Casey & Ruben

This gorgeous wedding is as striped back and natural as they come with driftwood and succulent centrepieces and a gorgeous Geode cake and matching stationery. With the wedding ceremony and reception taking place at Northbrook Park in Surrey, and then two days later another private shoot at Portland Bill in Dorset to climb the cliffs, Diane from Green Antlers Photography has given the illusion of an elopement and traditional wedding with her gorgeous captures. Taking centre stage at both these beautiful locations are bride and groom Casey and Ruben who's love shine through, as does their fashion sense. Ruben dons a Ted Baker suit and Casey looks every bit the princess in an exquisite Hayley Paige gown. Those sleeves (insert multiple heart eye emoji's here.) Ready to be wowed? Then step right up.

Accessories

Casey the Bride: Hair piece by Donna Crain - by this time we were going for a more Robin Hood in the English woods style, so I thought something more organic would be a nice match with the dress. Necklace and bracelet were heirlooms my mother lent me, along with her locket with my grandmother's photo in it. Stuart Weisman shoes - I (Cassie) love rose gold and chose these mostly for comfort, since no one was going to see them. I also wanted shoes that weren't too fancy to wear in my day to day life, nothing makes a day happy like walking around in your wedding shoes. This is the only part of my wedding day look Ruben saw beforehand and he thought they were too shiny, he had the grace (or good sense?) to admit on the day that he was wrong and they were perfect.

Rings

Custom designed by an absolute gem of a human that lives just being just down the street from us in Austin: Dean Fredrick. I (Ruben) interviewed many local jewellers secretly on a trip here before we were engaged. He was the one I felt understand my ideas the best. The matching twine detailing on the rings was a nod to the Disney's Robin Hood themed proposal I had planned.

Venue

Northbrook Park - found by the maid of honor, we were looking for something that had an English garden feeling and wouldn't require too much additional detail. Since there were about 50 Americans coming over, we had also wanted somewhere with easy access from London, but that still retained a truly rural feel. The light filled, brick paved orangery and the accompanying flock of peacocks were the deciding factor.

Catering

White Truffle Events - the in house caterer at the venue. Since we were planning the wedding from abroad we wanted to keep things as simple as possible, so going with caterers that knew the venue implicitly seemed a good choice. Once we had a chance to peruse their exquisite menu, it was a deal breaker. They offered a great amount of customisability too, to find the perfect selection of dishes for some picky eaters.

Florist

Owen Lavin at Little Lillies. Setting out to find a florist that disliked cut flowers as much as Ruben seemed like a daunting task. We found one. Owen's extensive use of more unusual plants, sandblasted drift wood and minimalist but striking use of flowers perfectly fit the vision we had which drew in elements of the sea (for the groom) in the sandblasted wood and mossy plants, and touches of Texas (for the bride) in the succulents and air plants. Knowing the Bride's obsession with all things Disney, he even went the extra mile to include some 'hidden Mickey's' throughout the table decorations. Also, once we found out he had custom designed a "champagne tree", how could we choose anyone else?

Make Up

Sarah Thorne at Thorne Brides - found on Instagram, I was looking for someone who did very natural, light make up because I don't really wear make up on a daily basis, wanted to me sure Ruben recognized me.

Dress

Hailey Paige - I originally tried the dress on because it looked too 'Disney' to be real and thought it would be fun while I was with my sister and my mom, as soon as I put it on I knew that was the one, I'm still surprised I went with something so overstated, but I absolutely adored it and have never seen a wedding dress like it.

Suits

Ruben the Groom: Searching around London for suits for myself and the groomsmen, I had struggled to find the right combination of sharp and rustic. Ted Baker had the perfect thick weave, tailored cut suit, that almost had a tweedy feel to it. The internal detailing and attention to detail on all their suits had always drawn me to them in the past. Although not initially intending too, I ended up sourcing the ties, pocket squares and the groom's shoes all from their too. When buying in bulk for a wedding party, the discount they offered was unbeatable for the quality. MIkimoto pearl tie pin was a gift from the bride's mum to the groom.

Music

Casey the Bride: From first contact I knew Damien at Red Wall Events was the right organiser for this part of our wedding. We originally spoke looking for a guitar/cello duo to play some light music during the reception. A short phone call later, and we had booked the duo for the ceremony too, a 5-piece band for the evening's entertainment and a small DJ set by him as well. His extensive experience made me (Ruben) feel totally at ease. They custom arranged a beautiful rendition of "So this is Love' from Cinderella for Cassie to walk down the aisle too.

Cake

I'd emailed a few bakers with photos of the cake idea, and after contacting Jill Chant, we discovered that one of the example images we were using for inspiration had been designed by her. It was a lucky coincidence she was on the list of bakers the caterer recommended and did such a great job, the champagne and elderflower cake was delicious, and the airplant/geode accents she created fit perfectly with our wedding stationery, and the Texas vibes we had tried to bring throughout.

Photographers

My sister (maid of honor) found Green Antlers Photography. Being the most important aspect of the wedding to get right, they they were the first vendor we found and set the scene for everything that came after. As we are both lovers of old black and white movies, their incredible use of shadows throughout their photography really set them apart from a lot of the over exposed photography that seems to proliferate the wedding photography scene. They were a joy to work with, and we barely noticed their presence the whole day, allowing them to capture incredible candid moments.

Videographer

Gione Da Silva and his lovely wife Hannah and their assistant - recommended by Green Antlers as someone they had always admired and thought his work would compliment theirs. Ruben cried through every video on his website so I figured we had a winner. Very emotive stuff, with the same great use of shadows and incredible ability to catch people candidly at their best.

Officiant

Ruben the Groom: My cousin Orion Edgar was recently ordained in the Anglican church. Having someone so close to us lead the wedding ceremony made it all the more powerful and sentimental. We took a long time planning the format of the ceremony with him to include aspects of Cassie's mum's hispanic catholic roots, but also to not be too heavy on the religion so as not to exclude the many non-religious people that attended the wedding. This was probably the hardest part of the wedding to get right.