Timeless, Modern & Chic Blue Hydrangea Wedding

via

This morning we are getting totally chic and sophisticated with WWW readers Lisa and Iain's wedding day, held in September of last year at Hedsor House in Buckinghamshire. They created a traditional country wedding with a modern twist.

I adore the Hydrangea blue scheme, with fluffy statement bouquets and beautiful blue dresses for the bridesmaids. There was a host of amazing wedding suppliers involved; from pretty stationery to letter lights and amazing photography with fun film shots.

Lisa looked stunning in her custom made dress which she teamed with Christian Louboutin heels and Iain donned a dashing blue Jack Bunneys suit. There was also an awesome balloon release which made for some great images.

Thanks so much to Cotton Candy Photography for providing the exquisite photographs today.

THE PROPOSAL | I wanted to surprise Lisa and propose when she least expected it, therefore decided to hijack her birthday present to me. She was taking me to the Monaco Grand Prix for my 30th birthday and I decided that was the perfect time. I hadn't decided exactly when to drop the bombshell, so spent 2 days carrying around the ring, petrified that I would either lose it or get rumbled by Lisa. Eventually I chose a restaurant on a beautiful cliff top in Eze called Chevre D'or. Nerves had stripped me of my appetite for the starter and just when I thought Lisa must know something was going on, I popped the question and in my haste threw the ring across the table at her. Lisa was so shell-shocked, she sat there for what seemed like an eternity, before finally saying YES.

THE VISION | We wanted a traditional country wedding in a grand house, but with a modern twist and lots of details for everyone to enjoy. After looking at several venues of the right style, we chose Hedsor House as it was a perfect combination of traditional old school glamour with lots of class.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | We had a wedding planner - Aimee Dunne to help us with this. She was fantastic and really reined us in on certain things, and gave us some fantastic ideas on others. We had a lot of spreadsheets and mood boards. As soon as we had the venue booked, that dictated the style and as soon as we had the bridesmaid dressed, the main colour scheme was established. Everything else was a combination of a lot of internet research - mainly Etsy, 100layer cake, Martha Stewart etc.

BUDGET | We didn't really have a budget as such we just worked on what we thought was reasonable to pay for each aspect e.g. flowers, invitations etc. We did do a lot of research into each of the different areas so made sure we weren't being ripped off! The total cost for the wedding came in at about £45k (minus honeymoon).

THE VISION | Hedsor House Buckinghamshire.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | The dress and veil were designed and made by my friend, and designer - Tsemaye Binite. Shoes were Christian Louboutin and Jewellery was Tiffany. I also had an Anya Hindmarch glitter clutch.

FINDING THE DRESS | This was a long process for me as I went to every bridal shop in London and couldn't find a dress that I loved. I found lots of dresses that I liked a lot, and lots that I liked part of, but found myself wanting to take bits from one and put them with another. In the end I asked my friend Tsemaye to make me something that was exactly what I wanted and he did just that. It was an amazing process being able to see the dress made from scratch (and a little scary at times!) and picking the fabrics etc but I'm so glad I got to do it.

GROOM'S ATTIRE | A friend had used a great little suit rental shop in Essex called Jack Bunneys's. They have one shop, barely advertise, but are always busy and rightly so.... the suit hire prices are reasonable, the fit is slim and they are extremely helpful. They also offer all the accessories; pocket handkerchiefs, tie bars, made to measure suits, etc. My suit was made to measure in a dark blue, with an ivory waistcoat, tie and brown shoes. The groomsmen's suits were hired and identical to mine, but they had blue waistcoats and light blue ties to coordinate with the bridesmaids.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | Our 2 close friends did readings for us that they picked themselves. These were 'Carry your heart with' my by EE Cummings, and 'Union' by Robert Fulgham.

I walked down the aisle to 'Just the way you are' Bruno Mars, but an acoustic version played and sung by a 2 man band. Post ceremony the same band played 'Higher Love' and 'somewhere over the Rainbow'. We had a DJ in the evening playing a mix of old school and R&B. Our first dance song was 'The you and me song' by the Wannadies.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | The bridesmaids were my sister (maid of honour) Stefannie Hurst, and close friends, Brittany Bowler, Gemma Harris and Laura Alcott. The dresses were from Amsale in hydrangea colour. The bridesmaid dresses really dictated the colour scheme for the day and because we loved the blue hydrangea colour so much we based everything else around it.

THE FLOWERS | Hot flowers and Art produced all the floral decorations for us. We wanted a colour co-ordinated scheme that was going to have a big impact as they were one of our main sources of decoration. The bridesmaid's bouquets were plain blue hydrangeas wrapped together with brown string and my bouquet was a mix of white hydrangeas, roses and ranuculus. The aisle had posies of blue hydrangeas dotted throughout. We had 12 tables with floral centrepieces, 6 had large tall centrepieces of a mix of white, blue and green hydrangeas and roses with twigs. The other 6 had small jam jar arrangements grouped together with the same flowers to give more of a vintage look. Not having all tall or all short arrangements meant that it was easier on the eye as you walked into the room.

THE CAKE | Made by Sophie's Chocolates. We went for tiers of dark chocolate coated in layers of dark, milk and white chocolate with raspberries on the chocolate. We are both huge chocolate fans, and wanted to serve the cake as dessert so thought this was a perfect combo as it was paired with fresh raspberries, blueberries and salted caramel ice cream.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Cotton Candy Photography. Quite possibly the best in the business! We really liked Phil and Gem's untraditional approach to photographs as we didn't want anything too formal for the day. They are so friendly, approachable and flexible we barely noticed them there, but they took some amazing photographs for us.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | There were so many little details and decorations it is hard to capture everything.

The save the date and invitations were a particular focus for us as we wanted them to be really different. We chose a bespoke laser cut design Hummingbird cards. The save the dates were a postcard size laser cut design in hydrangea blue. The invitations were a larger version of these with all the additional bits wrapped in brown vintage string with brown vintage envelopes.

The flowers were a huge focal point for us as we really wanted them to stand out. We had a vintage bicycle outside the venue full of flowers and some gigantic helium balloons to match. We had a MR and MRS Lindsay banner outside in the gardens to add decoration as well as a vintage lemonade stand with mini milk bottles and vintage straws. This served as the seating plan as well as every luggage tag had a name on it and the name of the table that each person was sitting on, on the other side.

Red heart helium balloons were given to each of the guests, and us following the ceremony to let off as part of the main group photo. This made a fantastic picture.

Table names were names of our favourite restaurants around the world. We are both big foodies so this was really representative of who we are and what we love.

We made a personalised wedding bingo for during the dinner to make sure everyone mixed on each of the tables and a bottle of champagne was given to the winning table. Our favours were chocolate moustaches for the men and lips for the women which made some great photographs.

My little brother Olly was page boy and he carried a custom made 'Here comes the bride' sign down the aisle which was incredibly sweet.

Possibly my favourite decorative detail was the candy station that myself and my bridesmaid (Brittany) created. We based this on Amy Atlas designs as we loved her ideas. We couldn't find anyone in the UK to create a great American style candy station for us so that's why we decided to make it ourselves. Most of the candy was imported from the USA/Canada by friends in the colour scheme to match the wedding. There were also salted caramel and chocolate macaroons - my favourite thing!

My second favourite detail was the giant L&I lighting that was set up by Vowed and Amazed in the evening for us. This was recommended by Aimee and was a perfect décor to the dancefloor/lighting in the evening. We also had fireworks line the drive at the end of the evening so when we drove out of the house, they all went off which was fantastic to see.

THE HONEYMOON | An African extravaganza for just under 3 weeks. We went to Zanzibar for 1 week, followed by a safari for 4 days in Tanzania, and then spent 1 week at Fundu Lagoon on Pemba Island (one of the archipelago's off the coast of Zanzibar).

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | Iain - The door at the end of the aisle opening and seeing Lisa for the first time. I had been pretty nervous until then (not least because she was 20 mins late!), but as soon as I saw her a sense of calm passed through my body and I really enjoyed the rest of the ceremony.

Another highlight was looking back at dance floor and seeing it packed with people and everyone was having such a good time.

Lisa - When the registrar announced us as man and wife - possibly the most surreal and exciting moment. It was so hard to take it all in but fantastic at the same time. It was great to turn around and see everyone there celebrating with us. Iain's speech was also a particularly memorable moment for me as he wrote a poem at the end which was lovely.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Make sure that all the hard work is done in ADVANCE of the day, and on the day delegate EVERYTHING, either to bridesmaids, a wedding planner, family; anyone to allow you to enjoy, and most importantly, take in the best parts of the day. Also, don't spend too much time dwelling on the details as you are the only one who appreciates them and notices when things aren't quite so.

Enjoy the day! It's the most overwhelming day ever, but try to enjoy it and take in as much as you can as it disappears so quickly.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Catering | Caper and Berry

Dress | Tsemaye Binite

Bridesmaid dresses | Amsale

Men's suits | Jack Bunneys

Cake | Sophie's Chocolates

Flowers | Hot Flowers and Art

Wedding planner | Aimee Dunne

Giant illuminated L&I Letters | Vowed and Amazed

Hair and Make-up | Lindsay Ann Ratcliffe

Invitations | Hummingbird cards