Charlie & Nat

I just love the rich, opulent colours in Charlie & Nat's wedding, the bouquets look divine. The palette of purples and reds with silver accents is traditional but SO beautiful and the gorgeous ladies have done a great job of making it look fresh and modern - simple things like using long trailing ribbons on the bouquets and foliage to break up the flower arrangements. They've also included a lovely selection of vintage finds here and there, making the decor look carefully curated, and very personal to them as a couple. Cripps Barn is one of our favourite venues (and comes recommended by us on our handpicked supplier directory - The List). And I know I always say this when we feature a wedding from Cripps Barn, but each one looks totally different! It really is a venue that can be transformed into whatever your heart desires AND it has a really homely and welcoming feel, as every couple looks like Cripps belongs to them and their family. And Charlie and Nat's happy big day is no exception...

The Fashion

Charlie: I was so nervous about choosing a dress, as I never wear dresses so the only way I was going to wear one was if I was able to incorporate my love of skulls into my dress. The ladies at Brides of Berkhamsted helped me choose the perfect dress, a very simple A-line, in fact it was the first one I tried on, they then sewed on Swarovski crystal skulls all down the back of the dress. My mum wanted to get me something new & blue but I am so fussy about jewellery we chose together a bangle from Whistle & Bango that had mine and my Wife's initials on, I still wear it every day. Natalie: I was equally nervous about choosing a dress, more so because I was never that girl that grew up dreaming of what dress they would wear on their wedding day. I had absolutely no idea what sort of style I would go for. I went with my mum, who lets face it always knows best – she helped me choose out dresses of all different styles and I tried them all on in one afternoon. My dress was the first one I tried on and I fell in love with it immediately. My mum was so excited as it was her favourite as well. The ladies at Wedding Warehouse are so helpful and easy going it was a really relaxed happy experience. Everyone on the big day commented on what a beautiful dress it was, I love all the detail on the front of the dress. I wore my sisters veil from her wedding as my something borrowed, she is the best sister ever :)

The Venue

We knew from the word go that we wanted a Barn wedding and the second we saw Cripps Barn we knew it had to be that one. The drive thorugh Bibury to get to Cripps is gorgeous and once you arrive at the venue it just gets better. There are two barns which are attached, which allowed us to have our ceremony and reception in the same venue and fit in all of our friends and family. The stone barn seems to come alive at night and promises a great night of dancing. There is a large outside area, both on decking with fire pits as well as a green area which was great with the kids during the day. As the venue was a good 2 hours drive for most of our guests, the majority made a weekend of it, which really encouraged everyone to let their hair down.

The Decor

We decided on the colours aubergine and silver as we had a September wedding so felt the colour fitted with the season, and a bonus that aubergine is one of our favourite colours. We had a literary (Alice in Wonderland) theme as well as music – we both love reading, going to old book stores and music plays a big part in our life. Our invites were based on a design we did incorporating the artwork from Alice in Wonderland as well as sheet music from our favourite classical pianist Ludovico Einaudi.

The Flowers

The second we met Christiane at Honeysuckle Flowers we were sold, her beautiful designs and attention to detail really captured what we envisioned, we had piles of books as our centre pieces covered in beautiful arrangements of rosemary, snow berries and blackberries. Our bouquets were a mixture of flowers and herbs as we wanted them to smell beautiful. We also did a lot of DIY for our wedding from tea staining and stamping all our name places, hand crafting all our favours with our initials, to creating a unique table plan on a pallet board. We were so happy with our finished results after months of planning and crafting.

The Wedding Party

We had 4 bridesmaids who were our sisters and cousins, we found the most beautiful dresses in Berketex in aubergine which was a colour that suited our gorgeous ladies perfectly. Annette who works in Berketex in Watford was so helpful in helping us find the Bridesmaid dresses and also carried out many of the alterations for us. We also had two pageboys in silver waistcoats and ties that we got in BHS which looked lovely on them as they were formal but not stuffy so after the ceremony they could run around and play. Charlie's brother was the toastmaster who also wore the same as the page boys.

The Ceremony

My Mum and Nat’s Brother-in- law (James) both did readings “To Love is not to possess” & “Captain Correlli’s Mandolin” we wanted to have both our families read something and felt it was nice way to add some personal touches to our ceremony.

The Entertainent

After seeing the band Articulate online, we went to a gig of theirs in Clapham on a very cold Tuesday evening, after seeing them rock the venue we were so excited to book them, and all our guests loved them coming out into the crowd, everyone danced the whole night which is what we envisioned when we started the planning process. They really did make the evening what it was, and kept the dance floor packed throughout!

The Food

Our venue Cripps handled the catering for the venue and offered a great array of menus for us to choose from, we chose lamb as our main which was served to each table as a joint so one person on each table got to take the job as carver, it really got everyone talking, and all our guests said it was the best lamb they ever had. The whole rustic sharing boards really matched the theme of our wedding nicely and there was plenty to go around.

The Photography

We found Lovestruck through Cripps preferred suppliers and after looking at their photo’s online we knew we wanted them to photograph our wedding. We met Juliet and Laimonas in a bar in Victoria station and chatted for hours about life, weddings and everything in between, it was important to us to feel at ease around our photographers and that exactly what happened, we were so happy with our photos. The most surprising aspect was how much we loved all the "unexpected" photos, they both have a real art at capturing those magic moments.