A BEAUTIFUL SUMMER WEDDING

Anne C here.  Although this post is about our fashion style and follows what we wear from casual days out to holidays to more formal occasions, I also particularly wanted to talk about family and friendships, since the wedding I went to was the daughter of a very special friend - someone with whom I have laughed and cried with during the past 30+ years.

My friend and I have been through some tough times together, from work-related stress to relationship issues to family bereavements, to happier times including holidays together, nights out with more than a glass or two of vino flowing, to the momentous highs of giving birth.

I was the Matron of Honour at her wedding (I didn't know her when I got married), while my hubby was her husband's best man, and my friend is one of my daughter's God-mothers.  She is the mother of three beautiful girls and I held each of them within hours of their respective birth (actually two of the girls are twins). We have  agonized over teenage years, exam results, university degrees and empty nesting.

So when she invited us to her eldest's wedding at a beautiful country house just outside Harrogate, I knew that this would be an amazing wedding and that I would have to buy a complete new outfit.

She told me what colour she would be wearing and where she bought her outfit, so I knew which shades to avoid, but she was almost as excited as I was to hear what everyone would be wearing - and I can honestly say it was one of the best-dressed weddings I have ever attended!

In addition to the actual wedding, the bride held a "hen" afternoon tea party in her own lovely home, with home-made cakes and beautifully decorated muffins ( the bride's specialty) which was great fun and meant I got to know some of her friends rather than meet them for the first time at the wedding.

My outfit began with the hat!  Regular readers will know that we spent a day earlier in the year with my friend Liz at her lovely shop, Simply Devine, in Tadcaster (between Leeds and York). I fell in love with the hat the first time I saw it, and although although I loved the dress, I worried that it might be too young for me and bought another one instead. However, that was really too short so I decided to buy the original one anyway - I worry less these days about what other people think. So the dress was bought from Coast, and the shoes are Carvela- a sale find in TK Maxx - but also on the Kurt Geiger website (and in black too!)  I had previously seen them at full price and thought they were too pricey. 

The accessories however, are ones I already had - the pink pearl earrings from Simply Devine (again!), the bracelet and watch from a jewellery party, the ring from an independent jeweller and the diamante evening bag from Dewsbury Market of all places!

I thought I would also include a couple of photographs of myself with the bride and her mum at the "hen" party and then some of them from the wedding day - which was about as perfect as it could be.  The sun shone and the setting - the stunning Rudding Park Hotel just outside Harrogate - was beyond amazing.

For information - the dress I am wearing below is from Florence and Fred at Tesco bought last year (although I am a regular impulse buyer from Tesco I have found very little suitable for me this year), the yellow bag is a vintage find in a charity shop and the white platform shoes from an independent shoe shop.

Here's to a lovely young couple just starting out, to wonderfully happy families, and to long and lasting friendships!