A Thrifty Family Wedding

When we got back from Brittany, we had a card from my cousin thanking us for being at her recent wedding. 

Ah, what a day that was: a proper thrifty family wedding! As I’ve mentioned before, my family lives in Essex – but, thank goodness, far away from the strange world of TOWIE.

The ceremony took place at the church in the pretty village where my aunt and uncle live. I am afraid that Thrifty Baby decided to replace the official order of service with loud, squawking vocals, and was soon whisked out into the churchyard, to squawk at his leisure. Fortunately we got lucky with the weather, and it was a sunny day:

That’s my Marmite bag in the foreground: it’s my favourite little bag and has, over the years, been wheeled out for plenty of weddings. It’s an Anya Hindmarch bag, but I got it for free back in the day when I worked as a magazine journalist, from a friendly fashion editor who thought it was perfectly frightful.  I love it. Besides, it matched my hat.

The reception was held in the goods shed at a local railway museum, out in the sticks…

…Albeit one with an illustrious pop history.

This wedding reminded me why I love homespun weddings, or ones with thrifty touches. Now that I’m in my thirties, I’m a habitual wedding guest in the style of Hugh Grant in Four Weddings And A Funeral – and the big posh dos, with their identikit trimmings, are beginning to merge into one. The smaller weddings, with their one-off trimmings and homemade edges, are the ones that stand out.

My favourite touch? My aunt has a thing for teapots! And teapots were a theme at this wedding, from the signposts to the table decorations which came straight from her collection:

It was a good buffet. The favours were tiny pots of apricot and white chocolate jam, and the wedding cake was topped with ornate sugar flower sprays, saved by Frugal Grandma from her own celebration cakes. They have been passed onto my cousin now.

The railway museum was opened up to the guests, but we spent a lot of time in the goods shed, lazing around in this gorgeous old carriage and coming over all Hercule Poirot.

My dress came from a sale at Beale’s Department Store, reduced from £50 to £35, and which is still available online. I’m very pleased with it: I wanted a smart, unfrumpy dress that was also baby-friendly, i.e. I could breastfeed in it and chuck it in the washing machine at the end of the day, which amounted to a tall order. But this one fits the bill. I have also been wearing it to work.

The hat came from Hats On Top: an amazing hat shop in Harrogate, where the assistant steamed the glue on the headband and adjusted the hat until it sat on my head at just the right angle. It was £40, and I’m getting plenty of wear out of it. I decided to invest in a hat because I was fed up, damn it, of buying those fiddly little fascinator comb things at £10 – £20 a pop. They are too fragile: they get squashed so easily and they get scruffy so quickly. I was done with them. The other thing I like about this hat is that in the future, Hats On Top will dye it a new colour for me if required.

All in all, it was a lovely wedding. I liked the teapots and the trains, but if you asked Thrifty Baby, he would tell you that his favourite part was the bubble machine that kicked off when the beautiful bride and her groom had their first dance.