Flower Crowns, Peach and Pastel Pretty Details…

Good morning everyone! Hoping you had a lovely weekend. Let’s start this week with something peach and pretty shall we? Best way to kick off a Monday I say. 

Jessica and James tied the knot on 27th April 2013 this year, with a very much family focused wedding day that oozes fun, love, laughter and celebration.  Their reception took place at Brickendonbury in Hertfordshire and in styling the day, the couple took inspiration from Jessica’s Pronovias Finisterre gown…

“My wedding dress inspired me to choose the overall tone of our wedding. 
It was such a soft and romantic style dress.  I loved everything about it – the way it fitted beautifully thanks to the corsetry, and had the amazing train over
the top.  I hadn’t seen anything like it before. It was perfect. 

I didn’t have a veil in the end as I wore a flower
crown instead, which was created for me by my florist Linda Masters, using real
flowers. It was absolutely beautiful.  The only pieces of jewellery I wore were my engagement ring and a
pair of diamond earrings that James gave to me the morning of our
wedding, with a lovely poem he had written for me.”

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2013, Marie Wootton

 

“James and I met through my sister who worked in a bar at the time. 
We had been together for seven years in Christmas 2012, and for that
particular Christmas, James decided to surprise me with my present,
using a series of clues.  The first clue were four stars from the Christmas tree,
the second clue were three toy knights – to represent our sons – the
third clue was a picture of Paris Hilton and the final clue was a
cooking apple with dollars in the middle! So my Christmas gift that year
was three nights in the Hilton Hotel, New York (a four star hotel,
hence the clue!).  We left the day after boxing day.  I have always
wanted to go to New York at Christmas – it was a dream come true. 
  

Since watching the movie ‘Home Alone’ a child, I have
dreamt about ice-skating in central park.  So on the second day of our
trip, we did just that.  James fell over and I went to help him – I felt
embarrassed that he took so long to get up!!  As I offered my hand to
assist him, he took my hand in his and asked me to marry him!  After I
said yes, I looked up and there was a big crowd around us cheering and
clapping.  Needless to say, my face was pretty red.“

“My dad booked us a double decker bus to take us to the venue, really made the day”

“I had five flower girls who were my two nieces, James’ two
nieces and my friends little girl, so knew I didn’t want to spend to
much on each dress or run in to issues with our wedding budget.  In the
end I found three lovely little vintage style dresses on a Facebook site
for £10 each.   I customised them by adding a different ribbon.  The
two older flower girls were too big for those dresses, so I had a job of
finding something that was right, in the end I found the dresses in
Primark and added the same ribbon. They all looked gorgeous. The two
older girls had a ballerina style cardigan in ivory and the three 
younger ones had a normal style with cream tights.

They also had a ribbon wand each which Tina from The Haberdashery Bride
made for me.  Within the wand, we had floral print ribbon which also
went with the button holes, the roses on the bridesmaids dresses, the
table plan and the four younger boys button holes.  The Haberdashery Bride handmade all of them, with special button holes for the Mums too.  I also hired the floral vintage suit case from Tina at The Haberdashery Bride, which she dressed for me along with the table plan.

I had my three nephews and our son Bobby in suits, with waist coats.  I wanted a royal blue colour and found the perfect suits from Jillys in the indoor market in Stevenage.  They all wore there different colour vans and had a salmon bow tie (from ebay) to match the flower girls,”

“Our beautiful flowers were from Linda Masters.  I play netball with Leigh and have seen her floristry
before.  We were looking for pastel, ivory and green tones.  They did an a fantastic job – I literally cried
when I saw my bouquet!

Not only did our Florists do all the tables and bouquets, they made the gypsophila flower crowns for the flower girls and my flower crown too.  I
always wanted to wear fresh flower in my hair on my wedding day – it
went really well with the pastel colours we had used throughout the rest
of the wedding too.”

“The groom, best man and ushers suits were from Next.  We
wanted something they could keep after and which were modern and went
with are relaxed look on the day.  We found a lovely royal blue suit
which they all looked super handsome wearing.  I got them a navy bow tie each from my tuxedo.co.uk – they were perfect (and easy to do as I cheekily purchased the read-made ones!  I brought my dad and James dad a navy skinny tie from River Island.”

“As Bobby come down the aisle he was holding a wooden heart saying ‘Daddy, here comes your bride’ which I got from EBay!”

“I discovered Claires Cakes at a wedding fair; she knew right away what I was after.  We
wanted just sponge butter cream and jam. The cake was amazing and
everyone was talking about it. I had made a little bunting for the top
of the cake which I got from eBay.“

“Our favours were little jam jars full with different sweets, I
found the jars on ebay.  I then went to the local market and picked four
different floral materials. I then stuck them to the lid of the jar and
wrapped round with twine and a label saying ‘love is sweet’.  They
looked really effective with the floral bunting and table centre
pieces.”

“I found our photographer, Marie Wootton,
on Facebook.  I’m glad we chose Marie she was fabulous.  Our only
request was to have lots of natural style images taken.  She was amazing
and we are over the moon with her pictures and so lucky we found her.”

“My shoes were from the bridal range in Next…”

“The bridesmaids dresses were from a lovely boutique in Knebworth called Bianca’s Bridal Boutique.
Emma the owner was really helpful and the girls had a great time.  
Emma also come round and steamed all the dresses, including mine!  She
was fabulous on the day and really helped us out, I don’t think we would
have been so chilled if it wasn’t for her dressing us all and making
sure everyone felt and looked amazing with her superb service.”

“My dress was Pronovias Finisterre,
I tried the Petunia on in a shop and loved it, the price tag however
was £1700,  and I simply could not afford that with my budget, so I
Googled the dress and found a sample in a shop called Silk in Staffordshire. 
The Finisterre was nearly exactly the same but without the straps, so
my friend and I travelled the 3 hour trip to Staffordshire, tried it on
and I fell in love.  The lady at the shop dry cleaned it for me and sent
it down to me about a week later.

“James’ Auntie Sheila and my mum both delivered a reading.  Shelia
found a reading called ‘The Art of Marriage’, which we loved, and my mum
chose to read I Corinthians.  My mum also wanted the crimond as this was read at her’s and my Grandma’s weddings.”

“We had saved champagne corks over the year which we spilt and
put a luggage label in with everyone’s names on, which my sister
beautifully hand wrote.   Our table names were named after
special places to us.  We went travelling in 2006, so had lots of
amazing memories at these places.  Our top table was ‘Central Park’,
where James asked me to marry him.  Each
table had a picture of bobby in a picture frame holding the name of the
table; it took us longer then expected to get these pictures due to
bobby not wanting his picture taken! I thought it was a nice way to
involve him in our day.”

“We had canapés while everyone was enjoying the reception
welcome drinks.  We had six different kinds, ie, mini Yorkshire puds
with beef, mini duck rolls, chicken on stewers.  We wanted a relaxed feel to the day so we had a barbecue and
everyone bar none loved the food. We had a trio of desserts which were
mini eton mess, chocolate pot with baileys cream and a lemon tart with
popping candy.  In the evening we had mini fish and chip cones they went down really well.

Our caterers were the wonderful Rockfish Events.”

“I hired bunting which transformed the marquee; I brought six pom poms from Hobbycraft.
We had ‘Mr & Mrs’ bunting for the top table. I collected the centre
pieces over a year from charity shops.  I didn’t want it all the same
so each table had a different centre piece. We had things like a small
picnic basket with flower coming out, a vintage bag with flowers and
pearls, we had cake stand and tea pots, cup-cake stands with cups on
with pearls and lace, and on the top table I had jam jars which I
decorated with lace and floral material and brooches.

We also had cups
and saucers with flowers and candles, big jugs with flowers in, a gold
frame placed over a teapot with flowers.  The florist really did an
amazing job with all the things I gave her which was about 3 big bags
full!”

 

“We had the best band ever!! The Shine On Band. James went to see them perform live in Eastbourne and loved and booked them straight away.  They played Oasis, Blur, The Killers, Kings of Leon etc.  They sent James a song-list and between them they worked out what their set would be.   James and our friend noel joined the band, with James singing and playing the guitar and noel on the guitar too.  They had been practising for months, which was such a great surprise for everyone!

Our first dance was ‘To Be With You’ by Mr Big.  James used to sing and play this on his guitar, and it just become our song.  I really love the words in it.“

Words of Wedded Wisdom…
 

“The only things I would say is try not to stress too much on the day – just enjoy it and to let others help wherever they can!  I have such fabulous family and friends and their help really took the pressure off me. 

I had many ideas and had to write them down even at night – I had a pad and pen next to my bed to capture everything. 

Ebay was fab for the little things – shop around for the little things to save money here and there.”

“As for my favourite parts? I loved my surprise poem in the morning and earrings.  I also loved James and Noel playing with the band – it really was amazing.  I
loved that my dad come to my mums in the morning, he hadn’t been round
there for 15 years we all had a glass of champagne and had a chat before
we headed to the bus. The only thing I would go back and do
differently would be to remember the bridesmaids lace gloves which we
forgot about until we were in the church!

But that’s not important in
the great scheme of things.  Everything else was amazing and
really was the best day of our lives. There’s nothing I would have or
could have changed – literally everybody said what an amazing day and time they had.”

Sooooo pretty! I adore the use of peach and pastel colours in this lovely wedding day.  And what a lovely way to start the working-week.   Huge thanks and indeed congratulations to you Jessica and James,  and love to photographer Marie Wootton for choosing Love My Dress to feature her work.

Back soon my lovelies with more wedding day inspiration for you. Have a good morning.

With much love,

Annabel

Photographer – Marie Wootton
Venue – Brickendonbury in Hertfordshire
Wedding Dress – Pronovias Finisterre via Silk in Staffordshire
Flower Crowns – Linda Masters
Brides’ shoes – Next.
Groom’s Attire – Next + bow ties from my tuxedo.co.uk
Bridesmaids – Bianca’s Bridal Boutique
Flowergirls – Facebook bargains, accessorised via The Haberdashery Bride
Page Boys – suits and waist coats via Jillys at the indoor market in Stevenage
Flowers – Linda Masters
Cake – Claires Cakes
Transport – Routemaster
Entertainment – The Shineon Band
Favours – Jam jars sourced by the bride via EBay
Catering – Rockfish Events