Talented Bride Georgina created not one, but TWO dresses for herself for her and Sean's big day. I mean, seriously - that's a dedicated DIY effort!! Both dresses look gorgeous on her too, so it was most definitely worth it.

The pretty pale pink and blue colour scheme is perfect for a wedding by the sea, especially as Georgina and Sean were really lucky to have blue skies and sunshine, making everything look so pretty, bright and airy.

And their vintage Afternoon Tea looks and sounds absolutely delicious!

The Dress

Georgina The Bride: In the wedding planning the dress wasn't at the top of my priorities list at the beginning. I wanted to come up with a theme and a feel of what the day would be like first of all. Around 6 months after getting engaged I was bought a tiny, pink sewing machine by my parents for my birthday. I loved making bags, clothes, cushions etc when I got a break from wedding planning.

It didn't take long before I came up with the idea of making my own wedding dress...for any Brides out there with a similar idea - I hated it and I loved it. This is not for the faint hearted but I felt very proud when I had finished. I bought lots of soft tulle from a local fabric store along with heavy-weight satin. I then bought a corset top, 100 flowers to sew onto it and a petticoat from the internet.

There were challenges every step of the way, not least trying to keep it out of the sight of Sean and out of the reach of our little black dog! I completely loved my big princess dress but knew it wouldn't be comfortable to wear all day, especially for dancing, so I also put together a 50s-style dress with a pink petticoat to wear to dance the night away. The design of this dress was much simpler and was so fun to twirl and play in. For my shoes I wore ivory peep toed flats that I found by luck in the Debenhams sale. They originally had a diamonte feature that wasn't to my taste so I ripped that off and replaced it with a flower from my dress bodice.

The Groom

After trawling through magazines and websites for ideas of male wedding attire, it became blatantly obvious that there were very few styles that would reflect the desired mood and atmosphere of the day. Sean struggled to make a choice on what to wear, as he wanted to be smart without being "boring". Given that the venue was situated on the coast, he decided to go for a nautical look, by combining cream Tommy Hilfiger chinos with a tailored navy blazer that had the buttons replaced with bronze anchor buttons. To ensure he was dressing to match the colour scheme of the wedding, he wore this with a pink/white striped shirt and a navy pink-pindot tie. He also wore brogues and his grandfather's old Breitling Navitimer watch.

The Venue

We have family connections to the church we were married in - Christchurch, Westbourne. During the build up period to the wedding we met with the vicar every few months for our marriage classes. We got to know him well and him us, which was great because it meant we didn't have a stranger marrying us.

The Branksome Dene Community Room (or Branksome Dene Pavillion as we have lovingly named it) is a place that we would walk past most days when walking our dog along the beach. It's a great spot right next to the beach with enough space to squeeze everyone inside for a sit-down meal and a patio with the most gorgeous view. We really wanted a blank canvas where we could have complete control over every aspect of our day, so this seemed like the perfect spot.

The Decor

It's no secret amongst my friends and family that I adore pink - you should see our home! Sean wanted to have a bit of balance so he didn't feel like we were throwing a little girls birthday party (!) so we compromised with a pale blue and pink colour scheme. We wanted to go for a pastel, vintage theme so my mum was busy collecting pretty fabrics and sewing bunting to go all over the venue. We also bought 100m of fairy lights to twinkle around the room and candles (popped into decorated jars) for the evening.

The Flowers

Quite soon after we got engaged we decided that we would have our flower centerpieces in decorated jars. We got friends and family in on this and collected jars for the next year and a half. My Mum has an amazing pink hydrangea plant in her garden that she had been lovingly caring for in preparation for the wedding. Then a few days before the big day we went around local market stalls and supermarkets to pick up pink and cream roses and carnations as well as some baby's breathe. The MOB and MOG then sprung into action arranging the flowers in vases, jars and finally putting together the bouquets and buttons holes. The combination of free jars, free hydrangea and locally bought flowers that we arranged ourselves meant we kept costs low and got them exactly how we wanted.

The Wedding Party

The best man and usher both wore navy blazers, like the groom but without bronze buttons, together with pink chinos (best man) and light blue chinos (usher). They both had on matching white shirts and striped ties. These outfits, along with my dad's pink blazer and my brother and godfather's striped blazers gave some really great colour to the day.

My maid of honour wore a floor length blue and pink dress from Ted Baker that looked great on her. On our invites the dress code was: ',true);"cocktail attire - don't be afraid to be colourful' which also encouraged our guests to wear bright dresses and interesting blazers which all looked fab when brought together.

The Ceremony

One of our readings was the 'Footprints' poem. Both Sean and I had picked this independently to be read at the church service as our Grannys had given us the poem as children. While we were signing the register we were lucky enough to have one of my closest friends performing her incredible version 'Amazing Grace'. We chose this as my parents had it at their wedding and I always knew that I would want it at mine.

The Entertainment

We opted for minimal entertainment during the day, allowing guests to explore the beach. My brother even went in the sea for a quick dip! We did provide some garden games, giant jenga and connect 4, which helped to break the ice and got guests giggling. We hired a jukebox for the day which was fab as it gave our guests control over the music they wanted to listen and dance to. This became more and more popular as the evening went on and the volume went up and some 90s classics came out. We also used it for our first dance and father-daughter dance.

For our first dance we blended Aerosmith's 'Don't wanna miss a thing' with 'Twist and Shout' by the Beatles which gave all our friends and family a good laugh as many of them hadn't seen us dance before. We had a short routine for the beginning but we soon got our guests on the dance floor to join in. It was a similar set up for Gangnam style with my dad. We had practiced the routine a bit, but the best part was standing at the front with my dad as all our friends pranced around us to the popular song. Somewhere between Gangnam style and the Spice Girls there was a surprise fireworks display organized by the best man. It was a real treat to have a surprise on a day that I had spent so long meticulously planning.

The Food

We decided that we wanted to have a slightly more relaxed alternative to a 5 course wedding breakfast where it is hard to please everyone, so we went for a couple of our favourite meals which fit in perfectly with the feel of the day and also our venue. We started with a vintage afternoon tea party. We hired some gorgeous vintage china from a local shop, which looked amazing. I loved seeing our guests sipping tea out of small flowery teacups. We had a selection of finger sandwiches, cheesestraws, parma ham with melon and caramelized onion and goat's cheese tart. This was followed by scones, lemon viennesse whirls, and fruit skewers. We had this as our more formal sit-down meal with speeches after.

All the tables were named after countries that we have visited together and my Maid of Honour made some great, photoshopped pictures for the tables. Then in the evening we had a BBQ with burgers, various types of sausages, Thai prawn skewers, chicken kebabs and halloumi/pepper skewers, all served with a salad and coleslaw as a buffet. The catering company, Vanilla, did so much more than just provide delicious food. They were also our bar, provided all the servers and most importantly a Manager who ensured the whole day went smoothly. The whole service they provided was flawless and we were so happy to have our wedding in their capable hands.

The cake was made by Sweet Serenity and beautifully decorated to fit in with our pink and blue theme. We had our silhouettes on the top and, without Sean knowing, I had asked them to sneak our little dog onto the bottom. We had 3 tiers which, of course, means 3 different flavours- double chocolate, white chocolate & raspberry and a pink ombre vanilla layer.

The Photographer

When searching for a photographer, we wanted someone capable of capturing the energy, excitement and emotion of the day. Needless to say, there is a wealth of photographers to choose from and at first it seems very difficult to decide. When we came across Dorset Wedding Photographer Paul Underhill we could tell that his style was exactly what we were looking for. We met up with him once to discuss our thoughts and ideas and another time for an engagement shoot, which really helped us get used to the camera as well as Paul.

On the big day, Paul blended in so well that nobody even noticed him taking their photo - this was perfect as it allowed lots of natural 'moments' to be caught on camera. Exactly what we were looking for. The formal shots are great but that is not where Paul's skill and creativity is best utilised. We have been very happy with the final shots and would literally recommend him to anyone.

The Little Touches

Our stationery was designed and put together by us. We managed to get our silhouettes and combine this with bunting in our wedding colours for the perfect homemade invites, order-of-service and guest cards. We used guest cards instead of a book so our guests could sit down around the room whenever they fancied to jot their thoughts, drawings and wishes of good luck. We also put the silhouettes onto pocket mirrors for the ladies as a wedding favour and the men got bubbles to keep them out of trouble.

Many of our guests commented that it was 'the little touches' that made the day feel extra special. One of the first things to be spotted as guests arrived at the reception venue was the brightly coloured sunglasses and flipflops. It wasn't long before heels had been kicked under tables in exchange for this more comfortable option and we were lucky enough to have the sun shining during the cocktail hour so the blue, pink and white glasses were shielding our guests' eyes from the Dorset sun.

We also made our initials out of photo collages to give our guests a giggle over our baby pics. The G had photos showing my progression through the years, while the & showed mine and Sean's relationship and the S showed Sean's progression.
We actually had 5 speeches at the wedding - Father of the Bride, Bride, Maid of Honour, Groom and Best Man. We gave each speaker around 5 mintues to talk.

Honestly, I think it's only fair that us girls get a say as well as the boys! They went smoothly, despite the Best Man's cheeky bottle of Grey Goose vodka rolling out from under the table during my speech. By the time we got to the Best Man we were all wondering why he needed this extra Dutch (Russian) courage. When he started rapping his carefully written speech about Sean we all realized why! It was such a surprise, hilarious and definitely one to remember!

Advice

Everyone says that your wedding day goes by in a flash. Honestly, we had the best day of our lives, but it was only one day. We had 19 months of planning and I loved every minute of it from looking for inspiration on great websites like Rock My Wedding, designing the invites, sitting on the sofa sewing flowers onto my dress to food tasting days. So my advice would be enjoy the whole process and when it comes to the big day, relax and enjoy all the hard work you have done to put together the BEST DAY EVER.