Deborah & Steve

This afternoon's wedding is a fashion lovers dream - just look at all of the lovely outfits on show. Deborah had her own blush wedding dress, and those gorgeous Bridesmaids dresses, made in the style of a Donna Karen dress she loved but couldn't justify the spend. The result is a gown that looks perfect for her! We love Groom Steve's geek-chic look too and his smoking jacket adds a lovely touch of dapperness to the mix. The couple married at Woodhall Manor, they chose it because it was close enough to London to be an easy journey for their friends and family, and it ticked their theme box - quirky but classy. Which is an excellent way to describe the whole big day!

The Venue

Deborah & Steve: We are both creatively minded, and we wanted our wedding to reflect that in some way, while at the same time being cost effective. One of the biggest things we had to think about was location. We didn’t want a place too far from London, because of the logistics of our friends and family getting there, and the places in London that fit our style of “quirky but classy” were too expensive. We stumbled upon Woodhall Manor, which was both grand and unique in it’s style.

Blush Wedding Dress

Deborah wanted a specific style dress, one that flowed and showed off her back. Most wedding dresses she looked at were of a similar traditional style, and there were lots of the same. A friend’s mom, Jacky Radbourne, used to make wedding dresses, and Deborah managed to convince her to come out of retirement and make a wedding dress in the style of a flowy Donna Karan backless floor length dress that wasn’t white, but more in the pink family. The dress turned out perfectly, and Jacky also made both bridesmaids dresses in complimentary colours, one in pink, and one in a mix of dark green and pink, to compliment their skin tones and hair colour. Deborah didn’t wear a veil, but she didn’t want to have her hair without any accessory, so she opted for a hair necklace. A couple of years ago, she spent a few weeks in India, and wore a hair necklace that made her feel really good, and this is what she wanted to have. So she went to ASOS and got a couple of hair necklaces that would compliment her dress, the perfect one she chose on the wedding day.

The Suits

Steve also wanted to bring the suave to the wedding, and he found the perfect site for his suit and his groomsmen’s blazers. He used Noose & Monkey. Venturing into the website, he immediately saw that Noose and Monkey are not the place to go if you want ordinary.

The Cake

The wedding cake was something we left til the last minute(ish). We didn’t really know what we wanted and so waited until it was nearly too late before we got going on this one. By the time we started doing our research on what type of cake was out there, we saw that the type of cakes we really wanted, we were too late to get, and the rest were not up to scratch. It turned out that another one of our friends mom (Linda Hanley) is a cake maker. Deborah sat down with her and told her what she liked. Colour, quirky, classy, loud but not garish. Deborah didn’t really know what else to say apart from “surprise me” and what Linda came up with, was an extra ordinary Alice in Wonderland cake that caught everyone’s eye.

The Planning

The wedding planning was done by both of us, each taking a different aspect of things. Steve used the help of a book, “wedding details” by Mary Norden, which he says was invaluable in looking into things like table decorations, wedding bouquet flower stems.

The Favours

We wanted our guests to go away with something small as a gift from us to them. We started thinking about this from when the invites went out. We made our invites using Photo Box and personalised these with our photo. Next came the program, which was also designed by us on Photo Box, and in this we included a handmade fabric bracelet made with a ribbon and held together with a charm, both of which were bought from Paper Chase. We put these in an envelope addressed to each person, and placed them in a basket just outside the archway entrance to the wedding garden. Lastly, during the reception, everyone had a handmade paper box on their table which had inside mini heart chocolates and a tiny teddy bear.

The Entertainment

We didn’t like the idea of our guests having nothing to do between ceremony and reception, and so we arranged a catwalk show with our dj. We didn’t have a red carpet, so we used plastic coloured flowers to outline the shape of a catwalk and we all would catwalk down the catwalk and dance to the music, while adorning fancy crazy attire that we had prepared for people at the beginning of the runway! There was also a small comedy sketch organised the grooms men, and a prize of “king and queen”, i.e. Best dress male and best dressed female. This was decided on by way of applause from guests. There were also prizes for best dancer.

The Photography

Our photographer Matt Penberthy was recommended to us by one of our bridesmaid. On the day Steve called him an artist & he was right. We love every single photo. Matt managed to capture so many precious moment throughout the whole day. He made everybody feel so comfortable & he helped make our day even more special. The videography was done by a friend of ours, Miju Diya. She worked very well with Matt, and they complimented each other really well.

Advice

Our recommendation for anyone looking to have a creative non traditional wedding, is to get people involved, and use who you know. Ask around because you never know who knows someone. Just like us, a few people were right under our noses and we didn’t even know it. But also, don’t skimp on quality, take the time to do your research on what you need and want. Figure out what is the most important and find creative ways of getting it. For Deborah, her thing was to get a Donna Karan dress, which was too expensive, but she got someone else to make it and it was even better due to it’s personal touch. Don’t give up, take things one step at a time, and plan out the journey. And mostly, remember to date each other during the planning process. Don’t get too caught up in the things that are happening, that you forget to enjoy each other. Happy wedding planning, and I hope you have a great a day as we did.