Elegantly throwing out the rule book for wedding trends and elevating the afternoon tea, to a wedding breakfast choice fit for Maria Antoinette herself.

Our team here at Hire My Decor jumped at the opportunity to collaborate recently with some wonderful wedding industry experts. Our creative directive was to take on the increasingly popular afternoon tea, which has been a firm favourite for the past couple of years. Particularly for rustic and outdoor weddings and lavish it, with the opulent styling of a French, aristocratic home. We couldn’t wait to bring the vision to life and eagerly joined forces with the brilliant Marina @Bridal Hair Essex and Victoria @Victoria Taylor MUA who organised the shoot with the wonderful Laura @Laura Beresford Photography, Charmaine @C Taylors Floristry, Rebecca @R T Cakes, Lisa @After Elizabeth Dresses, Heather @Sash and Veil who together helped beautifully style and dress the wonderful models Ella, Megan and Lucy and our incredible venue, The Minories in Colchester, to show just how versatile the afternoon tea can be.

Afternoon teas have for a long time been a great option for baby showers, spa breaks and lunches with friends over a glass of Prosecco. We began to see them appearing at weddings as early as 2012, however they really began to find their footing in the wedding industry over the past two - three years and have been gaining in popularity ever since. As we started to see millennial couples becoming engaged, we witnessed a big shift towards affordable, personalised, DIY weddings; rather than the traditional, formal, structured weddings of their parents before them. This shift in trends has really seen the afternoon tea rise in popularity, as it offers today’s couples an affordable, informal and ever popular shabby chic option. With our own mixed tea set ranges, starting from as little as £2 per person to hire, couples really can reign in the budget on their wedding breakfast. Now that this wedding trend has been a firm favourite for the past few years, we as a team really wanted to add a twist to this typically low-key, summer wedding favourite and see it continue in popularity for 2020-21 weddings.

Rebecca at @RT Cakes really took on the creative directive and designed the most elegant, mini semi-naked cakes we have ever seen. Inspiringly downsizing the most popular wedding cake design of 2019 and beautifully executing the opulent afternoon tea directive. We where so excited to see our golden, jewelled cake stands and our free-standing brushed silver cake stand be used along side her designs. Everyone on set was blown away by the simplicity yet elegance of these cakes, combining classic vanilla sponge with buttercream, Rebecca created three different designs, ranging from a full buttercream finish to completely naked with the popular semi naked in between, wrapped with either handmade edible lace or a beautiful fresh flower sourced by Charmaine @C Taylors Floristry to match the incredible fresh floral displays.

We loved teaming up with Charmaine at @C Taylors Floristry, as soon as she unloaded we were stunned by her beautiful choice of fresh flowers, especially the incredible Dahlia “Cafe au Lait” with beautifully large white heads and peach hue that where simply breath-taking in the arrangements, we can see why they are the crème dele crème of floristry flower. Charmaine really did bring to life the most beautiful displays, breathing life into the décor with huge white and pink peonies. Despite this being the tail end of peonies season they where luscious and filled the venue with sweet floral smells. To bring the pastel colour scheme to life Charmaine added a range of Roses, the dusty pink being my favourite alongside Delphinium and Hydrangeas to add some touches of purple and blue. The floral stair display speaks volumes of Charmaine’s creativity and years of expertise, which not only wowed the whole team but many members of the public could not walk by without commenting on the beauty of the design.

It really was a pleasure to work with Charmaine @C Taylors Floristry she was so knowledgeable and knew exactly what flowers where available to suit the theme, which is only mirrored in her beautiful wedding flowers on her website. We had a lengthy discussion with Charmaine over the increase in popularity of wildflower wedding arrangements in pastel pinks, purples and blues with lots of green foliage rather than the traditional flower rich arrangements we used to see, while these are still popular its great to see natural greener arrangements growing in popularity. Our own artificial wildflower arrangements and candelabras were also used on set to complement @C Taylors Floristry arrangements. Combining grey green foliage, with lavenders, cornflowers, carnations and trailing hydrangeas, these floral’s have been so popular this year, especially as a full centrepiece package or to infill areas with colour as we did in the beautiful Minories, wedding ceremony area “The Folly”.

Not only did we have fresh and silk floral’s to add incredible pastel colour’s to our shoot we had the incredible dress designer, Lisa @After Elizabeth who bought the most beautifully ornate but soft and delicate dress designs, I have seen. I really feel like the dresses set the scene for most of us suppliers on set, as soon as we originally saw the designs, we were all in love. Not only are brides wanting to personalise their weddings, away from traditional structures this can also be said of their dress choices too. Lisa offers brides exactly this with her custom-made gowns available in a huge range of colours and styles, she really can bring your own vision to life. Her dresses and skills are breath-taking, we were so lucky to have three of Lisa’s incredible designs on set.

On the left we have the beautiful Ella, wearing the delicate but sexy “Pease Blossom” gown paired with a white underskirt. The bodice is intricately, embellished with soft pastel floral’s and beads over a sheer material, while looking for the link to this gown for you readers, I noticed Lisa also has this gown paired with a blue underskirt on her website which is simply stunning. In the middle we have Megan in my personal favourite gown of the day, “Ophelia” this gown was such a show stopper, it looks like it was perfectly dipped into a pool of sparkling blue and ivory flowers. There was something so euphoric and magical about this gown, that I can only imagine the reaction that a bride would get when she walks the aisle and wows her guests. On the right is the equally elegant Lucy, wearing the pink and white gown “Wild Rose” the stunning floral printed silk is really beautiful adding a nod to traditional 17th century dress design while also being uniquely modern and different. This photo shoot would not have been the same without Lisa’s, incredible talent and craftsmanship and the love that goes into each of her dress designs @After Elizabeth really shows, especially my favourite gown of the day the “Ophelia”.

The whole day would not have been possible without the brilliant Marina @Bridal Hair Essex and Victoria @Victoria Taylor MUA who not only brought all of us suppliers together but dreamed up the theme for the shoot. Their creativity was limitless when it came to the hair designs, Marina styled all three girl’s hair with beautiful wedding styles, that where elevated to 17th century chic by Victoria’s ship head piece and Heather @Sash & Veils incredible bird cage design.

Megan was styled with a soft but voluminous bun that looked effortless in her beautiful blonde hair while Ella showcased a popular low chignon with delicate curls framing her face. My favourite hairstyle, that somehow combined the extravagance of 17th century French aristocrats with one of the most popular wedding hair styles of 2019, was the wonderful Lucy’s, twisted fishtail side plait. Marina @Bridal Hair Essex really outdone herself creating this look, as a professional hairstylist who loves creating elegant, vintage and bohemian looks I should not have been surprised that she could have a bohemian plait work so effortlessly into the theme.

Marina’s creative flair did not cease to amaze us all and the look was finished off beautifully with Heather’s @Sash & Veils intricate bird cage head piece that complemented the look perfectly. Lucy professionally pulled off this difficult look effortlessly, even affectionately nicknaming her bird “Romeo”. It was a pleasure to work with her, she added a spark of light humour to a fun but tiring day. All three of our models where a delight to work with, and we would like to congratulate Ella on completing her A-Levels and wish her the best on her solo travels around America for her gap year, we will sorely miss you in future shoots, hurry home! Lastly Megan, a professional wedding model and actress, we were so lucky to have you on board, you were such a professional, despite having a giant ship on your head you made this shoot look incredible and really highlighted the hard work that Victoria @Victoria Taylor MUA put into not only the makeup but this incredible hair piece.

Victoria @ Victoria Taylor MUA really elevated what is a popular, softer wedding makeup design into something editorial, by adding subtle definition to a traditional look. The style of makeup was so versatile that it would look beautiful at any 17th or 21st century wedding. Victoria was a delight to work with and I am so grateful she invited us along to style the afternoon tea scenes, at The Minories. The venue was so unique and inspiring and will make such a beautiful backdrop for a wedding.

With unique couples and unique styles, unique venues really are being able to open their doors to new event opportunities such as the wedding industry. The Minories can provide couples with the breathtaking space of “The Folly” of which to wed under, providing the look of a stately manor backdrop while also retaining the peace and tranquillity of an intimate celebration in the gardens and building itself. This Colchester based venue really needs to be seen to be believed, with beautiful gardens, unique architecture and banquet hall it really is a wonderful place to wed.

Lastly the day would not have been captured with such beauty had it not been for Laura’s @Laura Beresford Photography spectacular eye for detail and photography skills. This image really complements her ability to capture incredible scenes as it had just rained down on all our set up and she still managed to capture it beautifully. Thank you, Laura.

We all hope that this shoot inspires future couples to continue making statement looks and really let their personalities shine through on their special days. Although this ever-continuing trend does not appear to be slowing down, we are really pleased to see couples showcasing their own unique styles and relationships through their dresses, makeup, hair, flower, decor and venues. It has been a pleasure to work with them and continue to plan the most incredible weddings in the coming years.

Thanks for reading

Stephanie @Hire My Decor

For more images view here @Laura Beresford Photography

With special thanks to Marina Moore, Hair Stylist at Bridal Hair Essex and Victoria Taylor, Makeup Artist for inviting us to collaborate on such a unique shoot as well as providing incredible Hair & Makeup with the help of on the day Heather @Sash & Veil and for introducing us to the wonderful Minories. For Lisa @After- Elizabeth for providing the most unique and beautiful dresses I have ever seen, I can’t wait to see your next designs. To the beautiful models Ella, Megan & Lucy thank you for bringing such a level of professionalism to the day, even when we asked you to look beautiful while eating cake. To the most talented Rebecca @ RT Cakes for driving the most exquisitely designed mini cakes out to us on location while pregnant, they not only looked amazing but tasted divine when we all enjoyed a cup of tea after the shoot. Thank you to Charmaine @C Taylors Floristry for supplying the most incredible fresh flowers for the day, you really bought the scenery to life adding colour and depth to the shoot. I can not recommend your skills and business enough without you we would not have been able to create such a fantastic theme. And finally, to the talented @Laura Beresford Photography for capturing the whole team’s vision with her great eye for that perfect angle and stunning images.

Text copyrighted by @HireMyDecor 2019. Images provided by @Laura Beresford Photography

One Opulent Afternoon - The Minories, Colchester

Elegantly throwing out the rule book for wedding trends and elevating the afternoon tea, to a wedding breakfast choice fit for Maria Antoinette herself.