A Charlie Brear Jumpsuit and Frida Kahlo Inspired Headpiece for a Modern and Colourful Autumn Wedding

OK, a quick catchup on a few important posts. Did you know we’re currently running an AMAZING Jenny Packham and LK Bennett shoe/clutch bag/veil giveaway? And, did you know we’re currently running a wedding photography giveaway too?

Right, now that’s sorted, let’s get on to sharing these glorious images captured by our Little Book For Brides member, Caro Weiss.  London based Doctor, Daisy, wed Graphic Designer Ollie on 7th October last year at Wedderburn Barns in Duns, Scotland. Their wedding was the most beauteous and colourful affair – there is so much joy captured in these images, you can’t help but smile. The couple mixed a clean, modern, fashion aesthetic with a rural barn backdrop and the day was bursting with the shades of autumn through elements like the flowers, bridesmaids dresses and the brides Frida Kahlo inspired floral headpiece.

“My sister who works in Wedding Catering recommended our photographer Caro to us after working with her at an event. After visiting her website we completely fell in love with her style of capturing the day with natural portraits and making the most of the surrounding landscape. We felt so lucky when she was available on our date. She was so warm in all her correspondence in the build up to the wedding day which reassured us that we’d made the right choice.”

Photography by Caro Weiss

“On the day, Caro was fabulous – she was so busy capturing all the different moments but stayed relaxed and felt like she could have been another guest at our Wedding. She kept an eye on the changing light and grabbed us just before the main course was served for a quick photo as the sun was setting, it was absolutely stunning and special to grab those moments alone together to take stock of the day.”

“Frida Kahlo was the inspiration behind my hair. Lots of brides wear floral garlands and whilst I wanted flowers in my hair, I wanted it to be a little different. I approached our florist, Tupelo Tree, and asked her to make a ‘seasonal Scottish Frida Kahlo flower crown – she went off and did the research and what she came up with was perfect. I felt fantastic the minute I put it on and understand why Frida wore flowers in her hair so often.”

“My shoes were from contemporary shoes maker Ellis White. I loved that they were hand made using interesting craft techniques – the heel was made from recycled leather which gives a beautiful multi-coloured texture to it.” 

“My hair was done by Jenny McLachlan who works as an independent hairdresser in Dunbar. She was recommended by the venue as being based in London I didn’t really know where to start. I’m the type of person who normally just leaves my hair down and doesn’t do anything with it, so I was keen to get an expert on board for the wedding day. I visited her studio for a trial run the week of the wedding and felt very safe in her hands, she listened to all our ideas and embraced the relaxed look my bridesmaids and I were looking for.”

“I saw the wedding as an opportunity to finally learn a bit about how to do my own make-up, as usually a bit of mascara is the maximum of my ability. I booked in a lesson at Bobbi Brown and am now so pleased that I have a collection of great products to use and feel much more confident with doing my makeup!”

“The dresses were from Cos which is one of my favourite high street shops. I loved the simplicity of the shape but it was primarily chosen for the amazing colour. We had originally thought that each bridesmaid might wear a different dress of their choice, but once they tried on this one they all loved it and said how special they felt. It looked so great sparkling in the sunlight at the ceremony or shimmering on the dancefloor later on!”

“My bridesmaids all chose their own shoes. None of them really wear heels so it was about finding something comfortable. I loved that they all chose different colours and styles but they all complemented each other, the dresses and flowers so well.”

“I wore two pieces of jewellery in addition to my wedding rings. I wore a sapphire ring of my mums – this was my something borrowed, old and blue all in one. I also wore some earrings by an Australian designer called Holly Ryan. They were called her ‘squiggle earrings’ and reminded me of some of Ollie’s artwork which when I first met him involved lots of squiggling.”

“When first starting the process of looking for an outfit for our Wedding day I realised that a traditional dress was not something I was going to feel comfortable in. I didn’t like anything with too much detail or lace. I was much more drawn towards outfits which had trousers and had pretty much limited my choices down to a top and trousers combination or a multi-coloured jumpsuit. When I went to Charlie Brear, I had no expectation, it was one final look at another designer with some friends I had promised to go dress shopping with.”

“When I put the jumpsuit on, which was part of their non-Bridal range, I felt brilliant – the jumpsuit was simple, comfortable and modern. I knew I had found the perfect outfit. One of the assistants suggested pairing the jumpsuit with the jacket as I knew I would need another layer for the Autumn weather, it added an elegance whilst remaining youthful.”

“Tupelo Tree did our flowers for the Wedding which were spectacular. When enquiring about a florist I sent out a few emails to different florists around Edinburgh and Glasgow. Natasha got back to me pretty quickly and suggested we talk through my ideas over Skype and see whether we wanted to work together. This gesture made me feel like she was really interested in my involvement in the creative process and tailoring the flowers to Ollie and I as individuals rather than seeing our Wedding as a generic process.”

“She made us up a Pinterest board of ideas based on ‘bright Autumnal colours with interesting shapes and patterns’, after our discussion and then got to work. The flowers were unbelievably beautiful and more than we could have ever hoped for. We had not discussed colours as I was happy to go with whatever was in Season but they worked so perfectly with all the other colours of the day it was hard to believe it was unplanned.”

“We didn’t have a set style we were aiming for when we started out the Wedding planning, but after Ollie designed our initial Save the Dates, the style kind of built from there. We used the autumnal colours and simple leaf like shapes throughout our designs in the rest of the day.”

“We met on the East Coast Trainline in May 2013 when we were both travelling North from London and happened to sit opposite each other. A two-hour delay got us chatting and we discovered we’d both moved to the City just a couple of months before and were working 5 minutes away from each other. Ollie plucked up the courage to ask for my number and the rest is history. We got engaged in December 2017 on a walk through Hackney Marshes.”

“I grew up in Aberdeenshire in Scotland, however since moving to London, my parents had relocated to the Scottish Borders. We both love Scotland so wanted a location that was close to their new home. Wedderburn barns gave us the option of having a really great space both inside and outside which was important as we had no clue what kind of weather October would offer us. We wanted somewhere that’s bare bones were beautiful but that didn’t have too much existing decoration so that we could add our own touch.”

“Whilst it wasn’t a case of being ‘given away’, it was important to both my Dad and I that we had that moment together to walk down the aisle. My Dad is an amazing man and has done so much for Ollie and I that it was important he was also celebrated that day.”

“We walked down the aisle to a track called Kala by Ali Farka Toure. I didn’t want anything with lyrics in it and wanted the music to feel celebratory. We both love Malian music and it fitted the bill perfectly.”

“We wanted to write our own vows, to really add meaning to the promises we were making each other. As neither of us do a lot of writing it was a daunting prospect but we are so glad that we did it this way. We made about six promises each and although we each made our own vows there was quite a lot of similarities in what we said, including vows to ensure we always smile and laugh with each other, and continuing to work as a team throughout the rollercoaster of life.”

“We had two readings; ‘Ithaka’, by C.P.Cavafy and an extract from ‘Still Life’ with Woodpecker, by Tom Robbins.”

“We didn’t want anything too cheesy and something that wasn’t just about a wedding but had meaning which extended to different parts of life. We asked my brother and one of Ollie’s sisters to do our readings. Ithaka was a bit of a mouthful but my brother did a brilliant job of reading it, and they both made us laugh and cry during their readings.”

“We made our rings for each other under the guidance of Elizabeth Anne Norris Jewellery in Brighton. It was a really fun process to do together and feels extra special to have something made by the other person. We engraved the rings with ‘KGX-DAR-EDB’, which was the train route that we met on to inspire us to keep adventuring and saying yes to new opportunities.”

“Ollie’s suit was from Walker Slater. We originally visited the Edinburgh store before realising there was one in London which made it much easier for us to pop in and make any changes that were needed. The staff were really helpful and particularly when it came to tailoring they made some really great suggestions to give it a more unique feel.”

“We also got Ollie’s tie and pocket square from Walker Slater as they do some lovely colours and patterns which also matched the bridesmaids dresses.”

“Ollie’s favourite accessory was his Paul Smith shoes with multi-coloured striped soles. Initially we thought it might be a bit much with his tweed suit, but actually they looked great and not too much at all and nodded to his love of colour and design. The Groomsmen chose their own grey tweed suits and we accessorised with ties and pocket squares in different colours from Walker Slater again.”

“A lot of the interiors were decorated with the beautiful flowers from Tupelo Tree and fairy lights which were either borrowed or hired but we had made lots of little extras which were dotted about. Ollie’s dad runs a wood workshop called Workshop North so he made our bar for the day as well as all the wooden arrow signs and A-boards which we had around the venue. Along with Ollie’s sister and nephew we spent one weekend at his workshop painting them for the day.”

“A friend made us a couple of light boxes which Ollie designed the vinyl for and we used for the bar and on the dance floor. We also cut out lots of paper leaves which were used to decorate each persons table setting. We are both quite creative people so it was important to us that we put our stamp on the day.”

“The venue recommended The Great Northumberland Bread Company to us as we were looking for a relaxed meal but which felt like a feast for our guests. The GNBC certainly delivered, providing a middle Eastern dinner served in big bowls for guests to share out. We love food and spending time over dinner with friends has always been important to us so we wanted the Wedding to celebrate that aspect of our relationship. The sticky toffee pudding at the end has been hailed as the best some of our guests had ever eaten.”

“As Ollie is a graphic designer, he did all of the stationary for the day. He designed everything from the invites, to the labels for our personalised beer bottles, to the welcome signs we had dotted around the venue and much more. It was really nice to feel like we could design things exactly as we wanted them to be without any middleman.”

“We have a friend who owns his own Craft beer company, so he provided us with some beers which we dressed up with our own labels for the guests to either drink on the day or take home with them.”

“On each name place Ollie had designed, we wrote a little thankyou note to each guest. It was quite a long process but we knew we might not have a chance to speak to everyone on the day and wanted to share our appreciation. Everyone really loved the effort and it was fun to watch their reactions when reading them.

“It is so so hard to pick a favourite part of the day as I just loved every bit, so I’m sharing two; I would say the ceremony was extremely special – just as it started, the sun came out and beamed across the courtyard, it was amazing looking out and seeing all our favourite people sat together for the first time, particularly as we read our vows to each other, even though I did get stung by a wasp in the middle of it!”

“At the end of the ceremony we got our guests to singalong to Higher and Higher by Jackie Wilson with one of my friends leading and my bridesmaids as his backing singers – it was so energetic and uplifting, I just loved it. And then the speeches – my dad, Ollie and I, one of my bridesmaids and the best man all gave speeches which were a mixture of tear jerkingly emotional and belly splitting hilarious.”

“We were so lucky that my  very talented sister who runs her own catering company, Kitchen East in Edinburgh, made the cake. We trusted her completely to come up with the flavours and look of the cake which looked like a work of art and we are still dreaming about today. She did three layers including a vanilla sponge, carrot cake and chocolate all covered in the most delicious salted caramel butter icing!”

“As we were having the Wedding in Scotland and lots of our guests had travelled quite a long way to be there we decided to put on a ceilidh for some of the evening. Our band were called Hector’s Heroes and did a great job of keeping everyone on the dancefloor and coaching the most novice of dancers in ceilidh-ing!”

“We kind of had two first dances – one to kick off the ceilidh and one for the disco. For the ceilidh we started the Gay Gordon off and showed our guests how to do it, one by one they all joined us on the dancefloor. With the disco we danced to “I’m in the Mood for Love” by Lord Tanamo which we had also had to exit the ceremony – it’s a joyful, happy song that importantly wasn’t too difficult to dance to.”

“We followed the ceilidh with one of our mates DJ-ing which was such a fun way to end the day. Ollie had always wanted Adam to DJ at his wedding whenever that happened and he definitely lived up to expectations – it was hard for everyone to leave at the end of the night as we just wanted him to keep play one more tune.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Sometimes during the wedding planning process you start to wonder if it’s all going to be worth it but for us, it absolutely was. We were so happy that we did all the extra touches on the day despite the effort beforehand. If you want to do it, and its not a huge monetary extravagance then go for it, you’re unlikely to regret it. And don’t compromise on your style and personality, at the end of the day it’s celebrating you as a couple and you want it to be a reflection of that.”

“We had the happiest day of our lives. Our photographer had advised us before hand that the energy you give off during the day sets the tone for your guests, if you can relax and just enjoy it then everyone will respond with all the love and joy in the World and it absolutely was true!”

How absolutely gorgeous is this? Wonderful work by an incredibly lovely and talented photographer – you can see much more of Caro’s wedding photography on Love My Dress here.

Use our fancy-pants search tool too, to find other weddings by season, colour, era, designer, photographer and location. BAMM! You’re welcome 🙂

Love Annabel xx