Happy Monday lovelies, i hope you are feeling refreshed after the weekend. I have a super lovely wedding to share with you today.

Jess and Will married back in May with a Church service followed by a marquee back garden reception. They wanted their day to have an English country garden feel.

Jess wore a beautiful 1950s vintage lace wedding dress with her hair plaited into a lovely up do, while Will wore a sharp suit with a red tie. Gorgeous.

They used the prettiest homegrown flowers and cow parsley for the cute bottles, vintage tablecloths for the tables, had a barn dance and atmospheric lighting for the evening.

Thanks so much to the brilliant Kari Bellamy for sharing her photographs with us today.

 

The Proposal… I woke up on a November Tuesday morning and moaned about how dull our lives were. ‘it’s the same thing every day, nothing exciting ever happens, I get up, eat porridge, go to work, blah, blah…’ you can imagine the rest! I stomped out the house, got a text at work at lunchtime saying he had a surprise that would break the monotony of my life and when I got home, Will opened the door in a brand new TKMaxx outfit (he never shops) that he had bought himself that day (bright orange cords) and the dying lily’s (I had bought for myself the week before) surrounded by every candle we owned placed carefully on the coffee table next to him. He asked would I marry him, presented the ring and I then went into some kind of deep shock (after saying yes obviously!) He whisked me off to an amazing hotel where we had the taster menu of our lives. It was the most wonderful surprise.

The Vision for the Day… English country garden. Without the rain.

The Planning Process… We had a year and a half to prepare. But to be honest, Will found a secret stash of magazine ideas that I’d been keeping way before I even met him…(sssh!) During that year and a half, I just collated ideas I liked as I went along (hence no actual colour or decorative theme) and Will? Well, he mainly pretended it wasn’t happening. But he ‘hmmed’ and ‘aaaahd’ in all the right places. (He did make an amazing cheeseboard out of a tree trunk and did buy his own suit. Even if it was only the week before the wedding…)

Budget… We didn’t have a set budget as such – we’re very lucky that both our parents helped us. The Daily Mail informs me that the average wedding now costs £22,000. I think ours totalled less than half this.

The Venue… My parents garden.

The Dress + Accessories… 1950′s lace dress from Abigail’s Vintage in Oakham – by far the best place to get a vintage dress. She really knows what she’s talking about. I had fresh flowers in my hair, my engagement ring and a pair of matching earrings. Shoes were from Emmy and were the most comfortable heels I’ve ever worn (but they had to be swapped for flats when I sank in the garden mud…)

Finding the Dress… I looked around lots of vintage places and Abigail’s was the best quality and prices – she clearly knew more about vintage than anyone else. Plus she serves you coffee/tea in real china. The joy of trying on dresses that ranged from Edwardian up to 1970′s was definitely one of my best memories in preparing for the wedding.

Groom’s Attire… Red stripy shirt, red spotty tie, grey suit, red trickers. It was his first ever tailored suit and he was very proud of it!

The Readings + Music… Phillipians 4, V 4-9, Dr Zeuss, Oh The Places You’ll Go, Queen of Sheba & La Rejouissance.

Plus music written by my cousin Molly Shorter for the register signing, lovely violin tunes called ‘Wedding Bells’ & ‘To A Farmer’s Wife’.

Beautiful Bridesmaids… Didn’t have any.

The Flowers… Bought from a beautiful walled Victorian garden at Stokesay castle – Victoria Martin has recently started a business growing flowers and you can buy buckets freshly picked. We added to these with flowers from the market and from Mum and Dad’s garden.

The Cake… Didn’t have one.

Your Photographer… Kari Bellamy – brilliant!

The Details + Decor… We used the church barn and hired a lovely Moroccan-style marquee from Oasis Tents (I can highly recommend – lovely interior and helpful staff) The barn we decorated with cow parsley in assorted galvanised containers. The tables were decorated with vintage tablecloths collected from charity shops, fabric sweets Mum made as favours and glassware from IKEA. The marquee comes decorated but we hung my Mum’s bunting around the outside and inside, the guests sat on floor cushions. I decorated the garden as well – candle lit lanterns in the willow tree, light up rabbits in Dad’s veggie patch (not sure he liked this idea!) and tissue paper pom poms on shepherds crooks to make pathways. Sarah (lizzytish.co.uk) made the most brilliant pigeons with hats for our table plan and my friend Carrie and her husband Tom (relovedstyling.com) with her fabulous creative eye bought some of her lovely rentable pieces to pull it all together. In the evening, we had a barn dance (captainswing.org.uk) and then I had made a music ‘spin the wheel’ with different era’s so we’d have 20 mins of dancing to 502, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s or current music. But I was so tired after the barn dance and everyone was relaxing in the marquee so it never really happened – my one regret of the day as I love dancing! The tiredness just enveloped me at that point…

The Honeymoon… A week on Vancouver Island in a snazzy apartment (Black Rock Ocean Front Resort) organised by the brilliant Nick French (http://www.thetanzaniaspecialists.net) It was stunning.

Memorable Moments… The service was lovely, the speeches, everyone having such an amazing time and the SUN!!

Advice for Other Couples… DO NOT work up until the day before your wedding! We only had one day to get everything done and although I had lots of lovely helpers, I didn’t enjoy the build up as much as I would have liked to as I was so tired. I would definitely recommend spreading the contacts – my mobile was the point of contact for all hired equipment, helpers, etc and this was a bit much on the Friday/Saturdaymorning. Think about all the skills your pals/family have and utilise them! One of the most special things about our wedding was that it pulled together all the talents of everyone we knew – lasering, crafting, sowing, etc. We were so grateful for that input and it wouldn’t have been nearly as lovely without their help and ideas.

Finally, believe people when they say how amazing the day is. It’s true.

Credit Where Credit’s Due…

Photography: http://karibellamy.com/

Catering: http://www.roslincatering.co.uk/

Marquee: http://www.oasisevents.co.uk/

Will’s farm it also does weddings – http://www.scraptofthillfarm.co.uk/

 

Oh so beautiful. Thanks so much to Jess and Will for sharing their lovely wedding with us today XOXO Lou