My favourite part of planning our wedding day, was creating and finding all of the perfect little details! I love details at a wedding and the more details you have the more there is for the guests to look at and enjoy. But also the more memories you have to keep from the day. Small beautiful details can completely change the look and feeling of any wedding day. These are just some of my favourite details from the day...
I had "Groom" and "Bride" Coat hangers made, just to add a personal touch and to hang our outfits on, instead of just normal coat hangers.
I had these cuff links made for Stuart as a gift for him on the wedding day. All of the Groomsmen also had personalised cufflinks.
Stuart and I wanted something really different for our wedding rings, so these were our rings.
I didn't want to wear the typical white wedding shoes, I really wanted something different, so I found these amazing finch feather shoes in Sydney and fell in love with them!
I am a perfectionist and like to make sure everything is perfect and exactly how we pictured it before the day. Also as my Bridesmaids were having knuckle duster clutch bags instead of flowers, it would have been hard to have just one bouquet made and delivered to York for the day. So I found an amazing florist in the USA who makes them from "real touch" flowers. I still have my bouquet and still love it! I also wanted to incorporate the special people in my life who couldn't be there on the day, so I hung their images from my bouquet (I will go into more detail in another blog post about incorporating missing loved ones into your wedding day).
I also didn't want to have the typical wedding jewellery or "natural" makeup. I wanted it to be quite a statement, it is your one wedding day... why not make it amazing! So I searched everywhere for these green tear drop earrings! My bridesmaids all had matching simple black tear drop earrings.
I hadn't planned on wearing a bracelet before the day, but Stuart surprised me the morning of the wedding with this amazing bracelet, so I definitely wanted to wear it on the day.
I love veils! They always look so incredible in photographs and just make such a beautiful statement. I really wanted a veil that had the horsehair braiding around the edge of the veil and it to be very long - 130 inches in the end! I looked everywhere for a veil like this but couldn't find them anywhere. So I found an incredible company in the USA who hand makes the veils to your custom order. I was so nervous about how it would arrive and the quality, but when it arrived, it was amazing, it was exactly what I wanted and sat perfectly!
Our ceremony was an evening ceremony, but we still wanted our guests to be able to enjoy lawn games, a cocktail bar, canapés and an oyster bar. So we had our guests arrive about an hour before the ceremony so they could all mingle and make the most of everything, before the sun went down.
I knew that at an outside wedding in the evening, some ladies may get quite cold with their dresses on.. So we had a basket out with big fabric scarves/wraps. Which the guests really made the most of and loved to even where them around them to keep warm.
Stuart loves to smoke Cigars at special occasions, so I really wanted to organise something that would entertain the boys and would be something for him. As most of the details and events are usually targeted at the females. So I had a Cigar Bar set up, with different types and flavours of cigars, for the guests to enjoy. Stuart had no idea about it until the day! It turned out to be a big hit, all of the guests loved it and wanted to try the different flavours.
As our wedding reception was in an open marquee and our dance floor was just on the grass in front of the marquee, I wanted the girls to be comfortable and not have to worry about heels and sore feet, so we had a little basket with thongs in it, for the girls to wear if they wanted to take their heels off.
All of the little stations listed above were set around a "chill out lounge area" for the guests to go out and sit during the reception.
Instead of having a typical Photo Booth, we wanted something really unique and fun. So Stuart made this incredible Photo Board from scratch! We had photo frames with our family and growing up photographs but then the 3 large frames were for people to pose through and interact across the board to each other... there are a couple of examples of the board at the end of this blog post.
With our bonbonnieres I wanted to come up with something that was unique, that matched our theme and also that our guests could actually take home and use. So we had little potted herbs - 4 different types with little wedding associated name tags.
There was:
- Thyme - which had the tag "It's about Thyme"
- Rosemary - which had the tag "Rosemarry"
- Mint - which had the tag "Mint to Be"
- Lavender - which had the tag "Lovender"
Our guests loved these little gifts and so many have told me how they have planted them in their garden and how well they are growing.
We had a Degustation dinner for our reception and I wanted to have quite a unique menu for all of the guests. So I designed this up and hung them from every guests chair, instead of just having them on the tables.
I love the American style long tables, so I was set on that style layout, with my favourite chairs of all time - beautiful white Tiffany Chairs. I also love this layout because it makes the guests closer together and easier to talk and mingle with each other.
For the table arrangement list, I didn't want just a piece of paper with a list of names. So we got an old 3 panel old shutters. We had 3 long guest tables, so I used each panel as a table to list the guest seating.
As our wedding ceremony was in the evening, we lined the wedding isle with french Shepherd Hook Lanters that were lit up before the ceremony.
I decided so give Stuart another surprise and get a wedding Caricature of us done. With a few things that are important to us both. He is a scaffolder, so I wanted us to be on the scaffold.
To match our theme we had a bird cage for our guests cards and notes.. Instead of the usual Wishing Well.
'
We had a guest signature album, for our family and friends to write little messages in, but we also had a framed tree print, so our guests would leave their inked thumb print on the tree (like a leaf) and sign their name with it.
For our Bridal Party Table. we again did something a little different from the usual, as we had such a big Bridal Party - 14 in total, there was no way we could have a long table with everyone facing out to the guests. We also didn't really like that idea, as the people towards the ends of the tables wouldn't be as included in conversations or what was going on. So we designed our Bridal table to have one circular table in the centre, for just Stuart and I to sit at and then on either side was a long table for the bridal party to sit at and face each other. So it brought us all closer and we could all talk and enjoy the evening together.
Our beautiful cake was made by Stuart's Nanna, who isn't a professional and has only just started making cakes for fun... When I saw the finished product, I was amazed, I did not expect it to be so professional and perfect! The bottom tier of the cake was covered in hand made rosettes - to match the bottom of my gown. And then the top tiers had the ruching to match my gown and a beaded sash, which was similar to my sash on my gown.
We also had a candy and dessert buffet for our guests to enjoy, throughout the evening.
These were just one of the styles of centrepieces we had - with the help of my amazing Bridesmaids and Stuart... we hand made all 18 of them!! I wanted that French ball of flowers look - but I didn't want real flowers.
As the wedding theme was very French provincial - we didn't want the typical red carpet, so instead we had a long linen/hessian isle. We also had our ceremony right in front of our reception marquee.
Instead of having a dance floor, we just wanted the entire grass area to be the dance floor and where people could mingle together. Also when we entered the reception, I took off my veil (as it was so long it would have been stepped on) and swapped over to a Bird Cage veil.
We had chandeliers hanging from the trees, which looked so amazing and impressive once the sun went down, but also made an incredible photo opportunity!
This is how the photo board was used.... (except I don't think Stuart got the concept to stay inside the wall to make it look like a picture! :p)
Images by Jerry Ghionis.
09 Jun 2014 Jessica Ratty
