Gold Sequins and Colourful Paper Cranes For A Non-Traditional Outdoor Wedding

Well, how is it the thirteenth of December already? I kicked off the festivities this weekend by heading to York for lunch with Lyndsey, who each and every day does a sterling job behind the scenes here at Love My Dress and Little Book for Brides.

I love it when a bride totally owns her own style and veers away from the norm to do her own thing. Meet Joanna a senior executive planner for a luxury travel company, who does just this. She married her beau James, who is head of operations for a post-production facility, on 9 September 2017 in an outdoor wedding in Warwickshire. The bride rocked a quirky, non-traditional gold sequinned gown, and the day was defined by the couple’s desire for a day full of love, laughter and fun, with good food, good drink and good music. Oh, and thrown in were some allusions to Japan, where the two got engaged.

Talton Lodge is a country estate on the edge of the rolling Cotswolds comprising a Victorian kitchen garden with a tree-boathouse, orchard wagon and a tipi.

“Talton Lodge offered everything that we were looking for; beautiful grounds, lovely country house and a festival element with the tipis. It isn’t stuffy, fussy or over-packaged. The staff are a delight and their food offering is amazing. We realised that this was the perfect opportunity to throw a great party for our favourite people. We love hosting parties and having friends round for dinner. We wanted the day to be full of fun, laughter and love. We also wanted some little nods to Japan, as it was the place we got engaged and both have a huge love of the culture, style and food.”

Photography Brook Photography

Joanna embraced her own style with her gown, found at Birmingham boutique The Couture Company. We’re incredibly proud to number them amongst our members of Little Book for Brides. They specialise in custom-made, alternative, unusual and unique bespoke bridal gowns and Joanna’s is no exception. We are massive fans of brides who aren’t afraid to try something different. Bravo Joanna!“I went to a few ‘traditional’ dress shops and whist there were some beautiful dresses, nothing really grabbed me. I happened to see the stall for The Couture Company at the EWE wedding show and loved their quirkiness. I met with Jo and the team and absolutely fell in love with their style and the fact that my dress would be completely unique.”

“Jo totally understood what I was looking for and every time I went for a fitting, I fell more in love with my dress. I felt like an absolute rock star.”

Joanna opted for a fitted gold-sequinned corset paired with a layered skirt in the most delicate of pinks, topped off with a sheer, gold-embroidered over-dress with a statement gold belt. Don’t you just love the cascading ribbons down the back? A pair of peacock blue and gold Irregular Choice shoes added a pop of electric colour, and Joanna crowned her red locks with a delicate gold hair vine from Peony Designs by Josie. I love the subtle vintage vibe created by her simple and pretty hairstyle, created by Joanna’s regular London hairdresser Jodie Papworth.

The bridesmaids pale green, ethereal gowns were found at ASOS, so elegant and fitting for the countryside setting. They added ASOS shoes and a crane necklace found online at MBasicJewellery – a subtle nod to Japan.

It’s so unusual to see an all-green bouquet and I love the fresh greenery of Joanna’s bouquet, created by Rose Hamson Flowers.

“We had a very clear idea of what we wanted with flowers, with lots of greenery, lovely-smelling herbs and studded with a few bits of white.”

James dressed in a smart, deep blue Ted Baker suit, given a fresh edge with the light gold tie and pocket square.

Joanna had to battle the British weather on the way to the canopy with her father.

“It absolutely howled with rain just as I was about to leave the house for our outdoor ceremony. We had erected an emergency marquee after watching the weather forecast all week and had the craziest, raining-sideways thunderstorm right over head during the ceremony but it was amazing! It totally added to the atmosphere.”

In a lovely personal touch, the couple’s friend Tom officiated the ceremony and helped them write their own vows. Having married at the registry office a few days before, the couple felt that their exchange of personal vows really made their marriage feel ‘official’.

“I wrote the ceremony with Tom so we had complete input from the start. We were very conscious to include our thoughts and life philosophies as well as have some fun with it. We even had some audience participation! Tom had asked for 90 secs for a ‘secret section’ and amazingly he had written and arranged for our friends and family to stand up and say vows to us! It was amazing – so funny, so touching and so special. It was probably one of our favourite parts of the day. We then made our vows to each other whilst doing a pinky swear!”

Have any of you brides-to-be considered asking your family and friends to get involved in this way? Tom’s clever use of signs can make sure they are all on board, too.

Joanna and James chose two readings – ‘You Are a Part of Me’ by Frank Yerby and a ‘mash-up’ of various writings from the likes of Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Albert Einstein.

“We felt that these two readings really reflected our thoughts on our relationship, our life philosophies and how we wanted to put the day into context – we are all part of a huge universe, but love is what ultimately brings us together and makes it special.”

Photographer Lindsey Brook has captured every aspect of this wedding so beautifully, from the fun atmosphere of Joanna and her bridesmaids getting ready, to the magical styling of the tipi, not forgetting the emotion of the outdoor ceremony.

“I’d been an admirer of Lindsey’s work for a long time, so she was the first port of call when we got engaged! She is so much fun, but utterly professional. She is also a complete ninja; she sneaks around taking the most wonderful pictures! She completely captured the fun and feeling of the day and didn’t subject us to too many posed pictures!”

After the ceremony it was into the magnificent tipi for hours of celebrating with the wedding feast and music.

“We had such a naturally beautiful venue, we didn’t want to go too over the top with decorations. Having said that, we did task ourselves with making 1,000 origami cranes! The cranes hung as a canopy in the tipi and added a splash of colour and were a nod to our love of Japan. The tables we kept fairly neutral with pots of herbs and cream candles.”

Another personal element was the creation of a wedding logo designed with the help of Megan Hunt, who also assisted the couple with the rest of their stationery. And instead of favours, Joanna and James made a generous donation to the Air Ambulance.

The on-site catering team at Talton Lodge provided the wedding breakfast – a hog roast with salads – and also assembled the impressive tower of cheese which acted as an alternative wedding cake.

“We are huge cheese fans, so decided to have a savoury ‘cake’ of the best in British cheeses which was very exciting for us! We ordered the cheeses from a wholesaler and it was constructed on the day by the team at Talton.”

For those with a sweet tooth, personalised cupcakes by Bunty & Peggy’s and a homemade cake baked by one of the bridesmaids hit the spot.

Entertainment was a clear highlight of the evening celebrations, and the newly-weds set the tone with their choice of first dance, Smashing Pumpkins’ ‘Mayonnaise’.

“One of the first things we really bonded over when we met was our love of music and Smashing Pumpkins were a band that we both love. ‘Mayonnaise’ happened to also be one our favourite songs. James loves his heavy metal and I’m an indie rock girl, so we were never going to have a traditional love song.”

As well as an eclectic set from Wedding Jam DJs and live music from blues and bluegrass musician John Crampton, James and his friends decided to form their own wedding band especially for the day.

“James was in on a sneaky plot by some of our friends, who are very talented musicians. They got together and played a set of some our favourite songs. It was amazing. Our friend Lee re-wrote the lyrics to Will Smith’s ‘Miami’ to sing about the wedding and then James got up and sang Queens of the Stone Age’s ‘Make it Wit Chu’ to my complete surprise! Such a fabulous way to get the evening started.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom

James and Joanna have put together a really excellent list of advice for all of you to benefit from.

“Lists and spreadsheets are your friends! James was list master and it made life so much easier. Play to your strengths. James is the numbers and technical whizz, better at looking at the bigger picture, whereas I was more focused on the smaller details, logistics and creative side.”

“As much as you don’ t want it to, it does tend to take over a bit, so make sure you take time out to do something together that is not wedding related!”

“Compromise (with your partner, family etc.) on the things that don’t matter so you can focus on things that do matter to you.”

“Don’t forget that you’re a team. Remember to talk to each other and check in to see how you’re feeling about everything! It can get quite overwhelming.”

“On the day, take a step back to take it all in. James made sure we had five minutes to ourselves to just stand aside and see all of our families and friends having an amazing time. It was really special to realise that all of these people are there because of the two of you.”

“Make the wedding about the two of you! People may not understand if you do want to do things differently, but they will go along with it on the day!”

Such a beautiful day, I’m in love with Joanna’s luxurious and totally unique gold and pink gown. Thank you so much James and Joanna for sharing your special day with us; sending you many congratulations. Thank you, of course, to Brook Photography for your work.

If you’ve been inspired by this non-traditional gown then we have a lovely selection of Love My Dress brides here who have chosen to wear something a little different.

Ele xx