If you love crafting, 1930’s and 1940‘s styling and a dash of downright prettiness, I’m guessing that you will really enjoy this elegant tea party inspired summer wedding. The couple have included so many brilliant ideas; each filled with sentiment and personal meaning, reflecting the couples lives, it’s completely endearing and beautiful. Plus a dapper tweed suit, the most exquisite swishy silk Johanna Hehir wedding gown and the cutest old hollywood style Rachel Simpson shoes!
Dr & Mrs Shipley, the lovely Johnnie & Kirstin, were married at St Bartholomew’s Church, Newbiggin-by-the-sea, Northumberland on the 25th of May 2014 with a reception at The Linskill Centre, North Shields. The day has been captured by the ever fabulous Matt Ethan Photography who has a real eye for incapsulating the true heart of the day. Our stunning bride, Kirstin, is a primary school teacher and her handsome groom, Johnnie is a senior archaeology and heritage consultant, they met an uni in Newcastle and the rest as they say is history.
“We wanted to do as much as possible ourselves. I love all things vintage, particularly the style of the 1930s and 1940’s. I also adore sewing and crafting and so having a wedding to create things for was my idea of heaven! We both also liked the idea of a summer tea party style wedding complete with lots of bunting and a ceilidh. We just wanted our wedding to be as informal and relaxed as possible.
We loved every second of the day. It was completely stress free and filled with laughter and happiness. It was everything we wanted it to be, and truly the best day of our lives so far.”
Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Matt Ethan Photography
“We met in 2006 when we were both post-graduate students at Newcastle University. Johnnie studying for a PhD in Archaeology and I was studying for a P.G.C.E. in Primary Education. After six years together, in March 2013, I proposed to Johnnie and he said yes!
I had planned a picnic at Hadrian’s Wall but there was really deep snow and so ended up asking him in our living room instead! We celebrated with chip butties in the snow in the grounds of Hexham Abbey and Johnnie bought me an art deco engagement ring that we saw in the window of an antique jewellery shop next door.”
Kirstin made her own amazing bouquet and those for her bridesmaids, Emma and Dawn, from vintage brooches, earrings, buttons and paper flowers. The pretty Button holes for Kirstin’s family were of freesia, gypsophilia and roses from Busy Lizzie’s in Tynemouth.
Kirstin’s Bridesmaids, Emma and Dawn, wore adorable tea length navy blue dresses from Monsoon with shoes of their choice and Kirstin put to use her love of vintage and crafting to make their hair combs using vintage brooches bought on eBay. The bridesmaids’ delicate pearl bracelets with a square vintage style clasp were from from Highland Angel and their pearl and marcasite earrings were a purchase from Gama Weddings. Both were gifts from Kirstin.
“The day before the wedding, a crack team of our families and friends descended on the Linskill Centre and helped to set everything up and transformed it into a beautiful setting for our vintage tea party reception. They were absolutely incredible and it would not have been possible to pull it all off without them!”
Initially, Kirstin really wanted a vintage wedding dress but after a visit to the White Tulip in Prudhoe, fell in love with a bias-cut, 1930s inspired ‘Helena’ dress by Johanna Hehir.
“I loved the bias cut of the dress – it was perfectly in keeping with the 1930s style that I love so much. I also loved the simplicity of the dress – the only embellishment was the beautiful lace around my waist. The fabrics were such amazing quality – the dress was made of pure silk. It fell beautifully and it felt so luxurious to wear. It was also very light in comparison with many of the dresses I tried on and was very comfortable to wear all day. My mum bought me this dress. I knew it was perfect when she dissolved into floods of tears as soon as she saw me in it.”
“For decor we had bunting, and lots of it! Mostly made myself, with some help from friends and some borrowed from friends to use too. We also sent out a triangle of bunting with each invitation for guests to decorate and I gave some to the children in my class to decorate too! These were displayed along the walls of the hall and provided a great talking point throughout the day. It was amazing to see how creative and thoughtful people were in their ideas for this.
The bunting is a keepsake I know we’ll keep looking back at for years to come!”
Kirstin and Johnnie chose Matt Ethan as their photographer;
“Matt had taken the photographs for Johnnie’s sister, Joanne’s, wedding the previous year and we thought the photographs produced were really beautiful! We also knew that he’d put us at our ease as neither of us are particularly fond of having our photographs taken and we knew we didn’t want lots of posed photographs. I had also come across some of Matt’s work when looking for reception venues, in particular his photographs of another wedding, at Whalton Village Hall, and loved the natural and informal style.”
Kirstin’s chose her regular hair salon for her bridal hair, Towers Lee, Tynemouth Station.
“They were amazing and they opened specially for us as our wedding was on a Sunday. My lovely cousin, Joanne Patterson did my make -up”.
Kirstin’s elegant dress was teamed with a full length veil, also from the White Tulip and vintage style dance-hall inspired silver ‘Ginger’ style shoes by Rachel Simpson.
“I normally don’t wear heels but they were so comfortable – I wore them all day and danced in them all evening!”
irstin’s Hair combs, made from vintage fur clips, were from Amore Treasure on Etsy.
“Amore Treasure creates beautiful hair pieces using vintage brooches and fur clips and specialises in pieces from the art deco era. These (and my veil) were an incredibly thoughtful and precious gift from my godparents, Norah and Paul.
My silver and pearl Edwardian earrings were bought from S. and D. Green antique jewelry shop in Morpeth. These were a gift from Johnnie one of the first Christmases we were together.”
“We chose St Bartholomew’s as this is Johnnie’s family church and The Linskill Centre as it across the road from where we live and we wanted a venue where we could arrange all catering and details of the wedding ourselves. We didn’t have an event planner but lots of support from our lovely families and friends!”
We think that Johnnie looked particularly smart, and we do love a man with a beard! His suit was from Walker Slater, a Scottish Tweed suit and tailoring specialists. With a shirt from T. M. Lewins, shoes from Clarks and a belt he found at a flea market in Amsterdam.
On the day Johnnie wore R.A.F. Bomber Command Cufflinks, in memory of his grandfather and rather than a pocket watch Johnnie wore a Great War officer’s pocket trench compass dated 1916 that Kirstin bought him as a wedding gift.
Kirstin walked down the aisle with her dad Dave to Wagner’s ‘Bridal Chorus’.
“We used the preface and the vows from an older version of the wedding service, rather than the more modern service as we preferred the more formal and traditional wording. The ceremony was performed by Rev. Frank Walton, a long-standing friend of Johnnie’s family.”
“Johnnie’s sister, Joanne Anderson, read a reading from the Book of Ruth Chosen for the beautiful message of ‘togetherness’ that it contains. It expressed how we feel our married lives will be.”
‘Wherever you go, I will go.
Wherever you live, I will live.
Your people will be my people.
Your God will be my God too.
Wherever you die I will die.
And there I shall be buried beside you.
We shall be together forever.
And our love will be the gift of our life.
This is the word of the Lord’.
“Ian Knight, Johnnie’s family friend and also our Master of Ceremony, read a reading from ‘The Irrational Season’ by Madeleine L’Engle . This reading reflected our feeling that marriage is a life long undertaking, and an enormous commitment to each other.”
The Irrational Season’ by Madeleine L’Engle
‘But ultimately there comes a moment when a decision must be made. Ultimately two people who love each other must ask themselves how much they hope for as their love grows and deepens, and how much risk they are willing to take. It is indeed a fearful gamble. Because it is the nature of love to create, a marriage itself is something which has to be created, so that, together we become a new creature.
To marry is the biggest risk in human relations that a person can take. If we commit ourselves to one person for life this is not, as many people think, a rejection of freedom; rather it demands the courage to move into all the risks of freedom, and the risk of love which is permanent; into that love which is not possession, but participation.
It takes a lifetime to learn another person. When love is not possession, but participation, then it is part of that co-creation which is our human calling, and which implies such risk that it is often rejected’.
“My favorite part of they day? I loved getting to the end of the aisle and holding Johnnie’s hand and hearing him repeat his vows and giving my vows to him. Everyone else just melted away and I felt as if I was just speaking to him, it was as if we were the only two of us there.”
Kirstin’s rose gold wedding band was from Old Eldon Jewellers, in Newcastle upon Tyne and she was delighted with their helpfulness, altering Kirstin’s antique engagement ring so that it could be worn with the wedding band underneath.
The couple hired a Vintage Bus from Henry Cooper Coaches and were driven to the ceremony by Kirstin’s uncle, Craig Patterson, and her cousin, Joanne Patterson, who dressed their own Mercedes with ribbons for the occasion.
In the run up to the day the couple with help from their family and friends collected items to decorate the venue, including the vintage damask and embroidered table cloths; vintage glass jugs for water on the tables and lots of jam jars. Kirstin’s friend Jill helped to decorate these with vintage lace, ribbon and vintage maps and sheet music. These were then used to hold tea lights and flowers around the reception hall.
Kirstin also made paper hearts to decorate their invitations from vintage maps. She tried to give each person a map that was personal to them – e.g. a honeymoon destination, a place where they live, which I’m certain were much appreciated by their guests. The inserts were designed by Kirstin and Johnnie, as were the orders of service with help from Johnnie’s sister, Joanne.
The couple made place cards of paper hearts made from vintage maps or sheet music with miniature luggage tags attached with ribbon. Kirstin created the table plan by covering a board in hessian, the names backed in vintage fabric with miniature bunting asking guests to ‘Find your seat’.
“During our reception we also used the Pics Elated photobooth company. We had really enjoyed visiting the photobooth at previous weddings we’d been to, and knew that they would produce a really fun guest book!”
“The flowers in the Linskill Centre were roses, carnations, gypsophilia and freesia. They were arranged by my amazing friend, Rachel Rowe, and my bridesmaid, Emma Garner, who both spent 5 long hours on the bathroom floor arranging the flowers into vintage tea cups and saucers!”
“We had two wedding cakes – one was made by Johnnie and iced by myself. It was topped with one of the vintage tea cup and flower arrangements. Our main wedding cake was made and decorated by Johnnie’s 95 year old Great Auntie Frankie.
It has become a tradition that Auntie Frankie makes all of Johnnie’s family’s wedding cakes! It was topped with bride and groom figures which were a gift from a friend.”
Readers – you can buy similar cake-toppers from the wonderful Etsy!
Catering was provided by the North East Pig on A Spit, hog roast company. Desserts were provided by friends and family and were presented on vintage plates and cake stands collected by Kirstin, Johnnie and their families.
“Johnnie brewed some real ale for the wedding with the help of his friends, Ed and Nic who own the George N. Porter Brewery, a micro-brewery in Whitley Bay. This was available for guests to help themselves to during the day, with donations given to the Newbiggin-by-the-sea branch of the R.N.L.I., a charity important to Johnnie and his family. A special pump clip for the wedding was designed by one of Johnnie’s bestmen, Mark Knight, who is a graphic designer and director of El Roboto graphic design company in Newcastle.”
Evening entertainment was courtesy of the Hedgehog Skins Ceilidh Band from Hexham.
“For our first dance we chose Fleetwood Mac – ‘Need Your Love So Bad’ , we thought the words were appropriate!”
Words of Wedded Wisdom
“Don’t let it get stressful! This is something you only want to do once, so it’s important to enjoy every second. Don’t worry about the small details – people really don’t notice them, and your day will be such a blur, neither will you! The person you are marrying and the people you are celebrating with are the only things that really matter.”
Huge congratulations to Kirstin and Johnnie, thank you so much for sharing your fabulous day with us and thanks to Matt Ethan too for delighting us with the images.
Such a fantastic wedding, I feel so inspired to go and make something! Maybe Kirstin and Johnnie have encouraged you to turn your hand to making your wedding cake together? There are some beautiful examples of cakes to attempt on the Love My Dress Pinterest boards. Personally I’d have to leave it to the experts – although, it is our 8th wedding anniversary this week, maybe we should try and bake a cake.
We’d most definitely need some help from Great Auntie Frankie I think.
Lots of love
Rebecca x
Photographer – Matt Ethan Photography
Venue – St Bartholomew’s Church + The Linskill Centre
Bride’s Dress – From the White Tulip in Prudhoe. Style, ‘Helena’ by Johanna Hehir
Bride’s Shoes – ‘Ginger’ by Rachel Simpson.
Bride’s Hair Accessories – Amore Treasure on Etsy
Bride’s Veil – The White Tulip
Bride’s Earrings – Edwardian earrings from S. and D. Green
Bride’s Wedding Ring – Old Eldon Jewellers
Bride’s Hair – Towers Lee, Tynemouth, make up by Brides cousin
Bridesmaids Dresses – Monsoon
Bridesmaids Shoes – Their own
Brides maids Accessories – bracelets from Highland Angel, earrings by Gama Weddings
Groom’s Suit – Walker Slater
Groom’s Acessories – T. M. Lewins shirt + Clarks shoes + flea market belt
Flowers in the Church and Venue – Family and friends
Bride’s Families Buttonholes – Busy Lizzie’s
Paper Bouquets – Made by the Bride
Wedding Cakes – by the Bride, Groom and Groom’s Great Auntie Frankie
Catering – North East Pig on A Spit
Real Ale – George N. Porter Brewery
Vintage Bus Hire – Henry Cooper Coaches
Entertainment – Hedgehog Skins Ceilidh Band
Photobooth – Pics Elated
Enjoyed reading and looking at the photo’s of Kirstin and Jonathan’s wedding. Lovely Day.