Bespoke Amanda Wakeley Dress For An Elegant Monochrome Wedding

Elegant, classic and sophisticated, this wedding has style in spades, but I guess that's to be expected when the bride works at Amanda Wakeley. Naturally Anna designed her own wedding dress, with a little help from Amanda herself and the final gown is just beautiful. That bodice, with the sheer panelling and feather details is like nothing I've seen before, completely unique but utterly perfect for Anna. The rest of the details for this big day follow suit, minimal but striking and all following a soft colour palette of ivory, green and black. Proving that monochrome absolutely doesn't have to feel stark - just add candle light. Images come from the wonderful Samuel Docker, whose work is always so natural and full of emotion.

Bespoke Amanda Wakeley Dress

Anna & Matt: Whilst designing my own dress from scratch felt slightly like an unnecessary indulgence when I was already surrounded by so many incredible dresses on a daily basis; the designer in me relished the idea of the journey and the challenge. After a number of sketches and brainstorms with Amanda, I finally settled on a design...and I absolutely loved it. Being able to work on such a personal project with Amanda and the Wakeley team was such a special experience. My favourite part of the development process was designing the embroidery. it is always such a hands on creative process. The final result was nothing short of incredible...meters of glorious silk georgette, accented with the delicately crafted hand embroidered feathers, all sitting upon the most beautifully structured corsetry. I also had mine and Matt’s initials worked into the embroidery artwork. On my head I wore a bespoke beaded head piece by ‘Gillian Million X Amanda Wakeley’ along with a simple tulle veil, cathedral length veil. On my feet I wore a pair of champagne metallic heels by Michael Kors which were amazingly comfy. My gorgeous bridesmaids wore bespoke bias cut silk satin dresses in Ivory by Amanda Wakeley. They were beautifully simple and modern. I had always loved the idea of an all ivory wedding and I love how it looks in all of our photography against all of the lush green foliage. We had Collette Ruddy to do the bridal party’s hair and makeup. I know Collette through working in fashion; she has a wealth of experience in the music, television and fashion industries and is now offering up her expert services to brides! She made me look the best I have ever looked. I wish she could work her magic every day!

The Groom & Groomsmen

Matt wore a bespoke three piece suit by Favourbrook, London with dogtooth trousers, a double breasted prince of wales check waistcoat and contrasting black dinner jacket. The groomsmen and dads wore chic black suits, pale grey double breasted waistcoats and ivory ties to work back with the bridesmaid dresses. All of the suits were from Anthony’s Formalwear.

The Photography

For our photography we chose Samuel Docker. Sam shot a friend’s wedding right after we got engaged and we loved his work so much that we booked him as soon as we had our date confirmed. It was absolutely one of the best investments we have ever made. His images are absolutely exquisite and so full of emotion. We genuinely wish we had more wall space so we could hang every single one of them.

The Venue

We had set our hearts on an English country wedding, thankfully England isn’t short of gorgeous countryside! The venue search at first felt a little overwhelming, especially as we did not have a particular region in mind. We eventually found Brympton House on RMW. It had everything we wanted. It had a grand, rustic feel with a clean yet authentic décor that would not overwhelm or dictate our styling. It also had a gorgeous historic castle house for our civil ceremony that had the romance and authority of a church whilst being non-denominational. The venues south terrace was perfect for our drinks reception, surrounded by 33 acres of beautiful parkland complete with glorious lake. To top it off it had a gorgeously atmospheric barn and courtyard for our evening party. What we loved most about the house is that each part of our day could take place in a different part of the house, giving lots of styling opportunities and allowing you to constantly surprise your guests. The venue even had 30 beautiful bedrooms so many of our guests were even able to stay with us.

The Flowers & Decor

The flowers were a beautiful mix of David Austin ‘charity roses’, lush peonies and dessert roses, all mixed in with an array of textural greenery including eucalyptus and textural ferns...lts of ferns! The look was a clean and modern take on whimsical and rustic. We complimented this with tons of ivory pillar candles and copper lanterns for our ceremony and then gorgeous ivory candelabras for our centrepieces. For our evening reception I designed a giant linen wall hanging that had a personal quote about love and music.

The Cake

Our cake was made by Baked With Love By Alice, a fabulous Somerset based cake designer. It was a simple four tier red velvet cake with textured vanilla buttercream. Our florist decorated the cake with beautiful fresh flowers and displayed it in the stunning outdoor temple for us to cut during our drinks reception. I handmade our cake stand from a chunky ivory candle holder and a round chopping board as I couldn’t find one that I liked anywhere.

Stationery

I designed all of the wedding stationery. It was one of my favourite parts of the wedding planning process. The style was kept clean, modern and monochrome and printed on a beautifully textured card from printed.com which added richness to the design. Our table plan and signage followed the same theme.

The Ceremony

To personalise our civil ceremony we wrote our own vows that we kept secret from each other until the moment we said them to each other. This was a great way to make our ceremony and our promises unique to us and to add an element of surprise for each other.

The Food

For our catering we used Clever Chefs. Their food tastes amazing and they have a creative and modern aesthetic which means the food almost looks too good to eat! Obviously we didn’t let that stop us.

The Entertainment

For our ceremony we had a string duo. They were incredible and learnt pieces specifically for us. They played the most beautiful rendition of Sam Smith, Latch for the bridal entrance. For our drinks reception we had a 1920s New Orleans style Jazz band that created the most wonderful party atmosphere and a nostalgic feel that suited the venue perfectly. For the evening we had an amazing acoustic singer/guitarist called James Mclean play in the courtyard and later a fab DJ called Adam Roast.