Hello! Another week of weddings, just because it’s christmas that doesn’t mean we don’t want real weddings right? Well you have another beauty tomorrow then a gorgeous chic city shoot on New Years Eve. You will also be treated to my 2014 Look Book on Wednesday too. Here’s 2013 just in case you fancy some inspiration.
When an incredible wedding comes in under 10k I am always in awe. Usually of all the DIY that the couple did, but this wedding looks incredible (not only thanks to Matt Horan’s awesome wedding photography) but because Esther put her heart and soul in to her planning. There are so many quirky, fun ideas that i find it hard to believe that it only cost 8k. I adore this venue, I have not come across it before but I hope I get to blog more from here in the future. Enjoy!
Photography by Matt Horan
Hair stylying- Katie Proffitt, DJ’s hairdressers Leek, staffs. Make up- bride and bridesmaids- Claire Arrowsmith-Mua , Glossop Derbyshire
My dress- Lusan Mandongas, Serendipity Brides, Weedon. I wanted a vintage dress, something unique and something that would fit in with a laid back country theme, it needed to be lightweight and floaty. It took me 9 shops and I tried on over 60 dresses till I found it, a beautiful and very unique Lusan Mandongas number. I went for some delicate lace gloves to go with it and in the eve I swapped them for a vintage lace/sparkly clasp bracelet.
Seamstress Bernie Neve-Padfield Derbyshire
Jewellery (Designer & boutique) – Bracelet and lace gloves – Dream Dress, Bredbury, Stockport
Necklace- Judith Brown Jewellery, Joan Brown Vintage Bridal Accessories, Leek
Shoes -Boohoo.com, clip on flowers from missvirgouk etsy.com
Bride’s hair accessories; Veil/Headpiece borrowed from a friend, Lace boot cuff socks- VANAG Screative Etsy
Bridesmaid hair clips-gemmaroses etsy, shoes their own, Bridesmaids Dresses – Dessy Twist wrap dress- 7th Heaven Bridal, Congleton, Cheshire
Groom tie (Etsy) MeandMatilda USA, suit – Lambretta purchased in Slaters, Manchester. The theme was yellow and grey with a touch of blue, so Tony chose to wear a blue, fitted, quite ‘mod’ style suit. He didn’t really want to wear a suit jacket (he did in the end for the marriage service) as again we wanted it to look quite quirky and informal.
Groomsmen’s outfits/accessories Best man suit -Next, I asked all the men in the wedding party to wear grey suits and yellow ties with funky spotty socks.-I thought this may make a cool blokey group shot.
It had to be the moment when Tony and I walked up the track to the farm on our own, turned the corner into the farmyard and there in front me was everything I had always imagined and dreamed of suddenly turn to reality. The guests were there sipping their pimms, eating icecreams, acoustic music playing in the background, a flock of geese marched through the farmyard at that exact moment and the sun was shining….it had all finally come together, I had honestly never felt so happy!
Décor/wedding details (did you have a theme?)
Rustic, (shabby shit as my dad would say!!) vintage, yellow and grey (with some blue). I also had a thing for wellies on the day, arranged flowers in them-it sort of carried the ‘garden’ theme on too. I spent hours and hours on the ‘garden theme’ of giving every guest a flower/plant name for their seating plan.- matching the guest’s personality or job to a flower/plant. Some of the outcomes were hilarious. I called each table after my daughters (Willow and Autumn). The guest names were displayed on two white washed doors and pinned to vintage French flower seed packets ( bought on ebay- I photocopied these so people could take them home on the day).
I also made a magnetic painted tree, where guests left a message on a leaf and stuck their leaves to the board. It is now up in our home on the wall displaying such lovely well wishes.
Trinity church in Leek, this was a very personal service as I have been attending this church from day one! I have had the ‘walking down the aisle’ moment playing over in my head for forever and finally it became reality. One of my uncle’s played the organ and another uncle gave a reading from the bible, my friend Ellie Wilcox read a passage from Captain Corelli’s mandolin. It was a beautiful, personal and warm ceremony, everyone commented on different and personal it was.
Garden Farm, Matlock, Derbyshire I scoured everywhere for our venue (it took me 2 years to find it). The Venue was Garden Farm, it suited us down to the ground, it is a real life working organic farm, which also caters for relaxed, bespoke, DIY, weddings, Tim the easy going farmer was quite happy for us to do what we wanted and put our own stamp on the day, from décor to food. It had a very quirky barn (with straw on the floor and wacky vintage memorabilia on the walls and roof) and a basic marquee, amazing views as well as a bell tent in the woods for our wedding night.
A very good friend of mine, Verity Lowdon created the most amazing wedding cake to die for. It had a very natural rustic style and was based around silver birch trees. Each flower on the cake represented something to do with love.Verity Lowdon,Verity’s Bespoke Cakes, veritylowdon@yahoo.co.uk
My favourite ‘makes’ were the sweet favour ‘flower pot’ with chalk board place names. Each pot was filled with layers of dolly mixture, popping candy, mini smarties and choc rubble- the guests loved them and most got taken home. Chalk boards featured quite a lot throughout the day (I used to have a little chalkboard business).
Garden farm put on a hog roast for the wedding breakfast, this was followed by pizzas late into the evening, we also had a pudding competition ( most people brought a pud) that went down very well indeed.
Caterers: Ice cream Dub,
Garden Farm (Hog roast & Pizzas)
Possibilities, Leek, Staffs - I asked for a rustic styling, tried to stick to the theme with yellow, white and little bit of blue, wild flowers and hand tied, simplistic. I looked on pinterest for ideas and then Megan the florist just copied exactly a mish mash of what I had seen. I had gypsophelia in my hair and so did my eldest daughter Autumn- again trying to keep it natural. I did my own table flowers using supermarket flowers and a few bunches from Meg’s shop. Two ladies at church did the flowers for the service after I went in a few days before and set up a display of wellies, bottles and old step ladders
I found Matt via a friend of a friend 18 mths before we got married. As soon as I saw photo’s of their wedding, I knew instantly he was exactly the style I wanted, a lot of natural light and someone who could visualise the quirky ideas that I had going round in my head ( Tony and I hanging off a barn ledge!! Etc), nothing formal, staged but in a fun way and just pure beautiful photography. Matt was a BIG hit on the day and I can’t thank him enough for capturing so perfectly what was the best day ever.
Designed by Victoria Stares (friend- graphic designer)
tea towels invites printed in Wales by an eco friendly screen printing company www.perisandcorr.com
We hired Lindsay Caroline, an acoustic guitarist to play on the farm when everyone was arriving and having their drinks and ice creams. She had rave reviews from guests and again fitted in perfectly to the theme and venue. In the evening the disco kicked off at 7pm, our first dance was a medley of a few songs & we encouraged everyone to join in (Tony hates dancing, I love dancing!!). During the evening we also had a rodeo bull, bonfires and fire pits going on. The evening came alive with a real buzz and a glow.
Entertainment (day) Wedding singer Lindsay Caroline booked through lastminutemusicians.com
Disco (evening) – Jonathon Ford
Rodeo Bull-www.kingbouncealot.co.uk
Beer- Thornbridge brewery, Bakewell, Derbyshire, www.thornbridgebrewery.co.uk
We went to Sri Lanka for 9 days. This was our wedding gift from all our friends and family and we were overwhelmed with how generous people were and because of this we had a luxury holiday, something we had never experienced before and probably never will. Our holidays used to be (pre-kids) spent back packing in far flung destinations, travelling on a shoe string SO for us, this honeymoon was not only special because it was spent in luxury hotels and resorts (we travelled pretty much all over the island) but also because we got to spend some quality time alone again, yep we missed the girls but this was probably the one time we would have this unique opportunity again for another 16 years!!
For long as I could remember I wanted to have my wedding on a farm (friends thought I was mad), what was once a dream finally after years of searching and planning became a reality and a fantastic day- ‘epic’ as some people called it! However, one piece of advice I would give is that some things on your wedding list you may have to change/compromise on, BUT there is always going to be a few big things that you just can’t. For me, that was my church (that I grew up going to and still attend occasionally now) and the farm venue. I just wouldn’t budge on these and they were a 50 minute drive apart and I worried so much about the logistics of where guests would stay, would they get lost on the way? ( I designed 2 maps) and in the end they all made it to the farm in time (okay a few got stuck in pot holes- but it was all worth it in the end).
I loved getting my ideas from pinterest, blogs (mainly american weddings) and etsy/folksy. Infact quite a few guests said afterwards the day had quite an American style to it!!
I kept a scrap book and took two years to plan and execute (in this time I was on mat leave then went back to work teaching full time so did as much as I could while I was off) I started the planning again in the April before the summer but to be honest I had done most of it, it was just the crafty stuff to get on with. I made all my own signs, table decs, did my own table flowers and the quirky bit and bobs that featured around the farm.
A few friends helped out in the last few days but I was actually quite shocked at how organised and ‘not a bit stressed’ I was. However, 3 weeks after the wedding I did find under my bed a brand new pair of yellow converse trainers that I had saved away for our first dance…gutted!
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