Before the Big Day bride submissions are coming thick and fast! Lovely bride, Zegnia, read Before the Big Day in the run up to her wedding, and I'm thrilled to feature her wedding photographs. Her and Matthew chose a feather theme for their wedding day, and I love how it subtly runs through all their wedding details. There are feathers in the bouquets, buttonholes and flower arrangements, and a feather motif on their DIY designed wedding stationary {which looks seriously professional!}. For colours, they chose raspberry, antique silver and champagne, a palette that worked perfectly with their tipi tent. More pictures of their wedding reception coming soon, but for the moment, feast your eyes on the Zegnia's incredible taupe Ian Stuart wedding gown, the bridesmaids individual Coast dresses and Matthew in his made-to-measure suit from A Suit That Fits. Tonnes of wedding inspiration! Huge thanks to Lucy Wallace Photography for capturing every detail with such talent.
Matthew and I got married on Sunday 26th May 2013 (the Bank Holiday weekend), at St. James’ Church in Nayland, Suffolk, followed by a reception at Bear House, my parents' garden, also in the village of Nayland.
My shoes were Carvela. I noticed them in the shop window and loved them. A very easy spur of the moment decision!
My dress was Ian Stuart from the Killer Queen Collection called Basilica, in taupe with metallic lace. I bought it from Hilary B in Colchester. My mum lent me her necklace for my something borrowed.
I fell in love with my wedding dress the first moment I saw it, and although I tried on many dresses that I also loved, they were always a comparison. The fact that it was taupe made it stand out, and I always knew I wanted my dress had to be unusual.
Originally before I started trying on dresses I was positive I wanted a birdcage veil but when I tried on a full-length veil in Hilary B just for fun I was torn! So I was thrilled to find a birdcage veil headpiece that fitted underneath the veil, ending up with the best of both worlds! The headpiece was from Timeless Couture. It was handmade with a vintage brooch {my something old!}.
For the evening I had a pair of converse style trainers from Lipsy, which were so fun, and a surprise for most people!
My bridesmaids’ dresses came from Coast's flagship store, which had an exclusive collection. I wanted them to have something they could wear again, and also to reflect their style and personality.
I guided them to the sort of dresses that I liked, and those that fitted in with my colour scheme, but ultimately they each chose their own bridesmaid dress. They also chose their own shoes, although each had a pair of matching flats for the evening, and I got them each a headband from ASOS.
I had always wanted to have our wedding reception in my parents' garden, where I'd grown up, and it was lovely to be able to walk to and from the church. When we were younger we had a pet goose, and whenever she lost a feather my Mum always saved it. This gave us the idea of incorporating a feather design into the day.
Our florist was Charlotte Slade. I'd collected lots of inspiration pictures from wedding blogs like Before the Big Day, but I was fairly open to what I wanted for our wedding flowers. When we met with Charlotte she completely understood my vision. I was sure that I wanted a very natural, freshly picked feel to my bouquet, and we decided to incorporate some feathers to fit in with our theme.
One of my big DIY projects was the stationary, which I designed myself. I drew a feather motif and scanned it in, sourced a font and put them all together, as well as hand drawing a map of the village to show the church and the garden!
We had the wedding invitations printed professionally, but only because it was hard to source the brown recycled card in the size we wanted. We then we spent a long time tying them together with string and a feather! We used the same concept for our Order of Service. These were all hand-tied together with a handwritten quote on the back.
Matthew has his suit made at A Suit That Fits. We both knew a traditional suit was not for him, so we decided to have a gorgeous one made, that he can keep and wear again. His best man wore the same. Their ties came from Peter Werth, their shoes were from Dune and the handkerchiefs were from Charles Tyrwhitt. The ushers’ suits also came from Peter Werth.
Our florist, Charlotte Slade, subtly added feathers to the bridesmaids' bouquets and the buttonholes, and the bridesmaids also wore a flower corsage so that when they put their bouquet down they still had something pretty and floral on their wrists.
I chose mostly peonies, roses and sweet peas for my wedding flowers. For the church we decided that we didn't want to spend much money on flowers, as we didn't feel it needed it, and you don't even spend that long there. Instead we had three birch trees, one either side of the altar, and one near the entrance.
Charlotte also provided a gorgeous selection of jars filled with flowers. We bought our own pillar candles, and arranged them, along with the jars, on the window ledge in the entrance of the church {you can just see them behind Zegnia, in the picture above}.
Our photographer was Lucy Wallace. She was recommended by another photographer we liked, but who wasn't available. We met her in London, and knew immediately she was the right person.
We didn't want our guests to have to stand around for ages while we had loads of posed formal photographs. Instead we wanted to be able to spend as much time with our guests and have our wedding photographer capture all the memories of the day. Lucy's reportage style was perfect, she was so discreet, and made us feel so comfortable and not be thinking of the camera.
It was one of the best decisions we made - as the pictures will always be there for us to look at, and remember the day, but also spot things that otherwise we would've missed. Even after the wedding Lucy has continued to be so amazing. She's put together a beautiful book for us, and organised thank you cards, as well as helping us pick prints. We could never thank her enough for our gorgeous photos.
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Matthew and I got married on Sunday 26th May 2013 (the Bank Holiday weekend), at St. James’ Church in Nayland, Suffolk, followed by a reception at Bear House, my parents' garden, also in the village of Nayland.
My shoes were Carvela. I noticed them in the shop window and loved them. A very easy spur of the moment decision!
Originally before I started trying on dresses I was positive I wanted a birdcage veil but when I tried on a full-length veil in Hilary B just for fun I was torn! So I was thrilled to find a birdcage veil headpiece that fitted underneath the veil, ending up with the best of both worlds! The headpiece was from Timeless Couture. It was handmade with a vintage brooch {my something old!}.
For the evening I had a pair of converse style trainers from Lipsy, which were so fun, and a surprise for most people!
My bridesmaids’ dresses came from Coast's flagship store, which had an exclusive collection. I wanted them to have something they could wear again, and also to reflect their style and personality.
I guided them to the sort of dresses that I liked, and those that fitted in with my colour scheme, but ultimately they each chose their own bridesmaid dress. They also chose their own shoes, although each had a pair of matching flats for the evening, and I got them each a headband from ASOS.
I had always wanted to have our wedding reception in my parents' garden, where I'd grown up, and it was lovely to be able to walk to and from the church. When we were younger we had a pet goose, and whenever she lost a feather my Mum always saved it. This gave us the idea of incorporating a feather design into the day.
Our florist was Charlotte Slade. I'd collected lots of inspiration pictures from wedding blogs like Before the Big Day, but I was fairly open to what I wanted for our wedding flowers. When we met with Charlotte she completely understood my vision. I was sure that I wanted a very natural, freshly picked feel to my bouquet, and we decided to incorporate some feathers to fit in with our theme.
One of my big DIY projects was the stationary, which I designed myself. I drew a feather motif and scanned it in, sourced a font and put them all together, as well as hand drawing a map of the village to show the church and the garden!
We had the wedding invitations printed professionally, but only because it was hard to source the brown recycled card in the size we wanted. We then we spent a long time tying them together with string and a feather! We used the same concept for our Order of Service. These were all hand-tied together with a handwritten quote on the back.
Matthew has his suit made at A Suit That Fits. We both knew a traditional suit was not for him, so we decided to have a gorgeous one made, that he can keep and wear again. His best man wore the same. Their ties came from Peter Werth, their shoes were from Dune and the handkerchiefs were from Charles Tyrwhitt. The ushers’ suits also came from Peter Werth.
Our florist, Charlotte Slade, subtly added feathers to the bridesmaids' bouquets and the buttonholes, and the bridesmaids also wore a flower corsage so that when they put their bouquet down they still had something pretty and floral on their wrists.
I chose mostly peonies, roses and sweet peas for my wedding flowers. For the church we decided that we didn't want to spend much money on flowers, as we didn't feel it needed it, and you don't even spend that long there. Instead we had three birch trees, one either side of the altar, and one near the entrance.
Charlotte also provided a gorgeous selection of jars filled with flowers. We bought our own pillar candles, and arranged them, along with the jars, on the window ledge in the entrance of the church {you can just see them behind Zegnia, in the picture above}.
Our photographer was Lucy Wallace. She was recommended by another photographer we liked, but who wasn't available. We met her in London, and knew immediately she was the right person.
We didn't want our guests to have to stand around for ages while we had loads of posed formal photographs. Instead we wanted to be able to spend as much time with our guests and have our wedding photographer capture all the memories of the day. Lucy's reportage style was perfect, she was so discreet, and made us feel so comfortable and not be thinking of the camera.
Love Before the Big Day? Never want to miss a post? Sign up for our free newsletter, for exclusive content and special offers! Before the Big Day - The Best UK Wedding Blog.
