1950’s Couture Style Bride…

It is always such a pleasure to feature the work of Lawson Photography on the Love My Dress Wedding Blog.  Laura and Pete Lawson had come up with a winner again with this absolutely beautiful wedding, that of Tim and Lucy, who tied the knot back in August, with a ceremony at Holy Family Church in Ince Blundell, Liverpool, followed by a reception at Soughton Hall in Northrop, North Wales.

I love the Lawson's and I can see exactly why Tim and Lucy booked them to take their wedding photographs…"We chose Lawson Photography because they had done such a faboulous job at out friends wedding two years previously, we didn’t even look at any other photographer.  Laura and Pete are both amazing at what they do, they are very relaxed and capture each moment perfectly it was like having two extra friends at the wedding.  I could not recommend them more highly even our guest have commented on how friendly and how amazing the pictures are."

It's probably fairly obvious why this particular wedding appeals to me – that dress! A fabulous 1950's full-circle skirt style number, that was custom made for the Bride… 

"When we began planning the wedding I had the vague idea of having a 50's old hollywood feel.  So I set about trying to find the perfect dress, I trawled all the local bridal shops but every dress I tried on felt like I was playing dress up! I am quite small in stature so every dress seemed to swap me and it didn’t feel like me.   I wanted a very classic dress that wouldn’t date, think 'High Society' with Grace Kelly…"

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2010, Lawson Photography

"Every day I drove past a local bridal shop called 'Sylvia Davies Bridal Couture' and wondered if it would be worth looking into get a dress made instead.  I finally made an appointment and met the wonderful Sylvia who talked me through the process of getting a wedding dress made.  After just the first meeting I knew I wanted Sylvia to make my dress, so I went away and made a mood board with pictures of dresses I liked, different neck lines, fabric etc.  

I took it back to Sylvia and we discussed what I wanted and what would work in reality.  Sylvia told me to remember that the dress would evolve and develop over time.  She couldn’t have been more right, the neckline that we started with was a deep V and we ended up with a sweetheart neckline with an organza overlay with a slash neckline.  I thoroughly enjoyed designing my wedding dress with Sylvia, I got exactly what I wanted and it felt so special that it was made just for me."

Lucy's dress designer Sylvia doesn’t have a website but her contact details are as follows:

12 Bridge Road
Crosby
Liverpool
L23 6SG
0151 932 0902

"I bought my shoes from Dune. Because I had a shorter dress I needed to have some statement shoes also Tim is 5 10" ish and im 5 3" so I wanted shoes with a platform.  I bought my shoes before I had even finalised everything on my dress because I just new they where the ones. I also customised my shoes by sticking on pink crystal on the bottom that spelt out 'I Do'.

"I wore a very simple alice band in my hair from Accessorize – I just wanted something very plain and simple with a little bit of sparkle on.  Tim bought my wedding jewellery as a wedding present which he gave to my bridesmaid Mandy to give me the morning of the wedding.  He gave me diamond earings that matched the shape of the stone in my engagement ring and a tennis bracelet."

I loved everything about my dress the sweetheart neckline that was very feminine which was then softened by the organza overlay.  The dress had a very sinched in waist reminisent of the 50's and then the very full skirt and on each layer of the underskirt Sylvia had put pink ribbon which showed when I span around the dance floor.  I had also chosen a mid calf length skirt which was very 50's, I loved that throughout the wedding I could move around without worrying if my dress was getting dirty or if someone was going to stand on it." 

"I decided to go for a birdcage veil to match my dress, I looked everywhere on the internet but just couldn’t find one that was simple enough.  So I set about making my own, I got the netting and comb from John Lewis, found a very useful 'how to make a bircage veil' video on youtube and started sewing.  At my final dress fitting I took my veil and Sylvis Davies very kindly sewed on a few drop pearls to finish it off.  I was really pleased with the final product and everyone commented on it at the wedding.  It was also great that when I look at the wedding pictures I can say 'I made that'…"

Pure Floral Perfection…

Lucy's Florist was Pure Floral Design, who apparently created just exactly what she wanted…

Lucy's Bridesmaids wore dresses from Phase Eight and shoes from New Look… "the dresses were a very light pink with a cinched in waist and then fitted to the knee, which made for a nice contrast with my very full skirt…".  The Bridesmaids also wore a simple sequined flower headband from Dorothy Perkins…

"We decided to cut the sequined flower off the headband and simply pinned the flower around the bun hairstyle.   I also bought my bridesmaids simple drop earings with a matching bracelet from Diggles, on 110 Allerton Road in Liverpool…"

 

"We had just one wedding car a 1963 Jaguar Mrk 2 in silver from Platinum wedding cars…"

"The church is Tim's family church but also Father David Gamble who conducted the mass had been a friend of my mothers family as a child, he also married our best friends two years previously.  So there were a great many connections with the church…" 

Tim wore a charcoal grey suit with an ivory waistcoat from Groom…

What a fabulous shot of Lucy looking at those rings!

Something for the Journey…

"After the ceremony Tim's neice's and nephew's gave out chocolate brownies wrapped in cellophane with a label saying 'Something for the journey'.  I had made these myself with the help of my bridesmaids."

"After which the reception took place at Soughton Hall in Northrop, North Wales. 

My self and Tim had looked at a great many venues local to the church and whilst the venues were nice something just wasn’t quite right.  Early on in our search Tim had been given a recommendation for Soughton Hall but we had discounted it based on the distance, having no other luck we decided to make the journey and have a look.  As we pulled the car around the corner to see the tree lined drive and the amazing hall layed out at the bottom, we were sold…"

High Society…

"I made my own table names which were all old 50-60's films I had watched with my mum and sisters as a child.  I made the table plan in pink and black with the same little bows that were on the cake and table names.

Each lady at the wedding was given a pink rose scented candle which was in a pink and black box.  Each gentleman was given a scratch card in a black envelope.  Each child was given a pink box filled with stamps, colouring book, pens, bubbles etc…"

Oh Mr and Mrs Lawson, how I love thee! These swing shots below are FANTASTIC! 😉

Up up and Away…….. 

"I had 12 38" balloons to decorate the walk way to the marquee which I loved because they were just fun and my Grandmother made a pink table runner for each table which really finished off the room…"

"I created a sweet table with jars I had collected over our engagement and filled them with all our favourite sweets Kola cubes, strawberry bon bons, chocolate pennies, strawberry laces, pink and white marshmellows.  I also got pink and white stripe sweet bags from ebay which I individually stamped with 'A kiss to build a dream on' which was the tag line I had used on our wedding stationary…"

"I had a bakery make the sponge for our wedding cake and then decorated it myself.  I had a three tier box cake that i decorated with polka dots on the top and bottom layers.  I then put pink and black ribbon around each layer with a bow at the front, these were the colours used throughout the day and I had also used little bows on all of my table names…"

"In the evening we had a wedding cheesecake which was made by Church Mouse Cheeses…"

The Way You Look Tonight…

"Our first dance track was 'The way you look tonight' by Michael Buble.  Myself and Tim didn’t have a particular song that we had always associated with each other like a lot of people.  So we just sat down one evening and went through our ipod and when this song came on it just felt right…"

To help entertain their guests, Lucy and Tim hired a band called The Untouchables – "…they played a range of mowtown and blues they kept everyone on the floor dancing…"

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"I was really organised in the lead up to the wedding and did jobs as I went along, which meant the week of the wedding was very relaxed and enjoyable.  I made a lot of things for my wedding and they were the things that guests really remembered and more often than not these were the things that had not cost very much.

Remember that planning a wedding should be fun don’t those sight of what it is all for, the two of you coming together in front of friends and family to say this is the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. 
What, if anything, inspired you to style your wedding the way you did? Eg, a particular era, muse, colour, place, etc      I was brought up on Doris Day, Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire etc movies and I love the romance and understated glamour of those films. I hope in some way that came through in our wedding.

Now that the wedding is all over there are a lot of places we could have saved money but I would never scrimp on your photographer or videographer because they are the memories eveything else gets backed away in a keepsafe box."

Sooooo pretty isn't it? Thanks so much Lucy for taking the time to share your wedding excitement with our readers, and special thanks as always to Laura and Pete Lawson for sending over this gorgeous set of images.  I heart you both! 😉

This wedding blog has already proven to be one of the most popular UK based resources for Brides with discerining taste, looking for inspiraiton online.  Watch this space for many more jaw-droppingly wonderful weddings coming up soon 🙂

Much love,

Annabel xXx 🙂

♥