Love My Dress Wedding Blog

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!"

Jenny Packham's Mya For A Relaxed and Elegant Liverpool Winter Wedding

Morning all, hoping our first blog post of the day finds you well.  I guess for many of us, we're now looking forward to the Summer and warmer climes - we've packed away our winter woolies and are starting out, with a certain sense of intrepidation, in our lighter frocks and summer (dare we, yet?) sandals, and so the sense of featuring a Winter wedding today might seem a little odd.  But I know that many brides reading Love My Dress today will be planning their own Winter wedding, and so I'm really happy to be able to share an elegant post-Christmas affair with you all.

Anna and Paul got married on 5 January 2013, at Crosby Hall Education Trust in Liverpool, followed by a reception at Leaf on Bold Street in Liverpool city centre and the very talented photographer Anna Hardy was there to create these beautiful photographic memories...

"Winter has always been our favourite time of year; in Northumberland, where Paul is from, the snow falls and stays. We've had some lovely winter days walking along frozen rivers. One of my songs, And WInter Came is about one of those days with Paul.  I'm so glad we picked winter for our wedding. 

We planned our whole wedding in five months - we got engaged at the end of July 2012 and married as long as you keep things simple you don't always need the full 18months!  I loved the idea of a candlit winter wedding and somehow combining that with a city centre venue, with a good stage and sound for the bands and close to the part of Liverpool where Paul and I first lived together. The mirrorballs that hung from the ceiling in Leaf sealed the deal!"

Images Copyright (c) 2013, Anna Hardy

"We really wanted to create a day that felt warm and welcoming, individual, cosy and full of love and fun . As the guests arrived they were handed a glass of mulled wine to drink before the ceremony. Many have since commented that it was a lovely welcome, and that time together before the ceremony really broke the ice amongst the guests.

I had used the venue many times for my concerts and so was familiar with the barn space and how it lovely it could be for a wedding ceremony. Enough room, but small enough to be intimate and warm!"

"I'd always thought I'd be a real boho bride, floaty chiffon dress, hair down, bare feet - but before I knew it once I'd chosen my silk Jenny Packham dress - everything else started to steer towards a far more glam feel.

As my dress was so long and slinky I didn't need to worry about my shoes too much, I ordered a simple, but pretty court shoe 'Beau Wedding Shoes - Pink By Paradox ' from the Wedding Shoes website."  

"Our venue reception, Leaf is our favourite place in Liverpool, From the tea shop downstairs to the hundreds of mirror balls hanging from the ceiling upstairs. Becky and her team there were brilliant and so helpful, letting us create the relaxed atmosphere we'd hoped for. They even kept wine bottles back from New Years Eve for us to use as candle holders for the tables."

"The idea of the wedding dress hunt filled me with dread - I'd performed at so many weddings in 2012 and seen so many beautiful brides in so many dresses I couldn't picture myself in the bride's seat at all! was so worried that all of the dresses in bridal shops would be tiny...and I'd be talked into something awful!  I started my venture by ordering a cheap copied design of a Catherine Dene dress from a chinese website. When it arrived, it was awful!

I looked so ridiculous I ran straight downstairs into the kitchen to show Paul - He agreed I looked like a fairy godmother from a pantomime! So I gave in, and made some appointments in Bridal shops. I found the Mya pure silk dress in a sample sale in The Bride Rooms and was so excited! I'd been looking for an evening dress- style design and to find a Jenny Packham dress in a sample sale had seemed to good to be true! The dress was so beautifully made, the silk felt amazing and it was so soft and light."

"I knew from the start I'd like my bridemaids (my two sisters) to  wear different dresses, and in addition my sister Claire was seven months pregnant and I wanted her to feel comfortable and glamourous.We found a lovely black lace dress on ASOS Maternity and a beaded shrug from Debut, Debenhams.

Nicola's amazing purple embellished dress was an ASOS design. I absolutely loved this dress from the moment I saw it, but ASOS had sold out!  A week later I found the very same dress on Ebay and bought it for her immediately at half the original price!"

"To enable us to have total freedom over the content of our ceremony, we actually did the 'legal bit' two days before in Morpeth Town Hall with our two close friends as witnesses. This meant that at our wedding two days later, my uncle Jim was able to conduct the full ceremony that we had written together

He did it so beautifully, and we were able to make it very personal. He used a beautiful stole to perform our Blessing that had been made for him in Brazil. Both of our fathers did readings. The Art of Marriage by Wilfred Peterson and The Greatest Happiness, by Victor Hugo/"

"Ever since I saw Ross and Emily's wedding on friends all those years ago - I knew that if I ever got married I love there to be as many candles as possible rather than spending a lot on flowers. My Mum and I started collecting candles, lanterns and candle holders from charity shops and asked to borrow any nice ones we saw in friends houses!"

"My mum did all of the holly and ivy arrangements for our ceremony collected from friends gardens the day before. I especially love the base of our wedding candle which Paul and I lit together during the ceremony after saying our vows. My very talented Mum also did our bouquets - we'd sourced the purply heathers in the weeks leading up to the wedding (they're silk!) from Taskers Home Store and Dunelm Mill and added real white roses and gypsophila.

The brilliant part about using some artificial flowers within the bouquet is I now still have them in a little vase in the kitchen and I just keep replacing the white roses with fresh ones."  

"I borrowed a beautiful vintage fur coat from one of my closest friends Hannah.It finished off the look I wanted to create perfectly."

"During our ceremony, my best friends from university whom I studied music with performed Mexico by The Staves, Landslide by Stevie Nicks and my cousin Miriam sang The Water of Tyne. They were absolutely stunning. Both Paul and I found it very emotional!"

"We had no official wedding cake as such! I saw a picture on Love My Dress a while ago of a table covered in cakes - like a country fair! And so instead of an official wedding cake, we asked close friends and family to each make a cake! The only rule being, it had to be simple - their favourite childhood cake memory. The results were brilliant!

We had everything from rice crispie cakes, victoria sponge, lemon drizzle etc! Again we set about collecting cake stands from charity shops and ended up with an amazing array of beautiful home made delights. Even the bouncers on the door at Leaf were tucking in by the end of the night."

"My Dad drove me and my sisters to the wedding ceremony in his trusty volvo - (which he had cleaned and hoovered for the first time in 5 years!) it was lovely having that time together just us, before the madness began!

After our ceremony and reception drinks, all of the guests joined us in piled onto a big double decker bus to take us into Liverpool.  It was such good fun!  It kept all of the guests together and kept the momentum of the party going! When we got to the top of Bold Street in Liverpool we found that the road was blocked and so all of the guests had to get off and walk a short way down the hill - it all added to the amusement!" 

"Having Anna Hardy as our photographer was one of the things I was most excited about. I absolutely love her alternative style of photography and she was so lovely to have around - I think most people thought she was one of our guests! We were overwhelmed when we saw our pictures for the first time we both got so emotional - to see the moments that she had managed to capture throughout our day, especially during our ceremony.

She was really flexible with our plans and I loved that she got on our wedding bus with us to our reception which gave us some brilliant action shots. She has captured the atmosphere perfectly."

Jenny Packham's Eden for a Relaxed Barn Wedding

Afternoon my loves. You didn't think I'd sneak away without featuring a wedding today did you?  Katy and Paul tied the knot on 15th December at St Mary’s Church, Astbury, followed by the reception at Sandhole Oak Barn in Congleton, and I love their wedding for all it's sweet simplicity.

There's is a story of love, romance, and hard earned gym sweat...

"Paul and I met at work over a treadmill. That’s right.  Over a treadmill! ☺  I was a student at the time – and  Paul was trying to teach me all about cardiac rehabilitation.  I was far more interested in learning about what Paul got up to on a Friday night.  Needless to say we went out for a meal, and the rest is history.

We got engaged at Peckforton Castle in Cheshire.  Paul arranged a weekend away to celebrate the first day of my maternity leave before the birth of our beautiful little girl Martha Rose.  We were engaged for two years before our big day.  We always wanted a Christmas wedding, as Martha was 2 this year, it seemed the perfect time."

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

"I wore Jenny Packham's Eden dress, which I purchased from Amy Louise Bridal in Nantwich, Cheshire.  I love anything Vintage and always knew my dress would reflect this.  I tried on a few traditional dresses, but the moment I tried on my dress I knew I had to have it. The  style, the beading, the detail - just beautiful. 

I returned to the store with both my mum and sister in tow, and came away a proud owner of a Jenny Packham Eden.  A Mum always knows best!"

"I have a great love of VW beetles and it was my one and only choice of transport to and from the church. The vintage VW I travelled in was supplied by a friend."

"We never really wanted a particular ‘theme’, and we wanted it to be festive without being too ‘Christmassy.’  We wanted the wedding to reflect our personalities, relaxed and slightly ‘quirky!’.

I fell in love with my 1920s inspired beaded wedding dress the moment I tried it on and the rest followed on from there. We chose a Christmas wedding as it is always a special time of year for us.

I had two flowergirls.  Our Beautiful daughter Martha Rose, and our beautiful niece Emily Kate.  The both wore an Ivory Dress from Debenhams. Their silver sequin ballet pumps were from monsoon.  They wore a gorgeous ivory fur coat also from monsoon." 

"We chose a tiered Victoria sponge for our cake, decorated with seasonal berries and fresh flowers.  We were looking for an alternative to a traditional wedding cake, and came across Kay at Kay’s cakes, Newcastle-u-Lyme, through our florist.  The cake was exactly what we wanted and was very fitting for our seasonal wedding"

"We choose our venue, Sandhole Oak Barn in Congleton because to us, it was perfect. A beautiful setting and everything that we were looking in a venue for our Christmas wedding.

The invitations and order of service were lovingly hand made by myself and then printed by my dad. We chose to have vintage brown postcard invites wrapped with natural twine and a painted wooden heart.  The invites and the order of service both displayed a winter oak tree.  This was styled on the memorable oak tree at Sandhole Oak Barn. The table plan was a personalised chalk board made by Butterfly Daisy, Market Drayton. 

I hand finished it by writing all of our tables and guests on it. It was then decorated with fairy lights - you can never have too many fairy lights!"

"Our photographer was Alex Davies.  The moment we saw Alex’s work, we knew we had to have her photograph our wedding.  Her style is just beautiful and exactly what we were looking for.  Alex is so friendly and relaxed- she  put us at ease immediately.  Alex managed to capture the atmosphere of our day perfectly.  Our photos are stunning and we can’t thank her enough."

A Rustic and Vintage Inspired Winter Wedding for Two Childhood Sweethearts

Good morning lover, now if any of you are feeling a little flat this morning, let this wedding be a reason to cheer you up.  Bride Gemma's smile is infectious, don't you think?  Love My Dress reader Gemma tied the knot with Craig on 29 December last year at Dodford Manor in Dodford, Daventry, Northamptonshire.

"Craig and I are basically childhood sweethearts – we met at 'Tubes Nightspot' in Melton Mowbray – where all great romances begin, well something like that! I was 17 and Craig had just turned 18 and we have been together ever since. In fact the day that we got married was exactly 12 years since the day we met..."

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

"Craig proposed on 1 July 2011. I had been baking a cake in the kitchen, so was in my scruffs, with flour all over the place (I am a very messy chef!) It was a nice evening, and so when I was done Craig suggested we go and sit outsider. I went out and he had filled the garden with candles and had a bottle of champagne at the ready – I was completely shocked and had not suspected anything. What I hadn’t realised was that while I was busy baking he had been secretly squirreling past with loads of candles up his jumper!!

It was a really special night and very 'us' We completely renovated our home together and have worked really hard, so it means a lot to us – it was the perfect place to start our journey towards married life..."

"We love all things old, that a full of character and rustic.  We also both knew that we wanted a winter wedding, with lots of greenery, candles and warmth and that this was the kind of feel that we wanted. We also both loved the Narnia books as kids, and the films since we have grown up so decided to use this as a loose theme.  

I am also a massive fan of all things vintage – I swear I was born in the wrong era, so I also knew that this look would feature heavily on our day."

"My dress was Pronovias, Adela and I bought it from Serendipity Brides in Weedon. I really cannot praise Lisa and her team at Serendipity enough – they were fantastic from start to finish.

I tried on loads of dresses and was really struggling finding the type of thing that I wanted. All of the dresses I tried on were gorgeous, but I quite often felt a bit like I was playing around in the dressing up box and that they were not really me. My dress was one picked out by Lisa actually and as soon as I had it on I was in love! My sister balled which was a good sign, but I just felt absolutely amazing in it . I just loved everything about it, the shape, the train but especially the lace it is really different to the other dresses I had tried and I loved the delicate lace straps."

"Our florist was Charlotte Ayre from Olney in Milton Keynes. Charlotte is an absolute babe, we had such fun working together and she completely understood what we wanted. I met charlotte at Milton Keynes wedding Fair and I instantly liked her.

We went for a consultation and it sounds corny but we just clicked, and it was really important to me to pick people who we got on well with."

"My mum passed away a number of years ago and so I wore her engagement ring and also her locket, with her picture in, was attached to my bouquet. The bracelet I wore was actually a gift from a friend as a thank you for me making her wedding cake – it looked perfect with my dress and included that “something blue...”

"I got my headpiece  and birdcage veil from Vintage Headdresses. I knew the kind of thing that I wanted, but couldn’t find a headdress that incorporated all of the ideas I had so got in touch with Chris at Vintage headdresses and asked for her to create a bespoke piece. I explained my ideas, and Chris sent me some photos of a gorgeous gold vintage pieces that she had, I loved them and that was it – we went from there! I was so chuffed with the final piece.

"We bought Craig’s suits and the suits for the rest of the boys from Tailor4less. Crag didn’t want to do tops and tails and wanted something tweed. It was impossible to find anywhere to hire something from, and to buy them here would have cost a fortune. We took a bit of a punt and ordered them online, we did need to make some amendments (probably due to my rubbish measuring skills) but they looked fab on the day.

We collected various different neck ties from vintage stores and then let the boys choose which ones they liked best. They all wore their own shirts and shoes.

"We styled the venue with lots of jam jars which I decorated with the help of some of my fabulous friends. They were dotted all around the venue with either flowers or candles in them.  I also collected a few rustic looking trees which we dotted around and used some of my Nan’s old doilies to decorate table tops and windowsills. Also, as it was Christmas, Dodford had set up a number of massive Christmas trees which looked fantastic.

I also wanted there to be plenty of pictures of my mum around, but without it looking like a shrine so made a photo gallery. The gallery included loads of old wedding photos from both sides of the family and I hung them up in an old vintage suitcase."

"My brother bought our wedding cake for our wedding present – it was a blooming amazing creation from Choccywoccydoodah. I bake cakes myself, just as a hobby, but didn’t want the pressure of making our own. However, I also didn’t really want to spend a lot of money on something that I felt I could do myself so when my brother offered to get us a cake from Choccywoccydoodah we jumped at the chance!"

"Beccy Goddard was our photographer – and hiring Beccy was by far the best choice we made. Beccy used to baby sit me when I was a kid - It was really cool to have someone who we felt comfortable with and who knew the family, it just made the whole day go so smoothly. Beccy also knew my mum pretty well, and it was really lovely to have her there with that in mind.

Beccy's pictures are just fantastic and we are so chuffed with them. I knew that the photography was going to be a really important part – as they are the only thing that you get to look back at to remind of just what a fantastic day it was. I cannot thank Beccy enough, every time I look at the photo I just have a giant grin on my face!"