belinda retired after forty years in May 2012, closing the business. 
So I got in just in time! Dresses are still available online sometimes
though and are well worth seeking out: they are so well made. And I
think there may be a book about Annabelinda coming out soon."

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2013, Rachelle Simoneau

"We met at Oxford
as graduate students. Same college and even same course! Matt comes
from Canada, and I come from New Zealand, so we wouldn’t have met
without Oxford—which is why we chose to have the wedding in the UK, in
Oxford, instead of in either of our home countries. And a nice excuse
for people to visit, I hope. We got engaged in
Paris on my birthday in April 2011. We went out for dinner with friends,
and at the end of the night, once we were back at our hotel, Matt told
me he had one more present for me, and proposed.

(Matt had told my
family his plans beforehand, and they called me earlier on in the
evening trying to scope out whether we were engaged yet. My dad jokes
that he thought I’d done something to put Matt off).  I then had a year and a half to obsess over all things wedding—and I enjoyed every second."

"I’d often ride my bike past Annabelinda
and look at the dresses in the window, especially the incredibly
romantic, extravagant vintage ones. For some reason I was too nervous to
go into the shop at first, and had to send Matt in on a reconnaissance
mission to see if brides had to make an appointment, etc. (Everyone was
very nice to him!).

When I did work up the courage to go in, I tried on a
few wedding dresses, as well as the dress that became my dress, which
wasn’t a wedding dress in the traditional sense."

 

"Like most people I suppose I had assumed I’d wear white or cream
as a bride, and that I wouldn’t wear a patterned fabric. So I didn’t buy
the dress at first. It took dreaming about someone else buying it to
convince me! I am so happy I did in the end. The material is gorgeous: a
silk patterned with flowers and kingfishers, designed and made for
Annabelinda by Liberty in the 1970's.
I love that the dress was made in the place I live, by people I met,
with the most careful attention to every detail. And I love that someone
had worn it and enjoyed it before me.

I think people were often surprised by my choice of dress when I
showed them pictures before the wedding—perhaps it didn’t look
particularly bridal on the hanger?—but with flowers and/or a veil, you
can’t help but look like a bride!"

"I had five bridesmaids (my two sisters, my new sister-in-law,
and two of my best friends), and I LOVE the way each of them looks day
to day so they chose their own dresses and cardigans within a broad set
of colours (creams and pale pinks, peaches, nude, a little gold if they
wanted). They wound up wearing a mix of things, from a mix of places: Elkin, Anthropologie and Alice McCall.

I was also (a bit funny to say) impressed at the range of tights they
had! My sisters had nude ones with little hearts or polka dots,
Josephine had lace—a lovely mix.

"The bridesmaids chose their own shoes from a range of places, but
special mention has to be made of Antonia, who bought a pair of T-bar
patent leather shoes at Office and spray-painted them gold herself!"   

"My bridesmaids made up jam jars of flowers for the long trestle
tables the day before. Antonia, one of the two maids of honour, is a
florist so she had lots
of good ideas! We also dotted some gourds and pumpkins around. And there
was a pear at each place setting, which doubled as a little favour."

"I wanted a completely different feel, and completely different
colours, for our bouquets, the ceremony flowers, and the reception
flowers. So we had Green and Gorgeous
supply flowers for the ceremony and reception. The flowers at the
ceremony, including the floral arch made by Green and Gorgeous were in
creams and yellows to go with the wheat, but the loose flowers for the
reception were very deep, bright jewel tones—red, orange, pink—which the
bridesmaids combined with berries and ivy that we’d foraged."

"We chose the date 29 September at random, so it was a happy
coincidence that 29 September is Michaelmas and the start of autumn. We
used lots of autumnal, harvest things on the day: wheat and corn dollies
to decorate the church, rosehips and hypericum berries in the bouquets
and on the tables, pears for the place settings, goose and blackberries
for the food."

  

"My veil was made by Dream Veils (I found them through Love My Dress actually!).
I bought an old Nina Ricci for Vogue veil pattern on etsy and emailed
Margaret at Dream Veils in the hope that she would be able to make it as
(unlike many of my friends) I am pathetically unable to sew.

Margaret
did an amazing job, improving on the original pattern, sending me little
videos of what the veil looked like as well as still pics, and was even
lovely enough to name it ‘the Hannah Veil’ at the end of the process.

My only other accessory was a pair of pink freshwater pearl
earrings, lent by my mum. (Something borrowed, although she very kindly
gave them to me afterward."

  

"Mary Janes are my favourite shoe, so I just went with satin ones for the wedding: ‘Dolly’ by Rainbow Club."

"Danielle at Beautycall
did a great job of make-up and hair. She didn’t mind me changing my
mind a fair few times beforehand and being in something of a rush on the
day, and she also let me choose my own lipstick—a very important
decision; I tried about five different ones before deciding on Nars Heat Wave."

"Matt wore +J (Jil Sander for Uniqlo) suit and shes by Grenson.  The groomsmen chose their own grey or black suits, and we gave them a tie and pocket square each as a present—selected from suggestions we made, though it has to be said that I don’t know if all of them would have worn pink, peach, and purple ties (or any bow tie) on a normal occasion! But they kindly agreed."

"I wanted a veil and a flower circlet (throwing caution and restraint to the wind), so Fabulous Flowers
made me a fresh flower crown from the same roses as the bouquet. I wore
it over my veil for the ceremony, and by itself at the reception."

"We made pew-ends for the church from bunches of wheat and dried grasses, and had two lovely corn dollies from Maddy’s Corn Dollies on our chairs at the front."

"The ceremony was held at St. Margaret’s Church in Binsey, just
outside Oxford: a beautiful old stone church, with no electricity, but
with a holy well (a ‘treacle well’) in the graveyard outside. I gave
Matt his wedding ring outside the church by the well, and then the
priest took great delight in sprinkling everyone with the waters using a
sprig of rosemary! Port Meadow is our favourite place in Oxford, and
you cross it to get to the church, so it felt right to be married at St
Margaret’s."

"Matt’s cousin Jamie is a letterpress printer, so he designed all our stationery and printed the invitations.

We assembled the orders of services ourselves with friends’ help,
tying them with ribbon or raffia and using image of the church from an
old print (found by another friend of mine in a second-hand print shop)
as the cover image.

I wrote all the place cards, table plan, etc.—I have pretty small
handwriting and I think upon seeing the traffic jam around the table
plan that I might have made it slightly larger!"

"We (well, Matt really—I think I weighed some dried fruit, but not much else) made our own wedding cake from a Dan Lepard recipe.
This resulted in something of a last-minute panic, with two friends
(thanks Laurel and Sheena!) decorating it on the day after we ran out of
time. But it tasted delicious—Matt is a great cook—and I loved the way
it looked decorated with the cake topper (used at Matt’s parents’
wedding, and earlier his grandparents’ wedding), dried roses, and a
wreath of berries on the table."

"We actually had a second set of cake toppers that I bought on
etsy—only problem being that the bride was about half the size of the
groom! (You couldn’t tell from the photograph online.) It was still a
good purchase though because I laugh every time I see them!"

 

"Our wedding photographer was Rachelle Simoneau, who’s a Canadian photographer now based in the UK/Europe. I had met Rachelle
casually before we were engaged, and knew she took very beautiful
photographs of all sorts of things, so emailed her to see if she
photographed weddings. And luckily she did! Rachelle
was awesome: when we got the photos back, we had that wonderful
experience of seeing lots of candid shots of our friends and family that
we didn’t even know she was taking, lots of strange and hilarious
combinations of people dancing, as well as lovely formal shots. We
couldn’t have asked for a better photographer."

 

"As my gifts to the bridesmaids, I found five different vintage powder compacts (mostly Stratton and Kigu) on etsy."

"My dad walked me up the aisle, and both my parents stood up at the
‘Who gives this woman?’ part of the ceremony. My home town is
Christchurch in New Zealand, and my parents are still out of their house
over two years after the huge earthquake there.

Those two years have
been a dreadful time for them, and for Christchurch in general, so it
was especially lovely to have them come for the wedding—Matt and I were
so grateful for all their support throughout the planning as well as on
the day."

"We used one of the Church of England’s services in traditional
language, because we loved the idea of vows that have been said by so
many people and for such a long time. Seeing there’s no space for the
bride to give a ring to the groom in that service, something that was
important to us, the priest let us do that part outside by the well.

 All of our readings were actually religious, because of the service
we chose. But we included little extracts on the programmes for people
to read while they were waiting—Robert Herrick’s poem ‘A Ring Presented
to Julia’ and a quotation from an Anthony Trollope novel that I liked:
‘That such a settlement will always be better for the young gentleman
and the young lady concerned than one founded on a sterner prudence is
more than one may dare to say; but we do feel sure that that country
will be most prosperous in which such leaps in the dark are made with
the greatest freedom.’  I had just read the Trollope novel, and
the quotation grabbed me as being a funny, tongue-in-cheek thing to
have on the back of the programme. The Herrick poem was more earnest:
it’s so beautiful, but again it’s good-humoured, cheerful, simple,
rather than overly sentimental or serious. I hadn’t read the poem before
last year, but now I almost know it off by heart".

"My engagement ring from Norah’s Antiques in Oxford is in
suffragette colours: purple, white, and green (amethyst, pearl, and
peridot). I loved the way Matt explained why he chose the ring—the fact
that he thought it said something about our relationship and the things
we value. (As a New Zealander, I’m so proud that my country was the
first to give women the right to vote.)"

"We actually got our wedding rings, the plainest gold bands we
could find, wholesale through a very kind jeweller acquaintance in
Canada. The priest who married us is an expert in ancient Roman
jewellery (!) and told us about the tradition for ‘posy rings’, rings
with a little bit of rhyming poetry engraved on the inside. We read
about lots of examples, looked at some in the Ashmolean in Oxford, and
chose the verse, ‘I cannot show the love I O’. So that’s what it says on
the inside of the band."

"Fabulous Flowers
in Oxford did our bouquets and my flower circlet. I am something of a
flower fanatic and one of the most exciting things about the planning
process was choosing the flowers. The bridesmaids had posy versions of
my bouquet: a mix of three different peach or apricot roses (mine had a
few cream roses mixed in as well), hypericum berries and rosehips,
rosemary, and red oak foliage…"

"The buttonholes were amazing too: there
were really deep red dahlias, roses, wheat, and berries. Everything
looked and smelled phenomenal—Matthew at Fabulous Flowers had been
recommended to me by someone in the know and did an excellent job."

 

 

 

 

 

"The reception was in the Wytham Village Hall.
We liked the location (Wytham is another gorgeous village near Oxford),
but wanted to be free to choose catering, entertainment, decorations,
etc., for ourselves—hence having a village hall. I had dreamed of people
walking up the river from Binsey to Wytham, but didn’t have high hopes
for the weather—astonishingly it turned out to be lovely, and people did
walk!

In fact, people may have had more ‘nature’ than they bargained
for on the walk, as a calf had been separated from its mother and was
running around in a panic. (We got to see mother and baby reunited
during photographs; in fact the farmers concocted some fairly poetical
interpretations of the event, that it was symbolic of the theme of
union, etc.—hilarious.)"

"I think my favourite part of the day was first sitting next to Matt
at the reception and looking down the hall at our guests, and feeling
completely happy and excited. Most of the day passed very quickly, but
that was a moment of calm and quiet and drinking in how lovely it was to
have family and friends from all over together in one place."

 

"Our first dance was something of an off-the-cuff decision. We
didn’t practice any dancing, we didn’t have a first song, but we wound
up doing a first dance anyway. A waltz to the ceilidh band. It was
apparent to everyone involved that we had not practiced! We were just
screaming with laughter at each other while we tripped around for a
minute or so—as you can tell from the photographs…"

"We had a chaotic ceilidh dance, our eighty guests stomping around in the hall."

 

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"For me, planning a wedding was an experience where I found
that—if I didn’t stop myself—I cared a huge amount what other people
thought of the things I liked, or the things that were important to me
and Matt as a couple. I think trying to laugh at that worry, at that
pressure, at that potential for judgment, was the most helpful strategy I
found. Especially when you can do it with your partner.

I hadn’t quite understood that even when you have planned fairly
well beforehand, if you and your helpers are doing lots of stuff there
will be so much to do in the days leading up. Knowing that, I suppose I
might have left a little more time for (e.g.) decorating the cake. But
as it all came out fine in the end, I can’t really complain!

 Also, Love My Dress
was my go-to blog for what really was a bit of a bridal fix. Luckily I
now have some other friends planning weddings, so I still have an
excuse!"

Just breathtakingly beautiful – all of it. 
I don't think I've ever seen such a beautiful vintage wedding dress,
and kudos to you Heather for choosing something so different and working
it so beautifully!

I would like to thank Hannah for so kindly sharing her and Matt's wedding story and for using Love My Dress for inspiration in the run up to her wedding day. 

Thanks also to Rachelle Simoneau for providing these beautiful photographs.

Readers who love Hannah's 1970's veil can buy one the same from the new 'Vintage Veil' collection at Dream Veils.

I'd love your thoughts on this delightfully pretty peach affair,

With love,

Annabel

Photographer – Rachelle Simoneau
Venue – St Margaret's Church in Binsey, just outside of Oxford + reception at Wytham Village Hall
Wedding Dress – Annabelinda 1970's vintage
Veil/Headpiece – Dream Veils
Brides' shoes – Dolly by Rainbow Club
Bride's floral circlet – Fabulous Flowers
Grooms Suit – +J (Jil Sander for Uniqlo) + shes by Grenson
Bridesmaids – Elkin, Anthropologie + Alice McCall
Flowers – Green and Gorgeous
Cake – made by the bride & groom using a Dan Lepard recipe–
Catering Company – The Anchor (the couple's local pub)
Hair and Makeup Artist – Danielle at Beautycall (and that lipstick is Nars Heat Wave)
Corn Dollies on Church Pew Ends – Maddy’s Corn Dollies