Japanese Wedding Origami Cranes in Hair

Good morning all – oh how lovely the wedding I have to share with you this morning is – a charming and joyful celebration, with an effortlessly relaxed feel – a day entwined throughout with Japanese influences and blue styling touches and a church hall decorated in the most impressive handmade style that I have ever seen.

Freelance textile designer Jolene and her beau James first met in November 2009 on a blind date set up by a mutual friend just two weeks after Jolene had moved up to Newcastle. Thanks to their matchmaker, it turned out to be the start of something special with Jolene and James tying the knot at St Albans Church on the 16th of August 2014, a gorgeously bright and breezy summer day in the North East.

"We both wanted a really relaxed and informal wedding – with a focus on the 'eat, drink and be merry' .  I lived in Japan for four years in my early 20's and love everything about the place, so that ' s pretty much were the inspiration came from for the decorations.  James also loves the colour blue."

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Sarah Jane Ethan

Jolene chose to wear a Ronald Joyce dress, with a pretty lace change of dress for the evening to make the most of her fabulous sparkly gold shoes;

" I thought picking the dress would drive me to distraction and cost the earth, but it was the easiest part of the wedding.  And t o be honest I think I chose this particular dress, as it was the dress that made my mum cry. It was the 5th wedding dress I tried on in the first shop. James has a bit of a twinkle in his eye for Sophia Loren, Monica Bellucci type, so I was keen for an Italian style, figure hugging but not 'too' revealing kind of gown.

I loved the lace and it made me feel fabulous. I bought a second dress for the evening a little lace Reiss  number shorter so I could bust some moves and show off the sparkly, gold Jimmy Choos . "

The beautiful decor of the church hall, must have been a real labour of love – the origami cranes and other paper hanging decorations are a complete sensation;

"The decorations in the hall took 11 months to make. My mum and I made 5,000 white, ivory and gold paper cranes, 50 large cupcake bom boms (basically – paper lanterns covered in cup cake cases) and 700 hundred white, ivory and gold tissue paper pom poms.  Most of these were made into chandeliers through which we threaded fairly lights down the middle.

My mum had the genius idea of making Mandala trees for the table centres – she collected branches in the winter – painted them white and added a base – we hung antique chandelier crystals and paper cranes off them and the name of the tables. The tables were named after loved ones who couldn't be there and things significant to James and I."

" We chose the AMAZING Photograph er Sarah Jane Ethan  for our wedding ,  she exceeded both our expectations. Both my mother and myself are camera phobic and Sarah-Jane certainly had her work cut out. She blended so easily in to the wedding that she could have easily been mistaken for a guest. She was charming and fun and it felt like having a friend around.

The photographs made me cry – they were stunning, and delivered with such speed and re-posted so many times on F acebook since!"

"I had my hair styled by one of the bridesmaids Zoie, who works at Harpers in Belper and is a professional hairdresser. Sam from 'Tench & Co' did my makeup and eyelashes."

"I have a slight obsession with Japan and when James and I started dating he used to buy me Studio Ghibli DVDs. The music I walked down the aisle to was 'The Promise of the World', by Nakanishi Kiriko – and we left our ceremony to the sound of 'Carrying you' by the same artist."

"James's ring is from ASD Jewellers, and has an insert of the rare stone, Blue John, which is mined near where he was born in Derbyshire.  Due to the intricacy of my engagement ring my wedding ring was just a plain gold, ethically sourced band."

Jolene is a very talented lady and created the gorgeous dresses for her bridesmaids;

"I am a freelance textile designer, so I designed the print of the bridesmaid dresses so they would match all the stationery which I designed and had printed. The print consisted of Irises, Hydrangea and Fuchsia in every colour variation of blue possible so very easy to colour match.

The bridesmaids styled themselves regarding shoes, hairstyles and makeup. They had their hair styled at Glitz hairdressers Tynemouth. Myself and my sister in law Ria made their silk hydrangeas and fresh water pearl hair grips."

James chose a smartly tailored pale grey suit and shirt from Reiss, with a blue floral Ducham and shoes by Hugo Boss.

" My bouquet, the wrist corsages and button holes were made by Andrea's Florists  North Shields. All the other flowers including the bridesmaids bouquets and table decorations were made by the bridesmaids, which all tied in with the print that I created for their dresses.

Due to the bridesmaids dresses being so bright and busy I thought my bouquet being in a solid ivory would stand out more. "

" Earsdon is a stunning village on the periphery of Newcastle, very near to where we live in Tynemouth. St Albans Church and Eccles Hall are set in a stunning location surrounded by fields, and the venues themselves were beautiful – the church quaint and the hall an oak floor high beamed ceiling, dream. The vicar and congregation were amazing – so helpful and friendly. "

" My Dad and brother made the pretty white cart, which went down a storm! We also provided a 'tots corner' for the little ones with balloons, toys and travel cot for a play pen. "

" A brilliant company called Epicurus supplied all the equipment we needed to cater in the hall, from tables to ice buckets and everything in between. We had beautiful gold ornate chairs and saved a fortune on having to cover them, the staff worked their socks off and were friendly and professional. "

"' The Deli around the Corner' , an amazing delicatessen in Tynemouth, made and decorated the cheese cake. The wedding fruit cake was made by my Auntie Gillian. The icing sugar decorations on both cakes ( mice, lobsters and cherry blossoms!) were made by Yummy of Liskeard .

We also had five other large cakes – a caramel carrot cake, triple chocolate fudge, chocolate  peanut butter/Eton mess cheesecake and mango and passion fruit cheesecake supplied by Sweet Tooth Delivery. Absolutely delicious and demolished in minutes. "

" The Deli around the Corner , also did the Northumberland buffet (which nearly every guest said was the best wedding food they had ever had). They are an undiscovered gem when it comes to wedding buffet, not only were they cheap as chips they were amazingly delicious! SUE was a star.

We also had four amazing fish platters from Taylors  in North shields. "

" The lace table cloth on the wedding cake table was made over 90 years ago by my Great Great Great Spanish Grandmother. We had a small black and white photo of her on the table next to the cake. Everything was handmade. "

" For entertainment we played 60 ' s , 70's and 80's cheesy hits, and it went down a storm!  The dance floor was never empty.  Our fabulous friend Bryonie Danby  who is an amazing singer/song-writer, did a rendition of ' ' Jolene '  which was a show stopper. My uncle Allan was ' Master of C eremony '  and is also a member of the magic circle so he was amazingly entertaining.

Sadly however, we forgot to upload our first dance song onto Spotify , so what would have been ' W ild H orses '  by the R olling Stones turned into 'She' by Elvis Costello."

" If I could have done anything differently, I would have danced to the Rolling stones track, worn my garter belt and thrown my bouquet and I wouldn't have worried about what I looked like. Everybody there was there because they loved us.

And I would not have let my Dad – who is obsessively early for everything – book the taxi; we were 45 minutes early!  Slightly too eager – lucky the reception venue was right next door to hide and wait in!

My favourite parts of the day? I loved the dancing with friends I had not seen in ages. but also loved having the top table photos taken as well. James loved the photo shoot outside alone – he said it was the first time we were able to spend time together and also cutting the cake. I think my best bit was seeing my dad walk into the room which Sarah captured perfectly. Mum said in 35 years of marriage, she had never seen him cry.  He cried three times that day. "

Words of Wedded Wisdom

" Have a small venue – when people are in a confined space they are more confident to dance and everybody interacts. There were no pockets of separation at our wedding – we also mixed the tables up.   And h ave 'the cheese' – everybody and every generation love R.E.M and Tina T urner.

Invest in an amazing photographer, these photographs will be with you until the day you die and they capture all the bits you missed.   It's also worth paying for a choir in the church to save any awkward mumbling.

If you can, have the reception venue neary by to where you hold your ceremony – people don ' t want to travel miles, so think about having the church,  venue  and bar within high heel walking distance at least.

And finally, buy an evening dress – if its hot, you will boil in a bag and at some point you will want to show your shoes off !"

Congratulations to Jolene and James, and thank you for letting us share your completely gorgeous wedding today.  Huge thanks too go to Sarah Jane Ethan, whose work is a regular here on Love My Dress.

I adore this wedding and particularly love the bridesmaid dresses designed by the talented bride.  Are you searching for beautiful ideas to decorate your venue yourself like James and Jolene did? Do take a peep at the Love My Dress Pinterest boards for a big dose of inspiration.

Love and Origami,

Rebecca x

Photographer – Sarah Jane Ethan
Wedding Ceremony – St Albans Church
Reception Venue –Eccles Hall
Bride's Dress – Ronald Joyce + Shoes – Jimmy Choos
Bride's Evening Dress – Reiss
Bride's Hair Accessories – Twigs and Honey
Bride's Hair – Harpers + Make Up –Tench & Co
Bridesmaids Dresses – Designed by the Bride
Bridesmaids Hair – Glitz
Groom's Suit + Shirt – Reiss
Groom's Tie – Duchamp + Shoes – Hugo Boss
Florist – Andrea's Florists
Rings – ASD Jewellers
Mother of the Brides Outfit – East
Buffet Catering + Cheesecake – The Deli around the Corner
Fresh Fish Catering –Taylors
Cake Decorations – Yummy of Liskeard
Cakes – Sweet Tooth Delivery
Giant Balloons –Just Balloons
Catering and Equipment Hire – Epicurus

Japanese Wedding Origami Cranes in Hair

Source: https://www.lovemydress.net/blog/2014/11/japanese-inspired-northern-village-hall-wedding-ronald-joyce.html

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