With the Royal Wedding only weeks away, I thought I'd kick off the celebrations with a wedding set in Royal Windsor. Gorgeous bride, Laura, chose a classic monochrome theme, and looked like a modern-day Audrey Hepburn with her elegant dress and up-do. I'm serious loving how 'together' the wedding party look in their black and white outfits. Little black dresses are definitely the chicest way to achieve this look - after all, everyone has their favourite LBD! My favourite wedding blogger stealworthy ideas? The monogrammed menus, and the cute cupcakes, plus cutting cake decorated with green-tinted flowers {and made by Laura's mum!}. Gorgeous pictures published with thanks to Kelly from
Lola Rose Photography. Don't miss Laura's answers to the Before the Big Day Bridal Questionnaire below. She's included all her top tips for future brides-to-be, plus a fair few wedding DIY ideas.
The Before the Big Day Bridal Q&A - Laura was kind enough to fill in our questionnaire, aimed at helping other brides with their planning process. Feast your eyes on her answers for helpful hints and tips from someone on the other side of her big day!
Where and when did you get married?
25th September 2010 at St Peter’s Church in Iver.
What was your thinking behind choosing the venue and the decoration of the reception?
We held the reception in Windsor at the Hart and Garter Hotel. The hotel is directly overlooking Windsor Castle and the décor fitted our classic ivory and black theme beautifully. We kept our tables very simple with a central low floral arrangement, matching the bridal party flowers, and lots of tea lights. We designed and printed our own menus and place cards to fit in with our black and ivory theme and had everything delivered to the hotel the night before for them to put out. My mum had special permission granted for us to have some photographs taken right outside the castle so we sneaked off for 10 minutes with the bridal party and Kelly got some lovely pictures.
Did you have a theme, colour or motif in mind?
We went for a very classic black and ivory theme with all ivory, white and cream flowers with green foliage and ivy.
Who made your wedding outfit (dress, veil, shoes and accessories), and how did you come to that decision?
I was very lucky because my godmother owns Airs & Graces Bridal Wear in Berkhamsted and organized all the dresses for us. I had seen the dress I wanted before we even got engaged and despite trying 'everything' on as you inevitably do, I stuck with my original choice in the end. The dress was beautiful; it was simple, elegant, and comfortable and worked perfectly with our theme and style. I picked a strapless empire-line dress by Eternity Bride and a full length veil with hand sewn Swarovski crystals. I replaced the veil later in the evening with a beautiful ivory, crystal and pearl flower comb.
What about your husband’s outfit? Where was it from?
Stephan wore a classic black dinner suite with a white shirt, Tiffany cufflinks {a wedding present from the bride}, an ivory silk waistcoat with an ivory ruche and black Barker shoes. He wore a simple ivory rose button hole with a sprig of purple Scottish thistle. Perfect!
And how about your bridesmaids’ outfits?
My maids of honors wore chiffon, empire-line, strapless gowns by D'Zage, a perfect echo of the bridal gown in black with a black overlay band around waist. My younger bridesmaid wore the same style but all ivory with straps. The girls looked absolutely stunning and the dresses are timeless, classic black evening dresses that they will be able to wear again which is great.
What type of cake did you go for, and how did you come to that decision?
Mum made the cakes for us which was lovely. We had the most beautiful 'muffin' sized fairy cakes and a 6" square top cake to cut. All were individually decorated with ivory butter cream and a mix of sugar flowers and pearls to decorate. They were a real talking point and looked so beautiful.
Who was your florist, what flowers did you choose, and how did you come to that decision?
We had our flowers made through Iain Fowles from The Green Room in Berkhamsted (C/o Airs & Graces Bridalwear) arranged our flowers for us. We wanted to keep the flowers all ivory and white so Iain used a mix of Avalanche Roses, Ivory Spray Roses, Ivory Freesias, Green Lysianthus, Thistle & Snow Berry and mixed Greenery. The effect was beautiful and so simple to do. The flowers were simply stunning.
Who was your photographer and how did you choose them?
Choosing the right photographer was very important to us as we were having an intimate wedding later in the day with just our closest family and friends; we wanted the atmosphere of the day to be captured without the photography imposing too much on the time we had to spend with our guests. We found Lola Rose Photography on the internet and were immediately taken with the style of Kelly’s photos. Kelly understood exactly what we wanted and was an absolute pleasure to work with. She captured our day perfectly. Her attention to detail, the service we received from her and the presentation of our photos was amazing. We couldn’t have asked for more.
Who designed your stationery? What did it look like and how did you come to that decision?
We designed and made all the stationery ourselves as we couldn't find anything that we both liked. We followed the black and ivory theme and designed a monogram with our initials. We printed on to a lovely pearlescent ivory card and mounted this onto to a textured black card. The invites were sent out in black, tissue lined envelopes. My sister hand wrote the names and addresses with a white pen. We followed the same design with the menus and order of service. For the order of service we printed onto the same ivory paper and rolled and tied these with black ribbon.
What advice do you have for brides planning their big day?
Time! It really doesn't have to take a year or 2 to organize a wedding. With most people nowadays leading such busy lives, it’s easy to wait and push the date back. The best thing we did was to just 'get on with it'. We organized our wedding in 6 months and that was a really nice time frame to work to.
Relax! Everyone tells you this all the time and I thought I was doing quite well on the day but I did spend most of the day waiting for that 'something' that inevitably goes wrong {which didn't thankfully} and subconsciously checking that the day was going smoothly. Remember…'don’t sweat the small stuff'! You’ve done your bit in the planning and as long as the main things are in place, the day is your time to relax, enjoy and not worry about a thing.
Hair & make-up: I always knew I would do my own make-up but also planned to do my own hair and my bridesmaids hair. Fortunately I have a wonderful hairdresser {Sam Bifolco of Bifolco & Mattey in Langley} who was a bit worried about this idea and said she would pop over in the morning 'just in case' I needed help. By the time Sam got to me in the morning nerves has completely taken over so I was just thankful to sit back and let someone else take control.
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