Inspiration

Now isn't this fabulous. A weekend long celebration with family and friends from all over the country, enjoying the stunning Georgian house and grounds of Kingston Estate in Devon. It's lovely when the sun is shining, it means couples can take full advantage of the outside, having ceremonies under Pagoda's, speeches on the terrace and star filled first dances in the courtyard. Creating some truly magical moments and pictures captured by Story and Colour. The bright fashion and flowers are utterly immense too, guaranteed to make you smile and swoon with pure delight. Sarah's Eliza Jane Howell 'Jayne' gown in particular is just heavenly, and I love that she changed her look after the ceremony by removing her veil and adding a delicate flower crown. Such a pretty classic country wedding.

The Dress

Sarah The Bride: I’d read a lot about Blackburn Bridal so visited their store, where they had a gorgeous selection of dresses. I wanted to go for a classic, slim cut with detailing, so the shape of the Eliza Jane Howell Jayne and the delicate beading on the dress was perfect.

Jewellery & Accessories

The glass beads on the bracelet matched perfectly with my dress. I didn’t want anything that took away from the detailing on the dress, and the simple elegance of the bracelet complemented it perfectly. Ana provides an excellent consultative service, where she digs deep into people’s style and preferences, then creates unique jewellery to match. We met a number of times to discuss the brief for a bespoke ring. From sketching designs to selecting diamonds, Ana provided an amazing service every step of the way, and made what could be a stressful process, fun and stress free. Ana had done such an amazing job creating a beautiful bespoke engagement ring, so was the first choice for the wedding rings. We opted for simple wedding bands, especially for me, so nothing detracted from my engagement ring. I wanted a veil for the ceremony and Blackburn Bridal matched one to the dress. It needed to be very simple to offset the detailing on the dress.

Florist

Blue Geranium is a local florist near my parent’s house in Devon. The flowers were absolutely stunning, from the bouquets to the table flowers – everyone commented on how unusual, bright and gorgeous they were. We wanted bright, Indian summer- inspired flowers and they re-created our vision perfectly. Blue Geranium also created a stunning flower crown for me to wear after the ceremony.

Venue

After choosing to get married in Devon, we needed to find somewhere which had a number of key aspects. With so many of our guests coming from outside of Devon, we needed a venue that could accommodate a large percentage of our guests. To minimise travelling on the day, we also wanted a venue where we could conduct the ceremony, seat 100 people for dinner and then to throw a party. Kingston Estate ticks so many boxes. The house and onsite accommodation are stunning, with several gardens and grounds to wander in or have photos taken in. With recent renovations to parts of the estate, everything looked incredible from the newly built champagne bar, to the newly decorated lounges throughout the house. Sarah and Jamie were on hand throughout the wedding weekend, answering any questions and making sure everything ran smoothly. They were very flexible with all our asks and gave us so much freedom to use the Kingston Estate how we wanted it. This was a huge bonus as many venues are very strict or put lots of restrictions in place, so it was great to have the opportunity and options of tailoring the wedding to suit us.

Food

After tasting Cru’s food at their café in Dartmouth we instantly chose them as our caterer for the whole weekend. Their customer service was incredible and the team had lots of ideas for different menus. We didn’t want your typical three-course predictable menus, so Cru created the perfect menu based on sharing platters of slow roasts of meats, served with delicious salads and vegetable accompaniments. Cru cooked an incredible curry the night before the wedding for those staying at the venue, and were there on Sunday morning with amazing breakfast baps to help with everyone’s hangover. Everyone commented on how unusual but refreshing our menu was, as weddings can often be very unadventurous.

Bridesmaid Dresses

I knew I wanted green to offset the bright flowers and the Ted Baker dresses suited the bridesmaids perfectly.

Groom’s suit

Stuart The Groom: You know you will always get great customer service at Austin Reed, so when choosing my suit they were my first port of call. To help save money I decided to buy an ‘off the peg’ suit, rather than bespoke, but used Austin Reed’s in-house tailor to alter the two piece suit. Having the trousers and jacket taken in, meant the suit still had that bespoke feel to it.

Groomsmen

We chose slim-fit dark navy blue two piece suits, which Ted Baker launched in Spring 2015.

Stationery

Sarah The Bride: We wanted a simple and elegant design that didn’t look like your average wedding stationery, so we asked a friend to help us design everything from invitations, place names to order of services. We provided him with sample graphics and colour schemes, from which he was able to bring to life our ideas.

Entertainment

Our wedding was set over two and a half days, so keeping people entertained was a big part of the planning process. We wanted to keep everything relaxed the day before the wedding so we took advantage of the large grounds at Kingston Estate and organised various games throughout the day. To cater for all ages from 10 to 90, we had five-a-side football, rounders and boules, with a big garden picnic for around 60 people. Many of our friends and family are big quiz fans, so in the evening a friend of ours wrote a quiz. Luckily we have a friend who DJs regularly at clubs across London, who knows our music tastes inside out, so we asked him to provide the music for the whole of our wedding day. We provided him with the key songs for walking down the aisle, first dance etc, and we left the playlists up to him for arrival drinks, music over dinner and then the evening entertainment. This was also a great way to save money on hiring a band or DJ.

Photographer

After evaluating a lot of different photographers from across the UK, we found Story and Colour, whose gallery of work immediately stood out from the rest. We loved the style, tone and compositions of their previous work, and had to have them shoot our wedding. It was really important for us to have photos that reflect the whole wedding party, so Story and Colour’s reportage style was perfect for us. On the day they were great, capturing every key moment without being obtrusive.

Videographer

Lucent Films is a new start-up company, setup by someone who has a lot of experience in filming a variety of different content. Having used them before for a work event, they were an easy choice as they are reliable, have great style and really responsive to create briefs.
Lorna Shaw

Written by Lorna Shaw

Dress Designer: Eliza Jane Howell - Jayne | Bridal Boutique: Blackburn Bridal | Bridal Shoes: Kurt Geiger | Engagement Ring & Wedding Band: Ana de Costa | Bracelet: Wonderound | Venue: Kingston Estate | Florist: Blue Geranium | Cateres: Cru Events | Bridesmaid Dresses: Ted Baker | Grooms Suit: Austin Reed | Groomsmen: Ted Baker | Videographer: Lucent Films

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