White Swan: An Elegant Real Wedding

I have a lovely wedding to share with you today and it’s always so heartwarming to hear an internet dating success story, and it’s even more poignantly to me as this is how I met my husband too! Lyns and Tush married on a sunny, sunny day and had a subtle swan theme running throughout their day… I will now pass you over to to Lyns who tells all about her big day.

 Tush and I met on match.com and soon as I saw him, well probably before that I knew he was the one for me. Admittedly, I saved his photo as my screen saver and would daydream about him for hours… such a soppy, romantic woman am I.

© 2012 Cristina Rossi Photography

My dress was totally not what I thought I’d go for. It reminded me of a ‘Swan’ {Tush later chose this as a theme as swans mate for life and this symbolised how we felt about each other} It had a beautiful train, was very romantic, textured and I felt elegant and graceful.

I absolutely went for a short veil that I pulled over my face whilst walking down the aisle. It made me feel very bridal and some of the best photos were when I was wearing it.

We married at the Woburn Sculpture Gallery: because it was close to home, a beautiful location, shut off from the public, and was our little bit of exquisite.

The bridesmaid dresses were from Debenhams, soft pink, to the knee, pleated skirt – very Marilyn Monroe. Simple and suited all shapes and sizes

My six bridesmaids wore their hair exactly how they wanted to, it was personal and individual to them. No particular accessory I can think of.

I walked down the aisle behind my six bridesmaids, and 5 flowers girls I was so happy to give myself away to my husband :)

I walked down the aisle to music performed by an amazing Soprano called Saira Luther – Laschia ch’io pianga (Handel) it was very wedding! It made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, evoked emotion and was just beautifully sang by Saira.

Our florist was Wild Orchid.  Lorraine was really great to work with, she completely understood the look we were going for, simple elegant and classy! Ferrari cream roses for the bridal bouquet, grooms flower and venue and soft pink roses for the bridesmaids and best men.

We were luck enough to have Cristina Rossi as our wedding photographer. A beautiful Italian lady who exuded romance and sophistication in her photography.

Cristina was extremely easy to work with and ultra professional, she completely put us at ease from the minute we met for coffee and Tiramisu!

We now consider Cristina a friend and family photographer. Absolutely worlds apart from any other photographer we interviewed for our wedding!

For our wedding breakfast and evening reception we chose The Red Lion Water End, Hemel Hempstead: it was close to home, had a chilled out ambient atmosphere, fantastic Mediterranean food and we were able to have exactly what we wanted, inside and out, as we hired it out exclusively for the day :)

For decor we used ivory washed straw hearts that were hung up around the venue along with 100’s of white pom poms (that my sister made).

Our swan wedding cake was the talk of the wedding! I’ve never seen or tasted anything like our cake before, despite the 100’s of magazines I browsed through. Lesley made us nuzzling life size swans to match our swan theme. They were displayed on a translucent board that looked like rippling water surround by lilies. The cake was fruit, with vanilla icing, amazing marzipan and a white chocolate coating, no wires.

Our first dance was to a song called ‘lost without you’ by Robin Thicke. We used to play this song a lot when we first met, and it soon became a song, which we referred to as our song! Romantic, and the lyrics are just what my husband says to me (his wife).       

Our most memorable moments?

Lyns ~ ‘Walking down the aisle towards hubbie-to-be, reading our personalised vows, watching our 5 year old niece do a 3 minute reading all by herself with no mistakes, listening to all of the speeches which reduced me to tears by the minute, cutting our Swan wedding cake and waking up as Mrs Ghia the following morning’.

Tush ~ ‘Seeing my wife-to-be walk down the aisle towards me. Seeing the cake and how happy our friends and family were for us’.

If we could impart any words of wisdom?

♥ Make time for you and your hubbie to enjoy the day, agree before hand what this looks like = a quiet drink before you greet your guests, walking around together.

♥ Remember it’s your day, and it will be hard to please all of your family and friends, so don’t try to.

♥ Enjoy the planning, trying on your dress, and all the small things as the big day will go super fast!

♥ Take a pair of flat shoes with you to change in to for when you’re running around, as your feet WILL hurt!

♥ Have a little bag of snacks and water with you if possible; this will help to keep you going.

♥ Try not to turn into Bridezilla – it’s easily done. Know now that there will be some hurdles along the way.

♥ Set a budget, agree what are the most important things and stick to it.

♥ Enlist the help of family and friends for the small things they will love helping you and it will be FUN!

♥ The photographs are your lasting memory of the day, make sure you invest in a super photographer that you’re 110% happy with. Remember you get what you pay for.  Plan you photographs so you know what you’re expecting.

 

Thank you so, so much for sharing your day and great work Cristina Rossi! {Neon Inspired Styled Shoot}.

I love Lyns wedding dress with the contrasting black flowered sash, the Woburn Sculpture Gallery is a stunning wedding venue and how about those his n’ hers cocktails? Nice touch huh? Please do leave our lovely couple lots of love on the blog.

 

WEDDING AWESOMENESS CREDITS >>>>>>>

Photographer: Cristina Rossi Photography

Venue: Day, Woburn Sculpture Gallery. Evening, The Red Lion

Brides…

Dress: The Ivory Wardrobe

Grooms…

Suit: Hugh Harris

Bridemaids…

Dresses: Debenhams

Hair & Make-up: My cousin

Florist: Wild Orchid

Cake: Lesley, Queen of Cakes

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