THE WEDDING MORNING

My wedding morning was spent at Eaton House Studio in Essex; the famous pink house. It’s funny looking back to a few years ago, as I kindly asked the owner Amy if I could come for a nose as I lived around the corner and when I left after my visit I said ‘one day I will get married here’. Well, I didn’t get married there but it was where I spent the start of my big day getting ready. And I’m so glad I did. I have to stop and say how amazing Amy and her assistant were. From as soon as they opened the door to greet me until my car drove off their driveway, they waited on me hand and foot, as they say. They made sure I kept hydrated, had plenty to eat and were just generally taking any worries away and made me feel so special. It was just myself and my two bridesmaids (sister and sister in law) that got ready for the wedding at Eaton House Studio and it was actually really nice. I did make a rough plan of timings before the day, but we didn’t stick to it! We relaxed and took it really easy, taking our time to get ready. It was all fine until I hadn’t even finished my makeup at 11am and I had planned to get changed at 11.15am to take photos and the panic started to hit me. I think once the stressed started, it hit me what I was actually getting ready for… MY WEDDING; and the butterflies kicked in. All day I kept saying ‘I don’t want to cry’ and I think that made me even more anxious. To be fair though I was fine until I walked down the aisle but I will fill you in about the church ceremony in my next post – eeek! I have so much to tell you. Back to getting ready though…

I said ‘one day I will get married here’

We had popped to Tesco the night before the wedding to stock up on breakfast and snacks that we wanted to munch on at the pink house. From strawberries to doughnuts we had the food sorted! I didn’t think I would eat anything but to my surprise I was hungry and I ate quite a lot which was really good. I had heard of Brides not eating before the big day and they said it was hard to keep going. I knew I wanted to keep my energy levels up as I always get headaches if I don’t eat and obviously I didn’t want that to happen. We kept the getting ready to the back of the house in a beautiful white, iridescent room with great light. I had my sister Katie doing the makeup and Lisa Alger on the hair. I’ve actually got a wedding hair tutorial on my YouTube; so if you fancy a watch just click here.

Amy and her assistant set up the room with cute crockery and a dressing room mirror which came in super handy when adding our finishing touches to our outfits later that morning. We also themed our outfits for the wedding morning, as I’d seen other wedding photos on Pinterest similar and I thought it looked super cute. We wore cute stripe pyjamas from Missguided and had the most amazing dressing cactus print dressing gowns from Phoebe Grace; definitely check her out!

We took it in turn to get our hair done, with me going last and then we swapped round with makeup. My friends Lauren, Daisy and Alice popped over during us getting ready which was super lovely of them. They bought a few presents along and we had a chit chat about my nerves! It felt so surreal to be in the same position that my friend Lauren was a year before as she got married and I was her bridesmaid. I could now relate to her! My bridesmaids had their makeup and hair done before me so I sent them off with my friends to pop on their bridesmaid dresses, just so they were one less thing to worry about and I knew that they were ready. It was beautiful seeing them walk into the room in their full outfits as that was the first time seeing them with their hair done and their bouquets in hand.

I think once the stressed started, it hit me what I was actually getting ready for.

Then it was my turn and thank god the girls were there to help me as the dress was a little difficult to get into! As you can see from the photos the dress was big with a lot of fabric and layers; I had to basically go under the dress and pop my head through the top and doing this braless was hard whilst the videographers and photographers were in the room, but I managed it. Bless Alice though, she had to go underneath and pull my pyjamas off! There’ll be more about the dress though in another post!

It was all starting to get a bit real now being in my wedding dress and knowing that that was it and it wasn’t coming off until the end of the night. As you can see in the photos everyone was starting to get a little emotional. Next up were my accessories and veil which my hairstylist and friends helped me pop on. It was really sweet everyone coming together to help get me ready. I mean I was wearing a huge dress so it was difficult to manoeuvre around easily.

Once we were ready, it was time for photos. And that’s one main reason why I wanted to get ready at Eaton House Studio, because the photo opportunities are stunning and endless! Every room in the house is beautiful with glitter walls, vintage furniture and quirky homeware. I think you will probably agree that it was the perfect backdrop for me and my bridesmaids. We spent around 45 minutes taking photos in some of the bedrooms and outside; and we also managed to squeeze in opening some presents. Robin had given his sister some surprise presents for me and I gave the girls their bridesmaid gift boxes (will be writing a blog post on that separately).

And then all of a sudden it was 12.20pm and it was time to gather our belongings and head to the church. I literally didn’t know where the time went! The morning started off feeling like we had all the time in the world and then it was all starting to happen so quickly. My colourful car was parked up outside the front of the house ready and waiting… It was now time to become Mrs. Stanford.

Photography by Jess Soper

Peace
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