A Sequin Karen Willis Holmes Gown for a Colourful Wedding in the Countryside

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Good morning! It feels like it’s been such a long week already, but in a good, very good way. Ahead of spending time with family for the rest of the week (it’s school half term holiday over here), I have spent Monday and Tuesday working non-stop on two big projects we have going on behind the scenes right now, one of which involves a complete redesign of Love My Dress. Our much loved wedding blog last had a makeover in June 2014 and that makeover has served us well in this time. Throughout this period, we’ve the number of readers who view Love My Dress through their mobile phones and handheld devices rise considerably, and we need to adapt to this.  As a result, we’ve been busy working on the creation of a more sophisticated, faster loading site that will make finding and accessing our archived content much easier for you all.  And look bloody good too.

This morning’s wedding however is a lovely distraction from everything that still needs doing before we can unveil our newly designed wedding blog with you all; Brand Planner Sarah married graphic designer Tom on 11th July at The Secret Garden at Dalton Hall in Yorkshire Wolds. The couple used the on-the-day coordination services of Charlotte at Eden and Eve.

It was Sarah’s beautiful sequin gown that stole the show for me. It’s a design by Karen Willis Holmes – a designer we highly recommend via our Little Book For Brides wedding directory and who is stocked at a number of boutiques throughout the UK (more details here). Click on the image below to explore Karen’s designs all in one place, through our ‘Style Files’ pages.

“I originally chose another, much simpler dress. Gulp! But before the day, I felt it didn’t suit my tiny frame so I sold it and swapped. On the dress I chose, I loved the intricate lacework to the back, and the loose flowing skirt. I knew I didn’t want anything with a boned bodice, strapless or big fluffy skirt. My Karen Willis Holmes dress was silk georgette and was so light to wear. Also the sequins helped!”

Photography by Emma Sekhon

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“I was always ambivalent about getting married, and anything that seemed twee or put my cynical brain right off. We’d looked at barns, pubs, or simply having a low key bash in the garden – as long as it didn’t feature hearts, giant bridesmaid dresses or first dances. We used Pinterest extensively, but because we both work in design, we found we were able to agree on a look really quickly. We decided to make the colour theme citrus brights, with pops of navy to balance it and gold to make it feel a bit more LA-cool on the day!”“Our venue was The Secret Garden at Dalton Hall, South Dalton, in the Yorkshire Wolds. We really wanted an outdoor wedding and snapped this up as soon as we met the lovely owner.”

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“It’s a Victorian kitchen garden full of English flowers and vegetables, nestled deep in the woods. We liked that it wasn’t a ‘proper’ venue but rather someone’s private land – so no strict rules about catering, and not a single ugly Fire Exit sign in site!”

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“We live in London, so I made several (very early morning) trips to New Covent Garden Flower Market. Chatting to traders, I decided to buy the flowers wholesale and my bridesmaid drove them up 2 days before the wedding.”

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I chose peonies, roses and dahlias in vibrant coral, yellow, orange and candy pink; set off by lots of eucalyptus and goldenrod.”

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“We lucked out with Zara for the suits. They had a nice bright blue, and the slimline tailoring felt modern. He paired it with an ASOS tie.”

“Tom’s best pal from uni, Gareth was our best man. Alongside his brother and other friend as ushers, they made sure the groom had an outlandish stag do and a nice, embarrassing speech. Gareth was also very handy at making paper pompoms in 27 degree heat the day before the wedding.”

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“We opted not to have the expense of fancy cars, as transport was just a necessity to us. On the day, my taxi didn’t show up, so my bridesmaid piled us into her little Corsa and we made it only 15 minutes late…”

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“Tom gave me a present on the day which was a bottle of Jo Loves in Orange Tulle. The smell always reminds me of the day now.”

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“We met eight years previously at work – funnily enough, through a design agency called ‘Love’. We got engaged in the Lake District and at home (long story) and as we never wanted a long engagement, aimed to get married the following summer. We did it within ten months, which caused a few grey hairs.”

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“My dad, who still beams about it today, accompanied me down the aisle to Israel Kamakawiwoʻole’s version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Our recessional song was Sam Cooke’s Wonderful World.”

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“We’re not religious, and did not want the business-like formality of a registry wedding. We looked into Humanist weddings, and felt their values lined up with ours. Our officiant gave us some inspiration, but in the end, our friend Kaitlyn crafted the words, drawing upon our own personal story.”

“Kaitlyn read – and cried to – the Joyce Grenfell poem, Ordinary Morning. We also had Tom’s great uncle Chris read from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. Both resonated with us. We instantly felt something when we read them.”

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“Our rings were by Ingle & Rhode in Marylebone, London, which we chose because of their strict ethical policy on sourcing diamonds. Tom’s is a simple white gold band, and mine is a very skinny band with tiny diamonds.”

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“The wonderful photographer Emma Sekhon made our day. She’s not only a lovely, warm, genuine person to meet, but is totally respectful of the day and goes about her snapping without any intrusion. For years, we’d admired her natural light-filled photos, so were thrilled that she was available the summer we were getting married.”

“In fact, we chose our venue on one of the dates Emma was available as photography was one of our top priorities. We love every shot she came back with.”

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“We had wood-fired pizza from the Sheffield-based Artisan Pizza Company, all served from a vintage French van.We hired a waiter to serve drinks we’d bought ourselves: raspberry gin fizz and local lagers.”

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“Tom is a designer so he designed and arranged the printing of our invitations, again in bright citrus colours. For the table plans, we chose the vegetables inside the kitchen garden, and had a bit of fun in writing tongue-in-cheek botanical descriptions that vaguely matched the personalities of the table.”

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“We used paper streamers, garlands and pompoms from various online shops. The gold spotted napkins were from Kate Spade NY, and the place cards were from Knot & Bow, Brooklyn. We also hired the mason jars, drinks dispenser and zinc bathtubs from a props shop in West London.”

“We were also immensely happy with the traditional style marquee provided by the lovely folk at Will’s Marquees. They really went out of their way.”

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“Our favours were cheap and cheerful; everyone received a packet of seeds. My parents planted their seeds and saw giant blooms the following year. A sweet anniversary reminder.”

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“We had a naked wedding cake with flowers and fruit by Juniper Cakery.”

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“We used Spotify in the evening – we had fun making a playlist before the wedding. Guests contributed to it, so we had everything from 60’s soul to 90’s hiphop.”

“Hands down, we did not ever want a first dance! We both cringed at the idea of dancing badly whilst everyone stood around watching! Instead, once the cake was cut, someone flicked on Spotify and everyone piled on the dancefloor to Bowie’s Lets Dance. We had a private little dance in the woods together to George Ezra’s Budapest.”

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Words of Wedded Wisdom…

“We would have reconfirmed everything the day before. A couple of people said they’d bring props or games, and our taxi company also forgot. If we’d had more time and head space we’d have double checked all our communications.

We asked people to have a hearty lunch as we knew pizza wouldn’t go very far. On the day though – some didn’t, which I fear did leave a few people leaving uncomfortably hungry on the day.

For your budget, decide your 3 most important things and stick to prioritising them over everything else. You can’t have perfection. Also, don’t worry about the details. You will forget on the day if the napkins weren’t placed correctly, or even if it rained.

Finally, it’s just a wedding. Resist the temptation to get caught up in it all. Everyone will try to sell you everything if they hear the W word. Remain sensible!”

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What a beautiful, colourful day! Thank you so much for sharing your wedding with us Sarah and Tom, and my love and thanks to photographer Emma Sekhon too.

Love Annabel x

Credits & Thanks

Annabel

Annabel View all Annabel's articles

Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.

4 thoughts on “A Sequin Karen Willis Holmes Gown for a Colourful Wedding in the Countryside

    1. Thank you for the wise words. I’m hoping to do the covent garden thing. I feel slightly reassured that you seem to have nailed it !

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