Charlie Brear Separates for a Stylish Marquee Wedding in Pastel + Coral Tones

Are you planning a marquee wedding and in need of inspiration for creating bright and joyful decor? Then look no further, as we’re heading to the Wirral for today’s lakeside celebration.

Charlotte and Tom married on 21 April 2018 at St George’s United Reformed Church with a lakeside marquee reception afterwards at Thornton Manor, both in Thornton Hough, Wirral. The couple had always wanted a marquee wedding, simple and elegant, with lots of foliage. They pulled together their vision for the day with a splash of colour inspired by the coral, grey and burnt orange embroidery on the bridesmaids’ gowns.

“I am not a ‘girly-girl’ and did not want lots of flowers. Any sprinkle of colour such as the bouquets and wedding cake came from the bridesmaids dresses which I had picked frantically in a sale. We had lots of candles and gold lanterns and it all came together really well.”

Images by Jessica Reeve Photography

Fine art photographer Jessica Reeve captured the celebrations in her signature crisp, airy style.

“We had our photos done by Jessica Reeve Photography and we are absolutely over the moon with them! Jess was lovely and relaxed and we love her natural, candid style. We are not ‘posey’ so weren’t sure how the ones on our own would turn out but we had such a laugh. It is incredible how she makes a moment of ‘Oh look Tom, there’s a leaf stuck to your shoe’ look so beautiful without us posing or feeling unnatural.”

“It was really important to us that we didn’t spend a long time doing our formal group photos. Jess was amazing and the formal shots were so quick and painless but look so perfect! The day was spent either howling with laughter or with the biggest smiles on our faces and Jess really captured that.”

A trip to Jimmy Choo‘s Sloane Square store in London resulted in the purchase of her court shoes with ankle straps.

“I was given a Jimmy Choo voucher from our venue on booking. I’m not really into shoes but bought ‘Lucy’ in pale pink suede and they were beautiful.”

The bride looks so sophisticated with her elegant up-do and striking red lipstick.

“My hair and makeup was done by amazing sister duo Sorella K&J Hair & Beauty. They were fab! I loved my hair and makeup; it was so much better than I envisaged. My makeup was airbrushed and stayed put all day even with the heat. My hair stayed pristine despite a lot of people stepping on my veil.”

Are any of you struggling to find the perfect bridesmaids dresses? Charlotte bought hers on a whim but their beautiful detailing ended up informing the colours for the entire day.

“I got these from a French Connection Outlet store. They were not your typical bridesmaid style and I wasn’t sure about them for a long time. I picked them all up in a frantic sale not long after we got engaged and had not even thought about colours or the wedding yet. They were so beautiful and in the end I loved that they were different.”

“I bought them matching earrings and bracelets from Monsoon. I supplied the florist with hair clips and she made a clip with a burnt orange rose to match our bouquets.”

The bride opted for separates from Charlie Brear to put together her own unique look. It makes me so happy to read that she first came across her Payton gown thanks to Love My Dress and tried the pieces on for real at White Closet Studios in Liverpool.

During the day she wore a sparkly topper with scalloped sleeves, removing it in the evening for her sexy, simple look. If you’d like to find out more about the White Closet Studios team then please visit their Little Book listing here.

“I chose the Payton dress, Versailles Top and Ivory Silk Sash. I also got the sleeves to add on which was done by Boutique Alterations. I had seen a picture of this dress and top on Pinterest and instantly fell in love but thought that the chances of it suiting my shape were pretty slim.”

“I went into the shop with a bit of tunnel vision and only wanted to try on the Payton combinations, but I did try on four other dresses. As soon as I put on that dress it was a done deal. I loved that you could do so much with the base dress and so many different add-ons.”

“I always wanted something simple and timeless. I loved that I could take the top off in the evening and have a completely different look.”

Charlotte’s simple veil was from Ebay and she added elegant diamond earrings belonging to her mum and a silver necklace from Monsoon. She also borrowed her mum’s perfume, Chanel Chance.

“I wanted a plain, single-tier veil and got this one for £10 on Ebay – probably our biggest wedding bargain! I had a Jenny Packham hair clip in above the veil.”

The couple were married in church, to which the bride travelled in style.

“I wanted to save the money and put some ribbon on my dad’s car but Tom thought it would be best to get a wedding car. I called up Barringtons Wedding Cars – the first company on Google – and when I found they were available on our date and reasonably priced I just booked them. On the day a 1940s cream and black Royal Windsor turned up and I loved it.”

The flowers were a riot of leaves, roses and pops of bright coral and orange.

“We got our flowers from Earth Florists. I took one of the bridesmaid dresses to the shop and asked them to make some bouquets with those colours that were within our budget. They were so beautiful and I was so excited when they arrived in the morning.”

Charlotte and Tom have been together since their university days and were engaged for 18 months before their April marriage.

“We met on our first day at university and lived together with friends for the first two years but did not start seeing each other until after we had split off to live with other people. We got engaged after six years. Tom proposed in the Lake District. He planned to do it at Ladore Falls but the weather was terrible so he did it in the pagoda in the grounds of the hotel. There was a picnic hamper there with Champagne in – he told me to look in the hamper and as I turned back around he was down on one knee. It was private and perfect.”

“The best surprise was when we went down to dinner. We walked around the corner in the restaurant and both of our families were there. I’d had a few glasses of Champagne at this point and cried my eyes out. He had taken both of our mums and my sister to help pick the ring and I love it.”

The groom chose a timeless, classic style, visiting Ted Baker for his navy suit and Reiss for the grey waistcoat.

“Tom’s shoes were from Jones the Bootmaker. I got him a TAG Heuer watch that I gave to his parents for him to open on the morning. My mum always tells me how excited he was when he was getting my engagement ring and I wanted to give him something that he could keep forever too.”

After a few moments preparing, Charlotte and her father entered the church.

“One of my friend’s parents was outside the church. I had not seen them and they took photos of my dad fixing my veil before we went in. They are some of my favourite pictures – it was such a special moment.”

“I had this unshakable sense of dread when imagining walking down the aisle to ‘The Wedding March’. After a LOT of agonising, I decided to surprise Tom with an acoustic, slowed-down version of ‘Toothpaste Kisses’ by The Maccabees played on guitar. This is not ‘our song’ but The Maccabees are his favourite band in the world and we love that song.”

The priest led the ceremony which was made personal with reading and music from family and friends.

“The best man read a poem in the church – ‘I Wanna be Yours’ by John Cooper Clarke. We love the Arctic Monkeys and this poem is featured in one of Tom’s favourite songs.”

“My aunty and uncle are professional singers and sang in the church whilst we signed the register. We chose ‘Home’ by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and ‘Songbird’ by Oasis.”

Rings came from Goldsmiths and Charlotte has a surprise money-saving tip.

“We bought them from Goldsmiths because we could use Tesco Clubcard vouchers and this saved us a small fortune. My engagement ring was from Boodles but once we knew we could triple our Clubcard points for Goldsmiths vouchers it was a no brainer.”

“The ceremony is Tom’s best memory. We made it short and did not want hymns. We aren’t the most serious of people and don’t like being the centre of attention but made sure that we looked and spoke to each other the entire time; there could have been no-one else in that church. The Minister was also great and had a brilliant sense of humour!”

Instead of hiring a videographer, the camera-shy couple chose to hire a DIY video camera.

“If you are like Tom and I and couldn’t think of anything worse than a videographer following you around but want the day recorded then hire a video camera. We hired a handheld HD from Vid4hire online. The picture and sound are amazing! I asked my cousin to set it up on the tripod for the service, speeches, cake cutting and first dance.”

“Well worth the small amount of money, you can tell the difference in the quality versus a phone or home recorder. My sister used a cheap editing programme to make us a video.”

After the service, the couple spent previous time together on the journey to their marquee reception.

“The driver put the soft top down at the back. That was our first time alone after getting married. We were sat in the back in the sunshine driving through the beautiful grounds and Jess got some stunning photos of those moments.”

I adore the newly-wed portraits taken in the spring sunshine. The countryside looks simply beautiful, and Jessica Reeve’s light and airy style captures the April day in such glorious detail.

“My aunty is part of singing trio The Poppies who sing vintage swing tracks. They sang at our drinks reception whilst canapés were served. We were so conscious of how long that part of the day is (in between the church and dinner) so wanted to make sure it was enjoyable. It was a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky and everyone was on the decking next to the lake having drinks. The singing in the background gave it a lovely atmosphere.”

The marquee looks elegant and stylish with its decor of foliage, candles and touches of gold.

“In the room the overall vibe was foliage, gold and grey with lots of candles and fairy lights. We made our gold photo back drop and gold sweet table – it looked simple and classy. Tom also made the grey marbled cupcakes.”

“The florist dressed our top table and the balustrades in the marquee with foliage. We put candles and lanterns in between and they looked stunning. Because the marquee was huge and plain, we wanted tall, full centre-pieces.”

“We went to a flower wholesalers in Liverpool and ordered a lot of eucalyptus and soft ruscus to match the top table and balustrades. We bought tall crackled vases from The Range and two days before the wedding made the centre-pieces and arrangements. This saved us a fortune but Tom’s poor parents had to transport them to the venue with water in. We were so pleased with them and they really made the room.”

Wirral Gourmet Catering Company supplied the wedding breakfast.

“We wanted a hog roast in the evening and it was a great bonus that we could pick any coloured table linen for no extra cost. We had light grey table clothes with pale green napkins and this made such a difference in the beige marquee. They also let us provide our own cheesecake and crackers. We bought all of our own large cheeses from Tesco and they constructed and decorated this for us.”

Favours came thanks to Pinterest inspiration.

“We ordered double shot-sized spirit bottles and personalised stickers on eBay and put pink gin in them. We then had glass bottles of tonic and lemonade on the table… it went down well! I had also seen beautiful name places on Pinterest that we recreated.”

“We bought cookies from Marks & Spencer and Tom and my mum spent hours making them. They made grey marbled icing and stamped everyone’s name out and painted the names gold. It took them ages but they looked so beautiful.”

The tiered, colourful cake was created by the bride’s sister.

“My incredible sister made our wedding cake for us and we loved it! She is a teacher but makes cakes in her spare time. We wanted a fun and colourful cake and she absolutely delivered. She is so creative and talented. It was three tiers covered in multi-coloured flowers with gold icing.”

The couple’s choice of first song was happily in their evening band’s repertoire.

“In the evening we had The Flynn & Tonics. We had hired them for an event in uni and knew how amazing they were. Their repertoire has songs that your 7 year old and 70 year old guest will dance to and that was important – we wanted everyone on the floor. We danced to Al Green ‘Let’s Stay Together’. We do not have a ‘romantic’ song but we have always loved the ‘Pulp Fiction’ soundtrack.”

“My best memory was at the end of the night when everyone had started leaving. We sat together at the top table in the marquee. I was sat on his knee and we just took stock and talked about the day. The marquee was so beautiful with the fairy lights on the ceiling and all of the candles. It was a moment I will never forget.”

 

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“We didn’t have a budget per se. We are fortunate with our jobs that we can work extra shifts and saved extra money when we realised that things were exceeding what we originally planned. We saved money through every possible avenue; we got married in April which was a lot cheaper, made most things ourselves, bargain-hunted for £30 bridesmaid dresses and £10 veils.”

“The one thing I would do differently is to have made a quick speech myself – nothing funny but just to say how wonderful Tom is to me. We also wish that we had more time to spend with guests. It was so amazing to have so many people there for us but we felt like we only spent five minutes with each person.”

“Make sure you spend time together – this was really important to us and we managed that really well actually. In between any of the ‘scheduled’ things we made sure we sneaked off together.”

“Don’t drink much. You have this constant euphoric feeling and do not need alcohol. I had a few sips of Prosecco in the morning and for the toasts but then didn’t drink until late in the evening when I only had a couple. I felt like I took the whole day in and remember it all.”

“Make things yourself. We saved a fortune by making all of the decorations ourselves. It was so much fun doing it all in the run up.”

“Pick a good photographer – we were all about saving money when possible but do not scrimp on the things that you will have to remember the day for the rest of your lives. It was so much more enjoyable for us having Jess who was so friendly, relaxed and unobtrusive.”

“Have a friend do the MC-ing! One of the groomsman and one of our very good mutual friends did the announcing at the Reception. We had told him it was simply introducing us into the room, the speeches and cutting the cake but his improv on the day was bloody brilliant. It made it much more personal.”

Please join me in wishing Charlotte and Tom a very happy first anniversary and many thanks too for sharing their day. Of course, we have to thanks Jessica Reeve too for her beautiful work.

Love,

Ele xx