A 1970’s Family Heirloom Wedding Dress

This afternoon’s wedding would have been perfect for this newspaper feature I recently contributed from, and is a lovely addition to our ‘heirloom wedding dresses’ category. PR Consultant Sharon married Risk Analyst Chris in April at Heskin Hall, Wood Lane in Chorley. There’s something so special about wearing the same dress your mother wore on her wedding day – something wonderfully nostalgic and meaningful. That’s exactly what Sharon did – and she looked beautiful for it too.

“We wanted a completely laidback, hassle-free wedding. We don’t like cheese and wouldn’t have felt comfortable with anything too fancy. There were only really two stipulations: free flowing Cava when the guests arrived at the venue and good music.”

Images by Delicious Photography

“I wore my mum’s wedding dress. It fit perfectly, with no alterations. I liked the vintage look and it was a really flattering fit. The fact my mum wore it 40 years before I did made it even more special.”

“Rick and I met through a mutual friend in 2002 when we were both at university in Liverpool. We left Liverpool in 2004 and moved in together in London. We decided to get married in 2013 – it was more of a mutual decision than a formal proposal and seemed like a natural next step after so many years together. However, while on holiday in Turkey, Chris did pull out a plastic ring from Dorothy Perkins and officially asked me to marry him, after clearing it with my dad!”

“My bridesmaids chose their own dresses and shoes. I asked them to pick something that was a bluey colour. We didn’t want anything fancy and wanted them to feel comfortable.”

“My dad accompanied me down the aisle. We had church music accompany us when we entered the ceremony and our friends Nancy and DJ performed a couple of songs (‘It Must Be Love’ and ‘You Got The Love’) whilst we signed the register.”

“During the wedding ceremony, Chris’s younger sister read a passage from the Bible and his older sister read the words to ‘I Want to Grow Old With You’ from the film The Wedding Singer.”

“Heskin Hall is full of antiques so we didn’t really need anything other than flowers. We got married at Easter weekend so had little Lindt bunnies as favours.”

“Our cake was made by my friend Lorraine – it was a lovely, a simple fruit cake with a mini bouquet of flowers on the top.”

As a bride, will you be giving a speech at your wedding? It’s something I really wanted to do and did end up doing – but completely and entirely unscripted on the day – in other words, I totally winged it, and it was OK! I think that doing it that way made it so much more authentic and honest/from the heart – I wasn’t referring to any kind of written prompt, it all just came from within. I’d do it all over again too if I had the chance.

“The speeches were our favourite part of the day – they were really funny and had the room buzzing.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Keep it as relaxed as possible – don’t plan anything that might stress you out on the day.”

So lovely – you can explore more 1970’s vintage inspired weddings here on Love My Dress.

My love and thanks to Delicious Photography and Sharon too.

Love Annabel x