A Watters Wedding Dress For a Colourful, Vintage Travel Theme Celebration
Happy Saturday lovely ones! We’ve a couple of posts to share with you today, beginning with the wedding of Actress and singer Helen, who married musician Dan on 4th May this year. The couple’s reception was held at The Barlow Institute in Edgworth and their photographer, Libby Christensen, once graced these pages as a bride!
I love this wedding for all it’s laid-back, good old-fashioned fun and all the authentic vintage details that the couple put so much of their time and energy in to collecting prior to their wedding day.
“We decided to use a vintage travel theme because we love all things old and quirky, however we wanted our day to reflect ‘us’ too. I love colour, so I didn’t want one or two single colours to stand out, so we opted for a multi-coloured scheme. My grandmother left an attic full of fabric that I sewed into bunting during the year prior to the wedding. The material came from off-cuts of work dresses, bridesmaids dresses and wedding dresses she had made during her life so it was a really nice personal touch. We also collect maps of places we’ve been so we thought vintage travel would be a perfect theme to sum us both up.”
Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Libby Christensen Photography
“Bouquets and buttonhole and one suitcase arrangement of flowers from Jane Carlton Flowers Bolton. She was amazing and even followed my wedding board on Pinterest so she could get the right flowers for the theme! Fantastic.
The huge mountains of flowers and the 30 small arrangements at the reception were created by my mother and my Dads cousins’ wife! After a trip to Clog Flower Wholesale, they spent two days prior to the wedding filling all the vases and tins we’d picked up from charity shops over the past twelve months with flowers. The result was like a garden. They also provided the flowers for the ceremony, along with my mother’s friends who all brought their potted plants to the church from their gardens the day before so the church had a garden feel!”
“In the weeks before the wedding I was working in India and the middle east, so I spent my spare time collecting fabric and accessories for the big day to give it a real travel feel. We love going for picnics when we’re home so we decided the wedding breakfast should be a help yourself picnic.
We collected vintage suitcases from flea markets, vintage markets and charity shops and re-lined them with gingham fabric. We then covered them in vintage travel stickers and filled them with food so they would be quirky picnic hampers. The favours were all based on maps! Globes and plaques with travel quotes on them. We named each table after places we had been and tagged the suitcase for each table accordingly.”
“Our photographer was Libby Christensen. Libby had been my photographer at various times during my career and always delivered amazing headshots and stage shots. When I saw her wedding work I knew we had to have her again! She arrived at breakfast and didn’t leave until the reception venue closed its doors! Her attention to detail was amazing and her eye for pictures is fab! She also included an engagement shoot to get my husband more used to being photographed!”
“Our wedding invitations were an individual piece of bunting I had made. All the important information was ink stamped onto the front with 2 stamps designed and made by Dan using a ‘Teresa Collins stampmaker’ bought from Hobbycraft. A separate piece of paper gave the detailed information including a link to a website I had made and details of the gift list.”
“My dress was the Jasmine by Watters that I purchased from Claire Louise Brides. I bought the dress 18 months before he actually proposed! We’d talked of marriage in passing and then my father became ill, without time for a big proposal or anything we started looking at the possibility of doing it quite fast. I went to look at dresses for the first time just expecting to literally look, not buy! I saw the Watters Jasmine and my mother said straight away, ‘get it!’. It was very soft and featured loads of lace. Its heart-shaped neckline was perfect for my very straight figure as it added curves. I just knew! So I bought it there and then.
Thank goodness my Dad recovered and we then had time to actually get engaged properly and plan the wedding – and reveal to Dan I’d been slightly presumptuous 18 months earlier!”
“Dan and I met in December 2006. I was in a pantomime at The Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal playing Maid Marian in Robin Hood. Two weeks into rehearsals, the band joined us. Dan was the bass player and doubled on electric guitar. We were introduced on the Wednesday night that week over a cast Chinese takeaway and I thought ‘I could love this man who plays a flowery guitar!’. We moved in together two days later! Being performers we travel a lot for work and over the next seven years, we sometimes went for months at a time on different continents communicating only through Skype and Facebook.
But it was always amazing to come home to each other and enjoy our little home in Hitchin and spend time with family whenever we could.”
“In 2013 we went to Venice for the weekend for Dan’s 30th birthday. During his birthday, he apparently made several attempts to propose but I kept accidentally ruining it! Every time we sat down I’d say ‘it’s cold here. Let’s move on’, or ‘Look that’s a place we should go, come on!’ Finally that night (a few hours later than he planned) he took me onto the balcony of our hotel and played me a video he’d edited together called ’50 reasons why I love you’ after reason 50 I turned around and he was on one knee about to propose.
It was wonderful. He used my late grandmother’s vintage engagement ring that he knew I would love.”
“The main transport event of the day though was the vintage 1947 Leyland PD1 bus which we hired from Yorkshire Heritage Bus. We chose this bus because it was partly designed by my late grandfather and Dan’s late grandfather used to be a bus driver. It took all of our family and friends to the reception as well as taking Dan and his ushers to the church in the morning. It came with a bus conductor and driver dressed in period dress. They were fantastic and even decorated the bus with the bunting I sent them a few weeks earlier, along with their own choice of silk flowers. It looked beautiful!”
“Dan wore a 3-piece suit from River Island that he accessorised with a pocket watch – a gift from his father from Birmingham Jewellery quarter. His groomsmen wore Marks and spencer super slim blue limited collection 3 piece suit.”
“Our marriage was at Christ’s Church in Little Lever – chosen because it is the church that my parents attend. The minister and the people there know us so well that they even moved the Sunday service earlier so we could get married on a Sunday afternoon.”
“My sister designed and made 200 orders of service for the ceremony! Dan and I made the place settings using a vintage typewriter (bought from a charity shop) and luggage tags. The seating plan was also made by Dan and I. World map with luggage tags mounted in an up-cycled frame I found in a charity shop.”
“The cars were provided by family friends. The minster who married us lent us his 1920s Rolls Royce for me and my father to get to the church and another friend let us use his 1970s Bentley for the bridesmaids.”
“I bought the grown up bridesmaids necklaces from a street market vendor in Stratford upon Avon. The flower girls necklaces were ‘little girls BFF heart stone necklace’ by ‘Little Ella’ via notonthehighstreet.com.”
“My dad sings with an established vocal group called The Mastersingers, so we asked them to sing during the ceremony as many of them were guests anyway. On an early album of theirs was an Acapella setting of the W.H. Auden poem ‘sing agreeably of love’ written for choir by a family friend. They sang this as I walked down the aisle. It was beautiful. I wish I could add a sound clip.”
“My heirloom vintage ring belonged to my late grandmother and my wedding ring was from Leslie Davis. It was a white gold with pavé set diamonds. I wanted a delicate ring that fitted with my engagement ring, when I tried this on they just fitted snugly round each other. I wanted a bit of sparkle and this worked perfectly.
Dan is allergic to certain metals, plus he has to remove his ring for work… (giving him more chance to lose it) so he opted for a Titanium plain band from Amazon.”
“We took traditional vows but mine were a lot quieter than Dan’s who found his big voice for the ceremony! The pictures of this part of the ceremony show the guests and the minister laughing because of this :)”
“We had 2 readings in the ceremony. We chose a simple bible reading to be read by my sister, Ecclesiastes 4: 9 – 12′
‘Two are better than one because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.’”
“Dan’s sister also read an extract from a Dr Seuss! Poem which we felt summed us up very well; ”Oh, The Places You’ll go!’ by Dr Seuss.”
“My bridesmaids dresses were designed by Alison Jane. She was a family friend who designed and made all 6 dresses based on a design idea I had. The whole process was amazing, she showed me colours and fabrics and we sketched silhouettes and necklines until we came up with a design that worked. We chose 3 colours, mocha, lilac and dusky pink and overlaid them all with lace so they echoed the wedding dress.”
“Our reception was at The Barlow Institute in Edgworth. We chose this because it had an authentic vintage feel. The rental included the whole building including the bar, the library, the main hall, two kitchens and a café room we used as an activity room for the kids. We had the place for three days and we could decorate it however we liked. It came with nothing though - no staff (except the bar), no manager etc, so we literally did it all ourselves with our family the day before and cleaned it the day after!
The volunteers who work there were so helpful and friendly it made the process much more fun and smoother than we anticipated!”
“We wanted the cake to be an eye catching centrepiece. Nicola Pearson of ‘Celebrations Cakes’ was great. We had a 3 tier cake with vanilla frosting. The Bottom layer was chocolate cake, the middle was our favourite… funfetti! And the top layer was pink coconut.
The flowers to decorate the cake were bought from Jane Carlton Flowers and given to the cake maker. The caterer on the day arranged them on the cake. It was a real team effort.”
“The Scrumpy Pig Hog Roast & Catering Company provided all the food for the day. They had never done the picnic idea before but were eager to take it on. They provided everything we asked for and more. They wrapped all the food like little gifts and filled the suitcases in such a pretty manner. They then provided amazing service during the reception. They loved our suitcase picnic idea so much they asked if they could buy the suitcases!! In the evening they provided the Hog roast which was equally amazing. Brilliant!”
“We ordered our wedding favours from RJB Stone which consisted of a mixture of vintage map plaques with sayings on them and ‘Sass and Belle’ bauble globes. My sister made bibs out of vintage map fabric as favours for the tiny babies who were present and made colouring packs with crayons for the 15 young children we had as guests.”
“I made 200 metres of bunting and borrowed extra for the church from a friend. My mother made the back drop for the stage from yellow fabric from Nortex Mill, and lace and ribbon left from my grandmother. She also used lace and ribbon to make an archway for the bridal party to enter the church through. We hired tables from Dale Event Hire and table cloths from The Linen Hire.
We hired the teacups for the gin and tonic welcome drink from a friend for a donation to cancer
“We asked for donations towards our honeymoon to Cuba in November with people giving us suggestions of how to spend the money they gave. For example snorkelling tour, meal out, cocktails on the beach etc. The RSVPs were made using a luggage tag with our address stamped onto one side (again made by Dan) and on the reverse a stamp which left spaces for people to fill in the blanks to let us know if they were able to attend.
They were posted in brown envelopes with each address typed by Dan on his charity shop typewriter, and decorated with foreign stamps I had bought.”
“Gingers Comfort Emporium was a surprise we didn’t tell anyone about. She arrived as people were finishing their picnics and everyone was able to choose an ice cream from her amazing home-made menu.”
“Being musicians, Dan’s Best man, ushers and friends then became the band! Dan toured Japan with the blues brothers so they got the band back together for the wedding and the singer was the ‘Elwood Blues’ of that tour. Our first dance was ‘Everybody needs somebody to love’ from the Blues Brothers. I sang Etta James’ ‘At Last’ to Dan just before the evening’s entertainment kicked off. It was so funny to be singing in my wedding dress!”
“We couldn’t believe how well it went. We were worried about having 136 people all day (we didn’t have a separate guest list for the evening (if you were invited, you were invited to everything) but everything just came together. We still can’t quite believe it!”
Words of Wedded Wisdom…
“We were exhausted from planning in so much detail but the comments of the details really moved us on the day. We tried to cater for everyone – from 3 month olds to family in their 80’s and seeing everyone having a great time really was fantastic. We made sure we didn’t spend too long apart on the day as we were warned that may happen. We did this by staggering the pics through the day and just generally grabbing each other’s hands whenever we were close!
We were given this advice the day before our wedding when we were exhausted from decorated church and hall, and bar… and café…and hallway… and photobooth… and foyers; ‘Relax. Take a moment on the day to sit back and take everything in. And smile! Guests at the wedding want to see you happy. If you smile they will be happy. If everyone is happy – you feel happier still! So just be happy and know that everyone is there for you.’
Also, have the wedding you want. People may tell you ‘that’s not how it’s done’ but if you really want it that way – do it anyway. Listen to criticisms, but use them to overcome problems you may have overlooked. Anything is possible!”
Huge thanks to photographer Libby Christensen for asking us to share this lovely, lovely wedding with you all today. And congratulations and so many thanks too to Helen and Dan. What a wonderful way to celebrate on your wedding day
We’ll be back this afternoon with some creative ideas from the fabulous Kalm Kitchen – see you then.
Love Annabel xx
Photographer - Libby Christensen
Venue - The Barlow Institute in Edgworth
Bride’s Dress - Jasmine by Watters via Claire Louise Brides
Brides Veil - Paloma Blanca via Claire Louise Brides
Brides Shoes - ‘Nina’, by Rainbow Club
Brides Hair Accessories - Claire’s Accessories
Accessories – earrings via Jon Richard at Debenhams
Grooms Suit - River Island
Bridesmaids flowergirl dresses - Alison Jane hair accessories via Claires
Page boy - Waistcoat, tie, trouserrs brogues via Next shirt via M&S
Florist - Jane Carlton Flowers Bolton family using Clog Flower Wholesale,
Cake - Celebrations Cakes
Transport - Yorkshire Heritage Bus loaned by friends and family
Rings - Leslie Davis Amazon
Catering Company - Scrumpy Pig Hog Roast & Catering Company Gingers Comfort Emporium
Stationery – made by the bride
Tables Table Cloth Hire - Dale Event Hire The Linen Hire
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