Tomorrow is my wedding anniversary (yay!) For the first time, I’ve actually managed to write about my wedding on the blog as I’ve kept planning to every June since Autumn was born. It’s a bit weird, since I’ve been busier than ever these last few months. I’m not knocking it though. It’s been lovely to finally write up about about the different elements of our day. So far, I’ve written about our invitations and my wedding dress. Today I’m focusing on the cars. As someone who has grown up with a love and appreciation of cars, the wedding car was always going to be just as important as the dress for me. I’d also had a special convoy planned out in my head since I got engaged. It was just a case of putting the plan into action and hoping that it would work. Largely as I would be relying on people’s good will…
My wedding car
Starting the search
I spent hours scouring the internet looking for the perfect wedding car. Although I love horses, a carriage just wasn’t really my style. I also knew for sure I didn’t want anything modern. If my Dad’s classic Range Rover had been on the road I’d have loved him to drive me in her, even though she didn’t match the colour scheme! It might also have been a bit tricky climbing up and down in my wedding dress. I’m sure I’d have made it work though!
On a side note, I remember going to a wedding fair a couple of years before I got married. There, we chatted to a wedding photographer. He asked what wedding car I was going for. I told him how I hoped my Dad’s Range Rover would be road-worthy and he scoffed “You don’t want to arrive at your wedding in a great big dirty Land Rover”. Um, actually, yes I did! Needless to say, we didn’t go with him. That instantly put me off of him, as good as his photography was. Instead, we chose brilliant photographers who went with the flow and were enthusiastic about every decision. In fact, we’re still in contact with them today and have had several shoots with them since. I digress…
Finding the right one
I have always particularly appreciated the beautiful shapes of 1950’s cars, particularly American ones. They were just so imaginative and had a lot of character unlike the cars of today. I just couldn’t find anything in white or cream that met my requirements though. I’d mostly been looking for a 1957 Chevrolet, preferably a Bel Air. Yet I couldn’t find anything that was close enough to where we were getting married.
Broadening my horizons a little, I started looking for blue cars. With our colour scheme being blue and cream, I thought it would be a nice contrast from my dress for photos. Then I found it.
A blue and white Plymouth Savoy with shiny chrome and the distinctive tail lights I’ve always loved. It was close enough for us to hire for our wedding and perfect.
On the day, I was almost speechless when I saw it. It was even lovelier than the photos I’d seen online. Our guests loved it too and we received many compliments on my choice (although many assumed it was husband’s. Obviously. Because he’s a man.)
Convoy
Well, I had to get Land Rovers into my day somehow, didn’t I? I had an idea. A couple of weeks before the wedding, I made up some leaflets. They explained who I was and how much it would mean to me if they would escort my wedding car from the church back to the reception. My Dad and I are serial Land Rover spotters, so we leafletted lots that we already knew of. We also popped them on windscreens of Land Rovers we saw in our travels.
The turnout was AMAZING. One man even closed his business temporarily so that he could come. I met such lovely people, too! I was overwhelmed by their kindness. I just remember turning to look behind me out of the window of the Plymouth Savoy and seeing this stream of Land Rovers following me, just wanting to capture this memory in my mind forever.
All photos in this blog post were taken by Robert Marriott Photography.