Love My Dress UK Wedding Blog

Jenny Packham for a Midsummer Nights Dream Inspired Woodland Wedding...

A wedding in the woodland? A pretty, floaty Jenny Packham wedding dress? Lots of romantic reds and roses and photographs filled with joy? Oh go on then, you twisted my arm!

Tim and Laura's wedding took place on 19 May at St Stephens Church in Kingston Lacy, followed by a marquee reception that was held in Laura’s parents’ home, both in Wimborne, Dorset. 

"My dress was from Jenny Packham, and I bought it from her gorgeous boutique in Belgravia.  I knew that I loved Jenny Packham dresses – all the ones I liked seemed to be designed by her when I checked the labels. When I looked on their website, I really loved the look of this dress, but never expected that it’d be the one I’d end up with.

I tried a few on and pretty much loved them all but this one just felt right –it had a bit of a vintage look, was light and floaty, had a deep back and was really comfortable – it almost felt like I wasn’t wearing anything!"

Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Sarah Lauren

"All the flowers were by family friend Polly Wright. She did such an amazing job. With a few pairs of extra hands to help her, the bouquets, tables and marquee garland were gorgeously full of lush blooms."

"All my bridesmaids wore the most beautiful, red, convertible dresses made by the lovely Biby of Orchidea Boutique on Etsy.   The girls also wore fresh freesia clips made by Polly, our florist and family friend. They smelled heavenly!" 

"My dress was from Jenny Packham, and I bought it from her gorgeous boutique in Belgravia.  I knew that I loved Jenny Packham dresses – all the ones I liked seemed to be designed by her when I checked the labels. When I looked on their website, I really loved the look of this dress, but never expected that it’d be the one I’d end up with.

I tried a few on and pretty much loved them all but this one just felt right –it had a bit of a vintage look, was light and floaty, had a deep back and was really comfortable – it almost felt like I wasn’t wearing anything!"

"People seemed to mention “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” a lot when we described things, so I suppose that was in our minds when we were planning and styling our wedding day!  We had always dreamed of getting married on a stretch of woodland behind my parents’ home, where I grew up. It was formerly the old railway line that ran into Wimborne, but as the line was closed down long, long ago, we have always known it as a peaceful nature haven full of deer, foxes, rabbits, buzzards, owls and all sorts of other wonderful creatures.

The old railway line is actually a private route from my mum and dad’s house to Tim’s family home, so we used to meet in the middle for secret picnics and sneaky bottles of cider! It’s our favourite place, and so full of history for us, and we just couldn’t imagine celebrating anywhere else.

There wasn’t really a theme, but I suppose the woodland itself influenced our style the most – we wanted it to be as if the wood had been taken over by sparkly lights, a band, and a whole lot of people we love having a great time!  We also knew that we would be making most things ourselves. Flowers played a huge part in our decoration and style of the day – my mum’s friend Polly did the most fantastic job. They looked beautiful, and really worked in the setting whilst providing flashes of meadow colour."

"A car designed by Laura’s granddad (the very rare Peel Viking) was used to transport the bride to the church and we drove it to the reception afterwards. The bridesmaids were driven by Laura’s mum in our much loved 1977 VW campervan, in which we’ve had many a great holiday!"

"All designed by me - I learned how to use Adobe Illustrator in the process, thanks to an afternoon crash course from the very kind Raj, who helped me to figure out how to pull my hand drawings and ideas together digitally."

"Our main decoration was all the beautiful flowers created by Pauline, with a gorgeous long garland of lilies which framed the marquee. I wanted to put all the leftover flowers out in their buckets as it seemed such a waste not to see them, but we gave them away instead as a thank you to guests, along with the table flowers and bouquets.  To hold the flowers on each table, we sprayed tin cans copper, gold or white, and had been collecting nicely shaped jam jars to hold flowers too. We used the leftover jars and tins to hold candles and tealights.  Tim’s mum, Sandra sweetly made us some bunting, as did my sister, Nay.

I bought cheap frames for our table names (our favourite movies) and my mum printed off the original movie posters to go in them. She also made us a huge table plan using an old empty picture frame, ribbon and name cards.  My Dad made beautiful blackboards for our signage, framed with fallen timber from the Railway Line. He also made plenty of ‘this way’ arrow signs which I painted, along with the boards, to help our guests find their way, and put up a LOT of fairy lights! Hay bales and a bonfire competed the ‘chill out area’ and further down the line we had a games area with swingball, boules, giant connect four, coits and other fun things."

"We absolutely cannot recommend our photographer, Sarah Lauren enough. Both she and Chloe were such fun and took amazing pictures for us to treasure always. They were really part of our day and it was sad when they had to go home after the first dance!"

Tipis, DIY and Delightful Details for a Beautiful Woodland Blessing...

Morning everyone. Well, I'm hoping this really beautiful, and emotion packed wedding day will lift the spirits if anyone who like me, is looking outside and seeing a sea of 'grey' today.

Lauren and Matt tied the knot on Saturday 8th September 2012, at St Mary’s Church in Olveston, Bristol, followed by a beautiful Woodland Blessing at Memorial Woodlands, Earthcott Green.  I so enjoyed looking through these images for the first time, but on reading Lauren's words about how she and Matt had crafted their wedding day around Lauren's Father, who sadly passed away eighteen months earlier, really brought a lump to my throat.  Franky has written about what it meant to her to not have her Father present at her wedding earlier this year, so this really touched me...

"There were a few things that swayed our decision in the venue in the end, but essentially, it was about being able to have a blessing by Dad’s tree on the day of the wedding.

We knew the day would be emotional without Dad there, this was inevitable. But we couldn’t spend the day feeling sad and empty because of his absence , instead we made him part of it by being influenced by all the things he loved as we carefully crafted our day. He definitely would have encouraged us to do things our way and to do things differently if that’s what we wanted."

Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Julie Anne Images Photography

"We had two page boys - our gorgeous nephews, Roo and Jed.  They each wore lovely bow ties made by a family friend..."

"I especially enjoyed the styling aspect and the planning - it’s all about the details! We were inspired by the countryside and camping holidays, wild-flower meadows, rustic details and everything that happens in September, for example, the hay making going on in nearby fields, corn-fields and blackberry picking!

We used wicker wreaths, decorated with wax flowers to decorate the church and outdoor space, and jam jar pew ends filled with meadow flowers.  My Brother-in –law made us a wooden swing (see top image), to hang from the tree and we decorated it with ivy. He also sourced hay-bales from a local farmer.  We used Dad’s wooden step ladder to house the seating plan.

There were so many other lovely details I had admired on wedding blogs and sites such as Pinterest."

"We made all the stationery ourselves - Matt designed it, having been inspired by the stationary Charlie at The Natural Wedding Company made for her own wedding, that featured on Love My Dress.

Matt made little luggage tag inspired place names and my Auntie tied  together all the cutlery and napkins with raffia and lavender."

"My Dad had always loved Nissan Figaro’s and had been keen for me to drive one . We decided to hire one for the wedding day and found a great little company called Retro Hire that were able to supply us.   Mum drove me to the church in it and Matt and I used it for the rest of the day and took it on our trip to Cornwall after the wedding.

It was great fun, every time we drove it we re-lived the day and even the colour was perfect for our theme! We are hoping to hire it again to celebrate our anniversary."

"I collected milk churns  and glass bottles to be used as vases.  We also used old apple crates planted with lavender, pansies, violas, rosemary and grasses to decorate the area outside the tipi and now have these in our gardens as a reminder of the day.

The colour palette that inspired me involved greens/blues of the sea, soft pastels and natural colours. I also adore lavender (from vibrant purple to chalky grey) as well as the scent - which we tried to incorporate into the day."

"Choosing the right ‘venue’ for us was really important in creating the relaxed, outdoor wedding we were dreaming of.  We knew that we would enjoy the day most if we felt relaxed so we decided to keep it very informal.  We looked at a few countryside venues both at ‘home’ and in Cornwall, both places were sentimental so it was hard to choose between the two. Having recently moved away from the area where we first met and both grew up (although both of our families still live there) we love and appreciate it even more.

In the end we decided to be married at home and have a holiday (mini-moon!) in Cornwall after the wedding."

"We are very lucky to have a wonderful family friend who is a florist.  I knew I wanted meadow style flowers and Sue guided me to choose flowers that would work well together and let me help with the arranging the day before. It was great therapy – her home was an oasis of calm in amongst all the chaos of the preparations.

We went to a local grower, Organic Blooms, to  buy seasonal flowers such as scabious and knautia . We also choose lots of Ammi which we used both as a filler and on mass in silver milk churns outside the church. This gave it a beautiful country feel.  We also chose wax flowers ( to wear in our hair) astrantia and rosemary  and eucalyptus(for the button holes and to signify ‘remembrance)  bridal anemones  (my favourite flower) wheat sheaves and snowberries ( to reflect the season) which we bought from a flower market.

A neighbour came to the rescue and provided us with lots of fresh lavender!"

Lauren wore a dress by designer Jessica Charleston, that she purchased from Carina Baverstock Couture in Bradford on Avon...

"I tried to do a bit of ground work, researching different styles online before we went out dress shopping as I had heard from other brides to be that it can be confusing if you try on too many different dresses.  I really wanted a dress with sleeves, something quite delicate and floaty.  As soon as I tried this dress on I knew it was ‘The One’.  I didn’t want to take it off and didn’t feel the need to try on any others. I surprised myself with how decisive I was. I loved that it was so comfortable in it and I could envisage myself skipping barefoot through fields with flowers in my hair! 

Afterwards I found out that it was made by a local designer and the collection was very aptly named Fleurs Sauvages  - ‘Wild flowers!’

"Our photographer was a very special lady called Julie of Julie Anne Images Photography. We spent a lot of time searching for a photographer that would be right for us and feel so lucky to have found her.Before we met Julie, we hated having our photo taken but she made us feel at ease.  She took time to get to know us before the wedding and fitted in perfectly on the day – everyone felt like she was part of the family and they all loved her.

The wedding day is over so quickly so it is really important to have some beautiful photos to help you remember the day – we couldn’t wait to see our pictures and re-live the day again. I love little details and was so excited when the photos arrived, packaged beautifully with lots of thought and care.

We would recommend her to anyone who wants beautiful, natural wedding photos and a photographer who’s fun, creative and thoughtful."

A Gypsophila Floral Crown for a Flower Fairy Inspired Bride...

A beautiful late addition to our suite of features today, but you know what, some things are absolutely worth waiting for. 

Let me ask you, have you ever just closed your eyes and wished you were...... a fairy? ☺  Paul and Samantha tied the knot on Saturday 30th June this year, with a ceremony at Christchurch Priory, followed by a beautiful and relaxed reception full of DIY touches at Sopley Lake in Christchurch Dorset. But rather than close her eyes and wish, Samantha went all out to style herself on fairies on her wedding day, with a little bit of help from a rather talented florist called Jay Archer...

"I have deep down (ok, not that deep down) always wished to be a flower fairy, therefore wanted to create the feeling of a magical world in the depths of the woods for everyone to enjoy. Luckily Paul didn’t even bat an eyelid when I suggested that we go for a woodlandy inspired ‘theme’ which would feature giant strawberries!  I didn’t want the styling to look too twee or Alice in Wonderland-esque so contrasted the toadstools and the large strawberries with a rustic feel of wooden stumps, moss, wild flowers and lots of fairy lights." 

Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2012,  Amie Herriott

"Another big factor in everything we designed and chose was budget and the fact that I wanted to recycle, reuse and make things as much as possible from the making recycled paper stationery to stripping most of our house of its décor such as jugs, lanterns and signs to feature in one way or another, the list is endless as most things that featured in our wedding fell within at least one of these categories.  We wanted the day to be a relaxed and fun reflection of who we are, with not too much fuss and frill."

"I have Jay Archer Floral Design to thank for my absolutely magical head piece – a gorgeous gypsophila floral circlet. Despite not knowing what it would look like on me, I gambled and about two weeks before the wedding, and after many exchanged emails with Jay, I asked if she could possibly make me one – when else can you were a flowery crown!

She didn’t hesitate and I knew I could trust her completely, I wasn’t disappointed the second I put it on the morning of our wedding it was the defining, last element of my outfit (I felt like a fairy bride) and it received endless compliments!"

"Where to begin with the flowers!?  Jay's arrival with the bouquets and buttonholes to our hotel evoked the first tears of the day. They were stunning, more beautiful than I could have even imagined daisies, grasses, herbs and hues of lavender and soft pink and even a hidden little strawberry in mine. I know I am biased but I just thought they were the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

We found Jay when searching for a florist who would understand a natural, ‘handpicked out of a meadow’ look, and loved the fact that most of the flowers that Jay uses she homegrows or forages for. I knew from Jay's website and pinterest she would know exactly what I was after, and upon an excited meeting over tea and cake exchanging ideas the deal was sealed. Her service and enthusiasm is beyond superb!"

"I incorporated the place settings and favours as one. I made every guest a wedding lanyard that included 8 pages, like you would get at a festival, which included the plan for the day, the menu, the music, a photo game and a map of the venue. For the front page and the place setting, for the girls, to reflect me, I adapted Cicely Mary Barker Flower Fairy illustrations, trying to select each fairy to resemble the guest. For the boys we chose playing cards, as Paul is an avid poker fan.

Most guests wore them right into the evening and they were a little memento for them to take home."

"I adored my mint green bridesmaid dresses, it was a dress I owned myself before getting engaged. It didn’t hurt that they were an absolute bargain too at £10 each from T.K. Maxx. I loved the pleated chiffon skirt, and scalloped detailing around the neck! I didn’t want anything too bridesmaidy and knew that none of my girls would be particularly happy in anything strapless, I wanted them to be comfortable and able to prance around all day and into the evening."

"We made the bridesmaid belts from beaded gold and pearl Primark head bands, removing the elastic and replacing with lace ribbon to tie at the back, they worked great with the dresses.

I had ordered personalised lockets from etsy for each bridesmaid but unfortunately there was a problem with the postage and they didn’t arrive in time. I sent Paul on a mission the day before the wedding and he saved the day choosing the sweetest little gold leaf shaped necklaces from Accessorize that matched perfectly with our wedding and the girl’s outfits! Knew I was marrying him for a reason."

"Jay designed gorgeous buttonholes that Paul requested to be ‘manly’ from wheat, strawberries, thistle, lavender, honesty and astrantia."

Samantha wore a design by Benjamin Roberts (2228) which she purchased via Special Occasions in Poole, Dorset...

"I absolutely loved dress shopping, getting to spend endless Saturdays with my mum and sister, proper memorable girly time, but struggled to find anything that was ‘my style’. In my head I wanted to have something that I felt I could dance bare foot in a daisy field in but also wanted something that I hoped Paul would think I looked not just beautiful in but ‘hot’!

I absolutely love the whimsical style of Claire Pettibone dresses but massively out of my price range, so sought out something that I felt came close with a bit more structure."

"After eleven dress shops I unexpectedly found my dress in a local bridal shop. It was made of the prettiest lace, it fit to my frame in all the right places, and had a gorgeous train. However, in it’s original form it was a strapless dress, a very pretty strapless dress but not what I wanted. Luckily for me the shop owner used to design all her own dresses, so after asking her if we could add some sort of  sleeve/neckline, lower the back, add flowers to the base of the back and remove the belt she answered yes to all, pinned me about to show me, my sister cried and I purchased it."

"I will admit that I didn’t get ‘the one’ feeling, I even cried tears of ‘I have chosen the wrong one’ after I bought it but after going back for another try on I stuck to my decision and so glad I did. Once I had all the alterations completed for the final fitting about 4 weeks before the wedding I finally got ‘the one’ feeling I LOVED it, my stomach flipped again – always trust the stomach flipping ☺!!"

"We hired Rachel at RSVP Weddings & Events to help us plan and style oru wedding. Rachel's services range from full event planning to helping with set-up and co-ordination on the day. Rachel’s help before, during and after the wedding was completely invaluable! She understood and shared our vision and it was fantastic to know that on our wedding day we didn’t have to worry about a thing, as she was so enthusiastic about helping to create the most perfect day for us"

"I tried to make as much as possible for the wedding decor, I love making things so was in my absolute element! The venue was gorgeous anyway, so created décor to compliment it all. I made massive papier mache strawberries to hang in the trees (inspired by a Thumbelina inspiration board found on a wedding blog), directional signs from broken down wooden palettes, fairy light wreaths made from branches and hula hoops to hang that from the ceiling of the marquee."

"My sister’s boyfriend kindly made the big LOVE sign and our initials for us as a wedding present– they were amazing for people to have photos with. For the tables my mum cut hessian squares set with napkins I cut from different floral fabrics, then for centre pieces we used moss as the base, then tree stumps, lanterns, little toadstools and silver birch bark vases I made from fallen birch mum collected from the woods and burnt our initials in them, they were perfect for Jay’s gorgeous handpicked flowers. Numerous old apple and veg crates were used to create a whole display for our table plan and hay bales were used to create our seated ‘chill out area’."

Sunshine, Daisies and Glamping for a Beautiful Humanist Woodland Wedding...

Hello hello! Monday is always double wedding day here on Love My Dress and this second wedding feature of today is a real summer sunshine of a beauty.  And in the spirit of holding on to memories of an actual 'summer' (pah!), this is the second feature today with a bit of a 'glamping' theme.

Photographer Eddie Judd submitted these photographs of her clients Claire and Dave who got married on 17th August this year at Swallows Oast in Ticehurst, East Sussex and I love them for their beautifully bright and sunshiney vibe.  And I also happen to be a huge fan of yellow as a colour scheme at weddings...

Love My Dress Wedding Blog, Photography Copyright (c) 2011, Eddie Judd

"We chose Swallows Oast because of the gorgeous Oast house, the possibility of having our ceremony outside in the wooded area, and the ability to hire their campsite exclusively for us and our guests for the whole weekend.  It was everything we wanted, a beautiful setting, with plenty of outside space and safe for the many children who’d be there!

We wanted an outdoor wedding, as we both love being outdoors, but with the unpredictable weather in the UK we knew we’d need the backup of indoor space.  Swallows Oast was the perfect combination, with beautiful inside and outside spaces.  We also wanted the day to feel fun and natural, hence the meadow style flowers, and plenty of homemade decorations I made all the table runners, bunting, place names, table numbers, table plan herself – a labour of love)."

"My friend and photographer Eddie pointed me in the direction of Pinterest and Love My Dress for ideas.  I fell in love with an image of a bride wearing yellow shoes (as well as many others!), I loved the bright colour and the originality of the yellow shoes.  I had to have some!  We stuck with the yellow theme, because it was so bright and vibrant, but I just couldn’t find those elusive yellow shoes!The camping for the two days after the wedding on the Friday was amazing."

"We chose a humanist ceremony, partly because we weren’t able to have a legal ceremony outside, but mainly because we realised that a humanist sentiment reflected exactly what we wanted for our big day.  We really enjoyed the process of constructing our own ceremony with our Humanist celebrant Ginny Collins.  The ceremony was very personal, and reflected Dave and I so well, together with Ginny we wrote our own vows, and the ceremony told our story and how we see marriage, what we love about each other, with plenty of laughs along the way.  Our guests commented on how lovely and unique the ceremony was.

We married legally a couple of days before at Brighton registry office witnessed by my Dad and Dave’s Mum only (we didn’t want to have two wedding days!), followed by a curry lunch and a beer!"

"Our Florist was Battle House of Flowers.  We wanted flowers that looked like they were picked straight out of a meadow, which we had originally planned to do, but realised that it was impractical!  Battle House of Flowers did a fantastic job arranging the flowers in the vases and milk bottles on all of the tables, and the bouquets were stunning!   Everything looked just how I’d imagined, bright yellows, with pretty daisies, loosely tied for a natural look."

Claire's wedding dress was the Neomie design by Amanda Wyatt - a purchase Claire made via Ozone Weddings...

"My brief on entering the bridal boutique was ‘something I could play rounders in!’ Needless to say that eyebrows were raised, and I never actually ended up playing rounders on the day anyway!  But, I wanted something that I felt like myself in.  So many dresses looked beautiful but just weren’t me, and something that I could move around in easily if I so desired to play rounders! 

The dress that I chose was actually the first dress that I’d tried on, it was a perfect combination of structure on the top half with a soft chiffon criss cross finish and soft chiffon skirt.  Floaty loveliness!"

"We wanted a fete style cake table, and were lucky enough to have some talented cake maker friends who we asked to make some cakes for us.  There was no brief, but the cakes were to be judged by the guests (everyone voted with stickers from the inside of their place names) with the winner being crowned the wedding cake with the lego bride and groom!

Our cake maker friends went to so much effort, we had a snow covered mountain, a tent shaped chocolate brownie, a beautiful traditional fruit cake complete with colour coordinated bunting, pretty cup cakes, fresh scones with jam and cream and many more!"

"I’ve been close friends with photographer Eddie Judd for 26 years.  When she offered to photograph our wedding as a gift I was absolutely thrilled.

She’s such a talent, and it meant so much that she was there with us rather than a stranger taking those all-important shots on the day. 

I would highly recommend Eddie to any bride and groom.  She has an incredible eye for detail, and is highly dedicated to getting the most out of every shot."