.modern vintage bride

.gemma milly

2012-01-20T16:22:00.000Z

.I have recently come across an amazing illustrator called Gemma Milly whose work is so mesmerising beautiful that I may actually commission a portrait! Gemma specialises in wedding stationery and portraiture. I particularly love her drawings and watercolours of brides and grooms. Isn't the Wills and Kate one adorable? She works from photographs so she can create a portrait for you without you having to leave your house which must be infinitely better than the old days of hour long sittings. Prices start from just £50.

.smythson

2012-01-17T13:52:00.000Z

.Aside from shoes, handbags and fashion in general, one of my biggest aesthetic obsessions is stationery and one stationers in particular: Smythson of Bond Street. For years I have spent a small fortune (by my standards anyway) and more time than I would like to admit browsing in store and online.

I especially love Smythson diaries and leather goods. This season I am lusting after the Fashion Diary (for work), one of the colourful Portobello Diaries with slide (for my free time) and anything from the art-deco inspired green croc leather Peridot collection.

Smythson also have a wonderful collection of wedding notebooks (for planning) and guest books (for the big day). Plus if you are lucky enough to have a big budget they can of course create bespoke invitations and stationery for your wedding day. What better time could there possibly be to indulge in such decadence?!

.brogues II

2012-01-16T19:53:00.001Z

.If you are a regular ready of this blog firstly thank you and secondly, you will know that I love brogues. Recently I gave in to my base desires and purchased these blush pink beauties from Asos. When they arrived they were even more glossy and pretty in real life. My husband liked them so much that he has since been looking out for a similar pair for himself - although personally I still LOVE the Paul Smith pair he wore on our wedding day.

.valentino & prada

2012-01-13T10:29:00.000Z

.Have you seen this stunning wedding making the blog rounds this week? I think her dress is absolutely breathtaking and he is a pretty snazzy dresser too! Her dress is Valentino and his suit is Prada. I love non-conventional wedding dresses as can be seen from my choice. This was a destination wedding in Italy and all of the details of this amazingly beautiful day can be seen on Boho Wedding Blog.

.our wedding: the night before

2011-12-07T18:33:00.000Z

shoreditch house: reception

shoreditch house: treatment room

shoreditch house: manicure / pedicure area

shoreditch house: kitchen

shoreditch house: roof top pool

.I spent the night before our wedding at the wonderful Shoreditch House in East London. There are many cool hotels to choose from in the area but I picked Shoreditch House because it is one of my favourite places (a private members club for people in the creative industries) and I wanted to be in one place where I could get beauty treatments, eat dinner, party a little and then have a relaxing night.

My best friend and 'Best Woman' Claire and her boyfriend joined me for the night. I started with a luxurious back scrub, pedicure and first ever manicure (I went for my signature pillar box red on my toes and a french manicure on my hands) at the adjoining Cowshed Spa which is owned by the same company. After a few hours of beauty treatments the three of us went upstairs to get a delicious three course dinner in the House Kitchen restaurant before heading up to the rooftop pool and bar area.

It was wonderful spending my last night of singledom with two of my greatest friends in such a beautiful venue. The staff had kindly left me a bottle of champagne in my room so to end the night we retired to the large balcony of my room and drank lots of bubbly and chocolate while looking over the London skyline. A perfect pre-wedding day!

.our wedding: published!

2011-12-07T17:56:00.001Z

.I have been waiting for soooo long to write our wedding recap and to be honest, despite previous promises that I would get on with it I have just been so overwhelmed with work and wonderful married life. The second major reason I stalled is that I was waiting for our wedding to be featured in You and Your Wedding Magazine (they contacted me just after our wedding in July to ask). I was so excited about this and it has taken all of my energy not to tell anyone but finally it is now out in the January/February 2012 issue (page 126!) so I can began to recap our wedding day.

.la broderie anglaise

2011-10-17T16:04:00.000+01:00

.Art Deco-style glass perfume bottle

.Faux Pearl & Rhinestone Brooch

.Vintage Shisedo Clutch Bag

.I have finally opened my online vintage fashion atelier La Broderie Anglaise. Please keep an eye out to see all of the beautiful items I will be listing as time goes on. There will be a focus on vintage pieces which are expecially well suited to brides but there will be other items too. I had such a wonderful time sourcing items and I hope you find something you love too.

.rocks

2011-10-14T09:48:00.000+01:00

source . brand habit

.Now that the rollercoaster of London and Paris Fashion Week is over for me, I shall finally begin my much overdue wedding(s) re-cap. Next week I shall begin with our traditional Ghanaian ceremony and then I shall attempt to describe our English (legal) wedding day after. I hope I do a good job and that you enjoy reading it.

Have a great weekend! .m.v.b xxx

.la semaine

2011-10-06T10:09:00.000+01:00

source . the daily truffle

.I have been very quiet recently but this was for a good reason - I have just finished showing my client's Spring Summer 2012 collections at London Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week! As with all jobs, it is not quite as glamorous as it looks from the outside and some days are really tough, but fashion weeks are amazing. Paris was particularly lovely and sunny this past week.

.There were also a lot of fab wedding dress possibilities on the runways. I did not feel the pressure to wear an actual wedding gown on my wedding day so I am all for selecting from the catwalk. This Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton dress worn by the enigmatic Kate Moss would be a great Town Hall/City Hall chic wedding dress don't you think?

.fondant

2011-09-06T10:56:00.001+01:00

.I am really inlove with romantic ruffles at the moment.

I think this sweet tea dress by BHLDN would look lovely with these J.Crew earrings and a great rose wedding cake. Best of all the dress is only $600 and there are instructions on how to make the cake here!

.re-found

2011-09-02T11:56:00.005+01:00

source . marianne taylor

.One of my favourite finds while wedding planning was a company called Re-Found Objects. They sell a wonderfully eclectic selection of re-cycled and handmade objects for the home and garden. I ordered a few items online and they arrived within a couple of days (great for those last minute wedding panics) their prices were also very good. I bought this stunning paper heart garland and these large letters for the cake table.

Re-found Objects are also based in the North-East of England which made my heart go all a flutter as I went to university in Durham and met Dr.D there. Our crochet heart cake toppers are from here. The 'i carry your heart, i carry it in my heart' sign was handmade by me with these Martha Stewart Weddings templates.

.venues we nearly booked: eltham palace

2011-09-02T11:34:00.000+01:00

source . happylemon

.Eltham Palace embodies everything I adore about the glamour of the 1930s. The childhood home of Henry VIII, it was restored by its new owners in the early 20th century and is now owned by the English Heritage. The palace has a marriage license and the ceremony can take place in this beautiful circular room with all of your guests surrounding you. The recent super-hip wedding of Dazed & Confused Fashion Editor Katie Shillingford was also at the palace.

source . polly alexander

.In the end we chose to wed at Islington Town Hall as the capacity was bigger (160) and it also has a large wood-pannelled circular room. I still dream of an Eltham Palace wedding though, especially after seeing this beautiful day planned by Zoe Lingard and photographed by the amazing Polly Alexander.

.cubes of light

2011-09-02T10:54:00.000+01:00

source . wendy schwartz via coco+kelley

.I don't know if it is something to do with getting married and starting to nest but I am really into interior decor at the moment. Recently I fell head-over-heels in love with this bedroom by Wendy Schwartz. the cubic light feature particularly took my breath away. The aesthetic is so glamourous yet at the same time minimalist - the embodiment of art deco.

.kelley + thomas

2011-09-01T14:09:00.001+01:00

.When I was planning our wedding there were a few weddings which I found myself going back to again and again as inspiration. One of these weddings was this beautiful day shot by San Francisco based photographer Cliff Brunk.

Kelley's beautiful pale grey dress was custommade by Alireza Massoum and inspired by this stunning gown worn by Michelle Williams at the 2006 Academy Awards. She then added vintage accessories she had collected over the years. The entire wedding which was held at Villa Montalvo in California had a Gatsby-esque Hamptons style feel to it as the couple are from New York.

I love how fun and relaxed the day looked plus the chic details like the groom and groomsmen's seersucker bow ties! Plus Kelley changed into a second dress in the evening like me. You can see more photos and read about more here.

.blue blood

2011-08-17T10:52:00.001+01:00

.Initially the part of our wedding day which I was dreading the most was the first dance. I really didn't want to go through the whole performance. In the end though, I realised that it would be fun for Dr. D and I to dance along to one of our favourite songs on such a special day.

We decided that our first dance would be to a Foals song. Foals are one of my favourite bands. From the minute I heard Red Socks Pugie I was in love and it is a love which has only grown stronger. I introduced my boy to them and he instantly felt the same. Some of our best nights out have included watching Foals live so it made sense to have lots of their music at our wedding.

We chose Blue Blood the opening song from their second album Total Life Forever (even though I am a purist and prefer their debut Antidotes - Dr D loves Total Life Forever more). Spanish Sahara came a close second but we felt it was too melancholy - it is supposed to be a happy dance after all! It was also played on Misfits which put me off to be honest (I know, childish of me). Blue Blood is wonderful it is haunting, romantic, an original wedding first dance song and best of all it enabled us to both slow dance together and kick-up our heels and go wild on the dance floor. In the end it was a really fun, romantic moment and I am pleased that we went ahead and did it.

What was / will be your wedding day first dance?

.rouge

2011-08-16T15:50:00.001+01:00

.At the moment I am going through a bit of a red phase. I have always worn bright red Chanel nail varnish on my toenails so my wedding day was of course no exception. I absolutely love the red 1950s style headband above, I wore a black one while on our honeymoon in a cottage in upstate New York, along with my retro bikini. The other day I gave in to temptation and bought this cute ruffled dress from Asos. It was so cheap too! Finally if anyone knows where I can get this D&G handbag please get in touch - I desperately need it in my life!

.pugh

2011-08-05T10:16:00.000+01:00

all images by amy gwatkin

.These are the photographs from the amazingly talented fashion stylist Katie Shillingford's wedding to music producer Alex Dromgoole. I love absolutely everything about this wedding. The bride's powerful veil, the 1930s art deco venue which was my top choice for our own wedding but sadly, our budget just couldn't stretch to it (more about this in a near future post). Finally, as if it wasn't all perfect enough, Ms Shillingford wore a pale grey Gareth Pugh gown - a women after my own pale-grey-wedding-dress-heart!

Fashion industry girls always bring something a little bit special to the table when it comes to weddings.

(disclaimer: I am a fashion PR director and therefore quite biased!)

.t shirt

2011-08-04T09:29:00.000+01:00

.Would you consider wearing a wedding outfit like this? Net-a-Porter currently have a selection of wedding 'dresses' by Lanvin which are actually t-shirt and maxi skirt combinations. I think it is super chic and modern. What do you think?

.paper cuts

2011-08-01T16:11:00.001+01:00

.We made our wedding invitations. And our RSVP cards. We printed the names and addresses on the envelopes. One week before our wedding day we made our order of service. All homemade, with a pc and our hp printer.

In the end it took us many, many hours but saved us a lot of money. That is the reason I write this, to encourage other brides to do the same. We wanted to create something timeless and elegant and although we may not have completely succeeded in this aim, it was jolly good fun trying (ok, truth be told there were some tense moments and painful paper cuts while MVB and Dr D were creating these!).

It was well worth it though to see the end result and receive very lovely praise from our family and friends for the invitations. Unfortunately, I failed to take photographs during the creation process but I can say that all we used was the word programme on our home computer to design the text and some pretty paper from the local stationery shop. We then got to work printing, cutting and tying with silver cord like our life depended on it.

So, if you are currently wondering whether or not to attempt making your own invites, I say go for it. It will be unique, affordable and you and your boy can look back on them proudly once they are done. Furthermore, if your relationship can survive the tension of near fatal paper cuts and the fateful question "Who had the glue last?" then you can survive decades or marriage.

.fan

2011-07-29T10:18:00.000+01:00

.Don't you think these earrings would make wonderful earrings for a vintage inspired bride?

They are super affordable too! From Asos.

.brass

2011-07-28T12:36:00.000+01:00

.For no reason other than that it is beautiful (I cannot even draw) I must have this. If you feel the same way you can get it here from Jayson Home & Garden

.verdant

2011-07-27T11:23:00.000+01:00

.Maybe it is because I have just got married and am therefore starting to feel like 'nesting' but I am really in love with the homewares collection at Anthropology. I don't even eat much bread or eggs but I really want these items to place them in. Tea, well I drink an awful lot of that...

.float

2011-07-26T10:28:00.000+01:00

source . the fashion formula

.Naturally I loved my wedding dress. But if I had to pick a new one I think this would be in with a strong chance. It even has my beloved grey tones. And the fade out is mesmerizing, non?

.bohemia

2011-07-25T11:39:00.002+01:00

source . lisa devlin photography

source . coquine london

source . terzani

source . from me to you

source . iTagstudios on Etsy

.During our wedding planning process I became obsessed with having chandeliers at our reception. We contemplated having these lovely laser cut white chandeliers which perfectly encapsulate the modern vintage aesthetic which we adore. In the end we decided to keep things simpler in order to celebrate the wonderful brickwork of our venue but I do still dream of bohemian glass...

.black gold

2011-07-12T10:53:00.000+01:00

celine handbag

bario -neal ring

alexander mcqueen heels

.This week I am madly lusting after these chic black and gold items. I'd especially love to get my hands on the Alexander Mcqueen heels which are currently in the Net-a-Porter sale!