When I wore my wedding trousers in this post last week I was asked by several people to post photos from my wedding. So I thought I'd share a few with you and give you a little bit of background about the event as we did things somewhat differently…!
When: January 2006
Where: Chelsea Register Office, Kings Road,
Who: Me, Mr. Summers and about 28 immediate family and close friends
Points to note: This was my second marriage and I’d already had the big white wedding, plus Mr. Summers isn’t the type to want a big shindig so a very informal, no frills affair suited us both. There were also only six weeks between the proposal (mine, to him) and the wedding (I’m an impatient woman), so all the usual “extras” went straight out the window… I wasn't bothered about them anyway.
Total estimated cost: £1,000 (or US $1,500); that was everything, from rings and wedding licence to hotel for the night). Saving money is my not-so-secret superpower.
The outfit in its entirity... bar my feet. I'm afraid I have no full length shots with the fur coat on, sorry! This was taken just before leaving the house. The coat, tops and trousers were all bought in the January sales and I wore a pair of shoes I already owned that were perfect. I absolutely loved the texture of the coat (faux fur of course) with the lace and all the shades of cream and ivory.
I think the fact that we did things our way (as opposed to what most people expect at a wedding) is what made it so special and memorable for us:
- I'd bought my outfit the week before in the January sales and tried on whatever I liked the look of. Plus it was January... a great excuse to wear a fabulous fur coat.
- We travelled to the register office on the tube (London Underground). Yep, in our wedding outfits. You can wear anything in
London - On the way I stopped to buy a single rose from the famous florists at Michelin House (which is in the same building where we first met and worked together), rather than having a bouquet.
- When we arrived at the register office we were ushered into a room to sign paperwork (no time to even say hello to anyone); as our families had never met before, they all had to introduce themselves to one another while we were signing papers.It was a great ice breaker apparently.
- We all walked down the road together (in the drizzly rain) from the register office to the bar-restaurant where we had a sit-wherever-you-like buffet reception… no vintage car or transport.
I totally get that this would horrify most women – myself included if it had been my first marriage! – but we simply wanted a fun day that everyone would enjoy and not have to worry about, so no speeches at the reception for example. Likewise I didn't ask my niece (who is also my goddaughter) to be a witness in advance as she would have got into a right tizzy about it and not enjoyed the ceremony... we simply asked her on the spot and she agreed, so then she had only sixty seconds of panic rather than a few weeks.
"Something Old": my diamante hair slides
"Something New": shrug, trousers, coat, bag
"Something Borrowed": my sister's brooch
"Something Blue": I struggled with this so I painted my toenails a pretty blue (no pics of them though, sorry!)
I also did my own hair, make-up and nails.
On the steps of Chelsea Register Office - the same place where many celebrities, including Roman Polanski and the beautiful Sharon Tate, got married. You can see news footage of their wedding below - check out how stylish Joan Collins and Candice Bergen looked!
Above: My second favourite picture from the day (see my no.1 favourite below) - it shows just how informal the reception afterwards was! It was my first drink after the ceremony and someone thrust a pint of beer into my hands... so unladylike ;)
My favourite picture from the day...! This was our obligatory self-portrait that we do everywhere we go, whenever we go on holiday or out for the day somewhere. We were in the park where we used to have lunch when we worked in Chelsea - this was before the ceremony and before seeing any friends or family. (We didn't get married in that enormous church behind however!) It was nice to have a bit of a walk round our old stomping ground and reminisce for a bit before saying I do.
And so that was my wedding, I hope you liked the pictures! As we didn't have a professional photographer we simply used all the photos from friends and family - and that suited us just fine. In fact I'm glad we had only six weeks to organise it; it shaped the way the day played out and it was perfect - less organisation meant there was very little that could go wrong! If anyone wants to know more details about how we did a wedding on a budget, then let me know if you'd like a post about that. But that would be my last wedding-themed post...!
Happy weekend everyone xoxo
P.S. Just so everyone knows: I'm certainly not saying that brides shouldn't have all the extras I mentioned at their wedding if they want them - far from it! I just meant that we did ours the way we wanted, which was to cut out a load of stuff we didn't want to have to organise. Every couple should do as do as much or as little as they want and can afford :)
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