Harriet & Ant

Harriet and Ant's sunshine filled wedding day is just a delight to share with you all, it features some of my favourite wedding suppliers, including Bride Harriet herself, who is the creative force behind de Winton Paper co. Naturally Harriet created all of the paper goods and signage for her and Ant's big day - including the gorgeous delftware inspired table runners, which truly bring everything together. It just goes to show if you have a vision for your wedding day and can't find the items you need - have a go at making them! Or trust a talented wedding supplier to have a go for you ;) Hayne is a magical place for a wedding - the thatched cottage, beautiful barns and surrounding rolling countryside are just to die for and this lovely pair were graced with golden sunshine all day long. Look out for the dreamy film from more of our favourites, Baxter & Ted. It's a real treat to see the day in motion and live it alongside Harriet, Ant and their guests. Enjoy this one lovelies!

Our Wedding

Harriet is the founder of watercolour wedding stationery company (The List member) de Winton Paper co. and Ant runs Farwood Photography. We wanted to incorporate lots of the things we love and make it a true reflection of us; working in the wedding industry certainly helped give us the confidence to follow our instinct and not worry about trends.

The Venue

Hayne was the first and last venue we visited. A Grade II listed farmhouse and barns nestled on the edge of Dartmoor, run by the delightful Milla and Tim, it felt like ‘home’. We met Milla and Tim as fellow wedding exhibitors at an event when we first moved to Devon. I worked on their branding and got to visit their venue a number of times before we were even looking! It was the first venue that sprung to mind once we were engaged. A series of listed barns, a walled garden and vast grounds presented a number of options for constructing our wedding day. We could very easily envisage our wedding being held there and couldn’t help but imagine all of our friends and family having the most wonderful of times celebrating with us. Our guests were able to camp in their field or order a beautifully furnished yurt or shepherds hut in the glamping orchard.

The Ceremony

Hayne has a walled garden for outdoor ceremonies, which is a botanical dream in June. All manner of wild flowers bloom in a magical multitude of colours and trees billow gently in the wind. It was here that we said our vows to each other in front of our nearest and dearest with the original farmhouse providing a splendid backdrop.

The Photography & Videography

Ant and I count ourselves incredibly lucky to have the most talented of friends. Louis, of Louis Labrom Photography is warm, friendly and was an awesome energy to have around on our wedding day. We really didn’t want to leave our party and friends for loads of formal shots and Louis was also of the opinion that the best shots are often candid and relaxed. Our wedding was filmed by Baxter & Ted. Using a combination of digital and Super 8 Film, the film emanates a beautifully relaxed feel as if we had hosted in our back garden. We knew when we first chatted with them they totally understood our style and would fit in seamlessly with everything on the day.

The Rings

Ant proposed to me with his great great aunt’s edwardian diamond daisy engagement ring which has made its way down through the family. I had a very fine gold band to compliment that. Ant had a beautiful ring created by Justin Duance incorporating a slice of cherry wood from the wood on his parents’ land wrapped in a palladium setting.

The Bride

My wedding dress needed to allow me to run, jump, dance and enjoy my wedding to the full. I knew that a veil and long train wasn’t going to do so I accessorised with gold Lotta from Stockholm clog sandals and oversized J Crew earrings. I love embroidery, and had been toying with the idea of a full colour outfit like my bridesmaids. I found my Temperley London Cressida gown at The Mews in Clifton, Bristol. It satisfied my eye for detail, The piping and appliqué flowers complimented my bridesmaid outfits perfectly. Alice Temperley is a designer I have always loved, every outfit she designs somehow manages to combine an ethereal elegance, a devilish decadence and a level of comfort so great that you could wear it all day & night and never want to take it off!

The Bridesmaids

Would you believe, finding outfits for my wing women proved to be more challenging than finding my own gown. With them both being very busy career ladies and often ending up at opposite ends of the country there were many internet orders placed and subsequent “trying on’s” as opposed to traditional shopping trips. In the end, I decided they should choose individual outfits for themselves to really reflect their unique personalities. We also never imagined both outfits would come from the same shop! They both looked incredibly stylish on the day, with Roz opting for a playful Shorts and jacket combo that had the most intricate embroidery detailing from monsoon. Emma co-incidentally also fell in love with a beautiful a-line midi dress that featured a very similar embellishment. I absolutely adored both outfits that they chose, and as a thank you for being by maids I gifted each of them with a hand painted watercolour illustration of what they wore.

The Stationery

The colour palette for our day very much came together on it’s own. I am a stationery designer and water colour artist and Ant is a wedding photographer so we have seen many different combinations and colour schemes in our time. I wanted a way of incorporating so many of the things we hold dear to us in our wedding invitation and it took a little while for me to find the perfect way to design this. At de Winton Paper co, my work is known for intricate hand painted detail. This has come from a love of embroidery patterns but also an obsession with ceramic tiles designs from Seville and blue & white delftware pottery. Our engagement had come just before a trip to Canada, and our stationery was packed full with the animals and plants we encountered on that trip. I immortalised everything in the delftware design, which went on to influence the colours for the day itself.

The Décor & Flowers

Our day gave me the opportunity to release my creativity and vision. I knew what I loved but it really didn’t fit into one particular style per say. I knew I wanted to carry the blue and white pattern from our stationery through to our wedding tables but after weeks of searching fruitlessly for wedding linen that ticked all of the boxes I bit the bullet and designed my own. I arranged for it to be printed on long reels of wallpaper and then “cut it to fit” the long trestle style tables and surrounding circular tables we had for our wedding breakfast. We found blue and white dish cloths that were perfect napkins after my mum had cut them in half and hemmed the lot! Each table was decorated with an abundance of brass candlesticks filled with flickering blue candles. Every place card was slotted into had a mini animal figurine which we had painted in white and gold. As a favour we presented each guest with a D20 dice (a nod to Ant’s nerdier tendencies) which they could roll for the chance to win a free glass of whisky at the bar. There were forfeits for rolling other numbers! Our table names were episode titles from our favourite TV show, The West Wing, partly because we enjoyed how ridiculously long some of the table titles were! The bridal bouquets and button holes were created by Milla, who cut flowers straight from the Hayne garden. The colours were such a wonderful celebration of the season. With our blue and white details, we felt we should forego flowers in the general decor and opted for pure greenery instead. Harriet learnt how to make Macrame plant hangers at the beginning of the year in a wonderful Exeter shop called No Guts No Glory. They sell every house plant imaginable and we came up with a plan that they would hire out a multitude of plants with which we could adorn our spaces. Hayne allowed me to string up my macrame hangers in the beams of the barn. Multiple pots were placed about and soon we had our very own wedding jungle! Our dear friend and wedding stylist Kirsten Butler (The Little Wedding Helper) was on hand to style up our tables and communal areas along with a number of extremely capable friends and family. Harriet used to work as a theatre designer and a number of ex stage managers were on hand in the build up so it was all rather smooth running. It was wonderful to talk through our plans with Kirsten in the run up to the day. Even as wedding industry suppliers there were so many new experiences for us too! We invited our guests to sign a large print which now hangs on the wall at home which makes us smile each time we walk past. Glow sticks for the dance floor and marshmallows for the fire pit were laid on and well used.

The Food

... was the best wedding food we have ever tasted. Ok, we may be a little biased but the guys at Pickle Shack really did us proud! We met Jodie and Josh from Pickle Shack the day we moved to Devon, their beetroot and goats cheese donuts won us over and we knew we had to have them (we weren’t even engaged at that point!). We are still getting wide-eyed comments on the food all these months on. Pickle Shack created a plentiful, seasonal banquet alongside our canapés and late night charred flat breads in their mobile pizza oven.

The Cake

A close friend of ours made the most decadent and indulgent gin and tonic wedding cake which, unsurprisingly, proved to be very popular! We accompanied our semi-naked cake with delicious meringue kisses and macarons. We built all of our cake stands using dinosaur figurines which we hand painted white and secured plates atop them – they attracted so much attention and admiration!

The Music

Owners Milla and Tim just happen to also be excellent musicians. We were serenaded by gypsy jazz throughout the afternoon. With it being such a hot day and nearly the longest day of the year, we continued the relaxed vibe when the rest of the band turned up for the evening gig. They played out on the terrace in front of the sunset until we all finally felt it was cool enough to get on the dance floor around half past ten.

{Watch The Film}