Good morning 🙂 I do hope that this beautiful real wedding feature cheers you up on this, the first day of the week, when the weekend seems but a little too far into the distance to grab hold of just yet! Yes, I certainly hope these photographs make you smile, as they did me, because frankly, it's a bloomin' beauty!
This is the wedding of Poppaea Bicknell and her Husband James, which took place on Saturday 10th July 2010 at Springhead, in Shaftesbury, Dorset.
Poppaea, a Fashion and Costume Designer by trade, is one clever, creative Bride indeed. Many Brides these days dip into D.I.Y. and take pleasure in making their own stationery, favours and decor etc, and some will design, or partake in the design of their own gown – but not many actually go on to create their very own wedding dress…
"I designed and made my wedding dress myself from scratch. I decided to make my own dress as I’m a fashion/costume designer. Even after trying on numerous dresses in shops, and going to bridal shows, I never found anything I really fell in love with! So I realised that the only way I was going to get exactly what I wanted in a wedding dress was to make it all myself!
I wanted to have a vintage Victorian theme for the wedding, so my dress has a heavy Victorian influence. It has a mermaid silhouette, a fully-boned lace-up corset with a three-tier layered skirt. It took me 7 weeks to construct, and was made from around 40 metres of duchess satin, silk chiffon, tulle and beaded lace. The embellishments consist of hand-made rosettes, pearls and vintage brooches that I found on Ebay…"
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2010, Lisa Dawn Photography
These beautiful photographs were taken by Photographer Lisa Dawn – whose own incredibly beautiful fairytale castle wedding was featured recently on Love My Dress.
"The photos Lisa took are all stunning, I discussed with her giving the photos a vintage feel, which she has done beautifully!"
Poppaea collaborated with Love My Dress favourite, Magpie Vintage, in creating a custom-designed headpiece…
"I worked closely with the wonderful ladies at Magpie Vintage to make my headpiece. It is made from vintage lace, several vintage brooches and beads, set onto a headband. On one side of the headpiece there is a brooch of the letter ‘P’ which is my initial. I wore the same pearl earrings that my mum wore on her wedding day back in 1967. I also wore stockings and a vintage Rigby & Pelle garter, both purchased from a vintage clothes shop in Suffolk…"
Poppaea's Magpie Vintage necklace {and bracelet} were custom-made from pieces of her own jewellery…
Poppaea wore Emmy Custom Made Wedding shoes, with jewelled shoe clips, by Magpie Vintage…
Country Wedding Flowers…
The stunning vintage style florals were by Lesley Traves … I just love how Photographer Lisa Dawn has captured their hues on camera.
"Lesley used a lot of stargazer lilies, which are my favourite flowers, mixed with orchids, amnesia and avalanche roses and freesias…"
A Bonzie Bolero…
"My stunning raw silk Victorian inspired bolero was made by the independent fashion label ‘Bonzie’ from Ireland. I asked for the embellishments on the bolero to mirror those on my dress, which they did for me brilliantly!"
We're big fans of Bonzie here at Love My Dress and have previously featured an interview with Bonzie – click here.
Poppaea's Bridesmaids wore dresses from Coast and Hobbs and both sported pretty vintage brooches that Poppaea had collected from EBay…
"I chose Springhead as our wedding venue, because it has huge sentimental value to me. When I was a child we lived in the cottage down the road from it, and I used to play there as a child. My husband James is also from Dorset and proposed to me on the downs overlooking Springhead, so we both felt that there was no other choice for our wedding venue.The venue itself is just magical, with its beautiful garden, lake and Venetian rotunda…"
Summer blooms at Springhead...
James wore an Ermenegildo Zegna suit in midnight blue and shoes by Samuel Windsor…
"I walked down the aisle to ‘Pavanne’ by Gabriel Faure."
Rings…
"Both my engagement ring and our wedding rings were custom made for us in white gold by ‘Bolder & Co’ in Richmond. My engagement ring is an amethyst, and my wedding band alternating aquamarines and diamonds, both with Edwardian style engraving. We have eachothers names inscribed on the inside of our rings."
Transport came in the shape of a Vintage Austin York Limousine – and was provided by Austin Beauford Wedding Cars…
Vintage Table Decor…
"The theme of the décor was all vintage, and we even had a Victorian tea party using mis-matched china, which my mum collected from charity shops. The tables were all named after our family cats, and I 'photo-shopped' pictures of each of them in vintage frames, to tie onto the birdcage centre-pieces. I made all the stationary for the day myself, including the invitations, programmes and menus."
"The table centrepieces were birdcages with feather birds inside, decorated with flowers and butterflies…"
The Bakery Lounge…
"The cake and cookie favours were made by my best friend, and chief bridesmaid, Olivia Zampi, who has an amazing small business called The Bakery Lounge. Favours were gingerbread cookies shaped like teapots, and beautifully iced."
This is SUCH a beautiful photograph of Poppaea…
Enchanting and Illuminated Garden…
"Once the sun had gone down, my dad had organised hundreds of garden flares and lanterns to be place all over the Springhead garden, so we had a beautiful ‘illuminated walk’ through the gardens after dark. It was just breathtaking, and something I will remember forever!"
Words of Wisdom…
"If you have any creativity at all try to make and do whatever you can yourself, because not only will it save you money, but it will also make your wedding unique to you, and personal touches always make a wedding more memorable.What, if anything, inspired you to style your wedding the way you did? Eg, a particular era, muse, colour, place, etc.
I choose the Victorian vintage theme, as it’s something I absolutely love, and because of what I do for a living I wanted our wedding to be quite theatrical and full of gorgeous details. My husband is also creative and is a filmmaker, so it was also important to him that our wedding was visually stunning.
Our wedding was like organising a theatre performance for me, from the costumes, to the sets, to the lighting, to the stage management, everything was important and was planned down to the last detail. But on the day itself, I just forgot about all that and everything just felt wonderfully organic, it was definitely the happiest day of my life!"
Just absolutely wonderful – I love seeing a Bride with her own very unique style and these photographs do Poppaea and James so proud – well done Lisa Dawn for capturing the love between this couple in such a special way and thank you so much for allowing these photographs to be reproduced for our readers.
Do be sure to check out Poppaea's wonderful 'Poppaea Bicknell website', full of her own designs. I particularly love Poppaea's costume design – just amazing!
Check back at 12 Noon today folks, for a fab little offer for all Love My Dress readers and news of the UK's first ever luxury online wedding accessories boutique! 🙂
Much love,
Annabel xXx
♥
Annabel View all Annabel's articles
Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.
