Wedding Date…. 12 August 2011

The Proposal…. We got engaged way back in 2003, Phil hid the ring in the Christmas tree and I had to search for my ‘last present’, he then asked me to be his wife.

The Vision for the day…. Something a bit quirky, shabby chic/ vintage

The Planning process…. We originally planned a beach wedding in Thailand a few years ago, but were hit by the recession and redundancies. So once we were able to afford it, we allowed for about 14 months to send out save the dates and plan everything. Phil works in London as a Police Constable, so the last few days before the wedding were affected by the riots and a lot of guests sadly couldn’t make it, so that caused some last minute stresses and re-organisation!

Budget…. £5000-£6000

The Venue… Field Place, The Boulevard, Worthing, West Sussex. The ceremony was in the 18th Century Manor House, and the reception was in one of the 400 year old converted barns.

The Dress + Accessories….. My dress was a 2-piece: Fitted corset with tight lacing and skirt. For my jewellery I had black pearls, and my tiara was custom made by Sarah at Sparkleastar. I also had some vintage earrings by velvetmechanism, which came from Seattle! I also had a black lace parasol with a matching black lace fan.

Finding the dress…. I decided that I didn’t want something off the rack, so first of all I found images of what I liked, and I knew I wanted vintage black lace and ivory. Then I found Silvia who is a Corsetier from Milan… We had several meetings and after several changes, settled on the design. I then went to my local fabric shop and found the perfect material, a dark ivory/ light gold colour. I’ve always been a massive fan of Irregular Choice shoes, so got a gorgeous pair with lilac heels & purple flowers… so I then incorporated lilac into the design and had lilac stitching on the corset and lilac lacing.

Groom’s attire… Phil is quite tall and slender, so it was difficult finding a suit that fitted him well. He decided very early on that he didn’t want a typical wedding suit, but he didn’t want to look like a businessman either. He found a superb shop in Chichester, where he got his Hugo Boss Suit, Eton shirt and a funky Duchamp tie – I think his outfit ended up being more expensive than mine!

The Readings + Music…. We love each other very much, but we’re not really into mushy poetry so we decided not to have any readings!

Beautiful bridesmaids….. I had my sister, Stefy, as Maid of Honour and Phil’s sister, Christie, as a bridesmaid. They wore black and white floral 50s style dresses with purple petticoats.. For accessories they had purple lace fans, and I surprised them with some handmade necklaces, again made by Sarah at Sparkleastar. We also had my 20 month old nephew, Ben, as our ring bearer!

The Flowers… As we were on quite a tight budget, I didn’t want to go crazy with flowers. I used Bo-K in Worthing, and Becky was ever so patient with me as I kept changing my mind! I wanted a natural vintage/ country look… so I had a beautiful bunch of amnesia roses with seasonal lilac flowers and black berries. The best man, my Dad and Phil’s Dad had white roses for their button holes and Phil had a matching amnesia rose with a spray of black berries. I also had a massive bunch of Gypsophila, which I used to create my table flowers and bridesmaid bouquets.

The Cake… Phil and I decided that we wanted to have one layer of an actual cake, and then the bottom tiers would be flowing with Krispy Kreme doughnuts! So the day before the wedding, we went and got a variety of different flavours! I left the actual cake to my Mum as she has a friend who makes cakes… All I told her was that we wanted it to look elegant, with roses and maybe some black lace. We didn’t see the cake until after the ceremony, and it was perfect:  a simple layer, with black lace, and roses on the top. We even had a bride and groom figure, which was a lovely surprise.

Your Photographer….  I do some photography in my spare time, including weddings… so with this area I was really, really fussy! Martins Kikulis was recommended by another photographer, and as soon as I looked at his website I knew he would be perfect. On the day, he was discreet and very busy capturing so many moments of our day that we probably would never have seen. The photos are absolutely wonderful!  Phil’s parents got our photographer as a wedding gift, which we were extremely grateful for.

The Details + Decor…. I was trying to go for a shabby chic/ vintage feel which incorporated the ivory, black and lilac colour scheme. I found some shabby chic vases/ jugs that were a bargain from The Range and I filled these with the Gypsophila and fresh lavender. Unfortunately on the day, there was a bit of rush to leave and we forgot to bring the vases for the ceremony room!! For the tables, I also got some gorgeous hand printed vintage table numbers from Crafty Pagan, each one with a slightly different design – I glued these to some garden sticks that I painted white and put them in the vases. They also made the place names. We also scattered some purple rose petals, and purple/clear/ black crystal on the tables.

We also had white chair covers with ivory & black organza bows for both the ceremony with a matching table swag, and an aisle runner scattered with purple and black rose petals. (The chair covers were then moved to the reception barn.)

For the seating plan I got some cheap golden, wooden frames and painted them in various shades of white, and then ‘de-stressed’ them so they would have a hint of the gold coming through – I then put the table numbers/ guest names in each frame and filled the remaining frames with black & white photos of each set of parents and grandparents on their wedding day.

The Honeymoon…. My parents are organising our official honeymoon for us, but unfortunately it won’t be until 2012 – We don’t know where we’re going, it’s a complete surprise! We won’t find out until we check in… all I’ve been told is that it will be somewhere we both haven’t been before. I’m fairly well travelled, so it’s very exciting! After the wedding we did have a short stay at Carey’s Manor in the New Forest, which is gorgeous – their Hydrotherapy area is AMAZING! We also got a canoe to have some fun with.

Memorable moments… It was just a wonderful and intimate day, and we were so lucky with the weather. Playing giant Jenga and Pitch & Putt was fun, the speeches were fantastic and seeing the cake for the first time was a highlight… but actually walking down the aisle & seeing Phil all suited a booted was so moving!  Saying ‘I do’ was the best bit!!  We had a Caricaturist for the evening entertainment, which was a surprise to the guests, and so that was very amusing!

Advice for other couples… People always say “enjoy every moment, it goes so quickly”, well it’s true!  The day went so, so quickly so don’t waste any time stressing and getting in a flap… just enjoy! Apart from one moment of stressing when I was getting my corset done up and we were starting to run late, I was a very relaxed and laid-back bride. The whole process of organising a wedding doesn’t have to be stressful and super expensive. Try and enjoy every minute and just have fun… because once you leave on your wedding night, it’s all over!

Credit where credit’s due…

The Dress: Silvia @ Misty Couture http://www.modelmayhem.com/635863

The Venue: Field Place http://www.worthingleisure.co.uk/worthingleisure/fp/

Jewellery: Sarah @ http://www.sparkleastar.co.uk and Velvet Mechanism http://uk.etsy.com/shop/velvetmechanism

Wedding Rings: http://www.goldfinger-rings.com/

Shoes: http://www.irregularchoice.com/

The Groom’s Outfit: http://www.stephenlawrenceclothing.co.uk/

The Photographer: http://www.martinskikulis.com

The Flowers: Bo-K www.flowersworthing.co.uk/   Fresh lavender was from the garden and also: http://www.pembrokeshirelavender.co.uk/

Table numbers/ place names: Crafty Pagan: http://www.folksy.com/shops/craftypagan

Chair Covers: Claire @ http://www.vip-venues.co.uk/

The Music: Ian @  http://www.discofever.co.uk/

The entertainment: Dave @ http://www.grovescartoons.com/

The Getaway: Carey’s Manor http://www.careysmanor.com