I am excited to be sharing another wonderful wedding today, and quite a different celebration from this mornings wedding feature.

WWW readers Ella and Michael had a humanist ceremony in a field in Cambridgeshire followed by an outdoorsy inspired day. It was important to them that their day had an informal and relaxed atmosphere. They had a green colour scheme throughout the day which worked wonderfully, with grass running down the long tables and a leaf table plan. Their whole day was home made, from the dresses to the cake and flowers which looked so pretty.

Thanks so much to Rowan Lamb for sharing his images with us today.

 

The Proposal… this was a complete surprise on December 20th. I love Christmas and we had Michael’s family coming to stay the next evening. We were at home alone with the Christmas tree up and the fire going, both in our pyjamas! I had been tasked with getting in a romantic dinner, but forgot so just picked up pizza on the way home, Michael didn’t seem impressed! When i got home he started being extra nice, making sure i had a mulled wine and that the fire was stocked and that i was sitting comfortably! Then he went over to the Christmas tree and said he had a treat for me and asked me to come over. He reached into the branches and pulled out a little blue box, i immediately knew what he was doing and screamed (highly romantic!) and he got down and one knee and popped the question! I was in shock and started sweating and shaking and told him yes! We had a lovely evening with champagne while i gawped at the beautiful HUGE emerald ring he had had made. He’d found an artist online who cast the band part over a twig and then he got the emerald set by a jeweller separately. I couldn’t believe how much effort had gone to, i was very impressed!

The Vision for the Day… we wanted to have an outside wedding, in a non-formal environment, somewhere we could have all our friends and family (i have a big family). Somewhere with trees and a relaxed feel. The important things to us were the people and the food and the music.

The Planning Process… the first thing was to decide where we do the getting married bit and where the reception bit would be. We realised we couldn’t legally get married outdoors, so we looked into a few options of places where you could have the ceremony in a ‘structure’ outside, they all felt a bit formal and not really us. We then discovered we could hire a field at Wandlebury, where we’d both gone as kids. We couldn’t get married there but loved it and found the perfect way to have what we wanted – we decided to do the legal bit at the registry office the day before, with just us and two witnesses, and then have a Humanist wedding ceremony at Wandlebury on the day itself. We knew a little about humanism and it seemed to fit with our beliefs, so we found a humanist celebrant and then the planning could really get underway. Leigh, the celebrant met with us then we did lots of chatting and editing of the ceremony that she wrote, we did our own vows. For the food we wanted food that people could share, rather than a formal thing, so we went with a Middle Eastern kind of menu of meze type starter, tagine for main and then the cake for pudding with cream and berries, it was yummy and really sociable. The next big thing to organise was the band, this took ages, i think i sent at least 40 emails to loads of bands we liked and some random people we found online, we were keen to not get a standard wedding band but to have something acoustic, folky and someone everyone could have a good dance to. The good Ship Band were perfect so we snapped them up. Everything else just kind of followed really, we didn’t have a long engagement, but it was plenty of time and we didn’t get stressed out about anything, I really enjoyed it, especially the creative parts.

The Venue… Wandlebury Country Park.

The Dress + Accessories… my mum made my dress. She’s amazing. We went together and tried a few on to get some ideas, but it was so much more beautiful than i had imagined, and definitely the best dress she’s ever mad -, and she’s made a few! Even she thinks so and she’s the most modest person i know. It was such a special experience to have together, and i got to choose every detail from the lace to the tulle (very fine soft netting) to the edging at the neck to the length of the train and veil. It’s such a beautiful piece of art, i was so amazed at how it turned out and i loved that it was from my mum and that she loved doing it so much. She hand stitched ‘for dear Ella, with love in every stitch’ inside in blue thread, it was a little surprise. She also made my bag which was made with some lace from my dress and she hand embroidered green leaves and flowers (we had lots of green; i guess that was a sort of theme).

Groom’s Attire… Michael had a hand made suit, this was a bit of splash out for us, but it was definitely worth it! It was grey with a pale blue and pale purple check, waistcoat too, kind of tweedy looking. He really enjoyed the process of choosing each detail and he looked amazing, i could tell he felt it too, and he deserved a handmade beauty just as much as i did, we had to pay for this one though! He had a fog watch which was his granddads which he wanted to wear on the day, so there was a special pocket for that.

The Readings + Music… my mum and mikes sister Claire both did readings. My mums was ‘We Who Love You’ by Maude Meehan and Claire read ‘On Marriage’ by Kahlil Gibran.

We didn’t have music during the ceremony, but had an string quartet afterwards while we had pimms (friends of my family agreed to play, it was really beautiful and we felt very posh, not like us at all!)

Beautiful Bridesmaids… my cousin, and best friend Nuala was one bridesmaid, and Grace, Mikes niece was the second. My mum made both of their dresses too. Nuala’s was made from a floral Liberty Lorn fabric and was simple and floor length, we chose the material and design together. Grace’s was a green, old fashioned kind of style, like dresses my mum used to make me as a child, it had beautiful smocking which my mum did as well – a woman of many talents! They both looked beautiful, and they loved their dresses, I loved them too, particularly because they weren’t too ‘bridesmaidy’!

The Flowers… We had just gypsophila and Arum (Calla) lilies – my mum had the same flowers for her wedding and I remember admiring them in one of their wedding photos as a kid. I wanted simple and natural (again, not too formal). Me and mum did the bouquets the night before the wedding, Nuala and Grace just had bunches of gypsophila. I also made myself a gypsophila crown which I was really pleased with in the end. We did button holes for the chaps using gyp and a mini calla lily to match. Lots of people commented on my bouquet, which I was surprised about as it took about 5 minutes!

The Cake… I made the cake. It was 3 tiers (chocolate at the bottom, then carrot and walnut, then coffee at the top). I iced it with plain white icing then attached loads of sugar paste leaves which I had made a few weeks before. The leaves took ages to make, I cut them out individually then pressed a real leaf into the icing to leave the impression of the veins. It worked pretty well in the end. I liked that it was all white – classy just like us!  We ate the chocolate layer for pudding; it was more pudding texture than cake (loads of ground almond and not much flour). In total I think I used around 30 eggs!

Your Photographer… Rowan Lamb. I met Rowan through work. He was great fun and I really loved the photos he showed me of other weddings he’d done before.  He was really relaxed and was enthusiastic about our wedding too!

The Details + Decor… We didn’t have a huge amount of decoration, the tables (with turf down the middle) were the main decoration and we did everything ourselves, from the jars with pieces of card for messages to hang on a tree we had, to tea lights with lace, to wooden signs and sign post, streamers from a huge tree, to the flowers. We had hay bales for seating for the ceremony bit, which my dad ‘borrowed’ from a friend, my dad also made a beautiful willow arch which we stood underneath for the ceremony. We did a lot of borrowing and not much buying, things like umbrellas and chopping boards and jars and boxes and side tables.   A few things were last minute ideas when we were setting up the day before. The setting was so beautiful we didn’t want to spoil it! We did decide on day 1 of planning that we wanted table tennis at our wedding, as we’re both amazing! That was a good laugh.  My brother organised a send-off with sparklers which was amazing, and a complete surprise, it was one of my favourite moments – everyone lined up and we walked down a pathway of people who cheered and waved their extra longs sparklers, all I remember was looking back and forth at all the happy faces waving us off, and feeling slightly blinded by the light!  There was a tangible feeling of happiness and love for us, it was amazing!

The Honeymoon… We went off to Holt in Norfolk for a few days after the big day – Claire (Mike’s sister) and Dave (her husband) treated us to a lovely B&B for our wedding present.  It was very luxurious for us, our usual holiday experience is camping.  We drank champagne every day and ate loads and watched lots of Wimbledon in our gorgeous bedroom!

Memorable Moments… It was all memorable, I hope the memories stay. I really loved the ceremony, it was very personal to us and I loved that we could stand outside under trees. We had a moment of silence, which I wasn’t sure about when we were deciding, but it was lovely listening to the wind in the grass and the birds. It felt like an important moment in our lives and I could see Mike was happy while he stood there looking at me.

Advice for Other Couples… Enjoy the planning, it’s part of it -  it’s really not just about the day itself. Get people involved, it’s not about how fancy your day will be, it’s about the people who help out along the way and enjoying it with them – the same as in life really.

 

Just gorgeous. Thanks so much to Ella and Michael for sharing their lovely wedding with us today XOXO Lou