To infinity... (our wedding report, part 1) | Dani Dunne

Look away right now if you're not interested in weddings in the slightest! I, however, am very interesting in all things wedding, particularly our wedding... so I've put together a couple of reports to accompany our professional images! Hope you enjoy!

Bride
Choosing a dress was the part that freaked me out more than anything else about the wedding – I blogged about my experiences some time ago, but thankfully on the day my Alfred Angelo gown fit like a glove, even if it did give my mum heart palpitations when it came to fastening the corset back... My flower crown was made by a company called Beauxoxo – I’d seen their work on various blogs and felt it would complement my dress nicely; something pretty and natural to offset the simplicity of the dress. At first I was dead set against a veil and refused to try any, but by my first fitting I decided on a whim I wanted a very simple, long tulle veil. I'm really pleased I changed my mind, as we got some great shots when the wind caught it! For my feet, I had a pair of dainty gold ballet pumps from Debenhams... that stayed firmly in their box when the heavens opened for the umpteenth time as I was getting dressed. Thankfully I had a back up in the wings - last year I was very taken with the idea of wearing glittery trainers after a mammoth Pinterest session and had luckily discovered a pair of gold glitter Kangols on eBay for the princely sum of £10. Despite not being the most elegant or glamorous shoes in the world, they certainly kept my feet dry in the dismal conditions. Finally, for most of the day I ended up wearing my not-so-bridal leather jacket to keep warm, accompanied with lots of tea in the run up to the ceremony!

Jewellery
I work in the jewellery industry so naturally it fell to me to sort out our rings! Jon has a simple gold band, made by melting together his grandparents’ wedding rings. Mine was a little more complicated – my engagement ring is quite an unusual shape and I couldn’t find anything readymade to fit around it, until my designer friend Sarah took pity on me and designed a diamond set ring specially to sit alongside the engagement ring. It’s an absolutely perfect fit – I’m so happy with it! The rest of my jewellery came from work as well – a simple rose gold key and heart padlock necklace, with rose gold and cubic zirconia stud earrings which mimicked the shape of my wedding ring.

Bridesmaids
I couldn’t restrain myself when picking bridesmaids so ended up with five - my two sisters Minnie and Naty, my oldest friend Véronique (we've known each other for 23 years!) and my besties Stephie and Geo. All of them have different looks and styles so rather than getting everyone to wear the same outfit, I asked them to pick out a dress to match the colour scheme, with my only stipulation being that they felt comfortable in their outfit. My dream was for my best girls to look happy and carefree on the day in something they’d chosen themselves and they really delivered! I bought each of them a piece of jewellery to match my wedding necklace and everyone had a braid in their hair to pull the overall look together.

Hair & make up
Our hair was curled and plaited to perfection by Lou Seymour - I'm convinced she has some sort of magical ability as she worked on seven of us in record time! I had loose curls with two small plaits looped around my head to weave in with the flower crown and veil. In hindsight I'm glad I went for curls over straight hair as it meant the inevitable ruination by wind and rain looked fairly intentional!
For a long time I was convinced I'd do my own make up - what sort of self-respecting beauty blogger wouldn't? But as the day drew closer I began to dither, which then led to full-blown panic - what if I was stressed on the day, what if my eyeliner was wonky, what if my make up didn't last, what if I had left it too late to find a professional? Luckily my friend Laura put me in touch with Louise Goodson, who was a vision of calm and serenity and helped me to feel totally relaxed as she worked her magic! She used my favourite foundation, NARS Sheer Glow, as well as a gorgeous Charlotte Tilbury eye palette which I'm now coveting... I wanted my eyes to stand out a fair bit, so as well as winged eyeliner we opted for some individual lashes on the outer corners. Louise also used a few of my own products at my request, so my blush was NARS Dolce Vita, with MAC Soft & Gentle to highlight, and my wedding lipstick was Mehr by MAC.

Groom & Groomsmen
Jon was very adamant he didn’t want a traditional wedding suit – he works in the City so is surrounded by people in black, grey and navy all the time. Instead he took inspiration from the Eleventh Doctor (plus about a hundred pins I showed him of "rustic" wedding attire) and cobbled together an outfit using a brown tweed waistcoat with a pair of tan chinos from Next, then added a gold polka dot tie, brogues (both M&S) and his grandfather’s pocketwatch to complete the ensemble. The groomsmen all emulated the look with similar outfits, so they blended in without looking identical. Each of them wore the same tie to pull the look together, similar to the girls and their braids.

Flowers
My initial plan was do all the flowers ourselves, from bouquets to table centrepieces. We chose simple gypsophila bouquets for the bridesmaids and a selection of supermarket flowers for the tables. My bouquet was going to be fairly simple and homemade until a lovely company called Blossoming Gifts contacted me a couple of weeks before the wedding, offering me a bouquet to feature on my blog. They very kindly arranged my beautiful wedding bouquet for me, the Cinder Rose with roses and gypsophila to tie in with the other flowers – it was perfect! The other bouquets and buttonholes were put together by Jon and his mum two days before the wedding, and the table flowers were arranged by all my lovely helpers on the morning of the ceremony – including my dad!