Belle Amour: Wedding Ideas Less of the traditional. More of the original.

When Rebecca & James’ photographer cancelled at the last minute there was obviously a worry that nobody would be free at such short notice. Luckily Anna Hardy was available to capture not only the beautiful union of Rebecca & James but also the most delicious details handmade by Rebecca and friends. Here’s a long list full of the lovely handmade items: hand-stitched ribbon rose headband, the bridesmaids’ linen handkerchiefs embroidered with their names, the bridesmaids’ beautiful clutch bags, the beautiful wicker hearts hand-tied with ribbon in the church, the gypsophilia heart at the reception, the elegant orders of service, menus and place cards in corks, the candle and hydrangea bowl table centrepieces, the incredible ruffled lace cake topper, the chalk-numbered slate table markers, the homemade jam favours (homemade jam, homemade fabric covers, homemade tags!)and the bags of sweets for the children.

The wedding

We’ve been together for just over 4 years now, he proposed on Christmas Day 2008, putting my ring in a little wooden box with ‘will you marry me’ on the inside lid. We gave ourselves a while to be engaged, I planned the wedding while he built a house! We live in Cumbria, and the weather is unpredictable most of the year round, so there’s not much point aiming for a hot summers day. We liked the idea of frosts and autumn colours, so were thinking about October/November time. Our wedding date was set for my late grandpa’s birthday, when I realised it fell on a Saturday it seemed like serendipity.

I spent a while gathering things from magazines and the Internet and then one day I started to find wedding blogs, which sucked me in pretty quickly! I found them inspiring and helpful, showing what alternatives there were to wedding magazines. The whole thing is pretty difficult when in theory you only do it once, so you have little to no experience!

I made a lot of things for the wedding, not really out of necessity but because I wanted to. It was a chance to learn new skills and try things out (clutch bag making and jam making…) and it was a lovely sense of achievement at the end to look around the room and see everything we had done. I had a very willing and able maid of honour who was wondeful the whole way through the planning process (all my bridesmaids are dear friends, geography just kept the other two apart from me too much to help) who also kept me ultra organised. Without her amazing list making skills I dont think I would have got half of it done.

I enjoyed pretty much everything to do with the wedding, both the prep and the day itself. I expected to be nervous but fortunately most of that just disappeared early morning. It was a wonderful day being surrounded by nearly all of our family and friends, and we had a very relaxed evening in the bar of Crosby Lodge, with a friend playing acoustic guitar for us. We are not mad partiers by any stretch of the imagination, and until about 3 weeks before had not got any entertainment other than an iPod playlist – the friend was my maid of honour’s husband, who had also been the musical entertainment at my hen! We wanted a relaxed evening, as you would down the pub, to get to see all our family and guests, which is exactly what we got. It was perfect for us, after all the guests left/went to bed, we stayed in the bar listening to our favourite songs on the iPod. Exactly how we wanted the evening to be.

It’s hard to summarise so many memories, one last thing though, I would praise Anna to the skies. She stepped in when my previous photographers had to cancel, and I cannot find any fault with her. The woman was tireless, funny, sweet, friendly, amazing at what she does, and just all round wonderful. She got every photo I hoped she would take, and then some. We ony met her the night before, as she had such a way to travel, and we were all instantly at our ease with her. We had a purely digital package, and I’m making up the album at the moment, I’ve had 220 of her 500 photos printed because I just cant choose! I love the woman.

Such a beautiful wedding! Of course, being a craft fanatic, I love all the details Rebecca created and if you’re in awe of them too you may like to find out more over on Rebecca’s blog: Daydreams in Lace. I also love Anna’s photography, it complemented this wedding perfectly and I am so happy she let me share it with you… ‘Thanks Anna’!

Debs

Photographer Details:
Anna Hardy Weddings
Anna’s blog
Contact Anna
Phone: 01214 435547
Mobile: 07903 786540

Tags: craft, disposable cameras, DIY, gypsophilia, jam, ruffles, wedding