Gemma and Dale’s A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream Autumn Wedding. By Lifeline Photography

I am loving today’s wedding, such a cute couple and a wonderful looking wedding. The whole day was done on a budget by keeping the day intimate and extending the guest list in the evening. Gemma and Dale also handmade a lot of the wedding with some fab DIY projects which also helped to keep the cost down. Most of all I’m loving the rustic touches that all went towards the Midsummer’s Night’s Dream theme, that and the couples outfits and fab colour scheme. Big thanks to Hannah at Lifeline Photography for the photos.

The day I got to marry my best friend, surrounded by the colours of our favourite season.

Gemma & Dale were married on the 19th of October at St Edburgha’s Church, Yardley followed by a reception at Coleshill Hotel, Birmingham. ‘It’s our family church in a lovely village with a great pub! We had 30 guests in the day and 70 in the evening, and the wedding took a whole year to plan.’

How they met
We met when we were 15 years old at school! We became each other’s best friends. But didn’t get together until 2010, nearly 8 years later! We’ve been together for 4 years nearly, we wouldn’t change it for the world.

The proposal
We had a holiday in the Scottish Highlands. We found this remote, untouched track that led to the top of a mountain. Dale pretended he was getting his tripod out of his bag whilst I was taking pictures. I turned around because I thought he had lost it, he was on one knee. It was perfect.

How did you allocate your budget?
We had a small budget, most went on our honeymoon – a Med cruise! We tried to make as much ourselves as possible and kept guest numbers low for the day.

How did you choose your photographer?
Being a photographer myself, finding the right one was my most important job. Hannah was perfect. She was recommended by a fellow blogger on Twitter and she was everything I was searching for. It was meant to be and we were so happy with how the pictures turned out. She is an amazing woman, who goes way above and beyond her means. We’d recommend her to anyone!

The dress
My dress was by Rosetta Nicolini. I picked everything up from Berketex Brides. I fell in love with my dress 6 months before I officially went shopping. Dale wrote a message on the base of the shoes which also formed part of his speech and made me cry it was so sweet.

The suit and bridesmaids
Suits were Ted Baker and the Maid of Honour’s dress was from Debenhams.

Theme or colour scheme
We set out for aubergine and orange. We wanted tones of autumn. Our theme was ‘A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream’, inspired by the forest and in keeping with the time of year. We used real wood for our centre pieces, wild flowers, pine cones, cinnamon bark…

Flowers
Wild flowers supplied by The Great British Florist

Entertainment
An extremely gifted DJ who kept everybody dancing until the early morning.

Food
We had a curry & posh sandwiches.

Wedding Cake
The cake was handmade by Dale’s Aunt – a luxurious red velvet!

Buy or DIY your Stationery?
DIY. We designed our invites ourselves. We were very proud.

Personal or handmade touches
• Our flower bottles were Dey’s empty whiskey bottles, to give a touch of him to the day.
• We also saved jars and dipped them in gold glitter to house more flowers.
• We cut all of the wood for the centre pieces ourselves.
• I hand made the seating plan, created a huge blackboard for a photographs and my step Dad made us a light up M for behind our wedding cake.
• It was a huge team effort and saved us a lot of money.

Special moments or highlights
Attaching my Grandpa’s pictures to my bouquet was a special moment for me. Losing my Grandpa last year was a huge blow, so having him so close to me on the day was important. Gem also stitched a heart shaped piece of her Grandpa’s old blue shirt into the lining of her dress. Dale’s aunt flew over from Australia to share our day and his Brother and Sister-in-law flew in from America.

Biggest surprise
My Husband’s speech, it blew me away. He presented me with a printed portfolio of my photography work. He also managed to get a Harry Potter reference in there. He’s perfect!

Advice for other couples
You can do it! Just breathe. Try not to get stressed. Make a spreadsheet. Ask for help and enjoy your day. Everyone says it flies by – but it really does!

Supplier Shout Outs:

• The Great British Florist: www.greatbritishflorist.co.uk
• LifeLine Photography: www.lifelinephotography.co.uk
• Coleshill Hotel: www.oldenglishinns.co.uk
• Berketex Bride: www.berketexbride.com
• Ted Baker: www.tedbaker.com/uk

For more information on Hannah’s work go to:

www.lifelinephotography.co.uk
www.lifelinephotography.co.uk/theblog
[email protected]
07967 307658
FACEBOOK
@photolifeline