Morning brides! Before we get started, a little question for you, have you started planning your honeymoon yet?  Today Mr B and I are off on a week-long tour of the South African Winelands and Garden Route reviewing perfect honeymoon hotels for a brand new b.loved feature!  I’ll be tweeting all the action en-route, so make sure you’re following #blovedtravel for a sneak peek of the gorgeous scenery and stunning accommodation we’ll be sharing here soon!

Back to the schedule, and it’s such a pleasure to share today’s wedding from fellow wedding stylist The Little Wedding Helper, and photographer Frances Taylor.  Bride Rachel describes her day as boho-glam – combining her boho-style Cymbeline dress with relaxed side plaits, and an elegant coral & mint colour palette with glamorous sparkly gold touches.  Perfect!  For me the gold sequinned ‘LOVE’ sign from Pocketful of Dreams steals the show, but the pretty bridesmaids dresses, hanging bud vases and stunning bouquets are close runners up!  Enjoy!

We met at work, Chris was my boss : ) He proposed on a yacht in Lake Como, Italy, so all rather romantic apart from the captain pointing out George Clooney’s house & giving us a full tour commentary just as Chris popped the question!  We were both too polite to shut him up but I managed to squeeze in a yes.  We got married in Bristol, our home town, at a lovely venue called Hotel du Vin, a restored sugar house from the 1700′s. It’s a great boutique venue which offered a great backdrop; open brickwork, loft ceilings & decadent features. The courtyard was great for our guests in the extreme heat.

My dress was Ganache by Cymbeline. I fell in love with it as soon as I tried it on, it’s backless and made from beautiful layered French lace in a mermaid silhouette with a sweep train. A bit of a great gatsby feel about it.  I considered wearing a french skull cap with my dress but opted for a beautiful Jenny Packham gold leaf headpiece instead. I bought this from The Mews in Clifton Village where I bought my dress. My shoes were from Karen Millen, a vintage-style open toe in opaque gold.  I had an idea in my head of how I wanted my hair so didn’t look in any magazines for inspiration. I knew that I wanted a large fishtail to the side and the hairdresser perfected this brilliantly.

I wanted my bridesmaids to co-ordinate but not in an overly matchy-matchy way. The dresses were from Ted Baker and I chose the same style with 3 in mint and 2 in dusky pink – I had splashes of these colours in my bouquet. The boys wore lined beige suits.  Because the wedding was in midst of a heat wave I ordered personalised fans in apricot, coral and mint. I loved these in the photos and they were greatly received by the guests.

When searching for inspiration, this is where Kirsten Butler the Little Wedding Helper came in! I had an idea of how I wanted the overall look to be but Kirsten was just fantastic at bringing all our ideas together and co-ordinating them in to a bit of a theme.  My friends all say my style is boho glam (which is a bit of a contradiction I know!) but my upbringing was very hippy which I still like to have elements of in my style, but a lot more polished. I wanted this to be felt in our wedding.   I loved the ‘LOVE’ sign which Kirsten hung from the loft ceiling where we had our ceremony and wedding breakfast.  We had peonies throughout the day; my bouquet was all different coloured pinks with sage and the bridesmaids had neutral colours with a splash of my bouquet colours in.

photographer

Kirsten put us in touch with Frances Taylor who was fantastic. She captured so many photos in different styles, I really loved her photography style.

favourite moment

There were oh so many favourite moments! I loved getting ready with all the girlies, my mums expression and tears when she first saw me, my brother walking me down the aisle (I had a pouch of my dads ashes in my bouquet so he effectively walked me down the aisle too), our boys reading the Velveteen Rabbit… but overall seeing Chris’ face for the first time and exchanging vows. It was so heartfelt and just how I imagined it to be. I thought this would be the most nerve racking but this was my most memorable and enjoyable bit of it all.

first dance

Our first dance song was Everywhere by Fleetwood Mac, we have lots of memories of this song and was the obvious first dance.

advice

Our wedding in comparison to most was pretty last minute (3 months planning time) so it just fell together, but I loved it this way. It gave me less time to fuss over the minor detail and make a million changes before deciding on your original choice. It also felt relaxed and stress-free, which meant we could enjoy it. Because neither of us had hyped it up too much we were able to enjoy it just the way it was and if things didn’t happen perfectly, so what… Although my major bridezilla moment was trying to source sequin tablecloths in gold, had to have them!

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Suppliers: Photographer: Frances Taylor // Dress: Ganache by Cymbeline Paris from The Mews Clifton Village // Accessories. Jenny Packham // Shoes: Karen Millen // Bridesmaids dresses: Ted Baker // Groomswear: Mr Porter // Florist: Edward Allin // Hair: Ella at Hair at 58 // Makeup: Nancy Jackson // Venue & Catering: Hotel Du Vin // Music: Ed Karney, Tristan Bolitho, Julian Smith // Stylist: Kirsten Butler from The Little Wedding Helper