Tea Party

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Remember Regula & Bruno’s spooky Rye wedding? Well they’re back, not once but twice today! I’m kicking of this Wednesday morn’ with the Belgian leg of their wedding and this afternoon I’ll be sharing their creepy wedding portraits taken at an abandoned fairground! Originally from Belgium the couple were keen to have a tea party reception in their home city for all their friends & family that didn’t come over to the UK for their ceremony.

Writer Regula told me all about their tea party. “We knew what we wanted to do for our wedding reception immediately. Because we were getting married in England we wanted our friends from Belgium to feel like they were in the UK. We decided we were going to do a wedding afternoon tea.”

“The biggest task of all was making our wedding tea invitations, both of us being graphic designers we had an image in our heads of how we wanted it to look. We combined these visions and worked on the designs for over 6 months only to get them ready just in time. Our invitation was actually a folder filled with a number of cards people could discover as they opened it, in each invitation we sowed a customised teabag. We also made a wedding blog with our digital invitation so people could check the blog for details if they didn’t have the actual invitation with them. We put some homemade video’s on it of us assembling the wedding invitation packs, together with some 1940′s video’s of how to prepare the perfect tea. We had information on it explaining people what afternoon tea is all about as most Belgians don’t know a lot about the custom.”

“For our venue we chose a bar/gallery in Antwerp owned by friends, Bruno designed their logo website and front of the building and was given full creative liberty so we knew the place was perfect to be our venue. Bruno’s illustrations were still up on the walls from his exhibition so the wall’s were all ready decorated with our things. Since it was our friends bar we were allowed to do what we wanted with the place. We unscrewed things and took them out and cleared everything we didn’t need. The furniture in the bar was all vintage or DIY, perfect for our vintage theme.”

“For the decoration, we collected vintage crockery and bell jars for a year, and by the end of may our  house was full of boxes. We made bunting, posters, cards, labels… from making decorations to hanging them up, also the catering we did ourselves. Most of the food we brought home with us from the UK the rest was made by us. Then we had to do all the things that you have to do for getting a bar that has never seen a wedding into wedding-land.”

“We decorated the tables with vintage teapots, sugarbowls and milk jugs. We attached a red balloon to every teapot like it showed in the design of our menus. We put bell jars on tables, each containing things from our house including the little doll’s dress I’ve treasured whole my life and inspired my wedding dress. We had little pots of jam with a cotton cover we stamped our wedding logo on. We scattered around pictures of me and Bruno which me made to look vintage and we had rock candy made with our names and logo as wedding favours. On the tables we put paper spoons with table conversations and we customized bubble blowers with our design. It was so much fun seeing people blowing bubbles and enjoying themselves with looking at our photograps. Mind you after the party all the bubbleblowers, decorations and most of our pictures were taken home by our friends.”

“We had paper cups with our logo to drink from, for the toast outside, as we only found out last minute that there weren’t enough glasses. For the reception we wanted everyone to drink their wine and beer out of the old teacups. Mind you, we were very surprised everyone did so. For our buffet we had all the English classics like scones, sandwiches, cakes, cookies and even real clotted cream which our lovely photographer brought with her from the UK. We had a British cheese selection and cupcakes, sweet and evil but mostly loads of them. Our beautiful wedding cake was made by the lovely Becky from Consumed by Cake. Being a food blogger my cake was a big thing! It featured two swallows flying to a heart. A classic 1950′s sailer tattoo image.”

“We had a British candy buffet for people to fill bags to take with them and a glass dispenser with the homemade lemonade I made in the morning and one with Pimms. Instead of a DJ we had an Antwerp street musician playing his old piano in the most melancholic way.”

“This guy composes his own songs and plays them from the heart. He plays in the streets of Antwerp and pushes his piano around the city by hand. I had him in mind to play at our tea party but sadly didn’t see him the months before the wedding. The day before we left for the UK for our ceremony I heard his music and tracked him down through the sound. I was so excited I found him and asked him to come and play.”

Don’t you just love it?! Be sure to come back later today for part three of the Regula & Bruno saga – their wedding photo shoot in an abandoned fairground!

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Dan & Rach didn’t think too hard about the theme of their wedding, they simply went with what felt perfect for them. This evolved into a village fete/old-fashioned garden party with 1930′s touches.

“It’s so easy to fall into the big fluffy trap when you start planning a wedding,” Rach told me “but then I discovered Rock n Roll Bride – yay! – and it was inspirational to see all those couples doing it their way.  We moved from Brighton to Shropshire a month before the wedding, so a lot of it was done at the last minute. We managed it, thanks to our families and friends rallying round. We also found the truly splendid Bethan of Haywood Jones Photography through Rock n Roll Bride . We were nervous about being photographed but soon relaxed into it and it was like having an old friend there on the day.”

The ceremony took place at St Mary’s Dudleston, Shropshire. The bride’s Mother is a retired vicar so she performed the ceremony, making it extra special. After the touching service, the couple and their guests headed to Plas Warren, a B&B in Dudleston, Shropshire. “We had afternoon tea using vintage china and vases collected from charity shops,” continued the bride. “Dan made a load of cake stands using old plates and bits off eBay. We covered the tables with vintage tablecloths that had belonged to my Grandmother.”

The bride’s vintage-inspired dress was made by a friend and it turned out just as she wanted, “My bridesmaid Sally designed and made my 30′s-inspired frock. I’m very lucky to have such a talented friend. We bought the silk on Berwick Street in London. I knew I didn’t want white and when I saw the grey silk I fell in love with the colour, it had an old Hollywood look. She finished it off with a belt using an art deco dress clip for the buckle.”

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The royal wedding is kind of a big deal…people worldwide are gearing up for the ‘show’ and even London has gone all patriotic for once. Union Jack flags hang above Regent St and pretty much every shop window is littered with red, white and blue tat. I however, am not so excited about the whole thing. I’m not averse to two people falling in love and getting married…far from it in fact. I’m more than a little bit thrilled that William and Kate are getting married. I love marriage and I couldn’t be happier for them!

However it’s the media charade that surrounds the whole thing that kills me…and the fact that, as someone that works in the wedding industry, this is supposed to be some ‘once in a lifetime experience’ for me…and seriously, if you’d been sent as many irrelevant royal wedding-related press released as I have, you’d be pretty over it too. Yaaaawn. Most un-Rock n Roll wedding ever. Fact.

As you can well imagine, since the announcement of the wedding I’ve been sent a whole host of snooze-inducing royal wedding inspired photo shoots. None of which I’ve really given the time of day. However this shoot by photographer Adam of  Viva Wedding Photography really stood out to me. Mmm… tasty tea and scones and vintage styling – all with a hint of quintessential Englishness but without screaming “Check me out I’m a royal wedding photo shoot!”

I approve.

“I always had an idea for a decadent / last supper type of shoot,” photographer Adam told me. “So Maryanne of Jam and Tea and I arranged a venue / props / models etc and pulled it all together. The original idea was to just get the one final image with lots of impact of all the girls having a tea party, with a slight hint of coronation royal connection. However the way we built the set up, you couldn’t really see the china in detail and the original first world war union jack in the back ground was obscured, not that we wanted it to prominent.”

“I always like to get a bit more out of my photo shoots, whether it is a proper shoot or just the bride and groom on their wedding day. So I always try and shoot some separate portrait shots at my shoots. In this case we used the vintage union jack as a background, and shot each model in slightly different dress (all clothes are the models own, but some of them were so beautiful, including a lovely 1930s french silk top) each holding a different original coronation cup.”

And there you have it, my mini-nod towards the Royal wedding. I am genuinely thrilled for William & Kate and I really do hope that they have the most special day and the happiest life together. I’m not a completely cold hearted b****.

And although I may have a few more ‘Rule Britannia’ inspired shoots coming up on the blog this week, be rest assured that I’ve only chosen to feature the most kick ass of the bunch…and the ones with only an insy bitsy hint of royal wedding-ness!

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Jennie & Mark’s country casual wedding took place at St. Andrew’s Church, Prestwold and Quorn Village Hall in Leicestershire in January. Jennie found her perfect dress at a boutique that was closing down so she got it for a great price.

The couple gave their guests the loose dress code of  ’country casual’ for the men and ‘tea dresses’ for the ladies. I’ve heard both sides of the story when it comes to asking guests to dress to fit a theme, but I do think the overall result is quite a beautiful one!

The majority of the reception décor was a DIY effort. Jennie had spent the week before decorating with birdcages, wild flowers, chinese lanterns, paper chains, handmade cushions and vintage knick-knacks which she’d collected herself (Jennie is now hiring out her beautiful collection to other brides, if you are interested in hiring any of the items for your own wedding, be sure to drop Jennie an email to jennie.preece@monsterenergy.com)

The day was a windy one (it was January after all!)  so guests were treated to a warming hot chocolate on arrival at the hall. The couple served a hog roast in lieu of a traditional wedding breakfast and instead of dessert, everyone was asked to bake a cake to share! They even had a ‘Judge the Cake’ competition to finish the meal off! After the speeches and cake judging there was an enormous game of ‘Pass the Parcel’ among the 80 guests before the evenings entertainment kicked off with Leicester based Rock n Roll group ‘Daddy Longlegs’.

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Cute, quirky, British weddings are my utter favourites to feature. There’s so much originality and such fabulous ideas floating around this industry of ours, and it really really excites me! I was lucky enough to meet Heather, the photographer who captured this beautiful wedding, at the Unveiled Photography Conference that I spoke at in July so I’m so excited to see that she’s put what she learnt in to practice with this killer wedding.

Helen & Dan were married in September in Rye. Their theme was “a good old-fashioned Coronation Street party/1940s tea party feel”. Originally the couple had planned to have an Alice in Wonderland theme, however after the film came out, and the whole world went Alice mad, they decided to do something different and more unique. “My mum is a magpie for nice bits and set about scouring the length and breadth of Lancashire’s charity shops for table decorations, the cups and saucers, the teapots and the candelabras” began the bride. ”Dan’s nan volunteers in a charity shop, so she managed to pick up some lovely pieces too.”

“The outfits were the thing that I was most concerned about and probably spent the most time ruminating over. I KNEW it had to be a retro/1940s feel but the shops were all a bit full of conventional, uninspiring things. I scoured the internet and, thankfully, found Claire Pettibone, an American bridal designer. Her stunning gowns are stocked at Blackburn Bridal in London. Once I had the dress, it felt like everything else fitted into place.” With her dream dress, Helen wore Irregular Choice shoes and a hairpiece by Orelia.

Helen continued, “Neither Dan or I are religious, and we were both paying for the wedding ourselves, so we knew we wouldn’t be going down the traditional route! No older family members to please. Our readings at the ceremony reflected our desire to do things differently, and we had ‘To Love is Not to Possess’ by James Kavanaugh and the Doctor Seuss ‘Wedding Vows’.  My older sister and her son read the Doctor Seuss piece, to much laughter from the congregation, and Dan’s mum read the To Love… piece.”

“We’re both really big Blur fans, so it seemed appropriate to walk up the aisle to ‘Tender’. Dan came to the doors of the wedding chamber and met me so we could walk down together. I was so happy to see him when the door opened! My friend said he knew I was nervous when he saw my dress hem “trembling”! Our exit tune was ‘Celebrate’ by Kool & the Gang, and our first dance was ‘To The End’, again by Blur.”

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