Saturday 9 June 2012

Real Pretty Marquee Wedding: Lottie & Jake - Part 2

With a little bit of vintage and a lot of charm, stand by for Part 2 of Lottie and Jake's gorgeous shabby-chic marquee wedding. There's tonnes of wedding ideas you'll want to steal for your own wedding day, from the elegantly lined marquee, to the gorgeous hedgerow-style table flowers from The Real Cut Flower Garden. I'm loving the dark blue accent details; the napkins, the pottery vases and the table stationery. Nearly every wedding detail was DIY'd - including the music, most of which was arranged by Lottie's father and performed by members of her family. As you scroll through the pictures, do take a look at Lottie's answers to the Before the Big Day Bride's Questionnaire to find out more. Beautiful pictures published with thanks to Fiona Kelly from Fiona's Wedding Photography and FO Photography, with a helping hand from Lisa at County Marquees. Don't miss Part 1 here.



Music was an incredibly important part of our day. We didn't want to go with standard ceremony music, we wanted it to really be about us. We walked in to 'Absolute Beginners' by David Bowie {brilliant lyrics for a wedding!}, during the ceremony Jake's sister sang 'Stay With You' by John Legend, and we walked out to Jackie Wilson's 'Higher and Higher'.


We really enjoyed planning our wedding, although it did get a little stressful at times, particularly with concerns about a venue for the ceremony. It was very difficult to find a registry office big enough for all our guests, and for a while it looked like we would have to cut down our guest list, which would have been very difficult. I really wanted to married in front of everyone.


In the end we came up with a fantastic compromise. We partitioned off part of the marquee and had our ceremony in there, officiated by one of our close friends. Afterwards, we hopped in a taxi with both sets of parents and drove two minutes up the road for a five minute legal ceremony, and got back before any of our guests noticed we were gone!



My grandmother’s house is basically the hub of my family. My mum grew up there, my parents had their wedding reception there, and various bits of the extended family go there for lunch on a weekly basis. I have always known that I wanted to have my wedding there in the garden.


A marquee {from County Marquees} was a no-brainer as August is pretty unreliable in terms of weather. The decorations just came together by themselves – I really liked the idea of having bunting, and I wasn’t keen on having everything perfectly colour-coordinated.




We initially wanted to have a great big chocolate wedding cake, but we were concerned that in August it might melt and/or not be eaten on a hot day. Instead we decided to have five flavours of cupcakes from Primrose Bakery which went down very well. Lots of guests took them home with them as wedding favours.


Our photographer was the wonderful Fiona Kelly. We looked online at lots of photographers and we really liked Fiona's pictures, as well as her easygoing and friendly personality, which was really clear from her website.




Our good friend Jenny Shayler designed our wedding stationery. During the design process she emailed asking for photographs of us both in profile, as she wanted to try out an idea using our silhouettes. We were both sceptical, but we really liked the final result, and ended up using them for our orders of service as well.


My advice to other brides is, don't feel like you have to do things in any particular way, than how you want them. We didn’t really have a wedding theme colour {other than touches of navy blue} or a wedding theme. For us the most important thing was celebrating with our family and friends.


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Real Vintage-Themed Marquee Wedding: Lottie & Jake

This pretty vintage style wedding is proof that you can get married in London, and still have a countryside, shabby-chic feel to your big day. It's absolutely stunning, and I think I've fallen slightly in love with lovely couple, Lottie and Jake. Just take a look at Lottie's fabulous 1940s-style wedding dress and cute bolero, plus her bouquet of UK-grown flowers. I adore sweat peas and cornflowers, and the floral bunting sets off the traditional English feel to perfection. Any brides worrying about a registry office wedding not fitting with their wedding style, should take a look at Lottie's answers to the Before the Big Day Bride's Questionnaire. Lottie came up with an ingenious marquee-shaped compromise - more details and pictures to follow in Part 2 later this afternoon. Beautiful pictures published with thanks to Fiona Kelly from Fiona's Wedding Photography and FO Photography, with a helping hand from Lisa at County Marquees.



I bought my wedding dress, bolero and sash from Zoe Lem. The dress is a customised copy of a vintage 1940's dress. It was literally the first and only dress I looked at – I didn’t step into a traditional wedding dress shop once! My hair clip was also from Zoe Lem, the earrings were a present from my mum. My shoes were from Pronovias, bought in a rush about three weeks before the wedding!


One of my very talented bridesmaids handmade all of the bridesmaids’ dresses and let them choose their own necklines according to their own sense of style. Amazing!


Our florist was Charlie Ryrie of The Real Cut Flower Garden. I wanted UK grown flowers and a relaxed, wildflowery look. I emailed Charlie pictures of my dress, the bridesmaids’ dresses and the bunting, and she made the decisions from there!



My husband, his best man and our officiant all hired suits from Moss Bros. Jake had a navy suit with a champagne waistcoat and tie to match my wedding dress. His best man had the same suit, but blue accessories, and our officiant was in grey and burgundy so that he stood out!




We got married in my grandmother’s garden in Highgate on the 6th August 2011, officiated by one of our close friends. The ceremony included rings, vows, readings: everything a 'proper' ceremony should. Afterwards, our legal ceremony took place at the Highgate Literary and Scientific Society. It took all of 5 minutes and after a few photos we returned to a confetti shower and our marquee reception.



We didn't really have a theme our wedding. We knew that we wanted it to be relaxed and fun and joyous, and a reflection of us, and we went from there.


Music was an incredibly important part of our day. My whole family are musicians and I work as a secondary school music teacher. Most people in my family play string and/or brass instruments so the 'family ensemble' has become a tradition. They play at birthdays and anniversaries, so it was essential they play at our wedding!


When we came back from our 'legal' ceremony the family brass ensemble played my Dad's version of Just the Way You Look Tonight, complete with opening fanfare (!), and after we had dinner the string ensemble played my Dad's version of the Glee's 'Don't Stop Believing'!


♥ Want more shabby-chic themed weddings? ♥ Or how about marquee wedding ideas? ♥
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Friday 8 June 2012

Introducing Dolce Roopa Wedding & Bespoke Stationery

Brides looking for bold and beautiful wedding stationery are going to L-O-V-E Dolceroopa Bespoke Wedding Stationery. Roopa creates gorgeous bespoke designs for your Save the Dates and wedding invitations, so whether you're getting married on the beach, up a mountain, or in London town, you can be sure your wedding stationery will perfectly reflect the style of your big day. With twelve years of design experience, Roopa loves creating that 'something special' for her clients' big day. If you take a look at the fantastic designs below, you'll see the influences of her multicultural background - having lived in Abu Dhabi, Milan, New York and London, Roopa brings a truly international sense of style to her wedding stationery. For more fabulous wedding stationery inspiration, don't miss the Dolceroopa website.
 






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Simple & Elegant Wedding Rings

You've gotta love simple, elegant wedding jewellery, so when I stumbled across the New York online boutique Cat Bird NYC, I got that excited Christmas Eve feeling. The shop is actually in Williamsburg in Brooklyn, which happens to be the coolest neighbourhood in the world right now, but don't despair, because you can shop online. The best thing about them is that they don't just do incredible wedding rings, they unearth new and exciting items from all over the globe, including terrariums, candlesticks, tooth fairy boxes and compasses. Most of all though, I love their reasonably priced, but gorgeous designer wedding rings and engagement rings.


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Thursday 7 June 2012

Perfect Rustic-Chic Buttonholes For Your Groom

Feathers are a huge wedding trend this season, and they're a great way to gussy up your ushers' buttonholes. Couples preferring traditional boutonnières tend to choose simple rose blooms, but there's a fashion now for more boutique buttonholes, with different designs to reflect the groom's personality. I'm a big fan of these gorgeous designs by Pomp and Plummage. Handmade in Canada from hand-dyed feathers and ribbons, with pops of pink-berried millinery branches and wrapped with wool, these buttonholes would work perfectly for winter or early spring weddings. Why not add a touch of vintage woodland to your big day!


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Real DIY Colourful Wedding: Sarah & Rick

Sarah and Rick's gorgeous colourful wedding was entirely DIY'd thanks to the help of multiple friends, an inspiration in itself, and that's before we've started on the details! Particular praise has to go to florist Rhonda Stoffel for her fabulous autumnal blooms. I love how the bridesmaids' bouquets pop against their dark blue dresses, and that each maid has her own style of dress. It's so much kinder than putting all your girlfriends in matching outfits, unless they're all top models. I'm also adoring the colourful chuppah and table dressings, and the long, family style seating plan, plus the multi-coloured mini lanterns decorating the trees. Totally fabulous photographs as ever from the brilliant Jessamyn Harris - particularly the last shot of the wedding party hamming it up - hilarious!

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