A Timeless Couture Gown For A Spring Time Wedding in a School

Good morning, and thank you for passing by these pages for your daily inspirational fix of wedding charm and elegance.  It's what we do best.  This morning's nuptials are that of Frances and James, whose sweet Spring wedding took place on 13 April last year at Mill Hill School in North-West London. James had attended the school for five years and when Frances visited the school she thought it was the perfect location for their wedding celebration.

I especially love that the expert vintage styler Amanda Moorhouse and her team from Lipstick & Curls styled Frances and her leading ladies for this wedding.  I worked with Amanda on my book and her knowledge of vintage inspired looks for brides is outstanding.

Frances said that she and James didn't have any particular theme for this wedding, but did aim for lots of mutual colours and pretty vintage accessories.

Photography Copyright (c) 2013, Shell De Mar

“James and I met at a mutual friend’s wedding. James went to school with the bride and groom and Frances went to university with the groom. We had never met before the wedding (Frances turned down the chance of a date with James because he was deemed too short!). After several drinks and some very dodgy dancing we hit it off.   We got engaged just under two years later.

We were in Chicago for another friends wedding and at the end of the trip James took Frances to the exact spot where Harry meets Sally (Frances’s favourite film and the first film we watched together) and James popped the question there. 10 months later we got married.”

“The lovely ladies at Timeless Couture, based in Wirksworth, Derbyshire made my dress.  Being able to work with the designers and makers of the dress means that you can make alterations to the design relatively ‘easily’!  I wanted something classic with a twist – I loved the fishtail design and high neck and the twist came in the form of a scooped out back that was covered in lace. The original design was a plain silk dress, but I wanted something that looked softer, so we changed that by keeping silk underneath and layering with lace over the top part of the dress and tulle over the skirt.

They found a lace for me that had a corded edge, which was exactly what I’d had in mind – vintage looking but a bit more contemporary."

"At first I didn’t want a big dress – but then I changed my mind!  Timeless Couture were able to double up the netting underneath it to make it bigger! We added the sparkles on the final fitting after I’d been contemplating a sparkly belt. The ladies found some appliqued, embellished pieces that had a sparkly vintage feel, we added them to the neck and shoulders and to the base of the back. It was then perfect!”

“Amanda of Lipstick & Curls and her assistant did hair and make-up for Frances and all the bridesmaids’ hair. They did a brilliant job and made it very stress free during the morning.

The lovely Rachel at Timeless Couture made me a little hair slide with some of the appliques from my dress.

I borrowed pearl stud earrings from my Mum and I wore a pearl bracelet that I had been given by one of my bridesmaids when I was her bridesmaid – so they made my something old and something borrowed."

I love the DIY effort made with this wedding…

"We collected cut glass vases, sugar bowls and jugs and pretty teacups for decorating the tables. I made soya wax candles using the jugs and sugar bowls. The backs of the chairs had 3 different colour ribbons strung from them purchased from a variety of local shops. We bought mini brass easels to display the menus. We hired 5 tier candelabras and made tissue paper pom-poms to hang in the school – the tissue was from EBay.  Our table plan was pinned to an old tailors dummy that I'd had for years."

“I choose a cathedral length veil from Timeless Couture that they appliqued with lace on the edge to match the lace on my dress.”

"The bridesmaids dresses were all from Ghost – they each had a different style or colour (2 were in Novella – 1 Nude, 1 Boudoir Pink; 1 Gabriella in Cloud; 1 Chelsea in Sea Green; 1 Misha in Silver; 1 Monique in Peony Pink).  The Maid of Honour’s dress was by Damsel in A Dress from House of Fraser – it was called Aphrodite in Matte Gold.

The girls all wore different shoes as their dresses were floor length so it didn’t matter too much!  I also wanted to keep the look quite simple and clean so the only jewellery the bridesmaids wore were things they would normally wear."

“Our photographer was the amazing Shell De Mar. We’d had an engagement shoot with Shella around Primrose Hill a few weeks before the wedding, which meant on the wedding day we could be relaxed around her. She was brilliant and we had so many compliments from family and friends regards the photos. The hardest thing is trying to choose some for the album now!”

 

Frances wore the Amelia shoes by designer Rachel Simpson (whose own wedding we will be sharing with you very soon on Love My dress!).

"My step-dad Tony walked me down the aisle, to the sound of 'The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba’, by Handel."

"My Mum is a vicar and the conducted the ceremony, this meant the service was very personal to us both. There were over 100 people in the church but everyone commented on how intimate it felt, which was lovely.

We choose ‘You are the bubbles’ as a reading, as I had bought it for James for a Valentines present and loved the words. The Song of Solomon was chosen as our other reading – it was about Spring and we were getting married in April which felt appropriate."

“My ring was from H Chalfen, designed to compliment her engagement ring. I made James’s rose gold ring at The London Jewellery Workshop, it was a challenge, but so worth it.“

“We hired suits from Debenhams – Navy blue tails, with classic navy stripe trousers and a cream silk waistcoat. James’s tie was bought from Thomas Pink; Newham in brown.  I also made pocket squares for James and the Groomsmen with fabric from Liberty’s – the print was Claire-Aude in the pastel blues, greens and pinks.  The boy’s suits were the same as James’s (Navy Tails, Navy stripe trousers and a cream silk waistcoat) from Debenhams. The Fathers both wore pale pink ties, the best men wore coffee coloured ties and the groomsmen wore sage green ties.”

“The flowers were supplied by my friend Rochelle. She made all the bouquets, the flower arrangements in the chapel and all the table bouquets. Rochelle also supplied all the herbs that were used as centrepieces on the tables (pots of Rosemary, Thyme and Mint). A wide range of flowers were used to create a ‘garden’ feel including roses, peonies, freesias, ranunculus, tulips, gladioli.”

“My younger sister made the cake – the bottom layer was chocolate, the second layer was raspberry and elderflower, the third layer was lemon and the top tier was a dairy free victoria sponge as Frances is intolerant to dairy and eggs.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

“We didn’t know what kind of day we wanted, so we started off by listing the things that were important to us. This gave us an idea of where we wanted to spend more money and were we were happy to save money. For James it was important to have a free bar and for Frances it was the food!

One thing I would say is, we do wish that we'd spent more time with each other!"

 

What a lovely day, a real family affair with lots of lovely personal touches.  Many thanks to photographer Shell De Mar for sharing her work and to Frances and James – who we wish the very loveliest of first wedding anniversaries in April.

You can seen more photography from the very lovely Shell De Mar here on Love My dress.

Love Annabel

 

 

Photographer - Shell De Mar
Venue + Catering – Mill Hill School in North-West London
Wedding dress + Veil – Timeless Couture

Bride's shoes – Amelia by Rachel Simpson
Bride's accessories – Timeless Couture
Groom's Attire – Grooms Suit – formal wear hired via Debenhams

Bridesmaids – Ghost + Damsel in A Dress
Page Boys – Gap shirt + Next trousers + Converse + bow tia via The Knott Shop on Etsy

Flowers – A friend

Cake – The brides sister
Entertainment – Sound Bookings

Additional Styling
Rings – H Chalfen + The London Jewellery Workshop

Stationery – The bride & groom
Hair and make-up Artist – Lipstick & Curls