Red Lips, A Statement Headpiece And Gatsby Inspired Glamour

What a non-stop past 2 week's it's been, from exploring (and getting totally lost in) the Soukhs of Marrakech, to meeting and signing copies of my book for readers at The Glasgow Wedding Collective yesterday in beautiful, bonny Scotland – an incredible day spent with a whole raft of some of my absolute favourite wedding suppliers – more on that  soon, though you can see a few Instagram images here in the meantime.

I love the first wedding of the week and always try to pick something a little extra-special to occupy this Monday morning slot. Sian and Lee's wedding is one of those affairs that will have you double-taking at their beautiful wedding photographs over your morning cuppa on more than one occasion.  The couple tied the knot on 30 June 2013, at Stubton Hall in Newark and the bride took inspiration from the glamorous stye of the 19s0s and '30s…

Photography Copyright (c) 2013, Dottie Photography

"During my wedding planning, which took just 18 weeks from start to finish, I came across the Australian
designer Johanna Johnson after Googling '1920-30’s weddings' – and absolutely
fell in love with her dresses. Through conversation with my photographer, I became
aware of the wonderful Amanda Caroline Couture
who took inspiration from these designs I sent her and created the most
beautiful vintage pieces for me. Amanda is one of the loveliest people
you will ever meet and felt like someone I have known for years with a
fantastic personal touch.

I never envisaged at the start that my dress would be white –
maybe a nude or champagne in a silver tone?  I didn’t want the
traditional strapless meringue frock and after trying on a handful of
dresses I classed as a ‘bit different’, still didn’t feel that I had
found 'the one'.  I had originally wanted a simple fitted silk, straight
gown but ended up with a little boho flare! The final dress was actually
the second one I had created, as in the end, I felt the first design
looked too similar to the bridesmaid's dresses.

I adore the
detailing on the capped sleeve."

"Lee and I met following my return home from university, and were set
up on a blind date by friends. After
parting with a good night kiss we arranged a second date at the cinema
where I fell asleep! Shortly after I went on a work placement working
with the Buyers at Topshop's Head Office. I knew then that Lee was the
one for me and any intentions of moving to London that I once had were now
gone.

Back in December 2011, we planned a trip to Thailand, it was amazing –
whilst staying in Phuket, the hotel at which we stayed had its own
private beach that we reached by long tail boat. After clowning about
during a walk along the private beach, Lee passed me the camera to
distract me and the next thing I know he was down on one knee with a
ring in his hand and ‘marry me’ written in the sand!

We attended a friends wedding at Stubton Hall,
and absolutely loved the venue. We wanted the wow factor of beautiful
surroundings but at the same time for all to feel at ease, and it to be
an intimate affair with just those that mean the world to us."

"Amanda Caroline Couture also created my headpiece, that was inspired by the gorgeous headpiece and band designs by designer Johanna Johnson."

"We didn’t have a specific colour scheme in mind but I knew
I wanted a fairly neutral palette and then add tiny accents of colour.
Lee and I both love things that are vintage/retro though I did get my
way with the whole 1920’s and 30s feel! Lee loved the shabby chic look whilst
I envisaged Gatsby Glamour!

We got our flowers from The Flower Shop in Kirton,
run by Kerry Blackburn.   I opted for the flowers that I love the most –
anemones, peonies, roses – and felt the silver brunia brought in
another dimension.  I wanted the flowers to look elegant and
sophisticated and mainly white! I did worry that the wedding would be
lacking colour but went with my gut feeling in the end.  I didn’t want
handheld posies or miniature versions of mine for my bridesmaids so
opted for the wrist corsages and a single rose for the flower girls.

I ordered additional stems for the teacups on the table displays 
& bottles in the music room and my sister-in-law Rachel Harries
created these beautiful displays the morning of the wedding!"

"As with my own dress, I was adamant that the bridesmaids dresses
weren't strapless or short. Loving the 1920-30’s, I wanted the feel of
glamour so opted for these gorgeous champagne evening dresses from John Lewis and loved the shoulder detailing which I felt had an Art Deco feel.  Flower girls wore vintage looking Estella glitter dress.

With
my best friend and bridesmaid Kirsty living in Australia, it was quite
difficult to get shoes that I knew would fit! On her arrival back in the
UK we both decided that the dress length would be better if she wore
sandals! We ended up buying a pair from Accessorize called Laila Crystal
Lead in gold, which looked perfect even though they weren’t a heel! My
sister Nick wore a peep toe heel Glamsgal2 in champagne from Nine West."

"For the table plan we purchased a large wall hung bird cage from The Range – for the backing I covered a board in old book pages and
then attached vintage postcodes with the table numbers/names on using
heart pegs. Inside the cage we put a glass bottle and large peacock
feathers.

As a creative person I loved planning how I was
going to layout the sweetie table and the making and staging of the
details – it did come with its stressful moments worrying that things
would look too handmade and tacky and making some things at last minute
didn’t help- however it was so worth the effort as many of our guests
loved all the thought and effort we had put in ."

"For the décor we visited car boots and charity shops to source
old books, brooches, teacups old records etc and borrowed bits and bobs
from family and friends such as an old typewriter.

Lee made the paper hearts out of music paper to hang on
the chairs in the ‘Music’ room where the ceremony took place. We also
used an old suitcase to display some flip flop ‘dancing shoes’, filled a
smaller suitcase with gypsophilia to present the postcards for our
guestbook frame (large gold frame that we attached string to so that
guests could peg their words of wisdoms or comments from the day on. We
went a bot suitcase mad and also had this for our guests to place their
cards.

We printed off Polaroid pictures of ourselves mainly from our
trip to Thailand in 2011 and strung from one side to the other. Inside
the suitcase we used books piled on top of each other for an old glass
bottle to sit on with peacock feathers inside, we attached a distressed
cards label to the handle and an old brooch too."

"My pretty flower girls Lucy and Charlotte, also my neices, wore vintage tiny heeled shoes from Monsoon
called Shimmer Layer and Cha, Cha, Cha. Think Charlotte told just about
everyone how she was wearing a pair of high heels at her Auntie Sian’s
wedding! That and the bribes of lipstick we used so that they would pose
nicely for the photos!"

"We were bowled over by the photographs on the Dottie Photography website – everything looked
like it was straight out of magazine and just fantastic. On meeting
Mandy felt that we clicked straight away and even popped round for tea
on the odd occasion to simply talk weddings and look at ideas.

In my
moments of sheer panic, Mandy was there as a sounding board; what an
awesome and talented lady – she along with her assistant Julie were more
than just the photographers on the day, they knew how important our day
was and did everything they possibly could, along with my bridesmaids,
mum & sister in law, to ensure that everything was perfect for us.
It obviously gets to the stage when you’ve got to get dressed, the groom
has arrived and you can’t tinker with stuff any longer!"

"Lee had tried on many different suits but decided on one from Top Man. From the out set was adamant that wanted to have a navy suit with tan brogues and I thought he looked so handsome.  His shirts was from Hugo boss along with his knitted tie and brown brogues where from Dune. Lee’s yellow spotted socks where from Top Man.
Pocket hanky was made from the left over satin from my dress. Buttons
holes made by my talented sister-in-law Rachel from peacock and guinea
fowl feather and vintage buttons."

"My Dad Lyndon gave me away – we walked down the aisle to a string
quartet version of The Beatles' ‘All You Need Is Love’; it was such a
tearjerker for me every time I listened to it before the big day, I knew
I would feel emotional just before my entrance and of course I did. 
Luckily I had enough time to compose myself before Dad and I walked in!"

"Due to my little fingers the ring had to be made from scratch, as a
larger size could not be resized, as thediamond would pop out. Just one
of those little things ladies that you must make a priority and not
leave until 1-2 months before the wedding! In the end Lee and I both
purchased our rings from Goldsmiths in Peterborough using our Tesco Club
card vouchers which are worth 3x the amount (money saving tip for those
on a budget) and only leaving a small proportion to pay in comparison.

My ring arrived on the Friday (wedding Sun!) so you can imagine the
panic but I must say the Customer Service I received from Goldsmith was
second to none and even got to hug and say a massive thank you to the
lady that had been chasing the supplier for me."

"Due to embellishment on the dress and headpiece etc, I opted
out of a necklace as felt that it would be too much. Instead I
commissioned a cuff to match my headpiece – which was also made by Amanda Caroline. My pearl Swarovski studs where borrowed from my
Bridesmaid Kirsty, ones that she had never worn (my something borrowed
for the day!)"

"Our first dance was to Paul Weller's ‘You Do Something To
Me’, chosen by Lee, again, another tearjerker! I thought it would be
hilarious to go from a sloppy song like this into something like Gangnam
Style but sadly Lee wasn’t up for it – party pooper! I did get it as
the 3rd song played and even Dad was up and doing his very own Dad
dancing to it (my brother Mark felt this was so funny he had to capture
on video!)"

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"No one can ever prepare you for the rollercoaster ride of
emotions you will feel in the run up and day of the wedding – I laughed,
cried, argued with Lee, had the biggest highs and lows but ultimately
we had the perfect day. My words of wisdom would be to organise
everything down to the last detail, make lists of lists and don’t assume
anything! Ask for samples of flowers, cakes  and fabrics, do trial make
up and hair etc so you don’t have any unexpected surprises.

One of our favourite details was
the suspended birdcage purchased from The Range,
that we found a very small teacup and sauce for; placing a candle
inside, lighting in memory predominately for Lee’s mum Sue who passed
away nearly four years ago.  In an ornate frame next to it read
‘remembering those that are no longer with us’ and an image of a
birdcage with two birds flying away. This was lit when we sat down to
eat and then brought through to the reception -so they could be a part
of all in spirit. (readers, you may want to read this post about how to involve people you love (and have lost) on your wedding day celebrations).

As wonderful as it was to
have a bespoke dress made, it did come with its ‘hairy moments’ but was
awesome to ultimately design my on own dress and have much input.

Finally, let your friends and family help out and share the load. Once the
day has begun those little things are not so important, just relax and
have a wonderful day as it's unlikely to happen again. Also, take a
moment to stop and look round at everyone, the time goes so quick."

What a beautifully upbeat and positive, never mind beautiful way to
start the week. Huge congratulations to you Sian and Lee and as always,
we are grateful to the super-talented Mandy of Dottie Photography for sharing her work.

If you love this style of photography as well as this bride's style, you might very well want to lose yourself in these pages right here.

What do you love most about this wedding?  I'd love to hear from some of you lovely readers today.

Annabel

Photography – Dottie Photography
Venue – Stubton Hall in Newark
Dress, Headpiece + Cuff – Amanda Caroline Couture
Brides Shoes – Karen Millen
Groom's Attire – Top Man
Bridesmaids – John Lewis
Flowergirls – Monsoon
Florist -  The Flower Shop Kirton
Cake – Cottage Cakes
Entertainment – The Skyliner
Hair Stylist – Kate Drew at Top To Toe + Love Hair by Sonja & Co
Makeup Artist – Laura Chapman