Jason & Emma’s Vintage DIY Wedding At The Bell In Ticehurst

Hey Folks! Today on the blog is Jason & Emma’s wedding day. Jason & Emma got married at The Bell, in Ticehurst in a vintage themed day.Thank you for a great day, it was my pleasure to witness such a great wedding!

Where did you get married, and what made you choose your venue?

Originally we had planned to get married in 2018 as I have a large family and wanted a big wedding. However after some personal circumstance changes we wondered why we were waiting and decided to get married on the 8th July (our 9 year anniversary was on the 7th July) which left us 7 weeks to plan – being a project manager by trade was very helpful! We also decided to compromise on the day and have a small intimate ceremony and then a larger party in the evening. We stumbled across the Bell In Ticehurst on google and fell in love with the pictures instantly. We arranged to go and see the venue and ended up booking our date there and then, we were so lucky it was free! It’s an incredible venue with so many quirky details including a bull wearing a fez and top hat lampshades. Everywhere we looked we found more things we loved about it. To keep with the ambiance of the venue we decided to have a vintage theme and bring in pastel colours. I had seen the blush, gold, mint and white theme online and it looked amazing and we knew it would be subtle enough to compliment the bell but also add in our own personal touches.

Which flowers did you choose?

I had always wanted Peonies for my wedding flowers and wanted to tie these into a naturally tied, informal, country garden bouquet. My flowers were ivory peonies, blush garden roses, spray roses, astilbe, lisianthus, stocks and panicum grass. These were then tied with vintage mint, gold and ivory ribbons. The bridemaids carried a small bunch of ivory peonies each tied with vintage ribbon with a tape measure design on it. Flowers in the venue were all of the above either in large milk jugs, decorative glass jars and bottles and tin cans.

Tell us about your dress!

Getting a wedding dress in less than 7 weeks is tough! It was the one thing that regularly brought on my few bridezilla moments and had me in tears! I knew I wanted a dress that covered my shoulders, was comfortable and felt special.I had an open mind about the overall style. I was sooooo lucky to find ‘Yours Truly’ bridal house in Maidstone where the team were like fairy godmothers.

My dress was by White Rose and was a full length A-Line dress with covered shoulders and a cut out back. As soon as I tried it on I knew it was the one as I loved the mid length train and the gorgeous lace edging at the hem of the dress. It also felt elegant in a simplistic way and tied in with the look and feel of our day.

How did you have your hair and make up?

I hate having my hair up but knew I wouldn’t want it moving around my face all day during the wedding. I had seen a 50’s style relaxed bun which I loved and thankfully Samantha Jones bridal hair did an amazing job of replicating it for me – and it stayed in all day. My make-up was done in a very natural style as I have never worn a lot of make-up and wanted to look like myself in our wedding photos. Unfortunately due to the timeframes we were working too my makeup was the last thing to be booked and Harriett Rainbow was fantastic with only two days’ notice of the booking and no trial beforehand.

What did the Bridesmaids and Groomsmen wear?

I did not have a preference for what the bridemaids wore and wanted them to be able to pick something that they felt comfortable in and loved as well as it being something they were able to use again. Due to them all having very different complexions and hair colour we decided on the blush pink outfits they wore. These were a long high waisted skirt with gold flowers and a slightly darker blush pink top – both from Coast.

These were then finished with nude colour bag and shoes. To help her stand out from the three older bridemaids our flower girl wore a gold dress from Monsoon. Again with the groomsmen we wanted to be relaxed and we didn’t stipulate a type or colour of suit they had to wear. Jason wore a blue Ted Baker three piece suit while the others wore either blue or grey suits. Each groomsman had a paper buttonhole flower made from comic books instead of the traditional fresh flowers and either a mint bowtie or tie. They then all wore an avengers character socks, and to tie in with his Captain America socks, Jason also wore Captain America cufflinks.

How do you feel the day went?

Are there any special moments you’d like to share? The whole day was perfect! We could not have wished for anything more. We were so lucky to have found incredible people to work with to make our day special that we were able to enjoy the whole day and know that everything would run like clockwork. The staff at the Bell were incredible and made sure everything happened to time – even down to making sure we both ate something in the evening!

We also can’t thank James enough who was not only our photographer but also our groomsman, bridemaid and wedding co-ordinator throughout the day. The most special moment had to be our ceremony which had moments of laughter, tears and absolute joy throughout. We were both so caught up in the ceremony that we forgot that everyone else was with us. The other moment was at the end of the evening when we got back to our room and enjoyed our first moment of quiet and cup of tea together as husband and wife.