Real Vintage Medical Themed Wedding: Rebecca & Ben

As a wedding blogger, it's unusual for me to find a wedding style that I haven't spotted a million times, which is why I L-O-V-E this incredible vintage medical themed wedding. Rebecca and Ben are both doctors, so it made perfect sense for Rebecca to combine her love of vintage pretty, with lots of medical references. You'll see those gorgeous details in the reception pictures later today, but first, take a look at Rebecca's stunning wedding outfit. Her elegant Amanda Wakeley gown suits her willowy figure perfectly, and combined with sparkly Jimmy Choos and a Caroline Castigliano veil borrowed from her sister, she looks the picture of an elegant bride! Ben and Rebecca chose The Morritt in Greta Bridge in County Durham for their wedding reception, and the lovely Sharron Gibson from The Image Garden as their wedding photographer - two fabulous decisions! Huge thanks to Sharron, and Vanessa Adams, her second shooter, for these gorgeous wedding pictures.



Ben and I got married on 8th September 2012 at St Edmunds Church, Sedgefield in County Durham, followed by a reception at The Morritt, Greta Bridge.



For my wedding dress, I wanted something clean looking. My friend had got her dress from Amanda Wakeley several years ago and it was amazing! I booked a fitting {just for fun}! On walking in, there was a dress on the mannequin which looked a bit Greek {to reflect my heritage}...... I tried 10 dresses that day but already knew that it was the one.

I used my sisters veil {something borrowed} from Caroline Castigliano and treated myself to a pair of sparkly Jimmy Choos {my only ever designer pair!!!}. My earrings were my late grandmother's {on my mum's side} and my watch was my also my grandmothers {on my Dad's side}.

In Amanda Wakeley there were several headbands to try, one was very Greek / Roman in style, and I really liked the simplicity and the look it gave the dress. My friend and I visited the workshop where they are made. In the end I picked a simpler one which worked really well with my dress {and was a little more friendly on my wallet}.

For bridesmaids gowns, I reckon you can't go wrong with Dessy dresses! They are a little pricey but the colours and styles are endless so you can get exactly what you want! The shoes I got in Monsoon after Christmas with a discount voucher!

My husband is 6 foot 6 inches tall, and he's had to wear very badly fitted hired morning suits in the past. Therefore, for his wedding day, we had his trousers and waistcoat made by Michelsberg Tailors in Leeds, and hired the jacket. All of the ties were different for each of the groomsmen but toned with the grey theme.




The church is in the neighbouring village to my parents house and is just lovely, so that decision made itself. 

Our photographer was Sharron Gibson from The Image Garden. I found her on the internet by searching for vintage-style photographers. She is actually based in the South, but came all of the way up to photograph our big day. 

Sharron was wonderful, stayed all day and evening and felt part of the wedding! She also brought an assistant photographer, Vanessa Adams, to help who was lovely. As we set off for our honeymoon 24 hours later, she had already sent me a montage of her favourite photos which I was delighted to receive.

My sister suggested our wedding theme should start with our wedding florist, and work back from there....and she was right!. I met with three florists and knew instantly when I had found the right one. His name is Adam Prest......he was AMAZING!!! 

Adam's based in a farm outside of Sedgefield where he grows some of the flowers he uses. It was great to use someone local! I could not describe really what I wanted....but he just knew. It was his idea for grey bridesmaids dresses!!!!

I said I wanted my bouquet to look like I had been out in the garden and picked the flowers. I also said I did not want them to be symmetrical or all the same length or size......the rest was down to him! He selected a rose called Amnesia and added white snowberries, and a silvery foliage which I loved! 

More posts like this one:
✽ Pretty Baby Blue Marquee Wedding
✽ Stunning Pink & Grey Marquee Wedding

♥ Want to see autumn wedding ideas? ♥ Or how about more vintage themed weddings? ♥

If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for our free newsletter. 

Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.

Real Sunshine-Yellow Themed Wedding: Gary & Lian - Reception Details

It's time for some serious wedding details my friends! It's Part 3 of Gary and Lian's creative Cornish wedding, and they went to town with their reception decorations. Gary is a creative director of a graphic design company, and you can really see his creative flair in the wedding stationery and colour palette. Everything fits together perfectly! I love the grey, white and mustard theming, the pom-poms {less is certainly more}, the vintage letter box for wedding messages and the old-fashioned paper bags filled with Cornish fudge. Lian's mum made the incredible wedding cake - each layer is decorated in a different style, and it looks amazing. Even the cake pops were handmade by Lian's sister-in-law. It just goes to show what a professional look you can create without blowing the budget. So inspirational! Huge thanks to Keith Riley for his fabulous wedding photographs - he captured every detail perfectly.

My husband is an incredibly talented graphic designer, so he created all the wedding stationery himself. It followed the grey and mustard theme and had many features that related to our lives. 

For example we have a ginger cat called Doodle, so he was in the design, we were getting married on the 29th and we have a special story about ladybirds, so he added them, and they had 29 spots. When sending the invites we bound all the parts with co-ordinating butchers string and postage labels.

Our wedding favours were different for men and women. We gave the boys miniature bottles of Jaegermeister and Red Bull plus a cigar, as a reminder of the fun they had on the Stag Do. The girls received a mini-bottle of Marcus rose, because that's what we drank on my Hen Do.



Everyone received a yellow and white striped bag filled with Cornish fudge, and a cake pop made by my sister-in-law.

We created Jar of hearts which was to replace the traditional wedding book. On each table there was a Kilner jar filled with various badges with different emotions. For example kissing, friendship, love. Each person had to pick a badge, wear it a d write down a piece of advice about the emotion they had picked. They wrote these on little cards and then put them in the jar for safe keeping. We then put the jars on the tables to act as a conversation starters for everyone.

We didn't want to spend much money on a wedding cake, so I did some research and asked my mum to make it. It followed the grey and mustard theme, and was a three tier cake with a different type of sponge for each layer. 

The decoration was different on each layer and we had a mustard yellow Mr and Mrs Jacobs sign made for the top of the cake bought from Not On The High Street.

We loved planning the wedding and all the things that went with it. By doing research before hand, talking to each other about our ideas, and being open to suggestions from our florist and photographer, we got wonderful results on our special day.

I'd recommend to other brides to enjoy every part of the planning. Do your research, make mood boards, talk to your future husband. Get ideas, and see if you can get them cheaper somewhere else. Plus making things for your wedding is really good fun and satisfying!

We chose our wedding photographer by doing lots of research online. We knew we didn't want a traditional wedding photographer, and the typical line-up style of pictures. We liked Keith Riley Photography as his website showed a diverse range of work, including tattoo photography!

♥ Want to see grey-themed weddings? ♥ Or how about more seaside wedding ideas? ♥

If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for our free newsletter. 

Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.

Real Sunshine-Yellow Themed Cornish Wedding: Gary & Lian - Portrait Pictures

This Cornish wedding has me longing for some sunshine and the seaside! The lovely Gary and Liam celebrated their big day at The Carbis Bay Hotel in St Ives. Liam was seven months pregnant, and looked amazing in her silk Tiffany Rose dress - definitely a great option for maternity wedding dresses. With tonnes of wedding pictures to show you, I've split the wedding into three - these are the imaginative portrait pictures by Keith Riley Photography. I love all the beach shots {didn't they have fab weather for autumn!}, in particular the No.29 beach hut picture {they got married on 29th October}. Gary and Lian’s happy place is an upside down pear tree - whenever they are apart they say to each other “meet you under the upside down pear tree”. So, Keith and his wife, Neda, bought chalk with them so Gary could draw a tree on the beach hut! Doesn't it look fantastic, and such a wedding portrait idea.

We met at a nightclub in our home town of Southend on sea. The first time I saw Gary was when he was dirty dancing with a bar stool trying to impress some other girls. For some bizarre reason I found his dancing attractive and went over to talk to him later on.

When we were all outside leaving we were chatting and he gave me his business card to which his friend said you don't want that, and gave me his train ticket instead! Later on that night we talked on the phone until Gary fell asleep under his dining room table.

Gary was going to propose to me whilst we were in New York. He had booked the table, set the house up for our return as an engaged couple, and even asked my uncle's permission. Unfortunately we never made it to New York, as snow left us stranded on the run way at Heathrow airport and eventually our flights were cancelled.

He proposed to me at home in the front room the next day while the rugby was on, which was still incredibly special, as we are both rugby fans! Even though it was not how he planned it, his proposal was off the cuff, real and honest from him.

We chose our wedding photographer by doing lots of research online. We knew we didn't want a traditional wedding photographer, and the typical line-up style of pictures. We liked Keith Riley Photography as his website showed a diverse range of work, including tattoo photography!

When we met Keith and his wife Neda, we completely jelled with them. Their work and ideas were brilliant, and we now consider them to be friends, who we'll always go and visit when we are in Cornwall.

♥ Want to see yellow-themed weddings? ♥ Or how about more autumn wedding ideas? ♥

If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for our free newsletter. 

Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.

Real Sunshine-Yellow Themed Cornish Wedding: Gary & Lian

With stacks of creative wedding details and mustard-yellow wedding theme, you can't fail to fall in love with this sunny seaside wedding. Gary and Lian celebrated their big day at The Carbis Bay Hotel in St Ives, and with its gorgeous views over the bay, it was always going to be a special affair. All the wedding details fit perfectly together, and I'm head-over-heels in love with the pretty wedding flowers - a mix of formal and wild arrangements. Miniature daisies are definitely my favourite flower for 2013. Lian was lucky enough to be seven months pregnant on her big day, which meant a change of wedding dress, but she ended up preferring her Tiffany Rose maternity gown over her original choice. Teamed with Aldo wedding shoes and unique Etsy jewellery, she looked fabulous on her wedding day. I'm also seriously impressed by Gary's dapper Ted Baker suit and Liberty London mustard-yellow tie. Huge thanks to Keith Riley Photography for his beautiful wedding pictures. Don't miss the Portraits and Reception Details, coming later this afternoon.

We got married in Cornwall, which is our spiritual home, and somewhere which has always felt like home. We were lucky enough to find the wonderful Carbis Bay Hotel in Carbis Bay in St Ives. It was so beautiful. As soon as we drove down the hill to see it we knew it was something special.

Gary's wedding outfit came from Ted Baker, tie from Liberty London, shirt came from the Savile Row Company, cuff links from Mulberry, hankerchief from Aubin & Wills and deer brooch from Etsy.

I had my first wedding dress made by a local dressmaker I have used in the past. I didn't want a traditional wedding gown so we designed something which was classic, but different. Five months before the wedding we were lucky enough to find out I was pregnant, so my dress had to be changed!

I found a company called Tiffany Rose who specialise in maternity wear and bought one of their wedding dresses. In actual fact I massively preferred my maternity wedding gown to my first - it must have been fate! My shoes came from Aldo as I wanted a particular mustard-yellow shade, and they happened to have them. My jewellery was simple and classic, and came from Etsy.

We chose our wedding florist from doing research online {from home in Essex}, and then going to see them in person in Cornwall. We decided to use Anna Sawle of Wedding Flowers in Cornwall because she seemed to completely understand what we wanted, while having lots of her own ideas as well.

We celebrated our wedding ceremony in the conservatory overlooking the sea with beautiful blue sky and sunshine. The backdrop of the sea and beach was perfect.

We didn't have to buy many decorations, as the hotel is decorated beautifully and fitted with our theme easily. We had mustard and grey as our theme, because we wanted autumnal colours.

We chose our wedding photographer by doing lots of research online. We knew we didn't want a traditional wedding photographer, and the typical line-up style of pictures. We liked Keith Riley Photography as his website showed a diverse range of work, including tattoo photography! 

When we met Keith and his wife Neda, we completely jelled with them. Their work and ideas were brilliant, and we now consider them to be friends, who we'll always go and visit when we are in Cornwall.

♥ Want to see yellow-themed weddings? ♥ Or how about more autumn wedding ideas? ♥

If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for our free newsletter. 

Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.