A Justin Alexander Dress for a Colour Burst Handmade Wedding

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Hello lovely readers, don’t we have a treat for you today! This is the kind of wedding that will make you wonder if you can possibly fit one or two more DIY projects onto your already brimming list.

Helena and Rhodri married on the 5th of April 2014, in the same place they had their first date, the iconic Ashton Memorial in Lancaster. They followed their elegant ceremony with a colourful reception at Forrest Hills, a gorgeous venue with a marquee allowing them to have two different colour schemes.  They made a lot themselves; Penguin book postcard menus, photo walls, an I-spy game, giant letters… You will be feasting your eyes on masses of gorgeous flowers, large tree stumps as centrepieces and metres of specially made crochet bunting and flowers along with an impressive ‘Great Wedding Bake Off’.  This wedding is truly a treat so grab a cup of tea and enjoy!

“I gave Rhodri my number while he was wearing a horse head mask at a Ball! He asked me to marry him the day after our two year anniversary in a tiny boat in Lake Windermere. We had a 14 month engagement.

We thought it was bound to rain in April so wanted a colourful wedding to cheer up a grey day! We had white and yellow flowers in the main building and lots of colour in the marquee with orange, pink and blue as our main colours.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014,  Katherine Ashdown

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

“Clare from The Flower Farm made the bouquets and supplied buckets of flowers for us to arrange at the venue. I wanted a fairly natural bouquet with lots of colour, it had lily of the valley, orange and pink roses, anemones, ranunculus, daisies, eucalyptus, peonies, rosemary and succulents. The groom, best men and dads had a pale pink ranunculus, succulent and eucalyptus stem buttonhole.

At the venue we had narcissus, daisies, September flowers, ranunculus, David Austin roses, eucalyptus, stocks, lily of the valley and anemones. The next day we gave the flowers to our army of helpers!”

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

Of course, you’ll need to scroll a little further down to find out where these beautiful blue gowns worn by the bridesmaids came from…

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

“Our lovely photographer Kathy is a friend of a friend and we met her when Rhodri and I had been together for about three months. I loved her blog and website and was desperate for her to be our wedding photographer (when I was hinting to Rhodri that he might like to propose I pointed out how quickly she gets booked up!). Kathy was the first supplier we booked and one of our best decisions.

We absolutely LOVE our wedding photos – she captured the day beautifully and we will cherish our photographs forever. She made us feel so at ease in front of the camera. We cannot recommend her highly enough!”

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

Helena wore a divine lace dress by Justin Alexander  with a cathedral length veil and pretty Irregular Choice shoes with a tiny heel.

“I tried so many dresses on with my bridesmaid Kat in tow and kept changing my mind about the style I wanted. I took my mum and grandma to see another dress when the owner of Butterfly Bridal pointed out a new dress and as soon as I put it on I knew it was the dress for me! I love the lace detail and the back of the dress is just gorgeous.”

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photographycolourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

“My engagement ring is an 18ct ethical gold ring with a conflict free diamond. We got our wedding rings engraved with ‘Fi’n caru ti’ – ‘I love you’ in Welsh.”

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

“We chose readings which reflected us as a couple so we had ‘Union’ by Robert Fulgham and ‘The Art of Marriage’ by Wilferd Arlan Peterson, then finished the ceremony off with the more relaxed ‘Untitled’ by Bee Rawlinson. We had to change some of the words after ‘Untitled’ was deemed ‘inappropriate’ by the registry office! It was an amazing feeling to stand in front of everyone we love and say our vows.”

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

“Our bridesmaid Clare recently set up a vintage styling business so she supplied the vintage tea sets along with the amazing vintage bike and some gorgeous deck chairs. Rhodri made the LOVE letters painted in the wedding colours. We made petal confetti from our engagement flowers and put it in pink stripy bags.”

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“We got married at 10:30am and didn’t want people to get bored with such a long day so we hired a candy floss machinecasino and a magician who was a massive hit! He went above and beyond and stayed to help get the party started in the evening! Our band ‘The Soul Boys’ played a mixture of 60s pop, soul and motown songs and then DJed in the evening.”

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

“We had frames in one of the rooms, guests had to find their name and replace it with their photo. We had blank postcards to write a message on and we are making a guest book with the photos and postcards.”

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

“Rhodri’s very talented mum made the amazing four tier wedding cake including the flowers on top. It had four tiers of chocolate, lemon and fruit cake.”

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“We were worried about having an early ceremony but it was good to have such a long day. Everything goes so quickly that we were glad to have that extra time and everyone enjoyed the activities we put on. Make sure you and your partner stick to what you want for your day. We were very clear on what we wanted from the start as people will try and tell you what you ‘have’ to do on the day but if it isn’t what you want ignore them!”

colourful wedding, handmade wedding, justin alexander, katherine ashdown photography

Wow, so many lovingly handmade details and aren’t the flowers just to die for! Massive congratulations to Helena and Rhodri on such an amazing day. I can see why Helena was so insistent on booking Kathy, the photography is truly beautiful and you can see more here.

Love Caoimhe xx

 

Photographer – Katherine Ashdown
Venues – Ceremony at Ashton Memorial + Reception at Forrest Hills
Caterer – Newfields Catering
Dress – 8626 by Justin Alexander from Butterfly Bridal
Hair & Make-up Artist – Lucy Pearson & Katie
Bride’s Shoes – Irregular Choice
Bridesmaids Dresses – Monsoon + Shoes – Next + Earrings – Not on the High Street
Groom and Groomsmen’s Suits – Next + Scrabble Cufflinks – Not on the High Street
Florist – Clare Ashcroft at The Flower Farm
Rings – Lilia Nash Jewellery + Carr’s Jewellers, Garstang
Entertainment – Candy Floss Machine + Casino – R.Leisure Hire + Magician – Sam Fitton
Reception Décor – Clare at Truly Vintage
Band – The Soul Boys
Transport – Posh Pampa Campa – Beatrice the Vintage Camper Van
Invitation Printing – Printroom
Favours – Donations to Cancer ResearchLeukaemia & Lymphoma Research + Mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS)

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Caoimhe Anderson

Caoimhe Anderson View all Caoimhe's articles

Caoimhe will never tire of beautiful wedding dress and a blooming flower crown. When she's not lusting after a gorgeous wedding she will be trying new vegetarian recipes, knitting very slowly or capturing a pink sunset from behind a camera lens.

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