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A Vintage Inspired Shoot for A Most Curious Wedding Fair – 2012 Dates Announced

January 6, 2012 in Events, Styled Photo Shoots | 11 comments

A Most Curious Wedding Fair is going into it’s second year with events being held at St Andrew’s Hall in Norwich on the 11th February (11am-4.30pm) and in York Hall, London on the 31st March (11am-5.00pm). To celebrate, organiser Becky got together with the amazing Joanna Millington Photography and some of the other suppliers exhibiting at the shows to put together this beautiful, vintage inspired wedding shoot.

Organiser Becky explained the new direction of the wedding fairs and the ideas behind this shoot to me this week, ”Our suppliers will still favour the 40s and 50s, which continues to enjoy popularity, but we know that the trend aware, fashion forward bride and groom want a little more bang for their buck. They want to widen their horizons, and simply want ‘cool stuff’ at their wedding regardless of era. That is the premise with which the Most Curious Wedding Fair began, but for 2012 we are progressing further with the emphasis on handmade, daring, bespoke-orientated, beautiful, craft, chic, fun, expressive and perhaps a little edgy suppliers. ‘Vintage’ is a recurring theme but not a requirement.”

“For this shoot in particular, we wanted to put across something a little more of the moment, a little more accessible and just down-right beautiful and romantic that picked up on what is happening in fashion too.”

“I think I was a little ‘Movember’ obsessed at the time and specified the idea of hirsute men of a Jack Daniels ilk, think old Americana, Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York, with a bride reminiscent of Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie,” Becky continued, “so plenty of high necked gowns, with boots and bare feet alongside the braces and woollen waistcoats worn by the men. We wanted the couples to look as though they had home made all the elements to their wedding, maybe run away together to get hitched and had a simple affair that they’ve homespun themselves. 1970s does Victoriana seems to be a popular choice for Vogue-esque Florence Welsch inspired brides so we wanted to channel this idea while making sure the men had plenty of styling as well.”

“As the idea developed the image of Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks on the Rumours album cover kept coming to me and in the end we actually did a few images in homage to this. I wasn’t sure it would work but thought it was worth a shot, but I knew we were onto a winner when all the girls began swearing like sailors looking at Jo’s initial pics on the camera!”

Tickets for both shows are available to purchase on the door and cost just £3 each (or only £2 is you’re a bride-to-be!) For further information on attending or exhibiting check out the show’s website or drop becky and email on rebecca@amostcuriousparty.co.uk.

As well as exhibitors, each show will also have a number of ‘how-to’ sessions including how to create your own bouquet and how to make cute cookies for your favours. Plus the Norwich event even has tattooist Gary Donnelly of Gypsy Stables Tattoo Emporium attending. I love the idea of booking a tattoo artist to give you and your beau wedding day commemorative tats don’t you?

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“It’s not all About the Typewriters” A Stress-Free and Intimate Wedding: Dawn & John

October 18, 2011 in British Brides, Wedding | 10 comments

It was really important to Dawn & John to have a stress-free and personal wedding. John proposed on a bridge in Paris after the couple had been together for sixteen years (erm, excuse me guys but you don’t look old enough!) John is in a band, and although he’s used to being on stage, he was super nervous about having all eyes on him at his wedding, so his understanding bride-to-be promised a low key and intimate wedding.

After a ceremony at The Cotton Exchange, Liverpool came the reception at The Racquet Club. “Both John and I live in Guernsey in the Channel Islands but John went to University in Liverpool and we both lived there for nearly 4 years after he finished” the bride explained. “Liverpool is really in our hearts – we love it and go back as often as we can.  There was no venue in Guernsey both within our budget and that was quirky enough.  The Racquet Club was perfect – its really quirky and is beautiful in itself without needing huge amounts of decoration.”

“My husband is a musician and a lot of our friends are in the music industry in one way or another so we knew we wanted something a little out of the ordinary but also something laid back, personal and fun.  Whilst I love going to those traditional weddings I knew that just wouldn’t cut it for us.  After doing lots of research on the internet I knew I wanted to diy as much as I could.  It’s amazing that there are so many wonderful people out there that are willing to share their talents and their ideas in tutorials and websites like Rock n Roll Bride  I honestly don’t know how anyone ever got married without the internet!”

“I actually used a couple of tutorials on Rock n Roll Bride and elsewhere including this fabric flower tutorial for the bridesmaids bouquets, and this vintage brooch bouquet tutorial. I adapted it to make it my own though and my motto soon became – ‘if in doubt glue gun!’. I ordered fabric hydrangeas from eBay and added these around the edge of the brooches to fill it out a little.”

It was also really important to Dawn & John that they ignored a lot of the wedding fads that they’d seen on many blogs. “At first I was slightly overwhelmed by all the weddings I’d seen on the blogs,” Dawn continued. “I couldn’t get married on a cliff top at a Californian vinery or a beach in South Africa and I couldn’t afford to give everyone personalised bags full of wonderful favours but I remember reading a quote on Rock n Roll Bride that simply said ‘it’s not all about the typewriters’.”

“Although I had actually already bought my own 1960′s tiffany blue typewriter for the guestbook, I understood the sentiment and this was a turning point for me.  It taught me that it’s important to make your wedding about what you as a couple want, whether that’s a traditional church wedding with all the trimmings or an elopement to Vegas you should just go for it.  It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks and you most certainly should never organise a wedding with a view to what someone else will think of it.”

Here here lady! You guys are just aces.

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An Organic Farm Wedding: Elisha & Russell

August 11, 2011 in British Brides, Wedding | 8 comments

When I saw Elisha & Russell’s wedding I knew they’d made the perfect choice in their photographer Joanna Brown. If you follow Joanna on twitter you’ll know that she loves her garden and grows her own veg, so the fact that this wedding was held on Magdalen Farm on the Dorset/Somerset border…well she must have been in her element! “The staff of The Magdalen Project at Magdalen Farm are amazing and even joined us on the dance floor and around the campfire at the end of the evening,” the newlyweds told me. “We loved that our wedding was helping to support the Wessex Foundation who encourage active learning in and about the outdoors.”

“I have a background in informal education with young people,” continued Elisha, “and Russ set up www.rocknrolladventures.com to encourage people to spend time in the outdoors which has evolved to organise activity and educational travel for schools and colleges as well as training camps and other holidays. We hope to provide a quality of service and a similar conviction shown by the staff at Magdalen.  We found they really did walk the talk as they claim to do which meant excellent, tasty fresh local food and a friendly and happy staff team. And a deliciously relaxed weekend wedding for us in a beautiful place!”

The bride wore a two dresses – the first which she bought from ASOS and customised by adding some crochet lace hand-sewn by Great-Grandmother. “My Auntie Margaret is a creative wizard and offered to make a dress to my design as she had done for my cousin and bridesmaid Siobhan,” explained the bride. “Looking around for ideas of shapes and materials I found this dress on ASOS that the catwalk video showed to have a great flowing skirt that I thought would be a lot of fun on the dance floor!  I showed it to my Aunt and described the changes I hoped to make.  She found some lovely cotton, crocheted lace in her textiles cupboard which her grandmother had made and said we could use it.  She used natural tea-dye to bring it to the same colour as the dress which was reshaped.”

The bride’s second dress came from Damsel in a Dress. “Closer to the wedding I was worrying that I might prefer to wear something more sophisticated (than my usual style!) for the ceremony and while looking for bridesmaid dresses on John Lewis website found the Damsel in a Dress dress – very different to anything else I’d seen and within budget! So the two dress wedding was decided.  I felt sleek walking up the aisle in the Damsel in a Dress number and had a lot of fun skanking to the ska band and cosying up round the campfire until early hours in my free flowing skirt of my ASOS dress.”

It was the little and fun touches that made this wedding brilliant. For example, after the ceremony they had the Street Heat Samba Band to entertain their guests and playing late into the night were Skar Wars. The couple asked a number of their guests to make a cake instead of having a traditional wedding cake and they were helped by their friends and family with making and displaying the reception decor.

“We didn’t really identify a theme,” concluded Elisha, “other than we knew we wanted to create an informal event with as much time outside as possible. You could say our theme was evolving! I grew up loving the Dorset countryside and felt closest to my family when there, where our time spent together was focused on getting muddy in streams or eating picnics on the beach.  Russ had enjoyed similar times with his family and it was his determination not to feel part of a ‘wedding machine’ of many, more formal venues, but focus on finding somewhere that we wanted to spend time with family and friends to celebrate our happiness and excitement for the future.  We felt very lucky to find that in the venue and staff of Magdalen Farm.”

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A Laid-Back Beach Wedding at Camber Sands: Fiona & Rob

August 11, 2011 in British Brides, Wedding | 5 comments

Fiona & Rob were hitched right by the beach at The Gallivant in Camber Sands (formally called The Place). The style of the beautiful hotel suited their beach theme perfectly. “I was quite keen for it not to look too wedding’y – or formal or too orchestrated” newlywed Fiona told me.

“We didn’t consciously go with a theme but it kind of happened!  We live on a beach and both my husband and I are kitesurfers so it had to feature strongly and in the end it made it easier to have a focus shaping our creative decisions!  I think always try and make stuff, not only to save money but to make it more personal and make your loved ones feel involved.”

“Many of the homemade elements were made with thanks to my Mum who worked hard on all this stuff. We made our own table displays.  We bought glass bowls from Argos and filled them with stones, seaweed and shells form our local beach. We all now have one in our houses as nice ornaments!  We made shell garlands, buying large shells from a seaside tourist shop and drilling holes in them to then thread onto thick string. These were hung up around the venue – adding to the beach theme!”

“Finally, we collected large pebbles from our local beach, wrote names on them using liquid craft pens and used them as place names.  We also put together kids packs including a colouring book, plastic bangles & bucket and spade.  Rather than having ‘favours’ we had big bowls of hairdo and love heart sweets dotted around.”

The bright sunflowers were also really important to the couple as they added some sunshine to their day, “It was all about sunflowers being my favourite flower and perfect for a sunny beach wedding,” Fiona said. “My parents and in-laws all grew some in their gardens over the summer which we used as extras in a few ceramic jugs and vases around the venue (which were all bought from Ikea.)  We then ordered a few tall glass displays from brilliant flower shop in Rye near to the venue called Cafe Des Fleurs. They also provided smaller sunflowers to put in small glass vases on the tables (bought from Ikea again), the little flowers for my hair & the button holes and finally my absolutely beautiful bouquet. We all had sunflowers in our houses for weeks afterwards!  The little flower girls also had baskets of yellow petals which they spread down the aisle as I walked in – very cute!”

The bride wore an informal tunic style dress from Phillip Lim. “I always imagined my wedding style to be a bit 60′s hippy love child – no idea why…I literally searched online for ‘short cream tunic dress’ and found it! The lace just made it look more delicate and special although I had to have a new under layer made as the previous one was a bit see through! I was nervous about the length but it wasn’t a church wedding and I am so happy I went with it as it looks awesome with our venue and theme.”

The couple certainly didn’t take themselves or their wedding too seriously which was reflected in the fact that after dinner they had organised a salsa class as entertainment for their guests! “It was very funny, not everyone loved it but we did which is the main thing!” continued Fiona. “We also asked my husband’s brother and wife to sing ‘All I Want is You’ by Barry Louis Polisar during our ceremony to a backing track, placing a song sheet on everyone seats to join in.  It was funny as they’re not professional singers (!) but its small things like this that make it way more personal and much less formal than a reading.”

The next day all the guests were invited back for a celebration BBQ on the beach.

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A British Beach-Inspired, DIY Wedding: Emma & Matt

August 1, 2011 in British Brides, Wedding | 4 comments

I teased a photo of Emma in her amazing short short wedding dress on twitter as soon as photographer David McNeil sent over this wedding to me. Whoaaa, I literally had to share it with someone (well 12,000 someone’s) right away! I. Die.

“We got married in Bardsea (on the bay of Morecambe)” Emma told me. “It’s my parent’s village which is just such a gorgeous place near the moors and the beach. Even though we live in Camden and love it – we’re both down to earth and love being outdoors and away from the city, so it was a natural choice. We got married at Eden Lodge, on the outskirts of the village, which has recently been converted from a Edwardian home to a small, minimalist hotel in some AMAZING grounds. We got married in the hotel itself and then the reception was in a marquee in the grounds. It was the hotel’s first wedding and they were AMAZING. We can’t sing their praises enough. The staff were EXCEPTIONAL and really went above and beyond to make our day perfect.”

Emma’s amazing dress was a custom-made Suzanne Neville number. She explains, “I never thought Matt and I would get married. I knew we’d be together forever but we weren’t really the ‘marrying kind’. As soon as he proposed, I knew my dress would be something that reflected my character. I’m not a girly girl and I usually dress in biker boots and short skirts – so short was what I wanted. I wanted to feel like ME on the day not a BRIDE. I scooted through some websites looking for a short wedding dress and found one designed by Suzanne Neville. I fell in love but hunted for something cheaper that I loved as much. Anyway I didn’t. The dress was custom made for me at a crazy price. But it was the only one for me!  I’ve been taking some millinery courses so I wanted to make something for me to wear. Obviously our wedding was near the royal wedding, so as a joke I designed and made a crown out of silk and fresh water pearls to wear. In the end I chickened out of wearing it as I was already so tall in my platforms but you can see me holding it in this photo.”

The inspiration for the wedding came from the proposal and the things Emma & Matt love in ‘real life’. ”When Matt proposed we were camping in Dartmoor and driving back to London took about 7 hours. In these hours we talked through everything we wanted from our wedding. How we wanted it to reflect us and not be a cookie cutter wedding. We focused on the things that we love and most of all wanted the wedding to be fun. We decided that we would use things that meant a lot to us and reflected our life together. Basically, we tried to reflect the things we loved and tried to steer clear of doing things conventionally wedding like.”

“Matt proposed in a river by a rocky outcrop and as a keepsake I took one of the grey pebbles from where we’d been standing. I used this as inspiration for the wedding, i.e. grey and round. Once we had decided on the theme I started buying wedding props straight away – collecting them up for the big day. The sooner you do this the better as it saves money and really adds the little touches to the wedding. For example, I bought lots of Christmas decorations (white china bells and hearts) in the sales after Christmas and used these in the trees at the wedding. I like little details, so I also bought lots of wedding words and signs. Again, I got a lot of these in the sales (www.sheerluxe.com has a wedding section and does lots of money off offers. Also I found wedding magazines usually have a special offer on each issue, so I used these.)”

“I collected pebbles from the local beach and used these for the centrepieces and the name places. My dad also used grey slate to make the stands for the tables numbers which were bought from an online hobbycraft website really cheaply and spray painted by my dad. I also used the dress as inspiration and tried to reflect the poofyness of the dress in the choice of round chinese lanterns in the gardens, 3ft round balloons in the gardens, my round bouquet and the round “afro” like vases of gypsophilia.”

Beautiful, classy, stylish and personal. I love it! Although, Emma damn you for introducing me to Tina Lilienthal jewellery. I now need to own the whole ‘Skulls & Strawberries’ range.

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