The Flowers
I’ve never been a huge fan of the super styled bouquets, so we were pretty set on ordering buckets of flowers and doing them ourselves. We got in touch with Clare from
Hendra Farm Flowers, who was absolutely amazing throughout. She dropped the flowers off at the venue – and I’ve got to say, I barely knew what we’d be getting when we got there, but they were beyond beautiful. It was such an amazing surprise.
My friend Ella brought loads of gypsophila and eucalyptus, and quickly took the role as florist for the day, along with Bryony (thanks guys!). Our equally amazing friends Jen & Andrew brought several bin liners filled with foliage, which we used in the arrangements and for draping from the beams, and over the door in the rusty barn, where we had the ceremony.
We also used lots of foliage and flowers for the milk churns, and the plant hangers. Ella made my bouquet (which was the first one she’d ever made) and it was literally the most perfect bouquet I could’ve ever imagined. Anemones will forever be my favourite flowers after that.
The Photography
It’s a bit embarrassing to say that I knew I wanted
Dale Weeks to be our photographer before I’d even met Adam (and we met five years ago!) – but can you blame me?!
I absolutely love the warm lighting, colours and vibe in his photos, there is something so incredibly special about them. To top it all off, he is just the loveliest human alive (if you’ve met him, you’ll know), and made us feel completely comfortable on the day. Even though I look a bit insane in the photos (for good reasons), he perfectly captured how happy we both were on the day.
I particularly loved seeing photos of all our friends and family looking their absolute best, especially during the moments we’d missed.
The Entertainment
For our ceremony, my bridesmaid and one of my best friends, Milly, sang Skyscraper by her band Elephant – a song that she’s written and Adam and I both love. My brother Alex is an awesome guitarist, so he played with her.
Norwegian Traditions
Considering I’m Norwegian and Adam is English, we needed a good mix of both traditions (despite not wanting to be traditional at all). In Norwegian weddings, when everyone taps their glasses, the bride and groom have to get up on their chairs to kiss, and when everyone stomp their feet, they hide under the table to kiss.
We also did a traditional (and slightly hilarious) polonaise dance really late in the evening, which sounded like the worst idea ever, as it’s so cringey if you watch a youtube video of people doing it.
But I remember it being my favourite moment from my sister and her husband’s wedding. So they took charge, and it was so much fun. A few of our English friends have asked us to do it at their weddings in the future, which we took as a good sign.
The Invitations
Our amazing designer friend Vicky Perry who runs the best wedding stationary business
Violet Paper Studio (she just quit her job to do it full-time, check her out!) made our invitations and we gave her full creative freedom as she knows us so well. She nailed it.
The Wedding Party
The bridesmaids wore all different coloured dresses, because I wanted everyone to wear something they were happy in. They all had gypsophila bouquets, and the groomsmen (who Adam actually forgot to officially ask until the night before) had gypsophila button holes to match.
Our daughter Matilda wore a handmade knitted dress that my mum had made (pattern by
Ministrikk) and a bonnet (pattern by
Petiteknit), and the flower girls wore white dresses.
Advice
Remember that you’re the only ones who care about the smaller details. As long as people have good food, booze and music – they’re dead happy. We spent ages sourcing jars, buying candles, putting tea lights in jars and placing them all around the farm, and the next morning, we noticed we’d forgotten to light them! And guess what? Everyone still had a blast!