Lorna and Alex's English Tea Party wedding at Chiddingstone Castle

There's vintage, and there's vintage.....and this wedding most certainly fit the bill with hand-made bunting, vintage crockery and plates, vintage vases, jars etc, a birdcage with birds (not real...don't panic)  and lots of gorgeous country garden flowers.  Some vases and crockery were from us, some from Vintage Flair (http://www.vintage-flair.co.uk/) and some belonged to Lorna and Alex.

Lorna and Alex had a very strong sense of the English tea party theme they wanted for their wedding, and their attention to detail was fabulous.  They knew exactly what they wanted it to look like, had chosen truly gorgeous outfits for themselves and quirky teadresses for the bridesmaids and hence all that was required to finish the picture was flowers....queue us!  We spent quite some time working through the best flowers and rose varieties to use and decided upon La Belle, Sweet Avalanche, Amnesia, Carousel Illusion, Snowflake and highly scented English garden roses.  Mix it all with mint, rosemary, lavender, lisianthus, freesias, hydrangea, astrantia, veronica and lots of other goodies, and it made for a perfect day.

Despite being very petite, Lorna wanted a full, blowsy bouquet with lots of varieties of blooms for texture and that just picked look.  We finished it with rustic raffia and a horseshoe vintage brooch.  Clusters of spray roses and astrantia heads were wired to add to her hair and to her bridesmaids' hair too.

For Lorna's bridesmaids, we wanted a similar look, but much paler in colour with a slight hint of blue as their dresses were made from a print fabric with lots of colour included, hence we wanted the bouquets to contrast against them.

For the boys, we chose roses with astrantia and lavender and Mums had corsages using chincherinchee and foliage.  They looked lovely, but you'll have to take my word for it as I forgot to photograph them!

At Chiddingstone Castle, we decorated the lovely Orangery with foliage garlands with roses, spray roses and raffia bows interspersed.  We then added two standard hydrangeas in terracotta pots to frame Alex and Lorna.  We then added some lovely jugs and pots full of flowers to the beautifully dressed celebrant table.

Being dog lovers, we couldn't leave the hounds out.....don't they look grand!  Wish ours would sit as still to model floral collars!

Within the Great Hall, we had a wonderful time deciding which vases and arrangements went on each table ..there are too many photos to show, but we've included a selection below.  All tables then had a few votives with tealights included to be lit later in the day for extra glow.  All tables were finished with dried rosebuds and pearls, and each napkin was to be dressed with a single purple veronica tied with a raffia bow (but we finished too early to show this final touch in the photos).

The mantelpiece was similarly dressed with a range of vases and containers, with pearls and rosebuds  and votives with tealights.

The top table was going to have the lovely teapot added from the celebrant table but it was dressed in the meantime with lots of other cups, saucers, jugs, cakeplate etc.  The gorgeous bunting on the front of the table actually says "hooray", which we thought was a lovely touch.

We also added flowers to the cake to tie in with the theme.

It was a true English Tea Party and the weather was perfect...not too English thank goodness, but dry, warm and with a lovely warm sunlight.  We think the attention to detail makes this look like a magazine shoot....so perfect in a fabulously mismatched way.  We love it!  We know Lorna and Alex had the most perfect day and when their professional photos are ready, we'll be able to show you how gorgeous they looked as well.  They are such a lovely, well matched couple and I'm sure their happiness is going to shine through in the photos.  In the meantime, hope you like our contribution to their special day.