I love that after two and half years of blogging, 6 years in this industry…a wedding can still make me giddy. Today’s featured affair that the forever talented team at Erin Heart’s Court sent us is so swoon-able, it’s almost hard to believe that it’s real. The details are ridiculous, the bride and groom so lovely, the story behind the affair straight out of a novel. And lucky for us, we don’t just get to devour the details, we get to hear about the inspiration from the bride herself…making it all the sweeter!
From the bride…
I’ve got a couple of vintage globes that I picked up at flea markets, and our whole inspiration really came from that — I love that turquoisey bluey-green you see in globes, so we made that our central color. Additionally, along with the travel stuff, we wanted it to feel like an English garden party but with a sunny California twist — we had 55 guests total, nice and intimate, and about half of them came all the way from England. The rest were Americans, so it was a really interesting mix, and we tried to incorporate traditions from both countries — all the English guests wore hats, of course, and the Americans got really into that too. (When I arrived at the church ready to walk up the aisle, the co-ordinator pulled me aside and said “these are the most stylish wedding guests I’ve ever seen! All the hats and feathers!”)
We did a LOT of this ourselves, probably 80%! I made my own bouquet (after two rather nerve-wracking practice runs!), as well as the boutonnieres (which were just lisianthus, a guinea feather, and some rosemary from my parents’ garden) On my bouquet, I tied a little picture that had always hung on my paternal grandmother’s wall — she was a huge part of my life growing up, but lives in England and was too sick to make it the wedding, so it was really, really special of me to have something of hers to hold on to during the ceremony.
As he walked me down the aisle, my dad carried in his pocket a miniature Book of Common Prayer that had belonged to my great grandmother — in it is her signature (with the date 1888!) and the signature of my grandfather, my dad’s dad, so that was special too. I wore turquoise earrings and turquoise shoes (I had two pairs, actually — couldn’t decide between them so wore them both at different stages!) and a long floor-length mantilla with my dress, which was all lacy and kind of vintage-looking.
In keeping with English tradition, the groomsmen (plus Sean, my brothers, and both of our dads) wore morning suits for the wedding — this is what English men wear at weddings, and they all got a kick out of it! As a surprise, I even bought Sean a vintage top hat on ebay — the box it was sent to me still had the original mailing label for the guy it was sent to in London in the 1930s! My bridesmaids wore pale gold champagne dresses, as well as turquoise necklaces I’d ordered them, and a white gardenia in their hair (to match the white gardenia in mine.)