I hope you are raring to go for the week ahead after a wonderful relaxing weekend :-) Today’s wedding really resonates with me, i shall explain why.

Matt and Becca married in May with a humanist ceremony and party in their local community hall in Glasgow. Their whole day was focused around family and being child friendly. With their two children walking down the aisle with them, being a part of the ceremony and the day finishing early so the children could get to bed in time.

Becca looked beautiful in a crochet dress she found in TKMax for £20, which she teamed with green Jimmy Choos and a fabulous floppy hat. Matt wanted a tweed suit, which he had custom made. They looked uber stylish.

Becca made the fun wedding cake and paper flowers. They served delicous food and drink. And i love those fun letter bottles.

Thanks so much to the wonderful Lisa Devine for sharing her photography with us today.

 

The Proposal… Portmeirion, a quirky Italianate village in North Wales on our last summer trip before our first child, Rafferty was born.  I was 7 months pregnant and it was Matt’s birthday.  Its palace I love and where I’ve spent many holidays as my Uncle and Aunt have a little house there.

The Vision for the Day… We wanted a fabulous lunch with all our friends and family-and a wedding attached!  We wanted a laid back day with everyone and their kids and we planned to finish early so we could get our kids off to bed!

The Planning Process… We never set a date to get married and never really felt the urge to rush but eventually at the end of last year, after being engaged for 5 years I put my foot down-”Next year- May or September?!”

We were definite that we wanted to marry in my old Brownie Hall which was round the corner from where I grew up and they agreed to let us have a Humanist ceremony there.  The hall convenor was the most friendly woman and, having organised events for years there, really helped us with advice about organising the day. The food was designed to be the central part of the day-apart from the wedding of course!-and a friend suggested her friends at Firebird, a bar which was our old haunt when we lived together in a flat in Glasgow.  Louise and Chris at Firebird were amazing-offering us a meal to suit our budget and very quickly tuned into the vibe we wanted.  The food was fantastic-beautiful antipasti, hog roast then a trio of chocolate puddings.  Louise and her staff really acted like MCs and if we hadn’t had them the day wouldn’t have been as perfect as it was.

I really wanted Lisa Devine to take our photos-she’s taken photos of friends’ weddings and initially she couldn’t do the date we’d chosen so I was pretty gutted.  Then, because of a number of things we changed the date and happily Lisa was free that day.  I didn’t want a load of posed stuffy photos-I wanted a record of the day so I was delighted as Lisa’s style was just what we wanted.

Planning was done in between looking after my 2 kids and working full time-it was all pretty chilled out really.  Colour theme was based around my daughter Sacha’s outfit which featured a lovely bright green. I’d had my dress for ages so wasn’t stressed about that, then I found an amazing hat whilst out shopping in american Apparel and I knew it would set the outfit off.  I bought some little white shoes from Etsy but the outfit didn’t hang together-then I found some Jimmy Choos in the exact colour of my daughters outfit-and bang went the budget!.

People kept offering to help but I really liked being in control of it all!  Plus there wasn’t that much to do in all honesty.  Our caterers really helped with planning things out and my hairdresser, who I’ve known for years  also agreed to do my make up and helped with the decorations. The hall where we had the wedding had lovely natural muslins to hang and I didn’t want much more colour.  I made paper flowers in the same colour green and we had a few pots of ivy on each window sill.  I wanted everything to look peaceful and calm-but I also didnt want to detract from our outfits!  Matthew’s part was sorting the booze-which he did with aplomb.  The biggest reason for not getting married in any other venue was that, as someone who owns his own whiskey shop, Matthew wanted to have control over what we drank.  Two of his colleagues also offered to run a bar for us and so we had expert cocktails made too! The planning really happened very naturally and everyone involved took care so well of their own bit-it all ran smoothly all the way through.

The Venue… Hyndland Community Hall-my old Brownie Hall!

The Dress + Accessories… My dress cost £20 from TKMaxx! It was a short, slightly fitted crochet dress with a wide neck and balloon sleeves. I’d seen something similar in a wedding magazine and knew it would suit me and the look I was trying to achieve.  I then found a big floppy brimmed hat in American Apparel.  My shoes were Jimmy Choos in an amazing lime green-I had never intended to spend so much on shoes but the colour was a perfect match and the style-patent peep toed wedges- just set the dress off.  My earrings and necklace were my mum’s Foster mum’s-it was lovely to have a link to her at the wedding, as she died just when Matthew and I met.

Finding the Dress… After I’d seen the dress in a magazine-probably about 2 or 3 years ago now- I was randomly shopping in TKMaxx and saw an identical dress hanging on the end of a row of clothes-it was waiting for me!  There was only one and it was too big but I had to buy it!  The wonderful tailors at Star Stitch adjusted it perfectly.

Groom’s Attire… Matthew decided-not long before the wedding-that he was going to have a Harris Tweed suit made-it was the next most expensive thing after the food and the booze!   I’d always assumed he’d wear a kilt but I was delighted because, on a purely selfish level, I though a suit would fit the dress better and fit the feel of the day.  A friend recommended a superb tailor-Steven Purvis on Chancellor Street-who had the most beautiful fabric in a colour that suited Matt to a tee.  He also made a mini version for Rafferty, our son.  What a difference having something made to measure-Matt loves it and finds any excuse to wear it!

The Readings + Music… We didn’t want readings as that felt too formal for our needs on the day and we asked our friends Harriet and Drew to play for us instead.  Harriet played “Just Be” by Paloma Faith, her voice suited this song perfectly and the lyrics are really funny and heartfelt, about how you can really annoy each other but at the end of the day you still love each other.  Drew played Waltz for Debbie by Bill Evans…we were talking about pieces he liked to play that would be suitable and this one was perfect particularly as , weirdly, our friend Debbie had set us up in the first place and my Grandfather’s name was Bill Evans so there was some nice symbolism there if only for us!  We walked in to Let’s fall in Love played by Oscar Peterson and walked out to Our Time Will Come by Amy Winehouse…we had planned to walk out to the Star Wars theme because 4th May is international Star Wars Day but for some reason Amy Winehouse came on instead.  We were really glad because it fitted the mood much better!  During the day we had a playlist we had made up together playing on our iPod-we had some Northern Soul, some jazz, blues…I love listening to it now because I couldn’t really hear it on the day!

Beautiful Bridesmaids… Sacha, our 3 year old, was my flower girl.  I didn’t want anyone else.  I asked my cousin Melissa to be my witness and it was lovely just to have a few minutes holding her hand and having a quick chat while we signed the register. Rafferty, our 5 year old was the page boy-he loved holding the rings and my sister knitted him a little cushion to carry them on.

The Flowers… The absolutely amazing and fantastic women at Florresters made our bouquets and the boys’ button holes.  I really wanted Guilder roses, that was the only thing I was sure of-and I wanted white and the bright green of my and Sacha’s outfits. The girls were so relaxed, scribbled down all the flowers I had named, freesias, roses, phlox and then made the most delicate, beautiful bouquet I’ve ever seen.  Sacha was so proud of her posie which was a mini version of my bouquet and just as we walked in I spotted that they had put a little blue sparkly butterfly in her flowers and that was our something blue!  Rafferty and Matthew had an ivory rose and a Guilder rose as button holes-at the end of the day all Rafferty had was the stalk of the rose held on by the safety pin!

The Cake… I decided to make the cake in a mad moment but it was fine-I practised all the layers from the recipe which was on the Good Food website so all I had to do was stack it and decorate it.  I found some matching coloured icing and contrasted that with grey icing and made an attempt at a 70s style geometric pattern.  The top layer was a light fruit cake, the middle was lemon drizzle and the bottom was a rich chocolate cake.  Our caterers stacked it for me- offset like stairs and it looked great.  It certainly didn’t stand up to scrutiny but my mum said, “If you had wanted a perfect cake you should have gone to Marks and Spencers!”

Your Photographer… Lisa Devine-we were so glad she was able to do our photos.  Her style was just what we were after-a record of the day, lots of spontaneity and some really stylised shots that made us look and feel like movie stars!

The Details + Decor… We had muslins hanging from the ceiling provided by the Hall and they also gave us little white pots that we put little ivy plants in.  I made paper roses from bright green card which we had spilling out of white and green mugs on the tables.  Our caterers had brilliant spandex chair covers that brightened up the industrial plastic chairs in the hall.  The night before, our best mates and matts parents came and helped us decorate the hall and then the caterers were in from 5am on the day and finished off the rest whilst cooking the Hog!  I also spray painted wine bottles with white plastikote paint then drew letters on in black that spelled Matt & Becca’s Wedding…this nearly didn’t work out as Matt is dyslexic and struggled to get them all out in the right order as he was panicking on the morning-he thought he’d left some bottles behind as he was trying to spell out Matthew and Becca’s Wedding…we asked people to use the bottles as ashtrays outside which worked really well-although our guests didn’t want to as they looked so lovely!

The Honeymoon… 3 days alone at Gleneagles- dinner at Andrew Fairlie, Spa, more Spa, cocktails, afternoon tea, Tapas… *sigh*…

My folks brought the kids up to join us and we then had 3 days at the Kenmore Lodges on Loch Tay in Perthshire with the kids to have some nice chilled out family time in style.

Memorable Moments… My stepdad and father-in-law in tears most of the day was very touching (and quite funny); my son rationing out the favours- which was his Granny’s tablet-, “There’s two bits in there-you need to share!” ; and cleaning up the hall in my wedding dress once everyone had left!

Advice for Other Couples… Everyone kept saying how our personalities shone through in the day.  We were very clear about what we wanted and what we didn’t want and we really stuck to it.  At first I thought it might not be special or “showy” enough but when we looked around and saw everyone talking and eating and the kids bombing about having laugh we knew we’d done just the right thing.  A lovely big dress and the full church and hotel bit is great and I love weddings like that but they wouldn’t have suited us and we wouldn’t have felt comfortable.  You need to be really clear about what you want and stick to it-you have to feel relaxed and if you’ve created your day you will do and it will mean so much more.

Credit Where Credit is Due…

CATERERS-Louise and Chris at Firebird Bar&Restaurant www.olivarius.co.uk

FLOWERS-Florresters www.florresters.co.uk

PHOTOGRAPHY – Lisa Devine www.lisadevinephotography.co.uk

TAILORS – Steven Purvis (no website)

Dress – TK MAXX

So touching. I so love how included their children were in their wedding day. Thanks so much to Matt and Becca for sharing their beautiful wedding with us today XOXO Lou