The Bride
Emma The Bride: I wanted a dress that didn’t look like a wedding dress. I wanted to be comfortable and relaxed and I felt a bit silly in some of the more traditional dresses I tried on. Everyone said that what I wore was exactly what they imagined I would wear, which was exactly what I wanted to hear. I didn’t want to look like somebody else on my wedding day.
I kept my accessories simple. With my dress being backless I knew I didn’t want a veil, but wanted something that looked slightly bridal, so I wore a hair vine, which I found on Etsy. My jewellery consisted of a beautiful gold chain belonging to Dan’s Grandmother, which Dan’s dad had given to me before the wedding, as well as a pair of diamond stud earrings and a gold bangle, both from Dan’s dad’s jewellers in Bath.
My shoes were
Valentino Rockstud sandals, which I had fallen in love with but couldn’t justify buying myself. My bridesmaids, flower girls and mum all clubbed together to buy them for me as a wedding present which was a complete surprise. They were without a doubt my favourite part of my wedding outfit!
The Groom
Dan chose matching linen from a great shop in Bath called
Gabucci. His trousers, shirt and tie came from Hacket with his shoes from Russell and Bromley. He also wore his late grandfathers RAF cufflinks.
The Venue
We always knew we wanted to get married abroad as we dreamt of a sunny day with everyone in full holiday mode. After our engagement in October 2016 we began contacting lots of venues in Italy and France. Our main aim was to have a house that would accommodate both our immediate families, bridesmaids, ushers and their partners.
We fell in love with quite a few but became frustrated with what we felt were a few significant hidden costs, which weren’t made clear from the outset. We ended up emailing a few places, being totally explicit with our budget, and
Chateau de Lisse said they could do it. We never imagined getting married in such a fairytale location but we are so pleased we did. It was like a dream.
The Styling
As with my dress, I just wanted to keep things simple. Because the girls and I were all in white, having white flowers and lots of green foliage was exactly the boho-look I wanted, especially with it being an outdoor wedding. My only brief to our wonderful florist,
Faith, was that I wanted my bouquet to be big...which it was!
After deciding on the bridal bouquet and sharing my boho-inspired Pinterest board, it was Faith who also suggested having a handmade macramé hanging on a silver birch frame as the backdrop for our wedding ceremony, and also to have little cloches on each table filled with small white flowers and mosses. All very “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”! She did the most amazing job.
The Wedding Party
I always knew I wanted the girls in white like myself, and originally I had them in the same dresses. However my sister found out she was pregnant and it encouraged me to change tact and get them all wearing something different, but still keeping with the white theme. I’m so glad we did this because they all wore something that suited their very different personalities and they each got to wear what they wanted.
Dan wanted his ushers to be as comfortable as possible but really wanted them in jackets despite the heat. He found some great light blue linen ones from
M&S, where he also sourced the rest of their outfits.
The Ceremony
Dan’s brother was our celebrant as we opted not to have a religious ceremony. We wrote the whole ceremony ourselves. We had two very close friends do readings. Sophie, one of my bridesmaids, read a poem by Bob Marley – “He’s Not Perfect” and David read a quote from Meet Joe Black. My dad then sang the Leonard Cohen song, Suzanne with a friend, Ryan Gibb, supporting him on guitar. My middle name is Suzanne because it is one of dad’s favourite songs. We wrote our own vows too, which made it completely personal to us.