A Sweet September Wedding With A Touch of 1930’s Glamour, Pom Poms, Peach, Gold and Blue

It's Friday – hoorah! Who has got that Friday feeling? If you're struggling, let us come to your assistance with this beautiful wedding day sent in by photographer Kat Hill, whose work we're rather big fans of.

Photography Copyright (c) 2013, Kat Hill

"Sam and I got engaged last Christmas – the proposal happened in Wales up a hill, quite unexpectedly. Sam chose there and then because he knows I love Christmas time in Wales with my family, and that  particular hill has family significance as we walk up it on Christmas or Boxing day each year. He did the whole getting down on one knee thing – it was very romantic.

We kept the engagement short and married nine months later, so we didn’t spend too much time fussing over details."

These fabulous giant light up letters are by the brilliant Vowed and Amazed – theatrical props for wedding and events specialists (I blogged about them here!)…

"My dress was by Charlie Brear, and I purchased through Charlie's boutique near Tottenham Court Road.  We went to three shops and this was the last one we went in. I tried on my 1930’s gown and instantly loved it.

I always knew I didn’t want a big white dress or anything strapless as I didn’t think it would suit me, and I didn’t think I would be comfortable. When we discovered I could customise the dress I just knew it would be perfect.  We added a vintage lace jacket for the day, and in the evening I popped on some French lace sleeves and wore the blush coloured sash differently to give a whole new day to night look."

"Our Florist, Emma, of The Green Parlour, just knew exactly what I wanted; natural, wild looking flowers that tied in with our peach, blue and white colour scheme. She used seasonal, natural flowers and loosely tied them with a big drapy blue bow. She also incorporated eucalyptus into the bouquets and buttonholes to represent Sam’s Australian heritage.

My mum, mother in law and I arranged lots of individual flowers, that Emma supplied, in about 40 jam jars I had collected and decorated with friends one Sunday afternoon with lace and ribbon to adorn the fireplaces."

"I wore a pair of gold Sparkly Miu Miu heels bought in the Liberty’s sale.  When I stumbled across them I knew they would be perfect, despite the fact I’m not normally a sparkly, glittery type of girl!

"Finding the bridesmaids dresses was very challenging. I wanted my sisters to both look really good and show their own personalities, despite being bridesmaids. After trawling around many, many high street shops, we eventually settled on Navy Alfred Sung dresses from Dessy. They both wore different style dresses in the same fabric to flatter each of their shapes. 

The girls also wore Pied-a-terre metallic pointed shoes and vintage style 1930’s beaded headbands handmade from Spitalfields market. Again they both had the same headband, just in slightly different colours. They were a bargain at just £10!"

"We made and designed all our own stationery and kept it very simple, using the blue and white colour palette. The initial invites also had a navy and white butchers ribbon bow tying together the different cards. We used the string again on each napkin on the dinner tables."

"My Dad designed the cake and made it, with a lot of help from my sister, mum and neighbour. He’s an architect so took the design job very seriously – even doing a CAD model of the cake! It was all a surprise to me, but I thought the classically beautiful white design was contemporary and unique. He had also tried to subtly incorporate different parts of our personalities into the cake as one layer had spots, which indicated my more spontaneous, creative personality, another had straight lines, which illustrated Sam’s more linear, technical geeky personality.

The helix swirl shape of the cake pops was symbolic of our union together. The cake pops also went down really well!"

"To decorate the venue we used gold, cream and ivory pom poms.  We also hand made lots of origami hearts, from paper bought in Switzerland at the local paper mill by my mother in law.  A mini theme was to continue using the different patterned blue, gold and peach papers across the wedding. We used them as the background for the paper cut out table plan I had made. We made mini tags on each of the name labels for the jam jars.

Each had a different patterned piece of paper as the background. The table numbers, I decoupaged in these different patterned papers to tie in all the colours."

"Our photographer was Kat Hill. Kat did a great job at blending perfectly into our day. Kat's friendly, relaxed style really did help to put our guests and us at ease. Her natural reportage style of photography really captured those important moments, which were great to look on afterwards."

"I wore my grandma’s ‘old’ pearl and gold earrings and a bracelet that was custom made for me by The Modern Vintage Bride. 

My something blue was a pretty garter my sister bought me from Not On The High Street.  I wore a silver sixpence, borrowed from my mum’s collection of her Dad’s coins taped in my left shoe."

"My makeup was done by one of my oldest and best friends, Becca Gray. She did my sisters, mum and mine. Our makeup lasted all day and I really did feel fabulous as it was more glamorous than my normally natural style. My hair was done by my mum’s hairdresser, Nadege Faverais. She created the perfect vintage style slightly loose up do that I hoped for. She gave my mum and sisters the perfect blow dry to finish off their looks too.

My hair accessory was from BHLDN – it matched my blush sash, ivory dress and gold shoes."

"My Dad gave me away – I walked down the aisle to Mozart’s Divertmento as it’s uplifting and jolly.  Seeing each other was our favourite part of the day – though we also just loved seeing all of our friends and family in one place.

We had three readings – our friend Katrina read an extract from Captain Correlli’s Mandolin, Sam’s mum read a Shakespearean Sonnet and my Grandad read ‘Learning all the Time’ by Patience Strong."

"Our rings were from 77 Diamonds – the same place Sam had bought the engagement ring from. He went for a rose gold band that suited him and I went for a thin band of diamonds to compliment my solitaire platinum engagement ring."

"Our venue, The Olde Bell,  catered the food. We chose them as they only use locally sourced ingredients and grow their own vegetables in the garden next door to them. We chose to have a sharing plate of slow roasted leg of lamb on the tables.

We made one guest on each table don a hat and apron as the elected carver and server on the table. It was a bit of fun and got our guests talking!"

"For favours we gave homemade jam, made by my sister, Rachel, which we hand tied with ribbons in our own colours. We used the name labels on the jam as the place settings around the table."

"We hired Mighty Fine Entertainment, who were recommended by the venue. John, our DJ, was really helpful and we gave him a list of songs we wanted him to play and mix throughout the night. A lot of them came from our guests as we asked for a song suggestion when they RSVP’d.

Our first dance track was Nina Simone’s ‘Feeling Good’, again because we love it and it’s uplifting."

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"Make sure you steal some moments away from everyone else to take stock together.  I also visited Love My Dress regularly for inspiration, as it’s great to read about other people’s weddings and see their personalities expressed in their choices for their day."

A very stylish day indeed, but then anyone who chooses to wear a Charlie Brear dress on their wedding day is oozing elegance if you ask me.

Big congratulations to you both Sarah and Sam – we wish you all the very best for your first Christmas together as husband and wife – exciting! And thank you so very much for your lovely kind words about Love My Dress.  Huge thanks also to photographer Kat Hill for sharing these photographs – you can see more beautiful images from Kat Hill on Love My Dress here.

You can also see more brides wearing Charlie Brear dresses (Charlie's former business name was 'The Vintage Wedding Dress Company, though she has rebranded this year inline with the launch of her own ready-to-wear collection – which is bloomin' gorgeous!).

I'd love to see some kind words below – are there any elements of this wedding you might be 'borrowing' to style your own wedding day?

Annabel

Photographer – Kat Hill
Venue + Catering – The Olde Bell in Hurley, Maidenhead
Brides Dress – Charlie Brear
Hair Accessory – BHLDN
Brides' shoes – Miu Miu purchased in the Liberty’s sale
Bride's accessories – The Modern Vintage Bride + Not On The High Street
Grooms Suit – Reiss + cufflinks by George Jensen
Bridesmaids – Navy Alfred Sung dresses from Dessy  +  Pied-a-terre shoes
Flowers – The Green Parlour
Cake – made by the bride's father
Entertainment – Mighty Fine Entertainment
Favours – homemade jam
Rings – 77 Diamonds
Stationery – made by the bride & groom
Makeup Artist – Becca Gray

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.