Kitsch Colourful Vintage & Retro Fiesta Wedding

Do real wedding feature post titles get any better than this?! I think NOT. I am over the moon to be sharing WWW readers Emma and Conor’s amazingly colourful wedding today, which was held on the 15^th September 2018 at Pennard House in Somerset following a church ceremony. Their celebrations are certain to give you that Friday feeling and it’s totally kicking of February in style.

A kitsch, multicolour, vintage fiesta was the vision, which they indeed achieved and more. There is so much to be inspired by here, from the quirky décor and personal touches to the sublime florals. There is just so much to share; think pom poms, bunting, photo booths, lighting and cool signage to name a few. There were also some super awesome outfit choices. Emma wore an original vintage 1940s dress, with a veil and statement shoes, Conor and the boys donned green tweed suits and hot pink bow ties, while the bridesmaids chose their own dresses. So stylish.

I really could talk about their day forever, but let me instead allow you to enjoy these incredible captures by Oxi Photography, we are so thankful to be sharing them with you guys!

The Proposal

Conor proposed to me on a weekend away in the Cotswolds November 2016. While staying in a converted train Carriage in the middle of a field dressed in my tartan nighty (cringe) and wellies admiring the stars he pulled out the ring and asked me. I didn’t get on the knee treatment but we were surrounded by a muddy field, so I’ll let him off. He then took me to the zoo the next day which was equally as exciting. Too much happiness in one weekend!!

The Vision

We wanted a kitsch fiesta full of colour and humour. A church wedding with a twist and surprises for the guests and the Bride and Groom.

I created a wedding ideas book just covered in images and notes that we would wrangle into some sort of storyline to apply to the wedding.

The Planning Process

We started really early and got the big ticket items booked and deposits paid so we could concentrate and use time on things like our decorations and ideas.

A lot of our ideas came from online and we would just pick at bits here and there that we liked and could fit in our budget and ticked off as we went along.

The Readings & Music

We are dog mad and our 2 girls were not able to come to our day even though Pennard House are happy to have dogs attend during certain hours of the day our girls are a little too large and bouncy for well-dressed prosecco holding guests. So, we had a reading at the ceremony called “love is like a dog” by Taylor Mali as a nod to the dogs.

My entrance music was ‘You’re Gorgeous’ by Baby Bird – chosen by my grandparents to hear at the reception but I chose to surprise them with it as I walked down the aisle.

Our register music was the Jurassic Park theme tune (I like dinosaurs a fair bit) – this lends itself very well in a church…who’d have thought!!

Our exit music was Hallelujah chorus by Handel.

Budget

We certainly aren’t made of money so we tried to make a lot of our decorations by hand and other items from wedding boot sales and old school emporiums to find good deals. We are a hugely creative couple so we considered it as challenge accepted. This is where your website really helped us, I stole so many ideas and upcycling projects from other real weddings you had online. There were so many that just reflected my vision of our wedding day.

Most of our budget was on venue and catering.

The Venue

The wedding was held at Pennard House in East Pennard Somerset. It’s a very laid back wedding venue in that they let you do what you need to do to the venue to create your vision. Its family owned and they made us welcome at every stage. It added to the vintage but grand image I had for my day perfectly. It was the first venue we visited and we just fell in love.

They also have the local village church right at the bottom of the grounds so we were able to walk to the church from the house and equally able to walk from the church to the reception. It was the Coach House that really sold it for us which is their reception area. Words don’t do it justice it’s just stunning.

Beauty

My hair and makeup was done by The Pop Up Parlour, who specialise in vintage style, my hair stylist and makeup artist for the day was Elouise who gave me a Bardot themed look. The bridesmaids also had their hair done by the Pop Up Parlour.

Groomsmen

The Groomsmen all had matching suits from Moss suit hire. With bubblegum pink velvet bow ties and pocket squares.

Bridesmaids

The bridesmaids all choose their own dresses with just the idea to keep to similar colours and vintage style. They pulled out the bag massively especially as we only saw them on all together on the day. My maid of honour had slightly different to make her stand out. Her dress was from Mango. They all went for bright wacky shoes as a nod to mine we had leopard print, bejewelled and pink glitter all going on down there ?

Your Outfits & Accessories

My dress was from Heavenly Vintage Brides a vintage dress outfitters owned by Helena Butler in London (found her on Etsy). It was a glamorous 1940s vintage satin gown and altered for me by Helena’s seamstress Grace. I had seen the dress online shortly after the engagement but felt it too early to enquire, a year on and it was still available. It was the first dress I saw and tried on. It was instant love and I enjoyed every minute wearing it. Even my slip and veil was vintage (found for me by the seamstress). I had buttons handmade also by the seamstress to add to sleeves to match the originals down the front and I even found a vintage 40’s sewing bag in a local emporium to use for my evening bag. It was truly a vintage fan’s dream outfit!

My shoes were from Hetre in Alresford who sell the most bad ass off the wall shoes. I walked in and saw a pair of bright acid Green (my fave colour) velvet strappy heels by Rupert Sanderson staring at me (luckily mum was with me … queue flutter of lashes) it was the last pair in my size, so they came home with me ?. Of all the items on me on the day the shoes by far got the most attention.

My bracelet, necklace and earrings belonged to my great granny Moo. Emerald and pearl costume jewellery, she left them to me as I would play dress up in that set all the time when I was little. It was a very proud moment to wear them on my wedding day in memory of her.

My engagement ring was made by FrillyByLily and our wedding bands came from Beaverbrooks and my hair pins were from VintageBobbinBridal.

Groom – Conor chose his own suit and accessories. His suit was hired from Moss in a green tweed. Shoes were Asos and bow tie and pocket square in shocking pink were from The Tie Room.

The Flowers

The flowers were one of my favourite parts of the day, just jaw droppingly gorgeous. Luce Loves Flowers was our florist from Street Somerset. She also has a vintage workshop full of lovely things. My brief for the bouquet was colourful and happy and she hit the nail on the head. I had Dahlias, snap dragons and Crespedia to name but a few and the bridesmaids had smaller bouquets with a nod to mine. I hand picked all the ribbons from the local haberdashery we used around them to suit each bridesmaids individual taste as well as mine.

The Details & Décor

We couldn’t afford flowers for the church so we grew our own succulents and marigolds in tins and buckets and had giant paper flowers placed above the altar. We then had these moved to the reception after the ceremony. We had hand tied multi coloured vintage hankies on a vintage book stand for people to take for happy tears in the church. All our pew ends were homemade pom pom decorations.

The drinks reception we had a vintage trolley with prosecco in coupe glasses and gin cocktails with retro drinks accessories. We provided lawn games such as welly wanging, sack race and pin the tail on the cow all while being serenaded by the mariachi band.

Our reception area was covered by festoon lighting, dias de los muertos bunting, tassel garlands, a giant pom pom wall hanging and colour strewn everywhere. Our table plan was a retro drinks bar with our guests names hanging off gin bottle and retro postcards with our table names on. We even had a games area with aeroplane seats to chill on and a selection of retro games.

We had a Del Boy photo booth and a suitcase full of props for an inside photobooth too. The ladies loo had a glitter and bindi station and the lads loo had a tattoo and moustache station.

We had a carousel horse with a basket for our cards and instead of a guest book we had patches to sign for a patchwork quilt being made for us.

The Honeymoon

We did a mini moon in Wales staying in a fisherman’s hut near the coast of Aberaeron. It was very romantic and laid back we played on the arcades on the pier at Aberystwyth, did coastal walks and explored castles and the steam railway. We took some or our wedding cake and champagne and sat around the campfire and enjoyed together in peace and quiet.

The Cake

The cake was made by my Mum’s friend. Its was blooming huge we were so chuffed. It was a 4 tier naked cake with raspberry and buttercream centre covered in flowers by our florist.

Our cake topper was Lego depicting me and Conor and our 2 dogs Bombay and Bambi. We even sawed the leg off Bambi’s Lego piece to match her real life 3 legged self.

Your Photographer

Our photographer was Oxi Photography AKA Oxana. She is hugely talented and I’m so pleased we found her. We enjoyed having her at the wedding and were just blown away by the photos she took. I don’t think she knows how good she is!!

Memorable Moments

Possibly the most memorable moment for us and the guests was when the Mariachi band came around the corner playing and singing towards our drinks reception. Everyone instantly got excited and joined in, it was fiesta fantastic! The band were called Mariachi Tequilla.

Most memorable moment for the Bride was my gift from my husband he announced in his speech of tickets for a Ru Pauls Drag race roast battle. He had booked me a meet and greet with several of the contestants and then to watch them perform afterwards. The best bit is he bought a ticket for himself too, I knew that I had definitely married the right man at this point!!

Most memorable moment for the Groom was the Only Fools and Horses photo booth I arranged to surprise him. It was the Del Boy car converted into a photobooth with all the the only fools props, this was very popular and a good giggle with the guests as well as for me and my husband.

Advice For Other Couples

Don’t be afraid to show your true colours and what you love as a couple. It doesn’t matter what others think its your day so do it however/wherever/whenever you want. Inject as much as your personality into your day as possible as its you that needs to look back on the day and smile.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Wow, what a day!

Emma and Conor, thank you both so very much for sharing your wonderful wedding with us xo Lou