A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Coral and Blue Summer Wedding

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Good morning you lovely lot! Can you believe it’s November? This year has positively flown past. If you’re missing the warmth on these autumnal days, I have the loveliest wedding to share that’s bathed in sunshine to remind you of long, lazy summer days. Esther, Account Director for a global creative agency and Gary, IT Manager for a bank, tied the knot on 25th July 2015 at the picturesque Homewood Park Hotel and Spa in Bath, Somerset. The bride created mood boards on Pinterest to help determine the style of their day.

“During the early stages of planning, I used Pinterest for inspiration and collated lots of different images; from colour typography, graphics and textures, through to lighting, décor and flowers. This process was invaluable and enabled me to define a style for the day. From these wide ranging mood boards, we edited the images down to just a handful for each element; those images were then included in the brief for each of our suppliers. Our love of travel inspired the typographic style and the colour scheme included shades of coral and peach.”

Photography by Howell Jones Photography

A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.

Esther’s elegant David Fielden gown, purchased from Carina Baverstock Couture, features a stunning lace insert set into the beautiful backless style.

“I had tried on over fifty dresses before visiting this boutique. Rather fortuitously, my appointment was with Carina, and I knew straight away I was in very safe and experienced hands.” 

A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.

I am a huge fan of anything floral and often squeal upon first sight of our gorgeous bride’s beautiful bouquets that we feature on the blog. Just wait until you view Esther’s stunning bouquet, created by Flowers By Passion (and yes, I squeaked with delight!).

“We opted for relaxed flowers in natural, blush tones with a few pops of bright coral as accents to tie in with the overall colour scheme. We chose a combination of gardenia peonies, white milky way roses, peach juliet roses, coral charm peonies, white jajolica spray roses with silver dusty miller and silver and green-berried eucalyptus for foliage.”

A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.

A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.

The bride’s niece did the make-up for the bride and bridesmaids and Esther chose to keep her accessories light, adding a pretty pearl headband and simple pearl earrings.

“Because my dress was so striking, I decided to keep it really simple, and just wore pearl earrings, which were my ‘something borrowed’ from my maid of honor.”

A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.

Esther’s maids wore striking navy blue gowns and look so very elegant. And the groom sported the same colour with his choice of suave attire.

A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.

“Carina of Carina Baverstock Couture spent the first part of my appointment chatting to me about my style, likes, dislikes, what was important to me, what I wanted Gary to think when he saw me for the first time, and how I wanted to look and feel on the day.  She then pulled out just three dresses … and I bought the first dress I tried on.

It was everything I had been looking for. Unique, understated, elegant and glamorous. I absolutely loved it!”

A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.

The groom proposed in a very interesting (and chilly) location.

“Gary proposed on my birthday at the edge of a glacial lagoon in Iceland! We got up early to drive to the lagoon in time to see the sunrise. With howling winds battering our faces and seals playing amongst the ice, Gary got down on one knee and popped the question. We were engaged for 18 months before the wedding.” 

A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.

“Gary wore head to toe Paul Smith: suit, tie, belt, shoes… and socks! I also surprised him with an Omega DeVille watch as a wedding day gift which he wore on the day.” 

A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.

Esther’s dad walked the glamorous bride down the aisle and both of her parents gave her away. The ceremony included two readings: ‘I Promise You’, read by Esther’s eldest sister, and ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ by John Cooper Clark, read by one of Gary’s best friends. The couple chose wedding rings by jewellery designer Diana Porter, a favourite of Esther’s.

“My favourite moment of the day was seeing Gary’s face when he saw me walking down the aisle; he looked so proud and happy. Also, the speeches were all incredible – a perfect combination of side-splitting hilarity and heartfelt tenderness.”

 

A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.

“Over the years, Gary has bought me lots of jewellery made by Diana Porter, including the beautiful eternity band he proposed with, and the engagement ring we subsequently commissioned. Diana makes fantastic handcrafted contemporary jewellery and we just love her style. The fact she’s based in Bristol and local to us makes it even more special.”

A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.

When it came to our wedding bands, we sourced the diamonds and Diana made a platinum band to the same mould as the engagement ring so they nestled together perfectly. Gary chose to have a wide band made in white gold with a semi-distressed finish.”

A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.

After the ceremony, the wedding party headed to the lawn for Pimms, champagne and canapés and soaked up the glorious summer sunshine.

A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.

“For the décor, giant LOVE light up letters was the main feature. The rest of the venue was decorated with hundreds of distressed metallic night light votives, mismatched antique brass candlesticks and glass bell jars with flowers.”

A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.

“Casey from Oyster and Pearl Design created the most beautiful stationery for us, using warm, vibrant tones of coral and peach combined with brown craft paper to add a contemporary twist. The typographic style was inspired by our love of travel. She developed a monogram of our initials by using an ampersand as an E, locked up with G. This graphic device was then used across all of our wedding stationery from the invitations, right through to the favours.

The invitation was letterpress printed on a beautiful heavy weight uncoated stock, which gave everything a luxurious and timeless feel. The stationery set was held together with a bright orange and white bakers twine and a luggage style tag, sent out in hand finished heavy craft envelopes complete with personalised, addressed monogram stickers.”

A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.

 

“For our favours, the best man’s mum made raspberry jam for the ladies. Gary made CD’s of our favourite tunes for the men, and we made up jars of heart-shaped sweets for the kids. They were all packaged up beautifully, with hand finished labels designed by our stationers, using the same monogram and typographic style featured on the wedding stationery.”

A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.

Mrs B’s Cakes created a semi-naked cake with three tiers of deliciously wicked flavours.

“Neither of us is keen on fruit cake, but we love a good sponge, so we decided on a semi-naked cake with different flavours. The top tier was vanilla buttercream and strawberry jam, the middle tier strawberry jam, vanilla buttercream and shortbread crumbles, and the bottom tier was lemon buttercream with blueberry jam and fresh blueberries tumbled through. Yum!”

A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.

A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.

Esther and Gary put a lot of effort into choosing their photographer and were so happy with the results from Howell Jones Photography.

“For us, photography was one of the most important elements, so we spent a lot of time researching potential photographers, keen to book someone who was local to us and excelled at taking relaxed, reportage shots.

We instantly loved Woz’s portfolio; he had the exact style we were looking for with a very editorial feel. In particular, we loved the colour balance he achieved and the way in which he captured the light so beautifully.”

A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.

We had an engagement shoot a month or so before the wedding which was invaluable in us all getting to know each other a little better, as well as working out the types of portrait shots we liked ahead of the big day.”

A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.

“We danced to the tune of ‘Lovely Day’ by Jill Scott for our first dance. Our friend from The Wise Guise DJs was our DJ and funk and soul covers band Jeliphish had everyone up on the dance floor into the night.”

A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Everyone warned me the day would go by in a flash. Blink, and you literally miss it. It really did. Make sure you take time out with your husband, and have moments together to take it all in.

We bought a Fuji Smart Pix camera, which our lovely bridesmaids used to take instant photos of each wedding guest. Those photos were then stuck into a book and everyone wrote messages in it, which was a great way of ensuring we had photos of everyone that came, and has since acted as a lovely keepsake. 

If you don’t plan on having a videographer (which we didn’t), ask a friend or family member to video the ceremony, speeches and first dance so you have the most important elements covered. Don’t forget to make sure they have plenty of spare SD cards and mains chargers so you don’t miss anything!”

A Backless David Fielden Gown for a Travel Inspired Summer Wedding. Photography by Howell Jones.

Excellent advice – I’m very lucky as a lovely friend captured snippets of footage that are now so wonderful to reminisce over and see parts of the big day that were missed in the blur of activities (except I cannot bring myself to watch my speech; it is utterly cringe worthy!). Sending a huge thanks to Warren from Howell Jones Photography for sharing Esther and Gary’s stunning pictures and I wish the beautiful couple a lifetime of fun, laughs and adventures.

And if you’ve fallen in love with Esther’s beautiful backless dress, be sure to see here for more divine David Fielden elegance.

Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Love Jo -x-

 

Photographer – Howell Jones Photography
Venue + Catering – Homewood Park Hotel and Spa, Bath
Dress  – David Fielden via Carina Baverstock Couture
Jewellery – Borrowed from the maid of honour
Groom – Paul Smith
Bridesmaids – Navy blue gowns (supplier unknown)
Florist – Flowers By Passion
Rings – Diana Porter
Cake – Mrs B’s Cakes
Stationery – Oyster and Pearl Design
Makeup – By the bride’s niece
Entertainment – The Wise Guise DJs and Jeliphish

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.

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