It's wedding central at the moment, and we've pretty much got one every weekend over the summer. But we're not complaining because we love a good wedding. In fact, our very own social media kid, Plum, tied the knot at the end of June here in central Brighton. We've been waiting for her to come back from honeymoon to ask her all about her wedding, see THE DRESS and get the lowdown on newly married life. Here's the skinny on one of the Brighton weddings of the year... Golly, you're properly married now. How does it feel? Lovely thanks. I'm a bit surprised but it does feel a bit different - even though my now-husband and I have been together 13 years! What was your dress like and where was it from? I'm a sucker for super glam vintage, so my dress was adapted from a 1930s inspired pattern from a range available from the heavenly Hope & Harlequin (which is right next door to our very own Posh Totty Designs shop on Brighton's Sydney Street). I'm great friends with the girls at Hope & Harlequin; my friend Sarah Morrell makes their made-to-order bridal gowns so it was an honour to have her make my dress for me. I chose a very pale pink, lightweight satin. It was amazing to wear. My 1930s inspired satin gown and cape (hiding behind my amazing flowers!) What about your shoes? I'm super lucky: I've got a clutch of really creative friends, and one of them is a footwear designer. She's only just started out on her own, so she's developing her techniques and building her workshop up (while juggling two babies at the same time). She handmade me the most awesome pair of shoes, which although high, stayed on my feet all day and into the night. I wanted a Terry De Havilland look, and as a big Bowie fan, I wanted to incorporate a tribute to the man himself. So she came up with these. The heels and platform are coarse glitter. They are epic. My super epic David Bowie inspired shoes... Check out the bolt across the shoes! Where did you get married? Although neither myself or my husband are from Brighton (that'll be Wales and Cornwall respectively), we wanted to host our wedding here as anything else just wouldn't have been 'us'. We opted for a non-denomination ceremony at the Unitarian Church in the North Laine, and had our reception at the awesome Fabrica in the Lanes. Fabrica is a decommissioned flint-clad church which was built at the end of the 19th century. These days it's an art gallery predominantly, but it's the most amazing place to throw a wedding party. My dad gave his speech from the old pulpit and our cake sat on top of the old marble font. Just hitched and walking back down the aisle of the Unitarian Church in Brighton Did you have bridesmaids? I had my two younger sisters, my best and oldest friend, and my five-year-old niece. I put the grown up girls in Hollywood style champagne-coloured floor length sequin gowns, and my niece wore a very obviously pretty pink lace and glittery tulle dress with little butterfly shaped sandals. I gifted them all a Posh Totty Designs Personalised Mini Message Necklace each as a thank you... My niece wearing her Personalised Mini Message Necklace My husband's groomsmen all received Posh Totty Designs gifts too. We gave his best man a pair of the Personalised Monogrammed Rectangle Cufflinks; my nephew, brother and brother-in-law all got a pair of PTD's Personalised Vintage Map Cufflinks; and the Craft department here very kindly made us a couple of pairs of bespoke cufflinks for the others. Here's our friend Simon 'Sci5' modelling his... One of our groomsmen's bespoke Posh Totty Designs cufflinks Personalised Monogrammed Rectangle Cufflinks Who did your flowers? A friend of mine who's based in Essex. She started her florist business, Bohemian Wild and Beautiful Blooms, in the winter just gone but already has a full diary. Her arrangements are to die for. I'm a huge fan of unstructured, uncontrived flowers that err on the slightly wild looking side. That's precisely what my friend does. I took inspiration from a photo of my grandfather at a wedding in India back in the 1930s: the bride's bouquet was nothing short of a small jungle! I had peonies, David Austen roses, cornflowers, hydraengas, Delphiniums, lavender, ivy, ferns, ranunculus and anemones. Our friend Alex did a beautiful reading at the ceremony. Alex also works for Posh Totty Designs in the shipping and logistics department! PTD was everywhere at our wedding ;) Did you have an amazing party after the ceremony? It was terrific! We walked from the church to Fabrica and kicked off the evening with champagne and canapes, and then had a sit down supper with our 120 guests. The food was amazing. Both my husband and I are vegetarian, and Cashew Catering who are based in Lewes sepcialise in Veggie, Vegan and raw catering. We had a no-fish Nicoise salad to start; beer battered halloumi, potato dauphinoise and minted mushy peas for the main; and a dreamy combo of poached pear, salted caramel slice, chocolate brownie and sloe gin jelly for pudding. It was delicious. At around 11.30pm, we put out Cornish pasties for our guests, a tradition at weddings down in my homeland. Our guests loved that, and filled their pockets with as many as they could manage. We went for a 'naked cake', made by Cashew Catering. The bottom layer was carrot cake, the next Victoria sponge, the next chocolate, and it was topped off by a gluten free layer. We gifted each guest with a personalised candle as wedding favours (working for Posh Totty Designs while you're planning a wedding is brilliant!). The candles went down a storm. We had each one and its box printed up with our nicknames for each and every guest. We chose the Moroccan Rose scent for all the ladies, and Black Oud for the guys. Our candle wedding favours After dinner and speeches, two of our friends took it in turn to DJ. The dancefloor was alive the whole night! We had our first dance to an old song, but one that has a lot of meaning and history for us: 'This Will Be Our Year' by The Zombies. (I'm a bit of a show off when it comes to the dancefloor... Thankfully I was convinced not to start break dancing on this occasion!) We all danced until midnight - but seriously, the whole thing went by so quickly, I could barely believe it was time to get going. Lots of my family and friends stayed on the following day and we had a bit of a second knees up down at the seafront at one of my favourite pubs in Brighton, The Fortune of War. Loads of the Posh Totty Designs gang came too. It was so much fun. And your honeymoon? Venice! I know, it's a bit of a honeymoon cliche, but neither I nor my husband had been before. We left two days after our wedding and spent a week in 30-degree heat, soaking it all up. It's like walking around in a painting the whole time. We stayed just off St Mark's Square and went through Airbnb - it was wonderful. I really felt like we made the most of the place, and could have easily stayed another couple of weeks. There's a long sandy beach a 20-minute boat ride from St Mark's Square and there are so many galleries and exhibitions to stumble across. I loved the Peggy Guggenheim museum: I love her taste in avant garde art - and I want her house on the Grand Canal!
Wedding belles!
