Fabulous Jess | A real Halfpenny London bride
My gorgeous friend Jess married her lovely Rob at Castelnau des Fieumarcon in Legarde, Gascony, France on 6th August last year. Knowing the creative genius Jess is I knew her wedding would be spectacular and I was 100% right!
Jess and Rob had already tied the knot formally in London a month prior to celebrating in France but where to even start describing this epic wedding where the couple were crowned as ‘Sun King’ and ‘Moon Queen’ by their celebrant, rejoiced with ‘the elements’, celebrated with exploding confetti and rainbow coloured smoke bombs!
“We wanted a real festival feel for our wedding in France – like a fiesta or carnival. In fact we called it ‘Wedstock’! The background palette of the venue and surroundings were very natural, grass and greenery, straw bales, stone, rocks, gravel etc. I wanted to have all the décor as colourful as possible – rainbow colours. We asked all our guests to wear white, both for style and also comfort in the heat. We had originally wanted to do a ‘Holi’ festival of colour, but realised what a mess it would make so opted for coloured smoke bombs instead.”
I worked with Jess to create her dream wedding dress which was actually a top and skirt she could wear again afterwards.
“I wore pale grey/blue duchesse silk. I have always loved the corseted ‘wench’ look, and wanted something like this for the French Wedding. I also wanted something off the shoulder as I think it’s flattering.”“I knew it would be hot there and I wanted some bare skin so as to stay cool. I wanted to make the most of my lady bumps too. A corset helped keep ‘everything’ nice and tight. I did not want to wear white, ideally I wanted grey but we settled for a slight pale blue grey in the end.
“For the skirt I really wanted to show my ankles off, as they are the skinniest bit of me! I loved the big chunky pleats and full skirt look, and we went for an asymmetric hem, which mirrors the curve of the neckline, but reversed.”
We love everything about this gorgeous wedding and I'm delighted we could play a small part in it.
Congratulations Jess & Rob! We wish you every happiness in your new adventures together!
Love,
Kate & the Halfpennys xx
Photography by Antony Merat