A 1980’s Vintage/Heirloom Dress for a Rainy Day and Beautiful Castle Wedding

wpid315535 1980s vintage wedding dress 0361

Hello lovely readers. I hope you are all having a wonderful week. Last Friday evening it was such a pleasure to accompany Tamryn to the Wedding Blog Awards at the Savoy in London, Love My Dress more than deserves those two awards. Annabel wrote a lovely tribute earlier this week – but just incase you missed it, it’s here.

On to today and this wedding is gorgeous! John and Christina were married on the 24th of May this year in the breathtaking St Giles church in Durham. The photography by SJ Ethan really captures both the emotions of the ceremony and the jolly singing! This wedding flows beautifully despite having 3 different venues, each had its unique part to play.

“We spent a lot of time planning the service as we wanted our friends and family who don’t usually go to church to feel comfortable and experience some of the joy and passion we find through our Christian faith. The vicar at St Giles is wonderful and did such a beautiful service for us.  We settled on colours early on and the style of the day came together gradually. We liked the idea of a rustic/vintage feel but there wasn’t an overall plan, we both tend to know what we like so we were pleased (and a bit surprised!) that it all came together so well at the end.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Sarah Jane Ethan Photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

“We met giving blood as students. John’s first impression of me was that I looked ‘scared and anaemic’. A few weeks later, we realised we went to the same church and became friends over time. It wasn’t until 3 years later that we started going out.”

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

“John proposed during a walk in a wood where a couple of friends had put candles in jam jars, hanging from the trees.

We married seven months later.”

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

“My Grandma made the dress for my Aunt Hilary’s wedding in 1984. It’s such a beautiful dress and my grandma (who died when I was 12) was an amazing seamstress.  When John and I got engaged I tried it on not expecting it to fit but it was almost perfect, just needing a couple of alterations. It was so special to be able to wear something made by her hands before I was even born.

I wore it with some New Look, shoes and a pair of pearl earrings and a pearl necklace from my mum.”

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

“The bridesmaids all wore a multiway dress from Marks & Spencer. It was great because everyone could wear it in the style they wanted. They were comfortable and the shape is so flattering that I even bought one for myself too!”

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

“We can’t recommend Sarah Jane Ethan Photography highly enough! Her photographs are absolutely beautiful and she was the perfect wedding photographer, making everyone feel at ease and helping us to have a lovely time when we were being photographed with lots of laughter and silliness which she encouraged and captured for us in the photographs. We couldn’t be happier with the photos!”.

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photographyrainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

“We had our rings made by local jeweller Gavin Shelley and he was great! They were made to match my engagement ring which originally belonged to John’s mum.  She died nearly three years ago and Mike offered John her ring when he was proposing. It’s beautiful and a real privilege to wear.”

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

“Our favourite part of the day was the marriage service. Standing before God and our family and friends and making such huge and exciting promises to love each other as husband and wife for the rest of our lives was amazing! The whole day was absolutely wonderful though and I loved every minute of it!”

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

“We had an extract of 1John 4:8b-12 from the bible and the poem ‘O Tell Me The Truth About Love’ by W. H. Auden as readings. We chose these because they both focus on what love’s all about. The section from the Bible has one of my favourite verses about how much God loves us and the poem is one that I read for the first time when John and I had just started going out. “

‘When it comes, will it come without warning
Just as I’m picking my nose? 
Will it knock on my door in the morning, 
Or tread in the bus on my toes? 
Will it come like a change in the weather? 
Will its greeting be courteous or rough? 
Will it alter my life altogether? 
O tell me the truth about love.’

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

“We stopped off at The Green Tree pub in Tudhoe Village for a drink and some cake straight after the service with the evening reception at Brancepeth Castle. It has a really long, thin room enabling us to have the tables in a big U so all our family and friends were eating on one table together. It was exciting to have such a beautiful blank canvas and as John works in the heritage sector, having our reception in such an old building was a real attraction.

Being able to contribute keeping the building up and running even just a tiny bit seemed like a good 

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

“For the table names, we chose favourite songs/plays/books and printed out extracts on card. We used luggage tags as place settings and wrote a personal message on the back to each of the 160 guests. It took a while but was important to us to be able to make sure we, in some way, spoke to everyone on the day! We wanted everyone to know it mattered to us that they were there.

Instead of favours we rolled up origami instructions with some coloured paper and put them on the tables. We got some excellent photos of intense concentration.”

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

“We made bunting from wallpaper and twine and borrowed some brightly coloured lanterns which we hung along the walls, with helium balloons and fairy lights. I loved the paper windmills which my wonderful dad handmade in the weeks running up to the wedding, they were beautiful.”

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“John and I decided we’d plan 50/50. It was important to both of us that we shared the planning (the fun bits and the not so fun bits) and it meant that the day had ‘our’ stamp on it’. Making sure you have non-wedding time with your fiancé is important so you can remember what it was like before you had to spend all your time talking about flowers, place settings and rsvps”

rainy day wedding, 1980s vintage wedding dress, castle weddings, sarah jane ethan photography

Congratulations to Christina and John. A beautiful wedding and such heartfelt words about the meaning of marriage to them as a couple. Thank you so much to SJ Ethan who captured the day in all it’s glory.

Love Caoimhe xx

 

Photographer – Sarah Jane Ethan Photography
Venue – St Giles Church + The Green Tree + Brancepeth Castle, Durham
Wedding Dress – Vera Maiden, Bride’s Grandmother + Shoes New Look
Accessories – Gavin Shelley Jewellery design, Durham
Groom – Matalan
Bridesmaids – Marks and Spencer + Shoes New Look
Entertainment – Groove Allstars
Catering – Executive Catering, Durham

Caoimhe Anderson

Caoimhe Anderson View all Caoimhe's articles

Caoimhe will never tire of beautiful wedding dress and a blooming flower crown. When she's not lusting after a gorgeous wedding she will be trying new vegetarian recipes, knitting very slowly or capturing a pink sunset from behind a camera lens.

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