A Very Natural, Stunning Real Wedding

Welcome to the Wedding of Chloe and James, who got married in an absolutely perfect country setting in the village where Chloe grew up. They chose a true country theme, mixing lots of greens, creams, whites and dusky pink tones in order to create an absolute masterpiece.  I will leave Chloe to tell you the tale of her amazing Wedding Day...

The most memorable part of the day was having all of our most favourite people in one place. It was very overwhelming, especially as some had come from so far away. Lots of James’ family are based in Hong Kong.

I absolutely hated Wedding dress shopping! I went to so many places and because I had no idea what kind of dress I wanted I found it totally impossible to decide.  I fell for a dress in every place I went to! It was my mum who finally gave me the best advice which made me make a decision, she told me I had to decide how I wanted to feel on the day and what would feel most ‘me’.  I decided on a designer called Emma Hunt, based in Wimbledon, she works from home and has a very small collection.  I loved the fact that she starts making the dress only 6 weeks before the wedding so you’re closer to having your wedding body!  A lot of designers that we saw would have started making the dress in January and that scared the life out of me. Emma was so calming and helpful and I ended up totally re-modelling the original dress I’d chosen and incorporated three of her dresses into one – she wasn’t the least bit miffed about this (as I know some designers would be). She just kept saying we would 100% end up with my perfect dress, whatever it took – which we did!  My husband to be wore a very traditional morning suit but incorporated a special Thomas Pink tie with rabbits on as we have house bunnies at home.  Very weirdly my brother chose the same tie (luckily in a different colour) to wear in tribute to us.

My bridesmaids wore Dessy. We were so lucky as both my bridesmaids moved abroad pretty soon after we were engaged so we only had one weekend in December to find their dresses. I was envisaging a nightmare but we found them in the first shop we went to.  We really wanted them to be comfortable so were totally ready for them to choose different styles as there’s nothing worse than seeing an uncomfortable bridesmaids pulling her dress up/down but they both loved the same dress and both looked gorgeous in them.

We decided to opt for a cheese Wedding cake! We all love cheese and I had been told by so many couples that their cake had gone to waste after their Wedding.  I had also fallen in love with a pudding that I wanted our caterer to serve so there wasn’t the option of having cake for dessert.  I sadly didn’t have any but I heard it was amazing, there were a lot of compliments in the thank you letters!

We decided to have 'country style flowers' to go with our typical country wedding, all cream, white, green and dusky pinks.  I wanted everything to be very relaxed and understated so we had flowers in Bon Maman jam jars (covered in lace) on the tables.

James’ brother is a professional photographer (John Alexander Photography) so who we should use was a very easy choice. We were more than thrilled with the photographs. John's style is very relaxed and for someone who absolutely hates having their photo taken I barely knew he was there which was heaven!

I was very lucky and my parents did a lot towards the planning of the Wedding which was great.  We luckily all had the same vision for how we wanted the day to be, a relaxed, happy and most of all fun day... which thankfully it was!   I loved the food tastings, HATED doing the guest list as it was so hard whittling down our numbers. Our initial list (including parents friends) was around 220 people so it was really hard getting it down to around 180.  I’d always wanted a smaller Wedding of around 120 people but quickly realised this wasn’t going to happen.  The whole Wedding planning process took around 9 months and we had all the major things like church, band, caterers etc booked early so could relax for a while before the final countdown.

We had the BEST band called Mode Showband, we’d highly highly recommend them. They were literally incredible and the dance floor was always full which i think is always a great sign. We also had a really fun videographer called Daisy Jenks who was brilliant and did quite a different style of wedding vid, have a look.... http://vimeo.com/44750038.  We knew we’d have John’s amazing pics so we wanted something a little more fun and it was great that the guests had something to do during the 'Champagne bit' which can sometimes drag on! We have had so many compliments about the video and I’m still watching it a lot as a reminder, it makes me want to do the whole day again! A very close friend of ours also sang our first dance (Mr Jones) which was amazing and really special, especially for me.

Chloe's Three Top Tips:

1.  Force yourself to eat on the day, I was so nervous/excited so didn’t remember to eat but wish I had later on as champagne went slightly to my head!
2. Take some time out with your new hubby to ‘take it all in’ – it all whizzes by so quickly and before you know it however many months of planning are all over!
3. Ask as many friends as possible to take extra photographs, although you’ll probably have a professional photographer some of our funniest photographs are ones that friends took.  I’m really appreciative that people made the effort to take and send us extra photos.

Suppliers:
Dress -  Emma Hunt in Wimbledon / Veil -  Emma Hunt / Shoes -  Jimmy Choo / Flowers -  Rachel Jones / Make-up – Gemma Aldou / Bridesmaid Dresses - Dessy / Cake -  Carte Blanche (our caterers) / Photographer – John Alexander

A Real Wedding with Rustic Charm

Many couples seem to be kicking back against the traditional 'marquee style' wedding reception, opting for a much more rustic and relaxed affair. Teepees seem to be the way to go and why not? They are cool, quirky and give a much more relaxed air to the day. Alex and Rory's wedding photos give you a great taster of what I think will be around for a while to come.

Having been to several traditional weddings, we wanted something a little bit different so chose to hold the reception in tipi style tents. They were really cosy and gave us the rustic/country feel we were after. We had an open fire in the marquee and provided marshmallows for toasting. Outside the marquee area, we set up hay bales and thick woolly blankets in case it got cold. We also made use of 2 vintage caravans supplied by Billy One Horn. I had used them for my hen do – an old English tea/'glamping' party.

My dress was ivory lace with a fishtail made by Benjamin Roberts and wasn’t what I thought I pictured wearing at all. I still wasn’t 100% sure about it until the wedding day itself when I put it on. I managed to find a beautiful handmade pearl and crystal embellished sash made by an Australian lady called Natalie Briggs who I found on Etsy which finished the look perfectly. My something borrowed was Georgie’s pearls that she had worn on her wedding day.

The flowers were done by Rory’s sister and my bridesmaid Georgie and looked absolutely beautiful. She did an amazing job and the peonies, David Austin roses and hydrangeas made the marquee look so pretty.

We really wanted to put loads of personal touches in there so we had slate placemats made from floor tiles by Rory’s dad and wrote the guests names on in chalk. Each guest had an individual wedding menu printed on brown card tied up with brown string around their napkin. My brother also designed us a monogram of both of our initials which featured on all the wedding stationary. Our table names were named after old English country houses where we had been and where we were about to go on our honeymoon.

The best present we got was from Rory’s two best men. Rory had proposed in the park in front of the Royal Crescent in Bath. The two boys had driven up secretly to set up the champagne picnic and then hid in the bushes whilst Rory got down on one knee. Neither of us realised that they had captured the moment on camera and had the picture framed and printed. It now hangs in our hallway so we can see that moment everyday which is lovely!

Instead of a traditional tiered cake, we opted for a tower of cheese that was served alongside glasses of port later in the evening along with signature cocktails served by Flair Bartenders.

The best present we got was from Rory’s two best men. Rory had proposed in the park in front of the Royal Crescent in Bath. The two boys had driven up secretly to set up the champagne picnic and then hid in the bushes whilst Rory got down on one knee. Neither of us realised that they had captured the moment on camera and had the picture framed and printed. It now hangs in our hallway so we can see that moment everyday which is lovely!

Many thanks goes to the fantastic Wedding Photographer, Stacey Osborne.

Alex's Three Top Tips:
1. Do things yourself – I had so much fun making my wedding stationary with friends and it saved me so much money and made sure everything looked exactly as I wanted it.
2. Enjoy yourself! You spend so long planning the big day and when it comes it is all over in an instant. Enjoy it while it lasts.
3. Don’t get stressed out with family members. It’s hard to remember that they are looking forward to this day almost as much as you and just want to help. Try and be as diplomatic as possible with interfering parents!

Suppliers: 
Photographer - Stacey Osborne / Teepee Tents - The Stunning Tent Company / Dress - Benjamin Roberts (Layla) / Shoes - Kurt Geiger / Make up - Natalie Clarke / Hair - Hattbox, Northampton / Bridesmaid Dress - Dessy / Cake - Crumbs it's Cake / Cheese Cake - The Cheeseworks, Cheltenham / Flowers - Georgie Read / Caterer - Lemon Zest