I’ve got a beautiful wedding to share with you today packed full of bridal bargains, DIY details and mouthwatering photographs of food…
The meeting
We met 12 years ago at a party in Bristol, I spotted Jamie as soon as I arrived then spent most of the night trying to get his attention which eventually worked! Jamie lived in London at the time as a YTS for Tottenham Hotspurs & I lived in Bristol so we spent every weekend & moment we could together for the first 2 years, racked up enormous phone bills & wrote lovely letters which I still have…which leads us to the proposal, if you can call it that!
The proposal
Jamie had written me a letter in 1999 stating we would marry on 4th June 2004! Well in the end we did it all backwards along came children, a house & then eventually marriage…but it was definitely worth the wait and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
The wedding
Stationery: I designed and made the stationery then took my final design to be colour copied. I started with a monogram and used some Cath Kidston fabric and just played with layouts until I was happy.
Hair: A close friend did my hair and my bridesmaids’ hair.
Make-up: I did my own make up using Bare Minerals and also did my mum’s & bridesmaids’.
Dress: I chose my dress with the help of my mother-in-law. My mum came to the fittings with me and helped to choose my veil, both were from Just For You Bridal. My dress was £580 and veil £150.
Shoes: My shoes were only £25.
Bridesmaids: My sister’s bridesmaid dress was another bargain: £40 from TK Maxx and the flowergirl’s outfit was from Debenhams at £35. My younger bridesmaid’s shoes were only £4.99 from H&M.
Groom/groomsmen: We wanted something informal so brought all the mens’ suits from Burtons. They gave us a 20% discount & free shirts & ties as we were buying six suits.
Bride’s flowers: I had a natural-style, hand-tied bouquet with rose pink peonies, pink aqua roses, pale pink bouvardia & rosemary. All bouquets and button holes from Flowers By Melissa.
Bridesmaid’s flowers: Pink aqua roses, pink spray roses & pink bouvardia. With pink spray roses for their hair.
Boutonnieres: Jamie had an aqua pink rose with rosemary. The rest of the bridal party had a single pink aqua rose and Theo our son had a single pink spray rose.
Transport: We had a 1925 Buick hired from Vintage Wheels in Bridgewater.
Ceremony venue: St. Bonaventure’s Catholic Church in Bishopston.
Ceremony music: To enter we had Pachabel’s Canon in D.
Reception venue: We held the reception behind my parents house in a marquee along side Tockington Manor Pavilion.
Reception decoration: We decorated the marquee the day before the wedding with help from family and friends and added the finishing touches on the morning of the wedding. I cut out hundreds of paper butterflies using paper punchers & scattered them on tables. All the candles were brought from IKEA along with the lanterns leading into the marquee that I sprayed ivory.
We brought all the table flowers from Bristol flower market and Jamie’s mum arranged them all in vases we also brought from IKEA for £1 each. she also made two beautiful heart garlands to go behind the top table. My very talented mother spent months before the wedding cutting out & making metres & metres of bunting. I hand painted a ‘Wedding Reception’, a ‘Love is Sweet’ and a ‘Bride & Groom’ sign.
Table plan: We didn’t do a seating plan as such, just allocated people to a table name so they could sit by whomever they liked… saved paper and less work for me!
Table cards: We named tables after sweets as, instead of individual favours, we had a sweetie bar. The frames for the table names were brought from IKEA, just 80p each. Our parents had been collecting childhood photos unknown to us to put the other side of the table names one of the many surprises of the day!
Food: On arrival guests had our wedding cupcakes and a glass of Pimms. We also had local home made ice cream from Ivor’s Ice Cream which, as it was such a hot day, went down really well. A relaxed BBQ and salad after speeches, followed by antipasti-style buffet in the evening with a cake made of cheese from Bath Cheese.
Cake: Our wedding cake was cupcakes filled with a lemon mascarpone filling and fresh strawberries and blueberries. The children’s cupcakes had sweeties on instead of fruit. They were made by one of my mum’s neighbours who has just started her own business: Pink Hannah’s Cupcakes, 250 at £1.50 each.
Favours: Sweetie bar and matchstick-style flower seeds on tables.
First dance: At Last by Beyonce originally sung by Etta James, followed by our son Theo stealing the spot-light dancing his heart out to Rock Your Body by the Black Eyed Peas!
Entertainment: We hired a fabulous children’s entertainer/caricaturist, Steve at Games a Go Go, which was well worth the £280. He was there when everyone arrived and entertained the children throughout so the parents could relax and enjoy the party! We also hired large outdoor games from Bristol Fun For Hire.
Extras: At night we released sky lanterns and the kids were also given glow sticks.
Best bit of the day: Our best bit of the day was all of it but a few extra special moments were when our daughter Ebonie sang Oh Happy Day for us as a surprise after the speeches, she was so emotional it had us all in tears. Also driving up to the Pavilion to see a string quartet sat under the big tree: they were a surprise wedding present from Jamie’s parents.
Being surrounded by everyone dear to us especially our grandparents and my two dearest friends who flew over from Dubai and France to be with us made it all the more special.
The whole day was just perfect, all captured by our fabulous photographer Albert.
Awesome images courtesy of Albert Palmer
I love Rea’s dress and the stunning crystal flower hair clip. I love the natural looking bouquet. I love the table decorations: so simple yet look so pretty. I love the bunting, the berry-topped buns and the look of that BBQ (and that’s despite being a veggie!) And I really love how Rea & Jamie’s children enhanced their day. I’ve always thought of myself as quite traditional when it comes to the marriage before children thing but seeing this wedding makes me think that it really doesn’t matter. Instead, that it would actually be quite wonderful to have the most important people in your life share a most important day.
Thanks to the happy couple Rea & Jamie and their fab photographer Albert.
Debs
Photographer Details:
Albert Palmer’s website
Contact Albert
Phone: 07792 613632
