Suzanne Neville is one of our favourite Bridal designers and I think after taking one look at Tassy’s gown – you’ll understand exactly why. The shape and fit, the luxury fabrics, the out-of-this-world embellishments…’cherish’ is one seriously stunning dress and it suits Tassy beautifully.
This wedding is a very special one as Bride Tassy grew up at the wedding venue, Oldwalls – in fact it’s her family home. What a fairytale come true to get married there. And we love that her horse could take part in the big day too!
Totally luxurious, but with a modest green and white theme, this is a very stylish wedding indeed and you’re going to swoon when you see the coastal couple shots!!
The Bride
Tassy The Bride: I found my dress while shopping in Paris on a girlie weekend away with my family. We passed a wedding dress shop and I instantly knew it was ‘the one’. Luckily the dress was from a British designer, Suzanne Neville, and I was able to buy it in the UK. The one I chose is called Cherish, it has the most beautiful beaded detail, but not at all fussy, perfect for me. I chose a Richard Design cathedral veil with scattered crystals too.
The Venue
Oldwalls is very special to me. It’s where I grew up, where I played, met my best friends and had my first horse, I learnt to ride within its 50 acres. In fact, our stables were converted into, what is now, Oldwalls Gower. I’m incredibly proud to have had my wedding at this beautiful and unique venue that is also my family’s home. I have so many memories created here I simply couldn’t imagine having my wedding reception anywhere else.
The Decor
Easter is my favourite time of the year and when we got engaged I was delighted Oldwalls was available so I could have a spring wedding. I knew I wanted the décor to be classic and only white flowers, I love white flowers. With the exception of sage green in the bridesmaid dresses, and matching men’s cravats, I didn’t want any other colour. I suppose until I got engaged I hadn’t really thought about details of my wedding and what it would look like. I’m not the kind of person that wears make-up and heels, most of the time I’m in jeans and riding my horse, so I wanted something simple and elegant. That’s when I decided to hire a wedding planner. Gail at Eleanor Gail understood what we wanted, and came up with gorgeous design ideas and a theme we loved.
The venue has gorgeous chivari chairs and I wanted a chair sash that didn’t cover them but complemented the theme. A local company Sparkle and Bows supplied ivory chiffon sashes that were draped over the top of each chair in a way that was similar to my wedding dress and an added bit of glamour with sequin table cloths for the welcome drinks and our cake table.
The Flowers
We chose Eve Francesca Design for our flowers simply because she’s the best at what she does and we were delighted that she was available for our wedding. I can honestly say that I have never seen such beautiful flowers and everywhere you looked you couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by the displays and their scent.
The Wedding Party
It was important to me that my fiancé was comfortable with the choice of suit and surprisingly, Chris chose a dark grey morning suit. We had a real problem matching the groomsmen’s ties with the bridesmaid dresses and had them made by the hire company, they were really helpful! One of my fond memories was seeing our son dressed as a page boy matching his Dad, his ‘mini-me’.
I chose chiffon dresses for the bridesmaids in a similar style to my wedding dress and although some of my bridesmaids weren’t totally convinced by my choice at the time, they looked stunning on the day.
The Ceremony
Anyone who knows me understands my love of horses and I had a beautiful ivory horse drawn glass coach take me and my father and I to the church. The setting for our ceremony was in All Saints Church, a beautiful church in Mumbles and I was delighted children from the school I teach at wanted to sing as a school choir at our wedding. The moment I saw all the children in the church with beautiful dresses and shirts on, I was overwhelmed. When they sang, it was so angelic and emotional I actually cried, they really lifted the Church experience and everyone was focused on them. It was amazing.
The Entertainment
We had a big wedding, over 200 guests in the day and we wanted to make sure our guests were entertained from the minute they arrived to the time they left. We chose a string quartet called Stringfever who we saw on a cruise six years before to play throughout the day starting with the wedding ceremony and ending with an amazing evening’s entertainment.
We also had a magician who’s performed in front of the likes of The Royal Family, Robbie Williams and alike who kept our guests laughing and talking together. Phil Jay lives 10 minutes away from Oldwalls so he was there for the drinks reception and came back in the evening too. Even though I’ve seen him perform many times, I’m still in awe of his talent.
Following our wedding breakfast, we unveiled an ice bar complete with cocktail bartenders… not only did they do the most fantastic cocktails but they were very entertaining too.
The night’s entertainment was ‘IPOP’ who were absolutely fantastic at getting everybody up and dancing. To really get the party going I wanted a good band, not a rock band as that can be too individual (and not me) but a band that had it all, that band is IPOP. They had everyone up jumping up and down on the dance floor, losing all inhibitions and created a buzz amongst everyone…absolutely amazing.
The Food
I love food, especially desserts and I wanted to make sure it was a feature of the day and thankfully Oldwalls has an award winning menu! The wedding venue, Oldwalls, served Canapes and pastries to guests as they came out of the church to take care of those little hunger pangs ‘til the wedding breakfast.
To start we had seabass parcels followed by Chateaubriand and, my favourite, a trio of desserts. Strawberry tart, crème brulee and chocolate tulip with ice cream. I can still taste it!
In the evening we had a dressed buffet, some of it was staged in ice sculptures and a cake table. I can hold up my hand and say I think the food was a success!
Our beautiful wedding cake was made by Michelle at Scrum Diddly in Mumbles and was 7 tiers of amazing design elements, including metallic silver and beading, taking inspiration from our flowers and my wedding dress. We made sure it was a cake filled with fake tiers so we could use it as décor for our dessert table in the evening, it really was a cake too good to be eaten! Michelle’s cakes are as good as they look and she made 4 different flavoured cutting cakes for the wedding, I said I liked my desserts!
The Photography
The first thing we booked was our photographer, Marc Smith. We wanted to ensure we had the best photographer who knew the area, the venue and more importantly, us!
Chris and I wanted to have photos somewhere special and somewhere different. Marc shared his vision of wanting to create something unique for us, we had access to a helicopter and when Marc knew this he wanted to create something that was going to be cinematic and epic.
We had our portraits taken perched on a 100 metre cliff top near Rhossili bay with the back drop of Worms Head in the distance. The helicopter ride was amazing, being dropped off on the cliff edge was surreal especially when the helicopter started flying around with Marc photographing us from inside. It felt like it was just the two of us in the whole world. We got to talk and take in the overwhelming surroundings before the whirlwind of excitement that was to follow. As we flew over Oldwalls I first saw my wonderful horse in the field looking up at us, shortly followed by all of our lovely friends and family gathering around to welcome us. The staff rolled out the red carpet as we landed and we felt like royalty…Marc captured all our guests in such a relaxed and natural way
along with all the beautiful details inside the marquee.
I had expressed to Marc that I wanted to have a photo with the other man in my life, my horse, Walt! When there was a quite few minutes during the food service, we snuck out to take a few pictures. It was a very special moment for me, the photos express this much better than words.
The Videography
This was something that we very nearly didn’t book and probably one of the best things we did. Following the day, which will always feel like a blur, it was amazing to relive parts of it and laugh, giggle and cry and others, especially the parts we may have missed out on. The boys were very professional and I didn’t even notice them all day.
The Stationery
All our wedding stationery was from The Hummingbird Card Co who made the most beautiful laser cut invitations. The design was created for us and I loved that they were unique.
The Whole Weekend
Our wedding at Oldwalls stretched over 3 days, starting with an afternoon tea and champagne the day before the wedding and a barbeque the day after. I was delighted so many of my family and friends could stay in the venues accommodation and at Oldwalls Glamping village, it meant I got to spend quality time with the people I love.
We hired Golf buggies to take our guest from the car park to the door…a big hit with the girls. My husband is a big car fan, we were fortunate enough to be able to borrow four white Range Rovers for the bridesmaids to be driven to the church, then Chris and the ushers drove to the church in two Aston Martins and the guests went on a vintage bus…the convoy was pretty impressive even for those who are not into cars. We also had a classic car parked by the lakes for guest to have their own brilliant selfies.
Advice
The best advice I can give is to get a wedding planner, our wedding was absolutely ours and was a reflection of us from every detail. Gail understood us, what we wanted from the day and made it happen. The wedding was fabulous, people said so too, they’re still saying it. The best decision we ever made.
I would also say that it’s so important to stay calm and relaxed, don’t let things bother you as you could miss out on really enjoyable moments, so many brides get stressed before the wedding but trust me, no one will notice if something is slightly wrong, your day will be the best day of your life, even if the candles are 2cm too far to the right, or in my case, the order of service wasn’t at the church. I had a cheeky glass of fizz while a friend raced to my house to get them, after all the ceremony couldn’t start without me!
The post Tassy & Chris appeared first on Rock My Wedding.