Sunflowers and a 1960’s Inspired Sweet and Simple Shift Wedding Dress

Happy Tuesday afternoon my loves.  This is the second wedding of today – and because yesterday was a little quieter than usual, it won't be the last either.

Pip and Lawrence tied the knot on 3rd August 2012 at Villa Farm in Wigginton, York, using tipis supplied by Papa Kata.  I love the laid back vibe of this wedding day celebration. I also love that Pip chose to show off those pins of hers by wearing a short, 60's inspired shift dress, a design by Linda Davey over at No. 9 Bridal Couture

"I
am very small (under 5 foot) and did not feel in any way comfortable in
a ‘big’ dress, so was at a loss as to what to do. Linda from
No. 9 Bridal Couture was making my
mum’s dress and she gave me some great advice on other bridal shops and
designers to try – in the end I wanted something unique so went back to
Linda. She helped me get to the crux of what I really wanted, which was a
simple
60's shift shape in some amazing fabric."

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2012, James Melia

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

"We wanted somewhere that would provide a relaxed atmosphere and a
blank canvas so we could really make the event our own. Corrina and
James at
Villa Farm were outstanding. Nothing was too much trouble, they
and their team ensured everything ran like clockwork and all the
elements of the wedding came together perfectly. They even provided
decking on the grass areas in case it rained.

We also wanted something very relaxed (high fashion or sophistication isn’t really for us) and individual. We loved the Papa Kata tipis
after finding them online and liked them as an alternative to a
marquee. We both love music festivals, so a slight festival, country
fayre theme started to emerge.  Lawrence’s cousin Luke Wijsveld created
our invites and design theme using a take on the London Underground
symbol and typography (in homage to our time in London), Lawrence loves
TinTin so we named our tables after the books and had book covers as our
table nameplace holders."

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

"Lawrence wanted something really special for our big day and got an amazingly tailored suit from RoodDuke
in a striking bright blue fabric. The quality of the suit is amazing
for the price and time taken to produce the suit."

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

"Neither of us are massively into flowers at all so we had no idea
what we were looking for. We wanted something slightly wild and natural
looking, with something nice and bright. We met with Sarah of
Leafy Couture who
immediately ‘got’ what we were looking for and helped to find something
we liked. We went with yellow crespidia, chamomile and tiny daisies in
the end. The men’s crespidia buttonholes looked great. I was gutted to
have to throw my bouquet!"

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

"We used bunting, bird cages, lanterns and sweetie jars sourced from
eBay to decorate the venue.  We also used large sunflowers, white jugs
and paper mache letters from Country Baskets…"

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

"Our cake was a three tier chocolate cake with berries and chocolate
ganache. We were keen on having a chocolate cake as a lot of people
don’t like fruit cake (although we both do) and this one was stunning
and looked amazing. It was huge and we still have slabs of it in our
freezer."

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

"Our photographer James Melia
was recommended to us by Linda Davey. She knew that we were looking for
a relaxed affair and some great natural shots and recommended James
immediately. We hunted him down at a wedding fayre the next day. After
looking at one of his portfolios we knew James was the perfect person to
capture our day. We liked the way that his shots were natural but
beautiful. We are absolutely thrilled with the amazing job James did for
us.

Neither of us like having our photo taken but James made us and
everyone else feel at ease. The images we have are stunning and tell the
story of the day perfectly, beautifully and naturally and are exactly
how we want to remember the day forever. What’s more, everyone commented
on what a great bloke James was. We sent out a selection of snaps to
each guest with our thank you cards and all the guests loved them. Our
engagement shoot was fantastic too.  He also sends us some great tunes
via Spotify :)"

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress


1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

"My Dad Julian walked me down the aisle and 'gave me away' to the
sound of Pulp's ‘Something Changed’ – we both love 90s Britpop and indie
music!"

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

"We
physically met in April 2009 (had emailed for a few months before that –
we met via Facebook via mutual friends), did long distance between
Germany and London for a few months, got engaged in May 2010, finally
moved in together in December 2010 and set our date in August 2011.

During the ceremony, we had two readings; Charles Darwin’s
notes on Marriage – which is quite humourous and reflected our life in
London quite well (also not too soppy), and 'He never leaves the seat
up' by Pam Ayres…"

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

"Hi Life Entertainment provided
all the sound / DJ requirements for the day and for the disco in the
evening. We had quite specific ideas about what we wanted and they
delivered it perfectly, even the background music was in line with the
genre we were looking for.

We danced to 'For Tomorrow', by Blur, again because we both love
90s Britpop (and it's is also quite short, we didn’t want a long first
dance!)"

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"What really matters is
the atmosphere, which can only be created by the wedding party. If
everyone is relaxed and up for a good time, the party will go with a
swing, if the wedding party is anxious guests will feel uptight.
Everyone is there to have a great time so just relax and enjoy it, our
families set the tone by putting everyone at ease (and making sure a
drink was on hand for everyone on arrival).

So I
wouldn’t worry about the details I had a really good meeting with
Corrina from Villa Farm prior to the event and had a binder with
everything to do with the wedding to hand, so I knew there were no
details forgotten and I could get my mum / friends to check on things
for me as all the detail was in ‘the book’.

Also, our
guests also really appreciated little things like toys and games for the
kids, somewhere to take tired babies and plenty of space to mill about
and catch up.

We loved all the day, but a high point was immediately after the
ceremony. All our guests had confetti, sparkling wine was flowing and
everyone was having a great time. We were really lucky with the weather
and the sun was shining. Those moments were extra blissful. The entire
day was fantastic though.

In hindsight, we would have
loved to have a live band but our budget wouldn’t quite have stretched
that far. We also overestimated our white wine and champagne needs. I
(Pip) got a little anxious in the morning , to have been more relaxed at
that point would have been great, but a few nerves are only natural!"

1960s inspired short shift wedding dress

Fabulous Mr Melia – as always.

Love this wedding – what's your fave part about it and let me know if you're going short in the wedding dress department too. Love a bride in a beautiful short dress.

Big love everyone

Much love,

Annabel


Heart

Photographer – James Melia
Venue – Villa Farm in Wigginton with Papa Kata tipis 
Wedding Dress – No. 9 Bridal Couture
Brides Shoes – Dune
Brides accessories – bracelet via Links of London + Pearl handbag – Coast
Grooms Suit – RoodDuke, Made to Measure + vintage tia via Cake Walk Vintage + bicycle by Genesis
Florist – Leafy Couture
Cake – Saunts
Entertainment – Hi Life Entertainment
Hair and make-up Artist – Kizzy at Charisma Hairdressing

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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