A 1970s Vintage Wedding Dress, Yellow Paper Cranes and Billy Balls!

Good morning everyone – what a gorgeous gorgeous day! The view that
greeted me this morning
has set me off on a natural high and I *will*
nail that to-do list today if it kills me! But not before I've spent the
next few minutes swooning over Amy and John's wedding, that took place
on 23rd March 2013 at Fazeley Studios in Birmingham.

I was drawn to this wedding for the amazing vintage wedding dress worn by Amy – who I will let tell you more about it…

"I
wore an original vintage
1970s dress which looks more Edwardian
purchased from the lovely ladies at Luxe Vintage Bridal in the Custard
Factory Birmingham.  I knew I wanted vintage or vintage style. I didn’t
want something that could be worn by another bride. I also knew I didn’t
want anything strapless. 
Luxe Vintage Bridal
was actually the only studio I went to, and
as soon as I saw it I knew it was the one.

I loved the high neck and
capelet feature at the back of the dress and the peacocks on the lace.  I have always love
Edwardian/20s style. Even though the dress is 1970s I felt it replicated
turn of the century bridal fashion beautifully."

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright © 2013, Louise Holgate Photography

1970s vintage wedding dress

"All the flowers were beautifully done by my best friend's mum
Carole. She did my best friend's flowers for her wedding and offered to
do mine, so I jumped at the chance. I chose the flowers as most are
seasonal, and love billy balls (craspedias) – we also had roses,
eucalyptus,
gypsophila, freshias and another I can't remember the name
of!"

1970s vintage wedding dress

1970s vintage wedding dress

"The venue, Fazeley Studios,
speaks for itsself, so we didn’t need to go mad in terms of decorating it. We love Japanese
things and customs, so made origami crane garlands, hung behind the
registrars table. Also used some paper pom poms. Tried to keep it as
simple as possible. Lots of tea lights and candles, with vases for the
tables bought from good old Ikea. Some fairy lights too. Also had some
old family photos of weddings dotted about."

1970s vintage wedding dress

"The Groomsmen were just asked to wear a suit ideally navy. We
weren't too bothered about the suits matching. The bow ties were
handmade by my mum and she did a great job, a lady of many talents!"

1970s vintage wedding dress

"John wore a Jaegar suit that he purchased from The Mailbox in Birmingham, along with a bow tie and pocket square handmade from gorgeous Liberty fabric, purchased on Etsy from Speaklouder in Spain – they do some lovely stuff. John's shoes were from Dune."

1970s vintage wedding dress

"John is a doctor I am a nurse (that old cliché!) and we met at work
in 2008.  He proposed on holiday in Ayrshire, Scotland in January 2012.
It was up a very large boggy hill! It was sunny but freezing cold, and I
fell over in the mud several times on the way up, but it was beautiful
and totally unexpected. 

John got down on one knee and presented me with a
beautiful antique 1920s diamond ring. I didn't have any doubts and
immediately said yes, we've had a tough few years after I lost my dad,
and he has been an absolute legend, my best friend. We ended up being engaged for fourteen
months before our wedding.

Many things inspired us when it came to planning our wedding, and its hard to
pinpoint the specifics. We wanted the day to be relaxed and as light
hearted as possible. I'm inspired by anything different and quirky. I
don't really like too much tradition and wanted lots of handmade detail.
I had lots of inspiration off blogs from the UK and USA. Yellow and grey
were the main theme in colours, but I didn’t strictly stick to them."

1970s vintage wedding dress

1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress

"We used free printable download for invites, with a tandem bike
theme, from The Wedding Chicks – an American blog. IT's a great site
loads of other free stuff too. We have a tandem bike and used it in our
engagement shoot.

My bridesmaid Marta helped with the printing and other
design. She has a printing business in London called
Spine Photographic. She also designed and printed the table place
cards, table plan and guest book. Which was a tandem bike which the
guests finger printed! I printed all the invites at home, chose the
envelopes and made some stickers to seal them with."

1970s vintage wedding dress

1970s vintage wedding dress

1970s vintage wedding dress

1970s vintage wedding dress

"Our wedding photographer was Louise Holgate!
I was very lucky to win her in a competition she ran. I had to produce a
wedding mood board on pinterest! She is amazing. We are so happy with
our photos. She was also a joy to have around on the day, calm and
relaxed. Not to mention she managed to get the lovely Andy to help
second shoot."

1970s vintage wedding dress



"I had a lot of trouble finding attractive white bridal shoes, as
most seem to be ivory and my dress was white. I ended up purchasing a
pair named 'Cheryl' from Rainbow Club. I needed something quite simple
as my dress was detailed, with a lowish heel and I had them dyed to
white.

1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress

"My make up was by Vanessa Wilson at Vanessa's Bridal Beauty – an
old family friend who really listened to what I and the bridesmaids
wanted – she did a gorgeous job. My hair was done by my wonderful mum.
"


1970s vintage wedding dress

1970s vintage wedding dress

"The hairpiece was handmade by Twigs and Honey, and purchased from FrouFrou Bridal boutique in Tunbridge Wells. I absolutely love Myra Callan's designs so much I had bought her book adornments and plan to try my hand at making some. FrouFrou Bridal
are the only stockists in the UK and they were so helpful at helping me
pick one from the selection they had available (normally made to
order). I just loved the style of it and had my hair styled around it."


Amy & John-264


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress

1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress

"My bridesmaids wore dresses bought in the John Lewis sale. They are Reiss dresses and were reduced from £199 to £49! Bargain!"


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress

"My niece Florence was the flower girl bought from Next.  Fergus my nephew wore a kilt, as my family is Scottish."


1970s vintage wedding dress

"My brother Alistair walked me down the aisle. My dad sadly passed
away from skin cancer in 2010. We really miss him everyday, and
certainly there was a big void on our day. However my big bro was great,
and made me very proud.  We walked to the sound of Sufjan Stevens' 
'The Dress Looks Nice On You'."


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress

"One of John's best friends Joe read Dr Seuss' 'Oh The Placed
You'll Go',  and our friend Sonia read a reading by an anonymous writer
about growing old in
love. Sonia is Japanese and wore a gorgeous Kimono. Sonia and Joe chose the readings for us.

My ring was my Grandmothers, I never got to meet her and my mum
says she'd be so chuffed I'm wearing it. We got Johns made in the
Jewellery Quarter in birmingham by quaterstone jewellers".


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress

1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress

"My Auntie Irene made the cake. It was a fruit cake. She lives in
Edinburgh, made it up there and brought it down on the train! She iced
it down here and I bought a 'We Do' acrylic cake topper from Miss Cake.
We also used origami cranes John and I made to decorate it."


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress

"I wanted simple but quirky table decorations so just used the billy
balls and it worked really well. They also look great as button holes."


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress

1970s vintage wedding dress


1970s vintage wedding dress

1970s vintage wedding dress

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"Enjoy it! The most important thing is
that you get married and love each other. The rest doesn't matter in the
long term. Smile and embrace every minute.  It goes ever so quick!

We
loved every single bit of it – and wouldn’t change any of it, just would
have made the day last longer! We just loved how it was so relaxed and we
had all of our favourite people under one roof!"

1970s vintage wedding dress 

A huge thanks Louise Holgate for submitting these photographs – thank you so much Louise! And congratulations to you too Amy and John – big wedding dress adoration to you, I'm rather smitten with that gorgeous vintage gown of yours Amy!

You can explore more 1970s original and vintage inspired bridal fashion here.  Also take a look through our 'yellow' pages for more colour inspiration and our origami cranes pages too.

With much love all,

Annabel


Heart

Photographer – Louise Holgate Photography
Venue – Fazeley Studios in Birmingham
Wedding Dress – Luxe Vintage Bridal via The Custard
Factory
Birmingham.

Veil/Headpiece – Twigs and Honey purchased via FrouFrou Bridal Boutique in Tunbridge Wells
Brides' shoes – Rainbow Club
Bride's accessories – Earrings only by Thomas Sabo
Groom's Attire – Jaegar via The Mailbox + bow tie & pocket square in Liberty fabric via Speaklouder
Bridesmaids – Reiss
Flowergirls – Next
Flowers – Family friend
Cake – Family + topper by Miss Cake
Hair Stylist – Brides Mum
Makeup Artist – Vanessa's Bridal Beauty
Photobooth Hire – Vintage Photo Booth Company 

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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