A Monsoon Wedding Dress for a Kensington Roof Top Garden Wedding….

Hi there! 😉 And how does this Thursday morning find you?

I have had a flurry of visitors to the site and new Twitter followers – so a BIG WELCOME to new readers :)  The wedding I'm sharing with you this morning took place at the very stylish London venue that is Kensington Roof Gardens, where Neil and Julia tied the knot on 20 February 2011.

Julia's dress suits her perfectly and was a high-street steal from Monsoon…

"The whole 'dress thing' was a little bit of a saga.  Whilst most brides-to-be try on a number of dresses before choosing 'the one', I went the slightly more convoluted route of buying three before finding mine;  I had originally started with the idea of having a vintage 50's dress as I had seen ones with lace sleeves which I thought would work brilliantly for a wedding in February.  However, after finding one and having it expertly modernised/ altered to fit, it just didn't have the 'wow' factor I was looking for.

So after a few tears and lengthy lunches discussing the issue, I bought a beautiful dress from Phase 8 which I would have been more than happy to wear except for on my Hen do (2 weeks before the wedding), with the encouragement of my bridesmaid, I tried some more dresses in Monsoon and to be honest, knew the second I put it on that this was the dress I had been looking for…" 

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2010, S6 Photography

 

"It was the simplicity that appealed to me in the end, and I sorted out the keeping warm issue with a lovely bolero cardigan also from Monsoon .  I remember paying for the dress in the shop and the assistant asking me when the big day was and being rather surprised when I said two weeks.

Never mind, I got there in the end and was very lucky to receive loads of compliments on my choice on the day.

The Phase 8 dress went back to the shop and I hope to sell the vintage one to someone more worthy!"

"My shoes were by Irregular Choice, the 'Cortesan Floral Bar shoes'.  These were my something borrowed as my best friend Kate (one of the bridesmaids) got married the previous July wearing these shoes.  When I was trying on my dress she suggested that they would go perfectly, and they did!"    

Julia wore a headpiece by Jane Taylor Millinery called 'Shooting Star'...  

"I found this beautiful piece in Luella's Boudoir in Wimbledon whilst out browsing with my mum.  It had two rather nice links to our wedding which made it the perfect choice and worth splashing out just a little! 

Firstly, Jane Taylor is a very good friend of my bridesmaid Sara as they use to live on canal boats moored opposite each other.  I had met Jane a couple of times and knew her business was going really well so I was rather charmed with the idea of wearing one of her beautiful hair-pieces.

On the romantic side (and Neil will kill me for publicising this) when Neil proposed in Mallorca last summer, it was on the balacony of our hotel one evening and there happened to be a shooting star in the sky!" 

"Not being a jewellery wearer in normal life I decided to stick with the Shooting Star as my main accessory.  The only other piece I wore on the day was a scarf clip which had belonged to my Nan which I clipped to the back of my dress as my 'something old'.  Sadly my Nan passed away many years ago, but we were very close I wanted to have a little bit of her with me on the day."

The couple's chosen wedding venue was the Kensington Roof Gardens in London…

"A winter wedding felt like the most romantic option to us after we were inspired by another venue (which was just a bit too small) that offered candle-lit ceremonies.  We also decided that a London-based wedding would be easier for us to organise rather than one back in my home town of Sheffield.  So after much searching, we came across the Roof Gardens, somewhere we had both been before, which was offering a special deal for weddings between October and March which seemed too good to be true. 

After a tour of the venue one evening, we agreed that it would be the perfect option for us (and we could have the candle-lit ceremony we wanted)…."

Bridesmaids wore the Poppy Crepe Dress by Jasmine Guinness for Littlewoods…

"We didn't really have a colour theme for the wedding but I thought that red would brighten up any winter's day.  I also wanted to find dresses with sleeves as I knew it was going to bit a chilly and that we might be outside for a few photos.  After literally weeks of searching I was surprised to find what I was looking for on the Littlewoods website.  Thankfully both Kate and Sara really liked the dress/ shoe combo and it worked brilliantly on the day as they both went for 40's style hair and makeup which wasn't something we had planned."  

"I decided as a little keep-sake I would find both my Bridesmaids a brooch to match the red in their dresses.  I hoped to find some vintage originals but didn't have the time to do any proper searching.  I did however discover Chez Bec which is a fantastic online bridal jewellery store which offered the option of customising their pieces with different coloured crystals and pearls.  I had the brooches made with a vibrant red crystal which I thought went beautifully with their dresses,  and is hopefully something they can wear again in the future."

"Our wedding rings were made by Jon Keith Diamonds who advertises on your site.  We met up with him in his offices in Hatton Garden where he explained to some very naïve customers the various options.  We both went for simple Platinum rings with mine cut very neatly round my engagement ring so they sit happily together."
 

"Neil went for a semi-bespoke suit by Jasper Littman (Savile Row) as he really wanted a brown suit but they aren't very common on the high street."

"We didn't do very much at all to style the venue because it really speaks for itself.  The gardens are amazing, especially when lit up at night,  and the marquee and dinner hall are very stylish in their own right.  All we had to do was pick the colour of the lighting!" 

"The style of our day was really inspired by the venue and the idea of having a winter wedding in the city.  The Roof Gardens are a magical setting, yet in a very urban location (you are only a few floors above M&S and the buzz of Kensington High Street). 

We wanted to keep the décor and style of the day simple but with a few quirky elements such as the  cake!  It would also be true to say that flamingos also featured fairly prominently!"

"Choosing the cake was one of my favourite parts of the whole wedding planning process and I think one of the first things we did after choosing the venue.  I found Jen's Cakery through a search for 'wedding cakes in west London' and what a brilliant find!

Jen turned up at our house a week later with a box full of cake for us to try and loads of enthusiasm for our slightly strange ideas.  We ended up going for a pink, brown and cream flamingo-themed mad hatter cake (the slighly wonky style you will see in the pictures).  For anyone left wondering about the theme, the Roof Gardens is famed for its resident flamingos – and yes they are still there in February!"

"Our first dance was to 'There is a Light' by the Smiths.  On reflection it was a bit of an odd choice lyrically, but The Smiths have been one of the main soundtracks of our relationship so it seemed to fit nicely and the sentiment of the song feels very honest.."

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"Don't Panic!  Seriously though, we felt that we learnt two key things from watching others plan their weddings which guided us.  The first was that you really don't need to spend years planning your big day if you don't want to.  We booked our wedding only four months before we got married and it was ample to time to make all the arrangements. 

As a result, we also found a venue we wouldn't have otherwise considered and benefited from a number of off-season discounts.  Plus we only had a very limited time to respond to the daily enquiries about how the planning was going which can become a little repetitive!! 

Our second piece of advice would be if you invest in only thing we would recommend you invest in your photographer.  The day went so quickly that it really is invaluable to have such a fabulous set of photographs to remember it by, and they are something we will be able to cherish forever…"

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Brides dress – Monsoon
Brides hair accessory – Jane Taylor Millinery from Luella's Boudoir
Brides shoes – Irregular Choice
Grooms suit – Jasper Littman
Bridesmaids – Jasmine Guinness for Littlewoods + Brooches by Chez Bec
Hair & Makeup Artist – Adele Rosie
Photographer – S6 Photography
Venue – Kensington Roof Gardens, London
Florist – Wheelers of Chiswick, London

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What a beautiful day – huge congratulations to you both Julia and Neil and thanks as always to the talented Sheffield Wedding Photographer, Jon Dennis of S6 Photography…

"Our photographer was the amazing Jon Dennis of S6 Photography.  I found him through Love My Dress after looking for weddings at Bamburgh Castle (which was an early contender for the venue before practicalities ruled it out) and found his own wedding shoot.  I then found my way to the S6 Photography Website and was blown away by his style of photography. 

We loved how his images really did seem to capture the story of the day, and in an off-the-wall kind of way which appealed to us both. Luckily he was available at relatively short notice for our wedding (one of the advantages of being out of season) and the pictures he took really do do all the talking. They will provide some fantastic memories for years to come and we can't thank him enough."

You seen see more from the brilliant S6 Photography on Love My Dress here.

Be sure to check out more Brides weraring Monsoon also!

Have you booked your wedding photographer? I am hearing of more and more Brides having to be turned down by their first choice photographer because they've left it too late! 😉

You can view more from S6 Photography on the Love My Dress Wedding Blog here 🙂

Much love,

Annabel xXx

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