I am feeling daunted by writing about the wedding, since there are a fajillion photos and things to say. And at the same time I feel like I can’t write about anything else until I at least give you an overview of the wedding! This is stupid, I know, so I’m just going to make a start at some wedding details. I’ll probably circle around back to all of these in more detail, but I just wanted to get something out there so I can get back to popping into blog whenever I want to say something!
As a way of getting a bit of an overview of what the wedding was like, I thought I’d share a letter I received from one of my bridesmaids shortly after the wedding (with a curated selection of printed photos – note to wedding guests, this was SO nice to receive!)…
My bridesmaids are the first four on the left (we will talk about mismatched bridesmaids!
What an absolutely fantastic, wonderful, amazing weekend! Thank you so much for the honour of being your bridesmaid and for entrusting me with your eyebrows and nails! You looked completely gorgeous and completely YOU, and in fact, that description extends itself to the whole weekend. From the handmade bunting to the afternoon tea, and the flowers (real and on fabric!), and the gingham tablecloths, and the pot plants and all the homemade touches… it was just PERFECT and I truly enjoyed every second… helping to decorate the marquee the day before, getting ready with you in the morning, following you down the aisle, chatting up a storm with all your friends, dancing the ceilidh…. I take my hat off to you for being so organised, thinking everything through so carefully, and for remaining so calm and collected throughout the whole weekend! You looked like you thoroughly enjoyed yourself and that is what is important.
Here are some pictures illustrating some of the things LB mentioned….
I wore a pretty robe Mr V had bought me a few years ago to get ready – I liked that it was blue!
The only arrangements we ordered from a florist were my bouquet, the bouttonieres and a hanging ball thingy for the church lynchgate. The bridesmaid flowers were arranged by one of the bridesmaids – who went to Covent Garden flower market and then bought them all in a bucket on the train! (What a hero)
Pew end arrangements in the church – these were done by my Mum and her friends in the village with a few bought blooms but mainly flowers from everyone’s gardens. I’ll do more about the church flowers – there were plenty more!
Shooooooes. We didn’t have a theme but “swallows” emerged as a motif, and again, they were blue!
The tables all had different table cloths that I’d collected, a mixture of gingham and vintage floral embroidery.
My mum and I spent an enjoyable morning a few days before the wedding picking ten different pot plants, which we put into old terracota pots she had already. Total cost of ten centrepieces? £40. (Oh, and about £10 total for all the clippy on mini chalkboards.)
Tiny selection of the 50 metres of bunting I made!
Pom poms in the bar area (and blue mason jars!) I’d had a totally different vision for how these would look, but at 6 o’clock on the day of marquee set up, I delegated the whole job to a bridesmaid and I love how it turned out!
A friend made us this fymo figurine as part of the Homemade Secret Santa we do every year. I was going to make the cake bunting myself, but all my attempts looked awful so I drafted in a friend to finish it for me! (You can see the scones from our afternoon cream tea in the background)
Our dinner was hog roast served family style. So tasty.
The jam jar arrangements from the church got transferred to the farm and put on these hooks to form a pathway up to the marquee. My step dad MADE the hooks and my mum hand-sewed the lace onto the jars. When it got dark, these got replaced with little hanging lanterns (watching my new father-in-law hang the lanterns with his brother is one of my favourite memories of the wedding… I think just because it looked exactly as I imagined and everyone had said it would be too complicated to swap them, but I could tell the two of them were having a good chat!
I didn’t think you’d let me get away with another post where I didn’t show you my whole dress! Mr V didn’t tell me he was going to wear these shoes and he had no idea mine were the same colour! The mysterious Mr V wore a three piece tweed suit and a green tie. He looked so handsome.
