A Charlie Brear Gown With Pockets For An Intimate London Wedding

The thing I love so much about weddings (well, one of the many things) is that no two are exactly the same. Sure celebrations can be developed from the same theme, more than one bride can wear the same dress, but it’s the story and the love of each individual couple that makes each day what it is, that gives it its heart.

I swear I’ve become even more soppy since being married. Today’s intimate, laid-back union is that of Joe, who works in finance, and Beth, a nutritionist, who wed on 20th May this year at Danson House in Bexley, followed by an evening of festivities at Beagle London.

“We’ve been to lots of wedding over the years and have loved every one of them but could never really picture us doing the regular wedding thing. We always knew that if we got married, we’d like to keep the ceremony very small and personal, with just with our parents, siblings and closest friends. However, when it came to the evening we really saw getting married as a great reason to have a party! We wanted to be able to celebrate with all our friends without having to deliberate over a guest list for weeks. Having a small day freed us some budget for the evening.”

Photography by Claudia Rose Carter

The cherry on top of this particularly gorgeous wedding-y cake is that these stunning images were captured by one of our all time favourite image makers, Claudia Rose Carter. Claudia has photographed some of the most popular weddings on Love My Dress. We absolutely love the use of natural light in her evocative images, and we’re über proud to support her through our directory, Little Book for Brides.

“Finding Claudia was a wonderful stroke of luck. I’d emailed a friend’s wedding photographer, who recommended a friend with a similar style, who passed me on to Claudia. Everyone thought we were mad booking a photographer 100 miles away without knowing anyone she’d worked with previously…until I sent them a link to her website. Claudia’s photos are stunning and she was so easy to work with. She didn’t pester us in the lead up to the wedding, yet we never doubted her commitment.”

“On the day she was incredible, she felt like part of the wedding party rather than the photographer – the main feedback from the wedding has been how nice our photographer was. She caught so many brilliant moments and really captured the character and atmosphere of our day. I can’t recommend her highly enough.”

I so love Beth’s stylish Charlie Brear gown, which she purchased from Frou Frou Bridal Boutique in Tunbridge Wells, with alterations were made by Judy Mott. It’s cropped length gives it a cool edge, and the fact that it has pockets makes me adore it just that little bit more. Beth paired her dress with blush ‘Mortimer’ shoes from Dune and in her tumbling flaxen waves, wore a sparkling John Lewis comb.

“In the same way that I couldn’t picture a big white wedding, I also couldn’t picture me in a big white wedding dress. I was toying with the idea of a simple white shift dress, when a couple of different people suggested Frou Frou Bridal Boutique, promising me that it wasn’t too bride-y. Nicole was brilliant, she made me feel completely at ease, helped me to find a ‘bride level’ I was comfortable with and didn’t put any pressure on me to buy despite the short timeline.”

“I loved the Charlie Brear designs and fell for the Arlette immediately. I felt completely myself, loved that it wasn’t full length so that I could move around easily and the pockets were obviously a huge win for me. I felt so comfortable all day and didn’t feel too out of place when we ended up in a nightclub afterwards.”

A spritz of Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel was our bride’s chosen by day scent, a perfume she always goes back to.

Beth also touchingly wore her great grandma’s engagement ring along with a bracelet purchased from Frou Frou Bridal and pearl earrings from Thomas Sabo.

“Danson House is in a huge park that we’ve both been going to since we were kids. As we were keeping our ceremony so personal it seemed fitting to have the ceremony somewhere so familiar to us – and it helped that it’s such a gorgeous building.”

“Joe and I went to the same school so have known each other for a long time and have been together ten years. A wedding had never been a major priority for us, so I was pretty surprised when Joe proposed on the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town.”

“We could only picture a small day and a big party so it didn’t take too long to organise, getting engaged in October and married the following May.”

Beth’s mini maid and sister wore a pastel-pretty pink dress from Monsoon and a sweet John Lewis slide in her hair. She also wore a glistening diamond necklace borrowed from her mum, the bride’s stepmum, and petite pink Kate Spade earrings, simple and elegant like her fresh bouquet of white and green blooms, matching Beth’s arrangement.

Joe looks so handsome at the top of the aisle in his blue ‘Crow’ suit from Reiss, mirrored by his best men, brothers George and Ted, in their grey Reiss ensembles.

“My dad and I walked in to ‘Married Life’ from the soundtrack of Pixar’s ‘Up’, by composer Michael Giacchino. It’s such a beautiful song from that part when Carl is looking through the album of their life and adventure together – it just seemed perfect.”

“A good friend of mine, Chris, is a fantastic florist, so there was no doubt that I’d like her to create our flowers for the day. After a quick consultation we decided upon a white and green bouquet with peonies, cala lilies, roses, hypericum berries, lily of the valley and a very special rose from Chris’ garden.”

“My sister had a smaller version of the same bouquet and the venue was decorated with jars full of peonies, hydrangeas and lily of the valley.”

Following their intimate, family-focussed ceremony, the newlyweds made their way to their ceremony at Beagle London under a storm of colourful confetti, popping into a pub with their friends for an impromptu drink before sitting down to a meal with their families.

“Everyone always says that the day flies by and they don’t have time to sit back and take it all in. By keeping the day so small, it felt very relaxed and didn’t seem to go too quickly.”

“We’re lucky enough that both our families really get on, so really enjoyed that time together and were able to appreciate the day, which felt very special.”

“We LOVE food so it was important to us that we could have a good meal with our family. Alongside this, the evening was to be all about the party, where our friends could come and have a drink and dance to celebrate with us. So we had to find a venue that could cater to both.”

“We walked past a wedding at Beagle last year and thought it looked perfect – so after getting engaged we enquired. After one quick visit, a delicious dinner and a chat with the Events Manager, Sam, Beagle was an easy decision.”

Beth and Joe were lucky enough to have their wedding stationery created by a talented and creative sister in law, knowing that they had someone capable and lovely on hand to take care of that element of the day took some of the hassle out of proceedings, leaving the lovebirds and their loved ones to party the night away to the musical stylings of DJ Ben Phelps.

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Your day will be so much fun! Everyone told us it would be special and emotional and meaningful, (all of which it was) but no one mentioned how much fun we would have.”

“So try not to worry too much during the lead up, because on the day you’ll be having too much fun to stress about anything.”

A hugely grateful big thank you to Beth, Joe and the ever-incredible Claudia Rose Carter Photography for allowing us an insight into this lovely, laid-back day. I’ve popped into Beagle London with my husband before and now I can’t wait to head back there for a cocktail.

With love,

Em x