Love My Dress Wedding Blog

Tweed, Antlers and Charity Shop Finds ~ An Eco-Friendly, English Countryside Inspired Wedding

Hey there Tuesday, how are you? Please be kind to everyone I know today, and let all those visiting Love My Dress to seek inspiration have a lovely day.  And good morning Harriet and Tom - you are both looking wonderful today. I am so happy that I get to share your adorable wedding photographs with our readers.

Harriet and Tom's wedding took place on Friday 12th April 2013 at St. Botolphs Church in Newbold-on-Avon, Warwickshire, followed by a reception at Rothley Court in Leicestershire.  Photographer Richard Skins submitted these images on behalf of the couple but especially Harriet, who by all accounts spent many an hour perusing these pages herself when she was planning her wedding...

"Love My Dress was my main (daily!) source of inspiration. I love it, and I'm still going to reading until all my friends are married (and beyond, no doubt!). I love the constant stream of ideas and inspiration from real weddings, but also the story of a bride and groom.

Tom and I met almost seven years ago when I began a job at our local cinema whilst studying my A-levels. It took several months for us both to realise we could be more than just friends.  He popped the question a couple of months after my graduation in 2011."

Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2013, Richard Skins

"I knew Tom had found an engagement ring for me when I was still at university, but the proposal was a surprise. We were taking photographs of the sun going down on a beach in Corfu.

I love vintage fashion and antiques, objects with a story. I knew from the start I would want to source many of the elements second-hand, and from Britain to keep our carbon-footprint low.  There was no particular era I stuck to, I took inspiration from all corners!"

"The relationship between me and my 'potential' wedding dress was ever-developing, turning corners and on occasion, in complete despair. When I began to try different styles at the start of my engagement, I thought I was in my element and I would know exactly what I would want, and when it would feel 'right'.  Whilst it was a wonderful experience, there was never a magical moment for me. The price-tags held me back, and the contrast of opinions from my family and friends left me in confusion.

With about a year to go until the wedding I came to the decision to purchase a second-hand dress and adapt it to my own design. To begin with my ambitions were huge, but time-management was never my forte, so I abandoned my original plans."

"To my delight I came across a second-hand ex-sample Jenny Packham Berlin dress on Preloved, just a couple of months before the wedding. The dress oozes 1930s glamour, with the rich ivory colour, Art Deco belt embellishment and silk chiffon panels to the skirt. So with all the faith in the world the dress would arrive in one piece and fit me(!), I bought it. When I put the dress on there were still no fireworks, but I felt like me.

I was comfortable, whilst also feeling like I was wearing a proper fancy dress! I made a couple of adjustments to the bodice, with the addition of delicate chiffon and lace (from Macculloch Wallis and Truro Fabrics in the style of Jenny Packham's Aspen).  The dress was, dare I say it, perfect."

"We chose a country-casual style for Tom and the men, to fit with the British countryside theme. The tweed jackets were bought from a variety of different sources; Ebay, charity shops and a car-boot sale. They wore brick and burgundy colour chinos from BHS, and ivory shirts from Charles Tyrwhitt. 

Tom also wore Loakes Woodstock brogues."

"I made the bow-ties from an awesome linen toile by Lewis & Wood. It features illustrations by British artist, Andrew Davidson, of English country life.  And I want to decorate my house with it! I also made the buttonholes from a whole variety of different feathers; pheasant, partridge, turkey and grouse, with wire and linen ribbon."

"My main focus for my choice of florist was environmental impact. I didn't want flowers flown from thousands of miles away. I got in contact with Rachel of Catkin Flowers and she could not have been lovelier.

I chose to arrange the table decorations myself and Rachel made the bouquets, from beautiful ranunculus, tulips, and grape hyacinths all grown in the Lincolnshire countryside.

It was a proper team effort; me, Tom, his best-men and my bridesmaids, got to work on arranging the flowers in pots, bottles and jugs Tom and I bought throughout the year from charity shops and car-boot sales. It was scary, but worth it!"

"I wore a blonde faux-fur stole from ASOS - a last minute purchase for the chilly Spring weather of 2013!"

"My bridesmaids each wore an individual dress hand-made by Eleanor and the team at Dig for Victory.  This company is a real inspiration to me and fit with my eco-conscience.

Eleanor and Holly use vintage dress patterns to create beautiful clothes from vintage and end-of-roll fabrics. Each dress was made-to-measure for each of my maids from different floral cottons, and Eleanor was absolutely brilliant in helping me choose the fabrics to co-ordinate together. 

The girls shoes were from New Look."

"Our main inspiration for the wedding was Tom's surname, Hart, the stag. This was a natural choice as we both love the British country and wildlife. And of course, the change of my name was of real significance to me, so what better way to celebrate this! 

Along with the eclectic collection of bottles and jars for the flower arrangements, we also bought a range of antlers, from a local deer park, to decorate the tables. Tom and I made the cake-stands from second-hand crystal dessert bowls and candlesticks, with vintage floral plates. We also made several metres of floral bunting from Sanderson linen and cotton samples I bought for 50p at a car-boot sale!"

"Tom and my dad were in charge of the car choice and organisation and ended up hiring from Great Escape Cars. They chose a 1970 Jaguar E-type, and all the boys were in love."

"The church our ceremony was held in is just across from where Tom and I went on our first date six years ago, a picnic in the woods in the Spring sunshine."

We chose Rothley Court, a manor estate in Leicestershire, as the reception location. We fell in love with the quaint charm of the manor and the grand atmosphere of the chapel which connects to it, built almost a thousand years ago."

"Our photographer was Richard Skins. I was won over by the style of Richard's work and the way he uses natural light to create romantic but genuine photographs with heart. Once we booked Richard I learnt he takes photos for a company I used to work for, and one of my absolute favourite brands, a huge coincidence!

I also have a lot of respect for any man who can deal with a flat full of semi-naked women running around trying to find a mascara. But Richard was a star, calm and in control, whilst also seeming to disappear between the guests snapping away. It was a total pleasure to have Richard at our wedding."

A 1940s Glamour Inspired Wedding With Hints Of Peach Pretty...

Hello hello! Thank you for dropping by this morning to soak in some beautiful bridal inspiration. Hopefully, you'll be well rested after the weekend and got a chance to catch up with my trip in to London last week to attend the first ever Etsy UK Weddings event - it was superb and I'm so full of inspiration having met so many brilliant and talented suppliers last Friday afternoon. It was a pleasure to have been asked to be a part of this event and so much fun participating in a panel presentation where Etsy designers had the opportunity to ask questions about working with bloggers, blogging and social media. Much much fun and I'm already looking r to the next event that Etsy are planning.

Let's get right on down to it this week then, because I know you're primarily here for the wedding day inspiration - so without further ado, I'm delighted to tell you that these happy and joyful photographs you see here today are of newlyweds Sasha and Jack, who tied the knot on 30th March 2013 in Lincolnshire. These photographs were submitted by their photographer Lissa Alexandra. I love how they capture the couple's laid back personalities and fondness of vintage glamour...

"We’re both history geeks and love 1940s style and wanted to capture something of an elegant glamour in the wedding. So with that, we came to the theme of: Downton Abbey meets Upstairs Downstairs, with a sprinkle of literary influences and a splash of 80's peach! 

I’m a natural planner so relished every moment of the wedding planning process!"

Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2013, Lissa Alexandra Photography

"We met in York where we’d both gone to university. I was out for a friends birthday in Revolution, we met over a misunderstanding over Jack being described as gay and the rest is history! Three and a half years later, we spent New Years Eve in London with my family. We went to Hyde Park Winter Wonderland at the top of the ferris wheel, Jack got down on one knee. It was so romantic and followed by copious amounts of champagne and celebrations.

Jack didn’t want a long engagement but I knew we’d need time to plan everything so we decided on March of the following year – giving us just over a year to plan."

"Having met in York, lived in Leeds and moving to Lincolnshire, we decided to marry in Lincolnshire as I wanted to marry from my parents house.   Our wedding ceremony took place at St Botolph’s Church in Quarrington – our parish church is at the bottom of my parents street, so there was no question that we’d be married there.

Our reception took place at The White Hart Hotel in the Bailgate of Lincoln – we chose the hotel as the Bailgate in Lincoln captures a little of the feel of York where we met, but was close enough to the church. We also needed somewhere for our guests to stay as most were out of towners. The White Hart captured a little of the vintage glamour that we wanted and they do the best cocktails in Lincolnshire!"

"My mum and I spent ages looking for a florist as they were all so expensive and a lot of them didn’t like the idea of us wanting to do some of the flowers together with my sisters. We found Rebecca from Floraldeco online and we were able to buy flowers for the reception from her and arrange them ourselves. My bouquet was amazing so I was really happy with that."

"My dress was from J Dezire Bridal Boutique.  There aren’t a huge number of bridal shops in Lincolnshire and I avoided the whole dress shopping bit for quite a while! It took me ten months to buy a dress, but this was mostly because I was just didn’t go shopping! I did a little browsing with friends during the summer holidays and didn’t see a great deal.

I experienced a lot of the same disappointment brides feel when shops aren’t great with you, so was quite put off. My mum and I finally picked a day, booked three appointments and went for it. It turns out, my dress was in shop two and was dress three – so pretty easy in the end! The shop had this adorable university student shop assistant and she just made you feel great – it goes such a long way to making you feel good in a dress!"

"I thought I’d go for quite a big dress and inevitably, what I looked good in was just not that! The shop owner pulled my dress out and said she thought it would suit me. It was really simple with a lace top bodice, a deep waistband and a pleated skirt with a tulle overlay. It was very intricate but still understated. I loved how it brought my waist in and the pleated skirt was so unusual. Sometimes when you know, you just know!

The bolero was quite the saga though – the shop was adding a tulle halterneck to give my a little more support so I could wear a bra but I decided I’d need bolero too. Everyone ooh’d and aah’d over one in the shop so I brought it, despite not being sure. In the end I brought three, the final one arriving five days before the wedding! I’m really glad I stuck with the hunt as I knew I wanted a back-buttoning style and it totally transformed the dress.

I always knew I wanted a veil and Jack said he’d like me to wear a traditional veil. The amazing Chapel length, lace edged, two tier veil from Joyce Jackson was traditional and fabulous – far more dramatic than I intended! I ended up keeping it on all the way up to the first dance! Well you only get to wear a veil one!" 

"I knew exactly what I wanted my girls in: something soft, long and peachy. As I knew what I wanted, they were one of the first things we found. Googling for many hours led to finding these perfect little numbers. As it was March I thought they might need a little cover up and found these perfect little shrugs in Coast. They turned out to be an absolute life saver!"

"The cake was one area we decided not to splash out on as the cake often goes unnoticed and uneaten. We came across Marks and Spencers wedding cakes and were really impressed by the reviews – they are all glowing! We brought a plain 3 tier assorted cake and then some amazing sugar pasted anemone and hydrangeas flowers from a cake supplier. I spent the day before the wedding pasting the 100 hydrangea flowers onto the middle tier and making the anemone topper.

I changed the ribbon to match our theme and it turned out fantastically. I think I may have discovered a new talent for cake decoration!"

"Jack is super particular about his clothes and the way they fit, so it was never going to be a quick job finding suits. We went into countless shops looking for hire suits and kept being given catalogues. We found this really frustrating as so much emphasis is put on the brides outfit and the poor groom was expected to pick an outfit from a picture without trying it on!

Just as we were losing the will to live, we went to an appointment at Slaters in Leeds. Finally we had someone listen to Jacks fussing about fit and style. The shop assistant (Matt I think!) was amazing and even fitted me for a top hat for the photos (top idea!!) – which would have been perfect had we not lost the hat!"

"The Yorkshire Heritage Bus Company are amazing suppliers!! They’d worked with Lissa and Kayti before so it seemed like they were part of the day too and so accommodating – they left Yorkshire at ridiculous o’clock to make sure they didn’t get stuck in any Easter traffic.

"The Yorkshire Heritage Bus Company were so easy to work with and I couldn’t recommend them enough. As everyone got on the bus to come to the church, Jack said it made everyone come together and by the time they arrived the party had already started. On the way back we had old fashioned glass coke bottles with red striped straws, red striped popcorn bags and snack packs of Oreos.

We didn’t want anyone to be hungry so I think we just kept everyone topped up on the bus. The line of traffic on the way to Lincoln was further than the eye could see so I’m not sure everyone in Lincolnshire appreciated the bus – but I think they might have been our best spend of the day."

"Words cannot describe how amazing our photographer Lissa Alexandra was!! We now have the most amazing photos that truly capture the feel and spirit of our day – I honestly don’t know how she does it! We meet Lissa at a wedding fayre in Harrogate and her stall stood out a mile! She was so enthusiastic and genuinely seemed so interested in our day. When we had a full meeting with her, I think we both just knew it had to be her – when we left Jack just turned around and said “yeah, done”. So that was it really! On the day, she worked so hard and most importantly so discreetly. Our day was in no way dictated by the photos – we barely even noticed her!"

"Lissa truly was a photo taking ninja! Everyone commented on how quickly the group photos were taken – we were literally outside the church for 15 minutes! Jack particularly liked seeing all our the morning pictures and how calm I was before getting to the church!  Going round to the cathedral during the cocktail reception was really lovely – I would recommend all couples to take the time to do some of those photos as we truly love ours – but get a photographer like Lissa, she did it all so quickly! 

 We both think Lissa Alexandra is absolutely amazing and could not possibly recommend her enough! She will work her bottom off for you, all with a smile on her face! Just make sure you tell her to go home at night as I think she would have just kept going if we hadn’t! A true professional and wedding enthusiast!"

Winter Woodland Meets Art Deco Glamour

Morning all! I have a sweet wedding to share with you this morning, submitted by the very lovely Sarah Lafford of Assassynation Photogarphy and who is always so charming!  Actually, that's not quite true, the lovely bride submitted her wedding on this occasion with support from Sassy.  Regular reader Tara and Gavin tied the knot on 22nd December with a ceremony at St. Budock Church in Budock Water, Falmouth, followed by ceremony at the Scorrier House Estate.

"Ben and I met on an internet dating site! We chatted online before finally decided to meet. Ben took the train up to Plymouth and we enjoyed a perfect first date on Plymouth’s water front. Plymouth train station, where we first met has always remained a special place. In fact, we chose our first dance song Dean Martin’s ‘Winter Romance’ as the first line contains the lyrics ‘I never shall forget, the station where we met.

After two years, Ben popped the question on a gondola in Venice as the golden sun set on a little back street canal. It was the perfect moment and was accompanied by cheers from passers-by! We were engaged for sixteen months before the wedding."

Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2013, Assassynation

"My shoes were by Harriet Wilde and were a bargain at less than half price as they were being discontinued! My boots for the beach were Red or Dead."

I LOVE Harriet Wilde, in fact, I spent yesterday afternoon with her. Brides who love their shoes, you need to look here."

"So many inspirational ideas came and went as we planned the day. After a visit to art deco national trust property ‘Colaton Fishacre’ we decided that we should like a deco feel which in turn influenced my choice of dress. We combined the decadence of glamour with our love of the season and woodland walks, creating in the end a ‘winter woodland meets art deco glamour’ feel. Ben’s main aim was for guests to feel that they were at an extended, informal dinner party and therefore a glamorous deco ‘country house party’ vibe emerged. 

Marrying in a church was always of great importance for me having grown up going to church, the values of a Christian ceremony were also special for us and we were blessed enough to meet with wonderful vicars both in our local parish where we had one set of Banns read and in Budock with the Rev. Bennett who married us."

"My fur shrug was picked up on a weekend away in Oxford from a vintage store called ‘The Ballroom’."

"A close family friend who has wanted to do my flowers since I was a little girl! We had always wanted a winter woodland feel to our day and so took advantage of the beautiful foliage that is around at that time of year. Sue collected larch-cone twigs frosted in grey-green moss and bundles of mistletoe. We then added subtle colour with amnesia and avalanche roses , dried hydrangeas and a colour pop of  pink anemones.

As well as the table centres, Sue crafted two ten foot garlands to encircle the banisters of the grand staircase and willow hearts which we shall be able to keep forever.
I knew I always wanted sea holly and cones in my hair too so sue created a spectacular larch cone and sea holly crown to adorn my plaits."

"I’d always wanted fresh flowers in my hair, I had seen a feature on Love my Dress featuring Tatty Devine jewellery.  The model had intricately plaited hair in the style of Frida Khalo so I got my amazing hairdresser to recreate the style and accessorised with a floral crown of larch cones and sea holly made by our florist - a family friend."

"My dress was the Martina Liana 294 design, purchased from Vu’s Bridal in Wadebridge.  I designed the shrug myself.

Originally, I had envisaged a true vintage gown and went through so many different eras from Edwardian to 1950s; however, so far down in the south west, there is very little choice when it comes to quality vintage and I didn’t want to travel. When I saw the Martina Liana dress I thought it was so beautiful with its gold accent scalloped lace which looked quite art deco and the style was very flattering.

As I am only 5 ft 2, I couldn’t wear a dress with too much volume and the column style with scalloped train suited me well. I didn’t buy it straight away as it was more expensive than I was hoping to pay but I couldn’t resist gazing at it online so in the end I took the plunge! I had always wanted to have my shoulders covered so I ordered extra lace and went to my dressmaker with a rough design in mind. She realised it to perfection. Margaret at Little Stitches in Indian Queens was truly amazing and many people thought it was bespoke!" 

"The little stone church where we got married, St. Budock Church, is in my husband’s parent’s Parish - it is the oldest in Cornwall and is so beautiful inside. Our reception took place at Scorrier House Estate – after a long search, we fell in love with the venue straight away and knew it would provide the perfect backdrop for our small winter wedding.

Ben had always wanted a tweed vintage suit and we found the perfect one at Trevails in Truro by Johnstons (their website only shows lingerie from the ladies’ department unfortunately!).  He also wore an Italian vintage knitted tie found on ebay."

"On the day it blew a gale but tucked up inside the warm, candlelit church it was just perfect as the wind howled while we recited our vows. It couldn’t have been more special and atmospheric. We also savoured the time we spent together (between rain breaks) on our favourite beach drinking champagne and looking out to sea, just the two of us."

"The amazing Sassy from Assassynation was our wedding photographer.  She has such a good eye and really made the most of the conditions on what has to be the rainiest day of the year! She also totally won over our guests who all commented on how lovely she was- in fact, she felt like a guest!"

Giant Balloons And A Blue Cardigan For A 1950's Inspired Bride And Her Quirky Village Fete Style Wedding

Good morning beautiful! As you read this, I'll be sat getting my hair coiffed (by no other than Monsieur Severin Hubert of course) and makeup applied so that I look the bees knees ready for a rather important business meeting this afternoon - plus (the scary part), I'm getting some photos taken for Love My Dress!  I will then be visiting Elizabeth Avey and Ruth Shaw of Harriet Wilde later in the afternoon with my photographer colleague Naomi Kenton (blog post to follow people).  Which means that I need to leave you with something beautiful whilst I'm off on my latest London adventures.

And so here we are - please join me in saying hello to Eleanor and Dave, who tied the knot on 13 April 2013 at Errol Park in Perthshire, Scotland. I just love these images for their quirky nature - and any bride who chooses to wear an electric blue cardigan on her wedding day deserves a BIG gold star in my books. These photos were submitted by the always lovely Zoe Barrie.

"Very soon after getting engaged I came across Love my Dress. I was heavily influenced by all the beautiful weddings featured (and Pinterest) and still read it now despite no longer having a wedding to plan.

We also didn’t have a particular era in mind when styling our wedding, but I do personally love all things vintage and quirky. Our initial loose theme was ‘village fete’ and I have always known I wanted bunting. Everything else just came around as we went along."

Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2013, Photos by Zoe

"Our Photographer recommended Pyrus Flowers to us. I was looking for a local supplier of some lovely ‘meadow’ style flowers. Pyrus grow their own local blooms from their flower garden in East Lothian. They created such beautiful and unusual wild displays for the table centres, and the bouquets matched the relaxed look so well, and smelt amazing too!"

"Dave got his Kilt made for him in his family Tartan. He purchased everything he was wearing, including the accessories from Keith Scott Kilts in Dundee."

"I wore the Rachel Simpson 'Lola' shoes in blue Suede, which beautifully matched my cardigan from French Connection."

"My lace head piece was actually a bracelet from Stitch From The Heart on Etsy.  I removed the clip and sewed vintage button and beads onto it. This was then just pinned into my hair on the day."

"My Dress was Audrey by Blue Bridal Wear which I purchased at Ivory Whites in Perth. I always knew I wanted a dress with sleeves, with a vintage feel. Originally I was looking for a tea length dress as I love that 1950s style, but having tried a few on I decided they didn’t really suit me.

When I tried on Audrey I just loved it, the material was amazing and so luxurious and I loved how simple it was, perfect for adding a bit of colour and interest with some accessories. It just felt so lovely on and had that ‘spin’ factor!"

"The Balloons were a slightly last minute decision, about a week before the wedding I came across a blog post about Geronimo Balloons, who are a US company who make amazing tassel balloons, I loved them and decided to make my own version of them, I think they turned out really well."

"We didn’t really have favours, however everyone got a drumstick lolly with their name on it as a place setting, I think they may be my all time favourite sweet!  We also gave the bridesmaids a bath bomb from Lush wrapped up in vintage scarf tied into a bow, I saw this in their store and thought it was such a lovely idea and you get the bonus of being able to wear the scarf after too!"

"We had a humanist ceremony, which I think is a great benefit of getting married in Scotland. We created our own ceremony, chose some readings that our friends read out and wrote our own vows. It was lovely being able to produce such a personalised ceremony that was unique to us.

One of my favourite parts of the day was when my Dad sang during the ceremony. I grew up with him singing, and it was really special that we could include that in our day. At any family gathering the guitars always come out and we have a good old singalong. He sang “The Road and the Miles to Dundee” a traditional Scottish folk ballad. I was his dad’s favourite song and also fitted us so well, as Dave and I met each other at university in Dundee."

'The bridesmaid dresses were from Monsoon Bridesmaids Hair Accessories.  Their headbands were also form Stitch from the Heart on Etsy."

"I have always enjoyed crafting and creating. I have a background in design so wanted to create as much of the décor and styling as I could myself. With help from my bridesmaids we produced over 100 pinwheels to use in the table centres and around the venue, I love the whimsical look they have, my mum also kindly sewed a whole lot of bunting that we draped around the venue."

"We also created our own Photobooth. I wanted this to have a vintage feel so I sourced an old photo frame and mounted it onto a stand, then cut out various moustaches and glasses and attached them to sticks. This went down so well and it was really very simple to make.

I also made all our invitations, the table Plan and table names. The tables were named after Chilli varieties as we both love hot food!"

"Right form the word go we wanted somewhere that would let us do our own thing, not be tied to suppliers and tight timescales. In fact our first requirements when looking for venues was that we could have a hog roast, this actually turned out to be surprisingly difficult to find in the area. We looked at several places around the Dundee/Perth area (where we live) as well as in the highlands (where I am from) but when we came across Errol Park we new straight away we had found our perfect venue. They don’t do many weddings and we loved the idea of making it our own. The location was beautiful and the contrast between the grand house and beautiful gardens where we held the ceremony and the old circular stable block for the reception really ticked all the boxes.

The courtyard looked lovely lit up with the bonfires at night, and the old stable complete with feeding troughs as the bar was quirky and fun, as well as the large clock tower looking over us all, it was all just perfect!"

"I actually came across our photographer Zoe on Love My Dress, I was looking for a relaxed, quirky photographer that could capture the details of our day. I knew straight away when first chatting to her on the phone that she would be perfect. She is just so friendly and of course her photos are amazing. The images are just perfect, she really got the vibe that we were going for and I think this shows in the photos."