Happy Weekend everyone and onto part 2 of this total cracker of a country garden chic W-day courtesy of the very talented photographer Tamara Kuzminski

Simon and Sarah created a relaxed, pretty and fun-filled affair with plenty of details to give you gorgeous lot tons and tons of inspiration…….

Festival Of Flowers

I was very lucky to have a family friend who knows a bit about flowers and does wedding flowers on occasion. She has access to a whole-salers so we went there on a couple of occasions, had a look around, leafed through lots of magazines for ideas and to get a gist of what was in season and then went for it. I wanted loads of flowers – which would have been dreadfully expensive if I had had to go through a florist, but buying them wholesale made it much more do-able. I had white hydrangeas, two types of pink peonies, and spray roses in my bouquet plus some of the little daisies.

My bridesmaids carried white avalanche roses, spray roses and daisies and the button holes were roses with daisies. The bouquets were hand-tied, with natural raffia…again, a very natural, country theme. In the church and the marquee we had loads of the same, plus white delphiniums, viburnum and Ammi for green colour and then I filled loads of jam jars on the tables (as well as the central table display) with daisies, spray roses and pink ranuncula. I loved the festival of flowers we created! Even the tractor that we rode back to the reception on was decorated. It was quite extravagent, but worth it.

We picked up all the flowers a couple of days before the wedding and then my friend, my Mum and I put it all together.

Sweet Treats

My cake I’m extremely proud of! I decided to go for piles of cupcakes rather than one large one, and also felt strongly that I wanted to make them myself – despite my mother’s concern! I had a number of trial runs to find the best sponge and icing combination (one that wouldn’t melt if it was a hot day) and in the end went for vanilla sponge with either white chocolate (some white, some pink) or milk chocolate icing. I found brown polka-dot cases on the internet, as well as sugar-paper roses in white and pink that I used to simply decorate the cakes.

It was a bit of a mission making them (I baked 200 cakes and it took me 7 hours!), but I made them a week in advance and froze them (I specifically picked a freezable recipe). Icing them was magical….I had a merry team of icers from bridesmaids to Mums to husbands of bridemaids (!) and we iced them all on the morning of the day before the wedding and then kept them all fresh in tins and tupperware boried from neighbours and friends. It was fab fun and the cakes disappeared in a flash – people really seemed to like them. I was really glad that I stuck by my guns and made them as planned (but it does need some thought).

We Heart Tamara

Our photographer Tamara Kuzminski I think you know. We picked her initially as she was local to the venue and we really liked her website, and style of photograpy. She understood exactly what it was we were after…as we wanted the whole day to be quite relaxed we wanted the photos to reflect this, so the majority of the shots she took were reportage. Very sensibly, she advised us to really limit the formal family shots at the church!

I love the photos she took, and really appreciated the effort she went to to show them to us, when we got back from honeymoon. I would strongly recommend her – and in fact she is the photographer for Si’s brother’s wedding this summer!

Magical Marquee

I loved our marquee. It was a plain, ivory-lined, traditional marquee with poles which went along with our country theme. The best bit about it was a MAGICAL pea-light canopy ceiling. Basically fairy-lights across the whole ceiling. It was originally going to just over the dance-floor, but once I had seen the canopy that was it! I had to work over-time to pay for it and it was a luxury, but almost everyone commented on it, and it just made the marquee extra-special. I would do it again in a flash! Aside from the lights and lots of flowers, the tables were simple, ivory and the chairs folding plain wooden chairs as it gave a more relaxed feel.

I’ve mentioned the jam-jars of flowers already, and all the tables had tea-lights on them as well.

Music And Magicians

The entertainment part of the day was important to us. We wanted to add to the relaxed theme, and for the reception to feel like a great knees-up. Si dabbles in magic and really wanted a magician. Because of his contacts/knowledge we hired an AMAZING chap called Etienne Pradier…an extremely sexy french man who is a whiz (and really quite famous) magician who is more used to doing celebrity bashes. He went down a storm – particularly with the ladies, and was one of the best elements of the day. Although not cheap, it was definitely money well spent. Etienne entertained guests during the drinks reception when everyone first got back from the church, and then went round the tables during the meal. For after dinner we hired a band.

After the band, we put on our own tunes with an iPod.

I absolutely loved our wedding. It was on home ground, which was really special and we organised the whole thing, which meant that every single detail was considered, and ultimately exactly how we wanted it to be. We did a lot of it ourselves, with the help of friends, which again made it special for us and as long as you have the vision and are organised I would recommend this approach as it really enables you to taylor things to the way you want them. Lots of hands on deck in the run up is crucial though and we were extremely grateful for all the help we received.

You only do this once, and it is probably going to cost a bit (although doesn’t have to be mega expensive to be special) so make sure that everything is the way you want it. Dont spend money on things that aren’t important to you – just because other people do. Spend your money on the bits you want to emphasise and make sure it’s going to be a day YOU and you husband-to-be are going to love, from beginning to end, as that’s what matters!

We couldn’t agree more.

With special thanks to Sarah and Simon for sharing their Big Day and Tamara Kuzminski for getting in touch and sending Rock My Wedding such a fantastic set of images.

Big Huge Tractor Love

Charlotte xxx

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