I am a HUGE fan of today’s wedding!! You might recognise gorgeous b&g Sophie & Andrew from their engagement shoot featured here.   If you thought that was cute, wait until you see the adorable details and pretty touches gracing their big day.  Inspired by the colours of a summer sunset, their soft palette of hazy pinks, blues, oranges & yellow pop against a white & grey backdrop, just wait ’till you see Sophie’s bouquet – seriously stunning!!!  Their day was caught on film by photographer Charlie Kingsland-Barrow of CKB Photography, adding a soft, romantic quality to the memories of their day.

For their engagement story click here, for the rest, read on!

We got married in Cheltenham where we both grew up, which was the obvious choice. We had the reception in Cheltenham College, where my Dad works. At first I was very reluctant to have our reception there as it’s a school, and Andy went to the ‘rival’ school, but when we looked around we realised we would have been stupid to say no! It was so beautiful. We could have had the ceremony in the chapel, but we decided to have it in our home church where we both attend, which meant a lot more to us. The service was amazing and so vibrant and fun and I’m so glad we made that decision!

I tried on what felt like millions of dresses, it must have been close to 40 or 50 easily, possibly more! I liked loads of them but nothing really stood out. Originally I wanted something slinky and sexy but it just didn’t suit me!! I was quite sad about that but after trying on so many styles I realised what I was really looking for, and finally found it in Adelphi by Intizuri. I loved the straps, the softness of the fabric although it was such a big dress, the sparkle that didn’t overpower but was totally ‘me’! But it was so huge that I couldn’t see how I was going to walk in it until my very final fitting and the seamstress spending a LOT of time altering all the layers! I don’t think she was very happy that I’m quite short! I did stumble a little up the aisle but all my friends and family that saw just laughed with me. I was also worried that it was too classic which was what I didn’t really want to do, but in the end I was so pleased that I stuck with it and absolutely loved every minute wearing it. I decided to wear a veil to finish off the look and I’m glad I did. 

I didn’t decide on my hair until the morning, where I told my hairdresser to see how it goes! Again I wanted something ‘different’ but the styles I tried out didn’t quite work! And Andy says he loved my hair on the day so that’s all that matters… I loved my make-up artist she was so sweet, creating a dewy and ‘young’ complexion which highlighted my eyes and lips.

I bought a beautiful gold rose headpiece to match the gold earrings Andy had bought me for my birthday last year. The morning of the wedding my mum surprised me with a hair comb she had made of Lily of the Valley on a whim the night before. My shoes were from Rainbow, the requirement being that they were the tallest shoes I could find as Andy is a foot taller than me, and I changed in the evening to my favourite pair of of completely sparkly gold shoes from Dune. I also wore my Granny’s beautiful diamond heart shaped brooch on a small pearl necklace that I bought, something that my Mum wore on her wedding day too. It was very special to wear something like that!

Basically all of the things I wanted turned out different to how I had originally planned! I imagined pastel coloured bridesmaids in all different shades and and brighter blue tails or white tie for the men.  We couldn’t find anything that we could agree on (having 8 bridesmaids in total and 3 of them my sisters!). But together Andy and I found dark grey Jenny Packham bridesmaid dresses which we thought could worked, and he chose traditional tails after trying on many things. My sisters didn’t like them at first but we stuck to our instincts and decided to inject colour with the flowers. Now I love the contrast of the colours! They wore sparkly Ted Baker shoes with big bows to fit in with the many themes I had. We also found the little bridesmaid dresses in Monsoon which were perfect because they were the same style and shape in the lighter shade! My mum made the little girls’ flower crowns and the page boys bow ties.

I spent so, so many hours on Pinterest when I should have been working on my degree! i scoured lots of magazines for ideas, but Pinterest and wedding blogs were my fave!  My inspiration was sunset colours, those beautiful hazy pinks, blues, corals and yellows…you know the ones?? I love the sky. I just love it. These were mainly in the flowers. For invites and others details it was gold sparkle (My favourite thing) and pale pink (and dark grey!!)

I would have loved to do more DIY, we did do quite a lot but it was slightly hectic the week before as I was finishing my degree and had my final exam 4 days before the wedding! But we managed it and it was so fun. We had a lot of hearts, bows, gold, sparkle, and pretty colours.  The church we got married in is very white and open, and we wanted to do something to add colour and go a bit further than the normal two arrangements of flowers. My mum raided hedgerows and friends’ gardens in the week before (!) and with some friends created the most beautiful arrangements around the church. My bridesmaids and I made paper hearts and hung them as banners across the balconies above where people sat. We found a beautiful arch in Andy’s Dad’s workshop which my dad painted gold and my mum covered in flowers and put on the stage. This was very special for us as Andy’s Dad passed away just before we met. We then moved the arch to the reception for people to walk through to their seats!

For the reception…Gold sparkly jars, jam jars to drinks out of…unlimited candy floss (in 8 flavours…my page boys and flowers girls highlight), popcorn, we made napkins in bows with gold ribbon, balloons with gold streamers. Gold rimmed plates and beautiful old silver cutlery. For favours a wonderful friend made oreo cake pops which were devoured in seconds! Along with the ‘here comes the bride’ banner, Andy’s best man designed all our invitations (which were filled lovingly with gold glitter by Andy!) For table names we had funny famous people who shared our names! The guest book table asked for people’s marriage wit and wisdom and date night ideas, and was decorated with some of Andy’s Dad’s drawings. My sister made all our weddings cakes, a three tier beautiful and delicious fruit cake on a cake stand that belonged to Andy’s Grandad – he was the Queen’s baker in Scotland – and 4 more delicious flavours, rose and pistachio, lemon and lavender, amaretto, and salted caramel & chocolate.

Because we had to hire everything in we got to choose our amazing caterers, a healthy and fun food company who we approached after getting lunch from them every day. That was one of our best decisions.  The food was out of this world – canapes and starters and big sharing platters of wasabi beef and noodles (just to mention one!) and sharing platters of desserts including yummy elderflower jelly followed by cheese! Food was one of our priorities and we had so much of it! The guests still keep mentioning it.

I was a bit worried about flowers, I had searched through what feels like millions of pictures on Pinterest and blogs to find the right ones, but told my florist the colours and kind of flowers I wanted, ranunculas, maybe a few roses, jasmine…I wasn’t sure how they’d turn out but I couldn’t believe it when I saw them! She got it so right, better than what I was hoping for. So much better. In the reception we had tall arrangements of gypsophelia surrounded by colourful ranunculas.

photographer

The beautiful Charlie Kingsland-Barrow of CKB Photography. We had our engagement shoot with her and really loved the photos!  We really love the softness of the work that Charlie produces, her use of film really appealed to us as we felt it would emphasise our choice of an old and very beautiful venue, soft and sweeping dress, pretty colours and even the slight hint of Gatsby theme for our bridesmaids; a perfect choice of photographer!  It was really fun to have her there on the day and in no way did the photographs feel like a chore, it is actually one of the most treasured parts of my day because Andy and I got to spend time together, and it hardly felt like Charlie was there.  We were both so comfortable with her and really loved the results!

favourite moment

The vows and the ceremony. It felt like it was just the two of us and I was so nervous but so excited. And the moment when we left after a sparkler exit and we turned around and saw so many precious friends waving us goodbye. So special.

first dance

My sister and the band (my friends) sang ‘I Love You Baby’ – James Arthur’s version. Slightly cheesy, but we didn’t have a particular song and just loved it when my sister sang it!

advice

Enjoy being engaged, it is so much fun. And the wedding is wonderful but you really don’t see many details in the day. Which is sad, but the vows you make and your marriage is more important, and its just fun to have a massive party to celebrate that! We loved going to our pre-marriage course (you should do one!) and we loved spending time together on honeymoon and moving in together after 2 years living apart and commuting!

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Suppliers: Photographer: Charlie Kingsland-Barrow // Dress: Adelphi by Intizuri at The Cotswold Frock Shop // Accessories: Corrine Smith, Swarovski // Shoes: Rainbow // Bridesmaids dresses: Jenny Packham, and Monsoon // Groomswear: Regency Grooms // Florist: Jackie Blay // Cake: Susie Woodbridge – sister // Stationery: Nathan Millar – best man // Hair: Angie Meadows // Makeup: Nikki // Venue: Cheltenham College // Catering: Friska // Music: Adam Moran, Richard James and Band  // Coordinator: Sara Buckley