Either groan or rejoice, but this is the last of the wedding posts!
The bridesmaids dresses
If you cast your mind back, you’ll remember the selection process, how I fitted and then hand-pleated, the lined, silk jersey dresses for my two bridesmaids, but even after I finished them, there wasn’t a chance to see either P or G wearing their dresses, let alone together!
It was really nice on the wedding day to be able to see both of my great friends looking so happy and nice, and comfortable, too, in the bridesmaids dresses I made for them.
Their colour choices really suited them both, too, and even though I offered to shorten them after the wedding, I know P (in purple) is definitely keeping hers as a wonderfully posh maxidress. (S was my Man of Honour, but no, I didn’t make his suit!)
My dress
You’ve seen it in pieces and finally, in comparison with my grandmother’s original gown, but here’s some more photos where you can see the seamlines particularly well:
Here you can see me using the very useful (and from the original dress) finger loop to hold the train off the floor:
I’d highly recommend inserting a simple loop like this into the underside of the train if you don’t like the bustling look. It was really functional and looked good, kept most of the dress off the floor, and allowed me to still carry things in that hand, too. For the most part, it kept people from stepping on the train too much, too. We had a note in our Thank you for Coming packs which said that the dress couldn’t be drycleaned due to its age and to please be extremely careful with drinks and lipstick. That seems to have done the trick – throughout both the wedding day and the Pennsylvania reception, it gained not a single stain, and only one short, ripped out seam in the train from the dancefloor (which was easily repaired in about 5min).
My fascinator
If you recall, I made my fascinator on a purchased headband to which I added a reinforced silk satin base with white goose feathers, speckled coque feathers, and my paternal grandmother’s brooch and sewn together. The coque feathers were the only thing I finished at the last minute – I sewed them on in the hotel room the night before the wedding, amongst all the champagne and bridal party (and there’s some blood spots hidden inside it to attest to my drunken pin pricks!).
The ivory veiling is dotted with fluffy chenille and bought from Squirlgirl on etsy. G just kept folding the veil up in a bunch of different ways on the morning until we got an arrangement we both really liked (and I then couldn’t replicate myself for the Pennsylvania reception!). I had her bobby pin the veil in my hair separately so that I could remove it and still wear the fascinator on its own without all the veiling in the way (and it does get really annoying after an hour or two).
Oh, and our rings are titanium bands with anodised colour inside (green for me, purple for James) from Minter and Richter Designs on etsy. There aren’t any good shots of it and the best man still has it, but the rings were all tied up in a little hankerchief I’d made from a Spoonflower swatch with our wedding cartoon on it. It was a nice touch hardly anyone saw, but we knew was there!
Looking good
Hair & makeup people? Well, my hair is at the length where it just does itself. And I decided that I’d rather spend my money towards getting really nice makeup that I can keep and use long after the wedding instead of spending a ton of money hiring someone to come to our hotel.
Luckily, G is awesome at applying makeup and false eyelashes in particular, so she just went to town on me!
I used:
- Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat concealer
- Clinique Lash Doubling mascara and eye shadow
- My favourite, favourite “can’t buy it outside the US” Cover Girl Perfect Point Plus eyeliner
- Ardell false eyelashes
- Laura Mercier lipstick in “Truly Red” (props to the LM counter woman for finally finding me “my perfect red” after years of searching!!)
- Lipcote made my day! That stuff is amazing! It’s this sealant you paint on your lips after your lipstick dries, and it keeps it from smearing or rubbing off, even after lots of kisses, eating, drinking, etc. Because of Lipcote, I only had to reapply once throughout the entire day!
- And I had a pre-wedding mani/pedi at the Cowshed Spa in Shoreditch, where they did my fingernails in Essie’s “Starter Wife” colour. hahahah, how apt!
The money shots
And finally, the best money we spent on the entire wedding (besides the amazing Bletchley Park venue!) was our professional photographer, Paul Tanner. Not only is he an amazingly talented photographer, but he’s a very calming presence on what could have been a very stressful day. And he’s a super nice guy, too.
The classics:
The fun ones:
Our friend Meltie owns the ex-military Land Rover seen above, upon which James made his entrance before the ceremony, standing on the back with his best man and clinging to the crossbars with a prop bottle of rum!
The “omg is that really us, our photographer is freaking incredible!”:
So, now that it’s all over, would I change anything? Honestly, I can’t think of a single thing…
Next up: Some highlights from our Pennsylvania reception and our honeymoon in NYC!
Most of these photos are by Paul Tanner at Sixpence