Time for another gorgeous Miss Bush bride! The lovely Anna wore a chic contemporary Sottero and Midgley wedding dress to marry her university sweetheart, Billy, with a romantic church ceremony followed by a beautiful reception at her family home in Berkshire in July this year.
THE DRESS
Made from luxurious Reena Mikado fabric, McCall by Sottero and Midgley is an effortlessly elegant, stylish wedding gown, with a chic bateau neckline and surprising cut out sheer panels to the side. The dress is finished with a striking open square back, with the added bonus of hidden pockets!
Here’s what Anna had to say about her dress;
“I had seen my wedding dress at another bridal store which was local to me but the shop didn’t feel right. I wanted an expert opinion and so I went to Miss Bush and asked Emma and the team if they could get a sample into their shop for me to try along with the other collections. Our wedding was black tie and rather formal and so I wanted something classic with clean lines. I went for the McCall dress by Sottero & Midgeley made from Mikado silk and paired it with some fun nude Valentino rock stud heels.
I absolutely loved having pockets. They were so useful for storing my lipstick and whipping out a handkerchief for my husband, Billy who was a little emotional when I walked down the aisle!”
“I always knew I would have my mum with me when I found my dress. I had dreamt about getting married for years and always knew she would be by my side. For added peace of mind, I also brought along my maid of honour, Lucy. She’s also very creative and has great style, so her opinion was invaluable. When they both burst into tears, I knew it was the one.
Emma and Corinne made me feel very at ease and the whole experience was very personal. I also loved the atmosphere in the chapel, the boutique has real charm and character and on my final dress fitting I was sad that I would never be able to go in again!”
“I borrowed my sister-in-laws veil and my maid of honour, Lucy, lent me some beautiful earrings and a bracelet. Because my wedding dress was classic and quite plain, I wanted the earrings to stand out. I also wanted some fun shoes which I could wear again, and the Valentino rock studs fitted the bill perfectly.”
ABOUT THE DAY
Anna and Billy created an exquisitely styled wedding wonderland, which was packed with sweet personal details and creative DIY touches.
Anna tells us more about their inspiration and gives some details about the planning process;
“We wanted to create a wedding very personal to us and by doing it at my parent’s home meant we had a blank canvas to create something unique. I wanted the look and feel to be magical and enchanting and often marquees can lack atmosphere and can look bland with such stark white backdrops. We had originally booked a stretch tent, but you just can’t trust the British weather and so for added peace of mind we got in touch with a brilliant marquee supplier.”
“Building the marquee around a weeping silver birch kick started our vision of “enchanted”. We added tiny glass globes, candles and fairy lights to the tree before it went up so at night it was simply magical. At the other end of the marquee I made a hanging floral chandelier made from white wisteria and ivy. I wanted guests to have something to look up at during dinner and the unexpected thing was that the arrangement attracted butterflies and dragon flies over the course of the evening which added another special touch.
I’m a big fan of keeping things simple, and so the colour palette was natural with green and white tones with a touch of grey from the table cloths. I wanted to do the venue flowers myself. I absolutely love being creative and making things and I knew it would be a lovely relaxing thing to do (or for me anyway!). We made as much as possible for the wedding from welcome packs, favours, flowers, a secret garden to the wine labels to firstly save on cost but also because I enjoyed it.”
“The wedding was beyond anything we ever expected. All of the tiny finishing touches and details made it. We were all so pleased that we invested the time in the finer details. Looking around and knowing you made so much of it yourself was a great feeling. I’m lucky to be from a creative family as I couldn’t have done it without them. I work in marketing at an advertising agency and so as part of my job I have to be really organised and I think this, and creativity helped bring every idea together. It took a lot of work, but if you plan well in advance and start creating things months before, you can achieve your dream. It’s also great fun collating things for your wedding over the course of planning it.
During the reception guests were served Chapel Down and elderflower cordial which we’d made before hand for the wedding favours. Wedding favours can be expensive and can often end up in the bin. For our wedding, we wanted to create something that was homemade but most importantly something that our guests would use on the day. Elderflower cordial is a delicious accompaniment to a warm summer’s day and can be added to a G&T or poured into water for the perfect refreshing summer drink.”
“We had a very subtle animal theme as my husband, Billy loves animals. I made the place names by sourcing tiny animals from Toys R Us and spraying them gold. They were then finished off with a name tag and black ribbon. It was fun giving the guests different creatures from lionesses to hippos and foxes. And the table names complemented with Lions, Tigers and Bears.
Sometimes I find reception drinks quite long… timings always overrun and after a few hours drinking champagne often you just want to sit down. To keep guests entertained we created a secret garden which was a woodland walk. This consisted of a walkway full of hanging birdcages which I’d covered in roses and added solar bulbs to with bubbles coming from a bubble machine. There was a giant photo frame for guests to take snaps in with a polaroid camera to add to our guest book. A sweet shop and temporary tattoo parlour with festival style metallic tattoos. Plus there were also two swings covered in ivy for additional photograph opportunities.”
“My husband is a massive foodie (check out the BigBaldChef on Instagram!) and so the food was one of the most important things to him. It took us quite a while to find a caterer and in the end Feast Event Catering helped us achieve the perfect menu personalised to our tastes and requirements. We love entertaining and hosting dinner parties and so we wanted it to feel like our friends and family were at a dinner party with great food and wines to match. We paired the food with specially selected wines to make it extra special.
Before the starter, we appointed someone from each table to hand out envelopes to each of the guests. We created a personalised individual fact or fiction for every guest. The aim of it was to get guests to meet one another and avoid any small talk. It resulted in absolute uproar – it was awesome to watch all our guests in hysterics and created an incredible atmosphere.”
“Off the back of the marquee, overlooking our pond, we created an old gentleman’s style library with wingback armchairs, old family photos including those who couldn’t be there, an old telephone, candelabras, blanket, cigars, cognacs and port. The library was a great addition to the event and I loved sourcing things for it like hampers, decanters and photo frames. We opened the library after dinner and it was far more of a success that we thought (although I don’t think the photos do it justice)!
After dinner, we had a live band followed by a DJ until 2am. A couple of days before I extended the DJ to play until later on in the evening. This gave both Billy and I added peace of mind that we could really start to relax after dinner knowing we didn’t need to rush to speak to guests as it wasn’t going to end early.”
“To keep guests well fed we had a pizza van arrive later on in the evening. Pizza Pigs have converted an old Land Rover Defender and built a pizza oven in the back of it. It drove into the garden, next to the marquee to serve guests as a little surprise. It looked awesome with the guys serving fresh pizza from it and we had named the pizzas and chose the flavours particular to us.”
FINAL WORDS
Some words of wedding planning wisdom from our bride, Anna;
“It’s important to hire specialists and respected suppliers who you can trust implicitly. Hiccups will occur along the way and it’s important to have suppliers on hand who will not only help you but will also fix it. Every supplier we used was a real pro and that helped us relax in the run up to the wedding.
Also, if you’re planning to do it at your home, it will inevitably create more work and one tip I would suggest is to hire an event manager. Ours was a fundamental part to the success of our wedding and was on hand the day of the wedding but also the day before so we could enjoy it even more. It’s worth every penny. You can’t underestimate how many things there are to pull a wedding together, particularly when you’re doing it on your own.
Hats off to my husband Billy and my family who helped me create my dream and who didn’t even quibble when I said I wanted penguins in the secret garden 😊”
SUPPLIERS
Links to some of the brilliant suppliers that contributed to Anna and Billy’s day;
Photographer: David Bostock
Dress: Miss Bush – Sottero and Midgley McCall
Bridesmaids dresses: Dessy
Bride and bridesmaids flowers plus button holes: Brambles
Hair and make up: Sarah Yeo
Videographer: Walnut Wasp
Caterer: Feast Event Catering
Marquee, event furniture, lighting etc: JB Marquees
String quartet in church: Akina Strings
5 piece band: Bellissima/Tokyo Band
Embroidered handkerchiefs: Kate Gwilliam Design
Late night pizzas: Pizza Pigs
Thank you so much to Anna and Billy for sharing the magical wedding day with us – so inspirational and beautiful!
Leah x
