I want to share Beckie's story and some of her beautiful wedding photographs with you. Beckie and Matt celebrated their marriage at Frensham Heights, stunning late Victorian mansion near Farnham, Surrey, which is now home to a boarding school.
Beckie came across my bridal headpiece designs after seeing the River Romance styled shoot in Whimsical Wonderland Weddings which featured work of her wedding photographer, Mindy Coe, and her hair and make up artist, Melissa Oldridge. She was especially taken with the vintage bone china posy flower crown we styled in the shoot, and got in touch via email to find out more. Based less than an hour away from my home studio, Beckie arranged to come and see some my headpiece designs up close.
Beckie and I met up at my home studio in West Sussex, along with Beckie's mum, around 6 months before her August wedding date. Beckie brought along a swatch of fabric from her wedding dress as well as the belt she had already chosen to adorn it, and some pictures on her phone of hairstyle ideas and headpiece designs she liked. We chatted about the venue - comfortable and elegant, her flowers - 'cottage garden' style and the feel she hoped her wedding would have. We looked at different headpiece shapes and styles, the colours and tones and the types of vintage jewellery materials we could use. Finally, we spoke about incorporating some family jewellery and elements from Beckie's grandma's wedding headpiece.
Our communications then proceeded via email, with me sending Beckie pictures of mock ups of designs I had been working on, which included her family jewellery and some other elements I had sourced for the commission. At each stage we discussed which pieces Beckie preferred, finally settling on a design which incorporated an additional marcasite brooch and earrings found amongst her great-grandmother Ivy's jewellery and posted to me at the studio.
Once the design was agreed by email, the final piece was created, adding a final personal touch by including some little sparkly white 'buds' taken from Beckie's grandmother's wedding headpiece. Beckie was able to come and collect her finished headpiece in person; the whole process taking around 10 weeks.
This was such a lovely commission to work on. The soft, pastel colours, the delicate floral shapes and being able to weave some family jewellery into the design, make it a very memorable piece which, I hope, captured Beckie's vision for a romantic and personal heirloom headpiece. It was so special to receive some pictures from Beckie after the wedding, including some of her hair and make up artist, Melissa Oldridge helping to get her ready.
The beautiful images are by Mindy Coe Photography. Beckie's lace and organza wedding dress is by Romantica of Devon bought from The Bridal Boutique in Bristol. Her beautiful bouquet was from Florescence
It was wonderful too to receive Beckie's testimonial, 'Just wanted to thank you for my beautiful headpiece again! My grandma was absolutely delighted to see all the bits in it and I had people coming up all day to look at the detail of it! I took it on honeymoon and wore it for two nights out there as well which was lovely.'