The Perfect English Garden Party Wedding

Welcome to the fantastic 1920's inspired summer garden party Wedding of an utterly gorgeous friend of mine, Victoria.  Classically styled with cream and navy Victoria wore an absolutely stunning 1920's drop waist vintage Wedding dress and all of the details followed suit.  The croquet on the lawn and Jubilee trio added to the classical British style and made this Wedding an utter delight.  I will leave the rest of the story for Victoria to share with you all...

Henry and I met through a mutual friend at a fancy dress dinner party.  Henry was dressed as 'bad santa' and I was dressed as 'fem bot'! We got married on 24^th September 2011 at St Lawrence Church in Chobham and then had the reception in a marquee in my Father's garden. The Church has special memories for me as it is situated next to my Primary School where I played Mary in the nativity play there when I was younger!

I have lived at my family home since I was two years old and I have always wanted to get married in the garden there. When I started organising our Wedding I didn’t have a theme or a colour in mind but as the organising went on I realised that there was a 1920’s theme developing.  My dress was a 1920’s drop waist style, the wedding car was a 1920’s Rolls Royce (as seen in the film, The King’s Speech) and the guest's transport was a vintage Routemaster.

My sister was amazing when it came to finding my dress. She booked me into a whole load of appointments and we went to a few select places together; I wasn’t keen on going to big department stores. I saw “the dress” and said “oh I would love to wear something like that” – once it was bought, altered and at home I tried it on every time I could – I loved it so much!

My bridesmaids wore navy dresses from Coast – not hugely original but they did the trick!

My husband bought his morning dress from Oliver Brown. I love the yellow double breasted waistcoat that he wore and he also wore dogs tooth trousers which I thought were lovely. 

I love organising anyway so organising our Wedding was a great experience for me. We got engaged nine months before we got married which I think was a good amount of time to get everything done. I panicked about the weather as I was so keen on having reception drinks outside and I was also nervous about people not turning up but it all turned out to be great and there was no need for worry.  My advice to future brides would be "not to take it all too seriously on the day, to let your hair down and enjoy it!".  Someone told me that guests at weddings often enjoy themselves as much as the bride and groom do. We had such a fun day and wanted that to filter through to all of our guests.

As my name is Victoria, the Wedding cake had to be a Victoria sponge! A local lady made the tiers and then my florist organised the flowers between the tiers. Sadly I didn’t have any of the cake but I’m told it was delicious.

We got some very pretty ribbons and vintage wedding signs from Cox and Cox which has some lovely pieces.

For the reception drinks we had a Jubilee Trio who really set the atmosphere for a British garden party. After the wedding breakfast we had a band called 29 Fingers who were amazing! The dance floor was full all night long and they really know how to get everyone dancing.

My florist was a friend from University called Rose Hansom who is just amazing at floral arranging. She created the most gorgeous bouquets using vintage roses and we had beautiful candelabras on the tables which were decorated in the same flowers; she also used mint in the arrangements which smelt divine!

The photographer for our Wedding was Vicky Dawe. I had met her at a few friend’s weddings and thought that her photographs were excellent. I actually would have considered changing the wedding date if Vicky couldn’t have covered it. She is such a lovely person to have around, she has recently got married herself so she knows exactly how a bride is feeling on her big day. She is so patient and knows exactly what a bride wants.

I just loved all of our Wedding – being with all of our friends and family at my family home, the weather was beautiful – I just had the most magical day and will remember it forever!

Victoria's Three Top Tips:

1. Plan in advance and do things in bite size portions - don't leave anything to the last minute.
2. Don’t let it all get too overwhelming and remember the point of the day.
3. Enjoy the organising, put as many personal touches to your day as possible and ask friends and family to help.

Suppliers: Dress – Vintage Wedding Dress Company, Veil - Vintage Wedding Dress Company, Shoes - Jimmy Choo, Flowers - Rose Hansom, Make-up – Polly Neary (friend), Hair -  I wouldn’t recommend my hairdresser and I wish I spent more time researching a really good hairdresser - that is my only regret, Bridesmaid Dresses - Coast, Cake - locally sourced, Photographer – Vicky Dawe, Marquee – Claremont Marquees (very good company if a bit overpriced).