A Glamorous Oleg Cassini Gown for a Stylish and Quirky Isle of Wight Wedding

Helen Rich 1

Good morning everyone – how has your weekend been? I’ve had the loveliest of times disconnecting from work and spending time with my family. This is a big personal achievement as I have such a huge issue switching off at the weekend, so I’m feeling pretty good about myself this morning.

A photographer whose work I  fell in love with last year is the wonderfully talented Ruth Atkinson. Ruth, who we highly recommend via our Little Book For Brides wedding directory, was actually discovered by the couple featured in today’s wedding, via the very blog pages you are reading now.

University Administrator Helen and her husband Richard, a tech wizard, tied the knot on Saturday 18th February this year at Northwood House in Cowes, The Isle of Wight. I adore Ruth’s moody and atmospheric captures during the ceremony and on the beach afterwards, but it’s Helen’s knock-out gown that steals the show for me. There’s a beautiful lesson from Helen below too about never assuming that any particular dress won’t look right on you.

“We’re quite flamboyant, social people so we knew that a small occasion wasn’t our style. We did force a particular theme but the predominant colours of the decor (copper and cobalt blue) were inspired by a pair of jugs we have as decor at home. Richard convinced me that yes, we should have toby jugs as part of our decor. I think that opened the door of just having a mish-mash of things we liked.”

Photography by Ruth Atkinson

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“My dress was a limited edition piece from Oleg Cassini, which I bought at David’s Bridal, Westfield Stratford, London. I first spotted my wedding dress online within days of Richard and I getting engaged. I loved it *so* much but something told me that I could never wear a dress like that because of my body (I’m also not very tall, not sure if anyone’s noticed?) and Richard was shocked to find me crying.”

“I told him why and wanted to show him the dress in order to have him reassure me or something, but he refused because he’s old school. He didn’t want to see the dress in case I chose it in the end and had me promise I’d at least try it. I (love to) hate it when he’s right.”

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What I love about it? The fabric. I really liked the weight of it and the detail – applique and beading. It caught the light so well, I was really pleased. I was surprised to find the shape very flattering when I tried it on – I thought that it might be too big a dress for my height. It just goes to show that it’s always worth trying something on.”

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Helen’s shoes were from high street favourite Dune London.

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“After months of searching and considering spending hundreds of pounds which I hadn’t budgeted for, I snapped my hair comb up in the Anthropologie sale. I’d recommend brides take a look there as well as BHLDN.”

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“Our bouquets, corsages, buttonholes and headpieces were supplied by Clare at Bembridge Flower Shop. We went with Clare based on seeing wedding photographs from a friend of bridesmaid Rachael’s wedding day. I really loved the style of arrangement; the balance of greenery, the mixture of wildness, delicacy and modernity. Her arrangements are beautiful in bright and bold or more muted tones. A pretty perfect combination because I didn’t really know what I wanted.”

Clare had me do a pinterest board. When she’d looked at the board and we spoke on the phone she’d found a lot of commonalities across the pictures: black eyed anenomes, muted blues, dusty pinks and roses. Clare also included Hellebores: a lovely addition which in part came from a suggestion by my mum. Not entirely because of the similarity to a childhood nickname of mine but maybe that was an added bonus.”

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“My denim jacket was from New Look with a collection of pins and patches gifted by attendees of my hen-do, and a few that I sourced myself.”

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“I wore a pendant from Berrymead Studio on Etsy, with a chain borrowed from my mum. I also wore a bracelet that was a gift from Richard on the morning of the wedding and some earrings from Oliver Bonas.”

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“Charlotte of Scott’s Hair in Ventnor was amazing. My hair was not exactly playing ball with us at the trial so she made time to give me a full shampoo and set at her salon the day before the wedding. She went the extra mile. Jo Lofthouse of Isle of Wight Make Up and Face Paint is a real pro. We bonded over a love of red lipstick and she just ‘got’ me and the bridal party so quickly, which is a huge relief with something as intimate as makeup.”

I chose both of these two because of a vintage-style shoot they had worked on together. I rather like a vintage beauty aesthetic so it really appealed and both managed to make a contemporary version of that vision for my wedding day.”

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Helen’s bridesmaids wore gowns from inoneclothing.com which they teamed with wraps from ASOS.

“The bridesmaids wore their own shoes, and I wanted the girls to accessorise for themselves so they felt themselves on the day. I’m so glad I did – Rachel’s beehive is wonderful!”

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Helen’s dad accompanied her into the ceremony, to the sound of Tom Odell’s cover of ‘Real Love’ by John Lennon.

“I wanted the ceremony to be quite sentimental and this set the tone so well. Richard really loves penguins so that John Lewis advert made an impact.”

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“Richard and I met at University (Royal Holloway, University of London) but really became friends afterwards. We started dating after a particularly drunken party in spring 2011 and were together just shy of 5 years when we got engaged in March 2016.

We were on holiday in San Francisco, walking the Bay Trail, admiring the bridge (bridges are one of my favourite things) and the particularly perky dog walkers. Richard presented me with a beautiful, quirky ring by Ruth Tomlinson who he discovered by trawling through who I follow on Instagram.”

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For us it was the right thing to not spend too long wedding planning, so we settled on the February half-term holiday to make things easier for our loved ones who are teachers. That gave us 11 months. As springtime in California had not lived up to our sunny expectations, we sort of assumed the weather wasn’t going to be on our side for the wedding day hence the winter wedding.

As it happened, we had a surprisingly mild and bright February day.”

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“We wrote our own vows. I would highly recommend other couples do this if given the option. It doesn’t have to be super long or elaborate but it’s nice to give a personal stamp on the most important part of the day.”

Richard’s vows to Helen;

I will spend my life doing my utmost to make you laugh.
I will celebrate with you when things go well and when they don’t, I will buy you chocolate.
I will spend everyday trying to be the best person I can, because that’s what you make me want to be.
We will be silly and perfect.

Helen’s vows to Richard;

I am going to continue to make you sub par cups of coffee and I will hold your hand when we’re old.
I will encourage your talents and be constantly inspired by your kindness.
I will be the swirling and swooning swanny whistle to your delightfully daft kazoo.
We’ll be silly and perfect.

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“My wedding band is by jeweller Ruth Tomlinson; the usual finish on the engagement ring made having a wedding band from the same designer the natural choice. Richard’s wedding band is from Etsy: he loves the unusual materials and the combination of the two, particularly because it means the only piece of jewellery he wears is pretty lightweight.”

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“During the signing of the register, our sisters sung ‘All of Me’, by John Legend – thank you so much to Two’s Harmony for sharing their arrangement with us.” 

“We left our ceremony to ‘Hold my Hand’ by Jess Glynne.”

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The couple had two readings during their ceremony, which included ‘Yvaine’s declaration’ from the novel ‘Stardust’ by Neil Gaiman, and ‘Becalmed Bedazzled Bewitched Besotted’, by Nick Williams.

“I found both of these readings suggested online and they were just unusual and personal enough to us in order to work well.”

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Richard sported a Tommy Hilfiger jacket with a pair of trousers, shirt and cardigan from Charles Tyrwhitt.

“I gave Richard a Fredrick Thomas tie as a gift a little before he got engaged and he liked it so much he and the men of the bridal party all wore matching ones for the wedding.”

The groomsmen had coordinating cufflinks from FunFonts on Etsy. Richard wore a pin badge on his lapel, I had a matching one on my denim jacket. These were from Bonbi Forest, a lucky last minute find that they were promoting for Valentine’s day. Perhaps there’s a wedding planning tip in there somewhere?”

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“We found our photographer Ruth Atkinson, by me browsing through the pages of Love My Dress and marking a shortlist of photographers that I liked.”

“Richard, the real photography enthusiast in this partnership, then picked Ruth and after a quick Skype chat, we were besotted.”

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Ruth’s moody, emotional style is so gorgeous. She’s the perfect combination of romantic and contemporary. At our trial/engagement shoot (which she made time for on a trip to London despite being based in Liverpool) she was so reassuring and many of my friends and family have commented on her professionalism on the wedding day itself.”

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“As well as that, those of us getting ready together on the wedding morning agreed how simply lovely she was to be around. Richard are I are so thrilled that Ruth and Thom travelled all the way from Liverpool to the Isle of Wight for us.”

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“My bolero was handmade by my friend Rhiannon. It was a mixture of knit and crochet and kept me warm whilst being totally in-keeping with my dress.”

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“Richard is from the Isle of Wight, his three grandparents live there. When we got engaged it was immediately obvious that we should get married there because of the strong family connection. We chose Northwood in particular because we could comfortable fit our guests (we had 100) in without needing a marquee and could host the whole day in one place, therefore relatively weatherproof.”

Northwood House is a listed building and the character of the place really charmed us.”

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Venue decor included fairy lights purchased from Primark and Amazon, napkins that were stamped with a set from ClariseStamps on Etsy, balloons from Thepartypostman on Etsy, candles from The Candle King and chalk boards for table names from Amazon.

“The majority of our decor was sourced by me and our mums, mostly from charity shops and Ebay. Toby jugs were a childhood passion of mine which no one in my life seems to understand, Richard thought they would be an amusing addition to the decor so I spent many happy hours on ebay bidding on them!”

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“Richard’s Uncle and Aunt kindly gifted us our wedding favour chocolate’s from Chocolate Deli, HytheMy sister also painstakingly pinned ‘Let’s Party’ badges to our name cards, which were purchased to support Parkinson’s UK, a charity close to our hearts.”

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“Our table flowers were shipped in bulk from Flowers by Clowance, then beautifully arranged by bridesmaid Rachel and my Mum.”

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“We designed the invitations and order of ceremony ourselves. I bought a beautiful set of cards for my family and bridesmaids from MiLabelStudios on Etsy.”

“Our Winnie the Pooh print was from thebluebutterflyemp on Etsy – which we had housed in a frame from Wilkinsons. The copper pipe candelabras were handmade by Richard’s Dad.”

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“Our wonderful friend Fran made our cake, with assistance from friend Mel and Fran’s daughter, Luna. We were overjoyed with the outcome – the glasses cake toppers were 3D printed by Fran’s husband, based on mine and Richard’s own glasses.”

The cake had different cakes on each tier – including chocolate guinness cake a la Nigella! – and was iced with shades of blue in a manner that looks effortless but I fear was painstaking. The addition of the flowers were a masterstroke entirely from Fran – they really helped tie her design to the aesthetic of the day in a way I would never have thought of until I saw it.”

“We also had a pork pie cake from M&S that was decorated with comic book paper flowers from Weared Crafts on Etsy and a cheese tower cake from the West Country Cheese Company.”

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“We hired the band The Get Down, with a guest vocalist who went down a treat. Our friend Alex also created a playlist for the end of the party; it was really nice to have that personal touch and keep the dancing going a little longer.”

“We put together our own photobooth with loads of costumes from Richard’s mum’s loft, it went down a storm. It was effectively just a dressing up box, lots of guests were lurking about in all sorts of outfits as the night wore on.”

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Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Be yourself. Don’t fight your body, your personality in order to adhere to an external influence, whatever that may be.

I’d highly recommend having an order of ceremony, especially if you have readings. I put ours together myself and it was only a simple thing, but giving the option for people to read along or read them again later was really important to me, and to my mum.”

“I wish I had ‘sized up’ on my wedding dress! I ordered based on the one I tried on, which was a really good fit, then the alterations ended up costing unnecessary extra money because it wasn’t a dress that had stretched a little from trying-on and my body had changed in the intervening months. If you’re remotely unsure, go on the big side because it’s usually easier to adjust. But do not have anyone tell you you must diet yourself into a dress.”

“Our budget was £12,000 and I think we may have gone a little over that. We’re fortunate in being able to do that without it causing any stress.

We used Prezola for our gift list and gettingmarried.co.uk for our wedding website and had a really good experience. Everyone has lost the wedding invite at one time or another so a website with the basic info is such a good idea.”

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Such a beautiful day – my love and thanks to bride Helen for sharing such helpful information, and Helen, may I say how utterly gorgeous you look in your dress. I hope you inspire many of our readers!

Wishing you all a positive and productive start to the week everyone,

Love Annabel x

Credits & Thanks

Annabel

Annabel View all Annabel's articles

Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.

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