"Love My Dress features a huge variety of weddings, both photographs
and commentary and was an invaluable source for our wedding. In fact,
it's a community of brides past, present and future and I still read and
enjoy the posts despite the fact that I'm now a Mrs.
The blog is a great blend of real weddings, advice, inspiration, ideas and thoughts
from a huge variety of people who care enough to write."
Welcome lovers ;) This will be the last wedding I feature on these beloved wedding blog pages this year. It's been a year full of the most amazing real wedding features (that I'll be revisiting before the year is out), but these particular nuptials are rather special. You see, I know these people. Aha. And they really are as cool as these photographs make out. A groom who plays sax at his own wedding? A bride who secretly arranges for the groom's musical friends to play this as she walks down the aisle, jelly that looks like it's being served on sandy beaches, vintage 78rpm records as favours (from the couples personal collection of over 25,000), and a bridesmaid who wears a dress that was made for the bride's mum in the 1960s, guests that are way too cool for school? And that's just the start!
Friends, please say hello to Matt and Annabel, aka, Vintage 78 DJ, aka, It’s a Wind Up!
Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2012, James Melia
Matt and Annabel tied the knot on 22nd September this year at the Victoria Baths
in Manchester (winner of the first Restoration series). I was honoured
to have been invited to this wedding, but the force of nature put a stop
to that, so it makes my heart swell that I get to not only enjoy but
share these images taken by the mighty James Melia
with you today. And I warn you, this is a loooooong blog post - it's
pictures a plenty. Pinterest lovers, you're going to be a while.
Though many come very, very close, this is my absolute favourite wedding of 2012. Enjoy...
"Our style for the day was all about who we are, what we do and the sort of party we would like to go to. As Vintage 78 DJ's, we've had a great opportunity to see, in person,
an amazing selection of styles and types of weddings. From these and
from reading your incredible wedding blog, we had lots and lots of ideas, too many in fact, so had to whittle them down based on time, money and practicality.
We did all the event planning ourselves. Matt has had vast
experience running events and together we had it covered. What was
amazing was, that with a small band of dedicated helpers we created and
decorated everything the day before the wedding. We really enjoyed the
process of the setting up and seeing our ideas come to life. Although I love colour schemes and was particularly taken with this turquoise one one on Love My Dress, I decided that there wouldn't be a specific colour and that I'd go for multicoloured everything from dress to decorations!"
"Thoughtful Flowers
are a husband and wife team from Shropshire who grow all their own
flowers (250 varieties) in open fields with no chemicals, behind their
beautiful farmhouse. I particularly wanted dahlias and zinnias and on a
visit to Juliet I told her I wanted an explosion of colourful flowers
from a gramophone horn.
As soon as I saw her eyes up light I knew she
was the perfect person for this creation. I didn't see the finished
gramophone horn display until I walked down the aisle and it was even
better than I imagined. As well as two bouquets and buttonholes we had
40 vases and containers on the dinning tables."
"The car was a wonderful wedding day surprise from my father as I
was planning on calling a black cab. He was right to do this as it made
me feel really special and complete strangers waved and beeped at us on
the way to the baths."
"I'd not heard of Chie Mihara
shoes until I came across them on Love My Dress. I searched their online
store and am now a convert. Shoes with a hidden platform that mould to
the shape of your foot and are supremely comfortable – sounds good to
me."
"As well as our own items, we borrowed the furniture for the gentleman's drinking room from our dear friend Fiona from Rose and Lee Vintage Living. She dropped them off to us on her way to Italy on another furniture buying trip."
"My stunningly beautiful, 21 year old daughter, Myfanwy
was my bridesmaid. I promised her Jimmy Choo's for the wedding but
having tried on a multitude of shoes in Selfridges and Harvey Nichols
she decided they just weren't for her. In the end she chose sparkly
ballerina pumps from New Look for the daytime dress and a pair of my
designer shoes from the 1980s for her evening outfit.
Myfanwy's, full length, pale blue silk dress that she
walked down the aisle in was made for my mother in Singapore in the late 1960's. The champagne coloured, 80s does 50s dress she changed into for
the evening was made for me when I was 21 in 1988. Both of these dresses
were adapted and brought back to life by Elizabeth Bethune..."
"We're both avid collectors of all sorts of vintage 'stuff' with a
particular interest in the 1950's and we made use of this in our wedding.
For example, I collect printed vintage table cloths so used these on
the tables, we used 78rpm records as table mats and favours in one, we
scattered 1940's and 50s magazines around for people to read.
We created a
Gentleman's Drinking Club in one room with a wind up gramophone to play
your place mat, decanters full of alcohol, alcohol printed tablecloths,
a chesterfield sofa and wing back chairs, 1950s Gentlemans magazines,
vintage chess, draughts and dominoes, rugs, throws and lighting and a
vintage decoupage screen. This proved to be a great hit as a hideaway on
the day..."
"My father gave me away. He'd had his fourth knee replacement
operation just a few weeks earlier but ditched the stick and proudly
walked me down the aisle. He's a great prankster and as we got to the
end he asked me, tongue in cheek, if I really wanted to do this and that
it wasn't too late to go back!
Once I laughed and said no he then
turned to Matt and advised him that there was still time to run away!!!!
Thanks Dad."
"I had originally bought a beautiful, pale pink, full length 1950's dress from Hier Pour Demain
but only 8 weeks before the wedding I changed my mind about the length.
I was loathe to cut the vintage dress so started a hunt for something
suitable either vintage or new but not white, strapless or full length. I
was really keen on a Brighton based designer I'd seen on Love My Dress
but time was too short and as Matt and I were busy every weekend DJ'ing at other peoples weddings I couldn't take the time out to get to
Brighton.
Then I came across a dress on Etsy and the photos made it look
like it could be the one. I took the gamble knowing I could sell the
dress on if it wasn't right and it certainly paid off. It was just right
but did need some restoration. There's the most amazing lady in the
North West who is able to restore vintage dresses and Elizabeth
made the necessary repairs and alterations along with a bespoke
petticoat. Lo and behold I had a perfect, silk, full circle 50s dress."
"The
dress looks very simple in design, v front and back and a full circle
skirt but is deceptively detailed. There's tiny ruching at the waist and
shoulders, a tiny bow at the back and on the skirt there are three
areas of exquisite padded and quilted work accented with sequins. This
has a specific name but I can't remember what it is. I'm 45 so didn't
want to wear white and the bright colours and unusual print on this
dress made it special but also meant that I could wear it again. Another
friend, Kally, had made me a 1950's sarong style dress to wear in the
evening but in the end the time flew by so quickly that I didn't get
round to getting changed!"
"We'd been looking for years to find a suitable venue for our
wedding! We needed somewhere that could accommodate a wedding ceremony,
hold up to 250 people for a party, where we could bring in our own
caterers, and that had a quirkiness of its own, all located in
Manchester. And at a price we could afford. Not much of an ask! We'd
played at a Discover Vintage Fair in 2010 at Victoria Baths
before the roofs were finished and loved the place, so, when our friend
and blogger, Old Fashioned Susie told us in January 2012 that it was
opening its doors for weddings we were first in the queue to book a
date.
Victoria Baths is a fantastic place with stained glass windows,
tiling, mosaics and glass roofs that literally make you gasp. We
envisaged our wedding to contain the unexpected and Victoria Baths
provided this already before we'd even brought our wedding plans into
it. Some couples are after a blank canvas to make their own but we
wanted something that already sang out that we could use for
inspiration."
"Upstairs at Victoria Baths, on the 360 degree balcony we created a fun place to let
your hair down with games we either made ourselves or from our own
collection such as egg and spoon races, hook a duck, splat the rat,
hoopla, giant pickupsticks, shove ha'penny, mini golf. We created a
beach bar with deck chairs and rafia umbrellas, beach balls, buckets and
spades, cocktail umbrella garlands, seaside lighting and tugs full of
all varieties of Crabbies..."
"
Matt and I even played a few games of 'Play
Your Cards Right' at the beginning of the tea party. Guests had raffle
tickets in their teacups and we had the counterparts in a bucket. As we
called numbers and people came up to play, we introduced them to all the
other guests and told amusing anecdotes of them. This was a great way
to break the ice but nearly didn't happen as I'd forgotten to learn how
to play it properly and had only a dim recollection of Brucie shouting
higher or lower. When my friend Bethany came round to do my make-up Ion
the day had to grab my laptop and look it up at the last minute!"
"There were three pools in total. The first class male pool we
used for the actual wedding ceremony which was a wonderful surprise for
guests as you had to climb down into it. We were married 'at the deep
end'! The stunning Turkish baths were the star of the drinks reception,
the covered second class male pool and balcony was used for the party
and the female pool contained giant badminton and football and was a
great space for the children to let off steam. The wonderful staff at
the baths also arranged guided tours and guests were able to wander
round the entire building at their leisure."
"Music is a massive part of our lives with vintage DJ'ing and Matt
being a saxophonist and full time musician, so the entertainment for
the day was especially important. First off, as said I surprised Matt
with the music for my entry. We had another friend Mark play a 1950s
Italian organ during the ceremony for the hymn 'Give me Joy in my
Heart'. Kate had suggested that a good singalong always helped and this
went really well with our service. People saw the humour in a big man,
sitting in an empty swimming pool playing a very small organ.
For the
signing we had more fun and arranged fo our friend, the DJ Dr Sid to
play our gramophones with an original SUN 78rpm recording of Johnny Cash
'I Walk the Line'. We processed back down the aisle to 'That’s my Girl'
by Nat King Cole. Just perfect.
Matt plays sax and flute in
the band Calaita and they had offered as a wedding present to play the
drinks reception part of the day which we had in the old Turkish baths. I
think the photos say it all and the music in these surroundings was
just fantastic."
"Matt wore a suit from Reiss
that we found in the in the half price sale! Matt was reluctant to go
in as he was adamant it was a 'skinny man's' shop but I persistent and
he was surprised at their range. Even better was the bright blue 80s/50s
style wool suit at half price. He also wore a brightly coloured tie from his favourite independent men's shop in Manchester, Whipples, a pink flowered shirt from Alexandre on Saville Row."
"We had a couple of ideas for guestbooks and in the end used them
both adding to the fun and slightly eccentric feeling of the balcony.
The first was a relatively common typewriter table which I decorated
with typewriter fabric and various things from around the house such as
old ink bottles, a decorative 1940s box of carbon paper and a wire
letter tray..."
"The second guestbook table was created around a collection of
vintage, unused postcards we already had. I decorated the table with
souvenir scarves from Europe with the addition of kitschy Eiffel tower
and Blackpool tower models with various plastic souvenir fans. Posters
of maps and stamps on the wall, a decorated pot of pens and the 'Write
us a Postcard' table was created. The messages we received on postcards
are hilarious and risque as all saucy seaside postcards should be. We also had a photo booth in one of the poolside changing rooms complete with dressing up articles.
The
decorations had a vintage theme with 100 multicoloured pompoms, 120
multicoloured, bunches of balloons and a lot of crepe paper bunting
interspersed with ropes of fairy lights. With the multicoloured garden
flowers in informal vintage pots and vases on the tables and the 250
china trios it was a riot of colour which was what we'd been aiming
for."
"I'm not very good at keeping secrets from Matt but this
was one I was determined to suceed at. Matt is a successful jazz
musician and I arranged for some of his oldest jazz friends to play me
down the aisle. Matt knew something was going on when a double bass,
keyboard, drumkit and saxophone were loitering in the corner of the pool
but he was impressed with my song choice of John Coltrane's arrangement
of 'My One and Only Love'."
\
"Our photographer was James Melia.
What can I say? An absolute miracle. I really hate having my photo
taken and was not planning on even having a photographer! James
approached us in February and asked if he could be our photographer and
although I loved his work I still wasn't convinced I could go through
with it. I told James about my dislike of photos and how difficult I
would be but he was still up for it. He suggested a pre wedding shoot so
we could get used to each other and asked us to think of somewhere that
Matt and I would be relaxed and comfortable in but that would be
visually interesting.
That was when I hit on the idea of taking him to Camp Bestival
where we were Djing with the Shellac Collective. I was really happy
with the photos so didn't worry at all on the wedding day. That's not to
say I was easy to work with but James did a cracking job. Many of our
guests commented on what a nice chap he was and the photos are a
testament to his talent and reflect our day superbly."
