Laura and Peter’s Pretty Vintage Wedding in Dorset

Huge thanks to lovely Linus Moran Pho­tog­ra­phy for the images. Please scroll down to see rec­om­mended wed­ding sup­pli­ers and read all about today’s pretty vin­tage wed­ding on the blog — I love it and I hope you will too! Claire x

Laura and Peter: a pretty vin­tage wed­ding in Dorset

The bride and groom:

Laura Foot & Peter Hansford

Wed­ding venue:

Pow­er­stock Church nr Brid­port, Dorset. Recep­tion at the couple’s home in the neigh­bour­ing vil­lage, Nettlecombe.

Wed­ding photographer:

Linus Moran of Dorch­ester, Dorset

How would you describe your wed­ding style?

Vin­tage, coun­try, pretty, organ­ised but relaxed.

Invi­ta­tions and recep­tion stationery:

Our day invites were tea tow­els from the wed­ding tea towel com­pany, we wanted some­thing fun that peo­ple could keep. The evening invites, ser­vice books and seat­ing plan etc all matched the tea tow­els theme.

The name places were indi­vid­ual jars of our favorite chut­ney made by local com­pany Bun­nies Love and labelled just for us, we tied printed lug­gage labels which read “Thank you from the new Mr and Mrs Hans­ford” to them.

What did you both wear?

Laura wore an Ellis Bridal gown from Frox Bridal Stu­dio in Taunton, Som­er­set. A dou­ble edged veil from Rain­bow and bright pink shoes from mon­soon to add a splash of color.
Peter and grooms­men wore gray tails and fuch­sia pink cra­vats from Mar­ion Baker of Yeovil, Somerset.

A lit­tle about the wed­ding ceremony:

The cer­e­mony was con­ducted by the mother of one of the ush­ers. She also had the plea­sure of the men stay­ing at her house the night before and cook­ing a hearty break­fast for them before the cer­e­mony. Pete was accom­pa­nied by both his broth­ers as best men and the bride had 4 brides­maids plus the couple’s 4 year old daugh­ter as a flower girl. The men walked to the church while the girls arrived by a Vin­tage Rolls Royce Sedanca Deville.

Which read­ings did you choose?

Pete’s uncle Dave read a verse from Corinthi­ans chap­ter 13. Pete’s 11 year old niece read a poem, “what is a wed­ding” tai­lored to the wed­ding which brought laugh­ter to many and tears to a few.

Tell us a lit­tle about your wed­ding venue styling and details:

We had a clearspan mar­quee from Oak­leaf Mar­quees, Dorset. They pro­vided every­thing we needed from the Moroc­can seat­ing area to lux­ury toi­lets. The mar­quee was dec­o­rated with 80 metres of home­made bunting in all shades of pink.

Flow­ers were from Rus­tic Rose of Stur­min­ster New­ton, Dorset. Ceramic cream jugs held peonies, ger­beras, roses and ger­minis in var­i­ous pinks with euca­lyp­tus. I painted wooden num­bers with pink Cupri­nol as table num­bers. We put lit­tle after din­ner cards on the table to get peo­ple talk­ing. We hired an old wooden mar­ket card and filled it with pick n mix.

Guests were asked to put their fin­ger print on the fin­ger­print tree as well as write in the com­ments book. We had a white wooden bar that sold far to much Jäger­meis­ter and a white dance floor.

Canapés of scal­lops, belly pork and goats cheese were fol­lowed by a chicken and but­ter­nut squash risotto, home­made hon­ey­comb ice cream and berries.

Wed­ding music and entertainment:

A string quar­tet played as guests arrived at the cer­e­mony and then played back at the recep­tion dur­ing the drinks and canapés. Our first dance was a sur­prise med­ley which involved our brides­maids and grooms­men in a staged dance off. The fan­tas­tic disco played until 2am and the floor wasn’t empty from the minute we revealed the dance floor at 9pm.

Mem­o­rable wed­ding day moments:

• Hear­ing the bells ring­ing whilst wait­ing for the car to take me to the church
• Our niece’s fan­tas­tic poem at the ceremony
• The best man’s speech, cheeky but funny
• The game of foot­ball that took place out­side the mar­quee as the evening guests arrived and the reac­tion to our first dance. It really kicked off the night ahead!

Wed­ding day advice:

Hav­ing the week before hand off work to make those fin­ish­ing touches at your leisure. Enjoy it! I spent a long time wor­ry­ing about every­one else hav­ing fun, but it’s your day! Leave a good bud­get for the evening music, a bad DJ/band will ruin the whole atmosphere.

Rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers:

• Cater­ers, Rebecca Green, Cerne Abbas, Dorset www.Rebeccagreencatering.co.uk
• Pho­tog­ra­pher, Linus Moran, Wey­mouth, Dorset www.Linusmoranphotography.co.uk
• Mar­quee & Bar, Oak­leaf, Hen­stridge, Som­er­set www.oakleafmarquees.co.uk
• Florist Rus­tic Rose, Stur­min­ster New­ton, Dorset www.rusticrose.co.uk
• Sta­tionery Wed­ding Tea Tow­els www.Weddingteatowels.co.uk
• Disco Street­beat Disco, Exeter www.streetbeatdisco.co.uk