Marleybrooke House Archives - ROCK MY WEDDING

Oh where to begin with Jules & James' big day?! There is just so much pretty for you all to digest - I'd recommend sitting down with a cup of tea and a biscuit before you begin! The setting for our couples wedding is the incredible Marleybrooke House - a chocolate box thatched farmhouse that just oozes charm and warmth and has an abundance of quirky features such as Victorian swing boats, a gypsy caravan, vintage tractors, various carts, a butchers bike, and a red telephone box. Ample photo opportunities galore, as you'll see from Sarah London's images. Jules looks beautiful in Dita by Naomi Neoh - whose dresses are always utterly feminine and use lace to perfection. And as for James - tweed was the only option for a chap who much prefers to be in flip flops. Well we think he scrubs up rather dashingly in a Tweed Addict suit. The couple lost James' Mum Belinda shortly before the wedding and celebrated her life in the most beautiful way during their wedding, with lots of thoughtful touches. I'll pass you over to Jules to tell you more. The Bride Jules The Bride: Isabella Grace Bridal Boutique is located very close to where I work in Tunbridge Wells & I had often admired the beautiful dresses displayed in their window. Having got engaged in June 2014, I booked an appointment for early September 2014 & attended with my aunt and fiancée's mum, Belinda. As soon as I saw 'Dita', designed by Naomi Neoh, I fell in love. I loved everything about it...the beautiful French lace bodice, the blush pink silk rose, soft silk overskirt with blush pink underskirt. I felt like I was floating in it when I walked. It was the first dress I short-listed in the boutique and the second dress I tried on. I knew from the moment I put it on that it was the one. When the curtain was pulled back and I was revealed to my aunt and Belinda, there were tears – very happy tears. The memory of that moment is so precious to me because Belinda lost her fight to cancer in January 2015, four months before our wedding. I am very thankful that Belinda saw me in the dress I wore to our wedding and helped me to choose it. The Wedding Party I found the bridesmaid dresses at House of Fraser. They were designed by Eliza J and were the perfect shade of pink to compliment my dress. I love the flower beaded cap sleeves. And my flower girl dress was from Monsoon. It was ivory with a delicate sparkle and I knew it was the one for my god-daughter Amy-Beth when she tried it on and couldn’t stop twirling around. The Groom My husband, James, is a long haired, flip-flop wearing dude. He was keen to find a tweed suit as he feels uncomfortable wearing conventional suits. I felt it was important for him to feel as special in his suit as I felt in my dress. Our mutual hairdresser recommended that we visit Tweed Addict in Hackney, London so we booked an appointment. His eyes lit up the moment we walked into the Tweed Addict studio. There were thousands of tweed to choose from. After careful consideration and he chose a tweed suit and waistcoat from the gamekeeper collection by Robert Noble of Peebles. His best men wore matching suits and they looked so dapper. Tweed was perfect choice for our English country garden venue. My aunt bought James a pocket watch, which set the outfit off a treat. The Venue We viewed many venues before finding the beautiful Marleybrook House. I had just started to give up hope that we would find exactly what I was looking for when at 11pm one evening, I saw the advert for Marleybrook House in the Autumn edition of A Kentish Ceremony. I knew instantly it could be the one and couldn't sleep as I was so excited. I called the venue at 9am on the button the next morning and they were so accommodating, booking us an appointment for the next day. As we drove in, it was like a fairy-tale. The beautiful chocolate box thatched cottage took our breath away. Janie & Kris, the owners, showed us around the venue & we could hardly believe our luck. It was perfect, better than anything I'd dreamt of. It was like a beautiful story book, revealing each page and something new to us each corner we turned. Words cannot do the venue justice, but thanks to our wonderful photographer, I think our photos do. The Decor My dress has a soft blush pink underskirt and so I decided on a pastel colour scheme. Within the marquee we had pastel bunting and a pom pom archway. We decided against the traditional long top table, opting for a round table instead. Belinda loved butterflies and I commissioned Paper and Petals to design and create a bespoke white paper origami butterfly mobile, which hung from the chandelier above our table to mark it out from the rest. It looked incredible. Marleybrook House supplied vintage crockery for our afternoon tea and the top table had beautiful Royal Albert crockery. I decorated jam jars with a variety of lace, hessian and raffia, which we filled with wild flowers for our centrepieces. I also bought tea lights for each of the tables and sprinkled the tables with large dried rose petals. The ceremony area, was in a walled garden and I decorated the aisle with dried hydrangea, delphinium and wildflower petals. We tied pastel coloured ribbons to the chair ends and bought two pink rhododendron plants for in front of the pillars by the ceremony area. Paper and Petals designed a flower curtain as a backdrop in the pagoda, which was all in white. It was a very pretty touch. After the ceremony we had a Vintage Fayre in the meadow and the hay bales were covered in gorgeous brightly coloured, home crocheted blankets, provided by Chic ’n’ Cheerful. It was a bright and sunny afternoon and guests were encouraged to kick off their heels and slip into some flip flops. I bought three large (28” in fact) pastel coloured balloons with tassels, which added a splash of colour to the centre of the meadow. I hired large LOVE letters and a heart (which we hung from an apple tree) from The Alphabet Lounge. I also bought custom made J & J letters. Paper and Petals hung white paper pom pons from the apple trees, which is where the guests enjoyed bubbles to toast the marriage, canapés, and lined up for the confetti throw. The Cake Neither of us are keen on icing, so we knew we wanted a naked cake. My friend recommended Trish Wright, who baked it on the morning of the wedding to ensure it was fresh. My friend then transported it, assembled it and decorated it with pale pink hydrangea and lisianthus. The Food The caterers for Marleybrook House are Scott Anderson. They served up our canapés (sausage rolls and feta and spinach tarts) in tiny wooden wheelbarrows! We had a delicious afternoon tea for our wedding breakfast and a BBQ feast for the evening. The Beauty After two disappointing make-up trials I got chatting to Molly who was working at a Bobbi Brown counter. I had decided to do my own makeup and booked in with Molly for a make-up lesson and to test some products. However, Molly did such an amazing job, I asked her to do the makeup for our bridal party. The Stationery I found Norma and Dorothy online and after much deliberation over the various designs, decided on their floral patchwork design. The save the date, invitations and table numbers were all in the same design. The Entertainment During the day we hired a Vintage Fayre with old fashioned swing boats, coconut shy, strongman hammer, rat and trap, giant buzzer, balls in a bucket, large bouncy castle with slide and more. We had 17 children at our wedding so it was the perfect choice to keep them and the adults entertained. A lasting memory of the day was when James and I went for a walk by ourselves and every now and then you would hear the high striker bell, followed by cheers, clapping and laughter echoing around the venue. We love our music and wanted a local live band for the evening. We went to watch various bands play but nothing seemed quite right. Then a friend of ours recommended The Chaps, who had played at a wedding that she attended last year. We went online to check them out and were blown away. We went to watch them play live at O’Neills in Bromley and booked them straight away, They are an acoustic covers band with a difference. They seamlessly transition from one song to another and specialise in urban dance and pop covers. The dance floor was packed from the first chord to their encore. Everyone was begging them for more at the end of the night. We can’t wait to go watch them again. The Transport James and his best men travelled to the venue in Rusty, the most handsome split-screen campervan we’ve ever clapped eyes on. Chic ’n’ Cheerful made us a bespoke silk sunflower garland to decorate Rusty's front bumper. He looked fabulous! The Photography I am a very keen amateur photographer and knew that I was going to be quite choosy with our photographer for the wedding. I attended a Vintage Wedding Fayre at Scotney Castle with one of my best friends and met Sarah London there. In fact I met lots of photographers, but Sarah stood out head and shoulders from the rest. Not just her warm personality but her obvious talent for capturing those special moments. I’m so pleased we had an engagement shoot as it got us both comfortable in front of the camera and it was great to get to know Sarah better. On our wedding day, Sarah must have been whizzing around all over the place like a Ninja, because she captured photos of us and our guests without any of us knowing! She managed to capture all aspects of the day, that tell the story of the day so perfectly. Special Mentions In memory of Belinda (and a close friend that died just weeks before our wedding) we gathered everyone in the meadow and James gave a few words. James and I along with all of the children took a pink or blue butterfly patterned balloon and we let them go together. It was a beautiful moment. For all brides to be I would strongly recommend Pinterest and the RMW Website (& Instagram feed). There are a plethora of ideas to inspire and obsess over. I found both so useful and recreated a watering can display that I found on Pinterest. Lots of guests complimented us on it and I think it looked rather lovely :)

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