Reminiscing... (the wedding dress)

Yesterday I found out that as well as both calling Leeds 'home' (despite being originally southerners), and obviously our fabulous sense of style, fellow fashion blogger Chloe and I have another tiny thing in common. We both picked the exact same wedding dress for our big days! How crazy is that? I mean, not that I'm biased or anything, but it was a pretty great dress, so I can see why she picked it too, but what are the chances?? Anyway, this coinkydink got me thinking about said wonderful dress - which I'm hoping to wear again for a little photo shoot with my gal pal & photographer extraordinaire Hannah (who took all these excellent shots) v. soon - and the rather enjoyable day I wore it on...

-Cue me trawling through my wedding photos for hours-

Even though we're pretty twee and kinda cutesy, and Hubby & I would've looked mighty dapper in a skinny suit and a 50s short dress, we went a fairly traditional route with our wedding - which we both still agree was the right thing for us to do, but since we're only young, it was still a pretty good party, and maybe I did have one too many glasses of champagne and have to kick my shoes off I was dancing too hard (we literally had to request some rubbish music from the DJ so I could have a breather!) - but if you can't enjoy your wedding day then what can you do? It was brilliant, and not only because I got to call myself Mrs. B at the end of it.

There are so many details and moments that I could share, but where to start?! Well with the dress of course.

The dress that I (and Chloe!) wore was actually the very first wedding dress I tried on, I had a very clear image of what I didn't want, so when I went to the National Wedding Show where there are thousands of dresses, I could discount all the lacey, frilly, princessy ones at a glance. It was an Eternity Bridal dress in Oyster satin which stole my heart. Simple but not boring, classic but modern with just the right amount of detailing. I just had a zip back because although I like the way lace-ups look, I'm a practical girl and I knew I would want to take scissors to it by the end of the night! It came with a belt with a diamante applique too, which when I first saw it, I thought looked tacky and horrible - the embellished nightmare dresses I'd been trying to avoid sprung to mind, and like it would ruin the ruching but somehow, on, it looked perfect.

(this is my, I-am-really-excited-to-get-married,-but-I-am-also-trying-really-hard-not-to-fall-down-the-stairs-with-everyone-watching-and-rip-my-dress awkward face - we've all been there, right?)

I wore an ivory pearled veil borrowed from a friend, who'd gotten married the month before, dip-dyed in tea to make it match my dress, just for the ceremony and a few pictures, and a bespoke cloth flower clipped into my hair made by Belle & The Bean. You can actually still buy my silver & pearl jewellery at Azendi.

My ivory wedding shoes were from BHS and only cost about £12 in the sale! I'd eyed fancy Rainbow Club shoes and all manner of other shoes, and considered the hot pink stillettos vs. the Westwood Melissa heels debate, but I couldn't justify spending £100+ on shoes I'd probably never wear again (the same argument can go for the dress, but I think I did pretty well to spend less than £500 on that so I cut my losses there). I also considered dying them to match the dress, but in the end, couldn't really be bothered! That sounds awful, I know, but they still matched and looked great, at least until my Dad stood on my foot on the way in - making the first sighting Hubby got of me as a blushing bride being me punching my Dad in the arm.

Classy...

I think I looked pretty awesome, even if I do say so myself. When I had my dress altered, I had a tie added to the underside, so I could turn the big train into a bustle for the dance party afterwards, but when the time came, not I, nor any of my friends or relatives could figure out how that actually worked (fail!), so I spent the rest of the evening with a fistful of dress in one hand, and a drink in the other. 

Standard.

P.S. See the Mr & Mrs section for more of the mushy love stuff, or search the 'wedding' tagged posts for more photos.