Laura and James' Elegant Monochrome Cambridge College Wedding

It was difficult to imagine how I could follow last week’s launch with another real wedding that you would all love quite as much. However, I think Laura and James’ effortlessly elegant monochrome wedding with twists of rustic and vintage charm rises to the challenge beautifully. These images from Rebecca Wedding Photography have whisked me off to a place of wedding euphoria. This wedding oozes personality, quirkiness and features masses of soft natural light.

I fell in love with this wedding before I’d even seen the pictures because by the end of the day Bride Laura and Groom James were the perfectly named ‘Mr and Mrs Good’. How wonderful is that?

Hailing from Cambridge, Laura always knew she wanted to get married in a Cambridge College “We looked round a few but Jesus College was just perfect. The great hall with its gold and neutral decor complimented our theme so perfectly, not to mention the food was beyond phenomenal.”

Laura and James got stuck in, DIYing lots of the details for their sophisticated vintage theme with Laura even designing her own wedding dress! “I went round a few wedding dress shops with my mum to begin with and thought I had found the ‘one’ several times… I’m a really independent person, and knew I wanted a fishtail tight fitting dress so one day I popped in to a local bridal shop by myself and tried on a few more dresses, however I couldn’t find anything that wowed me, so I decided I would need to design my own.”

“I contacted Polka Fashions who made my dress just as I had dreamed, it was hand made, glass beaded lace just as tight fitting as I wanted. Ironically a bit too tight fitting as on my first fitting, I tried to sit down and popped the seams…..oops.”

“I ordered my dress from a sketch in the January and didn’t get to see it till the June before the wedding. I never had that wow moment but I knew when I couldn’t stop looking at the pics it was the right one!”

Seeing her dad for the first time was one of Laura’s favourite moments: “It was so special to me as he had refused to see my dress through the whole planning.”

Laura handmade all of her buttonholes and venue decor, which we love! This is a speciality that she now continues through her business Very Vintage Weddings. However, she couldn’t have done without her photographer, Rebecca, who the couple chose to compliment their vintage theme. “Rebecca met us and we instantly felt at ease, she is so bubbly and happy. Her photos are amazing and we couldn’t have asked for anything more. Rebecca really is the most amazing photographer and person.”

The day didn’t go completely without hiccoughs with dress dilemmas and stumbling through the vows: “I even called [James] the wrong name which still makes me smile.” However, Laura managed to put a positive spin even on the less perfect aspects of her day. Her advice is: “Take time out together, during the day. I had to take my dress off (don’t go for a tight dress and sit down for a long time) and James came to sit in our room with me. We missed out on more photos together but we got half an hour alone, to reflect on the day and enjoy it so far.”

Despite having to rethink her choice of flowers only two weeks before the wedding, Laura was delighted with the compliments she received on her all-white Hydrangea Bouquet (it should have been plain white peonies but they were unavailable). This wasn’t the only piece of the day to fall into place at the last minute: “My mum made my veil out of off cuts from my dress and didn’t finish it till the night before the wedding.”

I am always touched by acknowledgements to family members, especially those no longer with us. Laura kept her grandparents close to her heart when she carried photos of them incorporated into her bouquet by her florist, Radhika Flowers.

Laura and James’ fairytale ending even started with a fairytale beginning. I love their cute ‘will they, won’t they’ love story: “We first met down the pub when I was 17! We started dating and when I told James I really liked him he disappeared.

Five years later on, returning home from living in Leeds, we bumped in to each other again in the pub and he started to stalk me on Facebook. He apparently said to his friend he was with, I am going to marry her one day.”

And of course, he did! I’m so glad they bumped into each other again because, by the look of these pictures (and despite James’ five year hiatus), these two were clearly destined to be together.

We really wish you both the very best for the rest of your lives together and we hope to see much more of you on the blog as you make a go of your lovely business Very Vintage Weddings.

Kirsty xx