Jayne & James

Jason Mark Harris' portraits of Jayne and James in their evening attire has got me hot under the collar! Seriously sizzling stuff. The couple are entertainers and both work in the arts, so naturally their wedding was, as Jayne so aptly puts it, 'their biggest show to date.' And OMG didn't they deliver?! From the decor, to the fashion, to the food - this wedding looked like one hell of a party. It's the epitome of your day your way, and the whole RMLtd team has been swooning over the bouquet, the mini pineapples, but mainly those SEXY COUPLE PORTRAITS. Well if you can't change into leopard print and Las Vegas sparkles on your wedding day then when the hell can you?!

Our Wedding

Jayne The Bride: Our wedding description was - an intimate DIY pineapple dream! Located on the sleepy Isle of Wight we somehow pulled off a blast of a day. From our ceremony at Appuldurcombe House, an 18th century baroque ruin to the reception in a privately owned medieval room, we ate laughed and danced until the bar was dry...Advice to future couples – do all serious wedding planning naked! Why pineapples? Someone said... Why not? 'Be A Pineapple. Stand tall, wear a crown and be sweet on the inside' So we did!

The Decor

We are both performers, James a singer/musician and Jayne a choreographer/producer. We were pumped to put on our biggest show to date. It helped that we are surrounded by beautifully talented people and our brains work well under creative pressure. I (the bride) have a fear of white chair covers and pink bows, so I ditched the wedding magazines and started creating solo. Taking humble ingredients such as tin cans, grubby china and vinyls and elevating them to embrace our showbiz backgrounds without loosing sight of the elephant in the room – the budget! Being one of the last of my friends to get hitched I had stored some mental notes from previous brides – 'I didn't eat a thing, my dress was too heavy, the day went so quick, I wish we hadn't invited them, I didn't see my husband at all'', etc etc. So we went #selfish and spent a lot of money on a few things for just us – rings, honeymoon & photographer then we had a wedding for just 50 closest family and friends, no 'staff' and no tradition! We didn't have a 'colour scheme' as such but looking back at the photos, everything just came together. We gave our guests a 'Vintage Glamour' dress code which allowed them to wear that fur or long dress that was hiding at the back of the wardrobe. Dressing up makes you feel good and our guests looked fabulous!

The Fashion

After purchasing three 'costumes' I settled on two! Every show requires a costume change...I found my bridal gown on the Island at Forget Me Not Designs, in TEN MINUTES (as I was 45mins late!) It was a preloved gown and once accessorised with a flamboyant feather bolero and vintage belt, I was in love. A classic floor length veil was the icing on the cake for me. Dismissing the owners advice to not rush my purchase, I paid immediately and left with a mile wide grin. My stunning feather party dress was found in a Las Vegas boutique a few months later. It was the perfect contrast to my 'white wedding' attire yet the feather train provided a nice continuation of style. James takes longer to choose his daily outfit than I do, this wasn't any different! After trying on no less than 16 different suit types, he settled on his first order of a Noose & Monkey, rich burgundy velvet jacket & waistcoat. And a pair of very swish patent shoes! James accessorised with a gold collar chain, his dad's favourite tie and a tiny piccolo tie pin which was handmade by Sophie Honeybourne (an Island jeweller) for James as a wedding gift in remembrance of his late father who was also a musician.

The Wedding Party

Bridesmaids wore ASOS maternity cape dresses, none of them are pregnant but I was thinking ahead just incase! Their dresses were teamed with a stunning pineapple head piece and navy veil supplied by The Floral Boutique. Groomsmen (and my tomboy sister!) wore a selection of Noose & Monkey waistcoats, trousers, bow-ties & braces. Not forgetting their pineapple buttonholes!

The Flowers

If we had stacks of cash we would have let The Floral Boutique loose on our day, her creativeness is stunning. We kept to our mantra 'this is only for a day' and got Nic to just do the button holes, headpieces and a stunning bouquet for me. Bursting with unusual colour and floristry, she absolutely did deliver. I accessorised my bouquet with a photo frame of absent family, my lovely nan and James' dad. It was very calming to have them with us. The rest of the flowers we did ourselves over an evening of tea and cake. It's amazing what you can do with a pineapple corer, 10 pineapples and £50 of supermarket bought flowers! Pineapple vases melt my heart, they look so funky and smell delicious. We then sprayed the pineapple tops gold and used them for our table number holders – waste not, want not!

The Food

Realising that wedding catering can be extortionate we binned that idea immediately and called upon some dear friends to help us out with our 'guilty pleasure' themed food. Our good friend Paul (a chef!) provided some ceremony canapés for us as a wedding gift, served on chintzy platters I had been buying from charity shops for the last year. We served our favourite Perrisecco in retro, mis matched glass wear, a dodgy old fridge to keep it cool and, catering issue one – done! The main event was an afternoon tea provided at cost price by a bunch of wonderful theatre volunteers, real life fairies! We had been filling our under stairs cupboard with mountains of china plates, cups, tea pots etc and settled on vinyl cake stands which we made ourselves to add a touch of unique to the table. Complete with paper doilies, pineapple napkins, pound land colourful vases and candle holders, borrowed cutlery and gold sequin table runners we had ourselves a very fun high tea. 9pm whizzes round and the lovely Paul put on our favourite foods – hot dogs, doughnuts, popcorn & ice cream. All dead cheap, all delicious and perfect for the tipsy dancers!

The Entertainment

We didn't want to be 'at work' so we didn't perform ourselves but we love music and it was a huge part of the day and we wanted it to be LOUD! We made a play list for every section of our timeline and we played albums that mean a lot to us. During afternoon tea we played vintage jazz, ceremony guests heard some family favourites, and after hours we got down to some big fat 90's tunes. In between our friends 'The Mix' played a lovely set of tracks from the 60's onwards. Music does something to the soul and we will remember this element for a long time.

The Photography

Am I allowed to say I am slightly in love with his talent?! I have followed Jason Mark Harris for seven years and the first person I contacted when James proposed, was him! Being theatricals, we are naturally quite vain but we hate 'posed' pics. We had an intimate connection shoot with him and after five minutes it was like we had a friend over for tea. Jason has this way of capturing moments so perfectly. Looking back at our photos is like watching our own romantic film with a serious party element! He manages to shoot feelings and emotions. I will forever treasure our captured moments and urge people to put their photographer choice VERY high on their priority list. And if your photographer asks you to stand in the rain – do it! You never know what sensational shot is hiding inside his camera!

Final Thoughts

We didn't have a wedding planner as I'm a control freak! Apart from that, we thoroughly enjoyed every single element of the planning and the day itself. We didn't include any other people in our decision making, too many cooks and all that the whole process was a joy. The day was perfectly us and we think that shines through. We loved personalising our day with our favourite things - leopard print, pineapples, partying and love. To tie it up – weddings are wonderful things if you stay true to your cause. We had the best fairytale party E.V.E.R!