Love My Dress Wedding Blog

Old School Glamour for a Vintage Theatre Wedding...

Morning wonderful! Now, as of next week, we'll be shutting up our laptops and taking our annual Christmas break here at Love My Dress - spending precious time with family and friends, as we do every Christmas. And that, lovers, means that this week, we're going to have a little bit of good old fashioned fun in betwixt the usual wedding inspiration and beautiful images. Let's face it, most of us are on Christmas wind-down now anyway, so we thought we'd keep it light hearted.  But fear not, I have personally kept some of the very best until last and I have some belting weddings up my sleeve for this week, possibly my fave of the whole year will be featured this coming Friday - please set your reminders as of now ladies and gentle people.

Right now though, let's enjoy the theatrical surroundings of Emma and Dan's wedding, who tied the knot on 1st September 2012 at Harrogate Theatre, followed by a reception at Majestic Hotel, Harrogate. The lovely photographers James and Lianne submitted these images...

"We both have a background in theatre and I grew up in Harrogate.  We met doing drama at university, but didn’t know each other very well while at uni – just in passing really. We did a play together and had a few classes together. We started going out in 2004, when we were both living with mutual friends in share houses in London..." 

Love My Dress Wedding Blog, Photography Copyright (c) 2012, James and Lianne Wedding Photography

"Neither of us are religious people, so we knew we didn’t want a church wedding. However, we wanted to still have that sense of ceremony and ritual that churches can provide. We thought a theatre would be very fitting in that respect, and perfectly suited to our love of, and background in, the arts. 

We were so excited to find that Harrogate theatre had recently become licensed for civil ceremonies. It was my local theatre when I was growing up in Harrogate and I have fond memories of seeing plays there over the years.  We also knew that we wanted a vintage feel to the day, nothing too prescriptive – just a hint of old time glamour. The day also had a few styling features inspired by Twin Peaks – one of our favourite TV shows. The red curtain and chequered floor in the main theatre worked perfectly for this, as did the hotel..."

"Our Florist was Leafy Couture; I wanted something bright and vibrant but that would also tone in well with my vintage style dress. I have always loved sunflowers and think they always look cheerful – I thought they’d look great against the purple bridesmaid dresses too. I had also seen a post on Love my Dress about ‘succulents’ in bridal bouquets that I really liked – so Leafy Couture managed to tie this all in together."

 

I love Emma's 1940's inspired wedding dress, that she made bespoke;

"My dress designer Emily is the wife of someone I went to university with. He actually let me know on Facebook that she made bespoke wedding dresses and pointed me towards her website. I saw some photos of Emily’s past creations and met her for a coffee to chat through some ideas I had for my dress..."

"Emily was so brilliant at translating all the ideas I had in my head into actual designs. I thoroughly recommend her if you want something totally unique..."

"We weren’t actually going to have a cake, but my mum was really keen to get us one – and I’m really pleased we did. Dan didn’t really mind how it looked – just as long as it tasted good. We went for a mix of chocolate and plain sponge – decorated with fairly simple art deco shapes – an era I love."

"Our photographers were James and Lianne.  They were fantastic and really went that extra mile to make sure we had truly special pictures of our day. They even came on a ‘site visit’ to the theatre with us to check out the space beforehand and did a little test shoot with us. 

They were brilliant at communicating well with us about the details of the day and always seemed genuinely excited about photographing our wedding.  They have a truly creative approach to their photographs and captured some fleeting, beautiful moments. They are also completely non-intrusive on the day – unlike some photographers who shout orders at everyone!"

Under the Tuscan Sun - A Wedding Filled With Sunshine and Sunflowers and a Beautiful Vintage Wedding Dress...

Oh sweet blog readers, I have such a treat for you this afternoon.  Please meet Vicki and Alex, who tied the knot with the most spectacular sunshine filled Italian wedding at Villa Catureglio - a private villa about 30 minutes from Lucca, in Tuscany.  There to capture all these beautiful details, that dress to die for and those bridesmaids frocks from Marks and Spencer. I know!!

These photographs were taken by one of my favourite UK photographers, the gorgeous Laura McCluskey. What a fabulous time she must have had capturing all this love and enjoying the beautiful surroundings.

"We wanted to ensure everything was in keeping with the venue and the surroundings.  We were in rural Italy, in a beautiful 13th Century building surrounded by mountains and olive groves so our main aim was not to detract from that. We wanted everything to be rustic and authentic, with plenty of colour, but no bling!  We wanted it to be really relaxed, but really fun at the same time."

 Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Laura McCluskey

"We hung about 100 yellow pom poms from the ceiling above the dancefloor, and hung fairy lights all around the barn.  We took our pom pom research very seriously and ordered lots of samples to get the right colours  - at one point he had them hanging all over our kitchen at home!

We bought them from Deco Pom Poms, who we found through love my dress.  We took them all out in our suitcases flat packed and spent the Thursday afternoon before the wedding fluffing them up over a few glasses of prosecco."

"My dress was from the utterly fabulous Fur Coat No Knickers, which was recommended by a friend. I was really hoping to find a genuine vintage dress and my whole experience with the girls at FCNK was just lovely.  I found a couple of dresses that were great, but when I put mine on I just felt amazing, and I knew it was the right one for me.

The girls completely reshaped the top, making a new bodice from the lace and adding buttons down the back.  I loved going to Fur Coat No Knickers for all my fittings, it was one of my favourite things to do while we were planning the wedding!  Laura and Emma are so lovely, totally brilliant, and clearly love what they do."

"I loved the lace of the dress, the shape, the length, the subtle colour, and I loved how romantic it was, but so much fun at the same time.  I loved the way it flattered my curves, and I even loved everything that went under it.  I wish I could wear such a brilliant petticoat in everyday life!  As I said before, it just made me feel amazing!" 

"We didn't provide favours as such, but we tied everyone’s place cards to a small olive branch with a yellow ribbon which looked really pretty.  Lots of people took those with them."

"Emma at Fur Coat No Knickers made me a birdcage veil, customised with bits of lace from the dress.  I loved the way it looked, and actually kept it on all night, until we went to bed at around 5.30 in the morning!"

"My bridesmaids dresses were from Marks and Spencer, of all places!  I wanted the girls to feel comfortable in what they were wearing, and these were the perfect colour to match the sunflowers.  We hadn’t noticed before, but on the day of the wedding we realised how perfect the lace was to compliment my wedding dress, an added bonus!

I bought my bridesmaids bracelets from Latham and Neve.  They were silver, with some gold plated detail to reflect the yellow on the day."

"My shoes were by Rachel Simpson, also from Fur Coat No Knickers .  They were the ones I tried my dress on with originally and were just perfect..."

"My brother gave me away, which was lovely.  I was keen to arrive at the ceremony behind the guests but this involved a walk on slightly challenging terrain all the way around the villa and gardens."

"As sunflowers grow locally and are a favourite of mine it was an easy choice.  We knew they’d look great in the sunshine too.  We bought them from Sabrina, the local florist in the village, and Alex’s Mum did all our flowers for us.  She did the three bouquets herself; a mix of sunflowers, gerberas and chrysanthemums, and all the table arrangements with a little help from some of the guests.  It was a huge job for her to undertake, and the flowers looked beautiful."

"We wanted a small, intimate wedding with our family and closest friends.  We love our holidays and we had this idea that we could turn our wedding into a big holiday with everyone.  Villa Catureglio was recommended by a friend so we always had a good feeling about it.  We arranged viewings at a few places around Tuscany and as we were driving away from Catureglio we knew it suited us perfectly, it’s just a really special place.

Our brilliant planner, Kate, does all the event planning for Villa Catureglio.  She was great, dealing with all the local suppliers, arranging the marriage itself with the town hall, and also acting as our official translator during the ceremony.  She was there all day to sort any last minute jobs, and deal with any emergencies, should they occur (which they didn’t – phew!)"

"We had the party after dinner in the old stone barn at Catureglio, and we went all out in here!  The ‘bar’ was at one end, then the dance floor was in the middle and we had a tripod, our guest book and a polaroid at the other end.  We also had chalk boards for people to write messages on for the photos and a lot of moustaches.  All of which were extremely popular!  Our friends and family were invaluable here, and spent most of Friday getting the barn set up."

"The completely brilliant Laura McCluskey took our photos.  She was an absolute delight from when we first met her for a coffee.  We found her while researching through various wedding blogs and really loved her style.  It was really handy having a London based photographer as we met up with her a couple of times before the wedding itself.

She flew out on the Friday and got to know everyone at the pizza party the night before, and she worked so hard all day creating our beautiful images.  She was unobtrusive but always in the action.  Nothing was too much trouble and she was so helpful.  She even got me into my dress when my bridesmaids struggled with the buttons!

Laura captured our day perfectly, and when she finally put her camera down at around 2am she came back for a bop on the dancefloor for another hour or so – brilliant!"

A Colourful, Sunflower Filled Barn Wedding...

Good morning everyone, I hope this email finds you well and rested after the weekend.

The couple sharing their beautiful wedding with us today met at university almost 10 years ago...

'Tom told me it was love at first sight when he met me, but it took me a little longer to fall for his charms! On 14th June 2010 Tom proposed in France. We went for a little mini break in Ile de Re, a small island off the west cost of France. It was a huge surprise and massively unexpected!! I'd almost given up hope! Very romantic... by the seafront in the harbour town, just before we went out for dinner. It was the sunniest, warmest evening of the holiday and the perfect setting for a proposal! I loved the ring Tom had chosen, I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect moment. Of course I burst out in tears and couldn’t answer for about 5 minutes so just nodded profusely!!'

Love My Dress Wedding Blog - PHotography Copyright (c) 2012, Tino & Pip

Louise and Tom were married on 17th September 2011 in Rolvenden, a small village in Kent. Their civil ceremony took place at Great Maytham Hall and was followed by a reception five minutes away at The Great Barn.

'We fell in love with the barn first as it was so rustic and in a gorgeous rural location - it fitted our needs exactly as we had the freedom to treat it as a blank canvas and put our own stamp on it. A LOT of work, but worth it! Great Maytham Hall was a perfect contrast - the two couldn’t be more different! The gardens and views in particular made us fall in love with this venue!'

'I think the styling and theme all fell into place once we chose the barn venue. I wanted lots of colour - hence the flowers bridesmaid dresses etc - and as little white as possible!  We hoped for a rustic and relaxed feel, and just for everyone to have fun!'     

Louise wore a Pronovias gown in the style 'Adela', bought from Teokath, in Canterbury.

'I was totally against lace initially as I didn’t want anything too traditional, but after trying on so many different styles I did end up trying on a few lacy numbers. I loved the general fishtail fit and this seemed to be a common characteristic of Pronovias design, so I ended up searching online and then hunting down shops that stocked the styles I liked.'

''Adela' was one of the ones I really wanted to try on as it had such a romantic feel to it, the neckline and cap sleeves were gorgeous! When I tried it on I fell in love with it instantly, started crying, and knew it was the one! It was the only dress I had tried on that I could instantly imagine myself in at the wedding, and I knew for certain Tom would LOVE it!'    

Louise paired her dress with shoes from Rainbow Club Couture and wore hair pins from Liberty in Love to which she attached her own pearl string beads. 'It was a civil wedding so I didn’t want to be too formal and wear a veil, but I wanted a bit of sparkle!'. She added further glamour with a pair of earrings from Chez Bec and a friend's swarovski bracelet.

Tom wore a suit from Italian Connection in Tunbridge Wells {call 01892 538668} and shoes from Jones. Sticking with the relaxed theme of the wedding, the groom asked the male members of the bridal party to wear whatever they wanted. Louise tells me 'he just wanted people to feel comfortable.'

Louise's Dad gave her away and the couple hired a sting trio for the ceremony.

'We wanted contemporary music as well as traditional classical. I researched into how some of my favourite songs sounded as a string version, and absolutely loved 'God Only knows' by The Beach Boys.  It was fun, happy and upbeat which I thought suited our day perfectly. The only problem was that as I was an emotional wreck that day, as soon as I heard the song start I burst into tears! Seconds before I got to the aisle! It was all so perfect... they were happy tears!!'

The amazing colourful dresses worn by Louise's maids were from Asos and Monsoon, and adapted by the bride's mum.

'The adult bridesmaid dresses were one of the first things I bought for the wedding and they basically formed part of my overall vision. I wanted something quirky and individual for the girls to wear and something that was casual enough to wear again. I loved the bright colours and flower pattern of the dresses, and don’t regret my choice one bit, despite some initial reservations by the bridal party!! Still love those dresses! The little bridesmaids/flower girl dresses matched my own lace more, with a purple/mauve accent to tie in with the adult dresses.'

The bold floral pattern on these dresses was offset perfectly by Louise's choice of blooms for the day. Flowers were provided by Lara Hayes from Darling & Wild.

'Lara did such a wonderful job with the flowers - I absolutely loved everything she did. I had a theme of sunflowers which I thought would go well with the barn and rustic style of the wedding. As the adult bridesmaid dresses were so vibrant I picked colours which I thought would go with the dresses and the general theme, so yellow, purple and green were the main influences. I chose terracotta round low pots for the table flower decorations, which went well in the barn, and we had bunches of sunflowers all over the barn and grounds, and flowers in old coal scuttles. Tom got hops from a local farm to decorate the barn with too. I wanted my bouquet to be pretty and informal, but didn’t want roses to feature as I think they're too formal, so opted filler flowers instead. I chose purple scabious, wax flower, flowering mint, statice and hydrandea.'  

The bride and groom were responsible for decorating much of the venue, with help from family and friends. They used hops purchased from a nearby farm and authentic Vietnamese hanging lanterns hired from Carolyn at Chicks that Chop. They also included vintage crockery and props from Rosebud Vintage and bunting made by the mother of the bride.

'We wanted something a bit different for the table names and seating plan, so we decided on favourite places or significant place names relevant to the guests on a particular table. For example, my bridesmaids table was 'Linekers' in Lanzerote, where we all went for our first ever girlie holiday when we were 17! The bridal table was 'Saint Martin de Re' were Tom proposed to me in France, and so on. We also had a children's table, but couldn’t think of a name so opted for 'Little Slees' as they were all children from my family (Slee), and we randomly found somewhere on google maps called slee for the map!'

'The place names were handmade, and we found maps of the places to write the table names on, which were mounted onto garden canes and stuck into the flower arrangements. We didn’t want a traditional seating plan, so opted for an arrangement on one wall of the barn, where we hung the table plans onto string with cute clips, and had old photos of when Tom and I were little in between.' 

'As we had an assortment of desserts we wanted to match the style with vintage crockery. The place names were luggage tags tied onto vintage cups'.

The couple opted for a dessert table with an array of cakes and treats, most of which were homemade by the mother of the bride and the groom's sister. The remainder came from Cook in Tunbridge Wells. 

'My mum put sooo much effort into the cakes, and prepared about 9 in total, in addition to little biscuits. She's German so cakes are a must in every celebration - the more the better for her. I didn’t want one traditional cake which we cut, as I always feel is a waste as nobody eats it, so we had an assortment of cakes and sweets for pudding instead of a formal dessert. Vicky, toms sister, made cupcakes and brownies which were delicious also. After this we had local cheeses and biscuits.'  

The bride also made all the favours with her parents one very long, exhausting weekend just before the wedding.

Sunflowers and Cymbeline for a Rustic Barn Wedding...

Afternoon my loves.  You'll note one or two extra posts in the weekly schedule in the run up to Christmas as we just have so much to share!  This delightful wedding comes to you via Haywood Jones Photography and features Sophie and Tony on their wedding day on 1st September 2012 at Brick House Farm, High Halden, Kent.

I adore the florals in this wedding, talking of which, there have been lots of sunflowers feature recently, have you noticed that too?

Sophie wore the 'Fadela' design by Cymbeline - a purchase from the fantastic Blackburn Bridal Couture... 

"I loved the tiered style of the lace. I had not seen anything like before. The neck/backline were particularly flattering. It was elegant, yet suited the style of the venue.  I felt very comfortable in it which was an important criteria for me." 

Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Haywood Jones Photography

"We completely fell in love with every aspect of Brick House Farm as soon as we were shown round. It ticked so many of our boxes and was just how we wanted our wedding to be. Informal and rustic. Loved that we could spend our wedding night in a fishing shack on the venue!

 I think the venue itself inspired many of the decisions we made on how we wanted our day to look. Bunting was definitely a theme throughout and I love bright multi colours."

"Our Florist was Mandy Draper at Willow Bespoke Flower Design.  I really love sunflowers and wanted them to feature in my bouquet. Pinks, blues, white and lots of greenery were my other colours. I wanted the flowers to look like we had just picked them and placed them in jars with no real structure and I didn’t want them to look like traditional wedding flowers."

 

"A friend of the family made our wedding cake. I asked her if she would make my wedding cake one day when I was about 10! I always wanted a giant chocolate heart!"

 

"We hung lots and lots of bunting which was made by a friends mum and is doing the rounds of lots of weddings! Paper pom poms were actually from a window displays in the shop Phase Eight! One of my bridemaids noticed them and went and asked if we could have them after they were finished with them and they said yes. I asked my local Phase Eight so we had enough for decorating the venue."

"Our photographers were Haywood Jones Photography and they were amazing! They put us completely at ease, especially with the portrait shots. They were non-intrusive, fun to have there, yet professional and most importantly took some great shots of the day. They really captured every little detail and will be great memories to hold onto. We would highly recommend them."