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

Yvonne & Graham’s beautiful big day took place at the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth. At 170 metres tall this wedding venue is one with a view! And as well as that gorgeous view they also had a dinosaur in their pictures! Not a real one, of course, but a really interesting sculpture that sadly burnt down only a few weeks after the wedding due to a suspected arson attack :( A huge thank you to Paul Thurlow for sharing this really rather unique wedding day…

The meeting

Graham and I were introduced by a mutual friend at Coventry university on a night club dancefloor! After meeting on another night out I remember being very impressed that he knew what an MG Midget was (my 1966 classic car at the time) and was also impressed that he’d built his own classic car from a box of parts (a Triumph Vitesse). That’s when I thought… he’s interesting ;-)

We went travelling after university and after a stint in London we have lived together in Portsmouth for about 6 years.

The proposal

Graham has proposed a couple of times during our time together… once at new year, once at another friend’s wedding, both times, I turned him down… to be honest the idea of marriage didn’t appeal and I have always thought to be called a wife makes you sound old! A third time I said to Graham, ‘I won’t say yes unless you do it properly with a ring’.

Without my knowledge, Graham had had the ring made especially, and had apparently been holding on to it for a couple of weeks waiting for the right moment to propose, in the end, I think he was itching to ask so he asked me to take a walk on Southsea seafront (this is just 5 minutes walk from our house), and, on one of the windiest summer days ever, he asked me to marry him with the beautiful engagement ring. I made him get down on one knee and ask again before I said yes (mean I know)! He then produced from his bag a half bottle of bubbly and a couple of glasses and we had a drink on the seafront. Lovely.

The wedding

My mum and sister Louise had already agreed to make my dress. I tried on Stephanie Allin and Stephanie James designs in Bojangles Brides in Romsey – loved them, they were definitely very me, and I preferred a shorter dress which I knew I’d be able to dance the night away in, I did try a full length dress which made me feel like a princess, but decided it just wasn’t me. The dress I liked cost £2,400 which was definitely outside the budget. I bought the material for £250 from Shepherds Bush shops, a beautiful vintage cream coloured satin for the base dress and a cream heavy brocade lace to layer over the top.

My mum found a number of 1950 patterns to base the dress on and made the dress. She got very stressed attaching the lace layer and made so many adjustments to the dress. She also sewed tiny pearl beads all over the body and made me a bolero jacket to go with the dress. We bought the material in February/March and the finishing touches were still being sewn on the day before the wedding. Although I think my mum wouldn’t have stopped adding to it until the wedding day, however long she had.

My sister, who is very much into her vintage world, bought me my vintage hand bag from Goodwood Revival and lent me my hair clip as well as doing my hair and makeup for the day. She also fashioned my birdcage veil on the day. My two pairs of shoes were from Beyond Skin, both were a lovely vintage cream colour, a high pair for walking down the aisle and a lower strapped pair that I could jive in, later that evening.

Graham is a rower so unfortunately suits off the peg just don’t fit him as his shoulders are too big for his waist! We happened to go into a Old Hat Vintage Tailor’s in London in May, where he tried on a beautiful tweed suit, from which tweed was decided to be the material. We used a Portsmouth tailor, a light-weight tweed as it was not a winter wedding. It cost £700 for a 3 piece suit. Very reasonable for a bespoke suit.

My dad has been building a 1956 MGA from scratch for the last 6 or so years, it wasn’t roadworthy when he was asked if we could use it for the wedding, he was given about 10 months notice to get it ready and it had its first road drive about a month before the wedding. It got me to the Spinnaker no problem.

Flowers were done by a florist friend. We decided on using china teacups for the tables with floral displays inside them.

My sisters kindly agreed to also make the cake. My eldest sister, Jasmine, made the actual cakes and, marzipan and white iced the cakes. And my other sister Karen Bell of Holland Bell Design piped the beautiful baroque designs onto the cake. My florist sorted out a teacup of flowers to adorn the top and it was done. The cake stands for the sweet and cheese cakes were purchased from eBay.

We also had a cheese wedding cake from Lyburn Cheese Farm, so as wedding favours we had a friend make cheese boards which were branded with our initials and year, labelled ‘a cheesy gift from us to you’.

Such a beautiful wedding and I absolutely love Yvonne’s dress!

Planning a wedding can such be a stressful time. Ultimately it’s all worth it when your dream day comes together but it would be rather nice if the time leading up to your big day went as smoothly as possible. In Yvonne & Graham’s case wonderful family members and friends rallied round to help out making this wedding a true collaborative occasion. So I say don’t be scared to ask your friends and family for help in planning your wedding! I imagine most would love to be involved in such a special event and it would certainly ease some of the planning headaches most brides and grooms encounter!

Debs

Photographer Details:
Paul Thurlow website
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