Karen Willis Holmes Sequin Glamour for an Art Deco Inspired Wedding in Shades of Gold and Green

Hello and I hope you’re having a jolly week lovely ones. I’ve a very special wedding to share right now of a gorgeous couple who experienced a major setback just 3 weeks before their big day. The original venue they chose went into administration, but having invested in insurance and with the help of family and friends, they were able to sort out a wonderful new location for their nuptials on the 30^th of August 2015 – The Connaught Hotel in London. This wedding is sheer proof that even if you do suffer last-minute hiccups, everything really will be all OK on the day.

Bride Jenny is a strategic sales consultant for a high-end furniture dealership and groom David is an operations manager for Kobalt Music Publishing. Their art deco inspired and glamorous day was peppered with gold and green touches (and feathers!), with the delightful images captured by Alex Wysocki Photography and the amazing sequin ‘Amalie’ gown by our Little Book For Brides member, Karen Willis Holmes – a purchase from Angelica Bridal in Islington.

“I wanted art deco glamour with a modern twist. We both have a love for the colour green, so featured it throughout our décor. The gold came from the original venue we had, but I feel it still worked with our palette. I also had a bit of an obsession with feathers and it felt like a nod to the art deco, without being too obvious.”

“From the beginning of the hunt I had a real thing about not getting a really wedding-ey wedding dress. I didn’t feel comfortable of the thought of my parading around in a big puffy dress, as it felt unnecessary and lace just didn’t feel very like me. When I first tried on ‘Amalie’ it felt sexy, glamorous and like a really special evening dress, with beautiful detailing.”

“I am a massive flower lover and self-confessed flower snob. I was initially drawn to Rachel from Rachel Morgan Wedding Flowers for her impressive portfolio, particularly in Central London locations. I knew this could be a bit of a logistical challenge, but it didn’t phase her at all.”

Jenny’s bridesmaids wore stylish Biba floor-length gowns from House of Fraser, their own shoes, and a feather Estella Bartlett necklace with a gold embossed initial ordered separately from Etsy. Both hair and make up for all the ladies was by Emily Kent from Wedding Hair Company. And the two little flower girls look adorable in their pretty frocks from Monsoon.

“I didn’t have ‘the one’ feeling that you hear a lot of brides talking about, but I knew it would look amazing with the rest of the wedding and importantly it felt good. I also felt a little victory in the fact that I didn’t think anyone would picture me in an entirely sequinned dress – the only time I wear that much sparkle is at Christmas!”

“My emerald and gold necklace and earrings from John Lewis (no longer sold) were gifts from the groom. The vintage gold and aqua marine bracelet was my something borrowed from my mother, handed down from my great-grandmother, and my gold and blue zircon ring was my something blue and a gift from my mother, also handed down from my great grand-mother.”

Jenny chose to wear a cathedral-length veil, also bought at Angelica Bridal, to add a bit more drama to the dress and donned the most fabulous pair of Harriet Wilde heels with gold embellishments – how stunning.

The bride’s hair accessory was a Susan Caplan Vintage for John Lewis brooch (no longer sold) that was adapted to a hair-pin by her hairdresser. She finished off her utterly glamorous attire with Yves Saint Laurent’s ‘Elle’, her every day scent, and gorgeous jewellery pieces.

“When we met our florist Rachel Morgan, I was trying to explain through garbled words what we wanted and she summed it up on one phrase; ‘Think Sex in The City but LONDON.’ If that wasn’t convincing enough, she got almost as excited by my proposal for a massive ombre bridal bouquet as I did.”

“Rachel truly went above and beyond for us, helping with the change in location and adding more flowers, filling gaps we didn’t even know we had. I still dream of my bouquet now, and wish I could have one delivered to me on a daily basis!”

“We are childhood sweethearts, having met at ages 14 and 16 through a friend, and the rest is history. Dave proposed under the stars on a beach in Thailand whilst celebrating our 10-year anniversary. We started planning straight away and married the following year.”

To the melancholy tune of ‘Calgary’ by Bon Iver, Jenny’s dad walked the beautiful bride down the aisle. Both of their rings were via Beaver Brooks and Dave’s cousin Louise read ‘Favourites’ by Shane Koyczan, which the couple totally related to and felt it could have been written just for them – here is an extract:

When I play favourites you always win
Champion of my now, and every moment after
You, are my favourite
Since the moment we met
Since the instant your welcome invasion first set foot in the unclaimed territory of my heart
Full moon, perfect circle
I end where you start
You, are my favourite.
 
It is not a position that warrants a trophy
There will be no prize money
You will not be hoisted onto the shoulders of others and paraded around town like the spy, who leaked the Caramilk secret to a sweet-toothed public
But you will be loved
Not only by me, but by those closest to me
By those who see how graciously you win, how you pin this smile onto my face like a first place ribbon at a county fair where the locals still can’t believe how big you’ve grown my happiness
This, makes you my favourite
You are first, in the long line of those whose joy I wish for
All falling stars and birthday candles have been re-assigned to waxing and shining the brightness of your days
The next beat of my heart stays, like an obedient dog waiting for the command to speak
You, are my favourite.

“The pink and gold foil ‘Hooray!’ wedding flags and acrylic wedding table numbers in gold were both from Ginger Ray and the red London post box for cards was via Your Wedding Post Box.”

After learning the disastrous news about their venue, Jenny and Dave immediately set about finding an alternative venue.

“The reason we chose The Connaught Hotel was somewhat taken out of our hands. We had booked another venue the previous year, but three weeks before the big day, they went into liquidation and had to cancel our wedding. Panic had well and truly set in, but thankfully we had insurance, so all that remained was to find a venue as beautiful as our first.”

 

“With a wonderful team of friends and family, we hunted for available venues within the City of Westminster (we had to stay in the same location as we had booked a registrar already) for our chosen date. After many phone calls and googling sessions, we took a day off work to look at available venues.

I think The Connaught Hotel was our second visit and we knew instantly it was the right place. Not only was it elegant and in a beautiful part of London, it still oozed the art deco glamour that we had based our original wedding on. We left the hotel looking onto Mount Street through relieved tearful eyes with smiles stretching from ear to ear. I can only speak for myself, but I felt more like this was ‘the one’ than I did the first time round.

I have to give a special mention to Jochen Manninger (Director of Event Sales) who dealt with a very tearful bride with such warmth and genuine delight to be helping that it made the whole process so enjoyable.”

In a stylishly suave Ted Baker via Moss Bros suit, the groom added a tie from The Tie Bar, Alexander McQueen feather cufflinks and tie-pin from Mr Porter (no longer sold), a pocket square from Mrs Bow Tie and Paul Smith. And in true gentleman style, Dave put together cool personalised boxes for his groomsmen containing hipflasks from Etsy, monogrammed cufflinks and a personalised tie bar, again via Etsy, plus a set of matching Paul Smith socks, pocket square from Mrs Bow Tie, and a cigar.

Alex Wysocki Photography captured these lovely images of the couple and all the little moments throughout their day.

“Alex totally understood not only what we were trying to achieve but us as a couple. It was so important to both of us that we felt comfortable with our photographer and from the second we met Alex we felt at home. Her photographs capture the whole ‘story’ of our wedding and beautiful moments that otherwise may have gone unnoticed. She really went above and beyond (and stayed so much later than we asked!). We cannot recommend her enough.”

The couple chose the ‘Bombshell’ design by Emily and Jo for their invitations. The orders of service were homemade with help from a graphic designer friend, whilst Jenny’s creative dad helped with the table plan.

“My wonderful father painted a contemporary cityscape of London landmarks and we then spent a few days perfecting this and turning it into a personal table plan.

We bought personalised playing cards from Confetti for our favours and added home-made glitter feathers and name tags to each of them with green ribbon. We must have spent hours painting the feathers gold and dipping them with glitter!”

The hotel supplied the amazing food and the newlyweds had a tall, gold tower of profiteroles as their wedding cake from Caffe Concerto.

“In all honesty, we chose it because it was simply the goldest thing we could find!”

 

 

DJ Gems spun the discs of groovy tunes and the popular all-girl band, Festival Foxes, blew everyone away and kept the dance floor full all night long. For their first dance, Dave and Jenny decided upon the acoustic cover of Alicia Keys’ ‘If I Ain’t Got You’ by James Bay.

“We have fond memories of Barn in the Farm Festival in 2015 where we heard this. We initially felt so much pressure to pick a song from the past or our song, to the point where something that was meant to be lovely just turned stressful. One day we were talking about the festival that was only six weeks before the wedding and how it was our perfect escape from the madness around us and thought why not? Everyone sang along, we danced, and it was perfect.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Firstly, at risk of sounding boring … get insurance! We would have been in serious trouble if we had not.  Secondly, please do not put too much pressure on yourself for everything to be ‘perfect’ – at the end of the day, some things you are just not in control of and you have to smile, deal with it and move on. Trust me, this is coming from a bride that knows.

My poor mum broke her ankle at my hen do 4 weeks before the wedding, our venue went into liquidation 3 weeks before the wedding and my mother also broke her toe (on the other foot!) 2 days before the wedding, putting her in a wheelchair. All of a sudden my previous stresses (mainly worrying whether I had too many shades of green and if I had quite enough glitter) weren’t important anymore. The day was still amazing. I remember feeling such joy, holding my new husband’s hand looking onto every person we loved in one room, eating, drinking and having a fabulous time and thinking, ‘we did that!’.”

“I spent most of the night on the dance floor and although I’m certain I didn’t get to speak to everyone, I’m sure they didn’t think twice. It’s your day. Do what makes you happy.

One other thing we both felt strongly about was ensuring we only invited those people to the wedding we really wanted to. It can become a bit difficult – “if you invite so and so, you have to invite so and so or you’ll cause upset.” We were very strong and stuck to our guns. We have big families and for us to invite everyone we knew would have been impossible, so instead we really thought about who we wanted to share this special day with. It really paid off.”

If you’re thinking about wedding insurance, it might be a good opportunity to take it out now, after hearing about Jenny and Dave’s experience. I’m so glad the day turned out brilliantly and thank you to the lovely couple for sharing all the little details – and a big shout out to Alex too for these beautiful images.

And if you’ve fallen for Jenny’s dress, be sure to bookmark this link containing the latest collection of Karen Willis Holmes designs. I happened to drive by the Paddington, Sydney boutique just the other day and caught a glimpse of the beautiful window display, so next time I’m in the area I’ll be sure to pop in to experience the sheer beauty of Karen’s divine gowns (and wishing I could walk the aisle again!).

Have a wonderful Thursday lovelies.

Love Jo -x-

 

Photographer – Alex Wysocki Photography
Venue + Catering – The Connaught Hotel, London
Wedding Dress – Karen Willis Holmes via Angelica Bridal in Islington
Hair accessory – Susan Caplan Vintage for John Lewis brooch
Shoes – Harriet Wilde
Jewellery – Emerald and gold necklace and earrings (gift from the groom) from John Lewis (no longer sold) + bracelet and ring (hand-me-downs from great grand-mother)
Perfume – ‘Elle’ by Yves Saint Laurent
Bridesmaid’s Dresses – Biba via House of Fraser
Bridesmaid’s Shoes – Own shoes
Bridesmaid’s Jewellery – Feather necklace from Estella Bartlett + gold embossed initial from Etsy
Groom – Ted Baker suit from Moss Bros + tie via The Tie Bar + Alexander McQueen feather cufflinks and tie pin from Mr Porter (no longer sold) + pocket square from Mrs Bow Tie + Paul Smith shoes
Flower girls – Monsoon
Florist – Rachel Morgan Wedding Flowers
Transport – London taxi cab
Entertainment – Festival Foxes + DJ Gems
Rings – Beaver Brooks
Cake (Profiterole Tower) – Caffe Concerto
Stationery – Emily and Jo
Makeup + Hair – Emily Kent from Wedding Hair Company