Simon and Madeleine envisioned a rustic floral love fest for their wedding day, with a relaxed atmosphere that was filled with love. At The Apple Farm, Isle of Wight they had an upside down day, with a touching first look, followed by a meal with their guests and then a sunset wedding ceremony outdoors.

Simon and the boys looked cool in tweed, bow ties and tan shoes. While Madeleine was one super stylish bride, she donned a dress by Belle and Bunty with a sequin jacket, lace edged veil and gold shoes. The girls looked lovely too, in mismatching grey dresses and fur coats while clutching pretty gypsophila bouquets.

I so love the pretty marquee filled with lanterns, fake flowers and delicious treats. Such a wonderful wedding.

Thanks so much to Sacco & Sacco Photography for sharing their beautiful images with us today.

 

  

The Proposal… On a Sunday morning, he made me a coffee and bought it up to our room with it on a tray next to a rose with the ring around it and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I, of course said yes!

The Vision for the Day… We wanted to create a relaxed, fun, love filled day. People kept on asking me what the ‘theme’ was, but having a theme isn’t something that came into our thoughts at all, it all just evolved from what I imagined in my head! I guess if I had to describe it in 4 words, I would call it a rustic floral love fest…that just about sums it up! From the beginning we wanted a sunset wedding and an outside venue, surrounded by twinkling fairy lights and our loved ones, it worked brilliantly! Everyone had already eaten and made friends and had a couple of Dewberry Liqueurs so the atmosphere was incredible!

The Planning Process… The law about the time of day that you could get married had just changed when we got engaged and we knew straight away that we wanted an outdoor ceremony at sunset. As far as I know wee were the first people to do this on the Isle of Wight, and they didn’t even believe us in the Brighton register office when we told them that we were getting married at 8pm! As for the rest of the day, we had a year to plan in and thanks to pinterest we had lots of great ideas! I for one am not a perfectionist and I think that helped to make the whole process stress free. It totally overwhelmed me on the day and the days before how everyone came together and wanted to be a part of getting the venue ready, making cakes and helping with the mountain of last minute details, we felt so blessed to have these people in our lives.

The Venue… The Apple Farm, Freshwater, Isle of Wight http://www.aftonpark.co.uk/weddings.htm

The Dress + Accessories… ‘The Belle’ by Belle and Bunty from Ozone bridal Brighton http://www.ozoneweddings.co.uk

Finding the Dress… My mother and I went dress shopping the day after we got engaged! I had no idea what I wanted and tried on about 7 dresses in the first shop, they were all lovely, but the 3rd one I tried I knew was my dress, It was beautiful AND comfortable! I did go to some other dress shops but nothing compared! I’m going to dye the dress and have it shortened so I can wear it again!

Groom’s Attire… Si wore a lovely tweed jacket and waistcoat from Luigis in Brighton, it was in the window when we walked past and was just what he was looking for at a fraction of the price of the other suits he’d been looking at, needless to say it came home with us!

The Readings + Music… Our good friend Luke played piano for us during the ceremony, I walked down to the aisle to La Valse D’Amelie and he played Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie before. It was so beautiful and special to have a friend playing for us.

Beautiful Bridesmaids… I had 6 bridesmaids and 3 flower girls (greedy, I know) I let the girls choose their own dresses as I wanted them to feel comfortable and they were all very different shapes and sizes. All I asked was for them to be grey and we decided that it would look good if the all wore fur coats to make them more matchy matchy. My Maid of Honour Claire wore a beautiful dress from Monsoon, the flower girls Lilly and Abriah wore dresses from La Redoute and the littlest flower girl wore a sweet dress from Next.

The Flowers… I made my bridesmaids bouquets with gypsofhila and I had a beautiful bouquet made last minute by the wonderful ladies at Flower Garden in Newport, IOW http://www.flowergardeniow.co.uk

The Cake… We had a cake made of cheese from Waitrose

Your Photographer… The incredible Sacco and Sacco http://www.saccophotography.co.uk . We were so glad that we chose them to be part of our wedding, great people and wonderful photos.

The Details + Decor… Inside the marquee most of the flowers were fake and lent to us by our wonderful friends Tom and Hannah, they got married a couple of years ago and are kind enough to let out their decorations to their friends. It absolutely made the venue! they had such a big impact and nobody realised they weren’t real! we did buy tulips and daffodils from the supermarket and intersperse them along the tables.

For the ceremony we decorated the outside area with fairy lights and as the sun went down they looked magical.

The Honeymoon… We asked for contributions to our honeymoon for our wedding present and we went to Bali, it was amazing! We stayed for a couple of nights on the Isle of Wight after the wedding at The Shack which is owned by Vintage Vacations, I could have honestly stayed there forever, and have been dropping hints since we left that it would be a lovely anniversary tradition to go and stay there every year!! http://www.vintagevacations.co.uk

Memorable Moments… So many!! One of my favourite bits was half way through the meal our photographers took me and Si out to do a few portraits, in the beautiful golden sunlight, it was such a special moment for us as we’d been talking to people all day and high with excitement and anticipation, we got twenty minutes to ourselves to relax and enjoy our day together.

Advice for Other Couples… Try not to get caught up with the small details if you’re finding it overwhelming, remember what the day is about! I hear so many people obsessing over things that people wont even notice on the day! Enjoy the process, you’re getting to marry you’re one!!

Credit Where Credit is Due…

Photographer: Sacco & Sacco Photography

Venue: The Apple Farm

Dress: Belle and Bunty

Bouquet: Flower Garden

 

Wow wee, what a beautiful, meaningful and stunning wedding day. Thanks so so much to Simon and Madeleine for sharing their wedding with us today XOXO Lou