A 1940’s Inspired Elegant Autumn Wedding in the Cotswolds

wpid339566 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 21

Hello lovelies! I hope you’re having a wonderful week and that you’ve had a chance to browse through all the beautiful blog posts that came before this one on Love My Dress this week.  If you’re planning your big day at the moment, I’ve a lovely tale that I hope will inspire you today. It’s full of 1940’s inspired glamour, glitz and style and all beautifully captured on camera by Eve Dunlop.

Meet Jade and Marc, who tied the knot on 29th November last year. Jade is a Chartered Surveyor in construction project management and Marc a Venues Manager in the automotive industry. The picturesque venue in the Cotswolds, Wyck Hill House Hotel & Spa, provided the vintage inspiration behind the couple’s day…

“We wanted a venue that looked elegant and luxurious but didn’t make a small wedding look ‘lost’. When we stumbled across Wyck Hill House, we discovered it offered the perfect setting with its Georgian grandeur, wood panelled library, a staircase that led to the ceremony room, roaring fires and views across the rolling hills of the Cotswolds. Our ‘vintage era with a touch of glamour’ inspired wedding style evolved from this.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2015,  Eve Dunlop Photography

wpid339566 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 21

Jade and Marc met on the dating website match.com, just like so many couples do these days – in fact three of the other couple’s we’ve already featured this week met online, and you can read about my own little online love story here.

“Our meeting is a match.com success story and we have no shame about how we met, as it led to us being married three years (to the day of our first blind date!) later.  It truly is amazing what you can find on the internet these days! 😉 We stumbled across each other after a few ‘online winks’ and are perfect for one another.” 

wpid339583 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 29

wpid339544 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 11

Jade looked the epitome of refined, 40’s inspired elegance in her lace Sincerity gown, that she purchased along with a birdcage veil, from Special Occasions Bridalwear in Coventry.

“The lace detail, the structure, the delicate mermaid train and that it would sparkle in the candlelight with its bead work are what drew me to this dress – it sparked beautifully in the surprisingly bright November sunlight too!

The veil was detachable so the vintage clip could be worn separately after the ceremony.”

wpid339546 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 12

Jade’s bridesmaids wore full length navy colour gowns by Mori Lee by Madeline Gardner with sparkly ivory satin courts from Debenhams.  Both Jade’s pearl drop earrings and her bridesmaid’s pearl necklaces were from Yarwood-White’s ‘Modern Heirloom Collection’.

bridesmaids in navy blue

“Our photographer was Eve Dunlop Photography, who is truly talented – we are so fortunate to have had her photograph our wedding. We can certainly say that every photo we have seen we have loved, cried at and laughed. Eve had this amazing ability to capture all the wonderful moments and emotions just as we remember. There has been nothing but resounding compliments from friends and family at how great Eve was and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a few more family weddings that she will be asked to shoot. Eve has such a great ethos in her approach and is certainly set apart from the other wedding photographer’s that we have seen or friends have used over the years.

Our photos are truly the best I’ve ever seen and it’s difficult to put into words how grateful we are.  Eve deserves every success in the future!”

wpid339574 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 25wpid339540 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 1

wpid339585 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 3

wpid339607 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 4

wpid339609 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 5

wpid339611 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 6

wpid339613 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 7

wpid339615 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 8

wpid339617 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 9

wpid339542 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 10

wpid339552 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 15

wpid339548 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 13

wpid339550 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 14

wpid339554 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 16

wpid339556 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 17

wpid339558 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 18

Jade was accompanied down the aisle by ‘Pops’, her dad, and chose to have a pianist provide the accompanying music.

“We had a pianist for the ceremony – Wesley – who added that touch of class to the ceremony and drinks reception.  His playing of the most beautiful classical music resonated through the hotel and really calmed my nerves as I made my way down the staircase. Having a pianist just added a really romantic feel to the occasion.

It’s cheesy, but I walked down the aisle to Christina Perri’s ‘A Thousand Years’, which is amazing played on piano – so emotional. It was the first film that we saw together when dating, so it had to be played!  The pianist played ‘Hippolla’ by Sigur Ros as our recessional song.”

wpid339560 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 19

wpid339564 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 20

“The wedding rings are both Brown & Newirth and were purchased from a local jeweller in Leamington Spa called Tustains. It’s a lovely family run independent jewellers.”

wpid339568 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 22

wpid339570 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 23

wpid339577 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 26

Their florist created the flower arrangements in vibrant Autumnal colours, with their 1940’s theme in mind, and the outcome was just right.

Sarah Horne provided the flowers – she is an amazing award winning florist and luckily right on our doorstep.   Our flowers were all seasonal and included deep red orchids, berries, white roses, red oak leaves and a splash of orange, twigs and beautiful deep green foliage.

The button-holes and corsages were large roses or small spray roses with Marc wearing an orchid and berries as his button hole. Seeing the flowers was such a surprise on the day – they were strikingly beautiful.”

winter rose wedding bouquet

Along with their family and friends, the couple made all the the stationery themselves and arranged some very cool wedding favours…

“The wedding favours were a tiny bottle of liquor, which doubled as the name place settings with individual button décor to jazz up the tags, with vintage heirloom designs for the girls and a little bike for the boys.”

wpid339579 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 27

“The décor was old family memorabilia such as photographs of friends and family from past and present in handmade vintage frames, the old hymn index card holder as the table plan, decanters obtained from trawling the charity shops, my great grandma’s old sewing machine, old family records and books, mini birdcage tealights, old crystal vases and a beautiful vintage calendar hired to me from Betsy’s Antiques & Vintage Hire.

Table numbers were vintage style blocks handmade by Delightful Living Weddings from notonthehighstreet.com.”

wpid339581 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 28

wpid339587 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 30

wpid339589 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 31

 “Our wedding venue, Wyck Hill House Hotel & Spa, supplied all the catering, from delicate canapés to the most spectacular array of homemade petit fours and an evening buffet of cheese and biscuits with port. The food was superb and infact, one of the main reasons that we chose Wyck Hall as our venue. 

wpid339591 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 32

wpid339593 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 33

wpid339595 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 34

wpid339597 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 35

The Sweet and Lowdown were an awesome, feet-tapping, 4-piece vintage swing band with a modern twist that just set the room alight. Belting out old school jazz and swing renditions of modern hits. The dance floor was just not big enough and it certainly made our day a celebration and a proper knees up had by all.” 

 

wpid339603 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 38

wpid339599 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 36

wpid339601 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 37

Words of Wedded Bliss

“Treasure every minute and take it all in as the day whirls by in an instant.

On a practical point, choosing the venue early helps plan the rest of the wedding from number of guests, style, flowers, colour and the dress! Visiting Wyck Hill House the same month we were to get married helped to visualise just how it would look and feel on the day. Like being prepared with the wellies and fur shrugs!!

Our favourite moment of the whole day was when we had time alone together, under a tree watching the sun set as photographs were being taken.  We truly wouldn’t change a thing, when you know what you want and you have the perfect person by your side helping to make that reality, it all works out better than you ever could have hoped.”

wpid339605 1940s inspired wedding at Wyck Hill House Hotel 39

Very wise words! I found too that once the venue was sorted, everything just flowed – perhaps a good word of advice that getting the venue sorted ought be the first thing on your list.  A very big thank you to Eve for the beautiful images and here’s wishing the lovely couple a very happy 2015. I’m off to book a weekend in the Cotswolds…

Love Jo -xxx

Photographer – Eve Dunlop Photography
Venue + Catering – Wyck Hill House Hotel & Spa, Cotswolds
Bride’s Dress + Veil/Vintage clip – Sincerity via Special Occasions Bridalwear, Coventry
Bride’s Scent/Perfume – The vie est belle by Estee Lauder
Bridesmaids Dresses – Mori Lee by Madeline Gardner
Bridesmaid’s Shoes – Debenhams
Bride’s and Bridesmaid’s Jewellery – Yarwood-White
Groom – Ted Baker
Florist –  Sarah Horne Flowers
Cake – Marks and Spencer
Rings – Tustains
Décor – Betsy’s Antiques & Vintage Hire + notonthehighstreet.com + The Word is Love
Hair Stylist & Makeup Artist – Moseybow
Entertainment – The Sweet and Lowdown

Jo Singletary

Jo Singletary View all Jo's articles

Jo hails from and lives in sunny Australia, is currently working towards her dream of being a career coach and a few of her favourite things are watching the sunrise over the ocean, morning walks on the beach, butterflies, and supporting the guide dogs charity.

One thought on “A 1940’s Inspired Elegant Autumn Wedding in the Cotswolds

Leave a Reply to Zuluspro Photography Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Close
Top