A 1940s Inspired Silk Wedding Dress For A Relaxed and Elegant Wedding…

Morning again beautiful! Have you checked out the early moring post yet? Let's continue with our world of weddings on a Wednesday, starting with this beaut of an affair photographed by the adorable Jemma over at Pearl Pictures.

This is Lizzie and John, and they tied the knot on 12th May this year, at Cressbrook Hall, Near Bakewell in Derbyshire.  Their wedding was planned in just 5 months – rather meticulously by interiors designer John, who Lizzie tells me utilised a budget sheet and time-line to plan their big day. What an organised groom!!

Personal Stylist Lizzie looks beautiful in her pretty silk wedding dress, a design inspired by 1940's bridal fashion, and taken from The Decades Collection by The Vintage Wedding Dress Company…

"When it came to my dress, I really didn’t know exactly what I wanted.  But I did know exactly what I didn’t want.  I am a personal stylist, so people assume I would have thought about it a lot, but I really hadn’t ever given it any thought before.

I wasn’t expecting to get married really.  I didn’t want anything too ‘bridal’. It had to be really understated and simple, which was actually pretty hard to find. I looked all over, and then when I visited The Vintage Wedding Dress Company, this was the last one I tried. I loved that it wasn’t white or ivory, and was more like a gown than a wedding dress. It was obvious it had to be this one…"

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Pearl Pictures

"The dress fitted me perfectly, needed no alterations at all, and just felt right immediately. My friend Kat’s reaction was that it was the perfect dress for me and I really trust her as she knows me so well…"

"The minute I saw traditional Mexican tissue festival garlands on a wedding blog I knew I wanted some! I bought some ready made from Milagros on Columbia Road in London, and then made some myself with our names and the date to mix among them using white tissue paper, a scalpel and a lot of patience…"

"The tissue pom poms were bought from Deco Pom Poms on Ebay and made up, tissue garlands were from Pearl & Earl, and table bits bought from Cox & Cox…"

"I think it was important that it was informal and quite a relaxed feel overall. There was no one strong theme and the pastel colourings just emerged.  We just wen with things we liked that all seemed to fit.

I made small baked bean tins covered in elastic lace covers I bought in John Lewis as candle holders…."

Genius!

"To provide music for the guests while they waited for the service to start, and after the service while having a drink, we hired Matt and Annabel, Vintage 78 DJs from It’s A Wind Up. They suited the mood and theme perfectly and so many people commented on them and how lovely the music was.

In case it was a bit cool, I wanted an embroidered silk piano scarf for my shoulders. I found one on ebay, but when it arrived it was a bit too white for my liking. I took a bit of a gamble, made a very weak solution of cold tea in a bucket and gave it a quick dunk. It worked perfectly to take the edge of the whitenes…"

"I didn’t ever think I wanted a veil, I had some sort of mental block about looking like a bride! But as the dress was so plain, I knew it needed something. I went to a vintage bridal fair in hackney, looking for a headpiece or comb. But then I spotted the original 1940’s birdcage veil with silk flowers on one of the vintage stands.

I was surprised I liked it on, as I have a very low key personal style and don’t like to stand out, and it’s quite a statement piece. However, I knew it would be perfect with my dress, and if there’s one day in a girl’s life to look a bit more ‘fancy’ than usual, my friend assured me, my wedding day was it!"

 

"I love flowers and knew I’d do the flowers myself. I once did a floristry evening class and at one point considered becoming a florist so I knew the basics.  We had friends and family save jam jars for the vases. I had added ribbon and paper doilies to decorate them.

I used the online wholesalers Triangle Nursery,  where Mary was very helpful and patient.  The flowers arrived at my mums a few days before so the roses and peonies had time to come out into boom. The day before the wedding my mum and anyone else who was free for a few moments helped me arrange them in the jars ready for the tables…"

"I asked my Maid of Honour, Kat, to find something she liked that was in a pastel shade, ideally peach. I didn’t want her in a typical bridesmaid dress, but in something she liked. It was vintage and she found it on Etsy for £35. It’s always a gamble buying something you can’t try on but when it arrived from the US it fitted her like it had been made for her! It was perfect!

  The flowergirl dresses from Ted Baker dresses were actually bought before we’d even booked the venue or knew the theme. I was having a browse online a couple of days after getting engaged and spotted them in the Debenhams January sale. I loved them immediately when I saw them and they had all my nieces sizes, which was a major result.  Also, I like doing crafty things so I made the girls flower headbands and clips myself. I bought the silk flowers from Decoflora online, and the clips and headbands, and got stuck in -literally -with a tube of UHO!"

"We didn’t want a fruit cake so decided we wanted to get a Victoria sponge cake. A bit of googling led me to Sponge, who had exactly what we wanted. We had a 7 “ Lemon and 10” Victoria sponge for the main cake, and then a few boxes of the mixed mini sponges to make up the numbers. We cut the cake before our meal so it could be put out with the desserts so the guests actually ate it.

I found the cake topper on Etsy and added a beard with brown felt tip to make John a little more realistic! I made the bunting with ribbon flags on cotton thread and two skewers.…"

"I used Tineke Floral Designs in Matlock for the button holes and bouquets. I really wanted something natural and discussed with Kerry what I was buying from the wholesaler for the table decorations – ranunculus , peonies, avalanche roses, wax flowers.

Kerry did a wonderful job and had similar flowers in the bouquets with dalias too, but in whites and creams with some peach in the girls posies to brighten them up a bit…"

"We asked Pearl Pictures to take our photos as we really wanted very relaxed and natural photos to suit the feel of our wedding. Jemma is so great with people, easy to be around and blended right in with the guests. And the pictures speak for themselves! The day was so relaxed and fun and was captured perfectly…"

"I decided to do my own makeup but knew I’d need someone for my hair. I was worried about getting someone I didn’t know as I was scared they’d not get me, and do a ‘traditional’ bridal hair do. After a lot of looking online I was very lucky to find Elizabeth Peat, who is based in the East Midlands and specialised in vintage hair. Elizabeth was fantastic, she totally got me and what I wanted.…"

 

"John and I met three years ago on through mutual friends on a snowboarding holiday, and got engaged on Christmas eve 2011, so planned our day in five months.

It was an intimate wedding for around seventy close family and friends. On the morning of the wedding we all went for a walk – girls one way and boys the other!  The late afternoon ceremony was followed by drinks outside overlooking the hills, and then the buffet and disco, all at Cressbrook Hall in the Peak District.

We were so lucky as it stopped raining for us for the day, which this was looking unlikely right up to the day before…"

Bridesmaids Other Accessories (necklace, bracelet, earrings etc – please list each separately).  We were totally blessed with a dry and sunny day among the many wet and windy days in May. However, I thought the girls could be a bit cold so I found some white cotton cardigans from Vertbaudet.

Only days before our wedding, I was worried about them in bare legs so thankfully found the cream tights on John Lewis who delivered them to the local waitrose for the next day…"

"To walk out we had The Muppets “Life’s A Happy Song – Finale” as we are both big Muppet fans and loved this song from the end of the new movie. I knew I wanted it for us to walk out to as soon as I heard it. Luckily John loves it too. The words are so apt!  I don’t think that any of our guests heard it was though as it wasn’t turned up very loud and we were outside."

"We ended up choosing Bill Wither’s ‘Lovely Day’. Lots of things we liked were too slow so we thought this was a bit more danceable..."

Words of Wedded Wisdom… 

"We were lucky as we didn’t have pressure to do things a certain way or invite certain people, which seems to be the core of any stresses I hear about.

I can see how easily it could take over your life. It’s easy to not make a final decision on something, keep looking around, wasting a lot of time.  After my browsing and research at the beginning I stopped looking for inspiration – too many cooks spoil the broth I think. There is so much information and so many ideas and supplier options out there, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed. And I know it’s said again and again but ‘don’t sweat the small stuff’ really is worth remembering at all times.

The most important thing for us in the end was that we were married with our friends and family, having a lovely time. Everything else was just a bonus, including the weather which really made the day what it was."

Elegant, relaxed and down-right beautiful.

I adore the designs of The Vintage Wedding Dress Company and you can see more from them on Love My Dress right here. You might also want to explore the 1940's section or birdcage veil sections.

Do I have any other bride readers inspired by the fashions of the 1940's or is anyone going to be wearing a Vintage Wedding Dress Company on their big day?

So much love all,

Annabel

 

Photographer – Pearl PicturesOn the planning/styling – Derbyshire Wedding Planners
Venue – Cressbrook Hall, Near Bakewell in Derbyshire
Brides dress – The Vintage Wedding Dress Company
Brides veil – birdcage, via a Vintage Wedding Fair in Hackney
Brides shoes – Kurt Geiger
Grooms Suit – Reiss + Ties from Debenhams
Bridesmaids – Etsy {am trying to find out which seller!}
Flowergirls – Ted Baker + Vertbaudet {cardigans} + Vertbaudet {cream tights}
Florist – Tineke Floral Designs  
Cake – Sponge
Hair Stylist – Elizabeth Peat
Pastel Colour Pompoms – Pearl & Earl
Table Decor – Cox & Cox
Traditional Mexican Tissue Festival Garlands – Milagros, Columbia Road, London