Handmade & Quirky Woodland Inspired Wedding for a ‘Conversation Pieces’ Blogger…

Good morning my wonderful blog readers – new and old – thank you for landing by this page today.

Love My Dress was a busy ol’ place this weekend! Extremely high visitor stats. Perhaps it was this post and the many RT’s on Twitter that led you over this way. Maybe you’re a regular, or maybe your curiosity got the better of you 🙂  Whatever the reason, the weekend has gone and I am embracing the brand new week ahead.  Time to kick start with some real wedding magic, today, from the wonderment that are Lillian and Leonard – Scottish wedding photographers extraordinaire.

The Bride in this morning’s feature is no stranger to the world of blogs.  Zoë infact writes her own blog; Conversation Pieces.  And rather bloody good it is too.

Zoë tied the knot with her beloved Neil on 18 June 2011 at Carriden House in Bo’ness – in a tipi! 🙂  I love everything about this wedding, it’s relaxed vibe, the DIY touches, the tipis, thos Bridesmaids dresses and as for Zoë’s beautiful 1950’s dress – an eBay find, which cost her all of £100, I frankly love it!

“I think I bid on it around 3am as it was being sold by an American girl. My friend Zoe altered it for me for free as a thank you – I’d modelled for her vintage shop last year so she refused to take any payment for all her hard work.

I’d always wanted a vintage dress, something a little different. I fell in love with the detail on the dress – the tiny blue flowers, the ovals and the hem line. As it was on ebay, I just thought I would buy it and work out if it fitted/suited me later!”

Love My Dress – Photography Copyright (c), 2011 Lillian and Leonard

“Neil had mentioned that he really wanted to wear a tonic or tweed suit (like his Dad had done on his wedding day). So I set about finding one…

I was extremely happy when I first came across DS Dundee as I assumed they were not far from us… in Dundee! Turns out they’re based in London so we went to see them in February when we were down visiting my sister.  And Neil’s suit, the last of its range, was easily the nicest we had seen and in the sale too. The blue thread that runs through the suit went perfectly with the blue in my dress too!”

How pretty does this Bridesmaid look in her Rowan Joy dress?

 

 “I love shoes but I still couldn’t find a pair that felt right. Then I had the ‘crazy’ idea of wearing a pair I already owned. I had a silver glittery pair of Miu Miu alikes from Topshop that I’d bought 5 years ago… which I liked so much I’d never worn them out of the house – we decided to paint the soles blue just so they were ‘transformed’ into wedding shoes…”

 

“I’d been coveting Rowan’s dresses for a while – even trying on a pocketed number as a potential for myself. So when we were looking for bridesmaid dresses, I knew she’d be perfect.

I bought the main fabric from Liberty (and tracked down some sheer polka dot tulle too) and Rowan transformed them into some wonderful, flattering, fun bridesmaids dresses. I can’t recommend her enough…”

“We didn’t have a florist… unless you count me! We’d spoken to a few florists but quickly realised we either couldn’t afford most of the prices or what we wanted was too low budget. So I decided to be brave, order the flowers myself and just go with it! I ordered from Flowers for Florists. 

I chose light and deep pink germinis, green chrysanths and craspedias. I choose the germinis as they felt fun and simple… and the chrysanths and craspedias were to balance out all the pink 😉

We made up the arrangements on the Friday evening, putting them into the jam jars that I’d customised with Japanese washi tape (hearts, bunting and table numbers). Then around midnight (the night before the wedding!), the girls made the bouquets and my husband and his best man made the buttonholes. I think everyone was too tired to over think it – so they were all done in about 15 mins! A spot of washi tape on the girls’ bouquets and some baker’s twine on the boys – and we were done…”

I love a Bride who embraces the good old British weather 😉

 

“We searched for ages for a venue… everywhere was either too expensive or too restrictive. We wanted somewhere nice and simple – and nowhere seemed right until we found Carriden House, Bo’ness.

The owner let us rent her garden, and rent her B&B rooms as our accommodation. Then we had to find something to get married ‘in’…”

“After a lot of thinking, one of us said wouldn’t it be great to have  tipis (We’d always wanted to rent one at a festival.) That’s how we found Highland Tipis…”

 

 

“I sourced some brown brogues from Schuh for Neil to wear – but I wanted to customise them a little, so I changed the laces to blue ones. Quite hard to find those laces but worth it in the end – so many of our guests commented on his shoes too!”

“Neil proposed with a Perspex ring and had always said that I could choose a replacement engagement ring if I wanted… but I jokingly said that I’d go for diamonds in my wedding ring instead! And that’s where my ‘Loved’ St Kilda ring seemed just right… a quirky engraving and two little diamonds in it too.

Not long after we got engaged, I spotted Fabuluster’s fingerprint rings on etsy. I showed them to Neil and that was him sold. We choose a gold to match my ring, then sent my fingerprints to Jessica and Brent for them to make Neil’s ring.

As both of our rings came from the States, friends of ours brought them with them so we didn’t see them until the week of the wedding – which was both exciting and a little scary!”

“Not sure where to start with our decor!  We first saw the tipis on the Sunday before we got married. I just sat in the empty tipis and gulped a little – wondering if all our little diy details would work. And thankfully they did…”  

“A chalkboard sign also made by my super talented uncle….”

 

“…bunting – including wallpaper and animal bunting we made ourselves, and a ‘you made me a cake’ bunting sign that Amanda made specially for us.  Map pinwheels to supplement the flowers in washi taped jam jars.  We also made the placenames, cake cards, and cake bunting – made with straws, washi tape and a heart punch by us.

A friend designed and made our song sheets for the ceremony too.  We brought all our vintage china to put candles in – and to serve afternoon tea in.  We also had felt masks for the kids and paper fox masks for the adults. (You can see one of those on the dressing table when I’m getting ready).  And brought our ‘drink more gin’ print from our kitchen to be our bar sign. We also brought our squirrel lamp and he sat on the stage throughout the whole day!”

 

“After being together a long time, we really wanted a day that represented us. We have a love of Fantastic Mr Fox, badger wallpaper in our home and maps/globes everywhere… so a woodland wedding just seemed so right…” 

“All our dessert table was made by family and friends (and a little by us because we were worried that there might not be enough… there was tons!).  We didn’t want anyone to have the pressure of doing the
wedding cake though, so we asked our caterer if they would make our cake instead.

I asked for something simple, plain on the outside, with maybe a little surprise like a red heart on the inside. They took that as a challenge and did several versions to get it just right. So we had a Victoria sponge with a devil’s food heart inside. And it went perfectly with the cake heart bunting we made for it…”

“We gave out bubbles instead of confetti – but mainly so we wouldn’t have to sweep the grass the next day!  However, our guests did leave with pinwheels, umbrellas, blankets, jars of flowers, and even the odd wooden animal… so I guess those were our favours!”

“Our afternoon music was played by gramaphone DJs Claire (and her husband) from Butler and Taylor. They also very kindly played our ceremony music too, which we really, really appreciated…”

 

“We choose ‘You Never Can Tell’ by Chuck Berry for our First Dance…”

 

“…this was for a few reasons really, one, because Neil didn’t really like dancing and if he was going to dance, he wanted to do something “cool”. Secondly, we actually met originally when teenagers and so the lyrics “it was a teenage wedding… and it goes to show you never can tell” seemed very appropriate.My little sister learned the routine for us – and then taught it to us separately, then together. She was an amazing, amazing teacher and it meant so much to us that she put so much work into it… even if it did add on the pressure to ‘get it right’!”

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

“The stuff that will matter most on the day is the free stuff – the hugs, the words said, the smiles. So try not to worry too much about the details, or not having the money to spend.

Ask for help if you need it… we tried to do most things ourselves until we realised we couldn’t do it alone. Once we asked, we were surprised (and very touched) how happy and willing people were to help us cut things out, glue things together, bake, stamp, you name it!

Try and get some sleep the night before… I couldn’t sleep at all as I had too much going round my head. Also don’t write your table plans at 2am… it worked out well but was a little crazy!”

Please, how beautiful is that last photograph there?

Immense thanks and congratulations to the beautiful Zoë and Neil and love to the talented and gorgeous Cara and Nye of  Lillian and Leonard…

“Lillian and Leonard … Cara and Nye are like wedding ninjas, super lovely wedding ninjas that is! They’re both so lovely and friendly, it’s easy to forget that they’re not at your wedding as just guests. (That’s when you actually spot them there as they’re so stealthy!) 

We made the decision to book them, based on their non intrusive, reportage style and their ability to capture all the smiles/meaningful moments… and what can I say, they did not disappoint!”

Remember to go take a peek at Zoë’s Conversation Pieces blog, where you can learn more about Zoë’s engagement ring, DIY wedding invites and DIY ‘save the date’ cards too 😉

Happy, happy Monday morning everyone 🙂

Much love,

Annabel xXX

♥ 

 

Style Guide

Photographer –  Lillian and Leonard 
Venue – Carriden House
Tipis – Highland Tipis
Brides dress – eBay  
Brides shoes – Topshop
Groom – DS Dundee
Bridesmaids – Rowan Joy  
Flowers – Flowers for Florists {prepared by the Bride}
Hair & Makeup – Jane and Heather of Smujj