OK so don’t hate me…but there’s no Thursday Treats or Post it Notes this week or next week as I’m off galavanting in the US of A. However I hope I can make it up to you with today’s beautiful wedding (and the promise of a MASSIVE bumper edition of Treats and some extra special wedding and business tips on my return!)
Sam & Dave were married in London in July. After a church ceremony the couple and their guests all walked down the road to Wanstead Golf Club. “I wouldn’t say we were that Rock n Roll really. We just did what we wanted and tried not to think about what we ‘should’ be doing and people’s expectations,” the bride explained. “We tried to do it on the cheap and make what we could ourselves. I even just called a cab to take me to the church as I didn’t see the need to waste money on something that was just dropping me up the road!”
“We found it a bit annoying when people in the lead up to the wedding asked what the ‘theme’ was. I hate ‘the theme’. The ‘theme’, we explained to them, was that we were in love and getting married. And that was it. We just wanted to be surrounded by things we loved or thought were funny, whether they went together or not. But I guess if there was a theme it was a bit of an indoor fete feel. There was lots of bunting and fun stuff. Lots of colour (it was a bit like Gay Pride had thrown up all over it) and pretty much everything we’d done ourselves.”
Sam wore a vintage dress from Elizabeth Avey with leopard print, peep-toe Louboutin’s and a flower head garland, “I tend to wear quite flamboyant stuff, so my choice of dress was extremely modest for me – so I knew I wanted a bit of a statement on my head,” Sam continued. “When Rihanna appeared on X Factor last year she wore a big flowery headband and I really wanted something similar. So my Mum and I spent an afternoon together with lots of red wine and we made it from a load of old silk flowers she’s had stuffed at the back of her cupboard for years, which we wired on to a 99p Superdrug hair band! I was a bit unsure of whether to wear it as I was worried it looked a bit ridiculous and perhaps as if I’d just stepped off a carnival float, but I’m glad I did.”
The groom looked dapper in his bespoke green suit and oversized red bow tie, and the bridesmaids wore pink. “I had three main bridesmaids: my god-daughter Amber (14) and my nieces Rebecca (13) and Charis (8). The two elder ones wore shocking pink, 50’s style A-line dresses (I got the pattern from eBay and then my Mum made them) with a bright red sash with a huge bow on the back (bought from H&M.) I bought Charis a different dress – a sparkly red sequined party dress from eBay with a big tulle hooped skirt, which she wore with a pair of sparkly red Dorothy shoes that she chose from Accessorize (like me, she’s like a magpie when it comes to party dresses and sparkly stuff!) I just wanted her to have as much fun as possible and it to be a bit ‘fancy dress’ as opposed to having everyone matching.”
“I also had 5 older sort-of-bridesmaids – or wing-women, if you like (my best friends.) I asked them to buy any dress as long as it was a really bright block colour, and to team it with red shoes. So they looked a bit like a rainbow! Paula (canary yellow), Kate (red), Ash (pink), Nat (bright blue) and Caroline (orange.)”
They wanted to keep their reception casual and fuss-free. They served bangers n mash for the meal and sparkly cupcakes for afters which were a part of the centrepieces on each table. They’d made cake stands out of mismatched crockery bought from charity shops. Like her headband, Sam wanted the flowers to be eclectic and not over-styled either. “The brief I gave to the local florist was that I wanted bright flowers – anything – but for them to be a bit messy and to look as if they’d been grabbed from a Nanna’s garden on the way. I was a bit worried that it might all look really wrong, especially with the cake flowers and the silk flowers on my head, but I loved it. It was just an over-the-top mess of colour. A bit like me.”
“We’d made up red and white striped candy bags with old school pick ‘n’ mix for our favours,” Sam continued, “and attached a personalised vintage-style temporary tattoo to each (either a heart with a dagger or a swallow – but both said ‘Sam and Dave’). Also, everyone got one of those squealing rocket balloons in their sweetie bag, which NEVER fail to make people laugh. There were rocket balloons squealing all over the place which was exactly what we’d anticipated.”
“Dave painted our wedding invites too. We wanted to have a royal crest, as a bit of a joke because of the royal wedding – so we made our own. It’s got the Wanstead herons on (as this is where we live) wearing our bow-ties, the cat at the top is our cat Fidget and he’s holding the Brazilian flag, because this is where we met. Our friend Tim drew the pictures of us to drop in. We wanted something really different and personal, and don’t like to take ourselves too seriously.”
How awesome are these guys?
Thanks so much to Sam & Dave and their photographer Andrew for sharing this wedding with us today.
The Gallery
Photography Credit: Andrew Dunn Photography
Ceremony Venue: St Mary’s Church, Wanstead
Reception Venue: Wanstead Golf Club
Bride’s Dress: Elizabeth Avey
Bride’s Shoes: Louboutin
Bride’s Headpiece: DIY
Groom’s Outfit: Adam Waite
Bridesmaid’s Dresses: DIY
Cake: DIY
Hair & Make Up: Rebecca Turner & Alice Forrester