Kirsty & Luke: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

It is with great pleasure that I introduce you today to one of our lucky competition winners. Kirsty and Luke won the chance to have their wedding photographed for free by the absolutely fabulous Craig Dearsley. If you are a regular reader of Bespoke Bride you will know that we are huge fans of Craig’s photography not only did he host a competition with us especially for our lovely readers, he is now back to offer you wonderful lot another sneaky little offer, details of which can be found at the end of this post.

So where was I ….. I know back to Kirsty and Luke! I am in love with so many things! Firstly, the bride wore the most fabulous Vivienne Westwood heels and they were bubblegum scented, thats right bubblegum! Secondly, the bridesmaids wore polka dot and thirdly, the wedding cake has to be one of the most amazing cakes I have ever seen. You are in for a treat, over to Kirsty to tell you all about her amazing wedding day…

We were married on the 22^nd July at the Moat House Hotel in Acton Trussell. We wanted the venue to be fairly close to home as it was more convenient for our family and friends to get to. The Moat House hotel was half way between our home and the town that we had grown up in which was perfect for us. We particularly loved that the venue was right in the middle of the countryside and really was in such a gorgeous setting.

We chose to have an ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ theme running through the wedding, this was something I had always dreamed of doing since I was a little girl. The book is very important to me and is the reason I am obsessed with reading books, work in a bookstore and the reason I love to write. Some might say it is also the reason I always peer suspiciously down rabbit holes.

We used pages of vintage music paper to make flowers and origami pillow boxes to leave in the guest rooms. These were to represent Luke’s biggest passion…Music! He plays lots of instruments including Bass, Ukulele, Harmonica, Cajon, Guitar and he has just begun to learn how to play the melodica.

We had lots of DIY details All the origami flowers flowers were handmade from the pages of vintage Alice in Wonderland book pages, I would like to say that I made a lot of them myself but after showing my Mum how to make them she sort of took over and completely excelled at it, blowing mine out of the water. She put together all of the bridesmaids bouquets as well as mine. We made mine together feeding antique and family brooches in with the origami flowers. Every piece had a purpose and some were just wired in temporarily for the day such as my great grandmother’s brooch.

Something the guests might not have noticed was the individual hand sketched Alice in Wonderland illustrations on each name card. My Mum sketched them all herself in the style of Tenniel. They were amazing!

Our cake was a total shocker! Lou the cake designer had taken our theme and run with it keeping the actual cake a total surprise until the day. There was a minute when I was walking down the aisle and saw the cake in the corner of the room for the first time and my jaw dropped! Not the best time to lose focus…you need to see this cake to believe it…simply put, it is the best cake there ever was.

I bought the bridesmaids dresses from ‘Rosa Rosa’ a shop on EBay, they all wore their own shoes and I had Alice in Wonderland jewellery made for them as gifts.

When it come to deciding what we were going to wear we decided that we would really like to look classic and timeless so we went with an ‘old Hollywood’ theme .I bought my dress from EBay for £60! It was a factory second with a little mark on the train that my Mum fixed. I made the sash belt to break the dress up a bit, I cut up an old necklace and headband for the pearls and the diamante bit in the centre was actually the top of an old thong. My shoes were from the Melissa range at Vivienne Westwood (they were Bubblegum scented!) Lukes suit was from next and he was so happy that he could finally buy his favourite shoes from Dr Martens for the wedding.

We actually won a competition on Bespoke Bride to have our wedding photography done free from Craig Dearsley, we knew from looking at his profile that we would immediately click. We were seriously on a budget with the wedding and before we won the competition we were quite literally emailing anybody we knew with a ‘good’ camera to help out. He came along with his wonderful wife Ronnie and they literally saved us and in many ways helped to make it a perfect day. They put us at ease, were super friendly and above all took INCREDIBLE photos all day. We have lots of time for these two and consider them friends as well as the best photographers around…

The best advice we can give to couples planning their wedding is to remember that you don’t have to spend a fortune. If you really put the work in, look around, know what you want and love each other (regardless of glue gun burns, getting paint on the table and dieting mood swings – to get into said £60 dress) everything will come together in the end. Oh and don’t forget to put your guest book out – We did 🙁

♥ Venue: Moat House Hotel, Acton Trussell

♥ Chair covers and Table runners: Design Elegance

♥ Cake: Lou Lou P’s Delights

♥ Photographer: Craig Dearsley Photo

♥ Bridesmaids dresses: Rosa Rosa, Ebay

♥ Grooms Suit: Next

♥ Grooms shoes: Dr Martens

♥ Brides Dress: Ebay

♥ Brides Shoes: Melissa Range, Vivienne Westwood

So you must be super intrigued to know what goodies Craig is offering today and we are pleased to announce that if any of our fabulous readers are still looking for a photographer and are getting married before the end of 2013 then Craig would like to offer you a third off any of his wedding packages. Remember your wedding must be before the end of this year, for you to be able to claim the discount. For more information please contact Craig.

How about that folks some super awesome wedding inspiration and photographer with an absolutely fabulous offer, what more could you want?

Much Bespoke Love

Emily ♥