A Vintage Wedding in Wales…

As soon as I spotted this beautiful wedding on the O&C Photography Blog, I knew I had to ask if I could share it with my readers.  It's so perfect for Love My Dress ~ a combination of gorgeous vintage style photography and a super stylish Bride and vintage-esque wedding day.  I have to thank my Sponsor and friend, Emily Quinton for putting me in touch with Owen and Charis of O&C Photography, who photographed this beautiful, vintage wedding in Wales.

Rachel and Mathew's wedding took place on 8 May 2010, at Cilybebyll Church near Pontardawe South Wales, followed by a marquee in Aberglasney Gardens in Llangathen Camarthenshire for the reception.

Rachel's utterly delightful dress was an original vintage Edwardian tea dress…

"It was everything I was looking for, I bought it online from the US, I didn't enter a bridal shop once!  I looked to quite a few different vintage periods to find the right style of dress and fell in love with the edwardian era dresses.   I found it quite quickly and just thought everything about it was perfect, thankfully it fitted well and then I just bought a slip to go underneath and sewed vintage lace to the hem."

Love My Dress Wedding Blog ~ Photography Copyright (c) 2010, O&C Photography

A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography... A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography...


All the stunning location shots are of Aberglasney Gardens in Llangathen, Camarthenshire, South Wales…

"It's the most idyllic location and I've wanted to live in the house here since I first visited it about 8 years ago!"

A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography...

A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography...

A True Vintage Bride…

"I wore my Grandmother's veil from 1950, it had pretty bells embroidered into each corner.  My shoes were by Irregular Choice ~ orange suede covered in pastel silk roses, I'm so in love with these shoes – they were one of the first things I bought and influenced many things in the wedding!   I also wore a wax flower headdress from 1933, bought online (as was just about everything for the wedding!) and matching corsage that the hairdresser pinned to the back of my hair.

A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography...

"My Marcasite Necklace and earrings my Gran gave me, when I was younger and I also wore a silver bracelet that I've had forever.  I wore my Great Grandmother's opal ring that was my something borrowed from my Mum. I also had a rhinestone and sequin sash that I made out of an Anthropologie hairband.  I had a vintage embroidered and beaded bag at the reception to keep my make-up and a vintage hankie that came with my dress in, that I got from etsy."

I love Rachel's relaxed hair style, which was styled by 'Alive and Klippin' in Pontardawe. Rachel applied all her own makeup, and beautiful and natural she looks for it too…

A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography...

Floral Fancy…

"'My Mum and her friend Trish, my sister-in-law Bhavee and Mathew's Mum Lynne made all the flower arrangements for the church and reception, and Lynne made mine & the bridesmaids bouquets.  They did a fantastic job!  We had hydrangeas, roses, bluebells, ranunculas, hyacinths, lisianthus, eucalyptus and other bits that they picked themselves.   I wanted loads of flowers, and the ones we chose had gorgeous scents.  We used most of my favourite flowers and I thought the arrangements were beautiful.  My Dad and my brother James decorated the marquee entrance with an arch of flowers and greenery and wrapped the marquee pole in ivy and fairy lights, which my 2 year old nephew thought was great fun to pull off through out the evening!"

A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography... A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography... 

Pretty pearls and vintage heart charms…

Rachel's Bridesmaids' wore the 'Champagne Imogen Dress', by Nicholas Millington.  They also wore Red Herring shoes from Debenhams and pearl hairbands…

A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography...

A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography...

A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography...

A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography... A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography... 

"We have been together for 5 years and engaged for almost two years but I couldn't believe how quickly the wedding day came around. It felt quite surreal on the day, but I was very calm, me & the bridesmaids were sitting eating lunch, we weren't even dressed when the cars came to pick us up! (I was only 10 minutes late to the church though…).  I thought everything about the day was prefect, it was truly the happiest day of our lives."

Mathew's suit was from Welsh Tartan of Swansea. 

A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography... A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography... 

A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography... 

A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography...  

A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography...

Vintage Country Fayre…

"I love vintage everything and didn't want to stick to just one era so I combined them all!  I wanted a country village fayre feel to it.  We collected lots of vintage china, some of it was from my parents and we collected other bits from car boots and auctions.  We used a lot of mercury glass candlesticks.  We had a sweet buffet which went down really well with everyone!  We rented bunting from Rosie Williams who unfortunately doesn't have a website, we found her through a wedding fayre held by our marquee providers – Burgoynes of Lyonshall."

A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography...

A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography... 

A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography...

"I decorated the cake with help from my Cousin Lisa.  We knew what we wanted a long time ago but the actual decorating of the cake was a last minute affair, with me up at 4am two days before the wedding making sugar paste roses! I think it took two & half days but they were very long days! It wasn't exactly the most traditional wedding cake."

….perhaps not, but who cares about 'tradition' when the cake so beautifully fits in with the pretty floral vintage theme? … weddings are about making your own mark!

A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography...

A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography...

A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography...

Words of Wisdom?

"Don't leave things to the last minute! it's very stressful and don't try and do everything yourself (like I did!).  Have fun! We wanted a really relaxed, fun atmosphere and we didn't stop grinning all day."

A quintessentially English Vintage Wedding, photographed by O&C Photography... 

Beautiful images and a truly gorgeous vintage inspired wedding.

Thanks you so much Rachel for sharing some of your wedding-day style with our readers, and a huge special thanks to Owen and Charis, from O&C Photography for so kindly and willingly allowing us to reproduce their wonderful photography.

Happy Bank Holiday Monday everyone! 🙂

Annabel

Annabel View all Annabel's articles

Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.

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