Ruth in Edwardian lace wedding dress – an enchanting vintage bride for 2016.

Dear Reader,
The Happiest of New Years to you! 
I'd like to start our 2016 with an enchanting vintage bride in the prettiest Edwardian wedding dress. Meet Ruth!

Ruth and Conor were married in late Summer at St Mary's Parish Church, Kilmood, County Down in Northern Ireland. Befitting this wonderful couple, their whole day has a beautiful handmade and simple vibe that perfectly suited the innocent charm of Ruth's beautiful Edwardian cotton lace wedding dress.

To complement her vintage wedding dress, Ruth wore a charming floral crown together with an elegant fingertip–length veil in silk tulle (the veil was handcrafted by the bride's talented mother!) The overall effect is simple and stunning.

The lovely, personal feel of their day continued inside the Church. Conor comes from a musical family, so Ruth walked down the aisle to a live performance by two family members of Simon and Garfunkel's The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy).

Their reception was held at Field of Dreams in Bangor, County Down. It's a stunning rural location – with a Scandinavian-style wooden lodge decked out in beautiful garlands, as well as marquee, meadow, lake and even a standing stone circle!

Inside a traditional canvas marquee – handsomely decked out with wooden tables, hay bales and floral garlands – a good friend played mixologist for the night, creating fresh juices and cocktails including Rhubarb Margaritas and Apple, Elderflower and Gin Rickeys. So good!

Groom Conor is a Fine Bench Joiner and Cabinet Maker and made the stunning maple and birch wood tables himself! (He's since sold half of them to a bar–restaurant in the French Alps, but the couple are determined to keep one as a memento of their fab day.) 

A wonderful, casual meal was followed by many hours of dancing to great music, courtesy of a band of friends and family. The first dance was to Twist and Shout by the Beatles and Ruth reports that after that she didn't stop dancing until the very end of the evening!

What a beautiful day! I'll leave the last word to our fabulous bride Ruth...

"Thank you again for helping me find the perfect vintage wedding dress. It was amazing – just wonderful! So comfortable, flowed beautifully when I walked and danced (and I did a lot of dancing!!) and it felt like it was made just for me. I received so many compliments. My dress really was such a big part of what made the day so special."

Thanks for visiting my vintage wedding blog, dear reader. I hope you'll pop back again. If you'd like to see more of Conor and Ruth's magical day, click here. And meanwhile, I wish you a magical 2016.
Love 
Helena 
Heavenly Vintage Brides

If you like this post, check out…
Sophie in pretty 1950s lace wedding dress – and sneakers!
And try more Real Vintage Brides on my website, here.

Groom's suit by ASOS
Bridesmaids' dresses by In One Clothing
Flowers by Floral Creations
Photographs with thanks to Honey & the Moon Photography

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So Long Our Cilla, We'll Miss You Chuck x

Dear Reader,
It's time to bid a fond farewell to Our Cilla today… 

Remember Blind Date? Back in 1988 – way before X Factor or BGT – Cilla Black's saucy TV dating game was an essential part of my Saturday night. Well, every girl's Saturday night really. It was the perfect backdrop to pouffing up your 80s hairdo ready for a night's dancing...!

But it's easy to forget that Cilla was a pop star twenty years before this, with a sweet and expressive voice that earned her a string of great hits. Take a look at her in 1968 – adorable at age 25, and already a mahoosive star. This song was written for her by Paul McCartney!


With her cute 60s style and natural warmth, Cilla became an enduring icon of the Swinging Sixties…

Cilla with Cathy McGowan

Cilla's own 1969 wedding to Bobby Willis was a media event in itself. Check out this gorgeous clip from Pathe News, which was broadcast into cinemas…




Sadly, Bobby died in 1999. But they did enjoy a long and loving marriage that lasted 30 years.

With Cathy McGowan in Kensington's Biba store

So long Cilla – we send you off with a lorra lorra love!

Helena

Heavenly Vintage Brides

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Wedding Wednesday- Vendor Love- Jeremy Ganss

 

Ok, now it is time to sing the praises of another one of the vendors that helped for our wedding. This one matters a lot, I think, because it's not like we will have the chance to hire Jeremy too many times in our life (I mean, I am not sure if he dj's 2 person dance parties), so the best way we can show him support is to highly recommend him, which we definitely do. He is based out of Clarion, and works a lot of Pittsburgh weddings, but if you are planning a wedding in Western PA, you can't do better. He was our big splurge for the wedding, and it was totally worth it. 

 

Jeremy keeps up a blog of his own that you can find here-  http://jeremyganss.blogspot.com/ To be honest, this blog was what won me over in the first place. I never saw a dj who was that serious and enthusiastic about his weddings that he kept track of song choices and took pictures himself. He clearly cares. Then, when I called him to chat (actually the first time we talked I was just getting his opinion on Wanango, but we talked for practically an hour), he was generous, funny, and a well of information. He knew about all the sites, all my regular wedding complaints, and how to best strategize his weddings. He was genuinely a pleasure to deal with every step of the way.

 

These are all pictures from his blog- for real, check it out! Jeremy knows his stuff, but he has a very humble, open, and generous Western PA personality. He is not hungry for the spotlight. I have been to those weddings too.  The whole night the dance floor was full, and everyone told us that they had a good time. We didn't have to worry about the schedule, because Jeremy was on top of all of it.

 

I could go on about Jeremy a long time, but The Boy wrote Jeremy a note that I think sums up his awesomeness pretty well:

 Jeremy,

Where to begin? You were absolutely phenomenal in every way, from the moment Barbara contacted you out of the blue to ask, not about DJ’ing, but for your opinions on Wenango (having seen your online review for it, not knowing you were a local DJ), it was immediately clear that you were passionate about your job and fully committed to delivering well executed, extraordinarily fun weddings. You always went above and beyond reasonable expectations to offer exceptional service, and it really showed.


You were always proactive, patient, and flexible to our schedule, not an easy thing to do when Barbara and I both were thousands of miles away for all but a handful of whirlwind visits back to Pennsylvania through the year+ of planning. You actively sought our opinions and took the time to meet us to get to know us, our tastes, and our goals for the wedding. You did more than pick a bunch of songs (though you did do that too, and your website made that easy to do in our own time!); you helped us to create the overall schedule of the night.


Once the reception began, you kept us on task and on schedule without ever being pushy or controlling or trying to take center stage; you gently guided us and our guests from dinner, to toasts, to cake, etc. without any jarring transitions. Once the dancing began, the floor was never empty—not even close—for more than four hours!  You transformed our eclectic requests (modern pop, Motown, obscure big band music, etc.) into the non-stop dance party we asked for.


You kept everyone, from the youngest cousins to our grandparents, excited, pumped, and moving the whole time. Unlike most of the DJ’s I’ve seen at weddings, you take your craft very seriously: your equipment is modern and your library and tastes are trend-leading rather than trend-following (Norah Jones: out; acoustic covers of the Bieb: yes, please). Most importantly, you actually know how to DJ: you did more than put together a giant playlist, press the ‘play’ button, and then walk away to eat cookies, take MySpace pictures of themselves, or fiddle on their phones for the majority of the night (yes, we’ve seen these before).

The level of service Jeremy provided was unparalleled, and he was key in making our night the most fun I’ve ever had at a wedding. Thank you for making our wedding kick ass!

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My Favorite Things from our Quick Trip to New Orleans

1. Collaborative Packing- This fine art nearly transforms the chore into fun. Nearly. I feel like we will spend the rest of our life perfecting the strategy and getting our time down. I think we have finally reached the point where it takes more time to unpack than to pack, but we still overpack every single time. Does anyone have any tricks for this?
2. Horse paintings- On Thursday, I genomed a lot of beautiful things from a gallery in Hong Kong, and was shocked just how often horse paintings still came up (historically, it makes sense, but horses still dominate the contemporary work as well). Jack Donaghy would approve (especially if you threw in some ship paintings).
3. Green Onion- Makes anything instantly seem super fresh.
4. The African Cafe in the Seattle Airport- On Friday morning when we walked by, "Circle of Life" was playing. That is how legitimately "African" this restaurant is. Also, they don't sell any actual African food.
5. Spiderman kid in the Houston Airport- I am not impressed by the Bush Airport; there are no maps, it makes no sense, and they only put moving walkways in places where you do not need them. It actually seems to want to impede your  ability to make decisions (we can all just imagine the political joke that will get me angry family emails here). Truly, this airport is a mess. On the other hand, there was a kid (in a suit no less) who was doing spin moves and casting webs all over the place. Why didn't Sartre say "Heaven is other people, at least the ones pretending to be Spiderman"?

6. Our First Kitchen Nightmares Restaurant- How did we kick off our trip to the Big Easy? By going to the place where the owner threatened to feed Gordon Ramsey to the alligators. And we ate alligator. The Boy read that the busy idiot brother is no longer attached and the place is pretty good now. I have fried oysters, and they were awesome, so I agree, though Gordon would not like the pictures in the menu. Also, we had the first of MANY super kickass New Orleans servers.

7. Late Night Beignets at Cafe du Monde- We planned on going for breakfast, but we just happened upon the cafe on our first walk around the French Quarter (drunks, but mostly sloppy not belligerent or angry), so we went for it. It reminded me of those dates  you go on where you are having such a great time that you add another activity on to the end. Just the kind of business you can't pull with spawn, and therefore a perfect part of our babymooning.

8. New Orleans Cemeteries- I knew that New Orleans funerals were these kind of joyful, musical events, but the cemeteries are also amazing. Like beautiful little death cities. Apparently because of where the city is built, bodies will eventually float back up if you bury them in the ground, which sounds pretty horrible for everyone involved. So this solution proves to be creepy and beautiful, while avoiding the body floating which is plenty creepy, but not beautiful.

9. Creole Tomatoes- I love a tomato, and love a tomato salad even more. I wanted to try the creole tomato, because it has a reputation for being really sweet and delicious. It reminded me of tomatoes people grew in Pennsylvania, but it still made me happy.
10. New Orleans Service- Almost all of our servers were awesome. We were nervous to go to Commander's Palace (we just feel like posers at fancy places), but the whole jazz brunch had a fun playful atmosphere, and our server was funny, odd, and really welcoming. God bless a server who can see you are pregnant and comes up with some cocktail ideas for you. Also, her food runner had a ridiculous mustache, kept dancing when he thought people weren't looking, and requested the band play slayer. He also gave the Boy a hat for finishing his dessert. I guess the focus on really capable and warm servers makes sense with the Southern hospitality deal, but it still caught us by surprise.

11. Pag's future career- Commander's Palace (and many other local restaurants) has a jazz brunch where a small ensemble plays while you eat. I can totally imagine Bullyhill Brass doing it, and we heard so many songs that I mostly have only heard my relatives play, so that was exciting.
12. Dude Pool- I was so excited to go swimming (seriously, the best feeling ever to walk into the pool right now), but it turned out to be very busy in the afternoon (despite the impending thunderstorm). It was busy with dudes, looking for hot girls in swimsuits. The ratio of men to women was like 10 to 1 (and most of the women were older or me), and the bros were each pretty bro-ish. Two women were at the pool, and I saw the men kind of circling, but neither woman looked all that interested. The Boy says New Orleans serves as the Las Vegas of the East, and it did have large collectives of dudes, but I have to believe Las Vegas pools are luckier for the men. Also, I would like to be a yenta and just brazenly force people's love connections.
13. Pregnancy stories- People in New Orleans were really friendly and ready to share their own pregnancy and delivery tales. My favorite/ the most traumatizing was told to us by a girl in a candy store, whose cousin gave birth to triplets when they thought she was only expecting one baby. I do not understand how this could possibly happen, but it is truly horrifying.
14. The Besh and his hair- We went to a John Besh restaurant, and they have all of his cookbooks right up front, so in case you didn't know before, you are eating a beautiful person's food. Also, the food was delicious. Best pasta ever (with more tomatoes!).

15. Street musicians who are really freaking good- the majority of the Seattle street musicians play acoustic guitars and mumble. On our last night, we just walked around the city, and we came across the best trio ever (though Nick felt they played the same song too long). One of my favorite moments of the whole trip.
16. D2, DC, and too much time in the airport- We showed up at the New Orleans Airport 2 hours before our flight (our standard time) at 11 AM. We were through security at 11:06. The terminal only had 12 gates. We perhaps made a mistake, but we had a fun time doing laps in the airport, because we are weird like that.
17. Pens that explode- About once a year, I have a pen destroy my hands, some chunk of clothing I am wearing, and The Boy's fledgling belief that I am sort of like an adult. It's worth it to use nice pens, not horrible ones like he does.
18. The Sadness of a Trip being over being Replaced by the Comfort and Drive of getting back home- I think we get sad every time we have to leave, and this trip was perhaps even worse, because we knew we wouldn't be adventuring again any time soon. But you get home, and you can be in your own bed,  and you start checking things off your list, and it mostly feels really good. Back to work!

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