Fun Country House Wedding in Essex | Bridal Musings

Fun Country House Wedding in Essex | Bridal Musings

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Today we're off to Essex, England, to Richard and Sarah's blooming cool country house wedding.

Captured by the wonderful Laura of Babb Photo, their wedding in Essex was the epitome of a good old fashioned fun English knees-up.

A sweet personal ceremony, a ride in a big red routemaster (complete with old school tickets!), gin and tonics in the garden, pretty DIY details, and a night of tearing up the dancefloor alongside some of the coolest super-sized light-up letters we've seen.

With a gorgeous dress, a dapper suit, and a fabulous country house backdrop, Richard and Sarah describe their wedding as "Personal, Pretty and Fun."

And we're rather inclined to agree...

Our Wedding Day

There was no set theme or colour to our wedding, we just wanted it to be vibrant and above all, pretty. A lot of our inspiration was drawn from a "Shabby Chic" style. We wanted to show our fun side, without forgetting that the day was a celebration of love. For our reading we adapted a Bob Marley poem called He's Not Perfect. This was read by one of our close friends and Usher, Jack.

The Ceremony

Rich didn't want to wear traditional tails, so opted for a three piece tweed suit, embellished with a pocket watch. We also bought all the groomsmen an engraved pocket watch to compliment Rich, by wearing on it the day, and to keep as a thank you. At the start of my wedding dress search, I was clueless as to what I wanted, but absolutely loved every second of trying them on! In the end I went for a big "once in a lifetime" dress. I loved the coloured ribbon and subtle detail. The girls complimented my dress in various shades of purple and grey.

The Attire

Laura, our photographer, was recommended to us by another photographer. We checked out her website and loved what we saw, so set up a meeting. Laura is a fantastic photographer and great to work with, she's fun, but maintains a high level of professionalism at all times. We couldn't have wished for anyone better to capture our wedding.

The Photography

We both love a G&T, especially at a wedding reception! So chose to serve a twist on this with gin and elderflower cocktails. We also served Prosecco for the non gin lovers. My Mum made our cake for us. We went for fruit, as her fruit cake is legendary and meant it could be prepared plenty of time in advance so there would be no stress in the final hour. In the evening we served a variety of bagels, as a nod to Rich's Jewish heritage with childhood crisps, Monster Munch, Skips, etc. Rich was in charge of this meal! I'm vegetarian and had specific ideas about what I wanted (or didn't want)! The caterers were great at taking on board our ideas and interpreting them.

The Refreshments

We had a variety of flowers, from big bright roses to smaller varieties - anything colourful and in season was the brief! Nicky and Lorraine at Shrinking Violet, did a great job of interpreting this. We wanted our wedding to be beautiful and thought flowers were the perfect decoration to achieve this. We added to these by spending months crafting... from invitations, menus and table plans to glass jars, photographs and picture frames. I love arts and crafts and don't usually get the time, so embraced the opportunity! My favourites were the ranunculus and aliums. Rich was in charge of favours - more childhood fun in the form of party bags, filled with glow sticks, sweets and a tacky toy. I made sure they still looked pretty and doubled them up as place settings.

The Flowers & Decor

The Favours

The Music

Our first dance was to Ellie Goulding's version of Your Song, a song we both love, but wasn't too cheesy.

Our personalities were stamped all over our wedding, which can't help but make it special. We like to try different things and the "I Do" lights were not something we'd seen at other weddings. Other favourite moments were getting told off in the ceremony for being too focussed on each other and not paying attention... and our photos being photo bombed by the resident cat!

Our DJ was great, Paddy from Disco Wed. He played background music during our reception and set up the Disco Shed for the evening's dancing!

Favourite Details

Advice for Other Couples

My top tips for anyone preparing for their big day would be to have fun and enjoy it!

I used Pinterest religiously, especially as I have a habit of forgetting where I'd seen things.

I also looked at Laura's blog as well as other wedding blogs for ideas and inspiration.

Try to stick to your budget. It's tempting to go over, and if you do make sure it's for something worth it (ours was photos).

For more real wedding inspiration, check out our archives for Rustic + DIY weddings.

They look like they had such a fun day! And I just cannot get enough of their awesome I Do from Vowed and Amazed!

Thanks so much to Laura of Babb Photo and of course to Richard and Sarah for sharing their beautiful wedding with us.

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