A 1960s Vintage, Autumn And Sweet Scandinavian Inspired Wedding

Hello beautiful, I've something uplifting and so very lovely to see you through this Friday afternoon – something to see you through to home time and have you skipping out that door with a smile on your face.  Tom and Lucy got married on 29
September 2012 at High House Farm Brewery
near Matfen in Northumberland.   I adore the sweetness of this wedding – which Tom and Lucy managed to plan within a budget of £5,000.  Lucy shares the experience of preparing for and enjoying her wedding day from her heart and with such enthusiasm – I really hope you enjoy reading all about it.

'We chose September to be married as Autumn is our favourite season
(mmm, cardigans, crumble, kicking leaves, lovely light and colours,
Bonfire night, scarves), and 29 September is the date of Michaelmas,
considered the first day of Autumn.'

'I wanted the day to have an autumnal feel
and to be in a beautiful place close to nature; my favourite colours are
red, golden yellow and dark teal, and we both really like
midcentury / Scandinavian / 1960s design and clothing, so those were easy
choices for the feel of the day.'

Photography Copyright © 2013, Lucy Stendall

'Our whole approach
to planning the day was as simple as wanting a happy, relaxed
celebration, full of colour and happiness, and to have our family and
closest friends with us for a party.  We only had a £5000 budget (still
feels like a huge amount of money!) so we thought very carefully about
how and where we spent it. 

I used Pinterest to gather my thoughts and to try to explain them
to other people.  I had so many ideas, but once you start pinning and
look back at your boards, it’s easier to see a pattern through all the
pretty!'

'We met in Sheffield at the start of our 2nd year at
university, so 1999.  Both of us are from Nottinghamshire and had mutual
friends there too.  It was Freshers Week and we both went along with our friends
to the indie music night, ‘Fuzzclub’ at Sheffield University.  Some friends decided to
try to pair us up at Fuzzclub, and Tom decided he liked the look of my
band t-shirt and that was that!  We’ve spent nearly every day together
since then, searching through dusty record shops for music, then having
tea and cake whilst excitedly pouring over our new purchases.' 

 'We
moved in together when we left university and lived in a poky, damp
1-bed flat in Nottingham for a year, before moving to Newcastle so I
could do an MSc.  We were together for 12 years until we got
engaged.  It was just never a big thing for us to get married, we just
pootled along together quite happily until Tom decided he was going to
propose.  I’d never really thought about a wedding, didn’t have a clue
what a ‘wedding breakfast’ was and wasn’t even sure which finger the ring
goes on!'

'We got engaged on my birthday in
August 2012.  I wasn’t very well and was off sick from work, but we
decided to go away for my birthday to a fancy country hotel called The
Pheasant near Helmsley in North Yorkshire .  I was going to cancel it because
it was expensive and I didn’t think we could afford it, but Tom was
adamant we should go.  But then on the day – my
birthday – he was in what seemed to be a right mood all day!  Never in a million years did I guess he was
going to propose and he was just nervous.  I’m not sure why he was
nervous because why on earth would I say anything but ‘yes’?!'

'We got married at High House Farm Brewery
near Matfen in Northumberland.  We wanted a small, intimate wedding day
and in a cosy place where we could get married and have a nice party
afterwards.  I think the Brewery was the 2nd venue in Northumberland we
looked at and we booked it within a few minutes of arriving.   High
House Farm Brewery is a lovely little micro-brewery just 1 mile north of
Hadrian’s Wall.  It’s a traditional, non-intensive farm, full of
wildlife and with lovely warm-coloured stone buildings. 

It felt
relaxed, a bit unusual, with friendly people and of course, they brew
their own very tasty ale.'

'I was nervous about finding a wedding dress because I’m not
confident about how I look and I didn’t have much of an idea about what
I’d like to wear.  All I knew was that I wanted a vintage dress and
something a little bit different.  Our wedding photographer, Lucy Stendall had taken photographs
of a shop called Unforgettable
near Leamington Spa and because it looked so lovely (and frankly, Lucy
Stendall knows her onions!)  I decided to make the big trip down there
from Newcastle.'

'Hannah and Rae run Unforgettable
from the attic of the most beautiful old house; think wonky walls and
exposed beams.  You climb the stairs right to the top of the house and
enter the attic room, which is like a grown-up girl’s version of a
dressing-up box you always wanted when you were little!  Hannah and Rae
are brilliant, really encourage you to try anything and everything on,
and they can wiggle you in to almost all the dresses (even ones labelled
Size 8 or made from what appears to be a puff of pretty air!).  They
love their dresses and can tell you stories about all of them, they call
them ‘their ladies’!  I think at one moment, I had 20 dresses hung up
from the wooden beam in the middle of the room, all to try on.'

 'They
also stock lovely bits ‘n’ bobs stacked in vintage suitcases and on
tops of dressers – everywhere you turn there is something lovely to play
with and try on.  Their seamstress did a wonderful job tweaking my
dresses for me.  Oh and you also get a nice cup of a tea and cake!'

'I
had two dresses.  The ‘problem’ was there were so many lovely dresses
at  Unforgettable  and I could afford to buy two and stay within my
budget.  Neither of them were the style I thought I was going to wear,
not at all.  My wedding dress was either the first or second one I tried
on.  It’s an original 1960s, sleeveless dress by Carnegie of London and
according to Hannah & Rae, it had never been worn before.  And I’d
been adamant that I didn’t want a sleeveless dress!  I loved it as soon
as I saw it peeking out of the rack – I think it was looking for me.'

'The fabric has a lovely broderie-style cut-out design, which changes in
detail at the bottom of the skirt and the tiered layer around the bust,
with a pale gold/pink lining visible underneath.  I really liked the
high neckline, the tiered effect, and the slightly A-line skirt which
gave it a bit of swing.'

'My mum (who wore a beautiful pale blue skirt
suit for her wedding in the 60s) tells me it’s a perfect
early-60s style dress.  I love it! I also fell for a golden
yellow ‘goddess’ style 1950s gown, floor-length, with one shoulder strap
and a sequined band around the bust.  I changed into it mid-way through
the dancing and I must have had a good time dancing because it needs a
bit of TLC around the bottom hem now… oops!'

'I had a basic, bandeau veil from LillyBella
, which is a less ‘pouffy’ birdcage veil.  I almost didn’t wear it, but
when else are you going to wear a veil?  Best advice from Diablo Rose,
my hair and make-up lady, is to pin the veil around a small football or
something to give it a curved shape for the day – don’t leave it in its
packaging or it’ll be a funny shape on the day.'

'I
really wanted a headband and searched for weeks – Etsy has some amazing
ones, but I found it difficult to find one which would go with my dress
and hair.  Finally, I bought a Rosie headband from Britten,
which is handmade and full to the brim with ivory rose buds, roses and
pearls.  I bought it just before the owner changed the packaging and I
was a bit disappointed I didn’t get the headband in the new lace dust
bag because it would have given another nod to Nottingham (
historically a big lace making town).  So I asked the owner if I could
have a dust bag and she sent me one free of charge!  Amazing – thank you Britten.'

"The venue is beautiful and didn’t really need decorating,
but I really wanted to bring the autumnal colours and our personality to
it, so I took two boxes of decorations with me.  My brothers and
sisters in law decorated the venue on the morning of the wedding, and
did such a wonderful job.  A big thank you in particular to Louise, who
was ‘Designer in Chief’ and somehow managed to pull all my bits and
pieces together very professionally! I bought
different shades of yellow card which we all made into paper chains the night before the wedding.  I bought some
red paper ball decorations to hang between the paperchains, and some
indoor and outdoor fairy lights from Ebay and Paperchase, and some
heart-shaped red balloons in Paperchase to decorate the barn.' 

'I
didn’t want plain white tablecloths, so I scoured vintage shops, car
boots, Etsy and Ebay for 1960s-style fabric (including bedlinen!),
tablecloths and lace panels, which my mum cut and hemmed into runners. 
The fabrics are all yellow, orange and red and we’re going to make them
into a quilt when I’ve decided on the design.  My mum also hemmed some
cheap Ikea cotton fabric to create tablecloths.  I bought quite a lot of
yellow ribbon from Ebay too, looping them round the chairs for a bit of
decoration.'

'For the centre of the tables, I
bought massive bags of pine cones, cinnamon sticks, orange and apple
slices from Country Baskets, along
with some tea lights and glass tea light holders.  I used the ‘Winter’
pot pourri fragrance from The White Company to boost the scent, and I tied the
cinnamon sticks together in bundles with orange twine. 

I bought paper
lanterns to slot over the tea light holders from Hen and Hammock , which are a gorgeous retro
Scandinavian design which I use around the house now.'

'Our amazingly talented and generous friend Anna Price
designed, printed and made all our stationary (except for the place
cards and table plan).  I created a Pinterest board to share my ideas
with her.  I absolutely loved getting into the detail of the design –
she really wanted to make something right for us and did exactly that.'

'Our
invitations were designed to look like record sleeves, quite stylised,
with red, yellow and teal lettering and designs on a duck egg blue, 
polka-dotted background, with little birds and musical notes. Anna made menus
for each table in the design of records, with the menu written in the
‘grooves’, plus two little signs to slot into my vintage American shop
sign holders.  One sign went with the guest book and the other gave
instructions about finding each guest’s table at the reception.  She
also made little luggage-style tags for our favours.  Everything was
designed, printed and made in Nottinghamshire, so another bit of our
home county in our wedding day!'

 

'For table names, I put pictures from a
Charley Harper diary 'midcentury modern pictures of birds' – in Ikea
frames and each table was named after that bird.  For a guestbook I
asked guests to choose a Penguin postcard from a box and pop it in a
little suitcase.'

'I was looking for favours around Christmas time and came
across some chunky Scandinavian-style red wooden birds in Marks &
Spencer, which I thought would be nice as ‘Mr and Mrs’ birds for me and
Tom.  In the same range they had small hanging bird decorations which I
think were Christmas tree decorations but worked really well as little
favours.  My brother Rob and sister-in-law Louise helped me buy up
seemingly all the stock in the north of England, through 3-for-2 offers
and the post-Christmas sales!  Anna made little tags for them and I
tied them on with orange coloured twine.'

'I chose Hannah, who trades as Wildflower Florist to do our flowers – she works from a little unit
nearby at Vallum Farm.  I wanted to support someone
local and I really liked Hannah when I met her.  My budget was quite
low, but my flowers were incredible.  I asked Hannah for yellow and red
seasonal flowers, including dahlias – there’s a dahlia nursery nearby
and I love their cheerful, graphic structure – and those ‘little yellow
ball’ flowers, plus autumnal hedgerow elements like rosehips.'

'The
bouquet was beautiful, a lovely rounded shape, jam-packed with exactly
the right flowers and Nottingham lace wrapped round the stems.  She did
buttonholes and corsages in a similar style (although they didn’t make it to
their intended wearers for some reason, so my parents took them home and
made a mini bunch of flowers with them!).  Hannah did fairly loose,
small arrangements of similar flowers for the tables at the reception,
in a mixture of vases and sweetie jars.'

'High House
Farm Brewery keep some of the things other weddings leave behind, so we
got the benefit of some vines which were looped around the beams.'

'Oh my goodness, our cakes were beautiful and so, so tasty!  My
family are big fans of puddings and cakes, so I asked my mum and my two
sisters-in law, Louise and Kirsty if they could provide the cakes.  I
just gave them some ideas of my favourite types of cakes and the colours
and themes of the day, and asked them to surprise me.  And they did me
proud!  I’ve never seen or eaten such amazing cakes.'

 'I
can’t describe them well enough to explain how fantastic they were.  My
mum brought a fruit cake decorated with red, yellow and green scattered
hearts,  Kirsty brought a vanilla sponge cake in the design of a stack
of vinyl records, Louise brought a ginger cake with a orange, brown and
yellow graphic flowers design, and also a chocolate cake with an amazing
red, yellow and brown bird design.'

'We were so lucky to
have our friend Anna create our stationery for us and we can’t thank her enough. 
She doesn’t know how brilliant she is!  Lots of people said how
impressed they were with the stationary and my dad even showed off the
invites to his friends in the pub.  To give Anna a rest, I
made the name cards, table plan and table names!  I stuck some ‘mixtape’
sticky tape from Nancy & Betty on
to plain name cards and stamped guests’ names on these.'

'I already had a
vintage index card tin at home, so I used this for the ‘table plan’,
using an index card per surname or couple – people flicked through the
cards to find their seat.'

 

'For the guest book area, I used a flowery suitcase from Liberty for
guests to put cards in, and Louise styled it brilliantly with a little
vintage children’s yellow typewriter, and my Penguin postcards as a
guest book.'

'Booking our wedding photographer was the easiest decision to make
and the first thing I booked (even before I’d confirmed the venue).  I
can’t remember how I found Lucy Stendall
in the first place, but her blog was one of the blogs that I was
reading before I got engaged.  I loved her photography, which seemed
really sparkling and natural, and she always seemed to capture those
important little details and moments which made you catch your breath,
and squeal a little!  I had everything possible crossed that she’d be
free for my wedding, and be able to travel from Nottinghamshire to
Northumberland.  And she was!'

'I sent Lucy lots of
excitable emails about how my plans were getting on, and she came up to
Newcastle for our engagement shoot.  I’d really recommend this if you’re
not confident about having your photo taken like me.  It’s a bit wierd,
especially if you’re not so outwardly demonstrable about your emotions,
and you might have to answer a few perplexed questions from your fiancé
about what an engagement shoot is!  But it means you meet
your photographer and feel comfortable around them and know how they
work (who has ever hired a photographer before to follow them round?!)
but also so they know what you’re like before your wedding day.'

'We
met Lucy and she’s like the coolest sister/best, best friend/most
awesome person you absolutely always wanted to have around you on your
wedding day.  Oh and the engagement photos were brilliant – I have the
one of us kissing on the High Level Bridge in Newcastle up in our
bedroom.'

'Lucy was great on our wedding day, a real-life Girl
Friday / Wedding Ninja, getting involved in everything and anything.  We
can’t thank her and her ‘second shooter’ (husband Tom) enough.  We
chose a wedding album through her too, a gorgeous dark red leather book
of our favourite photos, which I’d really recommend everyone purchase
for their wedding.  All our goodies were wrapped and presented
beautifully and Lucy sent lovely cards to accompany them too.'

'Finally,
Lucy has been a great help with advice on our move back to
Nottinghamshire and she invited us to her baby’s christening, so we hope
we’ve made a friend for life too.'

 

'I wanted someone else to do my make-up and hair because I knew I
couldn’t manage it myself and I wanted a bit of a treat.  I also wanted
a natural but vintage look and searched everywhere for someone I could
afford, and found Le Keux’s Vintage Salon.'

'Diablo
Rose, who did my trial and my wedding make up, was lovely, very sweet,
and looked amazing, with a bit of a Rockabilly look and envy-inducing
tattoos.  I had a hair and make-up trial at my brother’s house in
Huddersfield, a lovely sunny day with the Olympics on in the background,
sitting outside in the garden.  This was great fun, particularly
because I got the giggles because it’s quite tickly having someone apply
your make up!  Diablo Rose did a mini half-beehive with my hair, with a
cute little curled design at the back, and lovely early-60s style make
up, including my first ever lipstick and false eyelashes.'

My
hair and make-up didn’t budge an inch on my wedding day but felt
weightless.  I received lots of compliments (my mum said it fitted the
early 60s look perfectly!) and I really didn’t want to wash my make-up
off and unpin my hair at the end of the night!

"For some reason finding the right shoes was tricky.  I knew what I
wanted but for the life of me couldn’t find them.  I wanted patent shoes
with a small heel and slightly rounded toe which looked a bit
early-60s.  Since I got married, I can find these sorts of shoes
everywhere!
I eventually got some pale pink patent LK
Bennett ‘petal’ shoes in the sale and some
plain Rachel Simpson pale pink satin shoes in her sale too.'  

'The LK Bennett
shoes are gorgeous and cute as a button, but they have a massive heel,
so I swapped into the Rachel Simpson shoes for dancing.

 The Unforgettable girls gave me a sixpence which I slotted into one of my LK Bennett shoes for the ceremony (it’s still in there now!).'

 

'I bought my underwear and seamed stockings from What Katie Did
including a waspie as recommended  by Unforgettable (amazing ladies,
amazing).   In case it rained, I had a yellow & brown flowery
vintage umbrella from Winters Moon (http://www.wintersmoon.co.uk).
I also bought a late 1950s fake fur wrap from Unforgettable
–  I only wore it for a few moments because the Northumberland sunshine
came out. 

I always wanted one, but I just need to have more occasions
now where I can wear it!   Unforgettable also gave me a freebie of a
little vintage brooch to pin on my yellow dress because it set it off so
perfectly – thank you ladies.'

'There’s
a great shop called RE in Corbridge 
which I love to potter around.  In their post-Christmas sale section
they had some illuminated letters including a ‘T’ and an ‘L’ in red and
green, which I snapped up immediately.  I had a picture of an ‘&’ by
Gemma Correll which I used to link the two.'

'Tom really wanted a proper Mod-style suit, cut to an
original early-to-mid 1960s pattern.  We’d visited Brighton a few years
ago and he’d had his eyes on the beautiful mohair/wool Tonic suits at Jump The Gun,
but couldn’t justify buying one – until he needed a suit to get married
in!  We went all the way from Newcastle to Brighton, and it took Tom
all of 30 minutes to pick a suit, choose a shirt, tie and tie pin (Jump
the Gun generously gave him the tie and tie stud when he told them he’d
come from Newcastle specially to buy his wedding suit), and come out
finished.' 

'Tom said the staff in Jump The Gun
were brilliant, very helpful and knew exactly what he was after and
what would work.  Tonic is a kind of fabric that is almost two-tone and
has a slight sheen, and Tom chose the bright blue suit which has a
reddish second tone.  He had a dark red knitted tie, pale yellow fitted
Mod shirt and mother-of-pearl tie pin.'

 'Tom got his brogues from Grenson, who make all their shoes by hand in Northamptonshire.  Hopefully they’ll last him a lifetime.   He also went for a traditional hot towel shave at a men’s grooming salon in Gosforth, Newcastle.'

'My dad walked me down the aisle and did a wonderful job.  Tom and I chose our ceremony music together.  I got both of the records on Ebay and our DJs did a great job of playing them!  We
had Frank Wilson’s ‘Do I love You (Indeed I do)’ to walk down to, and
‘Ain’t No Stopping Us Now’ by McFadden & Whitehead to walk away to. 
The Frank Wilson song is one of our favourites and we both love
Northern Soul music.'

'We thought the intro section of ‘Ain’t No Stopping
Us Now’ was great as a ‘build up’ to walking, and the rest of the song
had lyrics which just fitted (‘together we can do anything’) and felt
quite celebratory.  And who doesn’t love a bit of Philadelphia disco?!

'We were happy with one of the sets of vows provided by the
registrars.  We’re quite shy and we wouldn’t have been brave enough to
tailor our own vows.  We did pick vows we were happy with, I think
that’s important – it’s what you’re promising to do, forever, after
all.' 

'My brother Rob read a DH Lawrence poem called
‘Fidelity’ for us.  DH Lawrence is from Nottinghamshire, so another bit
of our home county in the day!  Also, it’s a lovely poem full of wild
romantic imagery about the earth and nature and love.'

'We went to Goldsmiths on Blackett Street in Newcastle for our
wedding rings.  This is the original Goldsmiths, trading on the same
site since 1778.  It’s a beautiful building with a gold statue of Venus
on the corner of the shop frontage, and a great sign which says
‘Northern Goldsmiths, the ring shop for the world’ – where else would we
go?!  Tom got my engagement ring from here, so it was the place to go.

We chose simple rings, a plain narrow white gold band for me which
matched my engagement ring and  Tom chose a white gold/palladium banded
ring which is half shiny and half matte.'

'I also wanted something to entertain people between the ceremony
and the meal.  I’d seen some weddings with a gramophone DJ and I liked
the idea but couldn’t find any in the north-east.  But, with a lot of
searching, I found ‘Seventy-Eight Spin ‘ from Darlington
who not only would play gramophone records but had some 1950s/60s
record players on which to play some of our vinyl records and their own
Northern Soul classics too.'

'They were brilliant, arriving properly
suited and booted with their own decorations and were genuinely excited
about playing our wedding.  They also played our wedding ceremony music
perfectly – picking a great selection of songs for the signing of the
register – and let us choose what kind of music they’d play on the
gramophone.'

 

'Heather and the team at High House Farm Brewery did all the
catering, which was one reason why we chose the venue.  Their food is
sourced locally and they could cater for any dietary requirements and
menu choices.  We opted for their standard hot and cold buffet which
Heather told me works well for any wedding – and she was right, it was
very tasty!  We had bacon cobs and roast potatoes for the evening
crowd to keep them dancing.  The Brewery also got the drinks we wanted
at a good price, including bottles of fizz, soft drinks, etc, if anyone
didn’t fancy one of their delicious ales.'

"I found some bubble blowers in Paperchase just after Valentine’s
Day, which were red with hearts on the bubble wand, which I bought in
place of confetti.  I put these in a little vintage wooden tea box
(inscribed with the name of a Nottinghamshire tea supplier) which I
found on Ebay.

Around the time we got engaged, I started to complete an embroidery kit by Emily Peakcock
and managed to finish it on time to use it as a wall hanging in the
venue.  Tom and me love a good hug – you can do anything with at least
one hug a day!  Infact, having a hug with my new husband when we thought no-one was
looking was one of my favourite parts of the day – as well as Tom’s speech, which just about overwhelmed everyone – I
remember a sea of faces smiling with rivers of tears!'

 

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

 'Hannah & Rae at Unforgettable said that ‘you don’t pick the dress, it picks you’ and
that was definitely right in my case.  If you’re looking at vintage
dresses, many of them are handmade so you’ll be surprised what sizes you
can get into and how different they look on different people.  Wedding bouquets are oddly heavy so be prepared for this!

'Spend
money on what’s important to you.  We only had a budget of about £5000
but I knew I wanted fantastic photographs so spent quite a bit of our
budget on this.  But I think a great photographer (and a wedding album)
is such a fantastic investment, particularly if you’re a bit nervous
about having your photo taken.'

'We had an engagement shoot with Lucy and
not only does this help to get to know one other, but they’ll work out
how best to shoot on your wedding day, and you’ll get some photos which
will give you confidence.  You’ll have your wedding photos forever as a
record of your day, so I’d recommend having an album made – it’s the
best present ever!'

'If you have any leftover
wedding cake, you can wrap it up and freeze it for later.  My family are
‘never knowingly under-caked’ but we did have a bit of cake left and
treated ourselves to it when we came back from honeymooning in
Florence.' 

'My husband got a new job in January in
Nottinghamshire, so we’ve since moved back to our home county,  but we
had 7 months apart while I tried to sell our flat in Newcastle, only
seeing each other on weekends.  It was the hardest time, because we’ve
barely spent time apart from each other in all our years together.  I
missed him more than I can say, but being married helped us to feel more
‘together’ when we were apart.  All worked out in the end and we’ve
just celebrated our first wedding anniversary at our new home near
Nottingham.' 

'I read Love My Dress for inspiration
and to fill up my Pinterest boards.  I really like the real weddings and
your recommendations of suppliers.  I found some of my wedding items
from your blog.  I liked the ‘voice’ of the blog and how friendly it
felt.  It was also easy to search your archive for inspiration.'

'I advised people to bring something warm for the
ceremony because late September in Northumberland can be a bit chilly if
you’re not used to it.'

'Invite a few more people than you can afford because some won’t be able to make it at short notice.'

'Give
your photographer and makeup/hair person a map to help them get to you,
particularly if it’s off the beaten track like my B&B was!'

So much sweet love in this feature, I really adore this wedding – sending you a whole heap of love and thanks Tom and Lucy for so kindly and passionately sharing your day – many congratulations to you both!

And thanks also to the lovely and clearly very highly recommended photographer, Lucy Stendall.

If you love this couple's style, you can explore more similar content via our 1960s pages.

Have a lovely Friday afternoon, won't you.

With love,

Annabel

Photographer – Lucy Stendall
Venue + Catering – High House Farm Brewery, Northumberland
Wedding Dress + 50's original fur wrap – Unforgettable 
Headpiece – Bandeau veil via LillyBella
+ Rosie headband from Britten
Brides' shoes – LK
Bennett ‘petal’ shoes + Rachel Simpson
Groom's Attire – Jump The Gun suit + Grenson shoes
Flowers – Wildflower Florist
Cake – Family
Entertainment – Seventy-Eight Spin
Favours -  Marks &
Spencer
Additional Styling –
Rings – Goldsmiths on Blackett Street in Newcastle
Hair Stylist + Makeup Artist – Le Keux’s Vintage Salon