Europe Weddings

There is just something about a traditional, ballroom wedding that is so timelessly beautiful. And yet, they are rarely shown off on the blogs these days. Well, I thought that it was about time we featured a ball room wedding that was ALL style, ALL gorgeousness. Photographed by London based photographer, Polly Alexandre, this wedding is pure luxury. Oh and the bride behind the affair just might be the most drop dead gorgeous bride I’ve ever seen.

The wedding was held at Hylands Hall in Essex, UK. The ridiculously lovely bride wore a Stuart Parvin gown (The Way We Were) and shoes by Emmy, along with a necklace by Stephanie Browne that just might be the most amazing accessory EVER. The bridesmaids wore bespokie gowns by Naomi Neoh. It’s funny…even though the style behind this wedding is utterly luxurious and traditional, there are little touches of personality, of real style…sprinkled throughout the entire affair. LOVE that.

A little bit of background from the fabulous photographer, Polly…

Liz is an interior designer and drew together her contacts and skills to create a stunning, glamorous wedding with a timeless elegance. This wedding has quite a vintage feel – a kind of 40’s or 50’s glamour to it. Check out the gorgeous individual favours of vintage brooches for each female guest, whilst Jim, the Groom’s reflected his musical background in the mini The Who badges as favours for the men. The ushers were all presented with vintage The Who signed LP’s as a gift from the Groom and he later got up and joined in with the band.

Thank you so very much to Polly Alexandre for sending this beautiful affair our way. Make sure to check out Polly’s blog for even more eye candy. Oh and a huge thank you to the lovely bride and groom for giving us a little window of inspiration into your day. We are obviously in love.

I have the prettiest little wedding for you this morning. I guess that it’s not so much a wedding, as the couple eloped in London prior to the party, but rather a celebration of marriage with their nearest and dearest. And although it’s an outdoor affair, nearly all of the ideas and inspirations could easily be translated into an indoor reception…from the fabulous Spring color palette, to the Martha inspired dessert bar and the absolutely adorable details. Photographed by Dia Rao Photography, this is one of the sweetest weddings I’ve ever seen!

From Dia…

The couple, Bree and Nick, eloped in London’s Covenant Garden a little while back. But both missed the idea of celebrating their new marriage with their family and friends. Regretting not having a celebration, they decided to throw a wedding party for all to attend. The Groom’s parents and close relatives came from Europe to attend a ceremony and reception that they planned at unique historical villa near their home. Most of the details were completed by the couple’s family, including the adorable Cookie Bar with homemade family favorites. As well as the handmade Limoncello favors and Love Matches.

The florist behind the absolutely perfect centerpieces and detailing was Anne Mendenhall. Her work is this perfect combination of fresh from the garden and yet tailored at the same time. I love the use of lemons throughout, such a fun and yet inexpensive way to bring a bit of whimsy to the day. Super, super cute.

Actually everything about this wedding was darling. The cookie bar, filled with family recipes and treats that the bride has always enjoyed, the limoncello favors, the lemons as seating cards, the perfect flowers, the glowing bride…everything is completely gorgeous! Oh and the color palette of pinks, yellows and greens…PERFECTION.

Thank you so very much to Dia Rao for sending us today’s affair. Dia was a guest at the Lisa Vorce planned affair that we all fell in love with a while back and has been smitten with SMP ever since. We feel the same way about her.

More coming up!

A HUGE thank you to Marianne Taylor for sending me today’s featured wedding. It’s official, you are one of my new favorite photographers. If you guys haven’t already pored over Marianne’s site, it’s a must! Here are a few more photos from the simple, but stunning reception…

Simple, but sophisticated centerpieces set on classic white linens in an undeniably beautiful space…it really doesn’t get much better than that. Simple, simple elegance. It’s probably my favorite style of wedding.

A few more bits of eye candy from today’s beautiful British affair that the FABULOUS Marianne Taylor photographed (doesn’t it just kill you that even the guests are chic!)…

I mean, seriously! How gorgeous is this. A pretty little garden party with some serious edge. I love when guests can add another dimension to an already stunning party. They can truly bring a wedding to life!

More from the reception on the way!

There is something so dreamy about this wedding. The venue itself is a little piece of heaven, but then you add in a chic style, a gorgeous bridal party and details that make you swoon. It’s the recipe for total perfection.

From Marianne Taylor, the amazing photographer behind the affair…The ceremony of Claire & Hywel’s wedding took place in St Andrew’s Church in Chelsea, London. It was conducted both in English and in Hywel’s native Welsh, and really was one of the most touching ceremonies I’ve had the pleasure to attend. After the ceremony the bride and groom, followed by all the guests, piled into two old Routemaster buses, that drove everyone to the reception at The Garden Museum. I adored this unusual venue, with pretty flowers and colours everywhere!

We have so many more gorgeous pictures on the way, just stay tuned!

I got this absolutely darling wedding in my inbox this morning and it just made me smile. The photographer, Marianne Taylor, managed to capture the sweet, sophisticated British wedding to perfection…

Here are some words from Marianne…the couple, Claire & Hywel, were the sweetest people I’ve ever worked with, and everything about their wedding day was full love and pretty things.

So much more to come! It just gets prettier and prettier!

Question 3: I’m getting married in a small church in central London at the end of April (Charles Dickens’ parents were married there!), and we’re having the reception on a boat on the Thames. My dress is ivory with a black sash, and as the upholstery on the boat is a dark pewter gray I thought a good colour scheme would be black/white/gray with accents of warm yellow and lots of sparkle. The problem is that my other half doesn’t like it! He thinks that Spring is a great time for colour – for greens, pinks and a riot of flowers… What would you suggest?? Is there another way to use gray and black that’s less funereal (his words!)?

I have a feeling I know what some of your answers are going to be, but I know that this bride would love all of the input that she can get! What do you think? Yellow as an accent color or should they go another direction?

OH, and if you’ve sent me a question in the last few months that you really want to see up here today, shoot me a reminder email and I’ll do my best to get it up!

Answer 3: I think that so many of you are right…it totally depends on the mood you are going for. In my opinion, black/gray/white combination can be utterly chic and gorgeous. Adding sparkle would be the icing on the already lovely cake. But, it’s true…if you are going to go for understated, muted colors, you have to do it right. Common Spring colors like pinks, peaches, greens are a little bit easier to pull off.

Okay, with that said, I was playing around on the GORGEOUS new Bastian + Skoog site today when I stumbled upon this image:

I thought that it just might be the perfect inspiration for this particular question…a very French, girly approach to a muted color palette. So from this image, I came up with this…

dress by Vera Wang on Brides.com, flowers by Bastian + Skoog, Bridesmaid dress by JCrew, Rosemary image by Artfool

Keeping the palette muted and bringing in feminine, wispy flowers, herbs and such would be a nice way to embrace the natural surroundings while still seeming to be light and Springy. I loooooooove the idea of adding a bold stripe into the mix, to really make things pop, either in yellow or slate. Perhaps in the napkins or favor packaging?

Bottom line…if you decide to go with the muted palette, keep things simple and clean. Then, add one big pop of pattern to liven up the look. It could be spectacular if done right. If you decide to embrace a more Spring-like palette, the world is your oyster!

I have so many more pictures from today’s featured wedding, shot by Mark Wallis, to share with you…

The Double-Decker, the fresh from the garden style flowers, the pretty pink bridesmaids…oh my. You’ll see throughout the day just how sweet this wedding was, filled with intimate little details, feminine charm and a sense of family that you just can’t deny.

From the gorgeous bride, Fiona…

I got married in Yorkshire on 13th September. I had always wanted to have my wedding reception at home so Tom and I got married in our local church, just up the hill from my parents house and then everyone was brought back down to the house in a vintage bus for a drinks reception on my parents lawn followed by the reception in a marquee we had put up in the farmers field behind our house!!

It had been the most awful summer here and had rained constantly. The marquee even had to go down a week early to try and dry out the field as it was so water logged. I was convinced that our wedding was going to be a very wet day and had even bought stacks of pink golf umbrellas because I was certain we would have rain along with pink wellington boots for me and the bridesmaids incase we had to walk through puddles, but amazingly the sun came out and we had a dry day!

More to come!!

Our next entry was inspired by the photo in the top left corner, a room at the Blakes Hotel in London, designed by Annouska Hempel…

Top left, original picture, Blakes Hotel, London; Flowers, Rebecca Thuss; Invitation, Inkylivie (Etsy seller); Gown, Karen Jarmarkier

Our next reader, Cara, approached her inspiration board really creatively…she broke it down into three distinct boards. The first one captures her overall style and vision, the second is the indoor portion of her venue and the third is the outside portion. In doing this, she keeps her style ideascohesive and streamlined.

Cara and her fiance are getting married in August and they are having a sweet, summer wedding in a
Scottish country garden. Here is her style board…

Her indoor reception venue space…

And finally, the stunning outdoor scenery at Cara’s reception venue…

Here are some details from Cara…

We tried so hard to find somewhere outdoors where we could have a relaxed ceremony and meal and eventually we found what we were looking for in Fingask Castle – a small 13th century castle set in 300 acres of gardens and woodlands, with Alice in Wonderland topiary and hidden secret gardens where the plants grow wild and the oak trees are hundreds of years old.

The castle is a family home and small children and friendly dogs have the run of the house and the gardens. The ceremony will be held on the lawns, overlooking the Scottish countryside and will be followed with drinks and strawberries among the topiary.

We will eat in the castle courtyard (second row on the left) where we will lay three banqueting tables for our 50 guests and a third will be laden with food made by our families. The groom’s father will man a barbeque of local fish and vegetables and we will serve wine made a mile from the castle with Scottish fruits and leaves and beer from a local brewery. We are trying to stay as eco-friendly as possible by using local produce and recycled paper for all of our (diy) stationery.

We’re on a fairly small budget (about £3500) but I hope it will look handmade, rather than homemade! The venue is so beautiful that I hope it won’t need too much decorating. We’re focusing on small details rather than big arrangements – enamel jugs and jams jars of wild looking flowers, beautiful cupcakes on vintage glass cake stands, handmade soy candles in recycled glass jars.

The interior of the castle is quirky and beautiful and we will be using the drawing room and library as the evening draws in. We won’t be decorating the inside beyond a few jugs of flowers as we love the character that it has all by itself.

The images in our inspiration board are as follows –

1. Pink shoes (by Carvela), blue jug from The Knot, outdoor ceremony from Snippet and Ink, programs from Snippet and Ink.
2. Our venue, images from Sadie Olive, glass cake stands from ebay, ikea and Laura Ashley
3. Our save the date cards, image from The Knot, image by Jose Villa
4. Table from The knot, silk ribbons for our place settings, homemade soya candles, our venue
5. All of the images of our venue are by Lillian and Leonard Wedding Photography (a business my fiancé and I are trying to get going at the same time as planning the wedding, eek!)