It’s time for WWW real bride Kim to share her beautiful wedding day with us. There will be 2 parts of pretty, so don’t forget to pop by at 2pm for their wedding reception. Ekkkk!

Rory and Kim married in August, with a Church service surrounded by their loved ones. They wanted their wedding to be fun, quirky and relaxed with a bold multicoloured theme.

Kim looked amazing in a polka dot wedding dress with turquoise petticoat and bow veil. Rory opted for a quirky H&M suit jacket, Ted Baker shoes and an orange tie. And lets not forget those pretty bridesmaids in coral crochet dresses too… so pretty!

I adore the DIY flowers with bird and butterfly ornaments and the cute DIY buttonholes too. Squeal.

Thanks so much to the brilliant Georgi Mabee for sharing her photographs with us today.

 

 

The Proposal… Very uneventful! I had given Rory the ring a year or two before. It was given to me by my Great Grandmother when I was a teenager, it was her engagement ring, and I refused to have anything but Nan’s ring. Rory gave the ring back to me on Christmas Day 2011, just after we had woken up. I don’t even remember him asking me to marry him; just a few quiet mumbles, but the sentiment was there!

 

 

The Vision for the Day… We wanted everyone to have a fun, relaxed day. We didn’t want the wedding to be too formal; we’re not lovers of formal events so it would have been ridiculous to have a ‘top hat and tails’ kind of affair. Our vision changed slightly over the 18 months of planning, but ultimately, we wanted our wedding to feel different to any other we had seen or been to before. People often describe us as quirky, so I made the decision to ditch the bunting and shabby chic scrapbooks I had put together, and make it something altogether different. Bright, bold and quirky was the aim of the game.

 

The Planning Process… We started planning pretty much straight away. We knew we had to save up to afford the wedding so planned for 18 months in advance (August being the school holidays, as I am a teacher). We organised the church and venue pretty quickly and I bought my dress and the bridesmaids dresses with a year to go.

I knew I didn’t want to spend money unnecessarily, and so decided to put my skills to good use- meaning I didn’t have to organise the flowers, cake and décor until close to the day, as I did it all myself. I also designed and put together all of the stationery.

This was all great til the reception venue, including catering fell through. We were unaware until 3 months before the wedding that this was the case, but luckily for us, Twitter came to our rescue and we got a cancellation for our date at the first place we had looked. Fate was clearly on our side.

 

 

The Dress + Accessories… A 1950s style tea length dress with a polka dot overlay and turquoise petticoat, from Pixie Pocket on Etsy. It was fun, comfortable and the dress I had in my head. Bizarrely, Mum’s wedding dress also had a polka dot overlay. Quirky must run in the family. I added a coral coloured floral corsage around my waist to tie it all together.

I wore flat turquoise suede shoes with a big bow in a retro style. I know I cannot walk in heels, so flat shoes were a must. I had Swarovski crystal earrings, which were given to me by family friends (the parents of two of my bridesmaids).

Veil – birdcage veil with white bow from Etsy. The first veil that I bought was occidentally thrown away by husband to be, which I had to replace!

Possibly my favourite addition was my headpiece, which I wore for some of the photos and reception. I made it using millinery pieces I found online, in addition to birds, feathers and tiny metal roses. I hand stitched everything together to create the exact, fun addition to my outfit, with just the right amount of eccentricity. I fixed it all to a hairband, and wore it to dance the night away.

Finding the Dress… I had a particularly bad experience in the one and only wedding dress shop I entered ( I swear it was like that scene from Pretty Woman, absolutely soul destroying!) I vowed then and there not to go into another wedding dress shop and found my perfect dress on Etsy.

Mum helped me take my measurements, and the dress was made to fit, with added straps, alongside the custom turquoise petticoat made to match my shoes which I had bought months before. It was shipped all the way from New Zealand, and it fitted perfectly!

 

Beautiful Bridesmaids… My bridesmaids were two of my oldest friends, Ami and Kerri, and my Uni friend Anna. The two little bridesmaids were Harriet, my friend’s daughter and Lily, our niece.

The grown ups wore coral crochet lace dresses by Darling, and the kids wore Ted Baker dresses. They couldn’t have worked better together!

 

 

Budget… We didn’t have a massive budget; our wedding was paid for by a year of savings, some help from parents and Rory being made redundant just after we got engaged. A total blessing in disguise. I haven’t added the total cost, but I would guess about £10,000

 

Groom’s Attire… Rory wore a retro, teal coloured tuxedo jacket that we picked up in the H&M sale last winter. I knew the colour would complement my petticoat, and after persuasion, Rory agreed to save his tweed jacket for a different occasion.

He wore a shirt from Burton, trousers from Topman and Ted Baker shoes. All of the groomsmen had different coloured ties that we found online.

The groomsmen wore the same ensemble, apart from their jackets, which came from Matalan. The shoes were their own, which is obvious when you see my brother’s feet.

 

 

The Readings + Music… As we had a church wedding, we had to have Bible readings, which were read by a family friend and one of Rory’s groomsmen. We had a very special reading of a prayer, which was read in church by my Bridesmaid, Harriet. She had written it about us in an RE lesson in school about marriage. It was so perfect.

I walked down the aisle to ‘I Walk the Line’ and we danced out to ‘Jackson’ by Johnny Cash and June Carter.

 

 

The Flowers… I did all of the flowers myself. The bridesmaid bouquets were made with faux flowers that I had collected from various shops over a series of months. I put them together in advance, and added birds and butterflies to make them more interesting. The colours really popped, especially against the dresses.

I made my bouquet the night before the wedding with flowers I had bought from the wholesalers earlier that morning. I wrapped the bouquet with floristry tape and added crochet lace in the morning.

All of the flowers at the reception were colour coded to the tables, and were put in glass bottles and jars that we had saved from juice, jams and sauces.

 

 

 

Credit Where Credit is Due…

Georgi Mabee – http://www.georgimabee.com/

Dove Barn – http://www.dovebarn.com/

Dress-Pixie Pocket (Etsy) https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/PixiePocket

Millinery Supplies (button holes & my headpiece)- SquirlGirl https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/squirlgirl

Corsage/Sash – Etsy https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/NAFEstudio

Customised pencils https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/oneupdesigns

Wedding Stationery printed at www.moo.com

 

Just you wait for part 2 later, you are going to loveeee Kim and Rory’s wedding reception XOXO Lou