Literary Themed Vintage Wedding With Bold & Vibrant Orange Flowers: Anna & Simon

Today’s real bride is an avid reader and absolutely adores children’s literature. Anna and Simon both loved the nostalgia of their literary-themed wedding that harked back to their childhoods!

As fans of vintage styling and looks, they didn’t want anything too mainstream in terms of the wedding dress or decor, and Anna certainly was a stand-out bride in her vintage knee-length gown and beautiful, bold and bright orange floral crown…

Words by Anna. Images by Dan Hough Photography.

Simon and I married at St Agnes Church in West Kirby – it’s our local parish church and we have both been brought up as Catholics.

Our wedding reception was held at Oh Me Oh My, Liverpool. We loved its grandeur, relaxed vibes, quirky detail, unforgettable rooftop. Overlooking the iconic Liver Buildings.

My wedding dress was Orla Kiely and I absolutely loved its vintage style. I wanted to wear something that reflects my style and I would feel comfortable in. Loved all the lace detail whilst remaining quite plain. I always thought I would end up in a knee-length dress too, which suited the spring vibes of our day.

My Dad walked me down the aisle to Canon in D performed by local cellist and violinist – my Father in law and two family friends also sang and played throughout the ceremony.

Simon and I met through mutual friends in 2010. We bonded over our love of indie, and indeed, live music.

We got engaged on a gorgeous holiday in New Zealand in 2014.

We adored working with our wedding photographer Dan and felt so confident we picked someone who would truly reflect and capture all the key moments and small detail of the day. He is unassuming and stealth-like in his photography style and has a true eye for a good shot.

Importantly, he read us and could work out exactly what we were going for. He felt like a friend was with us and he put us at complete ease in front of the camera. He also was great with family and guests, which was a big plus for us.

Kate our florist is one of the most passionate people we encountered when wedding planning. Both my husband and I had complete confidence she understood exactly the bold colour and style yet messy and informal nature we wanted from our wedding flowers.

Kate gets her flowers from a flower farm in Cheshire and we loved that they were local and cut the day before the wedding.

My dad is Dutch so we also knew we wanted tulips and we just wanted in-season flowers to complement them. The colour orange reflected my Dutch roots but also really pulled out the butterflies on the bridesmaid dresses.

My flower crown creation far exceeded my expectations and Kate did exactly what we discussed. She gave me the confidence to go big and bold.

I spent months scouring charity shops and the internet to buy vintage ladybird and Puffin books. We had a literary theme tied throughout the day from paper flowers lining the aisle, book-inspired order of services, library tickets for save the dates through to a bookcase table plan and book piles as the centrepieces.

Instead of wedding favours, we donated money to the The Book Bus charity

We are not big sweet and dessert fans so we always wanted a wedding cake that we’d lust after more. We picked cheese flavours we love and a gouda as a nod to my Dutch family. They went with an Alice in Wonderland theme to sit comfortably on our Alice in Wonderland table.

If we could offer any advice to other couple’s we would say… Make decisions from the heart and be confident you are making the right decision. Don’t second guess yourself.

Don’t waste money on stuff that on the day you won’t notice or really care about! You literally just want to talk to people and revel in the buzz.