Our wedding - Claire Imaginarium

Something different on the blog today, as I have never shared that type of content with you but I thought that some of you may find it useful!

On the 28th of May 2016, Andrew and I got married. It was the loveliest day full of laughter, dancing, hugging, kissing, eating and drinking. I briefly mentioned it in the past on the blog, but because I wasn’t as active at the time I never shared anything about the day with you. 2018 wedding season is upon us, and a lot of couples are making key decisions for their wedding in the Spring and Summer, so I thought I could show you how I styled my wedding to give you a little bit of inspiration!

The colours we picked were grey and pink. I wanted the day to feel like a nice summer garden party and these two colours fitted well with the theme.

Hopefully, all the information below will help you plan your very special day!

Hair and makeup

It was done by Marie Nebinger at Marc Fabian in Strasbourg. We got very lucky as she privatised the salon the entire morning for us!

For my hair, I went for a bohemian updo, the best way to keep my curls under control yet embrace them! I also wanted flowers in my hair. The florist create pins which Marie put into place to look like a flower crown, she also made sure to leave some space for my veil.

For the makeup, I wanted to look like me but better. We kept it very simple with a subtle eye makeup, rosy lips and a bit of foundation and bronzer. And I think it turned alright.

The dress

I knew exactly what dress I wanted, the Jenny Packham Dentelle. However this dress was just too expensive for me, so I had to look for a cheaper alternative. Luckily, after hours online, I found the perfect dupe! Martina Liana was doing a very similar dress and I was able to source it via Angelica Bridal in London.

I loved the light fabric, the natural A-line waist, the delicate lace details and the touch of sparkle with the embellished belt. It was flattering, comfortable and quite unique.

I styled it with a simple veil I bought off eBay (cheap!) and rose gold shoes from Dune.

The groom’s outfit

Andrew decided to wear a white tie suit which I absolutely loved! He looked very handsome!

He wore it with personalised initials cuff links that I got for him on Not On The High Street.

We almost looked like we were out of Downton Abbey, don’t you think?

The venue

Our reception took place at the Chateau d’Osthoffen, 20 minutes outside of Strasbourg. The venue is gorgeous and has a marquee which can fit up to 200 people.

The grounds are also beautiful offering plenty of photo opportunities!

The flowers

I didn’t go completely crazy with the flowers (it’s expensive!). I selected a mixture of white and pale pink flowers and worked with Une Histoire Une Fleur who understood my countryside/rustic/garden party vibe and created the most beautiful arrangements.

My bouquet was round, not huge and a little messy which I wanted

In the church, we had some small arrangements at the end of each bench.

And the table centrepieces were composed of small floral arrangements in jam jars (saving money again!).

Table decorations

Talking about table decorations, again I was quite decisive and knew what I wanted pretty much from the start. My aunt, who couldn’t have been more helpful, sourced some wood slices to create the base for the floral arrangements. I also picked grey tablecloths rather than white which I think made all the difference.

On the wood slices, we placed three small bouquets in old jam jars and a few candles.

The theme for the tables was London’s tube and each table was named after a line, so I created signs using the TFL logo with the colours of our wedding.

The sitting plan

As I mentioned above I decided to name each table after a London tube line. This was a nice way to bring a bit of Andrew’s city to our wedding. It took me hours to design it but I was really happy with the results!

I used Printed.com for most of our wedding impressions.

The wedding favours

We took a controversial approach with our wedding favours, we basically had none on the tables. I just don’t really see the point of them, to be honest, most we received over the years have either been lost, broken or forgotten in a drawer (sorry friends!).

So instead of giving our guests a favour, we had a candy bar set up where people could help themselves to whatever they’d like and I did some personalised bag so they could take the sweets with them.

Sweet, good and recyclable!

The guest book

Again, with the guest book I didn’t want to do something too creative that we would never use, so we went for the good old paper guest book. The only difference was that we had a picture of each of our guests in it, and they had to find their page and sign under it, so we would know exactly who wrote what!

Around it, I framed the wedding pictures of our parents and grandparents and we also had a Royal Mail box for cards.

The small touches

A few other things we did was a signpost with our two cities.

Some paper pompoms on the ceiling of the marquee.

The car

We wanted a vintage car and opted for a Citroen Traction (very French!) which we booked with RJ Car.

Our driver was lovely and helped me calm my nerves on our way to the church. He even served us a glass of champagne after the ceremony!

The invitations

Our wedding stationery was probably one of the most difficult things to find. I disliked almost everything I could find as I wanted something simple, not boring and in keeping with our theme. We looked and looked, and when we found it there was no doubt! We both looked at each other – this was the one!