Amanda & Sam's Powder Blue & Pink Family-made Wedding

Written by: louise

Posted on Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Hello readers! Are you ready for another super pretty wedding? Amanda & Sam tied the knot in style at the Clifton Club in Bristol, with a powdery blue and pink colour palette I am totally in love with! Such a pretty choice. They personalised their day with vintage postcards from places they've travelled, and got their family involved in creating the gorgeous flowers, cake and that adorable cake topper! Ashlee from Taylor Barnes Photography captured their day with perfect style and I am absolutely delighted to share her work for the first time here today {keep your eyes peeled for more very soon!}

We met at Glastonbury festival in 2007, when it rained for the entire weekend. I wasn't looking my best after 5 days camped in a muddy field, so I thought it was a good sign when he called the first evening we got home! Our first date was in Bristol, he took me to the SS Great Britain and the At Bristol Science Museum, followed by a lovely dinner. Sam proposed while we were on a long weekend away in Copenhagen. It was just before Christmas, and I was very excited to visit the Christmas markets in the city. He proposed in Tivoli Gardens, which is full of beautiful lights and colours at Christmas time. We celebrated with a mug of Glogg, the Danish version of mulled wine.

I found my wedding dress at Clifton Brides in Bristol, and typically it was one of the first I tried on which I ended up coming back to after comparing everything else to it! I loved it because it was fairly simple but still different to a lot of dresses I'd seen elsewhere, with a beautiful low lace back. The staff at Clifton Brides were wonderfully friendly and helpful, and the owner Michaela helped to ensure everything was perfect for me. I wanted something soft and pretty that was ideally not strapless. It had beautiful lace cap sleeves and a soft tulle skirt. The back was low and lacy which made it feel a bit different and lots of people noticed and liked. I knew I wouldn't want to worry about getting my make up right and making it last on the day, so I hired a make-up artist who made up me, my bridesmaids and my Mum on the morning of the wedding. I was indecisive over my hair for a long time - I don't ever really wear it up, but thought this might go best with my dress. In the end, with the help of my hairdresser I chose to have it down and wavy, with some hair pulled back to make it a little more formal than my usual style, and help to keep it in place all day - which it did despite a lot of wind! I added a waist length veil which was also purchased from Clifton Brides, and my pearl bracelet was my something borrowed from my maid of honour, who wore the same bracelet for her wedding a year before. My shoes were from Debenhams - I don't wear heels that often but I lasted all day in them until the dancing started! I searched high and low for my bridesmaids dresses, I wanted to buy them from the high street but couldn't find the right shade of blue I had imagined for them. In the end I found a great US website called forherandforhim.com which had a beautiful selection of dresses and could make them to each bridesmaid's specific measurements. They had full length strapless dresses in 'storm grey'. I bought them all some pretty pearl bow earrings and a bracelet from House of Fraser and gave them a cream pashmina in case it got cold (luckily these weren't really needed!) Our reception was held at the Clifton Club, a members club in Bristol which also hires out the venue for weddings. It is a beautiful Georgian building in the middle of Clifton Village which is a lovely part of Bristol. There wasn't really a theme at all, I based a lot of things around the colours I had wanted to include and what would fit in with the beautiful venue which had its own style already. The tables were named after cities that we had either been to together or going to on our honeymoon, I found vintage postcards for each city online and stood them in champagne corks on a little wooden stand. I made each guest's place card using a pack of mismatched floral card and hand stamping guests names on each. We gathered lots of photos of us both growing up, and memories from since we've been together and had them printed in a Polaroid style (this took a fair bit of editing time by the groom!). My Step-Mum is a very talented florist so there was no question about who we would want to do our flowers. We had beautiful pinks, creams and greens which looked really fresh and spring-like. My bouquet was made extra special for me with the addition of pale pink peonies. The cake was made by the mother of groom, and was 3 tiers - two fruit cake and one lemon sponge (and was incredibly tasty!). She also made some 'just married' bunting as a cake topper based on some ideas I'd seen on Etsy, and painted two wooden figures to go on top which were made to look exactly like us, (even down to the colour of my bouquet and style of my hair!). She also made all of the favours which were packs of 5 small heart shaped shortbread biscuits with different decorations. She took inspiration from the traditional wedding favour of five sugared almonds to represent health, happiness, wealth, fertility and longevity. We chose a song called 'Falling Slowly' from the film Once for our first dance. We went to see the film together not long after we met so it brings back great memories. We didn't choreograph a routine! Sam also chose a 'second dance' song which the band learnt My advice would be, if you can, plan your time so that you don't need to do anything on the morning of the wedding except pamper yourself and get excited. Try to give yourself a cut-off time the day before to get all your jobs done so you can relax and enjoy some time with your family before the busy day ahead! just for us and we got everyone onto the dance floor - Edwyn Collins 'A Girl Like You'.

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