Well, how over the moon are we that you have all shown so much love for our blog re-design - thank you so very, very much, it's wonderful positive feedback like this that really does make a difference ;) And so we head towards the first wedding of the week with a huge big cheshire cat grin on our faces. Let's meet Love My Dress reader Katie and Fran, who tied the knot on Saturday 11th August 2012, with a ceremony at St. Peter’s Church Harborne, Birmingham, followed by a reception at Hotel du Vin, Birmingham. These photographers were submitted by Nicola of Daffodil Waves.
Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Coypright (c) 2012, Daffodil Waves
As soon as I saw these images, I recognised Katie's dress to be a 1960’s
original vintage gown. The giveaway signs were the daisy motif
embellishment, that empire line and the little bow on the front there -
all classic hallmarks of a dress designed back in the sixties. And this
one was apparently made in France.
Katie brought her dress from London based vintage wedding dress supplier, Elizabeth Avey - of whom i'm a *big* fan.
"I
bought my dress from Elizabeth Avey’s vintage wedding dress shop in
London over 18 months before the day. My sister Sarah lives over the
road from her shop, and walks past the window every day - we decided
that as part of a visit we would make an appointment and go try on some
dresses to see what suited me, as I had never tried on a wedding dress
before..."
"I never thought I’d get married in a vintage dress - I
didn’t have an idea in my mind of what I’d look like on my wedding day,
and certainly didn’t have it all mentally planned out from a young age.
All I knew was that it couldn’t be strapless (as the idea of a strapless
bra all day is for me, torture), and I didn’t want anything “too
pouffy.”
"I was driven to church in my Dad’s Morris Minor, which he restored
himself. It was so lovely to have this personal touch, and to spend a
few minutes with him before the ceremony."
"My dress was the first one I tried on - when we walked
in it was hanging up on a rail in between lots and lots of lace and
chiffon, and the plain cotton leaped out at me. Elizabeth was amazing -
she kept encouraging me to try different styles, and when it became
clear that my heart was set, she even recommended that I go try on more
in different shops first - the complete opposite of a hard-sell!
I
still haven’t tried on a new wedding dress, and I love the idea that my
wedding dress was handmade 50 years ago, and waited half a decade for me
to wear it.
Elizabeth informed me that it is an original 1960’s
wedding dress made in France - I took it for some minor alterations at
my amazing local tailor, a menswear designer and he flipped it inside out and
immediately said - 1960’s French - handmade seams."
"I love my
dress - I’m an incredibly decisive person, and my sister joked that I
found my dress like I found my husband - very early on I simply decided
that that was the one for me! I love that my dress was vintage -
it’s a one-off, and the romantic in me imagines that it’s waited fifty
years, unworn and unloved, to fill it’s wedding dress destiny in 2012. And I
love that the dress has sleeves ( I have terrible skin so was never going to
wear something too revealing), and has a detachable train that hooks on
at the waist.
The daisy motif in the lace was so pretty, and we carried
this through to the flowers - my mother-in-law got married in a dress
covered in daisies, so she was touched that they were similar dresses, forty years apart."
"Our flowers were by The Flower Centre in Birmingham
- Joy, the owner did a wonderful job with only a very vague brief. I
had one cut-out from a magazine, and said I wanted lots of “texture”
and beyond that I was happy with what she came up with.
When
the flowers arrived on the morning of the wedding I was so happy - the
colours were wonderful, the centrepieces so pretty and even though I
still couldn’t tell you now what flowers were in my bouquet, it was just
so perfect."
"I made my own headpiece using materials from my Mum’s Juliet
cap that she wore when she married my Dad in 1975. We sewed the little
flowers from the cap on to an Alice band, and added little pearls bought
from Dunelm Mill.
I then attached a polka dot birdcage veil bought from
Lily Bella. My Mum and I live a hundred miles
apart, so it was lovely to get together and create something personal -
it was a really special thing to do before the wedding, and I know she
was so happy that I could wear something from her wedding, as well as
spending time together."
"As favours, we gave everyone a book as a favour, from the Wordsworth Classics collection.
I’m training to be a teacher and am a huge bookworm, and Fran has an MA
in Writing, so we’re a fairly literary couple! Each guest had a
different favourite of ours, which we tied with ribbon and tucked in a
card with a handwritten poem inside.
I bought
the little cards from Paperchase, and some stamps from Hobbycraft, and
then started the epic task of creating sixty individual poems - it was a
tough task, but by our guest’s reaction, I’m so glad I did it."
"As a
surprise, Fran switched out my card for a handwritten poem of his own - I
was so touched, as I’m usually the poet in our house!"
"The only drama in the planning of our wedding was deciding on the
bridesmaid’s dresses - my girls live all over the country, and our work
schedules made it very difficult to all meet up together. We chose about
4 dresses that suited everyone, for them to sell out in different
sizes, or become unavailable altogether - it was becoming a bit of a
saga and I thought we’d never find anything.
I was browsing the internet one evening with a glass of wine, and spotted some dresses I loved in the Hobbs sale at the grand price of £42 each - I took a punt on the sizing, gulped down some wine and ordered them. I
then called my sister, who shrieked in horror - the whole way through
the planning, I’d promised not to drunkenly order anything online, and
I’d done exactly that. Luckily they all fit, and even luckier,
the girls loved them. One of them is being re-worn this weekend to
another wedding so I was really pleased that the old adage 'something
you can wear again' came true!"
"I bought the bridesmaid’s headbands in the January sales at Accessorize
- one benefit of planning so far ahead was that so many of our
purchases could be made at sale times. I was a fiend for bookmarking
pages online and re-visiting them to buy items once they’d been reduced.
Buying items at less than full-price allowed us to spend money in other
areas - no one would know that my shoes cost less than half-price, but
they would appreciate us spending a little more on a Pimms reception
outside the church!"
"Of all of our wedding choices, booking Nicola, our wedding photographer
was the easiest. She’s fabulous. I’m so happy with our pictures - she
really did do a wonderful job of capturing lots of moments that I
wouldn’t otherwise have known about, as well as capturing people’s
expressions when they didn’t know that they were bring shot! We knew
that we wanted a reportage style photographer, and we booked Nicola very
early on in the proceedings.
We both really hate having pictures
taken, as soon as a camera is pointed in our direction we both somehow
manage to turn into awkwardly-grinning goons, but Nicola was so relaxed
and unobtrusive it was a pleasure to be photographed. I thoroughly recommend Daffodil Waves - I’m so proud of our wedding photographs, and will treasure them forever."
