Are you ready for part 2 of Sam and Gary’s gorgeous wedding?

With the ceremony complete they moved onto their reception. They got super crafty and creative with their wedding décor. With giant tea cups filled with flowers, vintage crockery, bow tie napkins, DIY table plan and card box. It looked amazing.

I so love the pastel blooms, peonies, hydrangeas and gypsophila. There was a statement pastel coloured cake and yummy looking favours too. Not to mention how happy they both look. Ahhhhh.

Thanks so much again to Andrea Ellison for sharing her images with us today.

 

 

 

The Details + Decor… The details and décor were all based on Alice in Wonderland with a hint of vintage pretty. I spent months searching for bits and bobs in charity shops and on Ebay. We found lot’s of tea sets and character teapots. I found lot’s of vintage lace and crochet doilies which we used everywhere, under everything to give it a real ‘tearoom’ effect. Anything Alice related we collected. Our spare room became the ‘wedding room’, filled with boxes of trinkets and ornaments. We weren’t sure exactly where things were going to be used but they all got dotted around on the day. Our best finds were some giant decanters and glass bottles in the Ikea sale which we hung drink me labels on.

On the tables we wanted to achieve a really mismatched and jumbled up tea party feel. We had teacups filled with flumps and fudge, giant teacups filled with flowers, stacks of books and disney card games. At this point in our collecting tea sets had become extremely popular, so finding them in charity shops was increasingly difficult. We decided to get in touch with Pretty Little Trio, a vintage china hire company, run by the lovely Rebecca. She did a fab job of decorating our tables with beautiful teacups and even offered her advice and expertise on some other table décor issues. Our favours were ‘eat me’ shortbread shaped as teacups/pots and ‘drink me’ bottles filled with various liqueurs. The flower girls had personalised goody bags that I printed myself.

We crafted quite a lot of things ourselves to save money. We made little drink flags, photo booth props on sticks, wooden flamingos and bunting. Our table plan was made from an old Ikea picture frame, spray painted white. We put some polka dot wrapping paper being the glass and tied on some string washing lines with the table plans pegged on. Simple but effective! My favourite wedding DIY project was our rabbit house card box. It was a joint effort, Gary made the wooden frame with a little hinged door (I was very impressed with his skills). Then we covered it in astro turf, made some mini bunting and stuck a picnic scene on the top. It came in very handy!

 

The Cake… The cake was one of my favourite parts of the wedding! A fantastically talented lady called Helen from ‘Cakes by Helen’ (based in Runcorn) made my amazing cake. I had lot’s of pictures and idea’s of how I wanted it to be, we had discussed what she was going to do and what colours etc… but I had no idea it would be as fabulously perfect as it was. I couldn’t stop looking at it… needless to say I didn’t want to cut it up… but we did and tasted GOOD! It had two lemon layers and two chocolate layers. She also made some amazing delicious shortbread biscuits in the shape of teacups and pots… people are still discussing how good they tasted. Very talented lady.

 

 

Your Photographer… The fabulous Andrea Ellison! What can I say about Andrea? She has been more than a photographer from start to finish. More like a fairy ‘wedding’ mother. From the moment we first spoke about our wedding on the phone she has been super supportive and positive every step of the way. I knew instantly we were on the same page. We just love her beautiful, mood capturing, relaxed style of photography. So grateful that she was there on our big day. She’s been our photographer, slimming buddy, wedding advice line, confidence coach and friend. A big thank you also to Zenna of Zen Photographic who helped out with photography on the day… You were amazing too! Can we do it all again please? Love you guys.

 

 

The Flowers… The flower were from ‘About Flowers’ in Widnes. I chosen big fluffy flowers to match my dress. Peonies are my favourite childhood flower, I remember them from my Nan’s garden. We then highlighted the pinks with the blue hydrangea and white gyspsophelia. The stems were wrapped in polka dot ribbon and lace. One of the first things we bought for the wedding were our giant teacup table centres. They set the theme and feel for the rest of the table décor. The top table had lot’s of smaller teacups and pots filled with flowers and dotted around like a Hatters tea party.

 

 

The Dress + Accessories… My dress was by Kelly Star (part of The Sposa Group).

My shoes were a bargain, Faith from Debenhams, in the sale. Ivory peep toes with a little bow and a bit of sparkle on the side. I was looking for pretty flat shoes for ages and couldn’t find anything suitable. I knew I didn’t want to wear heels and be towering over Gary, I also wanted to be comfortable. I managed to dance the whole night away in those bad boys.

My tiara was from Alan Hannah ‘Devoted’ at Debenhams, it was a perfect match for my dress and so sparkly with a vintage twist. It did hurt my head after wearing all day though haha! The necklace I wore was the matching one from Debenhams also.

My earrings and bracelet were from Glitzy Secrets, they do some beautiful pieces at great prices. It’s so sparkly when it arrives too. I would recommend them highly. They even do clip on earrings, great for me as I don’t have my ears pierced.

In a last minute rush to complete my something old, new, borrowed and blue… I borrowed my Dads wedding ring as my something old and borrowed. My ‘new’ was my dress and accessories and my ‘blue’ was my garter and my flowers.

 

 

Finding the Dress… It took me a long time to find ‘the one’! I fell in love with a picture of Nicole Ritchie’s wedding dress, designed by Marchesa. It was lacey on the bodice and layered like a tutu on the skirt. Being a big kid any excuse to wear a tutu is good for me. Unable to afford the actual dress I went on a 6 month mission to find a similar one. I have to admit dress shopping was not quite what I expected. It can be quite stressful! I tinkered with the idea of having one made at one stage, but there was too much pressure on not seeing a dress until it’s finished, too much money at stake if I didn’t like it. I carried on looking, I even went around the same shops again a few months later in hope something would appear. Lot’s of shops and dresses tried on later… I finally found my ‘one’. It was in a local shop in my town and was pretty much everything I was looking for. I loved it! I loved the tutu-ness of the layers, each layer had a slight sparkle to it and it was so fun to wear. It was great to dance and twirl in. It was the perfect dress for me and Gary loved it.

 

 

The Honeymoon… We honeymooned in Hong Kong and Bali. It was amazing. We went two days after the wedding so we were still riding the wedding high. We had such a fab time although the jet lag was horrific for the first few days. We went to Disney land in Hong Kong, got the tram up to the peak and did lot’s of shopping. Bali was mainly chilling by the pool… oh and riding elephants! I hope we can go back one day and re-live the dream.

 

 

Memorable Moments… Where do I start? The whole day was amazing. It rushed by so fast because we were enjoying it so much. I think one of the most memorable bits is coming down the isle feeling really nervous and then seeing Gary and both giving each other that look that says ‘It’s going to be ok’. One of my favourite parts of the day was dancing all night with all my family and friends, I have never laughed and smiled so much. I would love to re-live that evening again!

 

 

Advice for Other Couples… I would say to plan early. Plan all your big things as soon as you can and don’t leave it until last minute. You will feel so much better. Also make a spreadsheet and keep track of the budget, what you’ve paid and what you need to pay. Things can get really confusing when you’re paying deposits and bits and bobs to lot’s of suppliers. Most importantly and slightly contradictory… Don’t let wedding planning take over your life, make time for each other, don’t put too much pressure on everything being photo shoot perfect. On the day what will be will be and you’ll have done everything you can, trust the suppliers. Guests will not notice if things go wrong. Focus on marrying your best friend and enjoy it!

 

 

Credit Where Credit is Due…

Photography – www.andreaellisonphotography.com

Videography – http://www.silkweddingfilms.co.uk

Makeup – http://www.themakeupcheshire.com

Cake – https://www.facebook.com/cakedesignsby.helen

Venue – http://www.arleyhallandgardens.com

China hire – http://www.prettylittletrio.co.uk/pretty_little_trio/hello_1.html

Bridesmaids dresses – http://www.callmebetty.co.uk/index.php/shop

Flowers – http://www.about-flowers.co.uk

Ahh so wonderful. A huge thank you to Sam for sharing her wedding planning with us here at WWW over the past few months and to Sam and Gary for allowing me to share their gorgeous wedding today :-) XOXO Lou