An Edwardian Inspired Gown and Veil for a Charming Homespun Pub Wedding

Good morning lovely blog readers – how has your weekend been? Are you following Love My Dress on Instagram? You can also follow our founder Annabel on Instagram too – she’s just recently moved to the country and is sharing images of a beautiful, charmed and slow-country way of life.

Now, I have to admit that I’ve fallen in love with today’s homespun pub wedding, brimming with beautiful blooms and an ethereal flame haired bride wearing a bespoke Edwardian inspired gown.  Our bride, who designed her own gown, envisioned an heirloom piece inspired not only by the aesthetic of the Edwardian era but also by the quality of clothing from this period. It took no less than twenty embroiderers to achieve but the end result is a gown of impeccable quality and detail, sure to be coveted by future generations. Abbie, a womenswear designer, married Andrew, a science teacher, on the 8^th of August 2015 at The Holy Trinity Church in Cookham, Berkshire, followed by a reception at The Pinkneys Arms near Maidenhead.

“We wanted our wedding to have a homespun, magical feel with a fun, contemporary twist. We didn’t have a theme as such but we were inspired by old country style fetes, laboratory glassware and the Edwardian era.”

Photography by Green Antlers Photography
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“We chose dark navy, rose pink, metallics and pops of coral for our palette. The colours were so important – we didn’t want our wedding to look too formal or traditional.”

The couple decorated their venue with lots of lovely vintage inspired décor including paper pom poms and tassels, big balloons and a variety of bunting. They carefully lit the marquee with candles and strings of festoon lighting to great effect.

I absolutely love Abbie’s look; her beautiful gown works so well with her veil and headpiece. Together with her flowing red tresses, our Pre – Raphaelite beauty looks like she has just stepped out of a Rossetti painting!

Andrew and Abbie’s big day was captured by London based, husband and wife team, Sam and Diana of Green Antlers Photography. We are big fans of Green Antlers Photography here at Love My Dress HQ. You can find the dynamic duo listed in our Little Book for Brides, a handpicked wedding directory of the best suppliers in the business.

“Sam and Diana of Green Antlers Photography were fantastic from day one and their excitement and enthusiasm was infectious. They are such a brilliant team and it was lovely having them with us for the whole day – it was like being with friends. Sam and Diana were there when we needed them but were in no way intrusive or formal which was exactly what we wanted and needed from our photographers.”

Abbie’s little flowergirl looked very sweet in a skirt and jacket combo from Monsoon, meanwhile, her bridesmaids wore polka dot, fit and flare dresses designed by the bride and made by another friend in India.

In honour of her star sign, Abbie accessorised with a gold crab necklace from Alex Monroe (a wedding day gift from her husband) and a pair of J Crew earrings.

Our talented bride designed her own wedding gown and veil, commissioning a friend in India to create them…

“Being a designer myself, I decided a very long time ago that I wanted to design my own wedding dress. I wanted a dress that no one else had, or would ever have, a dress that would be an heirloom and something that I would cherish forever.”

“ have always obsessed over vintage and antique dresses, especially those from the late Edwardian period. The amount detail, the fabric quality and the labour and skill involved in making those dresses is astonishing. I wanted my own dress to reflect this while maintaining a contemporary fit and look.”

“I have worked with Indian suppliers and their skilled embroiderers on many artworks over the years so I opted for some traditional Indian embroidery techniques on my own gown, specifically chikan shadow work mixed with raised heavy satin stitch embroidery and mukesh silver metal dots, which my friend achieved with the help of twenty embroiderers. My belt was hand embellished using metal copper threads, sequins and crystals in a simple design.

It was a real labour of love on both sides and I will never forget the moment when I opened the box to find my perfect wedding dress and veil and how it had all come together (I’ll be honest – I did have a little cry of jubilation!). They did an amazing job and I will never forget the work that went into it.”

Abbie purchased her gold leaf and pearl headpiece from Rosantica and her stunning, hand embroidered, scalloped edged, veil was made from silk tulle by another friend in India.

“I fell in love with my headpiece the moment I saw it – it has a real old world, magical feel to it and I’m going to wear it again and again.”

Abbie created both the buttonholes and pew ends using flowers she had collected and then dried during the year before – what a brilliant and thrifty idea!

“I collected flowers from various friends’ weddings the previous year and dried them over the winter. We also collected hydrangeas, lavender and sedums from family. I hand made the button holes and pew ends early in the year and stored them until the week of the wedding.”

“We met twelve years ago in a dark and dingy nightclub in High Wycombe! It wasn’t amazingly romantic however we quite literally saw each other across a crowded room and, quite unusually for both of us, felt we had to speak to each other. To cut a long story short, I went over to speak to Andrew (not realising that he had already clocked me) but chickened out at the last second and went to order a drink at the bar instead. While I was waiting, Andrew leaned across his friend and struck up a conversation. We exchanged numbers with a promise to meet for drink and the rest is pretty much history!”

“Andrew asked me to marry him on Christmas day, 2013. My first present was a Ryan Gosling colouring book (I love Ryan, who doesn’t!) and in it Andrew had written in speech bubbles the story of how we had met from Ryan’s point of view (it was very funny indeed). At the end of the book, it said how much Andy loved me and that he had a question to ask me. Andrew popped the question there and then and we were engaged for around eighteen months before we tied the knot.”

Abbie and Andrew held their ceremony in the church where Abbie was christened and had always dreamed of tying the knot. Our bride walked up the aisle, on her own, to an acoustic version of ‘Maps’ by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

“We were married in a Church of England church but we opted for the most modern wording (where the woman does not have to ‘obey’ the man). I walked down the aisle on my own because I do not believe women are property to be given away – that is far too old fashioned and formal for us.”

Our couple chose two readings; ‘Patience’ by Lang Leav and Ruth 1:16-17 from the Old Testament…

“We really liked the way that ‘Patience’ describes finding love in a very sensitive way which is not too corny. For our bible reading, we chose an extract from Ruth in the Old Testament because it is a true description of everlasting friendship and devotion which we feel is so important within a marriage.”

“The ceremony was by far the most amazing and special moment of our day. After being together for twelve years we have shared so many high and lows, so for us to tie the knot in front of our friends and family was such an amazing, unforgettable, moment and very emotional for us.”

The bridal party’s romantic, unstructured bouquets were artfully arranged by florist Karen Ford of The Flower Loft…

“The flowers were so important to me. I wanted them to be wild and softly colourful – country garden style with a twist. Karen Ford was fantastic to work with and extremely patient with me. For my bouquet, I bought silk and rayon vintage ribbons from Portobello market for about £20 and hand dip dyed them using Dylon dye in the garden. It was messy and took some time, but was well worth it.”

Abbie and Andrew’s guests travelled between the church and pub in style in a vintage double decker from Berkshire’s Big Red Bus Company.

I love the couple’s 1920s inspired crescent moon, photo backdrop, which is similar to one used in another wonderful Edwardian inspired wedding we shared on the blog back in 2014 (do take a peek at it here).

Andrew and Abbie’s big day was captured by London based, husband and wife team, Sam and Diana of Green Antlers Photography. We are big fans of Green Antlers Photography here at Love My Dress HQ. You can find the dynamic duo listed in our Little Book for Brides, a handpicked wedding directory of the best suppliers in the business.

“Sam and Diana of Green Antlers Photography were fantastic from day one and their excitement and enthusiasm was infectious. They are such a brilliant team and it was lovely having them with us for the whole day – it was like being with friends. Sam and Diana were there when we needed them but were in no way intrusive or formal which was exactly what we wanted and needed from our photographers.”

Our groom looked very handsome in a spezzato style ensemble (spezzato describes the Italian art of putting together a pair of trousers and jacket which, while not a suit, complement one another.)

“Andrew wore a gorgeous burgundy, tweed jacket and matching waistcoat from Scottish tailor Walker Slater with flecks of lilac and navy which went so well with the bridesmaids’ dresses. Andy’s trousers were from Gap and his lilac striped shirt from Uniqlo. I hand made Andrew and his groomsmen’s silk ties and hankies from fabric I had collected over the years.”

The couple’s cake was created by Abbie’s talented uncle, with her mother in law crafting the marvellous birdie cake toppers…

“Our cake was made by my uncle Nino who makes fantastic cakes for all the family and is now on his fourth wedding cake. We had our favourite flavour combinations of Sailor Jerry Rum and coconut, Champagne and passion fruit with strawberries and vanilla and white chocolate. We decorated the cake with edible flowers and Nino did the dip dye effect and gold foil butter cream on the morning of the wedding. The amazing bird cake toppers were hand made by mother in law. We decided to hand the cake out ourselves as pudding, that way we could meet everyone and have a chat.”

“Our florist ordered extra flowers for the tables and we put these together ourselves the day before the wedding, placing them into tin cans I had sprayed copper and brown bottles we had collected.”

“We chose The Pinkneys Arms for our reception venue because it is in a beautiful setting and is informal yet still has something very special about it (oh and the food has always been really good!)”

“For the favours, we gave our guests small glass vials filled with seeds and handmade silk and cotton hankies, as well as lots of home baked cookies.”

Andrew and Abbie’s evening entertainment was provided by DJ Eddie the Goat Boy and their first dance was to one of my all-time favourite songs: ‘Into my arms’ by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.

“We chose ‘Into my arms’ because it’s a very emotional, beautiful, song that we both love and it feels very true and heartfelt.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom:

“Tailor you wedding day around the things which you both love and appreciate, forget about trying to create a fairy tale, celeb wedding as they are expensive and contrived. Think outside the box – if there isn’t the perfect, affordable wedding venue available then make it happen in other ways.

Try to plan as much as you can early on- if you’re going to do a big DIY wedding like ours then you need to start making and ordering bits and pieces about six months ahead.

Don’t be afraid to call in favours and ask friends and family to help, but make sure you give those helping enough advanced warning so they can fit it comfortably around their personal lives.

When appointing bridesmaids, choose not only people who are special to you but also those who have time, who you can trust (generally and creatively) and those who will understand your wedding vision. Ours were amazing!” 

What a wedding! Thank you so much Abbie and Andy for sharing your big day with us and to Green Antler Photography for the wonderful images. If you’d like to see more dreamy weddings on the blog captured by the duo behind Green Antler, please follow this link. You can find other lovely Edwardian inspired nuptials here.

Wishing you a wonderful week!

Annora x

 

Photographer – Green Antlers Photography
Venue + Catering – Ceremony at The Holy Trinity Church in Cookham, followed by a reception at The Pinkneys Arms in Pinkneys Green, near Maidenhead, Berkshire
Wedding Dress & Veil – Designed by the bride and created by a friend in India
Headpiece – Rosantica
Shoes – Oscar de la Renta, purchased from TK Maxx
Accessories – J Crew earrings + Alex Monroe necklace
Bride’s Scent/perfume – ‘Tome 1, For Her’ by Zadig & Voltaire
Groom – Walker Slater jacket and waistcoat + Gap trousers + Uniqlo shirt + silk tie handmade by the bride.
Bridesmaids – Designed by bride and created by a friend in India
Flowergirls – Skirt, jackets + tights from Monsoon
Florist – Karen Ford at The Flower Loft
Cake – Made by the bride’s uncle, cake topper created by the mother of the bride
Transport – Berkshire’s Big Red Bus Company
Entertainment – DJ Eddie the Goat Boy
Rings – Lawsons Goldsmiths in Henley
Stationery – Georgie Windebank
Makeup Artist –Alison Oswald