Gemma & Russ
Photography by Indie Love
The Bride
Gemma The Bride: I decided early on when looking at dress styles that I wanted long sleeves and preferably lace or beaded, however it soon became apparent that I could not afford this style, all the dresses I loved were £2000 plus and totally over budget! I started looking at vintage dresses and quickly found 2 for £130.00 that fitted together almost perfectly! This also meant I got to change my dress from day to evening. My friend's Mum Liz Fitzgerald is very talented and worked for the Royal Ballet in the costume department so she kindly made the necessary adjustments and beaded my dresses also, they looked amazing after she worked her magic! Jewellery; again rings which my husband picked out were both vintage, he found diamond stud earrings that were almost a perfect match to my engagement ring from The Jewellery Channel. I thought long and hard about wearing a veil, with most that I tried on I felt completely stupid, until I found My Little Wedding Shop where they make all the veils, the fabric matched my dress and I loved the vintage feel of the ribbon edging, with such a statement veil I kept hair accessories minimal and chose small pearl hairpins from Rosie Willett Designs.
The Venue
Pimhill was the first venue we visited, it was way over our budget but we both knew and agreed that we wouldn't even look elsewhere, this had to be where our wedding was held, as a result we had to re adjust other sections of our budget but we wouldn't of had it any other way!
The Decor
I started reading bridal magazines and creating a scrapbook a week after we got engaged. We decided on a date in 2 and a half years time, so we could save and plan effectively. We both love antique/vintage and charity shops and are quite arty and crafty so we went for a DIY and vintage style, this meant we could collect decor items gradually and cheaply and it also kept Russ involved in the process which he enjoyed. I bought a few bits online, such as the heart shaped map confetti for the tables which came from Etsy and other decorative items and craft bits were from Wedding In A Teacup and The Wedding Of My Dreams. Many bits were hand made, such as the mismatched material napkins which Russ's mum and her friend hand stitched individually. I made tin cans into table centres by wrapping layers of lace around them and my Maid of Honour and I hand tied multicoloured ribbons around jars. My bridesmaids also helped make map paper confetti cones to be filled with home made confetti. Our talented sister in law Anna at Evelyn & Elliot provided all the stationery and matched our brief perfectly, everyone commented on how fab it all looked. We planned and organised the wedding ourselves which was hard work but saved us a lot of money, we also decided to cater the food for the evening ourselves, simply having cheese bread and crackers, assorted cold meats and quiches made at the local butchers, we bought vintage glasses and decanters and filled them with port to serve alongside this which went down a storm!!!
The Flowers
We wanted to keep flowers along the vintage style, deciding on white and green as there was so much other colour and I didn't want the flowers to get lost among this. Inspired By Chelsea made all bouquets and buttonholes and my friend Kay Price bought and arranged all the other flowers, friends and family helped make up vases for the tables.
The Wedding Party
I wanted my girls to be comfortable and feel amazing, this prompted the decision to choose different dresses to suit them, and the sequin style just sort of fell into place accidentally! (Dresses from Phase Eight, Coast, Debenhams, House of Fraser). All girls wore earrings and bracelets that were thank you gifts from Accessorize. I also bought matching pyjamas and robes for the girls and my Mum to get ready in from Tesco and I had an ivory robe personalised with Mrs Thomas from Not On The Highstreet. Flower girls wore next dresses and shoes and hair clips from H&M, their baskets were from Paperchase and I customised them with lace and ribbon.
The Entertainment
We hired Portlights band for their funky laid back style, my dad's friend DJ'd for us and we made playlists on our iPod for the day. Russ and I are renowned for dancing so our first dance was to Jackie Wilsons' 'Your love keeps lifting me higher' it kicked the party off nicely, I would definitely advise to break the rules if you want to, it's your wedding after all!
The Food
We didn't want to spend a lot on cake so we asked guests to bake their own and bring them, this also doubled as pudding, guests liked the fact they could choose their own served with fruit and cream. We also hired a vintage ice cream van with 3 flavours for guests to sample. We bought a plain iced cake for £10.00 and a vintage bride and groom topper this acted as our 'main cake'.
The Photography
Our friend Ed is a photographer so we asked him to take some snaps but we also had the talented Charlotte of Indie Love taking photographs and providing a photo booth which guests loved. She photographed the day perfectly, capturing emotion and detail better than we could have imagined, she was so professional and lovely, it felt like she had always known us.
The Videography
We decided to splash out on a video after I found Costa Sister Productions and loved their films, the style perfectly matched our day and they made us feel so relaxed.
