Good evening readers, I’ve been slowly introducing you to our new group of Lovettes (blogging brides) for 2015/16. We’ve already blogged about Kasia, Amii and Caroline, and today I’m absolutely delighted to introduce you to the very lovely Emily who is due to marry Dan on 12th September this year. Emily was automatically shortlisted when she expressed there merest hint of a girl crush on Maggie Gyllenhaal (Obsessed? Me?). I’m really excited about sharing her journey with you and take pleasure in handing you over to Emily now to read through her first feature for Love My Dress. You will find more information about Emily at the end of this feature – including her wedding plans and what marriage means to her. Enjoy folks!
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Dan and I met seven years ago, in the departures lounge of Birmingham Airport; he was a press officer for the airport and I was a local reporter. Before I met him, I had been slightly disillusioned about love and unsure how anyone ever felt sure enough of someone to marry them. But if Dan had asked me that first week to marry him, I would have followed him to Vegas, Gretna Green, wherever he wanted to go.
Photography Copyright (c) 2015, Mister Phill (top + bottom image)
Our relationship developed very quickly (in retrospect, our families probably thought we had lost our marbles) but it didn’t feel fast to us. Like Harry says, in When Harry Met Sally: “When you realise you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”
Within eight months we were living together in a little house by a canal, with a sausage dog called Mortimer. Over seven years we’ve been through bereavements, buying a house, illness, puppy training, terrible jobs, graphic bouts of food poisoning, but there’s never a day that I don’t look at him and pinch myself.
Dan proposed during a holiday to America. It was a whirlwind day; we started in New York, took the train to Philadelphia where we had just enough time to run up the Rocky steps and eat an obscenely massive sandwich, before getting back on a train to Washington. Dan was insistent that we should walk and see some of the sights once we arrived, so we wandered to the Lincoln Memorial.
Perhaps naively, we thought it would be quiet – however we were greeted by a thousand American teenagers, several of whom were delivering an impromptu performance of the national anthem.
Dan was very irritated by this (which was fair enough, as they were really out of tune) but as we walked away down one of the quieter paths, and he got down on one knee, I realised why. I think I blurted out yes before his knee had really touched the ground! We had pizza and mugs of champagne in our pyjamas back at the hotel and the following day celebrated like any normal couple would – by going to an exhibit about the film Anchorman and seeing the original Sex Panther bottle.
Up until that point, I hadn’t really let myself imagine our wedding, so it felt amazing to finally think about it. Right from the outset, we were determined not to get stressed about anything (which, as those closest to me know, is not something I excel at!). But really, every decision has actually been very easy – we’ve gone with gut feelings and booked everything important very early on, which is definitely the best piece of advice I could give at this stage.
Without adopting this philosophy, we wouldn’t have secured our dream photographer, Mister Phill, who is the nicest man and takes the most beautiful photos, or our reception venue, the lovely Shustoke Barns. But there’s plenty of time to go into detail about everything we have planned in my later posts so I will shut up now!
I’m so excited to be a Lovette and look forward to sharing the next six months with you all.
Emily x
A little background on Emily and Dan
As this is Emily’s first post for Love My Dress, we thought it would be nice to share some of her original Lovettes application with you all – to help you get to know her a little better. We’ll be doing the same for all our new Lovettes when it comes to sharing their first posts.
Emily Cole, 29, marrying Daniel
Wedding Date: 12th September 2015
Location: Shustoke Farm Barns, Warwickshire
Photographer: Mister Phill
Find Emily at: Instagram, Pinterest
How they met:
Dan and I met seven years ago, in the departures lounge of Birmingham Airport. To say that he turned my life upside down is an understatement – before I met him, I had been slightly disillusioned about love and unsure how anyone ever felt sure enough of someone to marry them. But if Dan had asked me that first week to marry him, I would have followed him to Vegas, Gretna Green, wherever he wanted to go. Within eight months we were living together and had given a home to a dachshund called Mortimer. Over seven years we’ve been through bereavements, buying a house, illness, terrible jobs, graphic bouts of food poisoning, but there’s never been a day that I don’t look at him and pinch myself.
He proposed during a trip to New York and Washington – I’d thought that if he was going to propose, he would ask me in New York, so when I didn’t happen I brushed the thought to one side (it’s amazing how much better you can feel after going to Bloomingdales!) So when Dan got down on one knee in the park in front of the Lincoln Memorial one evening, I was completely shocked. We celebrated by eating pizza in our pyjamas back at our hotel and drinking champagne out of mugs. Bliss!
About their wedding:
I love this question – it’s my favourite thing to talk about at the moment and it’s very good timing, as we had our planning meeting today! We’re getting married on 12 September – our ceremony is at a little village church in Shustoke (the Reverend Couture is marrying us – best name ever) and then the reception will be at Shustoke Barns, which is so beautiful and indulges my love for exposed brick walls! I have absolutely loved the entire process so far of planning our wedding.
The highlight, by far, has been Jenny Packham choosing me to win one of her wedding dresses. I entered a competition organised by Brides Magazine, in which you had to choose one of five dresses from the new collection and then design a dream wedding around it on Pinterest. Jenny Packham chose my board as the winner and receiving that email was utterly amazing. I screamed and ten women were instantly around my desk – they must have understood my cry on some primal level! Every so often I have doubts that one of wedding ideas is a little too ‘different’ or non-traditional, but then I remember that Jenny Packham liked my dream wedding, and it gives me confidence.
As fairy godmothers go, she’s as good as it gets, and I’m so excited about my dress – it’s a work of art. In terms of what our wedding will look like, I’m working with the most amazing suppliers that I have complete faith in, and I’m busy coming up with ideas to create a day that is stylish, fun, relaxed and personal. As I’m a magazine editor, one of the things I’m looking forward to doing is creating a magazine especially for the day, something I’m putting together to celebrate our two families. And here’s a brief rundown of some of the other things we’re really excited about: a string quartet, a floral arch, cigars, sparklers, toasted marshmallows, cocktails, our dachshund Mortimer’s bowtie, candles, meringues, pizza, a vintage photobooth, our little nephews wearing braces and rainbow cake. But, most importantly, all our family and friends in one place, having fun.
Around 70 people will attend the whole day, with a few more in the evening, so it will be quite a small crowd (quality not quantity) and we chose September because we were naturally drawn to autumn.
As a redhead, it would be pointless to try and opt for a boiling hot August day – I’m always the pale person sat under an umbrella anyway!
What does marriage mean?
Before I met Dan, I didn’t think I would ever get married. I knew that I could never commit to marriage if I had any doubts – and I’m so indecisive that I couldn’t see how that would ever happen. Even my mum said that she wasn’t sure I’d ever get married. But when I met Dan, that all flew out of the window and I finally got to experience how it feels to be 100% sure of something. Previously, I thought of marriage as a huge gamble, but saying yes when Dan proposed was the easiest decision I’ve ever made. I would have said yes within days of meeting him; saying yes seven years later was simple. I am so incredibly excited that I will be able to call him my husband – I feel lucky every day, just because I get to do silly, everyday things with him like chop vegetables, take our dog to the vets and have in-depth conversations about what we’d buy first if we ever won the lottery. There was a time when I didn’t think we’d be together – so I will never take for granted that we’re committing to be together forever. As important as our wedding is, our marriage is the most important thing – if we’re this happy in 40 years, watching repeats of The West Wing and taking our dog on walks, I will consider myself very lucky.
Favourite Hollywood Icon?
This might be a strange answer, but Maggie Gyllenhaal. If our wedding is to have the personality of a Hollywood starlet, then I wanted to choose someone whose personality I love, and not just pick someone who is beautiful. She is stunning, and I hope our wedding will be too, but more importantly, I want our wedding to have soul. I don’t want it to be ‘yet another wedding’; Maggie certainly isn’t ‘yet another actress’. She’s quirky, intelligent and free-spirited. Hopefully people who attend our wedding will think we’ve done something a bit different; something that’s beautiful but which has heart too.
Favourite Love My Dress wedding:
I loved this wedding. The bride looks beautiful in Jenny Packham and the venue is part of the same group as Shustoke Barns. But what I really fell for was how personal the wedding was – the use of their favourite childhood books was incredible – and I felt that they had done exactly what they wanted, and not what they thought they should do. It’s a great example of how vintage can be done in an elegant way and I was really inspired by how much effort the couple had put into details.
It made me realise that details really are important to me, and that I want my wedding to have the same personal touch.
