Hello loves, firstly, thanks for being so patient for the past couple of days as the blog post schedule has been a little out of sync due to a menagerie of reasons we've now thanksfully resolved. We appreciate your loyalty and visits as readers so very much, so have worked hard to make day a bit of a bumper blog post-fest to show just how much we care :) I've a really lovely Christmas DIY tutorial coming up at 11am, but to start with, I've chosen to share the wedding of Ellen and Toby, who tied the knot on 20th October at Toynbee Hall and Fourth Floor Studios, both in Shadwell, East London. Photographer Georgi Mabee submitted these pretty, smiley, colourful images for us to share with you.
Ellen wore an unusual but beautiful tiered wedding dress, by sought after Australian designer Rachel Gilbert, which she purchased from Net A Porter and I just love her choice of dark blue, self-designed shoes, from the brilliant Upper Street (yes, you can actually design your own shoes via this site!)
"I was very keen to have a high, rounded neckline and sleeves (I think it suits my short haircut), and I came across this dress in the January sales on Net-a-porter. I had it altered to fit by Carmen's tailoring in Covent Garden.
loved its simple outline, and I thought the layers of different fabric and the chunky crystals around the neckline made it pretty without being too fussy..."
Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Georgi Mabee
"I decided originally to do the flowers myself, as we were after something fairly low-key and relaxed. After I mentioned that to my Mum, though, she volunteered and did a far better job than I could ever have done."
"We went and chose the flowers at New Covent Garden Market (very early) on the Thursday morning and went for lots of peach, white and beautiful greenery, plus probably my favourite element, thistles, which worked perfectly for buttonholes. My Mum collected around 80 jam jars in the run-up to the wedding which we filled with flowers and tealights. The overall effect was stunning, especially as the sun started to go down during dinner..."
"We were very keen for the whole event to have a fun, relaxed feel. Once we decided on an October wedding, I wanted something autumnal but still bright. I was keen to avoid any strict styling guidelines, but we ended up with a palette of blues, oranges, olive green and gold."
How sweet and lovely are these pastel pretty frocks worn by the bridesmaids?
"The bridesmaids dresses were from Warehouse. They worked beautifully with the colour scheme and suited all of the bridesmaids down to the ground.All of the bridesmaids wore the vintage lockets I'd bought for them, each with a teeny-tiny note inside."
"I made my veil myself, using a vintage broach and some shimmery tulle..."
"I designed my shoes on Upper Street, and went into their studio in Islington to go through samples and styles, which was a lot of fun."
"Toby bought his suit from the bespoke tailors, Raja Fashions – they measured him up and the suit was made in Hong Kong, then altered to fit perfectly."
"I'm a graphic designer so I created all the stationery. We got the idea from a friend's wedding to make a booklet with all the information for the day (order of service, schedule, menu, table plan) and include a short biography of each guest – it served as an ice-breaker and gave people something to do during the inevitable moments of waiting around."
Since my dress had a lot of embellishment around the neck I decided to steer clear of other jewellery, but I wore a thin gold belt from Asos."
"We chose the East London to marry in, because it's close to where we live and we love it, particularly all its hidden gems - which inclue both of our venues (Toynbee Hall and Fourth Floor Studios) which are re in pretty inauspicious locations, but just wonderful inside!
We started with a pretty blank canvas at Fourth Floor Studios (apart from some fantastic props and retro furniture that were already in residence), and a big team of our wonderful friends and family helped us set it up and deck it out the day before.
We used Kraft paper runners on the table and luggage tags for place names, then we strung up tissue paper pom-poms and papier mache table numbers that I'd made..."
"Our photographer Georgi Mabee did an absolutely fabulous job. She's a dream to work with and we adore all of our photos."
