Earthy Cosy Autumnal Wedding | Whimsical Wonderland Weddings

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WWW readers Charli and Mark married back in November on their 9 year anniversary. They married at Knowle Country House, Kent and had a super personal ceremony which sounded just perfect.

I just love the earthy natural feel to their Autumnal day, with an array of earth tones. There were pretty natural blooms, pine cones, moss and so many hand made touches. Gorgeous.

Thanks so much to Kate Hennessy Photography for sharing her lovely images with us.

Having finished eating the (slightly burnt) curry, Mark walked towards the oven only to tell me that he had also cooked dessert, before pulling out a huge pot with a lid.

I will admit that I was slightly worried as I wasn't sure I could eat anything else! Fortunately, dessert consisted of a very cute 'Me to You' Bear (courtesy of Mark's Mum) and a stunning ring. And so the 7-year engagement story began...

I remembered studying and re-enacting 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' whilst at school and this became the base of the vision for the day. We wanted lots of natural colours, with a real earthy feel (think moss and pine cones), and lots of gentle lighting in the form of fairy lights and candles.

It is an old gothic style country house with beautiful features inside. We didn't do much in terms of décor on the day as the house has such character by itself it would have been a shame to have changed it.

Michael (the owner) actually lives in the house and I have to say that he was fantastic on the day, along with the waitresses, bar staff and everyone else who helped set up in the morning.

My jewellery was a present from Mark and we had gone shopping for this together. I knew I wanted some sparkle and pearls and I couldn't let Mark know that the dress was not white so it was easier for me to pick out the jewellery.

I contacted the lady who was selling it and she was so lovely. We met in London so that I could try the dress on and we both shed a few tears. She said it was really nice to know that her dress would make someone else so happy on their wedding day. It really did. It was perfect.

I did have the dress altered slightly and I also had the belt made and then added to the dress to make it slightly more unique to me.

The veil was a slightly more difficult find as I knew what I wanted - something long and with lace around the edge - but the colour caused a lot of Google searching. I ended up having this handmade via a seller on Etsy who is based in the US and she did a beautiful job.

Mark wore Links of London cufflinks, which contained little scrolls with messages on. I arranged for these to be given to him as a surprise on the morning of the wedding. They were in a little box that I had purchased from Etsy, which has a heart shaped map on the front showing The Royal Naval College in Greenwich (where we first met at university).

Now is a good time

When yesterday's gone and tomorrow is near,

Why look for a thing when it's already here.

And tell me you never once asked yourself how

Some people end up in the middle of the now.

Now is the beat of the feet on the floor,

Now is the then we were all waiting for.

It's the strike of the luck. It's the go with the flow.

It's the sharing the luck with the people we know.

See, a wise fool once said,

Kinda out of the blue,

That life is a dream That's already come true.

It's less of the what and the where and the how,

It's more of the you and the me and the now.

My sister had this printed and framed for us which was a really lovely gift and now hangs proudly in our apartment to remind us of the day.

The bridesmaids all had dresses made-to-measure in an olive green colour. We had lots of guessing for the measurements of Kate and Lucy's dresses as we had to order them in advance and it was difficult to know how big the bumps were going to be on the day! They did a fantastic job and they looked beautiful!

We also had a flower girl (Mark's niece), Leanne, and a pageboy (Mark's nephew), Alex. They both did so well on the day, with Leanne scattering rose petals as she walked down the aisle first, and Alex carrying the rings (tied to a cushion).

Amanda from Distinctly Floral was so lovely when we met. I don't really have a clue about flowers and she ran through the different options with me, before we finally settled on a woodland themed bouquet, buttonholes and corsages.

When the flowers were delivered on the day I couldn't believe how stunning they were. They featured peacock feathers, with mini pinecones and lots of gorgeous woodland colours. Perfect!

Amanda from Distinctly Floral sourced a tree trunk for the cake stand, which I hired for the day, and then we surrounded this with bun moss.

It was important to me to be able to edit my own photos as I adore the editing process and it was really special to be able to do this for my own wedding. Kate captured all of the photos on the day before I then took the RAW files and spent some lovely time editing them.

Guestbook - this was handmade by an Etsy seller and forms a log cut in half with blank pages inside for people to write on. Table plan - I bought a large frame, which consisted of 5 frames together. I then prepared and printed the table plans for each of the 5 tables and placed them in the frame. Birdcage - I sourced the birdcage online and then bought vine and flower vine separately from Ebay and spent an afternoon decorating the cage. Our guests placed cards in the cage on the day.

My hair - Vicki Lord is an incredible stylist. I wanted something different to the norm and so many people commented on my hair on the day - she did a brilliant job. Makeup - Lucy Jayne Parker did my makeup beautifully. I do adore my eyeliner and she created a lovely smudged look with brown eyeshadows and then a nicely defined flick with eyeliner.

Favours - these were little jars filled with honey. My sister sourced the jars and honey locally and then filled them all (along with the help of her boyfriend, Chris). I wrote out little labels for all of the jars and then my Mum and my Godmother tied all of the labels on. A real group effort! Table name tags - I sourced some champagne coloured pinecones locally and then ordered some luggage tags from Ebay. I spent a whole afternoon hole-punching little heart shapes into the ends of the tags and then writing everyone's names on them. Table numbers - these were handmade by an old school friend, Debbie (Love Letter Crafts). I had wanted something to fit into our style of wedding and suggested heart shaped numbers covered in moss. Debbie did these beautifully and they really suited the décor and magical feel. Candelabras - we had candelabra's on each table, which added to the mood of the day. I bought some pearl necklaces and vine from Ebay and hung these over the candelabras on the night before the wedding. Toastmaster - Jim definitely deserves a mention, he was ace on the day and we couldn't have done it without his help. He kept everything in order and really helped us to just relax and enjoy the day!

We definitely need to go into more detail on the first dance. We wanted to do something special that would surprise people and had planned on doing a montage of various songs with some wacky dancing. Sadly, this was not to be when I learnt that I had torn the cartilage in my hip, meaning months of physio leading up to the wedding and I am still continuing with physio now.

We opted to do a waltz and set about teaching ourselves a routine (based on some moves from Strictly as well as my Mum's advice - she used to teach ballroom dancing). We choose 'I'm Kissing You' by Des'ree as our first dance song and, despite me forgetting a few steps due to nerves(!), it was a truly memorable moment. Mark is not a dancer and will openly admit to having no rhythm so he did especially well learning what was not the simplest of dances.

Enjoy the day and take a moment to stand there and breathe. It is amazing how fast the day goes and it was really nice to have 10 minutes alone with my new husband just to speak to each other about how the morning had been and how amazing the day was.

Photography | Kate Hennessy Photography

Image Editing | Charli Photography

Videographer | Les Watts

Venue | Knowle Country House

Wedding Dress | Ian Stuart Design

Dress Alterations | Yvonne Reed, London

Bride's Shoes | Perdita's Wedding Shoes

Grooms Attire | Next, TM Lewis and Marks & Spencer

Makeup | Lucy Jayne Makeup

Hair | Vicki Lord

Flowers | Distinctly Floral (Amanda)

Cake | Petal's Patisserie