Inspiration

Sam & Sarah's wedding was filled with SO much joy, they are hands down one of the happiest we've ever featured! Everything about their day reflected their personalities with many of the elements done by themselves or their incredibly talented family and friends, including the doughnut wall! They are both huge fans of Wes Anderson and used inspiration from his films to decorate the barn. The table display of keys was particularly fabulous, inspired by the film Grand Budapest Hotel. This boho wedding was blessed with glorious sunshine and the extensive grounds of Thames Chase Centre was not only appropriately used for a huge cricket match in the afternoon, but also as the gorgeous backdrop to all those couples portraits captured by beautifully by Gyan Gurung Photography.

The Dress

Sarah the Bride: I discovered my dress down some sweet little lanes in Norwich. The shop was called Pure Bridal, the dresses were all overwhelming, so intricate, beautiful and everything a bride could want. The experience was phenomenal, finding the perfect dress just means finding the right one you feel perfect in. The dress itself was a lace bodice and the illusion sweetheart neckline gave this simple tulle sheath an air of elegance. Featuring an illusion back trimmed in lace appliqués and finished with covered buttons over zipper closure. It felt simple but yet beautiful as I still wanted to feel like myself on the day, This dress gave me confidence and harmonised with everything else on the day.

Grooms Attire

My husband wore a slim fitted navy suit from New Look with a T.M.Lewin supper fitted oxford shirt. He also wore brown brogues from River Island and a bow tie from ASOS.

The Venue

The venue we chose was an old rustic barn, a true Pinterest classic. We wanted a cosy, welcoming and quirky atmosphere. The barn was the beginning for us to envision our ideas and out theme. We absolutely loved the feel of the place when we got there and they were so accommodating and flexible without too many restrictive rules or terms as we had found in other places. We had a lot to work with but everything tied together and complemented our theme.

Colour Scheme/Decor

Our colour scheme was all based from Wes Anderson's colour pallets. We really love the way he styles his films with immaculate and fun detail, expressive colour palettes, quirky characters and the way he uses symmetry in scenes. The two movies we got the most influence from was Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel. The best man is a professional graphic designer and he created amazing artwork of myself and my husband as two characters from each of Wes Anderson’s films and we used the artwork for our invitations, order of service and for our own personalised Snapchat filter. My personal favourite about the day was our doughnut wall creation. They were two giant S’s hand made and painted go with our colour scheme. They were filled with Krispy Kreme doughnuts! It was a beautiful sight! This was my favourite project for the wedding as it truly made it more unique.

Florist

I researched my flowers into Triangle Nursery that lead me to having a flower consultation. The bouquet of flowers I had were perfect for any bohemian, boho weddings that have an alternative, unconventional style to them. As the wedding we had was a quirky and creative style they really adopted that in creating the impression of eccentricity suiting the bride who has an artistic, free spirit. The bouquet was bursting with eucalyptus, peach roses (that matched the button holes), chillea 'Surprise Cherry and so many for beautiful flowers I discovered that complimented the dress so well as they kept both in balance. Bridesmaids had similar flowers to mine however more of the traditional bunch of flowers. Whereas mine had more of a drape effect to complement the bohemian vibe. They understood everything I wanted and had such good insight for the flower arrangements and finishing touches. We had simple small jars of flowers placed on the tables. The top table however had a full floral table runner- that matched our colour scheme perfectly.

Ceremony

Our ceremony took place at Regeneration Church that we both attend to, it was filled with our family, friends and our church community. We had scripture being read for us and worship sung by our friends. It was incredible to have everyone gathered together for our special occasion. What made it more personal was having Sam’s parents both lead the service and officiate our marriage.

Entertainment

For our entertainment I was blessed with having the most wonderful talented friends and bridesmaids. They all sang some of our favourite songs that truly recreated memories for us. It was an acoustic set up that made everyone feel so relaxed and joyful. One of my favourite moments was when we was having our couple’s shoot on the field I could hear one of my friends singing so beautifully in french, it truly made that moment even more memorable. It made the day itself give off more personality of our relationship.

Food

We always knew that we didn’t want a traditional wedding cake with icing and fruit, and we love the idea of having our favourite cake as our wedding one, which was Oreo! One of the best parts about being in a church community is you will find a lot of talented people. Our cake was handmade by a dear friend, Naomi Fowler. She created the exact Pinterest creation I wanted which was an Oreo with buttercream icing and dripped icing on the top. She even weaved in flowers that matched our table decoration perfectly. The cake itself was delicious! along side with our Krispy Kreme wall everything had a sweet taste to it! Our main menu that we had was ‘Rad Burger’ as it suited our relationship dietary. They were Juicy Burgers that also catered awesome veggie burgers with slabs of grilled halloumi and rosemary chips on the side. Finally for dessert we had a vintage bike cart that was serving unlimited ice-cream to our guests. The flavours were incredible - my favourite was the honeycomb and white chocolate. Everyone agreed saying it was the best food they have had at a wedding, it helped with having a more relax vibe of serving yourself rather than a three course meal. As our main priority for our guests was indeed the food!

Photographer

Photography was so important to us for the day as we knew it would be our one thing we would always look back on. Looking back through our photographs was like reliving our special day. Seeing moments that even I didn’t realise was taking place, was so wonderful to see so many incredible moments captured for us to discover. Gyan made us feel so calm and natural when taking our photos together. I just saw it as my private time with my husband expressing our love and joy for the day itself and those moments were captured so romantically and effortlessly. I love his careful attention to detail on his focus throughout the day. Making sure that every effort has been seen from our decorations, from small moments of our friends loudly laughing from joy, to having our first wedding kiss captured. He was such a joy to have and even his presence radiated so much joy on to us and the atmosphere he created for us. Thank you for capturing our precious day.
Lorna Shaw

Written by Lorna Shaw

Dress Designer & Boutique: Pure Brides | Bridal Shoes: ASOS | Bridesmaid Dresses: ASOS | Groom Suit: New Look | Grooms Shirt: T.M.Lewin | Grooms Shoes: River Island | Venue: Thames Chase Barn | Florist: Triangle Nursery | Doughnuts: Krispy Kreme | Catering: Rad Burger | Rowleys Traditional Ice-Cream | Hair: Kennedy Rough Hair

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