An Original 1950s Vintage Tiered Wedding Dress For A Relaxed and Retro Inspired Wedding

Good afternoon lovelies.  Have you had time yet to see the exquisite wedding of this morning, or this post for all you foodies out there?

This afternoon's feature showcases yet another one of Elizabeth Avey's divine original vintage wedding dresses. This is Neil and Nina's wedding, which took place on 22nd September 2012, at Lemore Manor in Herefordshire.

"My dress was from Elizabeth Avey in London.  I
went dress shopping with a friend who was getting married 2 ½ months
before me.  This was the first place I’d visited to look at dresses and
was nearly a whole year before the wedding – I went to just get an idea
of what I liked, what looked good on etc.

It was then that I decided I wanted a 1950s
vintage dress (as the style suits my shape) and was looking for
something a little different, so I knew I was looking in the right
place."

Photography Copyright (c) 2012 – All Seeing Eye

"Neil and I met when we were both living in Aberdeen in 2003 on a Saturday
night out  (Nina was out with her friend Julie – who was a witness at
the wedding, and they both literally bumped into Neil outside a bar!).  In 2008 we moved to London and became engaged in April 2011 while on
holiday in Vietnam amd Cambodia (whilst visiting one of the temples in
Cambodia)

Although we’d been together for a few years, it still came
as a surprise when Neil proposed – he’d secretly bought the ring in
London and hidden it between two taped together business cards in his
wallet.  It all makes sense now why he was so nervous when the hotel
safe broke!"

"Our florist was Stems Flowers.  We
put flowers above the front door and above bandstand (where we were
married).  In the dining room, we had two main flower displays – above
the fireplace and on the table in front of the Bride and Groom.  We also
had smaller table displays of bouquets in teapots.  To further decorate
the table we had the favours and place names at each place setting.

Menus were placed on the table in photo frames and we scattered petals
and confetti on the table.  We also created decoupage lettering,
spelling our names (displayed on window sills) and “cake” (displayed on
the table with the cake).

"We hired Lemore Manor for the whole weekend, Friday to Sunday, and all
guests stayed for two nights in the house.  As both the wedding and
reception were held in the house and grounds, we did not require any
transport.  Having looked at many
venues on the internet, and travelled to look at several in person, we
knew as soon as we arrived at Lemore Manor this would be the perfect
venue for us."

The weather was perfect on the day (although totally unexpected due
to heavy rain the day before and after) we were very lucky!  This meant
we could get married outside (which we had thought wouldn’t happen due
to bad weather) and after the ceremony were able to have champagne and
canapés on the lawn.  Neither of use expected everyone to spend three hours
enjoying the sunshine at the end of September!

We also loved the fact
the day was so much fun, which was exactly what we were trying to
achieve when we set out to plan the weekend."

"I was really unsure whether or not to have a veil and I looked
around for one but couldn’t find anything I really liked that went
with my dress.  Last minute, I saw the fascinator on-line in the Accessorize sale (whilst buying a bikini for my honeymoon!) – and managed to get a bargain for £5."

"Our wedding favours were a Pez Dispenser with sweets and a retro
Ladybird book.  The Pez Dispensers were purchased from Selfridges in
London.  The retro Ladybird Books were all bought on ebay, with each one
themed to suit our guests.  It definitely kept everyone entertained
when they were sat in the dining room waiting for our entrance!"

"Jay Watson from All Seeing Eye
was our photographer. Jay was fantastic on the day, with many of the
guests commenting on how much they loved our photographer!  She was very
laid back which put us at ease, whilst still being in control of the
group when needed for some of our photos, which once the champagne came
out I imagine became a little harder!  We were looking for pictures
which told a story of our day, rather than an album just of posed group
shots and our only problem now is choosing which ones we’ll be leaving
out!! 

Jay managed to capture all of the little details and it’s been
great looking back through the pictures as it’s a real reminder of the
whole day – right from getting ready in the morning to the first dance."

"I tried on three dresses during my hour fitting at Elizabeth's studio and
found my wedding dress that day and bought it!!  I loved the fact the
dress looked classic (with the lace at the top), but the tulle skirt
then added something different.

I was a little nervous
buying something so quickly with so long still to go before the wedding,
but as the dresses are all one offs, I thought how would I feel if I
came back in a couple of months and it wasn’t there – that made my mind
up!  I collected the dress a couple of weeks later and it was hidden in
the spare room until the wedding!

Wearing an underskirt made the skirt
much fuller and fun – especially when dancing!"

"My dad Michael walked me down the aisle, to the main theme from
Forest Gump the movie.  We signed the register to Colours and Catch the
Wind, both by Donovan.  We walked back down the aisle to Nothings Going
to Stop Us Now, by Starship."

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"Readers
love to read the ‘Words of Wedded Wisdom’ left by other brides…It’s very
tempting to try and plan every little detail and make everything
perfect, but with so many different things coming together all on one
day, there is inevitably something that won’t go to plan.

We
tried to keep focusing on the overall theme of the weekend and most of
all how we wanted the whole event to be fun.  Trying not to get caught
up too much in the small detail meant when the day came, I was able to
just enjoy it, rather than worrying if things were just so.  We chose
early on those aspects we thought were important to us and focused our
time and effort here….which definitely helped to keep the planning fun
too!

Hiring a Photo Booth from My Photobooth
was a last minute addition.  Everyone loved this on the day and the
pictures went straight into a guest book which was set up for our guests
to leave their messages.  We ended up with some really great pictures,
with a lot of people making multiple trips into the booth, and leaving
multiple messages in our book!"

If you are keen to explore original vintage wedding gowns, visit the Elizabeth Avey website.

You can see more brides wearing Elizabeth Avey gowns on Love My Dress here.

With much love,

Annabel

Photographer – All Seeing Eye
Venue – Lemore Manor in Herefordshire
Wedding Dress – Elizabeth Avey
Brides Fascinator – Accessorize
Brides' shoes – Irregular Choice
Bride's accessories – Shaunleane  necklace/earrings + Lola Rose bracelet
Necklace & Earrings – Shaunleane
Grooms Suit – Gieves & Hawkes, No.1 Saville Row
Flowers – Stems Flowers
Cake – Cake – Patisserie Viennoise 
Entertainment – Peter Stead DJ
Rings – Heming London
Photobooth Hire – My Photobooth