A London Wedding with THE dress!

I thought I’d treat us all to a gorgeous real wedding to brighten up this Monday morning. Today’s real wedding submission has come from the very lovely Icy Lazare.

Sarah met Bryan at Marble Arch where they met for the first time under the Arch and thought it would be a lovely idea to meet again there just before getting married. They then married at Marylbone Town Hall before heading off in an old vintage cab to the Temple Pier to board the Golden Jubilee boat where the reception took place.

Photography courtesy of Icy Lazare

Yes! It’s THE dress… not my dress of course but THE dress that is so very much loved in the wedding world at the moment.

With thanks to Sarah and Bryan and to Icy Lazare for sharing this gorgeous real wedding with the Bow Occasions Wedding Blog.

Louise ♥ xx

Bow Occasions is always on the lookout for gorgeous real weddings to feature. If you are interested in submitting a real wedding to the Bow Occasions Blog, please visit the submissions page for more information.

A Winter, London Underground Inspired Wedding

This beautiful winter wedding was submitted by Sara Lipowitz. This is the first time Sara has submitted a wedding to a wedding blog so as you can probably guess, I feel very privillaged that Sara chose the Bow Occasions Blog for her first wedding feature.

Jane and Gary married on 18th December 2010 at Gibson Hall, London.

All photos courtesy of Sara Lipowitz

The first thing that we decided was that we were going to have a winter wedding, as we were both very  reluctant to rely on the great British weather. With this decided early we knew the venue had to be spacious so that guests didn’t feel confined, and we also wanted to have the ceremony in the same venue without having to change the wedding room into the reception room. Gibson Hall in Bishopsgate London was the perfect venue, and practically on our doorstep. This beautiful former bank had colourful high ceilings, lavish lighting and stunning chandeliers and pillars.

Next on the agenda was the dress, I was sure I didn’t want a standard and traditional white dress, and it needed to be as opulent and stunning as our venue. After falling in love with the unusual designs of Ian Stewart I visited London Bride Couture in Victoria who stock a lot of Ian Stewart Gowns and found Dominica in Taupe Metallic was the one for me. This silk and lace gown was unusual, and a work of art just on the hanger.

We designed and put together the invitations ourselves, simplistic in silver and black. I also bought some beautiful crystallised wreaths from red direct in the summer to avoid the Christmas madness and these would be the start of our centrepieces. I also bought gold and silver pine cones from eBay to pile inside the wreaths and as it was a listed building the finishing touch was very realistic flickering flame free candles rented from smartcandle UK. With this sorted early we continued putting our silvery winter look together with silver dusting, silver and black chair covers from Sparkle Events a wonderful starry cake from The Cake Store .

My hair was booked through Love Hair and my amazing stylist Alex Gillott loved the fact that I wanted big Audrey Hepburn style beehives for all the bridesmaids, and height and volume in my vintage style with looser structure.  I was also lucky enough to have a hair piece designed by Yasmine Luscombe as a gift from my friend. Old movie star glamour was the style for the day and I bought floor length silver and black gowns for the bridesmaids from Coast, these were set to match the best man and both father of the groom and bride in Black tuxedo’s and silver ties. The groom in a black Hugo Boss tuxedo, with skinny black tie to finish off the look. As it was a winter wedding flowers were kept to minimum, just small bouquets with cream roses and silver jewels for all the girls, and a head table silvery winter centrepiece to stand out from the other tables. Elegantly put together by London florist Windsor Flowers near St Pauls Cathedral.

After an initial bump in the morning due to snow causing issues with guest transport, the day ran smoothly. We enjoyed every minute and relished the informal and warm atmosphere with the elegant and snowy backdrop. After an excellent 3 course dinner including wintery Venison and a white Chocolate parfait to die for, we got our dancing shoes on and enjoyed the music selection from Neil, our DJ from JSO events.

A day we will remember and cherish always, our memories have been perfectly captured by our photographer Sara Lipowitz who’s discreet and unobtrusive approach was key to catching those special moments. We knew she would be perfect after seeing her fabulous work from our friend’s summer wedding. After all the winter wedding fun, we set off for our honeymoon on the Maldivian Island of Veligandu, absolute paradise.

With thanks to Jane and Gary and to Sara Lipowitz for sharing this gorgeous real wedding with the Bow Occasions Wedding Blog.

Louise ♥ xx

Bow Occasions is always on the lookout for gorgeous real weddings to feature. If you are interested in submitting a real wedding to the Bow Occasions Blog, please visit the submissions page for more information.

Moustaches, cakes and a whole lotta fun

Happy Friday! This week has flown by; all my weeks are merging into one at the moment. Who would have though that this time of year would be so busy in the wonderful world of weddings. I must keep this in mind for next year so at least I am prepared

I have some gorgeous real weddings coming up on the blog over the next few weeks people so do keep checking back for some real loveliness. First up, is the gorgeous, fun wedding of Joanna and Duncan by Sam Clayton Photography. Joanna and Duncan got married in Cley Next The Sea, Norfolk on 15^th May 2010. As always, more photos can be found in the real wedding gallery after the photos.

All photos courtesy of Sam Clayton Photography

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL WEDDING IN THE REAL WEDDING GALLERY

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From Joanna and Duncan
The priority for our wedding day was for all our closest friends and family to have fun, relax and enjoy themselves. We had a great lead up to the big day… with people turning up a few days before to help out, celebrate and generally be merry. It made the whole experience fantastic. We’re both pretty silly and creative people. I thought of the moustache theme due to my love of Poirot. We came up with the idea to ask people to make cakes for a summer fete style cake stall as we love food and couldn’t decide what to have as dessert… people wanted to be involved and making a cake for the day was a great way to do that. Our friends and us have always Dj’d at parties since uni days and have a great selection good times records. Asking our friends and family to help and perform at the wedding allowed us to create the personal and intimate event that we wanted.

From Sam Clayton Photography
Although both living in London, Joanna & Duncan had chosen to get married in the Norfolk village of Cley. It was a very relaxed and fun day with plenty of lovely little details.

Joanna’s grandmother used to live in Well Cottage next to the church; the cottage still remains in the family as well as a piece of marshland opposite the cottage, over the village green. It was here that the reception was held in a pretty marquee with wonderful views.
Joanna had chosen a beautiful Sassi Holford dress, her shoes were fabulous, Kurt Geiger, a dark rose in colour with a beetle adornment! She placed a brooch belong to her Grandmother on her bouquet.

Joanna didn’t want the typical bridesmaid dress for her bridesmaids and had given them pretty much free reign to choose their own outfits. When they found these lovely skirts in Reiss paired with some French Connection tops they knew they had found an outfit which suited their style and the feel of the wedding.

Duncan had chosen a suit by Nicole Fahri – I loved it! He had a complimenting blue linen waistcoat and white tie. The couple had decided to keep both their choice of wedding attire a secret to each other. So Joanna had no idea what Duncan was going to wear.

Joanna, Duncan & I went over to Well Cottage for photos in the garden after the ceremony, whilst their guests enjoyed drinks and canapés in the orchard, along with special ale brewed by their close friends as a gift.

The guests enjoyed a barbeque and evening guests were invited to join the party in time for cakes & speeches. Guests had been invited to bake cakes for dessert and there was a huge array of fabulous cakes.

Joanna and Duncan wanted a post wedding shoot the next day on the beach at Cley. The weather was a totally different story to the previous day – overcast, blustery and threatening rain – but Joanna & Duncan were quite up for it.

With thanks to Joanna and Duncan and Sam Clayton Photography for sharing this gorgeous real wedding with the Bow Occasions Wedding Blog.

Louise ♥ xx

Bow Occasions is always on the lookout for gorgeous real weddings to feature. If you are interested in submitting a real wedding to the Bow Occasions Blog, please visit the submissions page for more information.

A Laid Back Country Wedding by Rebecca Honeywell Photography

It has been a few weeks since I have posted a real wedding on the blog but I have a lovely one for you today. Mel and Joseph got married at Hipping Hall in Cumbria. A beautiful, rambling country house hotel. I love every wedding I post on the blog but I really do love so much about todays wedding. From the gorgeous florals, to the dress (those ruffles!!!), to the AMAZING invitations to the fact that this lovely couple walked down the aisle together – a perfect example of doing it your way. I have posted a selection of photos below as well as a lovely piece written by Mel and Joesph’s wedding photographer, Rebecca Honeywell. More can be found in the real wedding gallery.

All photos courtesy of Rebecca Honeywell Photography.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL WEDDING IN THE REAL WEDDING GALLERY

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Mel and Joseph had a really relaxed and personal wedding at Hipping Hall – they got ready together and Joseph even helped paint Mel’s nails! As Mel and Joseph got ready upstairs, the guests arrived and were treated to afternoon tea – with lots of strawberries. Between them Melanie and Joseph have 5 boys, and the school they went to serves strawberry tea including strawberry sandwiches in the summer, so this was used at the wedding as well. Mel’s gorgeous dress was Peony from www.juliatasker.co.uk, she had two pairs of shoes – a pair of heels for the day and flat for later on. The make up was by www.beautysimply.co.uk.

Mel and Joseph then walked down the aisle together and married at 4pm in front of 40 or so friends and family, before enjoying Pimms in the garden. A brilliant caricaturist captured all the guests (and even a dog who was invited!) throughout the day. Rather than showing up the bad points as many caricaturists do he looked for the good and so the portraits were flattering!

Mel and Josephs invitations were stunning – designed by Amy Tan (www.treespacestudio.com) in the US. The RSVP’s were jigsaw pieces which once put together revealed a scene of Mel and Joseph’s wedding.

With thanks to Mel and Joesph and Rebecca Honeywell for sharing this gorgeous real wedding with the Bow Occasions Wedding Blog.

Louise ♥ xx

Bow Occasions is always on the lookout for gorgeous real weddings to feature. If you are interested in submitting a real wedding to the Bow Occasions Blog, please visit the submissions page for more information.

Jude and Simon’s Seaside Wedding

Just before Christmas I came across two lovely girls from Cotton Candy Weddings who are so passionate about vintage inspired wedding photography, I knew I had to feature a gorgeous real wedding from them on the blog.

Jude and Simon got married on 14th August 2010 at St. Simon’s Church followed by the Rose Gardens.

Jude has written a fantastic overview of the planning and her wedding day, it made me laugh so much. So settle down with a cuppa and have a read of this gorgeous real wedding.

All photos courtesy of Cotton Candy Weddings

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL WEDDING IN THE REAL WEDDING GALLERY

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The entire day was magical and all came together after only organising it in 5 months! (I wasn’t pregnant…!) My dress was completely covered in lace and sequins and I wore it with a sequinned flower headband and jewellery from the Lanes in Brighton! I was originally going to wear a very plain dress but my friends with good taste dragged me to a bridal shop and made me try on some ‘proper’ dresses! I am so glad I did as even though I had to cut back on everything but air and water to fit in it, it is the most beautiful thing I have ever worn and I still wont let my husband put it in the loft yet! (Someone suggested that I sell it the other day…I asked them to leave my house!) In addition my mum lent me her bracelet that both she and my sister had worn on their wedding days, which was so special and which my Dad had bought her on her 21st birthday.

My dad picked me up and took me to St. Simon’s Church in a beautiful white Rolls Royce! Once we had made our vows at 4pm, laughed through the service with overwhelming happiness (is this too much?!) and been doused with confetti, the guests all travelled to the Rose Gardens in a red London double-decker bus! The ONLY time it rained during the whole day…did I mention my wedding was in the middle of August…was during the photos!

I had already vetted the content of Simon’s, my Dad’s and to some extent the best man Spencer’s speech but little did I know that Simon’s two best friends had rewritten the words to ‘Hey Jude’ and sang in front of us and all the guests. I swear there was not a dry eye in the room and it was one of the best moments of the day! My husband’s band provided the entertainment with a whole host of guest singers from our congregation (all planned…not like bandeoke!) Whilst I thought that I only sang wailing, terrible backing vocals for 1 song…I was up there most of the night! Still, amongst lots of singing, dancing, alcohol, smiles, skinny dipping on the beach opposite (not me!), 5am bedtimes and the best day of my life without a doubt, the wedding ran brilliantly!

Words of Wisdom
My best advice to other brides is to look at what you; friends and family can do yourselves. By making things and getting everyone involved it creates an even better atmosphere and a personal feel to every element of the wedding! I would also highly recommend researching…I was on the internet for hours every night but it was well worth it. I kept an ongoing list of things to do, delegated where I could and made sure I was completely happy with it all before paying for anything! I also kept a weekly eye on the budget! My sister and I only went to two wedding fayres, just for ideas and the best thing to do is to take the information and business cards and consider it when you are at home…it is very easy to sign up to things when you are there and regret it later!

Last of all; don’t expect your husband to get involved in the little things! My husband’s task was to sort out the music and the suit while I took care of everything else. I ran it all by him and he had a few stipulations, but mainly it was a “if you’re happy, I’m happy” attitude which worked well with my control freak approach!

Since seeing guests they have told me that it was the best wedding they have ever been to and I am inclined to agree! Especially as the honeymoon to St. Lucia afterwards created an addition to the newly weds due in May…!

With thanks to Jude and Simon and Cotton Candy Weddings for sharing this gorgeous real wedding with the Bow Occasions wedding blog.

Louise ♥ xx

Bow Occasions is always on the lookout for gorgeous real weddings to feature. If you are interested in submitting a real wedding to the Bow Occasions Blog, please visit the submissions page for more information.

A Scottish Affair by Craig and Eva Sanders Photography

Good morning! Welcome to the first real wedding of 2011.

There’s just so much pretty in the weddings submitted to Bow Occasions Blog that I have decided to lay them out a little differently. I will show a small selection of photos in the main blog post with a link to the full wedding gallery at the end. Let me know what you think of the new layout.

Rachael wrote a fantastic piece to go alongside these photos. Whilst reading it I felt as though I had been there throughout the planning process and the day itself. You can read all about Rachael and Iain’s wedding after the stunning photos.

All photos courtesy of Craig and Eva Sanders Photography

VIEW THE FULL WEDDING IN THE REAL WEDDING GALLERY

I always thought I wanted somewhere different for a reception venue and I visited some locations which had an outdoor feel to it as Iain and I both love the outdoors but when we visited the Brig O’Doon for lunch one day we asked to be showed around and we both new instantly that it was the venue for us.

So we were quick to book the Brig O’Doon for the summer of 2010.  My next aspect of planning was to think of the dress and what was right for me.  I always thought I would prefer something with lace and detail instead of the big white dress which i saw in so many pictures, lovely, but not for me.  This was confirmed when I started trying on dresses and found that white was definetly not for me.  I love all things vintage so had that in mind when I was looking.  I finally found a dress I really loved at Opus Couture in West Kilbride.  It had champagne lace and gold satin underneath, not typical colours but suited me nicely compared to white.  I also got them to add a few details to make it slightly different.

I didn’t want to get too involved in a big theme for our wedding but certainly wanted to include detail that matched both our personalities and told a story of our relationship so far.  Keeping the vintage theme in mind, I also thought of including a travel aspect to our planning as travelling is something we both enjoy and have had some amazing experiences together.  This started with the invitations, I wanted them to touch on our travel theme and still have an element of class about them.  We worked closely with Christine Findlater from Perfect Match Designs to come up with something we both liked.

My friend  had recommended Craig and Eva Sanders for photography and after visiting them and having a look through their amazing albums, we knew we wanted them to capture our day.  We wanted a big band and looked into a lot and finally decided on A-Side Soul after watching them play in Glasgow. We also managed to book a Jazz duo for the drinks reception. So far everything was working nicely.

Keeping the theme in mind, I wanted our seating plan to be different and thought of an old vintage suitcase.  I spent a while looking for a vintage suitase on ebay and finally managed to find one that was certainly vintage looking – stains and everything but again, perfect.  Some more vintage stickers  addedd to that too.  Iain was very clever on the computer and managed to copy, scan and type names onto the postcards.  These postcards were also used as the table centre pieces.

I had a local hairdresser put my hair up, again wanting to keep it vintage looking.  I also had Louise from Eye Candy make-up for myself and the girls.  I chose a hair piece and jewellery from Glitzy Secrets, a great website with a full range of glitz!  The girls looked lovely in their stone colour dresses from Angels Closet with some pearls to complement. A busy morning with a last minute rush, causing me to be almost half an hour late.

Iain looked very nice kitted out in his McCalum tartan and I was pleased with how the church was looking thanks to the Church Florist Gerard, who also made a lovely flower arrangement for a candle which I lut in memory of my lovely dad, having him part of the day was more important than the fine details.  It was a great Service thanks to both my Priest, Father Philip and Iain’s Minister Mr Symington. Our friends Calum and Laura were kind to add some musical interlude during the signing of the register.  The service was perfect.

It all seemed like such a rush afterwards as we made our way to the reception, just as we arrived at the Brig O’Doon the sun decided to appear, great!  We were quick to follow Craig and Eva’s directions to get some photos in the gardens.  We can’t thank Craig and Eva enough, not just for their amazing photography but also for being so down to earth and making us feel relaxed on the day.  The Brig and it’s surroundings really allowed forsome graet photos.

We really did have the perfect day and continued to have an amzing time on our safari honeymoon in South Africa where we managed to pick up some African vintage post cards and used these as our thank you cards to our guests, the theme made it all the way to the end!  Now we have our beautiful album to look over thanks to Craig and Eva.  We also have a lovely DVD of the day by Adore Weddings.

With thanks to Rachael and Iain and Craig and Eva Sanders Photography for sharing the wedding day with the Bow Occasions wedding blog.

Louise ♥ xx

Bow Occasions is always on the lookout for gorgeous real weddings to feature. If you are interested in submitting a real wedding to the Bow Occasions Blog, please visit the submissions page for more information.

Wedding :: Rachel and Darren – Loughborough {Part Two}

It’s time for part two of Rachel and Darren’s gorgeous, quirky wedding.

All photos courtesy of Mark Wallis.

We based our ideas and theme loosely around Alice in Wonderland, wanting to host our guests an afternoon tea party and garden games of croquet and cards. We also love festivals and wanted a laid back feel to our day, so chose a barbeque, old fashioned ice-cream man, bunting and floral patterns throughout. For our colour scheme we chose to use pastel shades of pink and yellow and turquoise. These colours gave a very fresh and summery feel to the day.

We wanted to be a bit different with our place names so decided to print out a face of each guest that was coming and stick it to a body that we cut out of various bits of magazines and print outs. It was so fun to see everyone interacting with their characters over dinner and the speeches, another small touch to make our friends feel special.

Our lovely friends Vicky and Alison made the cake for us and it looked amazing! The 3 tiers of sponge and fruit cake were covered in icing and wrapped in small bunting and sweets. Dennis the Menace and Tinkerbell figures stood proud on top of the cake. We first started liking each other at a fancy dress party dressed as these characters.

A friend beautifully arranged our table flowers for us. She placed a range of wild flowers in assorted jars with ribbons around them. They looked fantastic, creating a great central point to each table.

The entertainment was led by Best Man Tom and his band. We danced the night away to lots of old and modern classics. The dance floor was full all night.

Words of Wisdom

Make sure that you really do make your day as enjoyable as you can! Remember to be yourselves and think about creative ways of showing off your personality! I found it helpful to research a lot, gaining inspiration from multiple sources and weddings.

I love how many friends got involved with this wedding, it makes it all the more fun and so much more personal. With thanks to Rachel and Darren and Mark Wallis for sharing the wedding day with the Bow Occasions wedding blog.

Louise ♥

Bow Occasions is looking for real weddings to feature. If you are interested in submitting a real wedding to the Bow Occasions Blog, please visit the submissions page for more information.

Wedding :: Rachel and Darren – Loughborough {Part One}

Good morning everyone. I have a gorgeous wedding to share with you all which I know will brighten your Monday morning. It certainly made me smile on more than a few occasions when putting this post together.

Rachel and Darren tied the knot on 24th July 2010 at Our Lady’s Convent School, Loughborough.

All images courtesy of Mark Wallis.

The Proposal
We were travelling around New Zealand for 3 weeks in a baby blue VW Kombi around Christmas time (2009) when he proposed. We were in a place called Paihia on the North Island in a beautiful bay for Christmas Day. Darren woke me up nice and early all dressed up in smart shirt and tie. In the night he had got up and covered the outside of the Kombi in a hundred pink hearts, each one with a significant moment written on. After a special breakfast (and when the tide had come in) he took me in a small boat to the other side of the bay and played me a few songs on his guitar, including one he had written especially for me. Then the moment! He got down on one knee and proposed.

I wanted to keep my hair and makeup really simple. My bridesmaids and I did our make up together in the morning, which was good fun! I went to the hairdressers to get my hair done before they arrived. I decided to have my hair down, curly, with a large ivory flower in it. I really liked it, feeling the style went well with the dress. They used something called the ‘magic wand’ to curl my hair, which is intended to give larger curls at the top and smaller ones at the bottom.

My dress was a strapless, ivory, detailed dress from Berketex Brides. I loved the floral sequined detail on the front and side of the dress. I was after a fitted dress, and when I saw this in the shop I knew it was the one I had been looking for! I loved wearing it on the day and didn’t want to take it off!

I was given a pair of pearl earrings to wear. I did not have any other jewellery or accessories on as my dress was so beautiful and details, I felt that I didn’t need it!

For the bridesmaid’s bouquets, we wanted to keep them simple, as the dresses were bright and floral. The bouquets were made up of white roses. For my bouquet, I wanted to pick out the yellow in Darren’s bowtie and in the girl’s dresses. My bouquet consisted of daisies and yellow roses. All of the bouquets were tied with turquoise ribbons to tie in with the pastel colour scheme.

Rachel walked down the aisle to Reign Of Love by Coldplay and we walked out to Strawberry Swing, also by Coldplay. Our first dance was to Ordinary Angel by Athlete.

We had 6 bridesmaids; they wore beautiful floral dresses from Coast. We loved the bursts of colour in these dresses and found that the shape and style suited them all. We had 4 Best Men and 5 Ushers in the end because we have too many great friends! Everyone had the beautiful light blue shirts on with light grey suits and pink bowties for the Best Men and navy blue ties for the Ushers. They looked stunning!

For the transport it could only be a VW Kombi! One of Darren’s friends owns this Kombi so we had to get him booked in!

Come back tomorrow for Part Two of this gorgeous real wedding.

Louise ♥

Bow Occasions is looking for real weddings to feature. If you are interested in submitting a real wedding to the Bow Occasions Blog, please visit the submissions page for more information.

A Kentish Wedding – Part Two {Natasha and Andrew}

Good Morning! It’s time for part two of this non-fussy, relaxed Kentish Wedding.

All of the beautiful images are courtesy of David Fenwick.

The Food
The food was a delicious spread of lamb spit roast with summer salads, followed by a fresh fruit sponge wedding cake decorated with edible flowers. To keep us going in the evening we had pick & mix sweets, Tyrells crisps and bacon rolls.

One of the things we liked about the farm was being able to stay there, we spent the night in the fishing shack, whilst some stayed in the tipis and other guests pitched tents – then in the morning we all had breakfast together.

The Entertainment
We had a friends jazz band playing music from after the ceremony until early evening, whilst they were playing there were summer fete style games, including a coconut shy, skittles, giant jenga, boules and hoola hoops but the main talking point were the frames which we hung from a tree, with an accompanying basket of hats and sunglasses. Guests had fun posing in them, we’ve got some great pictures, where people forgot about the camera and enjoyed being silly!

The Honeymoon
We had a ‘mini-moon’ straight after the wedding in Dorset for 2 nights and saved the ‘proper’ honeymoon until September where we spent 2 weeks traveling around Sicily. The best bit has to be the night boat to see Stromboli, which is an island with an active volcano – we saw the sun setting and the amazing red erupting lava!

Words of Wisdom
Our advice would be, don’t feel like you have to do everything that a ‘typical’ wedding does – be different and do what you want, that way you’ll feel more like yourself, will relax and enjoy the day.

With thanks to Natasha and Andrew and David Fenwick for sharing this lovely wedding day with the Bow Occasions Blog.

Louise ♥

Bow Occasions is looking for real weddings to feature. If you are interested in submitting a real wedding to the Bow Occasions Blog, please visit the submissions page for more information.

A Kentish Wedding – Part One {Natasha and Andrew}

Remember the sneak peek I posted yesterday? Well today, I have the first part of this lovely real wedding.

Natasha and Andrew married on 31st July 2010 at Brick House Farm in Kent.

All images courtesy of David Fenwick.

The Proposal

We met at Art collage nearly 10 years ago! After waiting so long for a proposal I never thought it would come, but in October 2009 after Andrew had cooked breakfast he presented me with a box and a beautiful ring. I think everyone had been expecting an engagement after our many holidays but not on a cold wet morning at home, so it was definitely a surprise for everyone!

A Kentish Wedding

We both wanted a non-fussy, relaxed wedding and one that people would remember for being different. As we’ve both grown up in Kent and love the country we wanted to combine the two and found the perfect location in Brick House Farm. We loved the ‘Darling Buds of May’ feel that it had and the possibilities to add our own ideas to the location.

The Outfits

I had a dress by Claire Pettibone from Blackburn Bridal Couture. It was comfortable, simple, and was made with beautiful lace, which gave it the vintage feel that I wanted. I went with sensible flat peep-toe pumps from Kurt Geiger which lasted me right though to the dancing!

Andrew had a made to measure suit from Mangas in London, it meant that he could have the same experience that I was having with choosing my dress. He got to choose the style, cut and material and he’ll probably wear it more than I’ll wear my dress! Bestmen followed the navy colour scheme but bought their own style of suit – boys being boys left it to the last minute and we hadn’t seen any of them until the day – luckily they all matched! All of the men had hand-made ties from Peckham Rye ties.

We had my sister as the bridesmaid, she wore a navy maxi-dress from Coast and our four nieces were the cutest little flower girls in their dresses from Monsoon.

The Details

We both work in design and loved designing the save-the-date cards, invites, booklet, table names – just about everything that could be designed we did it! I think this gave the wedding a special feel, one where our personalities could shine through. We didn’t go with anything typically meant for a wedding and choose sweet bags and hand-made tags (taken from off-cuts of our invite) for the place-settings. In each persons bag, we designed and made a wedding quiz and for the children a little activity book.

We wanted to involve as many family and friends as possible – the girls had a day of making glass jar lanterns, my Dad grew flowers in terracotta pots for a beautiful display outside the ceremony barn and also as thank-you’s for our helpers, our friend baked yummy iced flower biscuits as an evening treat, my Mum made my garter from a piece of lace taken off my dress, the Uncles were the chauffeurs in their Landrover and Morris Miner and the list goes on!

We had flowers that looked like they had just been grabbed from a nearby field, they were wild and colourful and full of variety. The flowers added to the venues natural beauty and it didn’t need much extra but we used hand-sewn bunting, paper lanterns and glass jar lanterns for decoration. With our invite we also asked guests to design and bring along their own piece of bunting, which was hung with a peg on a piece of string and created a great talking point.

Check back tomorrow for part two.

Louise ♥

Bow Occasions is looking for real weddings to feature. If you are interested in submitting a real wedding to the Bow Occasions Blog, please visit the submissions page for more information.