A Relaxed Afternoon Tea for a Bride in a Manoush Dress and Glittery Heels

Given we have rather a lot of content to share with and inspire you at the moment, Annabel and I are packing today with an extra few treats for you; we've already featured these beautiful winter floral inspiration boards (one for all you lovers of pink and purple) and at mid-day, we'll be announcing the winner of the Zoe Lem wedding competition, and then we have this, the first of two weddings we'll be sharing before the day is out.

This morning's real wedding was a relaxed affair planned in only 5 months by the bride and groom, Cecilia and Tony. The celebration wasn't heavy on the details, but it was full of colour and vibrancy, all of which was captured perfectly in the photographs by Tino & Pip.

Cecilia and Tony were married on 12th May 2012 at Down Hall Country
House Hotel in Essex.

'We didn’t want a formal wedding party. We preferred something nice,
cosy… and different to other weddings.

Our venue was fabulous, I would definitely recommend to other couples. The place itself was lovely… nice grounds for the guests to have a drink, and
the staff were really friendly and helpful. They have an in-house wedding
planner who was brilliant. She
ran our schedule and timetable so smoothly and kept me calm… so we
could really join the party and enjoy our big day. We had a lot of compliments
from our guests who thought the venue was first class.'

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2012, 222222222

The couple's day began with a traditional tea
ceremony, a Chinese custom intended to show respect for both families. Cecilia wore an opulent Chinese wedding dress decorated with heavy embroidery in rich colours to serve tea to grandparents, parents, aunties and uncles. I just love these images. The bright red of Cecilia's dress is mesmerising…

For the civil ceremony the bride changed into a dress by Manoush, found while window shopping in Paris.

'The shop
was selling this as a evening dress, it was not made for a wedding. However, I
loved it the first time I laid my eyes on it. It was creamy ivory with beads
and gems. It was more colourful than a traditional wedding dress and it
fitted me beautifully and perfectly with no alternations required.' 

Cecilia paired her dress with a stupendous pair of glittery heels from Kurt Geiger and a stylish Bvlgari 
necklace. She was walked down the aisle by her father, accompanied by the sound of a harp playing Canon in D, before she and Tony exchanged wedding rings from Chanel. 

Flowers were provided by Paradise of Elstree 

Thanks to Tino & Pip photography for sharing these beautiful images with us today. Cecilia told me a little about how the couple came to photograph their wedding day…

'When planning
the wedding, it took us just days to search and confirm the venue and
registrar, but we
had terrible trouble finding a suitable photographer. We knew the style we
wanted but it was so difficult… We felt it was very important to find a
perfect photographer to capture the biggest day of both our lives… Even though there were plenty around, still nothing caught our eyes.'

'After two weeks
of searching… I was exhausted and felt I should compromise and
just book a photographer. Then
Tony found Love My Dress which had these amazing pictures taken by Tino & Pip. It was exactly the style
we were looking for.

We immediately contacted them and luckily they were available, so we booked straight away. After meeting Martin and Penny, we were even more convinced we had made the right choice in trusting them to do the photo shoot. On the big day,
they were absolutely wonderful – very friendly and helpful. We didn’t
need to explain anything or make any suggestions and we enjoyed our wedding
with no obstructions at all…

"We couldn’t
wait for the pictures and when we saw the result they were
exceptional… stunning, colourful and wonderfully natural; a true reflection of our big day. These
pictures will certainly remind us everlastingly of the happiest memories of
our wedding.'

Take a look at more from Tino & Pip on Love My Dress here.

Are any of you incorporating any special cultural traditions into your wedding day? Don't you just love the bride's super sparkly shoes and unconventional wedding dress?

Much love,

Franky

Photographer – Tino & Pip
Venue – Down Hall Country House Hotel
Wedding Dress – Manoush
Brides shoes – Kurt Geiger
Bride's accessories – Bvlgari  
Groom – Hired
Florist – Paradise of Elstree