My wedding....

In 2005 I graduated from Missdom to Mrsdom. And this is just a snippet of how we did it. Well. I promised didnt I? I chose to show you mostly polaroids. Just because they're cooler.


We were young, ridiculously, maybe even naively in love, with no money. It was low key, handmade and included feathers, sandals and a barbecue. It was specially special because of our friends and family who pitched in for every SINGLE part of the day. Literally every part. We simply couldn't have done it without them.

The invites... Designed by us, screen printed on to fabric by a friends company, then sewn by me and my mister on to pieces of card. The envelopes were made from the folded pages of recycled bridal magazines.

The church... We gave guests lolly's as they entered the church, to keep them occupied as they waited for me to (finally!) arrive.

Flowers being a little out of our budget, I turned to fabric and literally filled the church with colourful fabric and ribbon. My friends and I ripped thousands of strips from a a lot of different fabrics then tied each piece to long sections. These ribbon garlands wreathed the church entrance, adorned the isles and covered the wedding car too. It was very easy, very cheap and involved no sewing. Three big sanity saving ticks.

My sister with a lolly

The entrance to the church

Ribbon garlands lining the isle

...and lining the gate to the church grounds

We wrote our own vows and the service was officiated by my father in law. 

The dress... The weddings only extravagance. It is a Georgio Armani ready to wear dress from the Spring/summer 2005 collection. Worn with colourful floral jewelry and flat pink sequined sandals.

The flowers.... Clouds of gypsofilia. Tied with lots of colourful ribbon. Arranged by one of my lovely aunties.




The boys corsages... Made by a friend using feathers. (You can just see it poking from the bottom of the polaroid below!) My mister wore a vintage 70's suit which was a bargain from Afflecks Palace in Manchester. His shirt was a pink floral number from Paul and Joe.

The car....We borrowed a friends off road land rover. Covered in yet more fabric!

We stopped half way through our drive home to take some photo's in the Moors. 

The reception venue....My family home, which was such a privilege.  We were incredibly lucky to have good weather. It was grey and a little over cast in the morning but as guests arrived at our home the sunshine forced its way from the clouds and shined brilliantly all day.

Guests in the garden...

Food being taken off the brabeque

(mmmm pimms!)

The food...A Barbecue in old barrels cooked by some family friends . The meat was from a local organic butcher whom we have frequented for years. The grilled meat and vegetables were served with my dads (amazing) home made salads and fresh bread. He was up at 5am on the morning of the wedding chopping vegetables and getting everything together!

 (I look a little frightened here, but that expression is actually excitment!)

Pudding included big jars of our favourite sweets and jewellery stands filled with strawberry's.
It also included cake, lots of cake,  from my favourite local patisserie. We couldn't’ afford one of their tiered wedding cakes but we bought a selection of their ‘celebration cakes’ instead. Just as beautiful. Just as tasty. And a fraction of the cost. yum. Oh and cheese piled up to look like a wedding cake.

The reception decoration...Jam jars jam jars jam jars. Collected by all my loved ones for months leading up to the wedding. They filled the garden with candle light in the evening. Each of the jars had (yep- you guessed it!) fabric strips wrapped around the top of them. Our reception also heavily featured bunting. My bridesmaids and I made what semed like hundreds and hundreds of meters of bunting which covered the gazebo's and wrapped around the circular lawn. My step mum also cultivated roses especially too.

My ribbon wrapped flowers next to our jam jars.

A friend putting the bunting up

The entertainment...A local jazz band who has performed at a few of our family functions welcomed guests to the reception, and our talented friends and family performed for guests throughout the evening a la open mic. This included both of our Dads playing guitar for us and my friends from school forming a band with my friends from London! Quite moving at times, and such brilliant fun too.

My photographer friend captured much of the day, but we also sent a group of friends around the wedding armed with polaroids.  I have to give a big thank you to Ray, my misters sister and head bridesmaid, as she took many of my most favourite wedding polaroids. She has a real knack for brilliant polaroids.  I am thankful she was there (for so many reasons)

The day was amazing. We loved that there was evidence of our friends and family in the very fabric of the wedding; in the table runners, in the car, in the flowers, the venue, the food... It is their presence in the details, as evidence of their of their love for us, that stands out most of all. It is still the part of our wedding I love the most, still the part that brings a lump to my throat years later.

Oh, and I got a pretty decent Husband too. Mmm hmm.


Update:

Thanks to Buhdoop for featuring our wedding.

And thanks to Oncewed too- oh wow! Kinda surreal but really exciting!