A Midsummer Night’s Wedding

Rock N' Roll Bride is my favourite wedding blog and I’ve been a long-time lurker of Kat’s terrific individual take on edgy and bold weddings. I’m very far away from getting married myself but that doesn’t stop me from browsing through all the pages of beautiful weddings for inspiration for my big day – should I ever get one! ;)

So when Rock N' Roll Bride teamed up with Next for a wedding stylist competition – for us to create a wedding look based on a theme of our own selection using a budget of £500 on Next items, I had to get on it! It sounded like amazing fun and I love to try my hand at playing designer.

The theme I went for is A Midsummer Night’s Dream, particularly the King and Queen of Fairies, Oberon and Titania. I picked this for several reasons – the play is one of my favourites from Shakespeare, the film adaptations always make me smile, as well as the fact that the idea of having a wedding in the park, at home with nature, appeals to me massively.

So with the characters of Oberon, Titania and the fairies as bridesmaids in mind, I got window shopping.

The Bride - Titania

In films and plays, Titania is always filmed wearing flowing gowns, or dresses with huge trains or skirts. I found this Lipsy dress which captured both Titania's being at home with nature - the flowers embedded across the chest, as well as adhering to the classic brides' colour of ivory. Gorgeous.

In the play A Midsummer Night's Dream, Titania is a proud character, and her pride leads to her husband Oberon playing a mean trick on her - enchanting her so that she falls in love with a man with a donkey's head. However, as the wedding is one of the most important and beautiful days of a girl's life, I thought a tiara - to reinforce the Titania-esque regal status she has on the day - was a good accessory to have, and as such, I've picked a particularly glittery one.  

I didn't pick a necklace due to the flowers on the top half of the dress being more than sufficient decoration around the neck, and I didn't pick a ring with the view that on a wedding day there should only be one ring on the bride's fingers. So in addition to the tiara, the other accessory that I thought would suit a Titania-type bride are these elegant feather/leaf-dangly earrings, once again illustrating her ethereal persona.

And finally, the shoes. I went for silver/ivory heels with gorgeous sequins along the side (to match the tiara), as well as fairly long heels to re-inforce the image of the Bride as the Queen of Fairies.

The Groom - Oberon

The Next website boasts a broad range of classy suits, from black ones to grey ones, but I opted for a brownish hue for the groom's suit, due to the motif of forests and nature and colours adhering to that of brown and green. Perfectly, the model here is wearing a dark green tie, which is striking as it is an unusual colour for the groom's tie, and furthermore, the colour green symbolises balance and harmony, which the union of Titania and Oberon should bring.

Bridesmaids - the Fairies

Continuing with the themes of fertility, rebirth and nature that green brings, these dresses would be perfect for the bridesmaids. The botanical print invokes images of flowers and grass, and the cheekiness of the print also reflects how in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream, Titania would often call upon her Fairies to do her bidding whenever in a ~war with her husband.

As the print of the bridesmaids dresses are colourful enough, I opted to only have one accessory for them. I would have them wear their hair up (much like the model in the photo above), and then at the side of the head wear this cute flower diamante hairclip. In films and plays Titania's fairies are often pictured with ringlets of flowers in their hair, and this is a silky modern day spin on that.

And this floral theme is continued in the bridesmaids' footwear; classy ivory heels with a corsage to the side.

Overall, these pieces came to:
Lipsy One Shoulder Applique Dress - £65
Jon Richard Raised Diamanté Tiara - £45
Sparkle Feather Earrings - £8
Ivory Mesh Peep Toe Shoes - £36
Brown Puppytooth suit set - £90 + £40 + £50 + £26 + £50
Botanical Print Dippy Dress - £45
Jon Richard Diasy Comb - £15
Ivory Corsage Platform Sandals - £36
All this comes to £496 - within budget!

So, having created a Shakespeare inspired wedding look for less than £500, I feel rather proud of myself! Might reward myself with a viewing of the DVD now...