A Sweet & Meaningful Blue Wedding

A Sweet & Meaningful Blue Wedding

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I really am spoiling you this afternoon with another super beautiful celebration of love.

WWW readers Jamie and Becca married back in March, with a meaningful Church service followed by a reception at Worton Park, Oxfordshire.

Becca told me; “WWW was my first and most referred to bookmark whilst I was wedding planning! It provided such great information on other people’s weddings, which gave such helpful ideas! It also made me get really excited about our wedding when looking at other people’s wedding days and imagining what ours could be like! Thank you for creating such a great and inspirational blog!” Aww thank you so much Becca :-)

They wanted a day which was fun, relaxed and homemade. They kept to a blue colour scheme, with the pretty maids in blue dresses from Warehouse, bunches of lavender and blue touches in the decor throughout.

Becca looked stunning in a Ronald Joyce dress with feather shrug, while Jamie donned a suit from Austin Reed with fun stripe tie. Just the loveliest day.

Thanks so much to the wonderful Maureen Du Preez for sharing her images with us today.

 

The Proposal… Jamie arranged for one of my best friends to organise to meet up with me at a pub in Oxford (Jamie and I often spent quite a bit of time there earlier on in our relationship). As I was walking there my friend text to say she’d had to pop out to the shop, but had left something for me behind the bar. I was a bit confused, but didn’t ask any questions (assumed she’d probably left a drink), went into the pub and asked at the bar for whatever it was that was left for me.

I was handed a square brown gift box with a label saying ‘Open me’.  Inside, an iphone was staring back at me (something I’d wanted for ages) and another label telling me to unlock the phone, read the instructions and follow them. So that’s what I did! I ended up in a park where Jamie and I used to go for walks and, whilst sitting on a bench was given an instruction to watch the video that was on the phone. It was a montage of photos of me and Jamie throughout our relationship set to music. The video began with ‘the story so far’ and ended with ‘what’s next?’ and pictures of what our future life might look like together!

When the video finished I turned around and Jamie was standing under a huge umbrella in the rain. He came and joined me on the bench and began telling me what we were doing there on a rainy Tuesday evening sitting on a bench in a park! He said some wonderful and unforgettable things and then got down on one knee on the wet ground and asked me to marry him, and I said YES! We then celebrated, sheltering under a tree, with strawberries and champagne and rang our nearest and dearest from the iphone (which was mine to keep!) to tell them the news. Then joined the aforementioned best friend and her husband and Jamie’s brother and sister-in-law at the pub where this story began. Not your average Tuesday evening!

The Vision for the Day… We wanted a day that had a fun and relaxed feeling to it, where we could enjoy the company of family and friends. We wanted to make sure that people felt welcome and ‘at home’ where they could have a good time. We wanted to have a fair amount of homemade detail to make it more ‘us’ and our own style.

The Planning Process… It didn’t take me long to begin a collection of wedding magazines and bookmark wedding blogs on my laptop to get ideas for our day. A housemate gave me a little book to write ideas in and I also cut out pictures from magazines and stuck them in to start the planning process. Jamie and I discussed what we’d like the day to look like in terms of style and we talked about the most important things to us – the service, readings, songs and also how we could tie the whole day together with the colour and style themes. Once we’d narrowed down the look of the wedding we wrote lists of things to sort and worked our way through. The feel of the day came together as we discussed Bible readings and song choices and prayed about how the service might run. The look of the day started when I found the bridesmaid dresses as they determined the rest of the colour scheme. The invitations were then written in that colour, flowers co-ordinated and other details tied into it. There were moments of stress when time seemed to fly by and not much progress had been made preparation wise, but generally the planning was quite straightforward once we’d decided on the initial look and feel.

The Venue… We got married in St Aldates Church in the centre of Oxford, where Jamie works and we both attend weekly. We kept the decorations fairly simple as St Aldates is a beautiful church and didn’t need much adding to. It was very special for us to get married there as we met there five years ago and have been part of the church family since then.  Jamie’s boss, our church Rector married us, which was special for us too. After the service we stayed in the church to have tea/coffee and hot cross buns and have some photos.

After refreshments we made our way to Worton Park in Cassington, not far from Oxford, for the wedding breakfast and the rest of the day’s celebrations. The previous day was spent setting up the Blue Room ourselves and making it just how we wanted it with our colour scheme and handcrafted details. It’s in a lovely countryside setting and we enjoyed welcome drinks in the conservatory, marquee and on the poolside terrace before heading into the main room for the wedding breakfast, which was followed by the evening’s entertainment, the amazing and highly recommended band, Jazzbomb!

The Dress + Accessories… The dress was a Ronald Joyce number in ivory satin. I wore a fingertip, satin edged, two tiered veil and ivory lace heels. I had an ivory lace clutch bag from Next for the essentials and borrowed an ivory feather stole from a friend for when it got a bit cold! My earrings were by Jon Richardson at Debenhams and were quite simple as the detail on my dress was so prominent. I loved every bit of my outfit and I didn’t want to stop wearing my dress!

Finding the Dress… I began looking for my dress shortly after getting engaged and went to six shops in Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Hampshire and tried on about 40 dresses before finding the right one! I tried on dresses ranging in price from £600 to £1200, and found two that I really liked, but wasn’t 100% sure about.

I really didn’t want to have spend so much money on a dress which, although was going to be the most important dress I’d ever wear, I was just going to wear once. So….I prayed and told God I didn’t feel comfortable about spending hundreds of pounds on a dress and I asked him for a dress at a specific price. That was that, and I decided to go and try one of the two dresses that I’d really liked again and wanted to make a final decision on it. I tried on two other dresses as well as the one I’d tried before and the second on I put on I LOVED! It was everything I’d wanted and would require minimal alterations. It had a fitted bodice top with the most beautiful beaded detail under the bust and ruched fabric, a gentle A-line skirt with a puddle train and wide straps and a lace up back. It was beautiful! This was the one. I looked at the price tag and it was £25 less than the amount I had asked God for the dress to be – better than I could have hoped or imagined! I was so excited to get the dress back a few weeks later and one of my mum’s brilliant friends made small alterations here and there to make it perfect and just how I wanted it to be! I couldn’t wait to wear it on our wedding day!

Groom’s Attire… Jamie wore an Austin Reed navy suit with a light grey waistcoat. His brown brogues were from Ask the Missus and he finished the look off with a navy and white Jasper Conran silk tie and a classic white pocket square. His button hole consisted of three of the flowers from the bride’s bouquet.

The ushers and best man wore two-piece navy suits, the same tie as Jamie and brown shoes with a pocket square and simpler button hole. They all looked very dapper!

The Readings + Music… Ludovico Einaudi’s ‘I Giorni’ was the Entrance of the Bride music. I picked it as I’d often play this on the piano at my parents’ house and it was a favourite of my dad’s, so it seemed very special and appropriate to have as I walked into our wedding with my dad. Our Bible readings were Psalm 100, 1 John 4:7-12 and Ephesians 5:21-28, which were read by Jamie’s dad, my mum and Jamie’s sister-in-law. Jamie’s mum read a self-written blessing poem during the prayers. The hymns and songs in the service were led by a talented band of our friends and they sounded brilliant! Our friend, Lauren, who has a beautiful voice, sang ‘Oceans’ by Hillsong during the signing of the register.

Beautiful Bridesmaids… My precious friend Jo was my Maid of Honour and I had four beautiful bridesmaids (special girls Katie, Susie, Ellen and Cecily) who wore a lavender-blue strapless dress from Warehouse which I stumbled across a few months before our wedding. They wore cream satin heels from Debenhams and had cream pashminas to wrap around them when it got a bit chilly! I gave them each a matching necklace and earrings set from Accessorize, which added some sparkle to their look.

The Flowers… Green and Gorgeous created our beautiful bouquets, corsages and button holes and provided the flowers for our bigger displays. The flowers carried our colour scheme of purply/blue, blush and ivory beautifully and when the bouquets arrived on the day, I was overwhelmed with how stunning they were! My mum arranged the flowers for the church in large cream enamel jugs, which were then taken to the reception venue after the service. We used ivory satin ribbon to tie bunches of dried lavender to the chairs down the aisle. For the table centres, which my mum also arranged, we bought pale pink and white tulips from supermarkets and added some stems of dried lavender to maintain the lavender theme.

The Cake… Our three tiered wedding cake came from Marks and Spencers. It consisted of traditional fruit cake, vanilla sponge and chocolate sponge. We bought the individual tiers and put the cake together ourselves. I changed the colour of the ribbon to fit in with our colour scheme and added a few of our wedding flowers to the top of the cake to tie it all together.

Your Photographer… Maureen Du Preez, a London based photographer, did our pre-wedding photo shoot and photos on the day. I came across her website whilst searching for a photographer and we really liked the look of her photos, so immediately got in contact with her. We had a lot of fun when we met up to have our pre-wedding shoot and Maureen made us feel relaxed and we had a lot of fun having our photos taken around London. Maureen was brilliant on our wedding day and came in the morning for bridal preparations and stayed with us right through till our first dance in the evening, so captured all the key moments and details in between. We highly recommend her!

The Details + Decor… We kept the details and décor fairly simple, but wanted it all to link and flow together. Our main colour of purply/blue was threaded through all the details. Our invitations were tied with blue and white striped string with the guests’ names on mini brown luggage tags. We used the blue and white string to tie the bags with gingerbread biscuit favours in and pushed through a stem of dried lavender and tied a large brown luggage tag on with the guests’ names ink stamped on. The groom, best man and ushers wore blue and white striped ties. The table names were different types of sweets and after dinner each table was given a vintage tea cup and saucer filled with the appropriate sweets. We had a games table outside in the marquee and a fire pit to keep warm outside. We used a cute mini brown leather suitcase to collect wedding cards in and put a camera on the guest book table for people to take a photo and then write us a message.

The Honeymoon… We had a few nights in London staying by the river and enjoying a show at the theatre and visiting some of London’s attractions. We headed back to Oxford for our friends’ wedding the following week and then jetted off to the Maldives for the rest of our honeymoon, which Jamie’s parents had organised for us as a wedding present! We had an amazing time in the sun and enjoyed what the island had to offer – beautiful beaches, a sunset boat trip and a dolphin safari were some of the highlights.

Memorable Moments… For me, when I walked in the church with my dad to the music that was special for us, and when I turned down the aisle to see Jamie’s beaming face staring back at me. We loved the whole church ceremony with soul stirring worship led by a band of our friends and a powerful and profound talk given by the wonderful Michelle. Several guests told us how uplifting they thought the service was and that’s what we experienced too. At the reception we had an amazing dinner and enjoyed sentimental, emotional and hilarious speeches and we loved the band and had so much fun dancing with family and friends.

Advice for Other Couples… Don’t use dried lavender as confetti – it feels like gravel when it’s thrown at you! Don’t worry – we found that everything fell into place in the end and the whole day was more than we could have hoped for! And take moments out to soak in what’s going on – that helped us to engage a bit more with the day and stopped it from flying by faster than it did. We found the Marriage Preparation Course to be a great help in getting ready for all that is to come on the wedding day and, more importantly, in marriage. To find out more check out http://www.relationshipcentral.org/marriage-preparation-course. Enjoy it!

Credit Where Credit is Due…

Groom’s suit: Austin Reed – http://www.austinreed.co.uk/

Bride’s dress: Brides by Victoria – http://www.bridesbyvictoria.co.uk/

Ceremony venue: St Aldates Church – http://staldates.org.uk/

Reception Venue: Worton Park – http://www.wortonparkweddings.co.uk/

Catering: Worton Thyme Ltd – http://www.wortonparkweddings.co.uk/index.php?id=8

Band: Jazzbomb – http://www.jazzbomb.com/

Photographer: Maureen Du Preez  - http://www.maureendupreez.com/

Flowers: Green and Gorgeous – http://www.greenandgorgeousflowers.co.uk/

Wine: John @ Oxford Wine Company – http://www.oxfordwine.co.uk/

Bar: Oxford Bar Company – http://www.theoxfordbarcompany.co.uk/

Cake: Marks and Spencer – http://www.marksandspencer.com/Wedding-Cakes-Food-To-Order-Food-Wine/b/72561031?ie=UTF8&intid=gnav_food-amp-wine_wedding-cakes

Stationery: Holywell Press Ltd – http://www.holywellpress.co.uk/

The Marriage Preparation Course – http://www.relationshipcentral.org/marriage-preparation-course

Oh so wonderful. Thanks so much to Jamie and Becca for sharing their beautiful wedding with us today XOXO Lou

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