The Dress
This was something I really struggled with. I visited many beautiful stores and if I’m honest, I forced myself to enjoy the experience. I felt very self-conscious and no matter what I tried on, I still didn’t have a moment where I felt it was right. I think having worked for a Couture Bridal designer before hand really hindered my search because I knew the beauty of having something made for you! One dress that did become a contender was a Hayley Paige gown that I tried on in a whim at
Coco & Kate, but again, as incredible as it was, something didn’t fit.
My friend and old work colleague Laurie Smith came to my rescue. She offered to create something especially for me along with dressing me on the day, which meant a ridiculous amount to me.
Having something made for you from scratch can be nerve wracking because you don’t know what the final result will be but Laurie’s caring guidance and friendship made me feel so relaxed. She took the time to find the perfect lace with ivy leaves and texture for my gown along with designing a shape which felt modern, without a petticoat yet with traditional flare, as I knew Andy would love that. It was honestly the most magical thing I have ever worn. I keep staring at the photos and remember how comfortable and fun it was to wear.
The Accessories
I wanted my look to have a relaxed, ethereal feel to it to reflect the décor and colour palette, so I chose a
Corrine Smith hair chain and was lucky enough when I struggled to find the perfect earrings, to have Victoria of
Victoria Fergusson Accessories create some bespoke crystal and gold droplet earrings for me.
As an advocate of small business owners I wanted to use as many of them for gifts and jewellery, So, for Andy, I contacted Jessica of
Little Homebird (whom I found on Etsy) for a bespoke brass tie clip and brass double bar neckline for myself with our initials and roman numerals of our wedding date engraved on. She also made the initial necklaces I gave to my bridesmaids when I asked them to be in my bridal party along with the tie clip for my brother and bracelet for my sister in law. It was wonderful knowing that Jessica had hand crafted so many gifts that created incredibly emotional moments for us both before and during our wedding.
Balancing the budget was obviously something I constantly worried about so for my shoes I ended up purchasing some simple heels from
ASOS, BARGAIN, they were totally on sale too for like £40! ASOS is also where I found my second gold leaf hair piece along with giving the bridesmaids matching pieces from there as well to wear.
My veil was hand created by one of my dearest friends Daisy, who runs
Daisy Sheldon Embroidery. She also surprised me by gifting me a hand embroidered silk dressing gown. The design is simply stunning; it almost felt too precious to wear!
The Beauty
For hair & make up I entrusted my delicate look to
Kristina Gasperas and
Kasia Fortuna. I first found Kristina online and fell in love with her website along with her bridal portraits that she captured herself, it was there I found Kasia as part of her K-Team. Kristina was so respectful of my fear over heavy makeup, which I spoke about in my
hair and make up trial blog post, and created the most perfect natural looking make up on the day. Kasia & Kristina both looked after me so well on the day and were such a calming aura to have around. They also created gorgeous looks for all of my bridesmaids and another member of Kristina’s team worked with Andy’s sister and mother at their home.
Kasia patiently stayed until after the drinks reception so just before I went in for dinner to change my hair to a hair up down look with my ASOS leaf hairpiece. Have to say, it was quite nice having a little moment away after portraits to change my look and having my husband (!!!) sit with us.
The Flowers
I could talk for days about Sarah, of
Floribunda Rose, she is my go-to florist for all of my clients so when it came to my own wedding, I could think of no one more meaningful nor more talented. As you read before, we wanted the colour palette to be muted, a total contrast to the day before and Sarah totally understood my love for texture, foliage and movement.
What she created for us was above and beyond stunning. Even with last minute mistakes made by the venue, Sarah and her team hung our
Hanging Lantern Company lanterns along with masses of florals and ivy. She created our own indoor Italian garden with an explosion of eucalyptus as well as delicate wisteria arches. She also continued the floral design outside with delphinium touches along the terrace.
My bouquet was incredible. Sarah created something beyond my dreams filled with white peonies, eucalyptus, stocks, and garden roses. It was a scent crazy and with stunning
Pompom Blossom trailing silk ribbons to fit my bouquet dreams. Sophie created over 40 yards of hand-dyed silk ribbon for all of our ribbon needs!!
Bridesmaids matched as well as my little flower girl, Holly. Sarah also created corsages for the important ladies in our lives. And button holes again all consistent with the neutral colour palette using eucalyptus with the garden roses.
Decor & Styling
Well, how do I begin?! As a
stylist it was hard styling a wedding where I couldn’t even style on the day however as you all know, we hired Andri of
Always Andri Weddings to take care of everything. In the lead up, I had friends and family help with stamping the canvas bags, tied on escort cards to our olive oil favours and grey silk ribbon to our orders of service.
To create this delicate wedding style I pulled inspiration from Italy, which played a big role in colour palette and styling choices. With Andy’s studies in Latin and his parents being classic teachers, Roman numerals were used throughout our paperie. From the table numbers, chair backs and obviously the gallons of eucalyptus.
We chose a tonal colour palette of white through to grey because Andy liked the idea of wearing light grey and we wanted emphasise our personal taste of simple colours. Our home is filled with lots of white and I gravitate to greens a lot! Also, bit of colour psychology here! I know that green is a colour that your eye doesn’t need to work hard to see, when creating a relaxed atmosphere, using greens seemed to mean that it would feel laid back. This directly influenced the floral design to encompass more foliage than floral quite beautifully and also fit well within the venue,
The Dairy at Waddesdon, which overlooks a lake and has an abundance of trees and greenery.
I hand drew a map of the gardens around the lake for guests to use during drinks reception to explore the surroundings, again printed on handmade paper to add to an Italian rustic feel. This sat upon the escort card/favour display. I decided that we wanted to have guests find their name along with their table number and a favour to take home which was Italian extra virgin olive oil Andy & I had poured ourselves! The handmade paper tags were designed by Tanya of
Bureau Design, which I ripped up and with friends attached to the bottles.
Table-scaping was simple, I used brass vases and candlesticks that I’d collected over our engagement to use on the day. We hired dove grey linen from
Coloured Linen Hire as well as mahogany chiavari chairs with white seat pads from
Well-Dressed Tables. Each table place had a canvas bag for guests to take their escort card favours home with them along with a Italian paper menu, sprig of eucalyptus and calligraphy name places I’d written on dark grey hammered paper. We also hired vintage cut glassware from
Helene Millot as a special touch.
The Cake
Over a year before the wedding I found the girls of
Posh Pud online. We booked an appointment and visited their lovely home in South Buckinghamshire. The tasting was delicious with Kirsty and Claire just leaving us to all the sponges, fillings and toppings to create our own mixtures! We had so much fun trying all the different combination and eventually settled 3 tiers of vanilla sponge with white chocolate and raspberry filling, chocolate cake with florida orange and chocolate spread filling and finally a lemon and poppy seed cake with strawberry filling. I know. Ridiculously amazing. On the day we barely had ANY cake left because it had be absolutely devoured by our guests.
Andy & I both love buttercream so definitely were set on a rough iced finish but the beauty of Posh Pud’s talent was very much their realistic icing sugar flowers. Kirsty & Claire created a cascade of peonies and roses with a few eucalyptus sprigs.
The Bridesmaids
I wanted my bridesmaids to continue the green to grey tones and dreamt of them wearing something soft and full flowing. I eventually found
Jenny Yoo dresses and saw that the Annabelle was stocked at
Coco & Kate. Immediately when they tried them all, they looked absolutely stunning and felt comfortable. The quality of tulle was gorgeous and the addition of the girls being able to create their own necklines was a huge selling point. I wanted them to all feel similar however have their own look.
The Groom
My gorgeous groom picked a suit from
Reiss. Having such a long engagement, we found it pretty early on but Andy was hesitant to purchase. Eventually earlier this year we went back to Reiss to see if they still have the suit available...luckily they did in a different store, and it was discounted because it was an old collection! This meant that Groomsmen could all have their sets from Reiss as well. There was quite a bit of coordination to get all the right sizes from all over the country to one store for us to pick up but they all looked amazing on the day.
Andy is well known to be a check-shirt man, so it made sense for him to wear checks on the wedding day, true to his personal style. We found all the shirts and ties on
ASOS and he gifted each of his groomsmen stripy socks to wear with brown shoes. We wanted to encourage more of the relaxed atmosphere we were trying to create, and had the groomsmen just in waist costs rather than jackets, which looked amazing!
The Planner
As you know, we had
Andri Benson manage, coordinate and set up our wedding on the day. Words cannot describe how thankful we were to have her. With guests being delayed by the ever-helpful M25, Andri effortlessly managed the timeline throughout the day ensuring that formal photographs happened with ease and the food service went out as planned.
She also was my eyes for all of the styling set up ensuring that my visions I’d written down for her were brought to life. From taking my boxes of props, fabrics and items she made everything stunning. We had difficulty with the venue at times throughout the planning process and Andri became an incredible support, she even managed the last minute problems that occurred without us ever knowing. Each of our suppliers have come back to us to say how wonderful and incredibly helpful she was to all of them.
The Ceremony
We chose a humanist ceremony, which we personally wrote ourselves for the day with two readings and a moment for mindfulness. With Andy not being religious and having had the hindu wedding the day before, we really wanted the ceremony to be a reflection of us. We asked Andy’s Dad to say a few words along with asking the friend whom introduced us to send a message, since him and his wife couldn’t make it from the US for our weekend.
The Stationery
All of our paperie was created by my beautiful Bridesmaid
Gemma Milly. Being a overwhelmingly talented calligrapher, I knew we’d have something special for our invitations and on the day stationery. She combined the simplistic design of the Sunday’s style with the Italian and roman design we desired. With beautiful letter pressed cotton papers and delicate modern calligraphy it was the most beautiful piece of design to show our guests what to expect on the day.
The Entertainment
As lovers of classical music and acoustic guitar, Andy & I hired an incredible guitarist to play the music during our ceremony and drinks reception. The song I walked into was Claire De Lune, one of my favourite pieces, along with being a particular emotional piece of music for Andy & I. During our signing, we had him play Sweet Pea by Amos Lee and during the drinks reception he played a mixture of our favourite composer Einaudi and more modern songs by The XX.
Our toast master was our good friend Tom, my bridesmaid Gemma’s husband and quite funnily he got to master a gong to make announcements through drinks reception and dinner. We love Tom and his humour and knew he’d be the perfect person for introducing each speech with his little jokes and infectious personality.
For the evening we wanted to have a live band and being huge fans of Mumford and songs, I scoured the internet for a band with a similar style when I found
Mister Kanish I KNEW they were perfect. We listened to their YouTube page for hours after we booked them and on the day they were beyond our expectations. Our first dance song was “Only Love” by Ben Howard and it was honestly one of my favourite moments of the entire day. The band played the song with such heart, I couldn’t stop smiling! They were such a gracious bunch of guys and played such a range of music to keep the dancing going on right until the end. When they played “I can’t get no sleep” by Faithless our guests went crazy!
Advice
Planning an entire wedding weekend made for a huge project, I’m not going to lie. We gave ourselves plenty of time to plan but it also became a massive waiting game. The real craziness kicked in the year of the wedding when final confirmations began and final confirmations. The greatest choice we made honestly was hiring our wedding planner. It was so worth the money in the end because after the wedding we received SO many messages from all of our suppliers saying how incredibly helpful and organised
Andri was.