2014: A Year of Wonderful Weddings

Hello there 🙂 Happy New Years Eve ‘Eve’! Thank you so much for being here – right here, right now, reading this very blog page.  Whether you’re a regular reader or brand new visitor, it really is most lovely to have your company. And if you are a new visitor, then an extra special welcome to you! My name is Annabel and this is my much loved wedding blog (and full time job) – the result of a little something I started back in 2009, and now, an award winning blog with many thousands of visitors the world over.  I still have to pinch myself about that fact on a pretty much daily basis.

You can read more about me and my newly extended team here, and if takes your fancy, you can follow Love My Dress® on your fave social media channels including Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook and even Google+.

Love My Dress® is an online world of wedding planning inspiration that embraces glamour and elegance and encourages sophistication and style, whilst remaining true to the love story behind every wedding.

2014 has been a crazy, exhausting, uplifting, super-busy, life-changing and completely magical year for Love My Dress.  I plan to share some of my personal thoughts and reflections in a separate post soon.  Today however, and as is tradition at the end of each year (see 2012 and 2013), I wanted to share a round-up of some of the wonderful content we have shared over the past 12 months.   I was planning on sharing this post tomorrow, but I don’t think I can wait any longer.

I’ve purposefully not labelled this my ‘favourites’ post – I’d hate for any bride to think I’d not included her wedding as I didn’t ‘favour’ it enough. I prefer to think of this more as a curation of links to 2014 wedding features that beautifully represent what’s at the heart of Love My Dress – a diverse range of celebrations that embrace glamour, elegance and love.  Some of the love stories attached to these weddings are deeply moving and wonderfully uplifting – always inspiring.  We take great care in the way we prepare these stories on Love My Dress – the sensitive nature with which we write and share our real wedding features is infact something we are complemented on time and time again.  And we are immensely proud about that. It’s given brides with very personal stories the confidence to approach us and open their hearts to us.  It has given leading industry players who have been married themselves a reason to make Love My Dress their blog of choice for sharing their own nuptials.  I also hope it means that you, our reader, gets a richer and more meaningful blogging experience each time you visit Love My Dress.

This post I’m sharing today is a bit like a trip down 2014 wedding memory lane.  It is also a very sincere and special way of saying ‘thank you’ to all the couples, photographers and industry suppliers who have worked with us this year to make these features possible. I am grateful beyond words to these people for making this content possible for you to enjoy and be inspired by.

Be warned – this is a long post, though I make no apology for it.

The weddings below feature in no particular order.  That being said, I could only start with the wedding of Clara Francis, a most talented jeweller designer (see her collaboration with Belle & Bunty here) to film and TV actor Jason Watkins (aka ‘Gordon Shakespeare’ in the suite of ‘Nativity’ films , BBC’s ‘W1A‘, Sky’s ‘Trollied‘ and more recently, the fantastic ITV drama ‘The Lost Honour of Christopher Jeffries‘ – you may also have seen him on Celebrity Mastermind the other night).

Since sharing this wedding back in June, Clara has become a dear friend of mine, and having gotten to know her and learn more of her story, I feel exceptionally privileged to have been asked to share this incredibly special wedding with you.  The whole thing reaffirmed to me completely and utterly why Love My Dress is so much more than just a source of beautiful weddings.

**click on any image to be taken to the full wedding feature**

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Rik Pennington

Clara and Jason’s wedding was a celebration of the love that helped the couple survive the chaos and grief of losing their precious young daughter Maude.

“My plan was always to get married when I turned 40, when our daughters Bessie and Maude were old enough to be bridesmaids and remember it with us.  But so sadly, this didn’t go according to plan.  When our beautiful Maude died, our friends really were incredible.  We have amazing friends and family and they carried Jason and myself through the wilderness and chaos of grief.

We felt we wanted to get married and celebrate our, I can’t think of a better word, ‘survival’.  It sounds a little naff I guess, but that is truly what it felt like to both of us.  We survived the storm – we will always be battered and bruised and there will always be a gaping hole in our family where our precious, most gentle Maude should be, but we wanted to celebrate our love and family and strength, and get all those people that had been there at her funeral, the most terrible day of our lives, to come to our wedding, the most joyous day of our lives.  Our wedding was as joyous as her funeral was dreadful.”

“I was so cynical about the whole wedding shebang, and despite calling in many favours from clever friends, I just couldn’t believe that one single day would be worth all the fuss.  I was so wrong! I know every bride thinks her wedding is incredible, but ours truly was the most magical, spiritual and ultimately life-affirming day of not only my life but I know many of our friends lives too. It’s not about perfection – it’s only about love.  The whole day should be about love. 

As long as you have each other and your most beloved friends and family there to share it with you – nothing else really matters.”

You can see Clara and Jason’s breathtaking, celestial inspired wedding held at the stunning Wiltons Music Hall in London here, or click on any of the images above.

Another wedding that won your hearts this year was that of celebrity stylist and bridal fashion designer, Kate Halfpenny to her Art Director, Illustrator and Graphic Designer James Lee Duffy.  This was one of the most beautiful, colourful, joy filled weddings I have ever seen in my life – full of prettiness and details to charm your socks off, including an Up! inspired house full of balloons!

“We wanted a wedding that was relaxed and fun – a celebration with all our dear friends and family. It evolved into the most amazing, colourful wedding ever. James and I are visual people – definitely not spreadsheet types – we would just sit there with mood boards for all the areas of the wedding and this worked perfectly for us.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Elegant & Wild

Spot the famous supermodel below…

“Love My Dress® provided me with tonnes of inspiration during wedding planning – everything that Annabel and her team blogs is executed in such an inspiring and loving way. I genuinely love the real weddings on this blog, and I hope mine inspires people to be brave with colour and to have all those friends as bridesmaids – rules are meant to be broken after all!”

This next wedding is nothing short of breathtaking – Kate wasn’t the only wedding dress designer’s wedding I shared this year – I felt exceptionally privileged to be asked to share the wedding of quintessential British bridal wear designer Charlotte Balbier to her beau Teddy – a most magnificent and glamorous winter wedding held at Iscoyd Park.

“I wanted our wedding to be glamorous, beautiful, fun and in keeping with my style and us a couple. I took some inspiration from my favourite era – Art Deco, just a nod to it through little elements like my shoe clips, hair band and clutch bag. For me the day had to be super stylish, quintessentially English but with a little bit of Hollywood old School glamour too”

Film Production Copyright (c) 2014, Silk Wedding Films

The details in these  photographs taken by film photographer Polly Alexandre are simply sublime…

“Designing my own wedding dress was one of the hardest things I have had to do. It took me well over a year as I changed my mind several times and ended up having over fifteen gowns that were ‘nearly the one’. The two gowns that I wore I designed only a few months prior to the actual wedding. My Mum, Amanda Wyatt (also a bridal wear designer) was such a great help and support as she gave me guidance and direction when I had many a melt down about my dresses!

However, once I finalised my design, I knew it was ‘the one’ – as I felt like me, I didn’t want to take it off and felt genuine emotion when I tried it on!”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Polly Alexandre

There is a distinct aesthetic that I’m drawn towards when it comes to selecting weddings to share on Love My Dress®.  The best way I can describe it is ‘glamorous and elegant’ – I just know when a set of images is right for the blog – and nevermore so was that emotion felt than when this beautiful collection of photographs dropped in my inbox, courtesy of bride Charlotte – a Research and Development Scientist at a Neurotechnology company in Cambridge.  Charlotte married her beau Harry, a Junior Research Fellow at Oxford University in July last year at Emmanuel College in Cambridge.

I fell head over heels for Charlotte’s whole look – her dress, that floral headpiece by the wonderful Miss Pickering and that beautiful smile.  Just so timeless and elegant.

“Getting married to the person you love is the most wonderful thing ever, and I am so excited for Love My Dress readers who are planning their special day at the moment. Having a wonderful and beautiful celebration afterwards on the day is of course good fun, and exactly what you want to do, but the party does not stop after the wedding day; the ceremony is the start of a life-long celebration.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, M&J Photography

I’ve always felt it part of the role of this blog to challenge convention and cover issues that traditional wedding industry media wouldn’t touch with a barge pole (you can find lots of juicy discussion posts here – but you might be particularly interested in reading the following features we shared this year:-

• Why are weddings expensive?
• A love letter to weight worried brides
• The weight thing
• Don’t Love My Dress
• Why it’s OK to spend money on your wedding day
• The curious world of wedding dress order times
• Fairytale weddings versus real life marriage

In 2013, we were the first wedding blog to ever document the journey of a disabled bride planning her wedding.  Our ‘Confessions of a Disabled Bride‘ series followed bride Nina and her groom Bob as they planned for their elegant late Summer, literature inspired London wedding.  My family and I were guests at this wedding – it was incredible…“Our main inspiration was children’s literature. We took inspiration from Victorian children’s stories like The Secret Garden, from the magic and darkness in classic fairy-tales and from the wonky humour and colourfulness of more modern children’s literature like Roald Dahl or Astrid Lindgren. And of course we chose our favourite authors that bring out our inner geeks, Neil Gaiman and JK Rowling.  It also really meant a lot to us that we were getting married in a country and at a time where marriage is finally open to everyone.

I had a bespoke design dress created by Lucia Silver and her team at The State of Grace.  The first wedding dress I ever saw and really, really liked was Gwen Stefani’s – the ombre pink at the bottom seemed so joyful and fresh, and it was perfectly balanced with the more traditional top of her dress. So I knew from the get-go that this would be my main inspiration.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Lillian & Leonard

Those who’ve been following Love My Dress for a little while, may know that I live in Whitby in North  Yorkshire – a place I love with all my heart.  Whitby is steeped in history and bursting at the seams with good old fashioned seaside charm. It’s such a magical place – I mean, really magical – the place I visited when I first started dating my now husband, the place I dreampt about retiring too – the place I feel truly blessed to call home.

Imagine my delight therefore, to find out that one of the worlds most renowned wedding photographers visited my hometown to photograph a secret beach wedding back in the Summer.   I adore everything about this wedding so very much…

“We are both laid back people and love the natural outdoors. Whitby has always been a special place for me for a long time – it is full of fond childhood memories, and one of the places we have spent many wonderful days out together. So it made sense to have our wedding celebrations there.   It was a beautiful day so I had planned to walk to the ceremony, but I ended up jumping in a taxi as I was running ‘fashionably’ late. The taxi driver started singing ‘The chapel of love’,  which was really nice and spontaneous. We walked for the rest of the day, all through the main streets, everyone we passed wished us their best, it was quite lovely. We felt like we were in a film!”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Fer Juaristi

This year, we launched a new project – The Lovettes – our first team of real blogging brides – one of whom, Madeleine, recently tied the knot.  Madeleine and Tim are actually having a two-part wedding, the first of which took place in my favourite city in the world – New York.  This beautifully photographed wedding perfectly captures the spirit of young love and I completely adore it.

“We always wanted our wedding day to be about being young and in love; the details weren’t really that important. I’m just so in love with Tim and we both love New York so much that ultimately there wasn’t any other option than for us to throw ourselves on an airplane and go get married there.  Once we had decided to get married in New York and have our names be part of New York’s history (which felt incredibly romantic), there was never much of a discussion between Tim and I about where we would actually say ‘I Do’ – it was always City Hall.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Claudia Rose Carter

I am a huge fan of film photography – a medium that has seen a huge resurgence in recent years thanks to movements like F.I.N.D and The Impossible Project.  There is something about the beauteous tones and hues and gorgeous grainy texture of film photography that excites me, and so it was an extra special pleasure to be able to feature this wedding that was sent in by photographer Ashton Jean Pierre (I think I’m his biggest fan!).  Ashton shot the wedding of fashion designer Joelle and her husband Ben, who tied the knot in August this year at Cecil Sharp House. 

“As a fashion designer, the overall styling of our wedding was very important to me, and I knew I wouldn’t really trust someone else to implement my ideas. Details were everything and I really enjoyed working with suppliers to get everything just right.  We didn’t have a theme as such, we both just collected ideas that we loved. From the very beginning, we said we wanted the day to be very informal and to have a big party surrounded by our favourite people, which is what we ultimately achieved.

My advice to all couples would be to take time to enjoy it and relax. Take ten minutes out of your day to sneak off with each other alone and take it all in.  And don’t stress!  If something isn’t ready on the day, the wedding will go on without it (and no one else will notice!)”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Ashton Jean Pierre

Having written openly (in collaboration with the fabulous Nova of Nu Bride) about the lack of brides of colour on wedding blogs, it was a delight to be able to share the wedding of Sian and Chris on Love My Dress earlier this year.  I adored the sense of modern elegance portrayed in these beautiful photographs by Nabeel of Nabeel’s Camera – the bold colours and that incredible off-the shoulder asymmetrical gown by Eliza Jane Howell.

“There was no one thing that I could pick out as an influence really – above all I wanted the day to be fun. I went a bit wedding crazy during the planning process and spent what felt like every night pinning on Pinterest, reading wedding blogs and googling like a fiend. We didn’t have a theme as such. I gravitate towards bright bold colours, but I couldn’t narrow down which I liked best so I decided to try and keep the wedding ‘colourful’ with bright pink, green, turquoise, purple, yellow, and some gold accents.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Nabeel’s Camera

I adore this portrait shot of bride Rebecca on her wedding day to Russell.  Rebecca teamed her beautiful Temperley London gown with feathers in her hair…

“I found a fantastic seller on Etsy called ElliAnya. Based in New York, ElliAnya hand-makes feather headbands and boho-style headpieces. I asked her to custom-make one for me for the wedding, using white and natural-coloured feathers. It became like a crown or feather-veil. I loved it because it was different and still felt very special without being a traditional veil.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Laura Babb

I love how bride Lucy wore an emerald green vintage Christian Dior gown for her wedding to Oliver in Northumberland earlier this year.

“I knew I didn’t want a typical or traditional bridal gown – the practical girl in me wanted to be able to get some wear out of the dress! I did the usual thing of browsing all of the high street stores one Sunday afternoon (without luck) and had just resolved to wear one of my own dresses when I stumbled into Liberty. I saw the emerald green colour on the rail and despite it being too large for me, I tried it on. The tailor tweaked it to fit and that was that!”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Vanessa Adams Photography

The original 1940’s Elizabeth Avey vintage wedding dress worn by fashion buyer Sally when she married her love Josh, truly stole my heart.  Their tipi wedding was a celebration of all things colourful, bohemian and eclectic.

“I wanted our wedding to have a relaxed, natural and whimsical feel and, most of all, for it to be full of colourful blooms and home made touches. I did touch on some vintage aspects with the bunting and vintage china, but ultimately there was no set theme, just an eclectic bohemian mix of everything!

I regularly scoured the internet for inspiration and visited lots of wedding blogs, including Love My Dress. I love the way Love My Dress provides coverage of less well known wedding dress designers i.e. Katya Katya Shehurina. There is so much coverage of the obvious dress designers and suppliers; so it is refreshing to see you exposing (and supporting) the newcomers.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Rachel Hayton

I really love the ‘officer and a gentlemen’ nature of this wedding, John looks like he has literally swept Lindsay off her feet.  Readers, do take a moment to check out Lindsay’s stationery design business, A Little Thing Called Love, too – she created all the stationery for her wedding herself, and it’s all incredibly pretty.

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Kitchener Photography

“With the exception of some compulsory statements, we wrote all of our own ceremony. This was quite important to John and I as we wanted it to be as personal as possible. Our vows to each other were both the same; ‘I promise to always cherish your friendship and love. And, I will try to always bring laughter to our lives and make you happy.  Your enthusiasm for life and adventure makes me feel excited about our future together. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, when life seems easy and when it seems hard. Whatever may come I will always be there for you.‘”

Film Production by Worldly Nomads

In January this year, I welcomed old and new readers with this truly remarkable 1920s inspired wedding. It’s difficult to pull off a 20’s inspired look without falling in the trap of everything feeling a little like ‘fancy dress’ – but Graphic Designer Laura and Art Gallery owner George (they run the William Benington Gallery in London) did so with absolute style and grace.

“The style of our wedding was inspired by the jazz age of the 1920s and 1930’s, with a George and Laura twist. We are both huge Art Deco, Agatha Christie, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jeeves and Wooster fans etc. I don’t even remember discussing it – we both just knew that we had to have some Jazz Age styling.  Perhaps because George’s parents house, which was also our venue for the day, was clearly designed for hosting parties when it was built in 1906, and we have often sat around the fire imagining the festivities that may have happened there years ago.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Brighton Photo

When wedding videographer Leanne of Blooming Lovely Films got married earlier this year, she didn’t hesitate to commission one of the best UK film makers to document her wedding to her beloved Dave, and Master wedding film maker Jeff Wood pulled out all the stops to create this gorgeous 4 minute moving memory of this beautiful day in the Spring.

“Despite having a religious upbringing I always imagined I’d get married outdoors. I used to play ‘weddings’ with my sisters at an early age – my older sister would always have us carrying the bed sheet that was attached to her head. We’d all walk down the ‘aisle’ (our hallway) and sing the traditional wedding march. Whereas when I got ‘married’ it was always us prancing around in the garden, picking Mum’s flowers with the outdoor breeze!”

Film Copyright (c) 2014, Jeff Wood Visuals

“With the wedding being on Easter Monday, it already set a warm spring tone to the style of the day. We wanted to enhance this with the flowers, the music and the Easter egg hunt for the children.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Ross Harvey

This 1920’s vintage and speakeasy inspired wedding in Brooklyn just oozed the type of era inspired glamour that I adore.

“We wanted to create an atmosphere that was not too serious and tradition based, but still felt like a wedding. We kept it more casual by doing family style dinner, dessert trucks, having cocktails before getting into the ‘serious’ stuff. Also, the decor was not too precious. The idea was for it to look “lived in” and encourage interaction. It was also an incredibly diverse international group. We had people from many different countries which added to the dynamic.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014,  Chris Spira

The wedding of Illustrator Emma to her husband James in the city of Sheffield (hello snow!) was one of those sublime, uber-cool weddings that leaped off the page for me, with all it’s quirky uniqueness.   This wedding, inspired by the movie ‘Lost In Translation’, which is set in Japan, included a bride wearing a kimono and a beautiful 1930’s vintage gown.  Just divine…

“I love Sophia Coppola’s films, in particular ‘Lost in Translation’. Set in Tokyo, it’s such a quietly romantic film and very much about the experience of a city – and how the changing light throughout the day can change the feel of a place. The Adelphi Room has floor to ceiling windows on three sides, and looks out over the city. We held our ceremony at dusk so we could see the light changing and the city lighting up.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, India Hobson

Love My Dress’s roots are embedded within the vintage scene – it was my own 1930’s glamour inspired wedding back in 2009 that inspired my adoration of timeless, era inspired glamour.  Our wedding took place at the start of the explosion of the vintage scene.  In the time since then, there is one particular era that has stood out for the way  brides have embraced the fashion of the time – the 1950’s.  The full circle skirt and nipped in at the waist style silhouette has been such a popular choice of dress for so many brides, including school teacher Lyndsay who married her beau Simon earlier this year with a fabulous 50’s rock n’ roll inspired wedding.

I adored Lyndsay’s style – her vintage makeover was courtesy of the Lipstick & Curls team (who are currently offering all Love My Dress readers a 20% saving on their hair and make up bridal services and packages if booked before 28th February 2015 (click here for more details).  That incredible headpiece by the way is by Kat Swank…

“Both Simon and I knew we wanted a relaxed, rustic style wedding in a barn. Whilst looking online at Tara Starlet, I came across a picture of three girls wearing 1950s inspired pastel colour dresses and eating ice cream – I loved it so much I ended up basing the whole colour scheme around this picture!   My mum brought me up listening to 50’s rock ‘n’ roll so that was also a very big influence on our day.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Michelle Waspe

This delightfully handmade, miss-matched and rustic inspired Somerset farm wedding was a 100% DIY effort – with an army of family and friend helpers who worked with the couple to create their magical day.

“Our theme ended up being was a combination of rustic, home-made, DIY, natural, country, vintage and miss-match. Our main aim was for it to be informal, fun, ceremonious, and a real team effort by our family and friends. Our venue was so naturally beautiful that we wanted to play on its strengths without over preening.”

Film Production Copyright (c) 2014, Happy Wedding Films (soundtrack by Lily & Meg)

“Russell was browsing Love My Dress when he spotted the Wedding of Lucy and Gregor. Their venue, the groom’s Uncle’s farm and surrounding Somerset countryside was spot on for what we were looking for, but it wasn’t as simple as that as it is private land, not your typical wedding venue. We got in touch with Mark Tattersall, the photographer (who we also chose as our photographer) and he gave us the details for the farm owner, Gregor’s uncle. When we got in touch with the farmer and his wife, they welcomed us with open arms to come and visit the farm with a warning that there would be lots to do!

On visiting the working dutch barn (with tractors, logs and materials inside), woodlands and beautiful B&B on site where all our bridesmaids and ushers could stay, we knew we’d struck gold – but that we also had a mammoth task ahead of us!”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Mark Tattersall

Kirsty and Mark’s beautiful, bohemian and 1970’s inspired Summer wedding so perfectly fits the whole style and ethos of Love My Dress.  The couple wanted their day to have a relaxed feel and to be something they both felt completely comfortable with. Their choice of venue, dress and flowers were an extension of both their personalities and personal style. That dress by the way is by Rue de Seine…

“It was really important for us to keep this running through the whole day. A lot of people commented on the day looking quite 70’s which is one of my favourite era’s so I’m happy with that.  As soon as I saw this dress I knew it was the one for me. I took a chance and ordered the dress without even trying it on. Everyone said I must be mad, but I know what I like and I had not seen anything like it anywhere else.

The dress had to be an extension of my personality and style. I didn’t want to look like I had just been plonked into a wedding dress.  I also loved the fact that it was a heavy cotton embroidered lace so it was really soft on the body. The sunflower detail was also perfect for our summer wedding and it was simple enough for our relaxed day.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Philippa James

Those of you who follow Love My Dress on Facebook may have already read this update I posted a few days ago, about this inspirational story of strength, hope, determination and love. This truly is one of those weddings that moved me to tears, and I feel privileged beyond words to have had the opportunity to share this wedding on my blog.  This wedding has a slightly longer introduction than the others, but it’s important.  Please read every single word…

‘Dear Annabel, I’d like to submit our wedding photographs for your consideration. As you can see from my signature I am a freelance hair and makeup artist –  I have freelanced for almost 20 years and had the pleasure of working with over 900 Brides on their wedding day. Over the years, I have met some amazing wedding suppliers, seen almost every style and shape of dress and probably been to every wedding venue in the South of England, so as you can imagine, I had many ideas and dreams about my own wedding.  All I needed was a groom!

Now to give you a brief insight into me – When I was 16 I fell ill with a rare strain of Meningitis and to save my life I had to have both my legs amputated, but this never stopped me from achieving every goal I have set myself. I can’t say my choice of career was the easiest choice for a girl with false legs, but I took every knock back and nasty jibe that the beauty, fashion and media industry threw at me and I succeeded where so many of my able bodied peers gave up. Have a look at this video to understand a little more about me.

Dan and I met in 2009 and all I can say is he was just ‘Mr right’ – a fireman, a gentleman and a funny man – the man I’d been waiting for.  I have always had a soft spot for a Fireman because my Granddad was a Firefighter and I was so proud of him. When Dan and I first met, I didn’t tell him about my legs, not for any reason other than it just didn’t matter.  He quite clearly liked me for me, and when he did find out (after treading on my foot and I didn’t flinch!), it was never an issue to him. A very short time after we got together, I found out I was pregnant. It was scary as I wasn’t sure Dan would stick around, but he did, and our relationship grew with my bump.

Three days before our baby girl was due to be born, she stopped moving inside me.  I told my Midwife, but she didn’t seem concerned.  The next day when we went to hospital to be checked – we were told our baby had died.

Dan and I got through the toughest thing any couple could face and we did it together.  This was when I knew I’d found my soul mate. Dan was and always will be my rock. He kept me breathing when I couldn’t see a reason to.

Within weeks of losing Chloe, I formed a charity, ‘Count The Kicks’ to try to prevent other couples going through the tragedy of stillbirth. My charity is now one of the leading pregnancy charities in the UK and the knowledge and confidence I gained from the charity helped me in my second pregnancy in May 2011 and ensured the safe (if a bit early) arrival of our son George. Count The Kicks is now run by a team of volunteers, allowing me to concentrate on my family and the work I love, but also the 19 months of planning our dream wedding.

On 27th March 2014 at 1pm Dan and I married in the tiny church in Burpham, near Guildford where our baby Chloe is laid to rest and where our son George was Baptised, it was a very emotional ceremony as the last time many of our guests were there was at Chloe’s funeral.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Victoria Gemma Photography

Ballet teacher Nicole tied the knot with her sweetheart Matt in August this year. This wedding was a mix of 1930’s vintage lace, a good old fashioned London pub knees-up and maids looking pretty all in a flower-crown row.  Nicole wore the most divine gown sourced from Elizabeth Avey and the couple chose London based fashion, portrait and wedding photographer Marc Hayden to document their wedding in images. Utterly gorgeous in every way…

“We didn’t have a particular style or theme for the wedding – we just knew we wanted it to represent us as a couple. We made a thousand colourful origami cranes and hung them from wooden hoops, an ancient Japanese tradition bringing good luck to the married couple. I also read that it teaches the couple patience and commitment and that it did do!! Everything at our wedding was made by us, with loads of help from family and friends and I guess that is what made it so special; it was a bright, colourful and fun.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Marc Hayden

Sarah wore a beautiful Maggie Sottero dress from one of our very highly recommended suppliers, Miss Bush Bridalwear in Surrey.  I love that shot bottom right of the pretty peach flowers in Sarah’s hair.

“My words of wedded wisdom?  Get to know your suppliers, but most importantly let them get to know you. They are helping make your day what you want it to be. My day wouldn’t have been what it was without my suppliers being totally on the same page as me.  A couple of days before the wedding let it go. You have done everything you can, you’ve handed it over to the experts let them do their job. It will help you relax, I promise.

Be confident in your DIY skills. I was really surprised by how much I ended up doing, and saving money in the process.  I was totally unprepared for just how happy I would feel. It sounds ridiculous, but we were laughed and smiled all day. Enjoy that feeling, hopefully it’s once in a lifetime!

And finally, If you have your own children at the wedding allocate one or two people to look after them. It really helps to know you definitely have one person dedicated to keeping an eye on them while you’re doing the important bits.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Vanda Ralevska, Images in Focus

Sarah and Jamie’s outdoor, spiritual wedding was an absolute beauty of a day full of pretty pink peonies  – photographed by Naomi Kenton and filmed by the wonderfully talented Mark W. Brown.  I can’t get enough of those dreamy images and those pink peonies.  I also found it refreshing to learn of a couple who had completely embraced their spirituality and love of nature. Just beautiful.

“Nature is our church so we always wanted an outdoor ceremony that we could devise ourselves. We’re not traditional churchgoers and have alternative beliefs so we wanted to reflect that in the the style and wording of the ceremony.”

Film Production Copyright (c) 2013, Mark W. Brown

“With the help of an inter-faith minister, the universe, energies, destiny and positivity could effortlessly be woven in without leaning towards a particular religion. We wanted to share this intimate part of ourselves with our nearest and dearest on our special day and were free to create our own day and make it personal and unique to us.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Naomi Kenton

Executive Assistant Roch married Media Agency Director Nick on 28th June this year at Hampton Court House in Bushy Park, Richmond.  This wedding is Love My Dress through and through, and I LOVE how Roch rocked her exquisite Halfpenny London gown…

“When I first met designer Kate Halfpenny I knew she was going to make my dress for me.  Her beautiful vintage shop smelling of Diptique candles had me dreaming about a Halfpenny dress from the minute I walked in and met her. She’s so fabulous. My starting point was that I wanted to be able to dance in my dress, not be tied or pulled into it, and most importantly to ‘feel like me’. 

To be honest, every dress of Kate’s I tried on, I loved!  I think in the end it was the lace and weight of the ‘Josephine’ dress which made it just feel right. We took the sleeves off the dress and put a slightly long train on. It was perfect.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Barney Walters

As an introduction to this next wedding, I’m going to share an email I received in May 2013 from the bride when she was in the early stages of planning her wedding…

‘Dear Annabel, I am a bride to be and will be marrying my fiance, Kieran, next year on 16 August 2014 at the beautiful Fetcham Park. Kieran and I met at university and will have been together for 10 years next year.

I have been an avid reader of Love my Dress since we got engaged at Christmas! I have even started making Kieran read it! The best part about that is (1) He thinks it is ‘really good’ and (2) he has just found our photographer on here, Jackson & Co. We then subsequently realised that Michael shot a friend’s wedding last year and we loved their pictures. So, thank you! Your name has popped up on a few occasions when I have spoken with Laura at Fetcham. She speaks very highly of you (and let’s face it, Laura is too amazing for words too!) so I thought I would touch base.

Love my Dress has definitely become an integral part of my day. I love reading about all real weddings, your view on things and seeing new suppliers. My faviourite real wedding so far has to be Bridge and Matt’s and also your associated piece on the emotion that is conveyed through a picture. It is so easy to get carried away about the want want want aspect of a wedding. But I have still always thought it is really all about the marriage and the people.

I hope you enjoy a wonderful weekend in the sun. I might just be in touch after our engagement shoot and wedding too and be lucky enough to grace your pages! 🙂 All the best, Vinita’

Vinita and Kieran went on to have a luxurious pink and gold wedding and Vinita totally wowed in Vera Wang.  Click here to see the wedding in full.

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Jackson & Co Photography

If ‘festival weddings’ are your thing, these photographs of bohemian inspired bride Jude and her laid festival inspired wedding to Jude will inspire you no end.

“We wanted a laid back, ease feel to our wedding, as we both have that attitude to life, but for family, friends and the love which unites us all to be at the centre of it. No toastmasters allowed! We met at a festival, love being at festivals with friends so wanted a day which had all of these elements combined.  We even talked seriously about inviting buskers we met to play sets for a while, but got talked out of that idea!“

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Tom Ravenshear

I really did love the completely laid back nature of  this destination wedding held in Crete where Alex married Henry.  The dress completely stole the show…

“My dress was from Charlie Brear – it was an ivory 1920’s vintage style dress, dropped waist with cowl back made from 100% Sandwashed silk. I loved how elegant and vintage my dress was. The moment I put it on I felt like I had walked of the set of The Great Gatsby and it felt as though it would fit perfectly within our chosen destination.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Jonny MP

Childrens wear designer Claire married her love Jonno at Newton House Barn in Derbyshire.  I loved this wedding for all it’s pretty florals, pastel summer-time hues and charming chintzy bridesmaids dresses – but most of all because these photographs so perfectly capture the essence of this rustic, romantic celebration.   Claire had some very wise words of wedded wisdom to share too…

“Never lose sight of the end goal, it’s easy to let the organisation of a wedding consume you and you tend to forget what it’s all for.   Try not to please everybody, at the end of the day it’s your special day!“

Photographer Copyright (c) 2014, Laura McCluskey

PhD student Beatrice married publisher Duncan in May – their wedding day was inspired by Beatrice’s love of medieval literature and pre-raphaelite medieval imagery.  I feel very much in love with Beatrice’s gold dress too…

“My dress was a group project: I designed it with my wonderful friend Sally Higginson, who’s a pattern cutter – she did such a beautiful job. I next bought the different fabrics with my inimitable mother who began making the two dresses and petticoat around the New Year.  Finally my ridiculously talented friend Alice Archer embroidered the outer layer with peonies, alium, and verbena.

This dress was so meaningful. My mother said it felt like the last gift she could give me and there is nothing like wearing the fruit of so much loving labour. Alice made the embroidery as a gift and it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen – like a precious textile found in an attic. And Sally and I formed a whole new friendship over lengthy discussions of godets, toiles, and the red-carpet dresses I wanted to emulate. “

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Maureen Du Preez

Nicole and Kris tied the knot at Three Sisters Bake in Quarriers Village, outside Bridge of Weir, Scotland. Their Humanist wedding celebration was peppered with pretty pink and pastel touches – the image of Nicole with the flowers in her hair bottom left, is one of our most pinned images on Pinterest!

“I did buy a vintage inspired jewelled head band but wasn’t totally in love with it as I didn’t really want much sparkle. So on the day, my fabulous hairdresser asked our florists for some spare flowers that they had brought to decorate the hall and she then added them to my hair.  This was more me and I’m now so happy that I went with the fresh flowers.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2013, Craig & Eva Sanders

Teachers Chris and Meredith tied the knot over a four-day long weekend celebration on Lundy Island – a three-mile long island off the coast of Devon in the Bristol Channel, owned by the National Trust.

“Just remember to have a little perspective on this whole ‘wedding’ thing. What is important is the love between you and your  partner. At the end of the day, regardless of what you’re wearing, or how the band sounds, or what the food tasted like, you will be married (whatever that means to you) and you will be surrounded by love. If it’s just you two, getting married on a mountaintop or in a registry office, you will be surrounded by your love for each other. If you are having a big, massive wedding or anything in between you will be surrounded by people who, for at least that moment in your lives, think you’re pretty awesome people.

Revel in that and forget all the details.”

Colour shone bright and loud on Love My Dress in 2014 – Lucie and Joe’s handmade 1940s vintage inspired wedding is a perfect example of how our brides and grooms embraced all the joy of colour!

“We both favour old things, rather than new, so knew our wedding would have a traditional, vintage feel, without there being a theme.  The key thing we both wanted was for the overall look to be vibrant, colourful and unfussy. We only really got to see the impact of everything together on the day and, paired with the incredible blue sky and sunshine, it was exactly what we wanted.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Mark Tattersall

The styling for this wedding was inspired largely by the colour of the bride’s taupe Vera Wang wedding dress.

“I love the taupe, grey, nude colour of my gown.  I never wanted to marry in white – it was love at first sight with my dress.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Chris Spira

Claire and Mat tied the knot at The Lodge in Argyll.  These beautiful images speak for themselves – you can click here to view the full wedding feature.

Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Craig and Eva Sanders

This was the sweetest lilac and lavendar, 1950’s inspired garden party wedding.  I particularly loved that beautiful wedding cake and the bride’s pretty dress by designer Joanne Fleming.

English teacher Linda married her darling James. She says “….stick to what you want for your wedding day – people will be quick to voice their opinions but stay true to what you both feel comfortable with. There were many ‘traditional’ aspects that we didn’t include in our day – such as the speeches (you could see the relief lift from our fathers’ faces when we told them that news and we definitely feel they were much more relaxed on the day for it), we also didn’t cut the cake or do a first dance. It was about what we wanted and not what we felt we should do.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, David McClelland

Now there’s a little ‘wedding disaster turned triumph’ involved with this next wedding and I LOVE that Love My Dress played a key role in coming to the rescue!  The bride, Sabrina, contacted me just weeks before her wedding with a bit of a wedding dress issue.  Her designer hadn’t met her brief and she needed to get herself a dress sorted.  And quickly!

“With the help of the amazing Annabel (who put an SOS call out on the Love My Dress Facebook page for me), Charlotte of Wilden Bride came to the rescue after things didn’t work out with the first designer I approached.  With only six weeks left until my wedding – and no dress –  I had to decide whether to continue making it work with the first designer or find another. I literally cried out for help and emailed Annabel for advice. She was so supportive and made me feel at ease at once and I knew that when it felt so wrong I had to stop right there.

I chose to lose my deposit and find a new wedding dress designer (oh the dramas over one dress!).  The response on the Love My Dress Facebook page was overwhelming – and it was through the replies that I discovered and subsequently met with Charlotte Wilden.  She was the perfect choice and saved the day.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Noel Deasington

This exceptionally fabulous bohemian inspired magical woodland wedding was photographed by a lady whose photography I’ve been featuring in all the five years I’ve been blogging – the delectable Emma Case.  This wedding is another one of those ‘made for these pages’ style celebrations that I absolutely adore – the bride with her bold red lippy and birdcage veil, the groom looking damn fabulous in tweed – I love how their eclectic, quirky taste was celebrated.

“We have a love for all things vintage and retro, and together with wanting the day to be really laid back and fun, we went for a vintage bohemian mix in a very English setting. Jamie was really set on having a three piece tweed suit and pocket watch with a country gent feel with some colourful accents.”

Photography Coypright (c) 2014, Emma Case

The veil in these next set of images is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. A vintage veil that belonged to the bride’s own Grandma. It was over 100 years old!

“When we held up my great grandmother’s delicate lace vintage veil against the dress, I was thrilled that the style and colour was a perfect match. We decided to arrange it as a demure shrug for the Church service rather than a traditional veil, draping down my back to show off the scalloped edges and compliment the low V of the back.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Sara Reeve

When you fancy a burst of 1950’s inspired glamour and fabulous colour and ideas for styling your wedding in a rainbow of hues, then I suggest pop along to enjoy the bright and colourful, very-British, country fete style wedding of Fizz and Denny…

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Mack Photography

This wedding had a truly spectacular and dramatic venue in the Guildhall Crypts in London…

“We choose our venue, Guildhall Crypts in London, as it’s a privilege only offered to City of London workers, which Tom is working for a school in the borough.

My dress was by designer Maria Grachvogel. Maria is a friend (who I taught yoga to during her pregnancy) so I didn’t visit anyone else. I asked her to design a wedding dress for me and was thrilled when she agreed! I love that she designs very modern styles that flatter the body. I wanted something incredibly simple and I loved the beautiful backless design which parted like petals, and the fishtail train.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Eddie Judd

South African born Lineka married James, from England on 27 September last year with the spectacular Lake Garda in Italy as their backdrop.  The couple had guests attend from all over the world, including France, Poland, Scotland, Australia and Wales – so were wanting to create a sense of ‘home away from home’ on their wedding day.

For me, this wonderful film production – sent in by Jon of Happy Wedding Films – perfectly illustrates how far the wedding film industry has come in recent years. I can’t help but feel incredibly moved watching this movie…

Film Production Copyright (c) 2014, Happy Wedding Films

“My tattoos are a part of me and I didn’t feel I should have to cover them up. My ‘Laurel’ by Jenny Packham dress framed my tattoos perfectly, it complemented them and therefore I was sold!”

Bethany, who runs Betsy’s Living Vintage, and Dan, had a fabulous environmentally friendly, ethically sourced, vegetarian wedding.

“Our day was a mish-mash of vintage, colour and ethical living – and it simply had to be in Tipis!  I have always had a penchant for vintage china and afternoon tea and we are both quite environmentally conscious so wanted the day to be as waste free and as ethical as we could possibly manage.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Natalie Leech

The florist and the fiddler, aka, Diane of Myrtle and Bracken and her string musician husband David, tied the knot in Spring this year.  The flowers, the green tweed wedding dress, the headpiece, the glorious Scottish backdrop – all absolute perfection.

“Because it was just a small wedding, and as I’m a professional florist, I decided to do my own flowers.  The two really important pieces for me were my bouquet and the head piece.  I was completely seduced by the colours in the surrounding landscape of Crear at that time of year, mossy greens, dark browns and pale greys, so decided to reflect these colours in my flowers.

My dress was designed by Scottish based bridal wear designer Rowan Joy.  I first met the adorable Rowan via The Glasgow Wedding collective and have always loved her bridal work.  Rowan was happy to work with lace designed by my sister law for the dress which was made on original Victorian looms at MYB Textiles.“

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Caro Weiss

Sammy’s choice of taxidermy headpiece might seem like a brave and bold statement for her to have made on her wedding day.  To Sammy, she was simply expressing her personal sense of style and incorporating an element of her personality in to her wedding day celebrations.

Sammy works at Emmy Shoes in London, but also teaches ethical Taxidermy with Curious Menagerie and has her own ethical taxidermy company, Mole & Dove.  She married her love, Joel, in September this year. As well as her handmade headpiece, Samy got lucky with two wedding dresses from Temperley Bridal. and that incredible dove taxidermied headpiece was created by Sammy herself.  I love this wedding for all it’s glamour, elegance and quirkiness.

“Joel and I both grew up going to lots of parties and festivals and camping out in lavish old houses so planning a wedding with a festival feel for all our friends and family seemed perfect. The other major theme was taxidermy – I have been practicing ethical taxidermy (all the animals I use have died of natural causes) since I was eight years old, and it has always been a big part of my life – Joel loves it too.”

This absolutely charming vintage wedding full of antique lace and delightfully handmade details completely stole my heart.  Blogger Jodie and Andy, both musicians, based their wedding around all the things they love.

“We wanted our wedding to reflect us and our life. We love nature and walking in the woodland with our little Jack Russell Ralphy, so we wanted our wedding to be very natural and rustic. We also love all things antique and vintage; our house is a cosy ramshackle cottage and I love making things so it gradually became a ‘handmade wedding’.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Binky Nixon

Amy wore a sparkly sequin wedding dress. I feel this needs no further introduction from me. The images do all the talking! But here is Amy talking about her dress herself…

“My dress was from Fur Coat No Knickers who specialise in vintage. It’s from the 1950’s and FCNK customised it to ensure a perfect fit and tailor the silhouette for my body. I also had a custom petticoat to add volume – also from FCNK.  I had tried on a few ‘new’ dresses but was hooked on the feel of vintage. I liked the idea of another bride having loved the dress before me, that it had history. When I first went into FCNK I thought I wanted lace and originally said no sequins as I thought I wanted a more classic look. On reflection this was a bit crazy as I am obsessed with anything sequinned, beaded or sparkly! Then the girls at the shop asked me to try ‘the Disco Dress’ on as they wanted to see it on someone – I never considered it would be my dress.

I popped it on to humour them but as soon as it was on I felt like I just wanted to dance and twirl like a five year old – I was sold!! It was the perfect dress for me; fun, quirky and  it made me feel like a bombshell. I didn’t want a dress that I couldn’t move, eat or climb down to the beach in.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Sarah Falugo

This following wedding was such a joy to share – the bride share her story with such love, passion and authenticity – it also turns out I met her at a wedding fair where I was selling signed copies of my book! I love this couple’s charmingly mismatched, vintage inspired, village hall wedding.

“I actually met Annabel at the fair, where I purchased a copy of her book, ‘Style Me Vintage Weddings’.  I adores all eras when it comes to vintage and fashion, and the dream was to have a traditional wedding that encompassed everything that we both love in this regard.  A small country village hall wedding, with lots of bunting, homemade goodies, furniture, and most importantly incredible food.”

Another quite stunning Scottish wedding – a fabulous rustic farm affair – you have to see this wedding in full to believe how this couple so beautifully transformed and adapted this rural space in order to accommodate their wedding…

“Julien and I love to travel and we wanted to highlight our experience in travel and adventure. What we like most of all are beautiful evenings, movies under the stars, barbecues in the garden, laughter and good times with friends, so the keywords in designing our wedding were travel, botany, enjoy, barbecue and bonfire! We wanted something simple, but with lots of love.

My dress was by Laure de Sagazan, a French designer. I already loved the delicate work of Laura, but this dress was something else. I tried ten beautiful dresses and this particular gown was hanging in a corner on it’s own. I asked if I could try it on but the designer warned me that it might not fit as it wasn’t customised.  I tried it on anyway and it became immediately obvious – this was ‘the one’!”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Kitchener Photography

Kelsey’s glamorous Belle & Bunty is the absolute epitome of Love My Dress glamour…

“My dress was custom-made from Belle & Bunty. I originally thought that I would find an actual vintage dress but it just wasn’t possible finding one that was in wearable condition from the era that I wanted. I chose this dress because it was everything I was looking for but couldn’t find with an authentic vintage dress. Not to mention it was pure silk so it was a dream to wear.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Christopher Currie

Jenni, who works as an International Charity/Child Sponsorship Co-ordinator married Songwriter and Producer Mo on 23 August 2014 at Errol Park in Perthshire, Scotland.  Their wedding was captured beautifully on camera by SD Photography – I couldn’t love these images more.

“I was really inspired by bohemian influenced or rustic style and barn weddings that I found featured on wedding blogs. White lace weddings with bridesmaids all in white was always my favourite, but I also enjoyed adding in splashes of blue in the bridesmaids outfits.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, SD Photography

There were sequins, chandeliers and disco balls in the woods for Jade and Richard’s wedding. Amazing!

“The colours of my engagement ring influenced our colour scheme – but in general, the concept was inspired by our love of festivals and music, combined with my passion for dressing up. There was never a question that our wedding would ever (or could ever) be anything different – we wanted to put on the best party we’d ever been to!”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Matt Parry

Jo-Ann looked knockout at her 1920s and 1930s inspired Old Hollywood Glamour style wedding at Iscoyd Park.

“We wanted a sophisticated old Hollywood glamour feel. I have always been inspired by the jazz age of the 1920s and 1930s and really wanted to evoke the oh-so-chic speakeasy vibe. But with ‘vintage’ weddings a hijacked trend all of its own I found myself defending my ‘vintage’ wedding to anyone who showed a casual interest. This included a florist who told me ‘you’re not the only person who thinks she’s quirky’, when I dared to suggest I might like ‘something unstructured’ other than agree with the traditional, boring bleugh. But with a genuine ardour for all things vintage that far exceeds a stolen phase, it became important, no essential, to have a day that reflected us as a couple.  But as much as I longed for the elegant and inimitable we also just wanted to have fun!”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, On Love and Photography

Samantha wore a very elegant Charlotte Casadéjus gown for her winter wedding to Wayne in January this year.

“We decided we wanted to style our wedding along a classic 1930s aesthetic and gave ourselves a year to plan, though we pretty much planned the whole event in the first couple of months. We worked along the colours champagne and navy blue and we also took inspiration from Annabel’s book, Style Me Vintage Weddings.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Sally T. Photography

Shades of yellow and very sweet little children made me smile lots when it came to this DIY and handcrafted Spring wedding.  The bride, Erin, wore a dress from high street store Zara.

“Our main inspiration for styling our day was DIY and crafting – we just wanted to make sure everything we did was as personal to us as possible. Our yellow and grey colour scheme came from a grey suit with a yellow tie that my husband saw and really liked!”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, SDS Photography

This stunning Scottish elopement featured a handfasting and Gaelic blessing.  I truly loved the way that Kitchener Photography captured these precious and most special moments…

“Damian visited Loch Coruisk on the Isle of Skye six weeks before the wedding on a hiking trip with students from his school and instantly knew this was the location we would be married. The location is a secluded seven miles from civilisation and was the perfect setting to have the intimate and romantic wedding we both wanted.  A last minute and secretive elopement just ‘felt right’ to us and reflected our low-key yet adventurous personalities.

Our most memorable moment has to be the boat trip and arrival at our ceremony location. As we approached the pier the mist lifted perfectly, leaving the Cuillen mountain range was exposed in full and spectacular view for us.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Kitchener Photography

Blogger Hannah and her sweetheart Lee were married at Dovecote Barn on Bo Peep Farm, Adderbury in Oxfordshire in September.  Their day was a story of a girl, and a boy, and their beautiful handmade, rustic style farm wedding…

“Having a passion for anything old we really wanted to incorporate vintage with nature together. We wanted to bring some of the outside inside by having small woodland touches like a tree stump cake stand, handmade chalkboard from tree stumps and a ivy and flower back drop for the ceremony. Then we added vintage touches like an old typewriter for the guest book table, vintage suitcases all stacked together, a very old trunk to display our table plan and many more little vintage touches.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Luke Hayden

I have always loved being able to share and celebrate the nuptials of pregnant brides.  This lovely bride wore a dress by ethical bridal fashion brand Minna – isn’t it pretty? Click here to see this full set of wedding images.

“I saw Minna’s dresses on Love My Dress and made an appointment. I knew as soon as I walked in there that they’d sort me out. Minna’s team are all really beautiful people. Together we worked out a bespoke dress that would work on a 7.5 month pregnant version of me. They were responsive to what I was after and really accommodating about having final fittings at the last minute, and basically made me feel totally reassured and believing that I could look lovely on my wedding day.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Kat Hill

Lifestyle and Beauty Blogger Milly of ‘Pearls & Poodles’ married her beau Rob in July.  Milly is such a sweet lady and it was a real pleasure to be able to share her beautiful day.

Film Production Copyright (c) 2014, A Hint of Mint

“From the very beginning Rob and I both had a very clear vision of how we imagined our wedding evolving. With our picturesque English country village as our desired backdrop we only ever wanted a very English country outdoor affair for our wedding – a day filled with home grown flowers in mismatched jugs, hay bales, open shirts, bunting swaying in the breeze and Pimms served in jam jars.  A rural festival meets the Great British Bake Off!

We wanted to make our wedding completely unique and reflect our personalities (and love for pizza) in every aspect – relaxed, fun and creative. We didn’t want a colour scheme per se but wanted to create a fresh light feeling with soft pastel hues and floral prints. Lots of floral prints! Our main inspiration for the day was to create a pretty, homemade wedding with every little detail loving created, sourced or baked by ourselves or close families and friends. We wanted to take on as much as the creative graft as possible so we had complete ownership and could look back and say ‘together, we did that.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Katherine Ashdown

And finally, this next wedding perfectly represents the very essence of Love My Dress – inspired by the couple’s love of second hand books, the 1940s and East London.  Kirsty, a Secondary School English teacher, wore a vintage dress  from Elizabeth Avey for her wedding to Tom in July this year.

“Tom and I really wanted to have a day which reflected both of our personalities and interests. So often, I think weddings can be very representative of ‘what the bride wants’ – but we really wanted our wedding to represent us both as a couple, so that it truly would be ‘our’ day.  In terms of reflecting my own personality, I knew I wanted a really vintage feel as I am a true vintage junkie.

I love the 1940s and 50s and everything about these eras, so wanted to have touches of this throughout the day, from my choice of outfit to the vintage brooches and handkerchiefs I gave all of my bridesmaids as gifts, the vintage Routemasters to the Swing music we had playing over dinner, and the vintage feel of the flowers, suitcases, bunting and decor in the pub.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, MiKi Photography

It’s been a bit of a ride,  hasn’t it? I hope you have thoroughly enjoyed being reminded why this blog is so very special and loved by so many – it truly has been an honour to share these, and the hundreds of other weddings on Love My Dress this year. The word ‘proud’ doesn’t seem adequate somehow.

Enjoy the rest of your day everyone – and if you have a moment, please do leave a few words below. This would mean so much.  Do you have a favourite 2014 wedding on Love My Dress? Are you a new or regular reader already? Are you planning to tie the knot yourself next year or beyond? Why not introduce yourself? I would so love to hear from you.

With all my love,

Annabel x x