A Sally Lacock Gown for a Turkish, Mediterranean and Festival Inspired Wedding

Good morning lovelies, I hope this finds you feeling refreshed and reenergised after the weekend. Quick checklist: did you receive a copy of our newsletter on Sunday? Are you following us on Instagram already and have you discovered our new Style Files yet? This morning’s new wedding blog addition came our way via the wedding dress designer Sally Lacock, whose designs I have absolutely adored pretty much ever since entering the world of weddings.  Midwife and bride Holly wore Sally’s Honor gown for her 29th July wedding to Toby.

The couple tied the knot with a ceremony at Malmesbury Town Hall, followed by a reception in Holly’s parent’s beautiful garden. A marquee filled brightly coloured mediterranean inspired decor and a newlywed couple with a completely relaxed attitude made for a beautifully relaxed and fun-filled day, just the kind we love to share on Love My Dress. Enjoy!

“The Wedding had quite a festival and Turkish/Mediterranean inspired feel to it, inspired by many holidays to my parents’ villa in Turkey. We initially chose to have the reception in my parent’s garden because when we got engaged, I had grand ideas of having a ‘mini Glastonbury’, but it turns out having a line up of bands was out of the budget! Having it at home however did enable us to make it really personal. What we really wanted was a relaxed and chilled out day and being able to tailor make the marquee and garden to how we wanted it enabled us to achieve that.”

Photography by Anna Durrant

“I went to school in Malmesbury and it’s a really beautiful market town. It was also perfectly located to enable us to have the reception in a marquee in my parent’s garden.”

“I always knew I wanted a vintage inspired dress and I wanted a dress which was easy to wear. When I looked at Sally Lacock’s website I knew instantly that Honor was the dress for me. When I went to her studio I tried on every dress and I loved them all! It was such a difficult decision in the end.”

“Every dress looked amazing and there were dresses which I hadn’t thought would be for me that I fell in love with. Madeline was beautiful and unexpectedly ended up being a close second to Honor. However, I felt that Honor had the right laid back kind of feel to it and I fell in love with the sleeves.”

“I wore a pair of pearl earrings borrowed from my mum which had belonged to my Granny and an anklet from my bridesmaid Dayna given to me on the morning of the wedding.”

Holly’s bridesmaids wore tops and skirts from Needle & Thread.

“I bought them each a custom made pearl bracelet with a silver initial on from Joli Beau in Cirencester.”

“My nephew William wore a casual pair of shorts and a shirt. He likes to be comfy! He also wore a bow tie.”

“I wore Jo Malone Mimosa and Cardamon body cream with Blackberry and Bay perfume – both of which were a gift from my parents.”

Holly’s father accompanied her down the aisle to the sound of Burt Bacharach’s ‘This Guy’s In Love With You’.

“This is one of my mum’s favourite ever songs and we both felt it was perfect for the occasion. Our ceremony was non-religious – an important aspect of the day was having a laid back and fun time.” 

“We had three readings, one was read by my brother, one from one of my best friends Marie and one from Toby’s Mum Lyndsey. We wanted the readings to be a surprise for us both on the day, so we asked them to choose their own and to not tell us.”

“Toby and I met ten years ago when we were both 18. We had a group of mutual friends but didn’t know each other that well. It just so happened that we were both going to Glastonbury that summer (2007) so we arranged to meet up when we got there. On the way there I sent a text to Toby to say how far away we were and he arranged to meet me and my friend Dayna as we arrived.

This was lucky for me because I had packed the entire contents of my bedroom and there was no chance I could carry my bags. However, lovely Toby in his skinny jeans stepped up to the challenge and I think he probably got roped into putting up my tent as well.”

“We spent the whole festival together and became great friends. We soon discovered that we find each other the funniest people and make each other laugh to no end. We were best friends and we still are today. So on December 27th 2007 we became boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“I completed my midwifery degree in February 2015 and we decided to go on a short break to Edinburgh to celebrate. Toby had told me he wanted to go for a walk up to Arthur’s Seat to see the amazing views across the city. I had no idea he was going to propose. In fact that morning over breakfast I was saying it’d be really lovely to get married soon (I think I might have also mentioned the kind of ring I’d like…!)”

“At the top of the hill he said, ‘I think we should come back here one day because it’s where I proposed to you’, and then he got a bag out of his pocket. I thought it was some kind of joke and he was just getting out the shortbread we’d bought that morning.

Then he got out a box with a beautiful ring with three diamonds on it. The ring belonged to his Grandmother who sadly passed away a month before. It means so much to me to be able to wear her ring because Toby’s Grandparent’s had a fantastic marriage and were truly devoted to one another.”

“Ruby my tiny niece and flowergirl who was only a month old wore a beautiful custom made lace dress by Sally Lacock.”

“I wore a 1920’s original wax headpiece and an Edwardian beaded belt, which were both from Sally, as was my silk veil. I completely fell in love with the history of these pieces, they felt so special and unique.”

“Our photographer was Anna Durrant who we’ve known for a long time as she took some family photos for my parents years ago. She also did the photography for my sister Jen’s wedding.”

“We felt that we could be truly honest with Anna about what we wanted. We were very specific about not having lots of posed shots and wanted lots of natural photos of the day and we are so happy with the results.”

“For our reception, we hired wooden trestle tables from Bespoke Wood and Hire for a more casual rustic look. My mum made colourful table runners and we collected brightly coloured glass vases from charity shops and bought our own flowers which friends and family arranged for us. We used colourful turkish lanterns and paper garlands, and bunting from Tiger.”

“We had so many favourite moments. Toby’s was the speeches and Holly’s were the ceremony, the dinner reception and then seeing everyone in their charity outfits! It worked so well and seeing my Grandparents dressed up in their outfits will always be a highlight of my life! My 83 year old grandmother stole the dancefloor in a lipstick red satin hot pant suit . I don’t think we’d do anything differently.

Also, my mum was our wedding planner! She’s brilliant but I don’t think she’s up for doing it ever again!”

If only we had the pictures! Huge thanks lovely Holly for sharing your wedding day story. You look divine in your beautiful Sally Lacock gown.

Love Annabel x