Good afternoon lovers! Monday's aren't the same on Love My Dress without a real wedding to share with you all, no Siree. Today's beautiful Bride {and I mean that in every sense of the word – check out that smile!} was a regular visitor to Love My Dress in the run up to her wedding and discovered her Wedding Photographer, headpiece designer and Florist via these pages of inspiration. And that makes me very happy indeed. Hoorah! 😉
Graeme & Nina Hawkins tied the knot on 17 September this year with a ceremony at Oakham Castle in Oakham, Rutland. Nina wore a very gorgeous Jenny Packham design on her big day – a simple silhouette brought to life by a sparkling jewel encrusted empire line – what wow factor detail that Jenny Packham does so well…
"My dress felt great – it was really easy to wear but also had touches of glamour with the jewels.
The floaty nature of the dress fitted with the country setting well – this was what sold it to me above the equally lovely 1920's style dress that was a close contender!"
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Coypright (c) 2011, S6 Photography
"We wanted a casual but beautiful, country look for the flowers. Nothing too formal or contemporary. Having done a flower course recently, I (with the help of friends/family) did the table arangements, pedestals at the Castle and my bouquet (I'm pretty small so wanted something that wouldn't swamp me)…"
"Thankfully I enlisted the help of Miss Pickering to do the buttonholes and fill the beautiful bird cages we had suspended from the ceiling. That would have been too much to take on! She did an amazing job and, overall, everything came together really well…"
"Oakham Castle is in Graeme's neck of the woods and is a beautiful part of the world. We wanted a civil service but somewhere with character. The castle definitely had this…"
"We wanted a fun and relaxed day, and something a little bit different, hence us booking the Papakata teepees. Their lovely people put their teepees up in the equally lovely grounds of Exton Park, Exton. This provided a beautiful, but natural setting – we didn’t want anything too formal…"
Nina sported a beautiful bridal headpiece by Helena Taylor of HT Headwear – a discovery she made via Love My Dress…
"We borrowed a fab vintage MG from our lovely friend, Tom…"
"We just wanted a relaxed day where everyone could let their hair down and enjoy themselves. That lead us to booking the Papakata Tents, and given the pretty setting it felt wrong to go too formal or glamorous with the décor, hence us going down the pretty, natural route…"
"When it came to styling our venue, and decor, we wanted a country feel, so used pretty bunting and colour paper lanterns, but the flower filled bird cages were the main focus…"
The amazing Miss Pickering created these gorgeous vintage style birdcages with lots of beautiful florals…
"Our wedding cake was a cheese tier cake from The Cheese Shop Louth. I can't recommend them enough.
The DIY Cake toppers were found on Etsy – had great fun painting those!"
"We daced to 'All I Want is You' by Barry Louis Polisar from one of our favourite films, Juno…"
Words of Wedded Wisdom…
"Relax and enjoy it! And enlist the help of your close family and friends in the days running up to the big day. They will love being involved in the planning of the day and you get the extra help you will undoubtedly need!"
What a beautiful, beautiful day! You see I say it time and time again, it matters not a jot if the sky is a little grey or you need to bring your brollies out on your wedding day!
Huge thanks to Jon from S6 Photography for submitting these beautifully uplifting photographs…
"Jon at S6 Photography was absolutely fab and a really nice guy too…". I knew that already actually 😉
Jenny Packham Brides – let yourselves be known! I'd love to hear from you – which design are you going for – is anyone having a dress like Nina?
Much love all,
Annabel xXx
♥
Photographer – S6 Photography
Venue – Oakham Castle with Papakata Tents
Brides dress, earrings & bracelet – Jenny Packham
Brides hair accessory – HT Headwear {discovered via Love My Dress}
Brides shoes – LK Bennett
Grooms suit – TM Lewin
Florist – Bride & her family, buttonholes & floral birdcages by Miss Pickering
Cakes – The Cheese Shop Louth
Catering Company – Saunts Catering & Events