Crafty Yellow Vintage Village Hall Wedding

Village hall weddings are always some of my faves. Growing up in a village myself there is something special about a local country low key affair. Especially one which is hand made and where loved ones all contribute towards.

Nic and Lizi chose to marry on the 30th May 2015 at Lewes Town Hall followed by a knees up at Selmeston Village Hall. There was a lovely vintage feel with bride Lizi wearing an original 1960s gown teamed with pearls and red lips. Nic meanwhile went for a navy and bow tie combo while the maids clutched colour pop yellow bouquets.

The décor was a triumph, all kraft paper table cloths, pom poms, crockery and sponge cake. Delish.

Sue Kwiatkowska, thank you so much for sending over these delightful images.

THE PROPOSAL | (Lizi) It was a cosy evening in early January; we were sitting together watching TV in our flat when Nic just turned to me. He said he didn’t know what he was waiting for, would I marry him? We went together to choose the ring the next day, in Brighton’s lovely South Lanes.

THE VISION | Vintage and informal.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | (Nic) We knew that we did not want a long engagement, and Lizi’s job as a teacher restricted our dates to school holidays. It was a choice between October and May and we decided to be brave and opted for May. We dove straight in to the planning, even creating a project plan to make sure we would get everything done. Everything seemed to come together for our venues and then, with a lot of help from our friends and family, we were off!

BUDGET | Neither of us wanted a big, formal, expensive wedding. We knew it was one day out of the many, many days of our marriage, so kept the budget in perspective.

THE VENUE | (Nic) Lewes Town Hall for the ceremony and Selmeston village hall for the reception. We wanted a civil ceremony and decided that a smaller venue would be better so Lewes won out over Brighton. The more intimate and less busy venue meant that we had plenty of time in the beautiful town hall before and after the ceremony.

Selmeston is a tiny village just to the east of Lewes, we saw the village hall starring in another wedding we saw online and knew it was exactly what we wanted; small but perfectly formed. Imagine our delight when we found it was so close! We decorated the hall ourselves, alongside our friends and family. Lizi did an amazing job of sourcing all of the decorations on eBay and we were able to transform the hall in just a couple of hours.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | (Lizi) My dress was a vintage lace dress from 1961; I knew that I wanted lace sleeves to feel comfortable and a shorter length to avoid too much formality. In the end, my dress needed a few alterations but this was discovered to be the third or fourth time this dress had been changed; I loved the fact that my dress had been a part of so many people’s special day. In terms of jewellery, I wore my late great grandmother’s pearls for the ceremony and a Rob Ryan/Tatty Devine necklace Nic had surprised me with the night before (it was left on our bed when I got home from setting up the hall) for the reception. I chose a short veil for the ceremony and gold shoes. When else can you wear gold shoes if not on your wedding day?

FINDING THE DRESS | (Lizi) I bought my dress from the vintage section of Etsy. It took a lot of second, third and fourth opinions but it was perfect. Buying online helped us to keep the cost down; I really wanted to avoid falling in love with ‘the one’ only to find it was unattainable. My shoes were from Modcloth and my veil from ‘Wedding Veils Direct’.

GROOM’S ATTIRE | (Nic) I was probably a little too relaxed about my suit, only picking it out 1 month before the wedding date. It came from a shop called “Luigi” in North Laine in Brighton; as the name suggested it was run by an old Italian man who made sure that it fitted perfectly.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | (Lizi) I walked down the aisle to Billy Joel’s ‘To Make You Feel My Love’. My dad and I have always listened to Billy Joel’s music together, singing in the car and going to concerts, so it felt right to walk in with him to that familiar voice.

After we’d said our vows my brothers read ‘Ring’ by Carol Ann Duffy; it’s a beautifully common sense poem with lots of references to nature and friendship so suited us perfectly. Their reading was slightly uncoordinated which made everyone laugh after what had been quite an emotional ceremony. It meant a lot to me that my brothers were involved in the ceremony; there’s a lovely picture of them looking approvingly at Nic.

Later in the night, our first dance was to Ed Sheeran’s ‘Thinking Out Loud’. The refrain ‘we found love right where we are’ resonated with both of us; we were friends for over fifteen years before we got together and I think it’s fair to say that we were both surprised and delighted at how quickly we fell head over heels.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | (Lizi) We were so lucky with our wonderful flower girls, Freya and Bethie. They wore beautiful yellow dresses to match their flowers and very bravely led the way into the ceremony. My two maids of honour, Rach and Emily, wore dark blue, but different dresses were necessitated by Rach being 7 months pregnant (not that it stopped her dancing the night away). Rach and Emily were amazing: they planned the most perfect hen (a spa day, afternoon tea and tequila), shopped for make-up and accessories, helped with the decoration of the hall and spent the morning with me, keeping me calm while we got ready. Having them by my side throughout really made me feel like the luckiest bride in the world.

THE FLOWERS | (Lizi) When we lived in Hove, we had been fortunate enough to be right up the road from our very favourite florist, The Flowerstand. And we’d been filling our homes with their blooms forever. Their style of relaxed and varied bouquets really fitted with what we wanted for the day, so they were the natural choice for our bouquets and buttonholes. For our table flowers, our wonderful family came to our aid yet again; my grandmother used to be a florist and so kindly agreed to create the beautiful arrangements in the twenty or so vintage vases I’d bought from eBay. We chose bright yellow chrysanthemums and billy buttons, alongside daisies and sprays of baby’s breath, like sunshine in an English country garden.

THE CAKE | (Lizi) The talent and generosity of our friends was demonstrated yet again by the offer of one my colleagues, Daisy, who created our cake for us. Having seen beautiful ‘naked’ cakes on various blogs and pinterest, we knew that was what we wanted, using jam made by our parents for the different tiers. Daisy’s cake was truly delicious and extremely popular with all of our guests; friendships were tested by who got the leftovers!

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | (Nic) On a recommendation from my brother and sister-in-law we looked at Sue Kwiatkowska’s website and instantly decided that she would be our choice. Thankfully she was free on the date and agreed to be our photographer. We had a pre-wedding shoot on a wet and windy morning down on the promenade in Hove; Sue really put us at ease and the photos confirmed that we had made the right decision. On the day Sue was fantastic, she is so friendly and skilled at allowing people to relax in front of the camera and she captured some beautiful, candid shots. Sue had scouted a couple of great locations we’d never have thought of, we absolutely love the photos.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | (Nic) The theme was loosely yellow, white and blue. We decorated the hall ourselves with lights, lanterns and pompoms from eBay. The tables were decorated with white linen and brown paper table runners. We started with tea on vintage porcelain rented from a local charity which my mum had found and for our main meal we used the plain white china that was provided by the hall. Lizi’s mum made what seemed like miles of beautiful yellow bunting, created from scraps of vintage fabrics, which decorated the outside of the hall and the entrance.

THE HONEYMOON | (Nic) This one was easy, we’d booked our summer holiday before getting engaged so took the simple step of retitling it as our honeymoon. The trip was a week in Japan and a fortnight in Singapore and Malaysia, three weeks in total. We opted for a mixture of Air bnb and smart hotels including a week at the immaculate Japamala Tioman resort. Our highlight was probably the first stop in Tokyo where we spent some time with one of Lizi’s friends. A personal favourite moment was flying to Tioman island as the only two passengers in an 8 seat propeller aircraft; the landing, involving an alarm squawking “Terrain, terrain, pull up, don’t think, pull up” was less fun.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | In a short gap between the ceremony and the reception, we had a moment to ourselves. We wandered down the lane from the hall and found a little churchyard with a bench. Sitting in the sun, surrounded by spring flowers as it all sunk in, it was perfect.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Just really think about what you enjoy and stick to that. No-one remembers the favours or seat covers, cut the fat.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photography | Sue Kwiatkowska Photography

Venue | Alciston and Selmeston Village hall

Food | Mid Sussex Hog Roast

Flowers | The Flowerstand Hove

Dress | Citizen Vintage Bridal via Etsy

Veil | Wedding Veils Direct

Shoes | Modcloth

Ahh so lovely.

Thanks so very much to Nic and Lizi for sharing their super special celebration with us xo Lou