Creative Wedding Ideas Collaboration — and Not a Union Jack in Sight!

Dav­en­port House wed­ding inspi­ra­tion shoot

On Eng­lish Wed­ding blog — shared by Big Lit­tle Things with pho­tog­ra­phy by Meg Hawkins. All sup­plier infor­ma­tion is towards the end of the page

Big Lit­tle Things needed no encour­age­ment to style a shoot to pay trib­ute to the Queen and the Jubilee. It is poten­tially the last time in our life time we’ll cel­e­brate a Jubilee of a reign­ing Queen – how excit­ing is that?

Our inspi­ra­tion for the shoot was British her­itage and the coro­na­tion of Queen Eliz­a­beth II. We researched pho­tog­ra­phy of the coro­na­tion to iden­tify a dress for the shoot that reflected sim­i­lar ele­gance and was equally regal. We selected a Lyn Ash­worth dress called Mitzi kindly sup­plied by My Lit­tle Wed­ding Shop, an inde­pen­dent bou­tique spe­cial­is­ing in the best of British design and man­u­fac­ture. The dress seemed idyl­lic and echoed the dress cre­ated by Nor­man Hart­nell because of the flo­ral bead embroi­dery. Queen Eliz­a­beth had specif­i­cally requested flo­ral emblems of Com­mon­wealth coun­tries on her own dress such as Eng­lish Tudor roses. We hand-crafted a vin­tage crown style tiara and match­ing drop ear­rings both made from fresh­wa­ter pearl nuggets to com­pli­ment the grandeur of the dress.

We col­lab­o­rated with wed­ding and por­trait pho­tog­ra­pher, Meg Hawkins who is renowned for her best use of nat­ural light to cap­ture the per­fect ambi­ence within the images. Along with Meg, Liz Bell MUA brought our roy­alty to life in the shape of our fan­tas­tic model, Jes­sica Biddle.

The back­drop for the shoot is the mag­nif­i­cent coun­try man­sion and pre­mier Shrop­shire wed­ding venue, Dav­en­port House. Built in the 17th Cen­tury it has a won­der­ful ele­gance that was more than in-keeping with the her­itage theme of the day. We styled the venue with vin­tage crock­ery sup­plied by the won­der­ful Claire at The Vin­tage Occa­sion. We are dev­ils for detail and the gen­uine 1953 coro­na­tion mug leads our color palette and over­all design. From the cream peonies and pas­sion flow­ers in the posy to the brush-work and flo­ral pip­ing design on the cake — each aspect reflected ele­ments of the mug! The monar­chy sym­bol­ism con­tin­ues on the cake with the gold fleur-de-lis asso­ci­ated with French Roy­alty, not for­get­ting our hand­made coro­na­tion crown cake topper.

Wed­ding sup­plier credits:

Venue styling, floristry, cake, acces­sories & fin­ish­ing touches: Big Lit­tle Things

Web­site: www.biglittlethings.co.uk
email: hello@biglittlethings.co.uk
Phone: 07769748950

Big Lit­tle Things are the one stop wed­ding shop who take care of the lit­tle details that are a big deal. They offer a bespoke ser­vice includ­ing cakes for all occa­sions, fresh and faux wed­ding floristry, bridal acces­sories and fin­ish­ing touches for any event. All of their cre­ations are as unique as you are.

Wed­ding venue: Dav­en­port House

Web­site: www.davenporthouse.co.uk
E-mail: enquiries@davenporthouse.co.uk
Phone: 01746 716221

Dav­en­port House is a mag­nif­i­cent coun­try res­i­dence which has become one of Shropshire’s pre­mier venues for wed­dings and cor­po­rate events. The attrac­tions are the build­ing itself, in a secluded set­ting near the Shrop­shire vil­lage of Wor­field, and the high-class cui­sine — pro­duced in-house by Cordon-Bleu trained chef Jane Mur­phy whose hus­band Roger is the proprietor.

Pho­tog­ra­pher: Meg Hawkins Photography

Web­site: www.meghawkins.co.uk
E-mail: me@meghawkins.co.uk
Phone: 07811 672 460

At Meg’s stu­dio in Bur­warton, Shrop­shire, she offers a range of styles per­fectly arranged around your big day start­ing the lux­ury of boudoir. Then fun engage­ment shoots. Your Wed­ding day is approached with a mod­ern, styl­ish and con­tem­po­rary twist she cap­tures your whole day cre­at­ing a story for you never to forget .

Vin­tage crock­ery hire: The Vin­tage Occasion

Web­site: www.thevintageoccasion.co.uk
E-mail: claire@thevintageoccasion.co.uk
Phone: 07970 072293

The Vin­tage Occa­sion hires beau­ti­ful vin­tage china and crock­ery to help you cel­e­brate your occa­sion with style. A small team who has fallen in love with china from a bygone age, we offer a pro­fes­sional, ded­i­cated ser­vice tai­lored to individual’s needs. Vin­tage props and a styling ser­vice are also available.

Make-up & hair: Liz Bell MUA

Web­site: www.lizbell.co.uk
Phone: 07971463795

Liz Bell is a free­lance bridal make-up artist with over 20 years expe­ri­ence offer­ing a range of beauty ther­apy, lash exten­sions and hair styling for wed­dings, photo shoots and spe­cial occa­sions. Liz is able to travel through­out Shrop­shire to offer her ser­vice in the com­fort of your own home or cho­sen venue.

Wed­ding gown: My Lit­tle Wed­ding Shop
Web­site: www.mylittleweddingshop.co.uk
E-mail: jenny@mylittleweddingshop.co.uk
Phone: 01746 768968

My lit­tle Wed­ding Shop is an inde­pen­dent bridal bou­tique spe­cial­is­ing in the best of British design and man­u­fac­ture. The bou­tique has exclu­siv­ity across the West Mid­lands for Lyn Ash­worth, Har­riet Wilde and Rosie Wil­lett. In addi­tion we offer bespoke bridal and groom­swear, wed­ding plan­ning, excel­lent, per­sonal ser­vice and much more!