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‘More is More!’, An Elegant & Fun Wedding: Becca & Marc
We are so excited to be sharing this totally beautiful wedding with you this weekend! Newly wed Becca is a girl after my own heart, she has only just realised her love of the colour pink, she loves flowers, cake and cheese and top it all off she is a fan of drum and base. In fact, if I hadn’t of seen these gorgeous images and had just read her story, I could have easily mistaken this whole wedding for my own, apart from the obvious fact that I am not married that is.
Here to share her story with you is Becca herself and she begins with her mission to find the perfect venue…
We actually stumbled across the venue just as we were about to book another. I was excited about finding a little known venue that was Princess Diana’s former boarding school. The school is now used to educate vulnerable young people who are unable to attend mainstream school. All fees from weddings are used towards their education. This was a big plus point for us as my previous job was working with these types of young people.
The second thing on our to do list, straight after booking the venue was to find ourselves a fantastic photographer. It was important to us to have natural reportage style photos and as soon as I came across Sharron’s website – The Image Garden Photography – something just felt right about her work. I’m a big believer in going with your instincts and as soon as we met Sharron we booked her up right away.
We love her use of natural light and how relaxed she made us feel. People who have since seen our photos say they feel like they were there on the day! And you would never have guessed that it poured with rain the entire day from how beautiful they are. We really will treasure them forever.
Like many couples we hadn’t put much thought into having a video made. We saw Shutterbox Films on a wedding blog and I just knew we had to have them. Luckily Marc agreed and they were swiftly booked up. It was one of the best rush decisions I made and I adore watching snippets of our video. It always feels fresh and new and reminds me just how fantastic the day was. It’s amazing seeing all the things you would’ve otherwise missed.
I really enjoyed the whole process of dress hunting, getting to spend time with my Mum and trying all those fantastic styles, but the final decision was a bit overwhelming in the end. I had never been someone to really think about what type of wedding I would have so all ideas were literally from scratch. I never really had the feeling that one particular dress was ‘The One’, and in fact I loved several of them! In the end I went for a Benjamin Roberts and had my fantastic dressmaker alter the shape, re-bead the neckline and add some straps for the church ceremony. In the end it was more like a bespoke dress, except at a far more reasonable price!
It occurred to me later on that I wanted to have a shorted dress for dancing in the evening and knowing Marc liked the 50’s style dresses, I decided to make it a surprise to change into. It was a fab decision as not only could I twirl around with my bridesmaids; I got to show off my fabulous shoes!
I honestly never thought I’d be a ‘Pink’ bride but it did end up featuring quite a lot! I had left ordering the bridesmaid dresses to very late and being so indecisive I couldn’t decide what I liked and kept changing my mind (probably driving the girls mad). In the end after a rush trip down to a boutique in West Sussex we choose the dresses and they arrived just 2 days before the wedding! I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone as it was very stressful especially when they need further alterations but they really did exceed my expectations. The girls were like my little angels running around sorting everything out and we had lots of lovely comments about them. I liked the fact they were different to anything else I’d seen and they were great for dancing in the evening.
My lovely make-up artist was Louise Connor. She was a great calming influence in the morning and my airbrush makeup lasted all day despite the rain!
When it came to the flowers it was a case of ‘More is More’! You will never get the chance again to be so creative with these so I say if you can allocate some of your precious budget, then go for it. I’m a huge fan of flowers and wanted them to feature in a big way. My florist who is a friend of my Mum’s had many meetings with me where we developed ideas. I’m not one for colour schemes so the romantic pastel colours developed along the way and in the end I was blown away by them and so glad for the time and effort we put into them. Joanna used my favourite dahlia’s, spray roses, astilbe, delphiniums with hydrangeas with ribbons to create different colours and texture. My bouquet ended up weighing a tonne but was great for gripping onto with my nerves walking down the aisle!
The day before my Mum and Mother in law spent the day decorating the church for us. My Mum is very talented herself at arranging flowers so was lovely for her to do this for us, plus I think it helped distract her from her own nerves!
Anyone who knows me, knows I love cake….and cheese! Our decision to not have a traditional cake was originally steered by the budget but we were so pleased how it turned out in the end. Our cheese tower looked amazing and doubled up as part of the evening buffet. My Mum made cute little jars of plum chutney to accompany and despite everyone tucking in we still had lots for guests to take home.
Saying that there was no way we couldn’t have some proper cake, so by chance I asked Ben from a local teashop if he would make some for us and he was more than happy too. They were seriously the tastiest cakes I’ve ever had in my life. Ben made us a selection including Red Velvet and Carrot, both with cheesecake centres, a Chocolate Malteser cake, Dorset Apple and the most fantastic Lemon and Raspberry Ombre cake. As well as a selection of brownies and cookies and my Mum’s homemade boozy fruit cake, needless to say it fed us all for days!
The style really was an ever evolving process. I didn’t want a theme but something elegant yet fun was the overall aim. A day that reflected us as a couple. Some decisions I found hard in regards to going against the norm but I’m so glad I did. Despite several looks of horror when it was mentioned we wouldn’t be having things like a traditional wedding cake!
Our evening party was quite non-conformist too. Marc and I’s first dance song was Chris Malinchak’s ‘So Good To Me’ so this set the tone of the evening party. This turned out to be somewhat a dance and drum and bass rave with people dancing on chairs and attempting to crowd surf. I think it reflected us perfectly.
Super Suppliers – Photographer: The Image Garden// Videography: Shutterbox Films// Makeup Artist: Louise Connor// Venue: West Heath School//
Didn’t I tell you it was going to be awesome!
All that is left for me to do now is wish the brains behind this lens, Sharron of The Image Garden the best of luck this week as she heads off to get married herself. We can’t wait to see the photos and we wish you both all the best for your future together!
Much Bespoke Love
Emily x
What a beautiful bride, looks like a lot of fun was had by all !