Happy lunch time gorgeous ones 🙂 Welcome to our beautiful real wedding feature today, a fun yet stylishly blue, Mad Men inspired affair, involving one bride and her fondness for stripey tights.
Victoria and Louis tied the knot on 24 February this year at Nonsuch Mansion in Cheam, as it was the only wedding venue upon inspection that made Louis instantly smile.
"We met on Guardian Soul Mates, we didn't spend long communicating online before we decided to meet up and arranged a date at the IMAX, 5 weeks later we moved in together! Fast forward two years and Louis proposed while we were swimming in the sea in Cuba. We were engaged for a year and a half.
Originally we were thinking a Mad Men theme, but not fancy dress, just in terms of the style and sophistication of the day, but the closer we got to the wedding, the less important the theme became (though having said that, it certainly did influence the groom and best man's suits, the bridesmaid dresses and the stationery)."
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2013, Amy Lewin
"I designed our wedding stationary. Inspired by Madmen and old playbills I spent hours choosing the "perfect" fonts for our wedding and then picking the right blue to go with our colour scheme."
"My dress was a design by Elizabeth Stuart. I loved its simplicity, it also felt beautiful on. It was the only dress (I tried a lot, probably too many) that my mind kept returning to and the only one was excited to try on again and didn't want to take off. I particularly fell in love with the fact that it had pockets, felt like my little secret.
The dress originally comes with a beaded sash, but I wanted to tie in with Louis and the bridesmaids so I choose a cobalt blue sash."
"I wore the Emily shoes by Rachel Simpson, and as I'm a massive fan of stripes, I also wore some striped tights were by Jonathan Aston – a gift from my Father."
"The florist who provided the bouquets and buttonholes were Buds and Bloom in Esher. I loved the look of the baby's breath, and the plan was to have a large balls of baby's breath on each table. Unfortunately this proved to be quite expensive via a florist so we decided to do the centre-pieces ourselves.
When we went to get the flowers from Chelsea Flower Market, we found the prices to be so reasonable that we were able to splash out and add Hydrangeas which I picked for their fullness and colour and some amethyst roses to go with the baby's breath.
I would recommend any Brides on a budget (or not) to definitely check this option out."
Victoria's bridesmaids wore the Audrey dress, from Honeypie Boutique…
"I'm a cake maker by trade and did want to make our wedding cake, but with all the prep leading up to the wedding, we decided it would be less stressful to get someone else to make it. I can be a bit fussy, so I stepped back and let Louis decide (from a range of cake photos, I choose!) Louis really liked the rustic, open Victoria sponge cakes, with fresh berries, so we contacted Cafe Concerto, showed them a photo."
"Cafe Concerto did an amazing job and the cake looked even better than the original. We even had another smaller version made when we came back fom honeymoon as we didn't get to really eat much of it on the day!"
"Our wedding photographer was Amy Lewin. Amy was wonderful and we are really happy we found her. We were fortunate enough to have an engagement shoot with her so any nerves were quickly alleviated. On the day she made us and the guests feel very comfortable and we were extremely happy with our photos."
"My hair was done by Kelly from 3thirty Hair and Beauty. I had a make up trial at the Bobbi Brown make up counter at Selfridges and then had a make up party with my bridesmaids to practice."
"Our wedding venue Nonsuch Mansion was simple and needed very little decoration. We also liked that we would have sole use. But the Fornasetti wallpaper in the bathroom was what sealed it for me."
"My sister Clementine and mother made the bridesmaids' sashes, they were up till the early hours the day before the wedding, making them."
"My father gave me away, there was a bit of debate about this as I know my mum really wanted too, I even debated about them both doing it, but I thought it was special that my father be the one to give me away. We choose Louis Armstrong's La Vie En Rose, as it reminded us of the movie Wall-E which we both love."
"Civil ceremony weddings can be very short and I think impersonal, and there were things we definitely wanted each other to know about how we felt. So it was only natural for us to write our own vows. I loved Louis vows and have kept the paper he wrote them down on.
Our mothers prepared readings, but unfortunately my mother wasn't able to do her on the day, bit she plans on doing it for us in the future. Louis mother read an extract from Captain Corelli's Mandolin."
"Our rings were from 77 diamonds. Louis is not a jewellery fan, so it was important for him to have something which he felt comfortable wearing. We were able to chose the metals, and effects, and have a look at diamonds."
"We choose Nonsuch's catering company Bovingdons for our Wedding breakfast and our family made some West African cuisine for the evening buffet."
"Louis compiled the playlist for the entire day and we used a tablet and hired speakers through Effect Event."
"We had a photo booth courtesy of Groovybooth, a great gift from my sister Clementne and Alex. It provided hours of entertainment and we have an album of really funny photos."
Words of Wedded Wisdom…
"I spent ages looking at wedding blogs like Love My Dress – research was one of my favourite wedding tasks. When it came to Love My Dress, I enjoyed the look and photography on the blog. Very visual person, and when I was doing my wedding research, I would spend hours trawling the many photos of weddings."
Rather than a favourite part of the day I had favourite moments, exchanging our vows, sneaking away with my husband for a little while,; just for us to appreciate the day and enjoy each others company away from everyone. A particular highlight was everyone doing the electric slide and one I wish we'd caught on camera.
On reflection I wish we'd hired a film producer so we could have had the whole day recorded.
At the end of the day, the flowers, favours, decoration are not what is important and not worth stressing about it. The people make the day."
Congratulations Victoria and Louis! Thank you for sharing your lovely day with our readers. Thanks also to photographer Amy Lewin for sharing these photographs. Brides, please take a moment to visit Amy's website if you love these photographs.
You might want to take a virtual stroll through our other relevant pages; blue, Mad Men and Nonsuch Mansion.
Anyone else going all out stripey on their wedding day?
Much love all,
Annabel
Photographer – Amy Lewin
Venue – Nonsuch Mansion
Wedding Dress – Elizabeth Stuart
Brides' shoes – Emily shoes by Rachel Simpson
Bride's striped tights – Jonathan Aston
Brides Crystal Comb – Jon Richards at Debenhams
Grooms Suit – Suit Supply + tie from Debenhams
Bridesmaids Dresses – The 'Audrey' dress from Honeypie Boutique + shoes by Debut at Debenhams
Flowers – Buds and Bloom in Esher (bouquets & buttonholes)
Cake – Cafe Concerto
Rings – 77 diamonds
Hair Stylist – 3thirty Hair and Beauty
Entertainment/speaker hire – Effect Event
Photobooth hire – Groovybooth
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.
