Inspiration

Talk about relaxed party vibes, and there's nothing more relaxed than your favourite country pub with a humanist ceremony under a Willow tree conducted by your friend, followed by sack races, rugby in the street and a truly delicious looking bake off dessert table. To enjoy all the fun, laughter and dancing Becky wanted a slightly boho dress and fell in love with the Catherine Deane Sian gown. I can totally see why, the floaty, ethereal silhouette and detail is just beautiful, and looks heavenly with her Artisan Dried Flower crown and wild flower bouquet. We're so pleased Becky and Dean found inspiration from our very pages and came across the lovely Jo Hastings Photography on our dedicate supplier directory The List as this is everything a wedding should be and more and I'm sure their day will go on to inspire others too.

The Dress

Becky the Bride: I was looking for something romantic and bohemian. Something that was comfortable and that I could dance the night away in (very important as a ballet teacher). After some searching on Pinterest, I fell in love with the “Sian” dress by Catherine Deane and after a lovely visit to Catherine Deane’s warehouse/boutique in London the “Sian” was definitely the dress for me. The beautiful tulle and hand sewn pearls gave me that relaxed, romantic feel I was looking for. I accessorised with a beautiful dried flower crown from Artisan Dried Flower Company, Flower pearl earrings from Britten, a delicate fern bracelet from Alex Monroe (a gift from the parents in reference to my family surname) and the Mimosa pale mint shoes from Rachel Simpson (which were so comfortable and held up during all the dancing!).

Grooms Attire

Dean ended up buying a suit that I had originally seen and shown him about 6 months before the wedding. It was a dark navy check three piece suit from Reiss and his shoes, socks and shirt were also from here. As a gift I bought him a watch from Daniel Wellington (he had wanted one for ages) and we ordered handmade “Olive daisies” ties for Dean and the rest of the wedding party from tieyourown on Etsy.

Venue

From before we even got engaged I knew that I wanted to get married at the Olde Coach House, Ashby St Ledgers. It is somewhere where my family have gone for special occasion meals and although not a traditional wedding venue and only hosting a few weddings a year, I knew that this would be the perfect setting for a relaxed wedding in a chocolate box pub and village. We got married in the pub’s garden underneath a big willow tree with all of our family and friends encircled around us, a truly beautiful setting made even better with a sunny day.

Colour scheme/décor

There wasn’t really a colour scheme as such, our theme was wild flowers in keeping with the countryside setting so we didn’t restrict ourselves to a specific colour scheme but chose flowers that we loved and neutral colours to compliment.

Florist

Carol at Honey Pot Flowers was amazing and knew exactly what I was looking for. She grows all of her own flowers which are so perfect for that just picked from the meadow look that I was hoping for. My bouquet was gorgeous and colours to match my flower crown. The bridesmaids had daisy bouquets to match their yellow and lavender crowns. We had kilner jars and beer bottles scattered around the venue as well as hanging from the trees in the garden.

Wedding Party Fashion

The bridemaids dresses were from ASOS Wedding and the first dresses that they tried on. They suited each bridesmaid and were very floaty and boho which fitted our theme perfectly. The groomsmen all wore their own navy suits and we provided the ties and braces to bring it altogether.

Ceremony

The ceremony was a truly special moment as it was overseen by one of our closest friends Jonny who is my next door neighbour at my parents house and one of Dean’s best mates. He was the one who introduced us at one of his legendary Halloween parties age 15 and the rest as they is history. He wrote the ceremony himself and made it completely personal to us a couple as he has witnessed our relationship from day one. As our venue didn’t have a wedding license, we got married at the registry office the day before but Jonny’s ceremony will always be our real wedding. Our readings were He never leaves the seat up by Anon and He’s not perfect by Bob Marley.

Entertainment

After dinner we decided to hold a mini sports day in the pub garden. We had personalised bride and groom sacks, three-legged and wheelbarrow races. Very competitive but so much fun and some of the best images of our wedding are of the guests laughing at the races. In the evening we had a DJ to dance the night away.

Food

The food was traditional pub grub and it was all delicious. For canapés we had beef in Yorkshire puddings, tempura prawns and vegetable tartlets. For our main course we had Chicken, Ham and Leek Pie with mash, minted mushy peas and gravy. For dessert, some of our lovely guests contributed some delicious delights for our pudding table. One of my oldest friends, Helen, baked our truly amazing naked wedding cake, the best I have ever seen!

Photographer

We found our fantastic photographer Jo Hastings on The List and as soon as I saw her photos, I knew she was the perfect person to photograph our wedding day. As the images from our wedding prove, she did an amazing job and it was so hard to choose only a few images to decorate the walls of our new flat which we moved into 10 days after the wedding.

Videographer

We didn't have a professional videographer as such but Helen’s husband Will filmed the whole day for us and made us a dvd so we have all the special moments to look back on our wedding anniversary.

DIY

We hand stencilled our sacks for the sack race, and a pallet with the order of the day. My brilliant cousin and bridesmaid Hollie designed and printed our save the dates and invitations, she did a fantastic job and we were really pleased with how they depicted our wedding theme. The template was then used for our table plan, guest book table and pudding table.

Transport

Was Little Mo the Morris Minor lent to us by one of my mum’s friends.
Lorna Shaw

Written by Lorna Shaw

Dress Designer: Catherine Deane - Sian | Bridal Shoes: Rachel Simpson - Mimosa | Earrings: Britten Weddings | Bracelet: Alex Monroe | Flower Crown: Artisan Dried Flowers | Grooms Suit: Reiss | Watch: Daniel Wellington | Bridesmaid Dresses: ASOS Wedding Shop | Venue: Olde Coach House | Florist: Honey Pot Flowers

Inspirational articles you may also find useful