MR & MRS : getting dressed
As you might imagine from the title, this post is about outfits; ‘The Dress’, the suit, the accessories, as well as who we asked to be in our bridal/groom parties and what they wore.
Now, I’m sure most people could write a really juicy blog post about finding the perfect dress for their wedding but I’ll be honest with you… there isn’t much juice to what I’m about to tell (sorry!) I do have a lot to say about the rest of my outfit and the AMAZING creatives and independents I worked with though so feel free to skip down to that part!
THE DRESS
Looking right at home (ha!) in the gorgeous and rather fancy Tailor's Cat dressing rooms!
After trawling Pinterest and having my mind boggled with how many different styles there were, I decided to randomly ask my sister if she fancied coming to look at dresses with me in a local dress shop. I’ll level with you here, I had no intention of finding a dress back then, I just wanted to hang out with my Squidge and had just picked a local shop based on its name - The Tailors Cat.
No, YOU pick your dress shop based on the name...
We went along for our appointment and Jen enjoyed running off to find the most ridiculously large, princess dress for me to try on while I tried to figure out what styles might suit me. In my mind, I had imagined that a casual-style tea dress, something short (preferably with pockets!) would be my ideal dress. Simple, comfortable and practical for running about in a field. However as soon as I tried this style of wedding dress on I quickly realised it wasn’t meant to be - one sure fire what to feel sh*t about yourself is to unfortunately pick out a dress that really doesn’t flatter your shape!
I also tried on a few others that were simple in style and shape but SO UNFLATTERING, I was starting to feel like this might be the start of a painful few months staring at myself in mirrors, close to tears thinking I should probably just turn up in dungarees! On a whim I had grabbed a two piece that was lurking on a rail downstairs in the corner of the shop, I remember Jen saying “why would you try that on?” but something about the long skirt and cute top gave me a flicker of excitement which NONE of the other dresses had done.
Picked it up on a whim, turned out to be perfect, despite what my awkward face is saying here!
Long story, short, turns out that random two piece was THE ONE! It was the last ‘dress’ I tried on that day and as soon as I put it on I felt different. The lovely shop assistant, Tamara, said my body language instantly changed and I looked relaxed and more comfortable. After that it took one more appointment with my Mum (and some tears) to seal the deal and after a final fitting a few weeks before the wedding, I picked it up and cycled home with it in my basket, ready for the Big Day.
I know I shouldn't have, but I cycled home with my wedding dress in my basket and a HUGE grin on my face!
On the day I felt like me, even though I was wearing the kind of dress I’d never have dreamed I’d be in. I didn’t put myself on any kind of crazy diet (although my chins in some of the wedding snaps and the fact I broke the fastening on my skirt whilst eating at the wedding, suggest that maybe I should have had slightly fewer burgers before the big day!) BUT I had picked a dress I made sure I could eat, drink and by merry in - I even ran across the changing room to make sure. Even though I popped out of my skirt half way through the day it stayed put (thank goodness!) while I frolicked throughout the rest of the day!
I am very grateful to the lovely staff at The Tailor’s Cat and even more so to my parents for buying the perfect dress for me. I think it’s safe to say the groom approved on the day too!
Had to make sure we could still bust some moves in our wedding get-ups!
THE GROOM
Speaking of the Groom, I was in LOVE with what Will decided to wear and although he wasn’t sure about a bowtie at first, the LV Handmade beaut I surprised him with at Christmas (you know, just in case he changed his mind!) sealed the deal and brought the rest of his outfit together really nicely. With a Ted Baker waistcoat and trousers and a bright white shirt, I think he looked very handsome!
THE SHOES
Initially I had planned to wear trainers (yellow converse or something similar) and had hoped Will would like that idea too but as I mentioned in the first post, The Beard is a lot more traditional than me and said he'd prefer to wear proper shoes. We were totally happy to go off and find out own shoes and accessories and if we mis-matched on the day it didn’t matter at all but when Will mentioned the idea of wearing YELLOW BROGUES, well not only did I fall in love with him a little bit more I couldn’t resist joining in on the hunt some.
After convincing myself I’d only be comfortable in trainers I was starting to wonder about a pair of brogues or oxfords for myself and when I stumbled across Julia Bo on Etsy I got VERY excited! In the end The Beard ordered the most amazing mustard brogues from Undandy, who offer beautiful custom made shoes and I ordered the cutest oxfords, custom made in yellow, from Julia Bo, which I then added hot pink laces too. Both businesses were a dream to order from, offering fab customer service and guidance if we needed it and OH MY GOODNESS! The quality, comfort and just amazing yellowness of both pairs of shoes were just perfect.
"Get ya boobs out, Jo!"
As you can see in the photo above, I’m not a 'shoes without socks' kind of person so I couldn’t resist picking a pair of super fun socks to wear with my Julia Bo shoes. I have been obsessed with CouCou Suzette for a long time and when I saw her cheeky boobies (lol!) I knew I had found the perfect wedding socks!
THE JACKET… and cats
As well as knowing I wanted yellow shoes, I also wanted some sort of jacket for the wedding. I was looking at leather jackets for a while initially but I’m a sweaty son of gun and leather or faux leather would not do this bride any favours. After settling on the dress though, I realised that I already owned the perfect, cropped denim jacket to compliment it - BONUS! So I decided it might be nice to go for that and pimp it, after I had seen lots of lovely ideas on Pinterest.
Most jacket pimping seems to feature a beautiful design with ‘Mr & Mrs’ or love songs and quotes, which I honestly love - don’t get me wrong, but that just didn’t feel ‘me’ and I certainly wouldn’t wear a Mrs Beard jacket again after the wedding. Instead I decided to have the other love of my life on the back of my jacket; THE KITTIES!
Princess Pegs and Toby Cat
After perving on the wonderful embroidery skills of intwosandthrees for like ever and having met Leigh before, it was a no brainer that she could be the one to help this pimping dream come to life. To my utter delight, after an excitable (possibly wine-fuelled) begging message to ask if she’d be interested, she said YES! Leigh was a dream to work with and after sending her lots of Toby & Pegs spam, she created the most INCREDIBLE patches of both my fur babies, along with a little banner of their names.
@intwosandthrees has mad skills!
They came as individual patches with brooch backs on so they could be removable after the wedding but I LOVED them so so much I just knew they had to be attached permanently to the jacket! They are now sewn on and will remain on my jacket FOREVER! You can see just how happy I was on the day in the second photo below - and I pull this face pretty much every time I put the jacket on now too!
Some might think I look pretty cool here....
...until, that is, they see my face! 📷 Daniel Ackerley Photography
It was so nice to have the kitties play a part in our day, especially as we couldn’t really have them there in real life. Not only did I have tributes of them on the back of my jacket and on my bag but Will wore my Hello Sunshine kitties cufflinks too, which made my heart happy for many reasons!
THE BAG
Every bride needs a bag, right? I wasn’t 100% sure what for as I certainly didn’t plan on taking my phone, purse and keys to the wedding so I hadn’t actually planned on buying one. However, I ended up with the perfect wedding bag after falling in love with one from Cambridge Satchel Company. Last Spring Claireabellemakes and I had organised another Cambridge Creatives Photowalks and Cambridge Satchel Company had agreed to loan us some satchels again for people to take on the walk and share photos of. ALL of the satchels and bags they make are BEAUTIFUL but I fell in love with a sunshine yellow backpack and knew I had to have it! I figured the wedding was a perfect excuse to justify investing it one too.
The backpack of dreams came into the sale a few days after the walk but could I find one in stock anywhere? No, I was gutted, but thought I’d email them just in case they had a spare or any old display ones knocking about. I couldn’t believe it when they replied and offered to gift me one from their Cambridge store as a wedding present. I cried at the email when I read it and gushed a ridiculous amount at the poor girls in the shop when I went to collect the satchel - I couldn’t be more grateful and although it was tough keeping it wrapped up for months before I let myself use it for the Big Day, it was worth the wait. Pimped with a couple of my Toby & Pegs enamel pins, I had the perfect wedding backpack and could have cried with happiness!
“Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” - Hans Christian Andersen 💐 @sunshine_jo
THE FLOWERS
As you can see in the snap above, my outfit was complimented with a beautiful, colourful bouquet from the very lovely Tanya at Cambridge Floral Designs. Tanya took my brief of ‘a big colourful bouquet full of sunflowers, summer colours and ribbons’ and turned it into reality! I wasn’t going to have a bouquet as we didn’t plan to spend money on flowers for decor etc (can you see a theme developing here?) but I did want to get Will a sunflower button hole and some giant sunflowers for my sister and niece so I didn’t take much convincing and am so happy I had one… I mean LOOK AT HOW PRETTY IT WAS! When April tied a bunch of yellow balloons to it on the day too, it was the most perfect bouquet I'd ever seen.
HAIR & MAKE UP
I can’t finish talking about getting myself dressed without mentioning the AMAZING human bean who did my hair and make-up, Siân Revill. What a legend! I met Siân through my good pal, Holly Booth (also a legend, who you may already know does lots of photography for Hello Sunshine!) I had originally met and planned to have my hair and make up with a lovely lady, locally but she fell pregnant and timings meant that she could no longer do it for me - we were both gutted but I was obviously thrilled for her and it was lucky I was at a photoshoot with Holly the day I found out her news.
Holly recommended Siân and after seeing the bloody amazing make-up, SPF and prosthetics work she does I was excited to meet her - and also temped to have her add a third eye to my forehead or gaping wound to my neck too!
After explaining in an overexcited email, that I wanted messy space buns, braids and simple make up for the day, I was over the moon when she said she was free and up for the job! The trial went like a dream and happened the same day I was back with Holly, shooting more products. We had so much fun, plenty of Remi & Margot cuddles and Siân nailed the look I wanted in one go. Needless to say the same happened on the day of the wedding, (swap puppy cuddles for lego building though!) and my sister, Mum and niece were all super happy with their face and hair pimping too!
Fizzog pimped with messy braids, space buns and beach waves sorted, Siân finished off my hair with some of my favourite food… yup, you read that right! I had three of the main food groups in my hair for my wedding - Burgers, Fries and Pizza. YES! A delicious treat from the almighty Crown and Glory!
If you can't have your fave food in your hair on your wedding day, when can you?
OTHER PARTY OUTFITS
So, you know what the Bride and Groom looked like but what about the rest of the party? Don’t worry, we had a teeny-tiny Bridal party so this won’t take long but I have to show off how handsome, beautiful and incredible they all looked!
GROOMSMEN
Will chose his twin Brother, Duncan as best man and with his Dad, I think they could have made the made the most dapper of boybands! The guys chose grey jackets from M&S with black trousers (sorry chinos!) and brown shoes. We picked out fun, colourful ties, socks and cufflinks for each of them too.
The Dandy A-holes? JK, how handsome to these guys look!?!
MOTHER & GRANDMOTHER OF THE BRIDE
I wasn't having bridesmaids so I wanted my family to share the ‘walking down the aisle’ moment with me, mainly because I thought 15+ girls might be a bit much! My Mum and Grandma (Mama) walked in ahead of my sister and niece, before my Dad and I followed. To have my whole family give me away felt special and right - they all got to make sure was given away properly! I know it’s tradition to have just your father give you away, but I wanted my Mum and Mama to be part of that too, especially as my other grandparents wouldn't be with us.
MAID OF HONOUR & FLOWER GIRL
My sister and niece, Jennie and Lexie both looked BEAUTIFUL! Both of them chose their dresses, Jen went for a gorgeous maternity dress from Seraphine and my heart burst when Lexie picked out her colourful llama and flamingo dress from Monsoon. Jen asked me if I could make some small sunflower hair clips for Lexie and they both ended up wearing some in their hair. They also carried a giant Sunflower each, made extra pretty with gypsophila and ribbons thanks to Tanya.
FATHER OF THE BRIDE
Dad wore exactly the same as the other groomsmen and I couldn’t have been more proud, happy or full of joy as he walked me ‘down the aisle’, into the tipi and high-fived me as he ‘gave me away'!
Almost totally missed Dad's high five... and also what is that face I'm pulling!? Still, a very special moment!
You might not be able to see in all of these snaps but each one of the magical human beans above also wore one of my little Sunflower pins, which I gifted to them on the morning of the wedding. It made my heart leap when they all wanted to wear them on the day too!
Although we didn’t opt for anything super formal, too uniform or traditional, I think everyone looked STUNNING and most importantly they all felt comfortable in what they had - or at least that’s what they all told me, teehee!
Squad! 📷 Daniel Ackerley Photography
Phew! This one turned out to be a bit longer than expected but with so many creative, talented people helping to make our outfits complete, I had to share a lot! I hope you didn’t nod off and you enjoyed a peek at some of the extra details from our day.
As with the last post, below is a list of the lovely creatives and independents mentioned in this week’s waffle along with their website/social media deets - GO SHOW THEM SOME LOVE!
THE TAILOR'S CAT
dress | cambridge-bridalwear.co.uk | @thetailorscat
LAUREN VICKERS
bowtie | lvmadeinengland.co.uk | @lvmadeinengland
UNDANDY
groom’s shoe | undandy.com | @undandyshoes
JULIA BO
bride’s shoes | etsy.com/JuliaBoShoes | @juliaboshoes
COUCOU SUZETTE
socks | coucousuzette.com | @coucousuzette
INTWOSANDTHREES
embroidered patches | etsy.com/intwosandthrees | @intwosandthrees
CAMBRIDGE SATCHEL COMPANY
backpack | cambridgesatchel.com | @camsatchelco
CAMBRIDGE FLORAL DISPLAYS
bouquet, button hole & posies | cambridgefloraldesigns.co.uk
SIÂN REVILL
hair & make up | sianrevill.co.uk | @sianrev_mua
CROWN & GLORY
hair pins | crownandglory.co.uk | @crownandglory_
NEXT UP: eat, drink & dance
Talking about all things food and drink related as well as a peek at the music we chose to be part of our big day.
