Inspiration

Ohhh beautiful Cripps Barn, I don't think I'll ever tire of seeing weddings from there, which is truly testament to what an incredible venue it is. Cheryl and Jak filled the spaces there with gorgeous floral arrangements, quirky skiing details and lots and lots of twinkly fairy lights. And those ski details? Make sure you read these cuties engagement story as that will explain it all :) Thanks to lovely Katy at Katy & Co. for the gorgeous images!

Our Story

Cheryl The Bride: Myself and my husband Jak met on a night out in Witney about 5 years ago, since that day we have never looked back. We both share a love of skiing and 2 years ago in March a very clumsy Jak decided he was going to propose on a chair lift while we were skiing in Morzine, France which was very risky with the gorgeous engagement ring he had picked but luckily for him it all went to plan and ended with an embarrassing crowd of friends and family waiting at the top of the chairlift.

Our Wedding

The chairlift proposal is therefore what we decided to choose as our Autumnal wedding theme. We started off the theme by sending our guests Ski pass wedding invites on lanyards made and designed by the bride. We then bought the theme into the wedding the day by having wooden sleigh flower arrangements, a chairlift thumb print guest book, a piste map table plan, all our table names were ski themed, our guest carvers had ski themed aprons, we had Sylvania cat skiers as our cake toppers and also a shot ski on the bar. The bride also made hessian covered hip flasks as favours for the guests to take home and the tables also had hessian table runners. To also add more fun and to continue the festival hen do I had, we had a glitter ladder stand that came out after the speeches and every guest got sparkled up.

The Entertainment

As we had around 160 guests in total in the evening and to try and make the bar tab cheaper for our guests we decided we would have bar games. We had a ‘we pay’, ‘you pay’ prize wheel and a beat the barman dice game which everyone could play and win free drinks. Our main aim for the day was to make the day as easy and as fun as possible for all our guests which also needed to include a massive party at the end of the day. We arranged coaches to collect all 128 of our guests to go to the wedding and to collect 160 of them after the celebrations had ended. This meant the party could go on right until the last song. We loved involving our guests in our day with the carvers at dinner, the fire pits that were lit in the evening, the glitter station and the bar games, which really helped give off the fun element to the day. We honestly could not have wished for a better day of fun, love and sparkle and we can only put that down to lots of hard work, planning, personalisation and amazing suppliers and a dress that you didn’t notice you were wearing and meant you could dance all night. All we wish is - can we do it again?

The Bride

My dress was a two piece combo by Watters it was the Bree corset paired with the Ashan Skirt and I had I also got a Watters topper Lyle which I mainly wanted for the ceremony. All elements of my dress were from the supplier Mae Bridal in Witney, Andrea the owner was amazing, I literally only went to a trunk show event to look at the designer Watters and found my dress with the 2nd one I tried on. I cannot recommend Andreas kindness and patience and expertise she really knew how to narrow the type of dress I wanted and would suit me. I also got a sparkly belt and tiara from Mae Bridal to add the finishing touches to my look and to bring it all together. My shoes were by the designer Charlotte Mills of which my Husband bought as a Christmas present. They were the Cindy heel in white glitter which I felt reflected snow and were in keeping with our ski theme. My veil was from Proposals in Witney which had individual crystals on it.

The Groom

Both the grooms suit and groomsmen’s suits were from Charles Tyrwhitt. They were the Navy birdseye suit which were really good because they had a variety of options you could choose from such as Long, Short, slimfit, classic fit which you could mix and match the trousers and jacket styles. The shirts and ties were also from Charles Tyrwhitt We also wanted something quite different and unique so we also include a gold stag brooch from me which really paired well with the navy and made the wedding party really stand out.

The Venues

The bride got ready in an amazing listed B&B called The Witney House, which all the earlier getting ready and garden photographs were taken. We would highly recommend this as a great place to stay for bridal parties, really was stunning. The wedding venue was Cripps Barn in Bibury. It was about the 4th venue we visited and instantly both knew it was the one. We liked that it still felt like it had a church kind of vibe with the high ceilings, large oak doors and fire place as the central place you said your vows but wasn’t religious at the same time.

The Flowers & Decor

The theme was a ski theme so we wanted mainly white flowers and green foliage but we also wanted to bring in the Autumnal time of the year which was created by the colour of the bridesmaid dresses in aubergine and complimenting colours in our flower arrangements. These were all created by our florist Go Wild Flowers. Additionally she also created the foliage wheel that hang from the ceiling, the aisle flowers on the chair, the fireplace arrangement and our centrepieces which were Covent Garden crates which we added mini cricket bats with the table names on them that I had made as one of Jak’s main hobbies is playing cricket. The bride's uncle also created a large C & J out of wooden pallets with LED lights which were an amazing feature outside on the decking.

The Bridesmaids

The bridesmaid dresses were also Watters gowns (242 in Eggplant). We got these from Ascot Brides in Ascot which she was a life saver as having 6 bridesmaids I thought was going to be impossible to find a dress they all liked and suited however, it was one of the easiest experience of the whole wedding planning process. Emma at Ascot Brides made them all feel very special and was happy to help any additional alterations.

The Ceremony

We only had the one reading which was Union by Robert Fulgham which we got one of my closest school friends to read and it actually ended up being our voice over for our wedding video.

The Entertainment

Another one of our favourite things is music, we both love gigs and festivals so we had a local band called Little Brother Eli play during our reception drinks who also played at Truck Festival which is where I had my Hen do, so was extra special to us and in the evening we had another local band called The Standard who we have watched grow into an amazing band over the past decade and they really did keep the party going all evening.

The Food

The food was provided by the caterers at Cripps Barn. Our main aim was to make the day as fun as possible and we both share a love of steak so when we saw that you could have a steak brick cooked on the BBQ and you could then choose a guest as each tables carver we were 100% sold. To continue the skiing theme we got personalised ski themed aprons made for the chosen carvers to continue the theme further. All our guests loved them and we had so many comments on how fantastic the food was.

The Photography

Our photographers were Katy and Co. We fell in love with their photos immediately due to the way they can capture the atmosphere of the day and memories involved in a very natural and fun way. Katy and Wayne were great through the whole day and managed to capture everything we could of ever wished for, even when I had to have a quick change in the middle of the field into my evening look as we were short of time before dinner. We are so pleased with the photos and would put every one of them in frame on our wall if we had the space.

The Videography

Our videographer was Black and Whiteley, we were his first wedding video but just WOW did he deliver. We could not have wished for a more personal and emotional resemblance of our day which we can now treasure forever.

Fern Godfrey

Written by Fern Godfrey

Videography: Black & Whiteley | Bride: Watters | Boutique: Mae Bridal | Flowers: Go Wild Flowers | Shoes: Charlotte Mills | Venue: Cripps Barn | Cake: Lulu's Boutique Bakery | Bridesmaids: Watters | Boutique: Ascot Brides | Groom & Groomsmen: Charles Tyrwhitt | Entertainment: Little Brother Eli | The Standard | Coaches: Momentum

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