A Benjamin Roberts Fishtail Gown For A Wedding Day Boat Ride…

Good morning! Wow, what a gorgeous bank holiday break! How was yours? We had such a lovely day yesterday pottering about the house, then walking down to the bottom of our hill to meet friends at our local pub for some late afternoon drinks. I can't recall the last time the bank holiday weather was so kind to us, but it was a good while ago!

To help ease you back in to the working week, I've a really beautiful wedding to share with you, courtesy of a photographer whose work I have long adored.  And what a privilege it must have been to be asked to photograph this particular wedding, as the groom himself is a wedding photographer!

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2012, S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Lisa and Matt tied the knot on 8 September last year at St Petrox Church in Dartmouth, followed by a reception at Shilstone House, Near Modbury, Devon.  I love the relaxed nature of this wedding, that beautiful dress and belt (brides, designer Benjamin Roberts offer beautiful and affordable options if you are on the hunt for a wedding dress of your own)…

"My dress was by Benjamin Roberts and purchased from Beau Belles.
I made some alterations to the design by adding lace to the neckline
and sourcing a belt from different (and much more expensive!) dress.
This was a really good way of ending up with a ‘one of a kind’ dress
without breaking the budget.

This was the first dress I tried on. I loved the soft lace and
the fishtale shape was perfect for my tall (and a bit lanky!) figure. I
tried on lots and lots of dresses after this one – A line ones, slinky
ones, short ones, beaded ones. You name it, I tried it. I wouldn’t say
that I got 'the one' moment that you hear brides talk about, I just knew
I liked it and I took it as a good sign that my mum cried whenever I
tried it on. She didn’t cry with any of the others!"

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

"Matt is the boy next door. We grew up five doors apart but didn’t
really know each other as Matt is a little older than me and we went to
different schools. After I moved home following university, our paths
crossed at the right time.

When we first got together my dad was very
ill with cancer and Matt was an absolute rock, I knew from then that
this was the man I wanted to be with forever. We got engaged after six
years of being together – Matt proposed whilst we were having a picnic
in the gardens by the Eiffel tower."

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

"After the church service Matt and I arranged for the local ferry to
pick us and the bridesmaids up for a little trip down the estuary. I'll
never forget waving at all our guests from the boat, I felt like a
celebrity!

For me the boat ride was really special, I’ll never forget
looking up at the cliff side and seeing all our guests waving us off."

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

"As our wedding was a church of England ceremony, we didn’t tailor our vows.  The reading we had was Coulson MacLeod's 'What is Love?'.  Matt surprised me on the morning with one of their personalised artboxes (available from Coulson MacLeod) with the reading, our names and wedding date."

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

"The cars and transport was possibly one of my favourite things
about the whole day. As I had so many bridesmaids (five plus a
flowergirl) it was going to be too expensive to hire standard wedding
cars. I had an idea of putting a 'wanted' advert in the local Devon
Vintage Car Club newsletter, asking whether anyone was free to help on
our wedding day. We had two calls straightaway from lovely gentlemen
offering their services.

One even offered to bring his brother in law
too. Randomly, all three had vintage morris minors, one of my favourite
vintage cars. The nicest thing was that they wouldn’t take any money for
driving us, they just wanted an opportunity to take their cars out and
show them off.  We’ve since had phone calls from them to say how much
they enjoyed the day."

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography 

"We managed to find Matt's suit in the Paul Smith shop on a trip to Bicester Village, just outside Oxford at a significantly reduced price.

My veil was cathedral length and single tier, made from beautiful
sheer fabric so that you could see the detail on the dress through it. I
bought it second hand via the Preloved website".

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

"I decided that I wanted to do my own reception flowers as I
had a very clear vision of what I wanted. We spent the year before the
wedding collecting kilner jars, silver tea pots, mercuried glass pots,
tin baths and old bottles. A couple of days before the wedding me, Matt
and my mum went picking hydrangeas out of friends' gardens and then
bought 10 bouquets of roses from M&S
and put an order in to a local flower supplier for white stocks and
pale pink ranunculus. The night before the wedding we literally just
popped single stems of the flowers into our various vessels and hoped
for the best. I was so pleased with how they turned out on the day –
they looked just as I imagined."

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography 

"The church flowers were done by a very lovely lady from the
Dartmouth flower club. I told her that I just wanted single hydrangea
heads as pew ends and they looked beautiful.
 

For bouquets and buttonholes I turned to a professional.  I came across Emma Vowles
online and straightaway loved the website and the look of her flowers. I
knew that I wanted something fairly unstructured and 'bloomy' and Emma
was fantastic in coming up with different ideas."

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

"I had two pre-requisites for shoes. They had to be low (I am 5ft 11") and they had to be comfortable.  I found the perfect pair at Rachel Simpson".

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

"I came across Twobirds bridesmaids dresses
a while ago and chatted to the lovely representative, Michelle, over
twitter. The dresses were perfect for my maids as they could wear them
however they wanted. They all loved the dresses and I found them on the
dance floor in the middle of the night comparing who could twirl in them
the best! 

There's a brilliant iphone app you can download to show you
how to tie them and Michelle was also more than happy to give me ideas
on the best ties for my maids.  The bridesmaids all wore shoes from Next."

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

"We asked one of my mum's friends to bake this for us
(known locally as Kath Cakes due to her fabulous home baking!). We
showed her a picture of the sort of thing we were thinking of and then
left it to her. It tasted delicious! The topper was made last minute by
the very talented
Emily Carlill."

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

"With Matt being a wedding photographer you can imagine how difficult it was for us to find someone to fit the bill. We met Jon of S6 Photography at an industry party in Sheffield and liked him immediately. We both love his style and knew he'd do a brilliant job. Lots of people made comments about whether or not Matt would be able to 'let go' on the day and pass responsibility for the photos to someone else. Our answer was always an unequivocal 'yes'.

We had complete faith in Jon to do an amazing job and he didn’t let us down (apart from when he allowed us to be encircled by scary looking cows in a field!). Jon’s a really great guy and photography aside it was awesome to have him there for the day."

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

"I met Eve Ashby
at a wedding we shot in Devon. I was drawn to her huge stash of Bobby
Brown, Mac and Nars products and was really impressed by her cheerful
and calm nature. She arrived at 7am on the morning of the wedding and
managed to get through all five bridesmaids, my mum and me without any
rush whatsoever. The girls all looked absolutely stunning and told me
how amazing they felt. One said it was the best she had ever looked in
her life!"

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

"We are both from Derbyshire but my mum relocated to Devon a few
years ago and it's like a second home to us. As soon as we saw the
amazing St Petrox church (it's part of a castle on the mouth of the
Dartmouth estuary and has its own jetty!) we knew that was the only
place we wanted to get married.

The Vicar was brilliant, officially the most relaxed and
trendiest vicar in the world. How many other vicars turn up to your
wedding in a vintage Alfa Spider with the roof down?!"

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography 

"The notion of being 'given away' was one of the things that took
me longest to figure out. I was very worried about being upset on the
day because of not having my dad there to walk me down the aisle. In the
end I actually didn’t think about the loss that I felt without my Dad,
just the happiness at the fact I was marrying my best friend. I asked my
brother Paul to give me away – I'll never forget him holding my hand
tightly as we walked down the aisle.

I walked down the aisle to the piano version of Make You Feel My
Love by Bob Dylan. We hired a saxophonist to play Glen Miller's 'In the
Mood' during our exit from the church as we thought this was upbeat and
happy and would make everyone laugh. Unfortunately I think the
saxophonist misheard us as he played 'Moon River' instead!"  

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

"My rings were both from Marlows in the jewellery quarter
in Birmingham. They have a very good reputation and the service they
gave was excellent. Matt's ring was a last minute (and slightly nasty)
purchase for the grand sum of £30. He wanted a watch instead of an
expensive ring! It tells you something when the vicar laughs when the
best man passes him the rings!"

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

"Matt's shoes and Mulberry belt were from Canopy in Derby
(many thanks to Bev there who was brilliant and helped steer him in the
right direction). His shirt was from
TM Lewin and tie from Zara."

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

"We used Amazing Taste
as our caterers.  Robyn was brilliant, she really understood our vision
for the food and was happy to accommodate our requests for sharing
platter starter, a 'sunday dinner' to be carved at the table by our
guests and Pork Pie and cheese towers for the evening. The Pork pie
tower was sourced in Derbyshire from Fresh Basil."

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

"When it came to our first dance, we struggled for ages to find
something we liked as we don't really have 'a song' as such. We finally
hit on 'All I want is you' by U2. We didn’t really want to do a
traditional first dance where we stand in the middle of the dance floor
and sway awkwardly and so decided to have dance lessons with a local
teacher and learn a simple routine (including lift).

Unfortunately I
didn’t factor in the fact that my dress made it almost impossible to
lift my legs and many of the dance moves that we practiced weren’t
feasible on the day. It didn’t quite turn out as polished as we planned,
but it was fun!
"

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

"Matt went all creative a few weeks before the wedding and made the bar sign (inspired by this feature on Pocketful of Dreams),
the large love letters (made out of MDF with little shelves for jam
jars with candles in!) and his famous Jagerbarrow (an old garden
wheelbarrow sprayed gold with jagermeister branding down it, filled with
cans of redbull, bottles of Jager and indoor fireworks.

This was
wheeled in late in the evening by Matt and everyone enjoyed a Jagerbomb,
which then fuelled the dancing!). We made stakes to support teacup
candles which we put around the garden. Matt didn’t want to go down the
traditional line up group photo route so we took a sofa, standard lamp,
coffee table and chair to the venue which we placed in the garden for
anyone that wanted a photo together. We then brought this into the
marquee at night to create ‘Granny Corner’. For name places we made
everyone a pin badge and we also made some awards badges which we handed
out after the meal (things like – best dressed male/female, person most
likely to be found passed out by the bar, biggest flirt etc). These
went down really well with all the guests. We also made lots of paper
pompoms to brighten up the marquee."

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography 

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"Make sure you take a few minutes during the day to stand back
and look at everyone enjoying themselves, it really does make all the
hard work, stress and effort worthwhile. Don’t be afraid to break
tradition, if you don’t want a cutting of the cake or a first dance etc
then don’t have one. It’s your day, do what you want. I struggled at
times to explain our ‘vision’ to friends and family members. You forget
that for people who have only ever been to ‘traditional’ weddings, and
haven’t spent weeks on end reading wedding blogs, some of your ideas may
sound a little off the wall. Stick with your instincts, believe in your
ideas and be reassured that they will “get it” in the end.

The only thing I would do differently is to try not to stress as much in
the run up to the wedding. Its all too easy to get caught up in all the
tiny details and lose sight of the fact that a wedding is actually all
about the love. Don’t be afraid to delegate jobs to friends and family –
you can’t do it all!

With much love.

With Matt being a wedding photographer,
people had high expectations for our wedding. Guests were always saying
to us 'I bet you get so many good ideas from all these weddings you
see', and I felt a lot of pressure to make our day unique and extra
special. I became addicted to wedding blogs and fell well and truly down
the rabbit hole of wedding pretty.

I wouldn’t say our wedding really
had a style as such – it was just a reflection of us and the things we
like. I loved sourcing items for our wedding – even if our kitchen did
resemble a junk shop at times!"

Benjamin Roberts wedding dress Dartmouth S6 Photography

What a beautiful way to start the working week. Huge thanks Lisa and Matt for sharing your precious wedding day memories with us and thank you as always to Jon of S6 Photography for once again gracing our pages with beautiful wedding photography.

Are there any Benjamin Roberts brides reading this now?

With much love,

Annabel

Heart

Photographer – S6 Photography
Venue – Shilstone House, Near Modbury, Devon
Wedding Dress – Benjamin Roberts via Beau Belles
Veil/Headpiece – Preloved
Brides' shoes – Rachel Simpson
Bride's hair accessory – Monsoon
Groom's Attire – Mulberry shoes + belt via Canopy in Derby + Zara tie + TM Lewin shirt
Bridesmaids – Twobirds
Flowergirl Dresses – Monsoon
Flowers – By the bride + Emma Vowles

Cake – family + topper by
Emily Carlill.
Transport – donated by vintage car owners
Entertainment – Celine Dos Santos
+ Leigh Coleman and the house band from Mama Stones

Rings – via Marlows in the jewellery quarter
in Birmingham.

Catering – Amazing Taste with pork pie tower from Fresh Basil
Hair and make-up Artist – Eve Ashby

Annabel

Annabel View all Annabel's articles

Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.

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