Calling all fantasy, sci-fi and cat lovers for this beautiful Real Bride feature! Featuring the most amazing cake topper of all time, Hayley and Charlie’s wedding is full of thoughtful and homemade touches that reflect their shared passions and shows how much thought and care they put into their wedding day. As a huge cat lover myself, it was so wonderful to see the lovely getting ready shots with their fur family Orion & Willow. In addition, to reflect their love of fantasy books, Hayley made table settings in the names of their favorite series and spent an incredible 40 hours making the seating plan!
For her dress gorgeous Bride Hayley chose a jaw-dropping, lace dripping, A-line dress and paired it perfectly with a pair of our vintage ‘Lizzie Elliot’ Victorian inspired ankle boots. The result is lace bridal heaven. Thank you so much to Hayley and Charlie for letting us share their wedding day, we absolutely loved it! We hope you love reading their wedding story and looking through the gorgeous photos by Holly Cade Photography, it looked like such a fun, relaxed and loved filled day. Just perfect!
Wedding Wishes & Love As Always, Nicole xo
How did you meet your husband and how did he propose?
Charlie and I originally met when I briefly dated one of his friends for a few months. We subsequently broke up so I joined ‘Plenty of Fish’, an online dating site. Charlie was also on ‘Plenty of Fish’ and after 6 weeks of talking he finally asked me out on a date!
The proposal happened at a gorgeous, local Italian restaurant. Charlie took me there to celebrate my 30th birthday and for finishing my exams to train as a Pharmacy Technician (19 exams in 2 years). He proposed with a beautiful opal and diamond ring just before dessert. I got double dessert to celebrate!
Where did you get married and who did you invite?
We got married and had our reception at Haseley Manor in Arreton on the Isle of Wight. It’s a beautiful manor house and barn and absolutely stunning grounds. Our wedding was quite small, we had around 50 guests for the day and then another 40 for the evening.
What was the main inspiration for your wedding?
The colours for our wedding were copper, teal and mustard. It took me 13 long months to find a copper coloured dress for my bridesmaids!! My husband is a music teacher so I added elements of that into our wedding. I made table runners out of old sheet music I bought of ebay. We also love sci-fi and fantasy books so each table was one of our favourite series as opposed to table numbers. I then drew each map from each book series onto a 30 x 40 inch canvas and made that into our seating plan. It was a real labour of love and probably took me around 40 hours or so. Carrying on the book theme we made a massive heart mobile to hang above the cake. I really wanted our cake to be a focal point so I upcycled a chest of drawers for it to sit on and got an amazing cake topper of Charlie and I riding our cats, Orion&Willow. Succulents also feature in our wedding. They were in the terraniums I made for the table centrepieces, in my bouquet, my haircomb and the gents buttonholes. I just think they look really cute!
Tell us about your wedding look
My wedding look was the exact opposite of what I thought I wanted. In my head I thought I wanted a strapless, backless, mermaid dress with a hint of lace. In the end I went for an a-line dress with tiny sleeves and head to (literally) toe in lace! I found some gorgeous opal Art Deco earrings in a second hand jewellery shop close by.
What made you choose a pair of House of Elliot boots for your wedding day?
I remember seeing a picture of a pair of boots from House of Elliot one day on facebook and falling in love straightaway! I bought my boots even before I got my dress. I’m not great at walking in high heels and my feet are quite narrow so my feet tend to slip out of the usual high heels. This is why the Lizzie boots were perfect. They had a chunky heel and my feet couldn’t slip out.
What did you love the most about your wedding day?
Seeing my husband wipe away tears as I walked down the aisle was quite special. I also just loved having all of our friends and family come together, eat lots of food and dance to soul and funk music all night. Lastly I had all these DIY visions in my head and i’m so glad they all came together on the day and looked beautiful.
What pearls of wisdom would you share with future brides who are planning their wedding?
Don’t get bogged down with things you see on Pinterest and Facebook. You’ll see lots of people doing all these extra things for entertainment and decoration etc and worry your wedding wont be good enough if you don’t include them. Just remember the day is about you and your partner! If you are DIYing a lot of your wedding, do as much of it as soon as possible if you can store it. I was drawing my seating plan up until 2 nights before the wedding into the early hours of the morning and it was so stressful!
Anything else you would like to share?
I know everyone says this but the day really does fly by. Take some time out with your partner just for a quiet 10 minutes. One other tip I was told was that during the evening let people come to you. Your guests should want to find you and say hello, otherwise you’ll end up chasing people round a room all night and miss out on everything.
Hayley and Charlie would like to thank the following vendors who made their day extra special!
Beautiful photos by Holly Cade Photography Dress: Forget Me Not Designs Hair @zara.87 MUA: Lynsey Marie Cake: Frostbite Bakery Cake Topper: Shiny Creations
