Rustic Wedding with a Vintage Twist - You Are All I See (Part Two)

Time for part two my lovelies!

On Monday you had the inspiration behind my planning, on Wednesday you had the fashion and today it’s all about the styling, oh and actually becoming a wife!

So, shall we crack on…?

Oh yes, lets…

Notes from the Bride

So with a quintessentially English venue picked the theme of our day was set – think rustic glam with a bit of vintage thrown in to the mix.

Our stationery suite was to be the first indication of said theme so we chose a beautiful laser cut invite from The Hummingbird Card Company. It showed a pretty tea-party scene underneath swirling branches of a tree, finished off with a nude ribbon and a kraft paper inlay.

Images by Horseshoe Photography.

bloomin’ marvellous

My florist was an Angel. Quite literally. Angel Skillman of Angel Like Flowers is a genius.

Angel created all floral elements after just one meeting, and a glimpse into my Pinterest board. We chose White Piaget, Quicksand and Majolika Roses, lots of Gypsophelia, Astrantia and Bells of Ireland, Populus, Eucalyptus, Olive and Rosemary.

For my bouquet I wanted something a little wild with roses in the creamiest ivory and blush tones, with lashings of foliage, all hand-tied with gold and bronze ribbons. I didn’t want traditional bouquets for the Bridesmaids instead opting for oversized floral headbands and corsages for their wrists – they were dreamy.

Images by Horseshoe Photography.

The boys bouts were simple ivory roses with rosemary, tied with bronze ribbon.

The flowers at the venue quite simply took my breath away…

From the moment I arrived to a gorgeous archway of blooms to saying our vows under a canopy of gypsophelia, from the delicate mason jar centrepieces to the wild urns of frothiness.

all you need is love, and some kraft paper

Apart from the invites I pretty much made all other aspects of the wedding… The programs, menus, table plan, garden signs, wrapping paper right through to the hand stamped name tags! I loved it. My husband-to-be thought I was crackers, but I loved it.

The Ceremony room was awash with hand-made elements, little notes to our guests to ring their bells when we kissed sat on each chair alongside our rustic Wedding Programs – made from kraft paper and silk cream card, all hand tied with twine bows.

Images by Horseshoe Photography.

On the inside cover there was a quote by F Scott Fitzgerald and at the back, a quote from… Ummm… The Beatles. All you need is love!

Words are important to us and the readings we had chosen were actually love letters, written by Victor Hugo and the American artist Rockwell Kent. Considering we met via the modern day love letter it seemed a fitting tribute. Our gorgeous readers – Laura and Kam – did a fabulous job on the day!

The decor was understated, simple and really quite elegant. With gorgeous paper fans lining the aisle (bought from one of my faves BHLDN) and a frothy arch of gypsophelia where my boy stood, grinning like a gorgeous Cheshire Cat.

I cried all the way down the aisle.

I couldn’t help myself, I’ll explain why a little later…

A touch of vintage

All of these handmade elements were nothing in comparison to the sheer gorgeousness that was brought by the wonderful Kate Fletcher of Vintage Style Hire…

Images by Horseshoe Photography.

From start to finish Kate was just the most amazing person to work with, from that very first meeting in her beautiful remote barn full of goodies to the congratulatory hug on our wedding day.

Kate understood exactly what I was looking for when I described my English Garden lounge scene and I trusted her implicitly. I loved all of the little (and large!) touches that added to our Rustic/Vintage theme. Thank you Kate!

For the garden reception we had the Leeds City Stompers providing the entertainment and as one guest put it they were “quietly brilliant”. Whilst use to taking centre stage at raucous gigs around the world they slotted in perfectly to our cocktail hour and really looked the part! In short, I loved them.

It really was the perfect setting to relax into the day…

A Moment Captured

Jo Thorne of Horseshoe Photography is responsible for these gorgeous images and she’s an absolute delight to have around. Jo really loves to see the story in people and these images have captured some of the most precious moments of my life. We were very fortunate to have the talented and uber-cool Dale Weeks as our second shooter.

Natasha from MYFILM was another fabulous find and I loved her from the moment we met. I just knew she would create an epic wedding film for us. Natasha has captured so many amazing details and really caught the atmosphere of the day. Oh and the music for the edit – her choice – and it’s bloody great.

Image by Horseshoe Photography.

take your seat

My DIY love extended to our tablescapes – chalk board painted wine bottles as table numbers accompanied by teeny tiny cards with a quote for each table, my favourite being by Roald Dahl – “watch with glittering eyes”.

The menus were once again printed on kraft paper and the hand-stamped place names were threaded with Rosemary.

To add a bit of detail I hired six table runners from Sama of Utterly Wow fame – three striped runners and three blush hued sequinned numbers. They were the perfect addition!

For favours I bought little muslin bags and filled them with traditional sugared almonds. Inside guests found a little card stating the meaning behind their almonds – Health, Wealth, Happiness, Long Life and Fertility.

Images by Horseshoe Photography.

Sometimes I think the traditional elements are the best, but in addition we also had miniature badges made with our initials that were worn by our guests with pride.

The speech-maker-extraordinaires got a little extra something in the shape of a small vile of whiskey for a little dutch courage.

I think the Best Man devoured his quite quickly!

Passion Cuisine created a beautiful wedding feast of gorgeous canapés, anti-pasti sharing platters, chicken with pancetta and sherry sauce and delicious apple tart with blackberry sorbet and clotted cream! We served Pimms, champagne and homemade lemonade for our reception and our cake was made by the doll that is Mary-anne from Jam & Tea.

Images by Horseshoe Photography.

on the decks

For the evening we wanted something slightly different and so enlisted the help of Brighton DJ’s Stick It On – the idea being your guests take turns on the decks! My favourite DJ on the night had to be my Father-in-law, aka Daddy Cool, playing Metallica. Epic.

you are all i see…

It was a beautiful day, from start to finish, but I think the one moment that really caught my breath was the point I heard the music start for my entrance into the ceremony room… That’s when I could feel the hot tears behind my eyes, the butterflies in my tummy and the skipping sensation in my chest.

The song that had started this little reaction was You Are All I See by Active Child.

Images by Horseshoe Photography.

This is, without doubt, our song. On our second date, as I was about to hop on a train back to my home town, Mark gave me this album. As I settled into my seat with a happy heart I opened the CD case, a note fell from the sleeve and it was the most beautiful little glimpse into how Mark felt and how excited he was about getting to know me… That night, I listened to the album on repeat, until I fell asleep.

Meeting Mark has changed my life in so many ways… I’m now a wife, I have a beautiful home in Brighton, I’ve started my own business, Coco Wedding Venues, and I’m ridiculously excited about the future.

As a wedding gift Mark gave me a beautiful copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and inside he wrote, “We’ll go through the rabbit hole together and our adventure starts today…”

Image by Horseshoe Photography.

Click here to view all of the images from this wedding…

Credits

So that’s our story… Our wedding.

It feels right for it to now be forever documented on these pages.

Why don’t you pop back, oh say around lunchtime, and check for the wedding film!

Lots of love…

You are all I see (Part Two)