A Rustic Quirky DIY Wedding

A Rustic Quirky DIY Wedding

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I hope August is treating you well so far :-) To start the week in style i have one of my favourite weddings of 2013 so far.

WWW readers Oliver and AJ married back in April holding their reception at East Riddlesden Hall, Yorkshire. Being wedding photographers themselves they had a clear idea of how they wanted their wedding to be. A rustic French feel was order of the day, with home made touches thrown in for good measure.

AJ looked stunning in a dress she made herself, with her hair plaited and full of blooms. Oliver wanted a quirky look, with a Ted Baker suit, teamed with paisley shirt, DIY bow tie and fun home made fishing theme buttonhole.

There was a rainbow ruffled ombre wedding cake, pretty maids in mismatched pastel dresses, DIY wedding flowers and paper flowers on the tables. WOW.

Thanks so much to the brilliant Lawson Photography for sharing their photographs with us today.

 

The Proposal… Oli proposed to me a year earlier whilst on our yearly holiday to my Dad’s house in France which is where we met for the very first time. He took me on a stroll through the beautiful country lanes, stopped at an opening to a field full of sunflowers and got down on one knee with a ring he’d designed and had specially made. But not before asking my Dad’s permission the traditional way – to which my dad replied “well…get on with it then!”

The Vision for the Day… With such a strong connection to France it seemed only right to incorporate that into our day so we settled on a rustic French theme. We wanted as many things as possible to be handmade and quite natural looking. But most importantly we wanted to share our day with the people we love and for everyone to have a relaxed time -something we definitely achieved!

The Planning Process… The very first thing we planned was actually our honeymoon! :D Everything else after that just fell into place. Countless hours were spent researching various things to craft, and we did change our mind on some things a few times before we decided on the final details. We wanted our colour scheme to be subtle and slightly muted yet funky, reflecting rustic qualities that would suit our venue so we opted for a range of shades in Blue, Green and Purple.

Budget… We didn’t really set out with a budget in mind, just that we’d try to save money where possible so that we could splash out where it was most important.

The Venue… We always knew we wanted to get married in a church so finding that was the easy part – our ceremony was at St Michael and All Angels Church, Foulridge close to where Oli grew up. The venue was a little harder to find – we had our hearts set on a barn but having little choice within our area meant we had to travel into the next County. East Riddlesden Hall near Keighley, Yorkshire is a National Trust property and was the perfect choice as Oli and his family had visited there on days out when he was young. The vast Airedale Barn, where the reception was held, is set in the grounds of the grand historic hall so there were ample opportunities for our photographs.

The Dress + Accessories… For me The Dress was definitely the most challenging part of our wedding… as I made it myself! Having never made a dress before I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. It took the best part of a year to complete and there were times when I thought there would be a mad dash to a dress shop at the last minute but it was certainly worth it in the end. I got exactly what I wanted – something simple and elegant with a bit of ME! I used an 80’s wedding dress pattern and altered it, mainly changing the shape on the back.

Groom’s Attire… Oli was adamant that he wanted something quite quirky for his suit so he bought his jacket and shoes from Ted Baker, a paisley print shirt from Hawes & Curtis and teamed it with navy trousers. Continuing with our DIY I made his bowtie and Oli made all the men’s button-holes with his fly-tying equipment, collected from being a keen fisherman.

The Readings + Music… Music played a big part in our day – it was kicked off at the church with the choir we chose (KVU Singers) who we asked to do a rendition of “Happy Together” by The Turtles. I walked up the aisle to a piano version of “You’re So Cool” by Hans Zimmer and then we walked out together to “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man of Mine” which was recorded by Oli’s sister Jessica, an up and coming singer who was tragically killed in a car accident in 2009. Once we arrived at East Riddlesden Hall we had a Jazz Quartet (Pacific Lamppost) playing whilst we ate canapés and drank blue champagne – we knew the band members as they attend Oli’s old school – QEGS, Blackburn. In the evening we danced to a fantastic band called Bright Shapes who we first discovered through a performance at the Great British Rhythm and Blues Festival on The Jessica Foxley Stage (in memory of Jess). This was then followed by a DJ.

Beautiful Bridesmaids… My fantastic chief bridesmaid Jay was an absolute angel – not only on the day but in the run up too. I had 2 other bridesmaids – Kim & Vikki, and my gorgeous little niece was our flowergirl. I wanted them all to feel comfortable on the day so we chose fun dresses in different colours then teamed them with matching underskirts which I made along with the Flowergirl’s dress.

The Flowers… The flowers were yet another DIY detail – we bought all the flowers for the church, bouquets and women’s buttonholes from a local florist then I arranged them myself. For my bouquet I chose a few antique roses mixed with lots of wild flowers. I also incorporated some dried flowers and tied it with hessian and raffia to keep it natural. For the venue we handmade all the flowers from different coloured paper – it took an eternity but we had lots of help from family and friends and it’s inspired me to take on a new venture in homemade weddings (www.ajshomemadeweddings.com)

The Cake… Our wedding cake and Patisserie table were a big talking point with our guests – the cake was a 4 tier graduated colour ruffle cake. When we did the cake-cutting we sliced a wedge from the top tier to reveal the rainbow inside – there were plenty of Oooo’s and Ahhhh’s! And the Patisserie table was filled with colourful Macarons, pastries and truffles. All of which were made by my wonderful sister.

Your Photographer… As wedding photographers ourselves (Foxley Photography) we were constantly asked “So who’s going to photograph your wedding?” to which we could happily reply “The Lawsons” (Lawson Photography). We’ve met Pete & Laura a few times and we knew we would be in capable hands.  Their style is similar to ours, relaxed and informal and they were fantastic on the day and fit in so well with our family and friends… needless to say we were more than happy with the results – we are truly in love with each and every one of our pictures.

The Details + Decor… The details and decorations were an important part of our day, especially as we made most of them ourselves. In keeping with the style of the barn I made almost 200 metres of bunting in our colour scheme. For the wedding breakfast we wanted people to feel more relaxed so we arranged the tables in long rows, banquet-style. We had hessian table-runners, lots of carafes filled with French wine, candlelight, and handmade name cards with cotton spools as bases – reflecting my passion for sewing. Then the paper flowers in vases finished the tables off nicely.

The Honeymoon… More often than not we take our holidays with our family so we were really looking forward to taking some time away for ourselves for a change. Naturally we went to France but decided to travel around more – we sailed to Northern Spain then drove up through France staying and 2 different villas before visiting my dad for a few days.

Memorable Moments… For me the one part I will never forget is the moment I started walking up the aisle and saw Oli – I could see he was getting teary and I was too but I could NOT stop grinning! It was complete heart-stopping / take-your-breath-away / only-in-the-movies kind of feeling! I think Oli’s is probably getting to ride in our wedding car – a 1960’s Citroen DS!

Advice for Other Couples… The main advice I would give to anyone getting married is to do as much preparation as you can as soon as you can – don’t leave it until the last minute –  it can catch up on you very quickly  as we found out. The week leading up to the wedding was so jam-packed and stressful due to the amount we were doing ourselves that it didn’t leave us time to relax and enjoy it all. It was all totally worth it on the day but I think it’s important to be relaxed in the build-up.

Credit Where Credit is Due…

PHOTOGRAPHY: Lawson Photography http://www.lawsonphotography.co.uk/

FOXLEY PHOTOGRAPHY: http://www.foxleyphotography.com

CHOIR: KVU Singers: http://kvusingers.co.uk/

JAZZ QUARTET: Pacific Lamppost: http://www.pacificlamppost.webs.com/

EVENING BAND: Bright Shapes http://www.brightshapes.com/

FLOWERS SUPPLIED BY:  Kathleen’s Florist http://www.floristsburnley.com/

CAKE & PATISSERIE TABLE: http://www.theweddingpatisserie.com

THE JESSICA FOXLEY STAGE: http://www.jessicafoxley.com

Oh my word, just the best day ever! Thanks so very much to Oliver and AJ for sharing their beautiful wedding with us today XOXO Lou

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