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Literary Wedding Inspiration - Jane Austen Style in Cornwall

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Austen’s novels contain none of the vulgarities of everyday life in Georgian England. They sparkle with the wit of their heroines or simmer with the dashing profiles of their heroes. In Austen’s world of ballrooms, country walks, the chaise lounge and the drawing room, the trials of preening for balls, taking tea with garrulous mothers and fretting over new ribbons for bonnets takes precedent over the more galling facts of nineteenth century existence. The horror (for her class) of the French Revolution, the shadow of Britain’s part in the slave trade, abject poverty and the affects of  - yet another - crippling war with France, dissipate in her stories set within the safe society of the lower ranks of the English aristocracy.

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Yet, why shouldn’t they?

The novels offer escapism: effervescing with knowing humour and hard won happy endings.

And the narratives – largely the business of marriage – were perfectly serious enough to those women whose profitable and suitable match was their life’s work.

Happily, the twenty first century finds marriage as less of a bride’s business opportunity, and more a chapter in a couple’s own love story.

As the venerable P.D James notes, all six of Austen’s completed novels have a common theme: “a worthy and attractive young woman finds her way through the difficulties and disappointments to marriage with the man of her choice”.

As such, they are the blue print, in both plot and tone, to today’s romantic comedies.

Poignantly, the novels are Austen’s only love story – at least in the terms her society would have judged it.

She never married.

Perhaps this is the reason that we believe in Darcy’s angst for Elizabeth; Marriane’s for Willoughby: arguably this, angst, was the emotion Austen knew best.

The love stories end with marriage – because Austen could go no further. It remained a world into which, through a refusal to marry for anything less than love, she never entered.

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Taking the pinnacle of Austen’s narrative – the wedding – and marrying it with the English-rose romance of her style, Holly and award winning wedding dress designer, Annalise Harvey’s recent photo shoot is imbued with the elegance and grace of the novelist’s canon of heroines.

Annalise was commissioned to create a wedding dress by the Jane Austen Festival organisers to help celebrate the bicentenary of the publication of ‘Pride and Prejudice’.  Lizzie and Darcy – what better possible couple to stand for the legacy of Austen’s love stories? Holly picked up on Annie’s homage to Regency style – think empire lines and floaty diaphanous elegance - with a pretty bespoke headpiece.

The photo shoot was orchestrated by Taylor & Porter Fine Art Photography -fine art film photographers based in Cornwall – and showcases a modern interpretation of Jane Austen, but with all the romance of the Regency era.

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In today’s Instagram-happy, digital image led world, it’s hard to conceive of a time without cameras. However, photographer, Louise, appeals to a more authentic, vintage aesthetic through her use of real film.

We can never know truly what image Austen had in her mind’s eye when she breathed life into Lizzie and her love story, but I feel these talented ladies have captured her vivacity and beauty pretty much perfectly.

Words by Rebecca Ritson www.rebeccaritson.com

Location: Nancarrow Farm | Dress: Annalise Harvey Couture | Florals: The Garden Gate Flower Company | Millinery: Holly Young Boutique | Photography: Taylor & Porter Photographs | Model: Eleanor Cooper | Make Up: Ella Butler | Hair: Sarah Hooper at Capella | Stationery: Artcadia

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