An Elegant Summer Time and Vintage Inspired Gaynes Park Wedding

We're spoiling you today guys, it's a 3 day wedding day. Hooray!  We didn't want today to end without sharing this beautifully elegant Gaynes Park wedding with you.  Albert and Clare tied the knot on 4th July 2013 at  Gaynes Park Barns in Epping, Essex.  I simply love that this couple had been together since they were 15 when they tied the knot.  Such a sweet love story.

"Albert and I have been together since we were 15 and at school. 
We've grown up together which is very special to us. Albert proposed on
our 10 year anniversary on a surprise trip away in Swanage – somewhere I
used to go on holiday as a child.

We'd never been to Swanage together and it was always somewhere I was going on about! This
made the surprise drive there one Friday evening after work very
special. Albert proposed in our swanky apartment overlooking the sea
with lots of candles set out in the shape of hearts whilst I was in my
PJ’s!  It's a moment we will never forget.  We were engaged for 17 months before marrying."

Photography Copyright (c) 2013, Dominic Whiten

"I love everything vintage so I was hugely inspired by the vintage
wedding trend which has been so popular of late. I work in fashion so
have always been creative. It meant a lot to me to add personal touches
and do a lot of the creating myself. We had lots of fun trailing through
car boot sales, charity shops and vintage fairs finding lots of unique vintage finds.

Our venue, Gaynes Park,
is in a beautiful country setting; an amazing converted Barn with lovely views. We
had total exclusivity and fell in love with the venue the moment we saw
it – no other venue compared." 

"I’m quite a hands on girl and love organising and planning – this
seemed like a perfect opportunity to get stuck in. I must mention I had
amazing help from my dad's partner, Jan,who was always helping along the
way.  I created all our stationery with some help from a friend – and this included the invites,
table name/numbers, photo booth tickets, menus and order of service booklets. I
bought all the card from Paperchase and printed our invites at a local
printers and the rest at work (sshhh!).

We had small retro brooch favours for the wedding party and
then supplied a photo booth for the evening- I created photo booth
tickets to indicate this for our guests and we displayed them next to
each guest name. We also supplied ‘treat your dancing feet’ flip flops
for the evening party."

"In
keeping with the vintage theme I wanted lots of wild flowers with
nothing being too set. Rosie our florist from A Vintage Wedding was absolutely amazing and I could trust
her to go ahead and do what she wanted as I loved her style and
everything she had done previously.

We chose a selection of flowers
including lots of gypsophila. She also hires out some fab vintage props
including decanter vases and china jugs which looked amazing decorated
around our venue mixed in with the glass bottles, vintage cutlery and
birdcages I had sourced."          

"I had my dress made by a very close friend, Neshe Latif, who I
used to work with. She runs her own bridal and occasion wear business
called Once upon a Bride in Green Wood. She very generously made my dress for me as my wedding present!"

"I'm
very small – 4ft 11", so getting my own dress made was a must (nothing
else would fit me proportionally). I tried on lots to get an idea of
what I wanted and what suited me. Jenny Packham was my huge inspiration.
I loved the Vintage look with the lace cap sleeve and front
brooch. The scoop tulle back and nipped in waist also suited my figure
best.

Neshe also made my veil – I always said I
wouldn’t want a veil however the moment I tried one on I didn’t want to
take it off- really makes you feel like a bride and completes the look!"

"We used photo frames with photos of our grandparents in on their
wedding days – it was such a special touch. I also displayed my wedding
sketch book which showed all my magazine cut out inspiration that I had
collected over the past year."

"Our photographer was  Dominic Whiten.  We wanted really natural shots of our day, and were impressed with Dominic's work after meeting him at a local wedding fair. We felt he really
understood and agreed with the type of relaxed style we wanted in our
shots.

Dominic did a fantastic job and we are thrilled with our photos. I
love that he captured all the venue decoration I spent so long planning
as it’s a lovely little accomplishment to look back on."     

"I did my make-up myself but went for a MAC make-up lesson before the big day which was very beneficial.

I wore some small diamond and pearl hair pins in my hair.  I'm
lucky enough to have two best friends, Caroline and Lizzie, who are hair
dressers, so getting my hair styled was the easy part.

I also wore a white gold and diamond bracelet my grandparents gave me for my 21st birthday and a pair of Accessorize droplet earrings." 

"I made my bridesmaids dresses myself. I wanted a particular colour, mink, and liked the idea of them both wearing a slightly different style
so a multi way dress worked really well. My older sister Lizzy and best
friend Rachael looked stunning in them.  The girls wore shoes from New
Look." 

"During the ceremony we had the traditional Church of England vows, and Alberts Nanny Mary and my friend Seren both delivered lovely readings.

We had our rings made by a freelance jewellery designer who is a
family friend, Glen Westerman. My engagement ring is antique art deco
so I wanted one made to tie in with the same square diamond
design."   

"We had two student musicians from the royal academy of
music playing the sax and double bass for our reception drinks outside
the orangery at our venue."    

"Katie at Orange Blossom Cake Company made our cake. We had a rounded 3 tier, duck egg blue colour with lilac ribbon and lace wrapped around each tier. We had a Kate topper made from our florist, Rosie, at A Vintage Wedding to tie in with the rest of our flowers."

"We chose to dance our first dance to Hey Ho, by The Lumineers.  We
both love the song and wanted to keep it more current rather than
cheesy."

Words of Wedded Wisdom… 

"Do not
get too carried away with worrying about other people- it’s you and your
husband to be’s day so do not lose sight of the real reason you are
doing it. Whatever you worry about going wrong on the day will not
matter when you are there. Enjoy and saviour every moment and make sure
you spend it with each other."    

A sweet and elegant wedding, I think you'll agree.  Thank you so very much Clare for sharing so much of your wedding day details with us.

Huge thanks also to photographer Dominic Whiten.

You can see more weddings at Gaynes Park here.

With much love,

Annabel

Photographer – Dominic Whiten 
Venue – Gaynes Park, Essex
Wedding Dress + veil – Once upon a Bride
Brides Shoes – Red peep toe Miu Miu's
Grooms Suit – Suit+Shoes from Reiss, tie from Ted Baker
Bridesmaids dresses – made by the bride
Flowergirl Dresses – John Lewis    
Page boys – Next + Converse
Flowers – A Vintage Wedding
Cake – Orange Blossom Cake Company
Transport – Your Wedding Car
Catering Company – Galloping Gourmet