A Quirky and Colourful Autumn Wedding

It’s almost the weekend (cue mutual fist pumps in the air) and I do hope you’re planning a relaxing time wherever you are in the world. Or perhaps you’re ready for loads of inspiration, if you’re currently amidst deciding upon a venue, dress, flowers, photographer or décor – or all of the above! Look no further than this wonderful wedding I’m sharing today of Anna, a retail deputy manager, and electrical engineer Terry that took place at the fabulously quirky and whimsical (and aptly named) venue, Oddfellows, in Chester on the 27th October 2015 on a Tuesday.

“We weren’t really following a particular theme and we didn’t really want the wedding to be ‘matchy’. We knew we wanted navy suits and I really wanted burgundy bridesmaid dresses, but everything else was a bit of mix, which we liked. Oddfellows had quirky décor and is a bit mad and random like us, with stag heads on the wall and an upside down table on the ceiling. As soon as we viewed the venue, we knew it was for us.”

Ed from Ed Godden Photography caught the couple’s quirky style – and you can see more of Ed’s work here that we’ve highlighted previously. I’m a huge fan of his relaxed and candid style.

“The wonderful Ed is definitely the right photographer if you want unique and quirky wedding photographs. He certainly captured our style and he made us feel very comfortable on our wedding day. We didn’t feel like we were posing for your ‘cringey’ typical wedding pictures and we also didn’t really want group shots and he delivered our wish. We highly recommend Ed.”

“We met in an indie bar in Chester nine years ago. I was out with old friends from primary school and Terry was with his work friends. I remember thinking, ‘how did they get in?’ as they all looked under eighteen. Terry charmed me with his crazy dance moves and our mutual love of music.

I was hinting for a while before Terry proposed but I certainly wasn’t expecting it as the day just started as a normal Sunday together. It was February 10th 2014 and we went to walk our border collie Olive down by the meadows in Chester, our favourite spot, which looks over the River Dee. There is a small hill on the meadows, so we walked up there to get a better view.”

“Next thing I knew, Terry says he was feeling hot (even though it was a freezing February day) and he promptly took his jumper off to reveal a T-shirt that read ‘Anna Claire Booth’ on the front. He turned around and the back read ‘Will you marry me?’ with a ‘yes’ and ‘no ’tick box. He got down on his knee and took the ring from his pocket. Of course I said yes, but he preceded to hand me a black sharpie pen to tick yes on the T-shirt! We were engaged just over a year and a half before the wedding.”

Anna’s dress was the ‘Raffaella’ design by Ronald Joyce from Bespoke Brides in Chester. The beaded jacket looks sensational and totally complements her dress.

“I originally wanted a lace dress and was convinced I wouldn’t choose anything else. I noticed a lot of brides were going for lace dresses, with an illusion sweetheart neckline and I just wanted something different. I had seen my wedding dress at a wedding fayre and fell in love with it, but I found out it was a strapless dress with a beaded jacket, which for some reason put me off, as I definitely didn’t want a strapless dress for fear of pulling it up all day.”

“However, when I went to try on dresses with my mum and auntie I was convinced to give it a go. As soon as I did, I knew it was the one. I have quite a boyish figure and it gave me shape and I liked that the majority of the dress was quite simple and then the beaded jacket did all the talking. The lace dresses just didn’t suit me.”

The bride did her own makeup, with hair by Claire Thomason from Gary Baddley Hairstylists, using clip-in hair extensions from Foxy Locks. The three pretty bridesmaids wore their own nude-coloured shoes, the Betsy side tiara from Elegant Steps, heart earrings from Links of London and their glamorous dresses were handmade and in a vibrant burgundy shade.

“The bridesmaid dresses were made by a dress maker, Courtesan Boutique, in the ‘Audrey’ style in burgundy.”

Anna added a veil, also from Bespoke Brides, a stunning sparkling Rainbow Club vintage headdress from Liberty in Love, art deco style earrings which were a 21st birthday present from her mum, and a plain silver bangle from Pandora. She finished off with a spray of ‘Daisy Eau So Fresh’ by Marc Jacobs perfume and ‘Lexi’ Rainbow Club heels via Elegant Steps that she had custom dyed in blue. Just fabulous!

The flowers, created by Wild Floral Design, were one of Anna’s favourite things about her wedding and she was so excited to see them on the day. The blooms complement the colour of the bridesmaid’s dresses perfectly.

“I didn’t want a traditional bouquet neatly packed; I wanted it to look quite wild and wispy. I also wanted the flowers to pick up some burgundy from the bridesmaid dresses and I knew I wanted freesias, as they were my grandma’s favourite flowers.

My bridal bouquet featured maroon snapdragons, mintflower, white astrantia, white waxflower, berried eucalyptus, dill, sedum, sweet avalanche roses and ivory freesias. The bridesmaid bouquets were the same as mine but all in ivory and slightly smaller. The groom’s button-hole included maroon hypericum berry and berried eucalyptus. The ladies’ and gent’s buttonholes varied slightly but included white waxflower, mint, sedum, berried eucalyptus and ivory freesias.”

“They also came up with the idea to have two milk churns filled with flowers outside the church entrance, which I loved! We had table centre-pieces of three vases in varying sizes and styles, filled with flowers that matched my bridal bouquet. They looked so vintage and understated and absolutely beautiful.”

The bride and her mum designed and made the wedding stationery together. The venue was filled with lots of whimsical and charming décor and the bride and groom added a few of their own unique touches.

“We bought lots of supplies bought from Crab Apple Crafts in Frodsham, added a wooden suitcase for cards from Oliver Bonas and framed photos of family weddings with frames from TK Maxx, and the copper ‘A & T’ letters for above the fireplace in Oddfellows were from Oliver Bonas.

Terry surprised me by having funny posters, made using the ‘VanillaPen’ poster-maker app, about our wedding that were displayed around the venue, plus he also had the wedding breakfast playlist framed.”

“We had a vintage London Routemaster bus to transport us both to the church and then all our guests from the church to the wedding reception. It was fantastic, one of the best decisions we made about the wedding.”

Terry cut a fine figure in a navy flannel Next suit, a Red Herring via Debenhams shirt, knitted Hammond & Co. by Patrick Grant bowtie via Debenhams, burgundy braces from Next and finished off with brown brogues from Loake. The groomsmen wore the same suit and shirt as the groom, plus their own brown shoes and the burgundy skinny ties were custom made from Courtesan Boutique.

“We married at Eccleston St Mary’s Church for the ceremony. I went to a Church of England primary school in a little village in Chester and this was the school’s church, so it had a sentimental reason for us to get married there, plus the architecture is amazing, it’s a real beast of a church!”

“My Dad walked me down the aisle to Pachelbel’s Canon in D played on a church organ. We just had the traditional Christian church vows and the reading was 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 – The Gift of Love. Everyone that gets married in church probably has this reading and it is the one that our vicar recommended, however it does carry a very powerful and lovely message which is without love there is nothing.

I just wanted a plain white gold band to match my engagement ring, which was also bought from Cheshires Jewellers. Terry never wears any jewellery so he found it difficult to pick something he liked – he just went for a plain brushed white gold ring. We picked Cheshires for the rings, as we wanted somewhere more unique to Chester that wasn’t part of a big chain.”

“The church ceremony was our favourite moment of the day. It was lovely to have all our closest family and friends together and it went better than we could have expected. There is something really wonderful about seeing each other for the first time – it is so emotional. The vicar from my childhood performed the ceremony, which meant a lot to us, he hadn’t changed a bit! Myself and especially Terry aren’t very religious, but we both felt the traditional church service was so special and we would have regretted having the ceremony any other way.”

“Our cake from Anne’s Patisserie was a bit of fun – we didn’t want it to look pretty and traditional, we just wanted it to taste scrummy. We had a dinosaur bride and groom on the top, sourced from MissSarahCake via Etsy, and wearing a veil and bow tie made by me. We had a vanilla sponge cake on the top with buttercream icing and then a mix of vanilla and chocolate sponge cupcakes underneath with different sprinkles on each one. Everyone commented on how moist the cakes were and they were so delicious – I hate a dry cake.”

To entertain the guests, the couple arranged a magician, a vintage photo booth and a DJ for dancing shenanigans well into the night.

“Magician Marshall Magic does these absolutely amazing slight of hand card tricks that will blow your mind! I discovered him in Cruise nightclub in Chester years ago and remember thinking when I get married I want him at my wedding. Our Vintage Booth was used instead of a guest book for our guests to write us messages. It went down a treat with everyone, it was so much fun.

For the evening we had DJ Paul McGuire from Wedding Jam – he was excellent. We gave him a playlist and he played everything we wanted and got everyone dancing.”

The newlyweds danced to Frank Sinatra’s ‘Strangers in the Night’, complete with lifts performed by the groom, and this song was chosen for a very sentimental reason.

“We love our border collie Olive and Terry always dances with her whilst singing this song when she jumps up on him. It seems like a silly reason but we couldn’t have Olive at the wedding and this song makes us smile and think of her so we thought it was a good choice.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“I was very anxious before the wedding and everyone used to tell me “you’ll feel fine on the day” and I didn’t believe them, but it is true. Something just comes over you and you just feel calm and at peace on the day, and you really don’t look at anyone else other than your future husband when you walk down the aisle.

Always go with what you want and not what others tell you to do, it’s your day and you will regret it if you don’t. This might be an obvious one but get a wedding organiser – Paperchase do lovely ones. They have lists of everything you need to plan a wedding and take a lot of the stress out of organising your day.

Have a budget and stick to it! We ended up spending more than we wanted to because we never set ourselves a budget at the start. And don’t rush your decisions; I ended up buying twice because I just wanted everything sorted and bought things I wasn’t 100% sure about.”

I’ve just loved sharing these delightfully quirky pictures of Anna and Terry’s big day – thank you so much to the lovely couple for allowing us a window into your nuptials. Thank you also to Ed for capturing these quirky images and all the little moments.

And if you’ve fallen for Anna’s very elegant dress, see here for more beautiful Ronald Joyce styles we’ve previously featured.

Love Jo -x-