A 1950s Inspired Gown for a Handmade and Homespun Country Wedding

Hello dear readers! We have a beautiful wedding for you this Friday afternoon, filled to the brim with lots of lovely homespun details, including a stunning handmade wedding gown designed by the bride’s mother, bow ties created using hand printed fabric, British grown flowers arranged by a family friend, and stationery illustrated by the bride! The result is a beautifully relaxed, countryside, wedding, which emanates warmth and is totally personal to our couple. Alice, an illustrator, wed James, a video editor, on the 4^th of July 2015 at the bride’s family home, wedding venue, Roughmoor Farm near Taunton in Somerset.

“James and I love creativity, so we wanted the day to be as handmade as possible. We chose various talented family and friends to bring something to the table. We picked a loose colour scheme based on a Pierre Bonnard painting (‘Nude in the Bath’) which has shades of mustard and yellow, pale blue, deep aubergine, dark blue. We wanted our wedding to have a simple and relaxed feel with some fantastic food and wine to help our guests feel welcomed!”

Photography by Mawgan Lewis

“Roughmoor is our family home (which also happens to be a wedding venue, run by my brother and sister-in-law’s company Cowparsley Weddings). I love the tradition of the bride marrying in her home town and it was wonderful to bring all our friends and family to our farm as our guests.”

Alice’s beautiful, 1950s inspired, gown was lovingly designed and created by her mum.

“My mum designed and made my dress using an array of patterns from various online sources. I felt so beautiful on the day – natural, feminine, classy, grown-up, but also really special.”

“My dress had a once in a life time, ball gown, feel to it which was magical. It was a wonderful dress to dance in, with its huge flowing skirt.”

Alice paired her elegant gown with an antique lace shawl borrowed from James’ mum and accessorised with a pair of gold and turquoise earrings leant to her by her grandma. Our bride opted for a pair of quirky vintage, suede, shoes, from Krissy Kat Vintage via Etsy, in mustard yellow (to match her husband’s bow tie).

“I really wanted to add a little colour with my shoes and the uniqueness of my mustard suede flats fit the bill perfectly.”

Alice’s four bridesmaids looked lovely in ivory dresses (also handmade by Alice’s mum) paired with Toms in a pale blue shade to match James’ jacket.

“My flower girls wore the same style as my bridesmaids, in a longer length and instead of bouquets my mum made them each a sock monkey to carry! My page boys looked absolutely gorgeous in white shorts, a white waistcoat, a blue shirt and mustard yellow bow tie just like James’.”

I love the story behind why our groom, James, chose to wear powder blue…

“On the night James and I met, he was wearing a powder blue jacket and polo shirt combination with pale blue jeans – a striking look by anyone’s books! James looked absolutely gorgeous and stylish and subsequently earned the nickname of ‘powder blue James’. Because of this, James wedding day outfit had to be powder blue! We found the jacket in River Island, the shirt and trousers from Debenhams and the whole outfit came in under £200.”

“The fabric for the bow ties was hand printed and painted by James’ ‘second mum’ Lizzie, who is an artist and print maker by trade. The fabric was then cut up and made into the bow ties by James’ mum, who hand stitched each with the wearer’s name.”

“James and I met in summer 2012 when we both volunteered as stewards at a performance art festival. We met through a performance artist called Malcolm (who would later travel from Australia to act as witness to our marriage!) Through our mutual friendship, James and I found ourselves in the same pub, in Bristol one night, watching a band. We spent most of the evening together talking and after getting my number from Malcolm, James text me the moment I left the pub. James was quite forward in pursuing me, and I thought he was too good to be true!

We arranged to go on a date the next week and haven’t been apart for more than three days since. We discussed marriage quite early on and it was clear our ideas for the future aligned.”

Our bride, an illustrator by trade, designed all of the wedding stationery in shades of mustard, navy, aubergine and pale blue to compliment the overall colour scheme of the wedding.

“I love making stationery for all the couples I work with, but of course designing my own was an amazing treat, and it was a real labour of love for me.”

Alice and James married in their local church, which had the added benefit of being within walking distance of Roughmoor.

“I believe in the Christian religion and way of life and I would only have been happy with a church service and James felt that a Christian marriage best reflected our views as a couple too. We married in our local parish church (where my sister also got married).

My stepdad walked me up the aisle to ‘No Ke Ano Ahiahi’ by George Winston, which is a beautiful, pure, piano solo. I was absolutely amazed by the overwhelming feeling of love I received when I walked up the aisle with so many smiles around us!”

The couple exchanged traditional Christian marriage vows and opted for three readings; the first a bible passage, Philippians 4:9, followed by an extract from ‘The History of Love’ by Nicole Kraus and finally ‘Take Time of Think’, a Celtic poem by an unknown author.

“As both mine and James’ dads are no longer with us, we chose to light a candle at the service in their memory to The Beatles ‘Blackbird’. It was really good to remember them in this way.”

Alice and James’ big day was captured by photographer Mawgan Lewis. Our couple were very pleased with the results and it’s easy to see why!

“Mawgan is perfect for natural, observational wedding photos, and we absolutely love the honesty and rawness of his photographs. We feel he is very artistic in his approach and he was a real pleasure to have with us on the day which was important to us. We were so happy with our wedding photos; Mawgan captured some epic photos of James and I and even caught some things we didn’t see on the day. In short, we felt privileged to have him photograph our wedding and we highly recommend him!”

After the ceremony the wedding party processed across the fields from the church to Roughmoor – what a lovely idea and a great way of the making the most of the beautiful countryside.

“I particularly loved our little procession from the church through the fields to the venue with everyone in tow. The walk from the church to Roughmoor leads you through a pretty meadow and a place I loved a lot growing up so it was a very special walk.”

The wedding breakfast was catered by Food 4 You on the recommendation of Alice’s brother and sister in law who run Cowparsley Weddings.

“Food 4 You provided us with an absolute feast of exceptional food: huge soft juicy steaks, asparagus and chorizo jam. We opted for the sharing platter option which got people who didn’t know each other, talking and sharing food. We were so pleased with the catering, everyone said how amazing the food was and it put everyone in a great mood – thank you Dawn and Keith, you are amazing!”

Alice and James decorated Roughmoor with 45 amazing brightly coloured Indian umbrellas and carefully placed sofas, tents and lawn games about the grounds to help keep their guests comfortable and entertained.

“Our friends Sarah and Aparna brought back dozens of colourful umbrellas from India as their wedding present to us. We hung them from the trees to provide shade and from the ceiling of our marquee. They looked fantastic – very fun and jolly!”

James and Alice’s beautiful blooms were grown by local organic flower grower, Jan of JW Blooms and arranged by a family friend.

“Helen, who arranged my sisters and brothers’ wedding flowers too, did all the flowers adding herbs picked from the garden and greenery from the fields to those provided by JW Blooms. I asked Helen to make a different bouquet for each bridesmaid according to their character. We had lots of giggles about this…. classic and billowy, structured and blousy etc. – It was lots of fun!”

 

In a lovely touch, Alice’s bridesmaids each baked a tier of Alice and James’ wedding cake.

“We had an amazing chocolate Guinness layer, an almond and orange, a white chocolate and raspberry and a tiny orange flavoured vegan tier on top for my sister. They spent the morning of the wedding choosing and snipping garden flowers for its decoration. I was absolutely thrilled with the cake and I think they did an amazing job.”

For their evening entertainment, our couple hired Bristol based Gypsy Folk band Fromage en Feu:

“Fromage en Feu were so good! They even had the guests lifting us up on chairs – they really got the party swinging and were also very friendly nice people to have with us on the day. We arranged for three musically minded mates to provide a raving disco after the band finished.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom:

“Be organised and do everything as early as you possibly can! If you spend the week or month before getting your nails done and dreaming about the day (and I guarantee you won’t) that’s great! Being super organised will only make you more relaxed and enjoy it all the more.

Also, do it your way! The wedding is yours and you can pick the traditions that you want to have. We were very specific about what we did and didn’t want and I feel so happy with our day that it was exactly as we wanted it.”

Congratulations Alice and James and thank you for sharing your lovely wedding with us! A huge thanks to photographer Mawgan Lewis, for the wonderful photos. If you have been inspired by today’s homespun wedding, and would like to see more DIY nuptials, please follow this link.

Wishing you a great rest of your week!

Annora x

 

Photographer – Mawgan Lewis
Venue – Cowparsley Weddings, Roughmoor Farm near Taunton, Somerset
Wedding Dress – Handmade by the mother of the bride
Shoes – Vintage shoes purchased from Krissy Kat Vintage via Etsy
Accessories – Turquoise and gold earrings borrowed from the bride’s grandmother
Groom – Jacket from River Island + trousers from Debenhams + DIY bow tie
Bridesmaids – Handmade by the mother of the bride + Toms
Flowergirls – Handmade by the mother of the bride
Florist – JW Blooms
Cake – Made by the bridesmaids
Entertainment – Fromage en Feu
Rings – The Old Kennels
Catering – Food 4 You
Stationery – Designed by the bride, illustrator, Alice Brazier