If you’re a lover of travel and looking to DIY your own wedding, you will find so much inspiration from today’s whimsical travel inspired wedding!
Ellie & George incorporated many sweet, hand-crafted elements into their big day – including heart-shaped bunting and a table planner made from maps, streams of pretty fairy lights, a made-by-mum naked wedding cake, travel themed wedding favours and the bride arranging all her own flowers!
Words by Ellie and images by Robin Studios Photography.
I had my dress made from scratch. I had a really clear vision of what I wanted and it surpassed my expectation. I used a wonderful dressmaker based in Beckenham called Patricia Brazier. She was absolutely fantastic and I didn’t spend a fortune.
It was important to me that I had the dress I wanted, but I couldn’t justify spending a huge chunk of our wedding fund on one dress… There were other areas that were more important to spend the money, like food and booze!
I loved how elegant my wedding dress made me feel. It was timeless and classic but also quite cool. I felt wonderful in it, it was exactly what I had always dreamed of.
The design was completely bespoke and I chose the lace myself. Patricia added touches that I wouldn’t have thought of like little buttons on the sleeves and a charming little blue bow on the inside of the bust ☺ that nobody saw but I knew it was there!!
George had two best men and wore a Noose & Monkey checked suit with a Tissot watch I bought him as a wedding gift, he wore this along with his wedding band.
My lovely Dad gave me away… we walked down the aisle to Elvis Presley “can’t help falling in love” and George and I exited to “signed sealed delivered!”
I loved walking in with my dad and seeing George looking handsome in his suit waiting for me.
For the wedding decor, my mum and I made heart-shaped garlands out of maps (sticking with the travel theme) and hung them from the back wall of the venue behind the top table.
It was a labour of love over many weekends to hand make them but they looked fab. We also made plain bunting to hang between the pillars of the venue, loads of fairy lights were strung up too for a magical Xmas feel.
We love to travel, so I made little favour bags for each person containing a blank postcard from places from around the world and a pencil with a silly quote on.
We wrote instructions to write a piece of advice, message or whatever they liked and post it to us in our postbox. My husband is a postman so instead of a box for cards, we had a postbox!
My mum made our wedding cake. A naked Victoria sponge cake decorated with fresh berries.
We also had a lovely cheese tower which I was so looking forward to eating- sadly I couldn’t eat any of it on the day as I was 12 weeks pregnant when we got married!!
My best moment of the evening was George announcing my pregnancy during his Groom’s speech and the reaction from everyone as no one knew!
And just generally sitting back and taking it all in watching all our friends and family have such a great time. There was a lot of love in the room, It was a great feeling.
Jess and Charlie our wedding photographers were fantastic. We wanted really laid back and natural pictures, nothing too posed or set up. They captured our day perfectly and we barely knew they were there.
They are also both lovely and a pleasure to have around. I would highly recommend them and definitely use them when I need professional photography! They were extremely reasonably priced and I really felt we got more than we paid or asked for.
As a couple if we could impart any words of wisdom we would say…
Time time time! I was adamant that I wanted to do as much of it myself as possible, to be able to be economical in the process. I had a whole year to plan the day and therefore was able to research options, get things cheaper or make things myself. If I hadn’t had time we would have had to spend more money.
I’m also a producer by trade so this side of planning came pretty naturally to me. I took complete control and loved it.
And enjoy it. You are planning the best party of your life, have fun!!
wedding credits / photographer: robin studios / wedding venue: avenue halls, kew / brides dress: patricia brazier / grooms suit: noose & monkey / brides shoes: rachel simpson / bridesmaid dresses: asos / hair & makeup: bride / florist: bride / wedding cake: brides mum / catering: cateredbyjustin
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