Outfits & Looking the Part
The dress. THE dress. Potentially the most important part of your day, the part 895375 people will ask about, potentially a huge part of your budget. Outfits are an expensive there is no two ways about it no matter how chill your day and no matter how much you spend, I don’t know anyone who hasn’t bought something a bit special or at least something new.
It doesn’t matter how big or how small your day, how much money you’re spending or how many guests you’re having, at the end of the day it’s a life changing set of legal words and a change to your marital status and you want to be feeling your best, most confident, sparkly, happy version of yourself.
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I did think about if I wanted a white dress for our wedding or not and it was something I did give a lot of consideration to (especially when I saw Liv Purvis’ blush dress of dreams) and in the end I decided I did which actually surprised me. I was so chill throughout the wedding process, so blasé about a lot of things and so keen to do it our way, against tradition but actually, a white dress was a tradition I did want to keep - but not spend a lot of money on. I know a lot of brides say they don’t want to spend a lot and I know to some then £500 is a bargain if they didn’t spend £1K, £250 is a bargain if they didn’t spend £500 but to me, I meant a bargain and I couldn’t really justify spending anything more than £100 on a dress for one day - and that felt quite excessive in itself!
Friday:
I knew I wanted to keep my white dress for our big party so for the legal ceremony I decided to wear something I already owned. I didn’t decide until probably only a month or so before the day what I wanted to wear and I settled on a gold silk maxi dress I had for my birthday the previous October - because let’s be honest, what other occasion could I wear such a garment? I paired it with my black leather jacket and black studded biker boots, both of which I have owned for years and just kept it to all my own stuff. I think I had my nails painted nude, I had all my usual jewellery, I wore some Primark gold hoops in my ears and I still had my fitbit on - gotta get them steps in at all times.
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Saturday:
I actually ordered my wedding dress sat on the train on the way to Bristol the day before my friends wedding, back in May of last year. I was browsing ASOS looking at high street wedding dress options and noticed they had a sale on, ordered about 6 (thank god for credit cards) and then tried them on at home with my Mum. The one I thought I’d like the most I didn’t and then I tried on my dress last of all and knew from the minute I put it on that I didn’t want to take it off. I did have a mild panic that I’d found one ‘too early’ for a mere £75 and maybe I should try on big princessy dresses in real wedding shops but every time I put my dress back on I was reminded I bloody loved it. I ended up having it fitted by a seamstress as it was a bit long so she pulled the bodice up and dropped the hem to make a mini train and it fitted like a glove. I actually had more trouble finding underwear than I did the dress, spending hundreds on bits and sending them back and trying them on and taking them back and in the end it was Next that saved my bacon with a one piece seamless job that was half the price of the bloody dress but was comfortable all day and allowed me to go to the loo without assistance - always a bonus.
I ended up having three shoe changes throughout the wedding party, starting with my yellow wellies which I wore when we were having photographs in the field and when I was traipsing back and forth around the barn. I swapped into my flats (I never even entertained the idea of heels) which I bought for £20 on ASOS and then into my old battered trusty white converse for the dancing. I actually also bought a playsuit in a mad panic in the week of the wedding in case I felt bloated or too cold or too hot in the wedding and I didn’t end up wearing it but loved the playsuit so have kept it for the summer.
Accessories wise I kept it simple. I only wore my wedding ring, engagement ring and my thin gold band I wear on my right hand daily and I did actually take off the fitbit although I was gutted not to rack up all that dancing. I wore a bracelet my friend got me when we got engaged as my something blue as it had blue stones in and I didn’t need a necklace because the top of the dress was so glitzy. I have three piercings in each ear so Jos bought me a set of three cubic zirconia sparkly studs in three sizes from TK Maxx and I wore those which I loved. My Mum’s bestie did my hair, chopping it bluntly a fortnight before and curled it for the night and set it with hypoallergenic hairspray and on top I had my beautiful floral crown from Sarah holding on my veil - an absolute bargain for £20 on Ebay.
I did my own makeup on the day in the 40 minutes or something I had in between the rugby and the photographs. I don’t wear a lot of makeup anyway because of alllll the allergies, only ever really on my eyes so I decided to keep to what I know and didn’t wear any foundation or lipstick or anything I wouldn’t normally slap on. Thank god my skin was fine for the day (and actually has been the worst it’s been in years since) and I tried fake lashes but they fell off before I’d even left my cottage. I put on a few coats of mascara and some dark brown eyeliner and then slathered my eyes in a blush glittery liquid eyeshadow I’d asked my parents for for Christmas. Other than that, I just painted my nails silver whilst the rugby was on and job’s a goodun.
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Everyone else…..
Jos was an easy bloke to please when it came to his wedding attire. His brother got married last year and Jos was a groomsman so he got a lovely light grey 3 piece suit as part of his job for the day and had it tailored so it was a no brainer he wore it to our wedding (similar here as it was from an American company). He wore the jacket for the photos and then wore just his shirt (which he’d bought from M&S for his brother’s wedding) and his waistcoat and trousers and rolled his shirt sleeves up so we were a bit more informal for the party. He paired it with black leather shoes which he’d bought from Marks for his brother’s wedding last year and a Welsh dragon tie perfect for the rugby which we bought on Ebay (sadly sold out now) and I bought him a leather strap watch from TK Maxx and a pair of groom socks.
For our ceremony Jos did splash out and buy a new suit - for the grand old price of £40 from Primark. He wore a bright blue suit jacket and trousers with a plain t shirt and brown brogues (similar here).
The only other people we had to dress were my nieces who were my bridesmaids and I gave my 4 year old niece a choice of dresses from H&M and she chose two navy and silver glittery dresses which they looked gorgeous in. I paired them with white tights each bought from Tesco, matching white cardigans from Primark and I found a pair of silver glittery shoes for the oldest niece in Asda and red ones for the baby in the Christmas sales in Tesco.