Hannah and Ben’s wedding was inspired by fairy tales, Halloween and Bram Stokers Dracula! Their day was ethereal dark and romantic, with little touches of macabre beauty. “My veil had tiny gold bats embroidered onto it and there were gold spiders on the flower girls bags,” began Hannah. “Later in the day we went on a vintage tram ride with accordion players followed by a boat ride with a saxophonist. We didn’t tell our guests beforehand so it was a nice surprise for everyone.”
Their ceremony was held at baroque palace in Prague and was their favourite part of the day. “I walked down the aisle to rather dark romantic cellist music and we wrote our own vows which included Ben saying to me ‘I promise as your husband to make every day Halloween’ and I to him ‘I promise to keep your glass full of whiskey and your heart full of joy’. Our priest, Michal, was amazing. He’s a whiskey drinker and loves yoga, a true hippy at heart. And a lot of our guests cried so that made us happy.”
In hindsight, Hannah may have rethought her decision to wear vintage shoes… “My heel fell off my 1930s heels I wore as soon as I walked out of the ceremony venue! I had to hobble around Prague with one heel, until my sister in law kindly gave me a pair of flats. In retrospect I should have definitely taken a spare pair of heels!”
Their biggest expense was Hannah’s dress, which was made for her by Deborah Bayan, but they saved money as Hannah loves being creative so did a lot of DIY projects. “It’s the little things that make a wedding unique and fun and I absolutely love sewing and creating so it was necessary to make lots of goodies! I painted the soles of my shoes, as well as the ones the bridesmaids’ and flowergirls’ wore, with gold glitter paint and I handmade capes for all our female guests and the flower girls. I also created gold cobwebs for table décor, made the flower girl bags with tassels and tiny incy wincy spiders and made my own bag from remnants of silk from my dress and Victorian lace.”
“Our advice for future brides and grooms is make the wedding unique to your taste and personalities”, she concluded. “Don’t worry it will turn out fine, just be kind and patient with one another as it can get a bit taxing when planning things!”
