A YolanCris Gown and Skull Cap Veil for a Pregnant Bride and Her Village Hall Wedding

Good morning, and welcome back to the working week, for those of you returning to your desks after the Christmas and New Year holiday.  If you’re one of those people who has been dreading today a little, then I really hope that our 3 planned blog features today will lift your spirits during your tea breaks and lunch hour.   Whilst we took a break ourselves of Christmas at Love My Dress – we still blogged and there are a couple of posts you need to bookmark to read if you’ve not done so already, including this feature full of money saving offers from our sponsors, my end of year personal post and this feature, which contains all the most memorable weddings of 2014 – it’s the most beautiful feature of all of last year on Love My Dress®

Whilst I have your attention, I also want to tell you that at lunch time today, we’re launching a competition to win your wedding dress with Vicky Rowe – details on Instagram here and you can learn about Vicky Rowe and her exquisite 1930s inspired gowns on Love My Dress here.

This feature has been selected to help lift your spirits this Monday morning.  Katie, a fashion and textiles lecturer married Robert, a Marine Engineer on 5th June last year in Devon. Their ceremony took place at St Pauls Church followed by a reception in the village of Yelverton in Devon.

Photography Copyright (c) 2015, Freckle Photography

“I knew that I wanted a coloured and highly textured wedding dress.  Whist I teach fashion and textiles, I always knew that I would be unable to design and make my own dress, against the pressures of planning and organising the wedding itself, and having looked online, I discovered a love for high end designers such as Marchesa and YolanCris – but both were outside my £1000 dress budget.  That was until I discovered London Bride Couture who were hosting a YolanCris dresses sample sale.  I visited the boutique during a visit to London with work and purchased my blush lace dress there and then for £900.  It was a complete bargain! I was so pleased.

The dress itself is very 1930’s in style, with a high neck, dropped waist and layered blush and ivory lace. It had really beautiful detail across the back. In the end the dress had to be altered to fit my growing love bump. A really great seamstress gave the dress a key hole back, removed the buttons and added further lace.”

“I really wanted a scull-cap veil, in keeping with the period style of my dress, and found a really gorgeous one by Elizabeth Dickins, sourced by the lovely ladies at the Wedding Company in Plymouth.

My headpiece was from Etsy.  When it arrived it was very shiny silver and a little brash. I painted it up in blush colours to lend itself to the dress, in the end the veil and the head piece really worked together.”

“The hall decorations were really gorgeous and were made by a team of nibble fingered relatives, Robs mum and cousins, made over 300 metres of bunting, which covered the hall ceiling and marquees in the back field. The pom-poms we bought from Ikea whilst other nik-naks my mum collected on the way. All of the vintage table wear was sourced by Robs parents, keen antique dealers.  

We used sheets as table clothes, old tea pots as vases for flowers, trestle tables, and created laser cut name tags – all of which we did in the months leading up to the wedding.”

“Our photographer was Emma of Freckle Photography.  Emma and I had worked together at the Art college, which I am employed at. I knew from the get go that Emma was the perfect person to capture our day and she didn’t disappoint. My 85-year-old gran even commented on how hard ‘ the photographer, worked’.”

“Rob and I met online and had a whirlwind romance.  Rob proposed to me on ’12/12/12”.  We found I was pregnant in January 2014 and Married in July of the same year.  Life events are like buses, they all come along at once!”

We knew from the get-go that we wanted our day to be really relaxed, fun, informal and filled with love and laughter. The whole look of our day was really dictated by our venue. Having looked at a couple of venues we knew we wanted a space that had decorative potential, as we wanted to put our own creative stamp on a space and in so doing, create a summer fete/jamboree feel.   The church hall was perfect for this as it was so reasonably priced – we hired it for 3 days which included a day of set up, the wedding day itself and a day of take-down.”

“Some brides have two dresses – I had four pairs of shoes!  The shoes I ended up wearing where the first pair I bought – an Italian brand who I found online. In the evening I changed into my trusty cowboy boots. In the end the pregnancy really dictated the shoes I wore to accommodate my swelling feet and inability to balance normally.“

“My Friend Charlotte is a florist but no longer works in a shop. She kindly agreed to arrange all of our flowers including bouquet, headdresses and the tables. Charlotte and I visited St Mellion flower market who where fantastic. The flowers were cost price at £500. The colours where chosen mainly because of the blush colour of my wedding dress, looking for a mint colour Flower or plant was interesting to say the least. But with Charlottes knowledge and scouring Pinterest we found the exact thing we ere looking for.”

“My Hair had to be in keeping with the dress so had to styled in an up do. I love experimenting with hair colour so I didn’t really know what colour my hair would be on the day. I was fairly laid back and did leave it a little until the last minute, to find a hairdresser. A couple of my friend’s recommended Jamie Sullivan at David and David Salon Plymouth, we discussed my ideas and did two dress rehearsals, she was incredibly attentive and creative so our ideas worked well together.”

“A very good friend of mine Leanne Whatley has been a practicing makeup artist for years, so there was really only one choice for my makeup on the day. As friends I completely trusted her and knew that her perfectionist approach would enable me to look my best on the day.  Leanne turned up on the day with a beautiful Orchid and bottle of non-alcoholic champagne – a true sweetheart.”

“The flower girl dresses where purchased online from an Australian brand called Dollcake, the dresses were perfect. I was really particular about the little one dresses, I knew wanted their shoulders to be covered and not to look too grown up.”

“I was lucky enough to be driven to the church by my dad in my aunties vintage MG. The flower girls were driven in a vintage VW Camper van from WeLoveBus, which was a gorgeous mint colour. Both Vehicles really suited the look of the day.”

“My wonderful dad walked me down the aisle, we were both pretty calm on the way to the church, but really focused when walking down the aisle. The only thing I could concentrate on was looking at Rob. I am one of three daughters and I know my dad felt super proud to be arm and arm with me that day, I was equally as proud and would never had wanted anybody else to give me away.

The atmosphere in the church during the service was electric. Rob said whilst waiting for me to arrive that he got a real buzz from every body stood behind him and loved the adrenaline and anticipation of waiting for me. I have to say to say the atmosphere when I arrived was amazing, both the vicar and the choir commented on the crowd participation.

“Music was a really important part of our service and we carefully selected the hymns we thought would create a good atmosphere and that meant something to us both, including ‘This Little Light of mine’, ‘Give Me Joy in my Heart’ and Boney M’s ‘By The Rivers Of Babylon’.  In the end, we had Florence and the Machine’s ‘The Dog Days Are Over’ whilst we were signing the register.  We walked out of the church to Jackie Wilson’s ‘Your love Keeps Lifting me Higher’.”

“We chose to have my nan do the Christian Reading.  She did us really proud.  At 85 years of age, she is a force to be reckoned with and is a natural public speaker – she also looked absolutely gorgeous on the day. My nephew Finlay is a confident 11 year old little boy and was really keen to have role in the day, we chose Fin to be an usher and to do reading. He took his job really seriously and the reading was spoken with confidence and conviction way beyond his years.”

“The Bee Rawlinson poem ‘ Untitled’ was perfect as it had real sense of humour but had real resonance to how we wanted our marriage to be full of laughter.

Untitled, by Bee Rawlinson

Love me when I’m old and shocking
Peel off my elastic stockings
Swing me from the chandeliers
Let’s be randy bad old dears.
Push around my chromed Bath Chair
Let me tease your white chest hair
Scaring children, swapping dentures
Let us have some great adventures
Take me to the Dogs and Bingo
Teach me how to speak the lingo
Bone my eels and bring me tea
Show me how it’s meant to be
Take me to your special places
Watching all the puzzled faces
You in shorts and socks and sandals
Me with warts and huge love-handles
As the need for love enthralls
Wrestle with my damp proof smalls
Make me laugh without constraint
Buy me chocolate body paint
Hold me safe throughout the night
When my hair has turned to white
Believe me when I say it’s true
I’ve waited all my life for you

“I was really lucky to have been given a platinum diamond 1930’s ring from my nan. Although the design wasn’t suited as wedding band, she let me have it re set into a band, Rob from Robins and Moore Goldsmiths in Plymouth did a grand job of retaining the rings original beauty. It really is gorgeous and it’s so nice I have a family heirloom as my wedding band.

Due to Rob’s job, he didn’t want a ring which was high in value, as he has to remove it for work. Instead Rob chose an authentic Viking ring, which was dug out of the ground in York. He really loved the fact that the ring had history and a story behind it.”

“We wanted to make sure our guests were entertained throughout the day.  After the service and whilst drinks and pasties were being served on the green, we had our good friend David Chorley play an acoustic set on his guitar. This really meant a lot to us as he played songs which he knew had sentimental meaning to us both as a couple.

In the field at the back of hall we had a bucking bronco, Giant Connect a 4, a unicycle, soft play for the children and bonfire in the evening. We also had photo booth from Making Walls Smile, which was a really good addition to the evening entertainment.”

“As a large fellow at 6 feet and 3 inches, Rob needed a suit which would be flattering. Rob knew he didn’t want to hire a suit and wasn’t fussed about tales and cravat, instead he wanted something he knew he would be able to wear again. On a visit to London we checked the usual high street shops, but Rob really fell in love with a rich Navy baroque, Ted Baker suit. It fitted him so well and he really just looked so lovely in it, that although it wasn’t designer it was perfect.

Robs shoes where his trusty tan leather brogues which where well-worn so they didn’t rub on the day. His dusty pink and mint bow tie was purchased from Etsy and picked out the colours in my bouquet. Rob also wore his Granddad’s mother of pearl cufflinks, which he really cherished and I know meant so much to him.”

“We chose not to have a formal wedding cake, really because neither of us really like fruit cake. Instead we wanted to involve our guests in a bake the cake competition. We had over 30 cakes made for us on the day!  The amount of effort that was put in was extraordinary, the cakes were truly beautiful and some where of a professional standard. We had two chefs to judge the cakes and award prizes.”

“We were so lucky to have had a family friend do the catering for us from West Country Hog Roasts/Event Caterers. Rob’s best man Ben’s parents own and run a local catering company, who source locally produced goods. This was the obvious choice for us on the day as they were really able to cater to our needs.

We wanted food, which we loved and so opted for tapas. Each table of 6 having 7 dishes to share. Prior to this we had Devon cream Tea with scones and pasties, as the guest were leaving the church to accompany beer and pimms and lemonade.”

“The venue decor was really a joint effort between myself and Rob. I intended to design and make all of the stationery for the wedding, but I was in the midst of morning sickness throughout much of this stage. I did however design the wedding invitations, the order of service and the name tags for the tables.

Rob really put his hand to the other craft jobs such as the directions signs for the wedding and the table plan, although he didn’t really have a choice as I had my head in the nearest loo.”

“Our love of music really made the choice of song for our first dance a tough decision.  Neither of us were particularly looking forward go a first dance but in the end, we decided on Tom Odell’s ‘Grow Old With Me’.  We both really loved the lyrics of the song and it was also upbeat, so we knew we could pull the audience in to join in dancing with us.”

“Music is really important part of both of our lives, especially live music. We knew we wanted Black Jack Davey to play at our wedding from the get go. He is a fantastic all round entertainer with Irish sing a longs, crowd participation and the odd hilariously crude joke. Needless to say he went down a storm and the dance floor was full all night.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Try not to worry about the small things such as favours, on the day nobody will notice. Instead think about the timings and entertainment on the day, this was priority for us and in the end the day was fantastic because their was never a dull moment and it felt like a party and real celebration.

The only thing we might have changed is a practical note and that would be that we should have pre warned the catering company that our friends and family love a good party. So the Bar sold out of alcohol towards the end of the night, I know bar staff had to make a dash to the local Co-op to stock up on Vodka!”

My huge thanks to Katie and Robert for sharing their beautiful day – I hope that you both had the most wonderful first Christmas together as a married couple, with your little baby too 🙂

Huge thanks also to Emma of Freckle Photography.

Readers, what do you love most about this pretty and fun wedding day? I think my heart’s been stolen by that blush rose dress, beautiful veil and all the lovely, colourful venue decor!

Love Annabel

 

Photographer – Freckle Photography
Venue – St Pauls Church + The Village Hall inYelverton
Wedding Dress – YolanCris via London Bride Couture
Veil – Elizabeth Dickins via The Wedding Company in Plymouth
Headpiece – Etsy
Shoes – Pre-owned + cowboy boots
Accessories – Accessorize earrings + diamond ring (borrowed from the bride’s mum)
Perfume – Chloe (the bride’s signature scent)
Groom – Ted Baker suit
Flowergirls – Dollcake dresses + Primark shoes
Florist – DIY (a friend) using St Mellion flower market
Cake – The guests (who participated in a ‘bake-off’)
Entertainment – Black Jack Davey
Rings – Heirloom ring recrafted by Robins and Moore Goldsmiths in Plymouth
Catering – West Country Hog Roasts/Event Caterers