Clear Span Marquee For A Summer Wedding With Bride In 'Sasha' By Made With Love

When the bride is a stylist and the couple get married in a clear span marquee at the groom's family home, you just know the results are going to be epic. Throw in a sexy gown by Made With Love bridal (the Sasha FYI), images from Samuel Docker Photography and a film by Shutterbox and all of your wedding dreams have come at once. It's a corker of a day and you're going to love it. So I'll pass you straight to Bride Elle, whose wonderful vision brought this wedding together beautifully...

'Sasha' By Made With Love Bridal

Elle & Matt: I knew I wanted an alternative / bohemian style dress from the start, but for some reason I decided to go to a couple of shops local to me that have ‘regular’ style wedding dresses, this was a big mistake. Every dress I put on I felt like I was dressing up in costume to play the role of ‘bride’ in a show! My advice – do your research and only go to shops that stock styles of dresses you actually like! I booked a day out with my best friend Tor, we went to 3 shops in London - one of them being Heart Aflutter. It was such a relief to actually find dresses that were more up my street and they made the process so, so lovely! I didn’t actually find the dress I ended up buying – Tor did. As soon as it went on I didn’t want to take it off, but I was really surprised with my choice – low cut AND skin tight!! I stressed for weeks about what my Nan would think, but thankfully she loved it. The style was ‘Sasha’ from Made With Love. My shoes were LK Bennett silver faux snake skin sandals (purchased in the sale) I had to change into some suede office wedges towards the end of the night as my ankles had swollen up so much! Unfortunate mosquito bites the day before whilst setting up meant that I was icing my ankles the morning of the wedding (I was just thankful they didn’t bite my face to be honest!).

Suit Supply

Matt and the guy’s suits were all from Suit Supply – we must have spent about 5 hours in the Central London store getting it right – they sure have patience in there and can easily make alterations - a relatively inexpensive way of getting a nice tailored suit. The suits totally worked with the look and feel of the wedding and most importantly they were comfortable too.

Clear Span Marquee

The year of planning our wedding we attended 8 of our friends weddings! It was a busy year, all of them wonderful and individual in their taste and style and it gave us great insight into what we wanted ourselves. We didn’t actually bother to look at any wedding venues as it just felt right for it to be in the back garden of Matt’s family home, which is in a village near our home town in rural Essex. We wanted a PARTY without a curfew, so that was a big part of the decision. The flat middle lawn just about accommodated the size of marquee we needed, and the trees which are at one end of the lawn had to be trimmed (actually - dramatically pruned, much to my mother in-laws’ despair) to fit inside. We wanted a clear span marquee to create the illusion of being in a greenhouse, and then hoped in mid June that it wouldn’t feel like one. It was a risk, but we ended up having the most perfect weather! We also built our own wedding night accommodation – a shepherds hut at the top of the garden. Matt stocked it with my favourite biscuits and sweets for end of the night snacking! (I married the right guy)!

The Decor

I work as a photographic stylist, so whenever I start any project I create a mood board to get clear on what the overall look needs to be achieved. So when it came to my wedding I instinctively made mood boards (I know, massive geek). However I’ll stick by my guns and say it’s such a good way to clarify all those pins on pinterest and hone in on what it is you actually want. We were inspired by the look and feel of Petersham Nurseries with a touch English country garden and South of France vibe thrown in there (we worked ski seasons in France and got engaged there). There was a lot of DIY involved; weekends spent sanding down and painting an old door which made our table plan. Building a stand for Matt’s old Stussy original surfboard which was our guestbook and building the bar! Loads of time and effort but all totally worth it. We made our wedding invites on Papier.com - Katie Leamon ‘marbre rouge’ design. I designed the order or services and table name cards. The table names were all Morzine and Avoiriaz ski lifts.

The Flowers

Our friend Jenny did our beautiful bouquets; the boys button holes, our head garlands and the cake flowers. I was keen on plenty of earthy green and white with a touch of peach in our bouquets and keeping them looking quite wild. She did such an amazing job. For the church I ordered all the flowers from a local wholesaler I use for photo shoots and Matt’s Grandma and one of the locals from the village spent the day before arranging them - they looked and smelt incredible! At the house the garden was an explosion of flowers everywhere you turned, we brought all our potted plants from home in Dorset and the main beds had been meticulously planted, and maintained by Matt’s Mum all year. We bought loads of different sized terracotta pots from our local nursery and we planted them with herbs, white lobelia and white and pink wax flower. They were sporadically spaced on the centre of the trestle tables with mini bottles of wild flowers.

For Her And For Him

For me this was one of the most difficult things to sort out! I really wanted to have my 7 bridesmaids in white/cream dresses but all different styles, I was hoping that I would find something on the high street but as the days went on and on there was nothing suitable. In the end I opted for online For Her And For Him and made a selection of styles I liked and the girls then picked which one they wanted. It was a massive gamble as they had to be okay! Thankfully they turned up just two weeks before the wedding and they looked beautiful. Elsie’s (young b-maid) dress was from Monsoon. Adorable with it's crochet detailing – she felt like a princess.

The Ceremony

The ceremony was such a special part of the day. My Dad drove me to the church in a vintage Jag E-type (my favourite car!) and I walked into the church to Billie Marten ‘Live’, which is special song to Matt and I. I’ll never forget the nerves, excitement, and happiness I felt walking in. My mum read a poem called ‘Love Is’ which had always been on the wall in our kitchen as we were growing up – a special moment for me.

The Music

We had Tom Braggins get the party started when we arrived back to the house from the church. Guitar, loop pedal, amazing singer – we were all dancing before we’d even sat down to eat! He’s seriously talented and super easy to work with, we just wish he could do more gigs down south! We found Uncle Funk and the Boogie Wonderband online, from the initial enquiry to the set up on the day the guys were super professional. We wanted a party where the dance floor was full all evening and where things were the just the right side of roudy and that was what we got - 3 hours of Chic/Nile Rogers with a dose of cheeky costume to boot. Musicality, crowd interaction and atmosphere were 10/10 and we couldn’t have hoped for more. We were lucky to book them as the wedding fell on the usual weekend of Glastonbury Festival – these guys usually headline the Love Sensation Stage and so cheers Micheal Eavis for having a year off. Book them, you wont be disappointed.

BBQ Wedding Food

We really wanted a relaxed but damn good bbq feast for the wedding breakfast – we did a fair bit of hunting for the right people and then Matt found Laura from Pickle & Fizz. She was just brilliant – knew exactly what we wanted and was so thorough with every last detail- a dream to work with. We had beautiful canapés and cocktails on the patio when we arrived back to the house after the church. The main meal was perfectly cooked lamb, spiced chicken, monkfish skewers and sea bream from the BBQ and an assortment of herby and fresh accompanying salads – so colourful and delicious. Dessert was brought out on tiered stands – we had mini fruit pavlovas, Chocolate orange brownies from Coffee Saloon, and keylime pie (made by my sister and I the day before). Matt’s mums’ good friend, Maria, made the cake. She’s not a professional baker but she should be! The three tiers were made up of our favourites – ginger, carrot and lemon at the top with a butter cream icing – literally the best tasting cake ever! In the evening we had the most incredible cheese boards made up by my Mum and Dad. Beautifully put together with homemade sausage rolls, pickles, cured meats and French breads – they went down a treat between all the dancing!

The Photography

I found Sam on Rock My Wedding whilst dreamily gazing at all the beautiful weddings, I was instantly taken with his style of photography, and the way he caught such candid, beautiful moments. In fact, Sam was one of the first decisions we made and literally planned our wedding date around his availability in June! BEST decision we made. Not only is he just such a great guy but he also takes DAMN AMAZING PHOTOS! We are so chuffed with them and they capture the emotion, fun and late night wild side of the day perfectly.

The Videography

We were unsure whether to get a videographer or not, but I kept reading things saying that it shouldn’t be overlooked! So we asked Sam for some recommendations; Lee at Shutterbox ticked all the right boxes – no ‘ick’ or ‘cringing’ at all, just beautiful cinematic film so he was the guy for us! Again, like Sam, such a lovely guy to have around on the wedding day and we couldn’t be happier with our film. Wonderfully captured – I cried my eyes out when we watched it the first time!

Advice

In the lead up try not to stress the small stuff, it really, honestly won’t matter on the day. Do it your way!! It’s the one day you can plan everything to be what you and your partner want it to be. Pick your favourite music, your favourite cake, food, drink and people etc. Don’t compromise. If you need help with styling your wedding – get in touch, I do this for a living! 


{Watch The Film}