I am a firm believer in your wedding reflecting your personality, style and life together as a couple.
In fact surely there isn’t another day when this is more important. If you don’t wear 2009 clothes the rest of the time, why compromise on the day when your outfit is going to be looked at the most? If you find interiors from another era the most beautiful, why surround yourself with silver balloons and white cloth covered chairs on your special day, just because that’s the wedding ‘norm’? No reason!
As a lover of all things vintage I knew early on touches from the 20s, 30s, 40’s and 50s would play a part in the styling of the day. But I admit, it’s harder than you think, with suppliers (not to mention friends and family) giving you puzzled looks when you say you want strawberries and cream served in tea cups or flowers displayed in chipped enamel vases. So here’s my guide to planning a vintage inspired wedding and staying (semi) sane.
The Outfit
I wasn’t sure what era my dress was from but it had just the right milk-maid look I was going for. Made from organdie and customized with a bustle of VV Rouleaux flowers, pearls and ivy, by my mum, to add the woodland nymph factor. It was bought from a lady called Flic, who was exhibiting at the Frock Me Vintage Fashion Fair. Which has an absolute wealth of old wedding dresses from many eras, as well as hats, gloves, veils, parasols and the like. www.frockmevintagefashion.com www.vvrouleaux.com
I was lucky enough to get my veil as my ‘something borrowed’ as well as something ‘old’ from a family friend of my fiancé’s. So it’s always worth asking around within your family, as many people have vintage pieces hiding away in the attic that will add an extra piece of personal history to your outfit.
For the party in the evening, I changed into a Vivien of Holloway dress. If you don’t know about Vivien and you like 50s style, particularly Rockabilly, then you need to make a trip down to her shop above a motorcycle workshop in Camden. Her dresses are beautifully made in great fabrics in the authentic style. www.vivienofholloway.com I customized mine with ‘John’ in a heart on my bum, of course.
I enlisted a friend to do my victory curl inspired ‘do’ using the great You Tube tutorials out there and topped it off with a pill box type hat with a veil from This Shop Rocks on Brick Lane (020) 7739 7667
Other great head gear, in particular quirky bespoke fascinators, can be found at www.peachface.co.uk
We also added a line on our invitations, inviting people to join in with the vintage inspired theme in their dress if they liked. Not everyone did, they all looked gorgeous of course, but some did and it was lovely to see people giving vintage a go on the day! I would highly recommend giving people the option. We also sent out a link to a website which had a list of vintage outlets as a helping hand.
Vintage Crockery, decorations and other style pointers
Using lovely old chintzy crockery is a great touch to show your vintage side, and charity shops, eBay, auctions and car boot sales are always winners when looking for this type of thing. But on our day we mixed this type of crockery with standard white, supplied by our caterers as 1) we ran out of time in trying to find enough to cater for 130 people and 2) it can tone the look down if you think people might genuinely turn there nose up if they just don’t ‘get’ it.
Crockery, such as milk jugs and tea pots as well as jam jars and tea cups themselves (with one bloom) look lovely to display your flowers on tables covered in polka dot or gingham table cloths.
We also gave each table a name of a loved up couples from a by-gone era such as Elvis and Priscilla, Johnny Cash and June Carter, Romeo and Juliet, Sid and Nancy and so on. The table plan was also home made on a vintage Vermouth advertising poster
Luckily vintage style decorations, if you are channeling V-Day celebrations, English Country fetes or street parties, are all quite simple and home-made looking in their nature, as they would have been back in the day! Using this as a guide I got both mum and mum-in-law on the case making bunting in chintzy, polka dot and union jack patterns to strewn about. Ribbons in trees, as well as tin signs and paper lanterns all fit into the vintage style too. I went a little oriental too as I’m half Chinese, so throw in all your influences!
Depending how far you want to go into the country fete theme, you can also get hay bales as seating! Or is that just me who think that’s a good idea?
While everyone is relaxing and mingling play some music from the 30s to the 50s, its brilliant chilled but fun music and will have your Gran remembering those tea dances she went to. Everyone’s a winner.
My lovely father in law also papered MDF boards with vintage style wallpaper to make display boards for framed family wedding photos, dating back to the 1930s, which is a poignant way of showing how your day fits into the grand scheme of things, gives people something to look at, as well as adding a touch of old wedding imagery, before it was vintage!
I did have loads of fun collecting over the months before the wedding and still have almost everything left as well as many new pieces, which are now available for hire, with a styling service option, for other Brides, or any vintage lover may like to put them to good use at a vintage style party.
Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, stay strong in your convictions, stick to your guns. People will love it on the day even if they protested in the build up, and seeing everyone enjoying a unique day, styled in the way you love is the best reward. Other than the marriage of course.
