Stylish Country Fair Wedding | Whimsical Wonderland Weddings

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Happy Monday, I hope you had the loveliest weekend and are feeling refreshed. I have a beautiful wedding to share with you this morning, filled with fun and smiles.

Julian and Alexandra wanted their September wedding to be low key and intimate with a fun country fair feel. There was a lovely hint of pretty pastel colours, with the bridesmaids in blue and pink and pretty rose bouquets.

They had fun and games to entertain their guests, beautiful calligraphy stationery and in the evening their venue was candlelit which looked so romantic.

Alexandra looked stunning in her lace gown and oh you just have to see that cake.

Thanks so much to the brilliant Lucy Turnbull for sharing her photographs with us.

The Vision for the Day... I've never had an English "vision" for a perfect wedding in my head. Coming from Cebu, Philippines it was almost assumed that a wedding will happen in one of the islands there for a beach wedding! It was clear from both of us that we wanted it to be low-key, personal and intimate and to almost have a country fair feeling where different areas of the venue provide something different and fun for the guests. As much as it was going to be a special day for us, most of our decisions and costs were based on the guest experience! Weddings in Philippines are completely free food and drinks. So we had to factor that into our costs and planning!

The Venue... We've had a look at manors and mansions around Somerset and Devon area but they were very restrictive on what's allowed or not, not to mention, outrageously pricey! Luckily, I stumbled on the website - www.naturalweddingcompany.co.uk and found our florist, photographer and venue there! Our visit to Roughmoor Farm with Cowparsley Weddings was an immediate decision for us. It was low key, simple and a complete canvas for what we wanted on the country fair theme! They have this beautiful house that can fit in all our immediate family to stay. Once we've had the date set, everything just fell into place!

Groom's Attire... Julian was torn between wearing his dad's wedding suit which was a light brown suit or whether to go for the top and tail look. He looked online for a good whilst and found Simon James Menswear who fit in to his style!

Beautiful Bridesmaids... I had seven bridesmaids in total including my matron of honour and it is quite a lot considering that most will have three to four max! The dresses I got them for them was from David's Bridal and just looked perfect on them as they were all stunning and the pink and blue colours really fit in with our theme! I also gave them personalised silver necklace to wear, a cream shawl from a market in Mauritius to keep them warm, nude peep toes to match and a silver jewelled brooch to accessorise the look! I wanted them to look simple, elegant and "clean" look so advised them to keep their hair into a nice tight bun especially as almost all of them have long hair! After running around at the party, they're glad that their hair was still in tip top shape and they still looked fresh as a daisy.

The Flowers... I wanted my flowers to have roses and also a hint of blue to complement the colour. I wanted it to be simple but also provide a hint of country to it. So we've decided to go for dusky pink roses, ivory avalanche roses, pink lisianthus, pale blue delphinium/nigella and white astrantia. The bridesmaids' bouquets were similar to mine but just smaller. We've also had milk churns in front of the church filled with dusky pink, lilac, and ivory flowers including ammi, stocks, lisianthus, roses and other flowers and foliage to compliment. Each pew was decorated with similar flowers and was then used again at the dinner tables. Doing it that way saved us some money from having to spend another arrangement. The button holes and corsages were also lovely using dusky pink rose with eucalyptus foliage and white astrantia. The flower girls looked really cute with their fresh roses head garland. We used dried rose petals for the confetti and flower girls to use.

We also ended up booking a videographer! It's very popular in Southeast Asia especially to include a videographer in the budget and we are so happy that we did! We weren't so bothered initially but saw Jessie of Love Storage's website randomly. After flicking through clips and footage, I was like a girl in a candy shop all giddy with excitement and knew that she had to be booked! Our pre-wedding video was a lot of fun to do (mostly for me! Julian was grumbling at the first hour) and made us feel comfortable in front of a video camera! It was a bit cheesy in some moments but I just thought that the only time you can get away being cheesy is usually on weddings! The wedding video highlight had us in tears after watching it the first few times but now all we see is just a happy day being captured! The actual wedding footage is yet to come to which we're so looking forward to see!

I've bought an assorted number of sweets in jam jars already and we did have quite a number but even hardly anything was left by the end of the day. We also had a personalised sweet bag which was handy! On top of that we had an ice cream tricycle offering 10 different kinds of ice cream and sorbet. The sweets addict definitely had a ball that afternoon from the sugar rush especially the children.

Toilets. We bought viewfinders and put them on top of each cubicle! Most guests found them incredibly amusing and actually did have a look on what's on offer! The wash basin were also decorated with lavender and plants with a basket that has got French soaps, scented candle including a jewellery holder with some bits and bobs in it! We ordered French lavender hand wash and lotion to match with the whole décor! Just to make it quirky and "at home". Underneath the wash basin we've hidden a portable CD player and put on repeat love poetry CD! People were wondering who was talking and where it came from so that was a fun area to play with.

Cigar and Whisky Table. This is more Julian's remit and his "guilty pleasure" part of the décor. He bought quite a few cigars and whisky bottles and laid it out just to his liking. He bought a few old postcards of Devon, old maps, frames, and vintage surveyor books spread around the whole table. It was random and definitely had his name written all over it. Apart from food, men flocked and hover around this table all night!

Table décor. Julian bought LOADS of vintage poetry books in Ebay. This was used in our tables as props and had table numbers with pressed flowers in ornate gold and cream photo frames. We cut some fabrics to be used as cutlery ribbons and asked my mom's friend if she can be kind to provide us some lavender bunches from her garden which was sweetly tied with raffia! The name place settings were acetates that we put on the plates and people thought they were stickers at first! We laid out some candles everywhere in the table and some bubbles! For wedding favours, my friend Jannet sent us small white-shell jewellery boxes for women and beautiful green ones for men. Our food menu was laid out like a newspaper/newsletter that we also put in each table!

As I have my family and friends from the US and Philippines who stayed a bit longer after the wedding, I didn't think it would be fair to leave them on their own. So we decided to roam them around and made them enjoy a memorable trip and postpone our holiday for a longer one in December! We did sneak in a few spa trips in between. We're planning a nearly four week honeymoon to Brazil and Argentina. I've planned laidback days and adventure tours that will take us to the most southern tip of the globe in Ushuaia (unless we go to Antarctica), embrace the beautiful, scenic Iguassu falls, enjoy the buzzing cities of Rio and Buenos Aires and of course, relaxing, sun-kissed days in Buzios!

Matron of Honour Speech. My Matron of Honour sang Call Me Maybe in her own lyrics had everyone in stitches!

Julian's Speech. He had such an amazing speech that had us in tears and giggles. I thought it was prepared with a lot of love and work.

First Dance. We worked for more than six months preparing for our first dance. We didn't just want to turn up and look unprepared. We wanted to impress ourselves importantly and everyone to be entertained. They all enjoyed it and appreciated the effort that we've made!

Games and Ora Loca. The games were all good fun which we did in between band breaks. The music and dancing just really got everything going particularly when the ora loca dress up gears came out! Everyone loved the fancy dress and hats that we all distributed as they danced to the funky tunes of Family Funk! This was a brilliant suggestion from our Brazilian friend Tiva which seems to be the tradition within Latin weddings!

Do what you want to do. It's your own wedding and everyone will be there to enjoy your special day no matter what.

Organise and plan ahead. You'll be so thankful rather than leave it to last minute as you can haggle, be more creative and realise that you may have forgotten something but at least you have plenty of time to still act on it.

Allow for some things not to go according to plan. The reality is no one will notice it but you!

Bask and savour every minute of your day as it happens too quickly but you'll remember it as one of the best days for both of you.

Venue | Cow Parsley Weddings.

Music | Family Funk

Piano Rental | RK Pianos

Pianist |Kazu Shiraiso 07753603073

Flowers | The Rose Shed

Food | Food 4 You

Stationery | Roeni

Wedding Cake |Alice and Aleta 07733054965 [email protected]

Wedding Car | Wedding Vintage Cars

Vintage Bus | Crosville Motor Services