Mixing the best of vintage elegance with more modern elements, Clare describes their wedding style as being “all about lace, soft pink colourings, roses, hearts and crystals. Everything encaptured one or more of these details.”
The images are by wedding photographer Kerry Diamond, who got a glowing review from the bride and groom! I hope you enjoy today’s wedding blog. Congratulations to Clare and Phil, and huge thanks for sharing and sending me such a fantastic wedding report. You two are gorgeous and utterly amazing! And thank you too Kerry for the submission. Everyone — enjoy! Claire xx
UK Wedding venue: Hintlesham Hall, Ipswich
Wedding photographer: Kerry Diamond
Kerry Diamond was just fantastic. A very reassuring and becalming lady who helped me enormously with with my nerves – her experience and reassurance was invaluable. Her presence throughout the wedding was extremely discrete, unobtrusive and courteous but able to provide direction with professionalism, coupled with a keen sense of humor that was totally in-step with the occasion. She captured the day beautifully with a style of her own – we cannot recommend Kerry highly enough. A true highlight of the day.
A little about the wedding ceremony:
The Salon Room at Hintlesham Hall provided the perfect setting for a civil ceremony in keeping with our theme. The ceremony vow choices were a mixture of traditional on my side and more modern on Phil’s.
We had a harpist playing music as the guests arrived, which added to a relaxed feeling among family and friends and provided the romance as the Bride walks in to which I asked Xenia to play the traditional wedding march. For the signing of the register she played modern pieces including on my request as a huge fan ‘I should be so lucky’ by Kylie to which the girls also loved and spoke to me after about!! For the walk out again we had the traditional wedding march as Man and Wife.
Which readings did you choose?
- On your Wedding Day read by Kirstie McDonald aged 9
- We’re so lucky to have found each other, Nancy Brillant; read by the Bride’s brother
- A Marriage, Mark Twain; read by the Groom’s brother
Tell us a little about your wedding venue styling and details:
The magnificent 16th Century Country House that is Hintlesham Hall provided the idyllic and lavish ceremony room in keeping with the vintage theme.
The candelabras for each wedding breakfast table added the candlelit feel of older times, which just seemed so romantic. The draping crystals from each arm gave a modern twist to this feature and the small floral designs were matching to bridal bouquet of amnesia roses.
Instead of name place cards I personally made each guest a wine charm using alphabet beads spelling their name and added a soft pink bead either side with a droplet swarovski crystal in the shape of a heart and soft pink in color as the centre feature.
I also made mosaic coasters as the wedding favour alongside the charm. Again these featured soft pink tiles, pink grout and a heart tile as the centre feature.
Invitations and reception stationery:
The Save the Date card was in fact a fridge magnet to remind the guests each day! The groom was dressed in a top hat with tails and the bride wearing a vintage style dress.
The wedding invitations were an entwined heart design and a diagonal wallet style, which contained three cards; an invitation, a guest information card and a postcard style reply card which came with an outer wallet for all three cards to slot into. I added adhesive crystals gems to each heart of the invitation to consider the finer details. Both these items were designed and purchased online at www.specialdayinvitations.co.uk.
The menu cards and table planning were made by Hintlesham Hall. I requested an order of the day on the left hand side of the menu cards to guide the guests as to evening entertainment, which included a ‘Fill-Me-In’ Poster to The Secrets of a Happy Marriage from www.notonthehighstreet.co.uk and a DIY Photo Booth and Guest Book.
Again I added adhesive crystals gems to the table numbers to consider the finer details of the theme.
Wedding music and entertainment:
The harpist added to the flow of the day just perfectly and was happy to play a beautiful mixture of modern pop, rock and classical pieces that pleased all guests. She had never been asked to play Kylie before and also learnt ‘La La La’ — the girls loved this one too!
The evening entertainment was provided by Ginge Simon Disco to which he loved Phil’s impression of George Michael singing and dancing to ‘As’ – it was our second dance and got everyone on the dance floor to join in!!
What did you wear?
Clare wore a La Sposa Wedding Dress – Luna
Tiara by Richard Designs
Shoes by Dubet by Debenhams
Underwear by Autograph Marks and Spencer
My garter was hand-made bobbin lace created by a family friend
My something blue were small hair pins given to me as a gift from my Mum
I wanted my bouquet to appear like a collection of flowers picked that morning loosely tied together with lace.
Phil chose his outfit from Moss Hire; Carisbrooke – a blue morning coat worn with matching stripe trousers, a soft pink waistcoat, cravet and matching handkerchief. The reason why our wedding color scheme incorporated pink was because that’s Phil’s favorite colour! He wore black patent shoes and a top hat.
Memorable wedding day moments:
- The exchanging of your vows – we both managed to forget our own names, not sure why but it added humor.
- The confetti throwing moment was great as you get to feel the emotions of your guests minutes after becoming man and wife.
- The speeches as they are always full of emotions and you could feel the reciprocated love from your guests.
- The cutting of our beautiful cake, which was made by our family friend Lindsay Sadler (an amateur cake maker who creates to professional standards and hopes to turn this passion into a business) which represents your first act together as man and wife.
- The wedding was personalised even more so by being photographed with our much loved cavapoo puppy Alfie. After the ceremony for our lifetime memories when walking through the grounds, Kerry demonstrated her skills by capturing our little family in an unforced setting.
Wedding day advice:
Make sure you a have the week off work before the wedding, it can get stressful and things take longer than you think – even beauty appointments, as everyone is interested and have many questions! These also come from family and friends too and you have things to do!!
The whole day really does fly by so quickly, you need to both stop and take it in together! I never really believed that advice but when it’s your wedding day it does!! I also allowed 4 hours to get ready alongside my Mum, my bridesmaid and flower girl – again this time just flew by so quickly and I wasn’t really doing anything for myself – that just shows the speed of the day ahead!!
Provide your guests with confetti to get the important confetti shot – that’s a must as the photographs really capture your emotions straight after the Ceremony.
I would also strongly recommend a photographer for the full day, as you really want to see the whole day again!! This was one of our mistakes.
Ask a family member to video the day if your budget doesn’t stretch or if you want to keep your day relaxed with familiar faces around you.
Cut costs on areas that aren’t so important to you to allow your budget to stretch further and always have a wedding planner with a scrapbook section with cuttings of pictures as this allows you to describe the look you are after to the suppliers and achieve what you really want.
The wedding planner of your venue of choice should be as passionate about making your day as memorable and personalised as you do yourself. Passion is infectious and generates ideas and a good wedding planner can turn a wedding concept into an unforgettable experience for you both and all your guests. Consider advice given as it is a consultative process by both parties to ensure you both enjoy the ultimate day possible for you!
Recommended wedding suppliers:
Hintlesham Hall, Ipswich www.hintleshamhall.com
Kerry Diamond photographer www.kerrydiamondphotography.com and see more of Clare and Phil’s wedding on Kerry’s blog post at http://www.kerrydiamondphotography.net/2013/03/26/clare-phils-wedding-22nd-feb-2013/
Callas Floral Designs, Ipswich www.callasfloraldesigns.co.uk
The Suffolk Bridal Company, Ipswich
Alexander Sewing Rooms Specialist Alterations to Bridal wear, Ipswich
Elegant Brides Bridal Hair, www.bridalandvintagehair.com, Colchester
Ann Dickson, www.anndicksonbeauty.co.uk, Ipswich
Xenia Horne, UK Harpists, www.ukharpists.com
Ginge Simon’s Disco,
www.specialdayinvitations.co.uk
