Morning folks! By jove have we got a corker of a wedding for you this morning; a beautiful Scottish and English inspired affair set in the woodlands of Natalie’s childhood home under the trees.

There is possibly the best profiterole wedding cake that I ever did see, a beautiful lace frock, an ACTUAL family tree, kilts a-plenty and the most luxurious buxom blooms to boot. Yes lovelies, it’s more than a little bit handy to have a sister that’s an uber talented wedding florist – one of whom RMW has actually worked with on our I Believe In Mermaids shoot last year. And believe me when I say that Katherine is GOOD.

I promise that this morning’s wedding will warm the cockles of your heart – particularly when you see the orange kilts. Immense!

Natalie The Bride: The service was held at a local church – St Peter and Paul’s, Wadhurst – in the village where I went to secondary school. My granddad was also buried there so it meant a lot for us that he was also part of our day. The reception was held in a forested area at the back of my parents’ garden. We were fortunate enough to work with a great marquee supplier who shared our vision for the reception – he even suggested it was possible to leave a couple of trees inside the marquee, which looked beautiful.

Make-up was an easy decision as one of my oldest friends – Nikki Hanson is a make-up artist, so I just left it to her and knew I was in safe hands. It was also so nice to have one of your best friends there in the morning of your big day – she definitely helped make me feel more relaxed!

Liz Bower from ‘Simply Beautiful Wedding Hair’ styled my locks as well as my bridesmaids. I was delighted with my hair on the day and she was so lovely to work with – very chilled whilst remaining professional and she obviously has a lot of talent. I just described what I was thinking and showed her a couple of different images – she very quickly ‘got it’ and my hair pretty much stayed in all day even lasting through a Ceilidh.

My dress was designed by Lusan Mandongus. I knew I wanted something lacy, vintage, sleek and classic and I found the dress at Isabella Grace on my first visit and knew that this was the one – which is very unlike me, normally I mull over decisions for ages. Having not bought a wedding dress before I didn’t really know what to expect but I can honestly say that the whole experience at Isabella Grace was so refreshing and it was a truly personal experience with lots of little special touches.

I wanted very classic simple shoes that I could possibly wear again. One of my friends pointed me towards some Sophia Webster shoes which I loved and they even had a little heart detail stitched into the sole. They went beautifully with the dress and didn’t distract from the dress detail.

Given that the groom and his half of the wedding party are Scottish choosing their outfits was pretty easy. They each wore their own tartan kilts and we opted for grey woollen waistcoats and jackets which we felt was softer look than the traditional black. We tried to match the grey jackets and silver ties with the wedding invites that we designed and the flowers; the bridesmaids wore a dusky pale pink floaty dress from Coast which also went with the flowers.

We wanted to have subtle hints of the Scottish English connection, given that Ross is Scottish and I’m English. My family name is Scott therefore a family tartan was easy to come by. So we integrated both the ‘Weir’ (Ross’s surname) and the ‘Scott’ tartan into our day. We used both tartans to bind the order of service and around the panama hats for the men. We also had a consistent theme of thistles and pale vintage pink roses throughout the flowers.

My sister is a very talented florist so she did all our flowers. We had an abundance of different types of pale dusky pink and white roses, white hydrangeas, silver thistles and foliage. This continued into the table arrangements, pew ends, bouquets and button holes. She also filled milk churns from Ross’s family farm with flowers and had them at the entrance of the church for the ceremony and at the entrance of the marquee.

The ceremony was very relaxed and we tried to integrate our personal touches where we could. My bridesmaids and I were piped from the wedding car to the church door. We asked the organist if he could play my favourite instrumental piece, from Last of the Mohicans during the signing of the register which sounded amazing in the church. One of my closest friends wrote her own love poem and read it during the service which was very special.

Our band was called Pastiche and they played Swing and Folk in the afternoon whilst we were milling around the garden in the afternoon under the bluest sky. In the evening the same band mixed covers with ceilidh which was brilliant fun. Our first dance was, ‘That’s how strong my love is’ by Otis Reading and we managed to squeeze in a cheeky lift at the end.

We hired Craig Milne from Appetite Catering to do the food for the whole day following a recommendation from a friend which did not disappoint. We opted for informal nibbles whilst people milled around the garden followed by a selection of pates and artisan breads followed by a BBQ feast. We wanted everything to be local if possible and Craig helped source our local foodie favourites. He made a profiterole tower for our cake and a selection of treats which were brought to each table on vintage cake stands. We also hired an ice cream bicycle from Bewl Cycles to serve up our favourite choice of Taywell ice cream during the afternoon.

Make sure you hire a photographer who is happy to go with the flow, shares your vision and does not boss you around on your big day. Our photographer, Rebecca Douglas was absolutely perfect, she was extremely friendly and approachable and along with sharing our vision had some great ideas on how we could create unique images which we would treasure forever.

Photography by Rebecca Douglas
Marquee Hire Meadow Fields Marquees | Dress Lusan Mandongus | Boutique Isabella Grace Bridal | Shoes Sophia Webster | Hair Simply Beautiful Wedding Hair | Band Pastiche | Florist Florist in the Forest | Ice-Cream Bike | Bewl Bike Hire | Catering Appetite Catering | Campervan Hire Kent Campervan Hire.

Happy Friday everyone! Today’s wedding combines many, many things that I love…the beautiful East Yorkshire countryside, an outdoor ceremony, Temperley, floral crowns, oversized candles, silver votives…seriously it’s stunning.

The grey ‘altar’ you see in images was a project undertaken by the couples family and it looks truly awesome. It’s amazing what you can create with some Pinterest inspiration, a piece of wood and a paint brush!

Also, if you’re worrying about occupying lots of little ones at your wedding, have a look at Emma and Andrew’s ideas – they filled one of the teepees with fancy dress costumes, games and DVDs and gave each child a picnic style hamper filled with treats. It’s a long day for grown ups sometimes, let alone the kids and you can see from the images how much fun they had!

I love that Emma choose to have two hairstyles as well. Any excuse to increase the amount of accessories is fine by me.

Emma totally rocks a floral crown and veil with her hair long and wavy…then pins it up for the evening and adds a very pretty headpiece.

Emma The Bride: We agreed to have the wedding in a paddock at my Dad’s home in Raywell, East Yorkshire. If we were to be married in the UK then Raywell was the only place I could imagine it.

I rarely wear my hair up but it seemed a shame that the back of my dress would go unnoticed if I wore it down all day. So just before dinner, one of my best friends quickly put it up and added the headdress which was made by By Harriet.

My Mum’s very talented friend made my veil. The fabric was silk tulle so it hung nicely and went with my vintage-inspired dress perfectly. I wore my Mum’s Tiffany diamond bracelet as my ‘something borrowed’ and the diamond ring my Grandmother left me as my ‘something old’.

We had lots of white pompoms and white lanterns hanging over the tables and we used my paternal grandmother’s cut glass carafes and filled them with wine for the table. She was the most glamorous woman I have ever known so it was another nice way of having a little piece of her on the day as well as her ring my Grandfather had given her. The amazing flowers were done by Florist Kirsty Wordingham at The Flower Outlet 07572 502035.

We wanted the day to be just as special for our children and their friends, so one of the tepees was a kids tent during the day and it turned into a chill out tent in the evening with another fire pit and chill out furniture.

Our gorgeous friend Sophia who came over from Australia, held the ceremony at the other side of the paddock to where the tepees were. She wrote a beautiful heartfelt service and we wrote our own vows.

One of the highlights of the day for me was pulling up in the car and seeing the long aisle leading from the gate all the way down to the homemade alter with all my friends, family and husband-to-be all waiting, drinking champagne! We had the radio on loud in the car and the kids were dancing in the back all excited. I had never felt more happy and excited in my life!

My friends surprised us by getting up to make a speech after the best man, but instead of a speech they had re-written the lyrics to Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe.” They had printed the lyrics to match the rest of the stationery and stuck it under everyone’s seats so all the guests could follow it and sing along….it was hilarious!

The thing about a wedding that really stands out to me, is how much the setting up really brings families together. Your loved ones want to be involved and help you in any way they can to make your day perfect. It’s very humbling. A wedding really does fill your whole family with LOVE!

We cannot thank Dom and Liam, our photographers, enough for the beautiful photos. I was quite fussy about not wanting “cheesy and old fashioned” photos and we have had endless compliments about the photos. They really went above and beyond what we expected and I really appreciated the constant communication (you must be on your email 24/7)!! Also, the slideshow preview they did for us, made us cry within seconds!!

Photography by York Place Studios
Videography York Place Films | Teepee Hire Papakata | Dress Temperley | Headpiece By Harriet | Shoes Jimmy Choo | Make up Stacey Sanderson | Florist Kirsty Wordingham | Groom Reiss | Flowergirl I Love Gorgeous | Pageboy J Crew | Bridesmaid Mango | Bowties Asos| Water The Ice Co | Catering Saunts Parties & Events

Seriously pretty prints. That’s what first struck me about today’s gorgeous marquee wedding. I do love a Bride who is brave enough to use print on her wedding day. Georgie gets it bang on too…

From the cute floral 50s style Bridesmaids gowns, to the paisley print on the stationery, to the lining of the marquee which is covered in birds and foliage – this wedding is FULL of covetable print action.

The beautiful wooden pergola where the couple held their ceremony is also a permanent feature at Georgie’s family home, so they can sit there and relive the memories of their wedding day whenever they chose. How lovely is that?

Georgie The Bride: We married at my parent’s home. It’s a very special, peaceful place full off extraordinarily happy memories; it was the perfect setting. We got married under a specially designed wooden pergola which was built in amongst the trees. Since the wedding we have been lucky enough to sit in the pergola as a family and reminisce about the day.

Chris’ mum is a hairdresser so she helped me with a number of pre-wedding hair trials. I was lucky enough to have her on hand as my hairdresser on the big day. I then had a very old friend (and trained make up artist) do my make up; she always looks beautiful, and since we were little I used to ask if she would “do my make up when I get married” so it was amazing to have her there!

The marquee had the most beautiful lining of wild flowers and birds on the inside, so it meant you didn’t need/want to do too much inside. We went for dove grey cloths and a mix of coloured flowers for the centre pieces. We spent the months leading up to the wedding, sourcing vintage/second hand cut glass decanters, bottles, glasses, bowls etc. for the flowers to sit in, surrounded by candles – it was just beautiful as each piece was different and every table varied. Most of the finds came from a little vintage shop in our village.

My Mum created the flower arrangements in the marquee. Our bridal party spent a few hours the day prior to the wedding tying flowers and coloured ribbons to the ceremony marquee legs (drafted in last minute due to rain so it was a last minute creation); and they absolutely made the aisle. Right next to where we took our vows, Chris’ granny prepared some old war time chimney pots which she filled with lavender – they had such history and were so special to have as part of the day.

We had a bit of a disaster right before the ceremony in that the music stopped. By the time I got to the top of the aisle, the whole congregation started to sing. It was a moment we, and our guests, will never forget and one people are still talking about.

We had Chris’ brothers’ band play after dinner, then our friends DJed. The dance floor was heaving all night. Our first dance was a song by the Stone Roses called Tightrope which initially meant more to Chris than me. The more I listened to it in the lead up and absorbed the lyrics, the more it felt right.

As Chris is a barber, we opted for gold moustache place cards. We borrowed some lovely wooden room dividers from friends and used these as a way to hang our table plan, decorated with fake hydrangea heads that I bought from Covent Garden Flower Market.

The table plan design was created in line with the invites by our brother in law, who is a very talented graphic designer. We went for paisley patterns and the overall theme of the table plan was Glastonbury where we spent our “mini-moon” a week later!

Savour the moments that you enjoy with each other and your loved ones; they are incredibly precious and will stay with you forever – our families and bridal party put their own hearts and souls into our wedding day and for that we will always be grateful.

Photography by Samuel Docker Dress Jenny Packham | Accessories Fur Coat No Knickers | Bridesmaids Hobbs | Cheese The Cheese Box

Hannah and Gav’s wedding is the perfect slice of wedding pie for a Friday morning. Simple but oh so stylish, absolutely bursting with romance AND full of unusual ideas to inspire you.

I’m particularly loving the gold Bridesmaids gowns from Hobbs with the navy suede courts from Whistles, a fabulous choice from bride Hannah.

It’s not a surprise really that Hannah runs a super-duper new floristry and styling company Bloom Fleuriste, as you’ll see, she has a great eye for detail.

The romance part was provided by groom Gav, who not only lovingly hand-crafted the giant LOVE letters, but also surprised Hannah by performing an acoustic version of ‘Make You Feel My Love.’

I know – what a sweetheart.

Hannah The Bride: We toyed with a church ceremony for a while (I wanted it, Gav didn’t) but I realised it was for all the wrong reasons… I love the aesthetic of churches but am not at all religious. So we decided to hold the whole event at Shustoke and it was perfect in every way. Intimate, cosy and full of character.

We did our own make-up with top tutelage from bridesmaid Carly. I gave her a moodboard of rose gold eyes, light rosy cheeks and nude lips and she sourced great products from MAC, Benefit, Nars, Chanel and Barry M.

My biggest beauty tips? Use a good primer on your face and eyes to help your make up last all day, and try Model’s Co Fibre Lash mascara if you don’t like falsies or extensions.

Gav wore his great grandfather’s silver pocket watch, which his mum had got mended especially for the wedding.

Flowers were a very important part of the day as I launched a floristry and event styling business this year – BLOOM Fleuriste – with my friend Melissa. My own flowers felt more challenging than any job so far – I was like a kid in a sweet shop trying to choose what to have. I choose hydrangeas, roses (Amnesia and Quicksand), Amaranthus, Astrantia, Astilbe, Brunia, Scabiosa pods, succulents and a pop of colour with hot pink Celosia.

The LOVE lights were the result of an on-going design project for our reclaimed furniture business, Ruby Rhino. They were a huge hit on the day. Everyone was blown away by Gav’s handiwork and my Dad mentioned in his speech that they were the ultimate love token from Gav to me…it was so obvious but we hadn’t even realised it.

I used a nifty little gadget called a Cricut Machine to make some crafty accessories for the day. It looks like a printer and connects to your computer, and the inclusive software allows you to design shapes and fonts for the machine to cut out of card or vinyl. We used it to personalise the table plan, place and table names, cocktail menu and guestbook (from Paperchase). It’s a great gadget that helped make our decorations really unique.

Gav is brilliant on guitar and has a beautiful voice so I really wanted him to play on the day. However, he’s really shy and hates the limelight, so I had to stop pestering him and let him decide if he could do it. After his speech, Ben brought his guitar over and Gav surprised everyone with the most amazing version of Bob Dylan’s (and Adele’s) Make You Feel My Love.

The whole place was in tears – very few people have heard him sing before so everyone was blown away by his talent (even his own family) and gave him a standing ovation. I was bursting with pride, it was definitely the highlight of the day for me.

I turned to Etsy for the invites, menu and order of service. I chose PDF files from Amy Adams Printables, filled in with our details and printed them off at home on white and brown Kraft card – a simple and super affordable solution. We decided to include a sort of timetable for the day so people knew what was going on. We didn’t want it to be too formal but have been to a few weddings where people are a little confused at times, not sure what’s next, so this helped to prevent that.

We discovered Ellie Gillard on Rock My Wedding. We were instantly drawn to her creative and natural style, and after a friendly Skype chat, decided to book her straightaway. Ellie worked SO incredibly hard on the day and we couldn’t be happier with the pictures. Ellie just seemed to understand our style and what we are about, and it was fantastic to work with someone that shared our creative eye.

After the wedding, Gav and I realised that we had laid ourselves quite bare to our guests… giving them a peek into our private lives, creative ideas and dreams for the future. Everyone told us that they felt the whole day was welcoming, intimate and beautiful, which was lovely to hear and made all the hard work worthwhile. Our friends and family are very important to us so we wanted to make them feel special and loved. I think we achieved this and more.

Photography by Ellie Gillard Dress Jenny Packham | Venue Shustoke Farm Barns | Hair Anthony John Salon | Headpiece Vintage Headdresses | Bridesmaids Hobbs | Groom Moss Bros Bespoke | Florist BLOOM Fleuriste | Prop Hire Ruby Rhino | Band The Midnight Rebel Band | DJ Gav Jones | Stationery Amy Adams Printables | Catering Cripps Kitchen

Sometimes at RMW HQ we come across weddings where the bride has a dream book of wedding contacts. And this is definitely one of them.

Jenn literally has a plethora of talented friends and family around her who helped create her wedding vision.

Which, by the way, was classic English, meets rustic, meets bohemian, meets quirkiness – and I think it’s fair to say that together they definitely achieved it.

Jenn’s beautiful gown was worn by her Mum AND her Grandma on their wedding days. With a bit of love and care from the wonderful ladies at Agape Bridal, it was reborn for the third generation of the family.

Jenn and James married at Liverpool Cathedral (obviously THE perfect location for an epic cathedral length veil) and held their reception in a barn at Owen House Farm which had previously never been used as a wedding venue.

The lucky couple witnessed the Daniel family transform their ‘shed’ into a truly unique and beautiful venue – knowing that they would be the first couple to use it.

Jen The Bride: My Dad has been an Anglican Minister for almost 25 years now and in 2004 he was made a Canon of the Church of England for his years of service. This ‘qualified’ James and I to marry at Liverpool Cathedral.

James proposed to me at the top of the bell tower of Liverpool cathedral. After we were engaged we visited the cathedral’s chapel for a moment of peace and fell in love with it. The decision to marry there was very easy and obviously my family were delighted.

My wedding dress was also my Mum’s and Grandma’s wedding dress. My Grandma married in the 1930’s and wore a dress made of 2nd world war parachute silk. My late Great Uncle was in the RAF during the war so sent the silk for her to get the dress made.

When my Mum married in 1979, being an accomplished seamstress, she made her own wedding dress on top of the parachute silk underskirt of my Grandmas. She used cream silk crepe, as the original dress has yellowed with age. A professional dressmaker helped her fit the bones of her dress, but she sewed every stitch herself. Overall it had a slightly ethnic, romantic style.

For my gown, my Mum and I went for a wedding dress viewing at Agape Bridal Boutique. Mum asked whether Agape had ever made bespoke wedding dresses. The answer was that they hadn’t thus far but were very open to the idea. We explained my vision to one of the designers, Alex Donovan.

Alex produced three design options she and dressmaker Karen had come up with. Karen and Alex had clearly appreciated my slightly bohemian and romantic personal style. What Agape accomplished for me was not only the fulfilling of a now three generation long legacy but they created a dress that was true to who I am and that I felt simply wonderful in. My dress is the first vintage bespoke gown the Boutique has ever made.

I asked two of my oldest friends and James’s sister to be my maids, but I couldn’t bear the thought of dictating to them how to dress. It felt just wrong to me (personally) to tell them how they had to look, on a day that was important to them as well.

In terms of colour, my favourite colour is deep red, but I love all shades of reds and plums and pinks. So I suggested a gradient spectrum of everything from deepest red to the palest pink. We piled all of our mutual ideas onto Pinterest. Their dresses were from Ted Baker, Wtoo Maids and bespoke by Agape.

We were so, so fortunate to have my sister in law, Anna Potter, of Swallows and Damsons in Sheffield as our florist. My bouquet was spectacular. A wild array of a variety of red roses (Piano rose and David Austin), dark berry astillbe and deep red peonies, which thankfully were still in season. It was big, bohemian and wild, but still classic and structured.

We had a number of really special contributors to our wedding ceremony. I asked the choir I teach if they would sing one of my favourite John Rutter choral arrangements at our wedding. They couldn’t have been more enthusiastic. The students sang ‘The Lord Bless You And Keep You’ by John Rutter and had me in tears at the altar.

We also asked my old singer teacher and now friend and her husband, Kate and JP, who are both professional opera singers, to sing a duet during the signing of the register. The sound reverberating around the walls of the chapel and even into the cathedral was epic.

I had commissioned a musician contact of mine with sourcing and arranging a band back in October 2012. We had a seven piece jazz set up – sax, drums, piano, double bass, acoustic guitar, violin and vocals. The style of music got every age up dancing.

In the evening we didn’t want a cheesy run of the mill DJ, and were recommended a more retro alternative in Vintage 78 DJ. Matt Nickson is a saxophonist and has vast experience as a professional musician. He and his wife Annabel DJ a broad selection of records, including old shellac 78rpm discs and the music ranges from the 20s through to the late 50’s.

My brother, Dan Potter, illustrated a personal ‘logo’ of a tree and two birds for use across all of our wedding stationery. Dan has drawn for the boutique Collard Manson in Sheffield, designed the logo for Sheffield Antiques Quarter, and recently the album and single artwork for the Fratellis. I have always been so proud of him for his work and was over the moon he agreed to draw for us.

I’m glad to say that the majority of my crazy visions came to life and that our guests felt valued and welcomed. But there were also countless occasions where I really lost sight of what was important, and that really is that I got to marry my best friend, who patiently bore by my side as I drove myself mad over this one day. But I don’t regret my efforts, because James got the wedding he wanted too.

James Melia and Jo Bilham have been an integral part of our journey to getting married. From meeting James for the first time to our wedding day he has been a calming, cool influence who helped us to feel ourselves. I’m particularly grateful to James and Jo for managing my stresses on the day so well! And of course for the stunning photographic memories we have.

Photography by James Melia
Dress Bespoke From Vintage At Agape Bridal | Hair Electric Hair | Headband Eliza Vale | Earrings Knutsford Antiques Centre | Venue Owen House Farm | Florist Swallows And Damsons | Cars Red Carpet Wedding Cars | Jewellers Geralds Of Knutsford | Catering Barretts Event Caterers

If there’s one thing I love more than the woods then it’s a wholesome, organic and glorious wedding day set against the backdrop of the aforementioned sylvan goods. Rebecca and Robin said ‘I Do’ at the beautiful Trevenna Barns in Cornwall amongst dappled glades in Peter Pan style.

Yes actual Peter Pan and Wendy style. Well less of the saccharine Disney version and more of the ‘woodsy, ethereal and magical’ type of theming as Rebecca so eloquently puts it. Filled to the brim with luscious detail, feathers and well-thumbed books, flags and pinecones and one heck of a beautiful headpiece.

Oh and then there’s the portrait shoots in amidst fronds of fern, the flipping fantastic tail coat sported by one of Rebecca’s brothers and Rebecca’s dreamy bouquet.

I promise you’ll love it ALL.

Rebecca The Bride: We chose Trevenna Barns for our wedding. A secluded, private estate on the wild moors of Cornwall, the venue was ours exclusively for a whole weekend. This gave us license to put out games on the lawn, decorate every space and really relax into the wedding. Trevenna’s numerous luxurious converted barns meant we could invite close friends and family to stay with us for the night before and night of the wedding.

As we live in Cornwall but have family and friends across the country (and the world…we had guests come from New Zealand and Australia) it meant so much to have the people we love in the same place for the whole weekend. Trevenna staff are wedding aficionados – they were there to answer my questions and assist in planning at every stage. They also put up with my odd requests to transform the site into a magical Neverland!

My lovely hairdresser agreed to come and style my hair into a messy ‘do’. I had a custom made lace and pearl headpiece by Holly Young Millinery which we worked with to create an ethereal but classic look. Make up was by the very talented Suzi Winter – again we went for a natural look.

I had a very clear idea of what I didn’t want to wear, but found it difficult to find exactly what I did! I love Jenny Packham, but could not afford any of her designs. Searching Etsy for ideas, I came across a designer in California – Daughters of Simone. Channelling a laid back, bohemian vibe, their creations (often using requisitioned or vintage materials) had the classic lines of Packham and were unique in their simplicity. I chose a heavy crocheted lace dress with a train. Ordering a dress online was perhaps the most risky decision I made in the whole process…I had never tried it on! I need not have worried: the dress was fantastic. To get the perfect fit, I enlisted the help of award winning local dress designer Annalise Harvey.

My shoes were a pair of sparkly champagne heels from Jimmy Choo – nothing else was ‘bling’ so I thought I’d go all out and treat myself to these beauties! They came on our honeymoon and I loved wearing them in Vegas!

I had four bridesmaids. They all wore different dresses which they chose themselves – all we said was that they should sit above the knee and be in a creamy hue. The vibe of the wedding was relaxed so we didn’t want anything that matched too perfectly. Rob had two best men and two ushers. Rob wore jeans, a waistcoat and rolled shirt sleeves. The ushers – my brothers – wore vintage jackets. One of them was a tailcoat which belonged to my Grandad. Teamed with faded jeans and converse trainers, it was exactly the individual look we wanted to create.

The theme was Peter Pan: not Disney pink and tinker bell, but woodsy, ethereal and magical. We had acorns and thimbles sitting upon vintage editions of J M Barrie’s novel and pheasant feathers and larch fronds as table centre pieces.

Butterflies made from pages of Peter Pan were strewn around the venue. Hand-made mushrooms sprouted up in Trevenna’s lawn. To keep the feel natural, the colour palate was quite neutral and created with natural elements. Splashes of colour came from the vintage beer bottles used in the table décor and from the greeny blues of the vintage books.

The flowers were by the wonderful Blue Carrot. Using ferns, twigs and cream dahlias, Susanne heightened the feel of being in an enchanted forest in my bouquet and the table decorations. For buttonholes, she combined succulents with feathers.

Our wedding cake was made of cheese from the three counties which mean most to us: West Sussex – Rob’s home; Cumbria, mine and, of course, Cornwall where we live now. The food was all provided in Trevenna’s wedding package and was just yummy. Our wedding favours were little individually potted sempervivums which my Dad grew in the year leading up to the wedding. The name means ‘forever living’ – which we hoped summed up the love we felt on that special weekend. I also hand made my wedding invites using custom stamps I designed: a butterfly with our initials at its wings was the ‘logo’ of the wedding. Once we had this design, it was easy to harmonise invites, place cards, menus and signage. We also printed out lots of quotes from the novel to stick around the site.

My advice is to try and make the day as long as possible. We were so lucky to have been able to have everyone come on Friday night – this meant the magical event didn’t pass in a blur. We also had a Peter Pan themed photo booth on Friday night – run by our gorgeous photographer – and some of our favourite images came from the humour and impromptu nature of this fun little detail.

Finally, I thought it was really important to document every one else’s night, but wanted to do something a bit different to the ‘disposable camera on tables’ thing. I persuaded White Stuff to give me some two three dimensional cardboard trees used in a window display. Covered in pages from copies of Peter Pan, copious fairy lights and pictures of us, we strung butterflies each bearing the name of a guest between the trees. We asked guests to replace theirs with a picture taken on our Fujifilm Instax – a polaroid style camera. We now have a visual reminder of all the guests at the wedding: their fun, captured.

Photography by Hayley Savage
Venue Trevanna Barns | Dress Daughters Of Simone | Headpiece Holly Young Millinery | Shoes Jimmy Choo | Make up Suzi Winter | Florist The Blue Carrot | Decor & Styling Rebecca Ritson.

Good morning lovelies…I really, truly, honestly do not know where to begin with today’s wedding.

Quite frankly, it is the impossible made possible.

There are bonfires, pizza vans, fire dancers, floral crowns and wristbands.

Jaclyn and Ben started with a field. And somehow they finished with a weekend long festival-family-reunion-wedding which is – in one word – EPIC.

The couple decided to recreate their ideas of a perfect day – Ben’s being Saturday at Glastonbury and Jaclyn’s being bringing the film version of Mamma Mia to life. What awesome inspiration for your wedding!

So whatever your wedding dreams are, today’s wedding really does prove that you CAN make them a reality…

Jaclyn The Bride: Ben and I were legally married in Vegas a year before our wedding (so that I could sort out my VISA – I did not want to plan a wedding long distance – oh no!) Because of this we felt that we didn’t need to stick to the traditional wedding itinerary, and we didn’t want to either.

We wanted our wedding to look like a Festival and feel like a family reunion. Since my friends and family were flying over from the States, we wanted it to be more than just one evening, one day didn’t seem like enough time to celebrate something so hugely important and exciting!

Ben and I thought of our perfect day and then tried our best to recreate it. For him that day was Glasto Saturday, and for me it was a day out of the film version of Mamma Mia. Junk food, drinks, camping, music, whisky, bonfires, great people, relaxed good times and no curfew.

Ben was super stoked to do a festival website for the wedding. He put his design and programming skills to work and he created the coolest wedding website imaginable. THE COOLEST. We spent the time on our website instead of doing paper invitations – we kept it all digital.

We had a giant team of suppliers which was headed up by our magnificent wedding planner Jessie Thomson. Without her our wedding would not have been possible. Every supplier was wonderful – timely, respectful, professional. To top it all off the entire wedding weekend was rain free, it was a Christmas miracle!

Since it was a DIY wedding we had so much to do. Everyone chipped in on the workload. We completely underestimated how much work it would be to decorate the venue. We had friends building, hammering, fluffing, cooking – it was such a group effort. My Bridesmaid Katie and her mother single handedly did all of the flowers and flower crowns and they ended up looking better than I could have ever imagined.

All of the decor was found on Ebay and in charity shops. Ben and I had ourselves a few weekends in the garden just the two of us painting signs. This was probably my favourite part of the wedding planning – those times of R&R with beers and paintbrushes in the garden.

We painted an old headboard and used it to display our name tags and we collected jars for the flowers. To top off all of the decor Ben and his parents made the giant JONES marquee sign that topped the dome. They did a ridiculously amazing job, their skills are still blowing my mind. And just to show how wonderful the venue owners were, the morning of the wedding the owner Ian whipped out his lawn mower and mowed a giant JONES into the lawn on the hill. The energy was really wonderful all weekend.

Friday night we had a BBQ instead of a rehearsal dinner, and even though we planned to run through the ceremony it just didn’t happen.

We wrote our ceremony from scratch which looking back, it was very hard. We wanted it to reflect our journey as a couple and who we have become – and writing it ourselves seemed like the only way to do that.

We met in New York when Ben was on holiday and were long distance for two years. I wanted the ceremony to explain the importance of us coming together in front of everyone we cared about and touch on why we chose to make everyone a Jones for the weekend. Ben’s good friend Matt agreed to be our officiant and he NAILED IT. After we said our vows we did a short handfasting ceremony (I needed to have something witchy as Ben wouldn’t let me have a coven themed wedding!)

My favorite moment of the day was getting ready in the morning. It was relaxed and fun and girlie, we drank champagne and ate breakfast and it was a perfect moment in time. I know it may sound weird that my favourite part of my wedding day didn’t involve Ben, but it felt good to miss him again and being reunited with my friends was a priceless moment in time.

If we could give some advice to those planning it would be to think logically about what is most important to you. Stay true to your ideas, you can truly make anything happen and still have it feel very much like a wedding.

You’ll have SO much fun planning your wedding – soak up every waking minute AND hire a wedding planner to help you. And if you are in England – hire Jessie Thomson, she is a wedding mastermind.

Photography by Camera Hannah
Dress Blue Willow Bridal at Malindy Elene | Hair Jodie Hazelwood | Groom Asos | Venue Out To Grass | Florist Katie & Liz Theofilos | Flowers Triangle Nursery | Catering The Coffee Camper Cotswold Pizza Co & FW Catering | Bouncy Castle Golden Valley Inflatables | Cake Marie Green | Yurts Wedding Yurts | Festival Decor Festiflags | Face Painter Cheltenham Face Painting | Glamping Cariad Canvas | Wedding Planner Jessie Thomson

Now then, this is a bit different in terms of fashion. Rather than the bride “changing up” her look for the evening festivities the groom chose to instead, and very swanky he looks too (in both ensembles.)

I love the light, the love and the soft colour palette of Jane and Sam’s super pretty W-day, not to mention all of the home-made details and the fact so many Rock My Wedding recommended suppliers did an AMAZING job of the whole affair.

I defy anyone not to fancy a cake (or two) after catching a glimpse of the delicious dessert table, rocky road is my FAVOURITE.

Jane The Bride: We always knew we wanted a rustic wedding where we could make a lot ourselves to save some dosh. So we initially started looking at semi-derelict barns. After visiting a couple, we just didn’t get “the feeling” (I talked about this feeling a lot during wedding planning). Without a wedding planner and a lot of investment we didn’t think we could create what we wanted. Sam came across Taitlands online and we immediately knew (because of that blooming feeling) that it was the one.

After trying on about ten dresses I knew that I wanted something fairly fitted with little sleeves made from lace and with a belt to give my waist some definition. After browsing through a lot of wedding magazines, I saw Felicia by Amanda Wyatt. I hunted for some stockists in the Manchester area and when I emailed Debbie at Glamour Bridal, she sent me a lovely reply with a list of what to bring and what to expect from my first appointment.

I chose my veil from the selection at Glamour Bridal along with a headcomb which Debbie had put on a sparkly headband for me. You can never have too much sparkle! My earrings were from Glitzy Secrets and I wore a teeny horseshoe necklace from Estella Bartlett for luck.

I wore silver beaded peep toes from Dune with a concealed platform so I was able to wear them all day long. I also bought myself, the maids and the mums heel stoppers, which were a lifesaver on the grass.

We bought shimmery pale pink lace dresses from French Connection for my two maids, my best pals Sian and Steph.

Sam bought his bright blue suit from Reiss in the January sales for a bargain price. But his pre-wedding diet was a bit too successful and by the summer it didn’t fit! Luckily the girls at Stitches in Manchester [www.stitchesuk.co.uk] did a mighty fine job of tailoring it. Phew! He wore a white Thomas Pink shirt, his Grandad’s sleeve garters and the same Next floral tie and pocket square as the groomsmen with tan brogues from Dune… He looked hawt!

For his evening look, he changed into the personalised converse trainers I’d given him and a floral shirt from Paul Smith, ditching the tie. Swoon, my heart was all a-flutter.

We contacted Christian & Erica Film Photography after seeing them on Rock My Wedding. We loved their use of light and we couldn’t find anyone else who compared. After meeting them a few times (including enjoying a few too many glasses of wine at the RMW Pretty Naughty party), we knew we’d made the right decision.

Being major foodies we couldn’t resist being greedy and had an entire sweet table! We had a multicoloured vanilla disco cake covered in white chocolate buttercream and sparkles from Home Sweet Home in Manchester Northern Quarter, topped with little cake people made by Things By Laura. We also had a chocolate sponge covered in vanilla buttercream with chocolate dribbling over the sides and topped with a mountain of oreos from And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon in West Didsbury.

We made as much as possible ourselves to save some pennies and had lots of kind help from the bridal party super troopers. We made streamers from torn strips of fabric for the coach house and hung a beautiful Mexican white papel picado wedding banner. We wrapped jars in lace / hessian and made mercury glass effect jars for candles. Sam’s Grandmother ploughed through mountains of Rose’s lime marmalade for us to make glass jar lanterns by adding copper and silver wire handles. We also hung tin can lanterns with patterns punched out of the sides.

My favourite part of the day was the ceremony. I thought I might be a bit teary but I was just overflowing with the happy. My cheeks ached from smiling. My friend Lizzy suggested we spend a few minutes together just the two of us and we had ten minutes to give each other a few big tens after the ceremony. If you’re doing a lot of DIY, start early! Knowing we made almost everything for our day gives me a fuzzy feeling in my tum.

Christian and Erica Film Photography
Dress | Amanda Wyatt at Glamour Bridal | Venue Taitlands | Earrings Glitzy Secrets | Groom Reiss | Bridesmaids French Connection | Vanilla Cake Home Sweet Home | Chocolate Sponge The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon

Jess and Matt’s wedding is a real breath of fresh air for a Friday.

They came across their venue, South Farm, by chance and breezed through the wedding planning process, making sure that they had fun times along the way. Perhaps that’s what happens when you discover you’re expecting a little one mid-way through proceedings?

The couple’s relaxed and laid back vibe created an equally relaxed wedding, and that really shines through in the gorgeous images from Caroline Hancox.

Ready to enjoy the blissful peace and quiet of an Autumnal day in the Cambridgeshire countryside?

Jess The Bride: My dad was cycling home from work and found a set of car keys at the bottom of the long drive up to South Farm, so he whipped them up there and came home to tell us about a lovely wedding venue we should go take a look at.

So that Sunday we went and were shuttled around the entire estate by tuk tuk. We fell in love and knew it was absolutely perfect for us. Within two weeks the deposit was paid and date reserved for the following October. A week later we found out we were expecting!

Makeup wise I just went for a natural look, Tori used a few individual false lashes which I loved and also ment that there was no running mascara for the rest of the day so cannot recommend them enough.

I choose a mermaid style dress with lace detailing. I didn’t set out to have anything like it but once I had tried it on I loved it. I had the dress ordered with extra length as I am a tall 5ft 11…I was worried that being so tall I would struggle to find a nice floor length dress, I was wrong!

The Bridesmaids wore small scarves from a local boutique in Royston, Hertfordshire. The Groomsmen wore matching suits hired from Burtons.

Because we had an October date we wanted to make things Autumnal. We choose pumpkins for our centre pieces, which we hollowed out two days before the wedding and used a drill to make patterns. Once filled with candles they created a lovely warm glow.

On the morning of the wedding we ran round and stripped ivy from a wall near my Mum’s and used that to wind around the pumpkins.

I had met our florist lots of times before, and over the years seen all of her beautiful window displays – so was absolutely sure she would create something I’d love. I went in to see her a couple of weeks before the wedding and told her the colours that I needed in my Bridesmaids bouquets (blue, green, orange and white) and that I wanted mine just white, but a little rustic. She really did a lovely job.

We were extremely lucky that they had just had the Church decorated for the harvest festival with beautiful flowers and would you believe a great big pale pumpkin at the altar.

We walked down the aisle to a piece of music called ‘Photos Everyday’ that my Dad chose. A friend of my Mother-In-Law was our DJ, and a brilliant one at that. Mark Daniels (a DJ on Soul Groove Radio) did a great job. Our first dance was a song we had heard a week before, John Legend – All Of Me. It was perfect for us and we both knew it was ours when we heard it. I hated our first dance in all honesty, it was extremely awkward as we did not think to have any kind of practice and ended swaying around like two old biddies.

On arrival we had warm winter Pimms to greet our guests, which went down an absolute storm! Our wedding cake was made by The Cake House. We had 3 tiers, one carrot cake, one fruit and one vanilla. It was lovely to have a selection to choose from once cut.

Try not to get stressed out over anything, as it all comes together on the day. We had real fun choosing our bits together and because we had such a laid back approach. Things go wrong but as long as you are marrying your best friend, who really cares about the rest?

Have someone film your day. The only thing I regret is that I missed so much, not being able to be everywhere all the time. I would love to watch our day over and over but we never thought to have a film made.

Our photographer Caroline Hancox made both of us feel incredibly comfortable. She was there with an extra pair of hands when needed throughout the whole day and we really couldn’t have asked for more.

The amount of stunning photos we have is incredible. She really managed to capture every aspect of the day telling a story with her photographs. Not only was she perfect on the day (and the lead up to the big day, even braved our crazy boxer!) she has continued to keep in touch.

Photography by Caroline Hancox
Dress & Veil Fleur De Lys Bridal | Hair & Make-up Tori Harris | Bridesmaids Asos | Venue South Farm | Florist Barbara’s Flowers Royston | Groomsmen Burton | Cake The Cake House

Tide times dictated the date for Zoë & James’ big day. The couple chose to hold their wedding on the banks of the estuary at Salcombe – so the timing of the water was key in creating the beautiful backdrop they wanted.

Boat trips, an American Deep South inspired sharing menu, golden wheat fields and lots of blowsy blooms in whites & blues made for a day that looked so pretty AND like such fun.

By marrying James, Zoë inherited a Mother-in-Law who used to own a Bridal Boutique – this meant that she could save on the dress and buy a lovely pair of Louboutins instead.

Zoë also accessorised with a pretty veil from the wonderful What Katy Did Next.

All of this wedding loveliness was captured by Love Lust List Members, SD Photography.

Zoë The Bride: The idea of planning a wedding had always filled me with fear. After looking at 100’s of wedding blogs I was overwhelmed with inspiration for colour schemes, style choices and decor ideas. We wanted to plan a wedding that would reflect us and one thing we could agree on was a relaxed and informal wedding that above all was a great party.

Having been brought up in South Devon I had several ideas for a venue for our wedding. We decided on Pool Farm Meadow as is a picturesque spot on the Kingsbridge/Salcombe estuary which is particularly pretty when the tide is in. After looking at the tide times our wedding date was set. Our ceremony took place in the beautiful St Mary’s church in West Charleton that overlooks the estuary of the reception venue, I also attended as a child.

My dress was kindly donated to me by my Mother In Law who used to own a Bridal Boutique (jackpot!) The design ticked all the boxes, it was simple, elegant with vintage applique. As the dress was unfussy and minimal I went to town with the 1950’s style veil from What Katy Did Next and splurged on some 1950’s style glitter Louboutins.

As a present to James I bought him a tie clip in silver and he wore brown brogues with his Next suit.

The Bridesmaids wore 1950’s prom style dresses from Coast. I wanted the girls to have a 1950s feel to their look and although the dresses were last minute purchases after an issue with the original dresses made to order from Etsy – they looked perfect on the day.

My advice is to order Bridesmaids dresses early! Dresses can always be tailored to fit at the last minute to account for any weight loss.

We really wanted the wedding to look a bit different, not too formal but still elegant. When the marquee arrived we were blown away. Adrian and his team from Devon Party Marquees worked tirelessly to put it up in the heat (and down again in the driving rain). We wanted a contemporary marquee design that could open up to make the most of the view over the estuary.

We enlisted the help of graphic designer Emily Fisher to design chalk boards for the table plan, drinks menu and signs. We had a rough idea of how we wanted them to look and they definitely exceeded our expectations.

Our Wedding favours were small jam jars filled with chilli jam kindly made by my Father In Law, covered with brown paper and string. My Dad created the fantastic picture board styled with retro wallpaper as we wanted something original. He did an amazing job and it was well received by the guests at the end of the evening, lots of photos were taken, along with some I would like to forget!

The wonderful Emma Vowles created the beautiful bouquets and button holes. I had seen Emma’s flowers before at a friend’s wedding and loved the style. After a couple of emails we met with Emma, as soon as we met I knew that we would end up with the most amazing flowers and we weren’t disappointed. Emma completely got my vision and was so helpful all the way through the planning! I wanted a loose bouquet with flowers that would look like I’d picked them in a garden.

My bouquet had vintage roses, scabia and greenery in a hand tied posy with grey velvet ribbon. The girls had a similar bouquet to mine but with slightly more blue flowers. I loved that the all the button holes were different and individually beautiful. Emma also arranged two large zinc buckets full of flowers that we used outside the church and then again in the marquee.

Choices were limited in terms of catering companies in South Devon. James is a very keen chef and likes to experiment with food ideas we’ve gathered from travelling. He had specific ideas of what the menu should be. He wanted to go along the lines of Mexican/American Soul food/Pulled Pork/Slaw/BBQ etc. We came across Liz from The Dinner Service who understood exactly the theme we were going for and was able to suggest additional ideas to work with James’.

What was produced was an amazing banquet that was shared family style on each table. Everyone commented on the quality of the food which was completely unique and unlike any wedding they’d been to before. Hot sauce on a wedding table is not a common theme but went down a storm.

We went on a booze cruise a month before the wedding which meant we had stacks of excellent French Wine for the big day. The Globe Inn (opposite the wedding venue) supplied us with barrels of Otter Ale and a bar as well as being super helpful in offering accommodation for most of James’ family and supplying all of the necessary equipment for the beer barrels at no extra cost.

My father in law offered to make our cake as a wedding present for us. It was such a generous offer and he did an amazing job.

Our photographers were Darren and Sarah from SD Photography. I really dislike wedding photos that are posed group shots with everyone having fixed smiles on their faces. I wanted most of the photos to be candid shots of everyone enjoying themselves, which they did absolutely brilliantly, along with some lovely shots of James and I. They were with us the whole long day from start to finish and they took some absolutely beautiful shots.

The whole day was incredible and everything went smoothly. I loved seeing James stood at the end of the aisle. I loved our first dance, the band and dance floor shenanigans. The boat trips up the estuary were amazing. The weather was perfect. The day went so fast and everything came together. The little details that I thought would make or break the day paled into insignificance with all the wedding day emotions.

Photography by SD Photography
Shoes Christian Louboutin | Veil What Katy Did Next | Marquee Hire Devon Party Marquees | Make Up Finishing Touch | Hair Louise Alway | Groom & Groomsmen Next | Caterers The Dinner Service | Florist Emma Vowles | Chalk Boards Emily Fisher | Stationery Elinor Rose | Bridesmaids Coast | Transport Devon Vintage Car Club

I’m not even sure I know where to begin with Keith and Hannah’s big day.

Do I start with Hannah’s oh-so-light-as-a-feather-yet-perfectly-bohemian flower crown or with their voluminous hydrangea floral arch at the end of their hay bale aisle?

Perhaps I’ll begin with the adorable flower girls who just exude personality or the sassy bridesmaids (I need their dresses in my life!). Actually I might just kick off with the beautiful wildflower arrangements and the motorbike and the portraits in the meadow and the super-fly Granny who totally rocks Hannah and Keith’s festival wristband favour.

Actually you know what…I’m just going to let you lovelies experience this heart-warming, life-affirming, hearty big day for yourselves.

It is immense.

Hannah The Bride:I feel like I need to start by saying that I should not really be the one writing this report. The main man himself, who spent months hand-making invites, endless hours creating a table plan, days upon end creating centrepieces was my hubby-to-be aka…Groomzilla Keith! Being a teacher with little time on my hands, my role generally consisted of checking Rock My Wedding weekly and reporting back to my husband with all the ideas for him to magically turn into reality. Somehow he totally pulled it off and I learned a lot about my new hubby-to-be’s endless talents.

When deciding on the venue, Keith and I had always had this idea that we didn’t want our wedding to just be one day. We wanted somewhere with exclusive use which would be our little home over the two days. When we visited Haslington Hall, it fitted perfectly with our vision and we knew that they would do anything to accommodate our needs. We loved the house which is full of character and it also had acres of land – perfect for the outdoor ceremony that we had dreamed of.

I opted for a natural style with my hair and make-up – nothing too heavy! I enrolled two trusted friends who I knew would not let me down – Sarah Jayne and Paul Fletcher. They did a brilliant job!

I must admit, wedding dress shopping was not the pleasurable experience that I thought it would be. After visiting numerous boutiques I didn’t see a single dress I liked, let alone think was ‘the one’. I’d set my heart on a dress with detail/focus on the back and had a very specific idea of what I wanted. Luckily, one of my good friends said she would be honoured to make my dress and so the excitement begun. I showed her the pictures and she helped them come alive.

I wanted to keep the maids’ dresses quite a neutral, light colour so champagne was the colour of choice. Luck was on my side again, when the wonderful Jessica from Sheshea said that she would make these too. She did the best job and the dresses were absolutely beautiful. Our beautiful flower girls wore dresses from Monsoon.

Our theme started off slightly vintage, then shifted more to rustic and eventually we settled on a festival theme two day wedding and Wedfest was born! For one year prior to the wedding we raided every carboot, charity shop and charity warehouse going. I showed Keith some ticket style invites to fit in with our festival theme and a few months later they were all ready to send out! He also created lanyards for our order of service and little personal touches such as hand-made crates, signs and tree stump centre pieces.

We had a travelling theme running throughout our day and instead of table numbers we had postcards with different destinations that we had visited from around the world. We used ‘Find your face to take you place’ for our seating plan which the guests loved – find the funniest, most embarrassing pictures of your guests that you can!

For our favours, each guest had a personalised festival style wristband which fitted in perfectly too. I remember dancing to the band outside and looking around and seeing everyone sporting their wristbands and lanyards.

Flowers were a huge part of our day/theme and I wanted flowers everywhere! I wanted to steer clear of the more formal arrangements and instead wanted wild flowers. The wonderful Marcia from Flowerworks did the most amazing job. The wild flower bouquets and button holes were unbelievable.

Me and Keith wanted to make the ceremony as personal as possible. We’ve both been through some tough times together and the day was about celebrating life and looking forward to the future. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the place when Keith muttered the words, ‘You helped to save my life…’

In keeping with our festival theme, we planned cocktails, outdoor music and sunshine for our reception. As soon as the band began to play, the sun beamed through the clouds…a perfect moment! Our band ‘Fletch’ sang our first dance Jason Miraz ‘I won’t give up.’

We decided on a roast dinner for our meal and had chilli and curry for our evening food which went down a treat! We also booked Polly’s Parlour a vintage VW campervan for our ice-cream desert. As soon as Polly arrived, the sun came through the clouds!

My sister bought me a ‘forget me not’ charm for my bouquet with a picture of my oldest sister on who sadly passed away two years ago. It was a lovely thought and meant that she got to walk down the aisle with me on my special day.

I had spent quite some time creating bridesmaid boxes for each of my girls. I used a website called Rollip to create polaroid pics with personal messages on and made photobooks of our best memories together.

You can’t control the weather so just roll with it. This year was one of the best-summers we’ve had for a long time and the only day that it rained non-stop was on our wedding day…typical! I think I was in a mood for about 2 hours when I woke up and I was worried sick because we were getting married outside. As soon as I saw Keith though, I didn’t even notice the weather and everybody still had the best time.

When I asked Keith for his advice, he said to preferably marry someone who is going to contribute to the wedding planning process so that you don’t have to do it on your own. Ha! Keith was the most stressed he’s ever been in his life organising this wedding and that’s because he pretty much did it all himself.

Having a two day wedding did increase the cost, but it was so worth it. The next day we had a huge celebration – fancy dress, silent disco, BBQ, Karaoke and sunshine (it was the hottest day of the year!) If I’d had to have left the venue early the next morning when the sun was beaming (bearing in mind it rained all day on our wedding day), I think I would have shed a tear. Instead, I lay on a hay bail with my new husband wrapped in a crochet blanket.

At the top of my priorities list was always to get a good photographer. If there’s one piece of advice I would give to anyone, it would be to make sure you get a photographer who suits your style and that you do your research. Anna Hardy is totally amazing! Both Keith and myself felt so relaxed and she’s got so many amazing, timeless shots which we can cherish and look back on when we’re old, ugly and wrinkly!

A few weeks before the wedding, when the budget was all gone, me and Keith had a little disagreement over a videographer. I’d read a few blogs (on RMW of course!) where brides had said this was either the one thing that they regretted not having or the one thing that they would never had done without. So, I decided to get a credit card and book a videographer! When I came across Blooming Lovely Films, we hit it off straight away and the style of her films fitted perfectly into the theme of our wedding. When the day has gone, the food has been eaten, the flowers have died and the dress is locked away in a cupboard the two things you keep forever are your photos and a video. Make sure they’re perfect!

Photography by Anna Hardy
Venue Haslington Hall | Dress She Shea | Groom’s outfit Burton | Hair Sarah-Jayne at Hooka | Band Fletch | Florist Flowerworx Designer Florist | Silent Disco Silent Disco King | Ice-Cream Van Polly’s Parlour | Bridesmaid dresses She Shea | Videographer Blooming Lovely Films.

Roseanne and Darren’s simple but oh-so-beautiful wedding is the perfect way to begin a week of wedding inspiration.

The colour scheme of pale pink and blue is subtle and pretty. The decor is minimal, allowing the venue, Cripps Barn, to shine – the focus is all on fresh flowers and candle light. And that’s all you really need lovelies. It’s definitely my kind of wedding.

I love that Roseanne chose to wear a veil too – I’m a sucker for tradition. Her Pronovias gown fits her perfectly and she looks every inch the blushing Bride.

Today’s images from John Hope are so full of romance and emotion. There are endless stunning couple shots. I can completely see why Roseanne is so thrilled with the photos – her and Darren’s love for each other spills out from them.

Roseanne The Bride: Our search for a wedding venue was easy! Cripps Barn was the 3rd venue that we looked at and after our first visit, all other contenders were forgotten. In the heart of the Cotswolds, Cripps is surrounded by beautiful villages, country pubs and rolling hills. Our families were traveling from South Wales and West Yorkshire so it was important that we had somewhere nice to stay for the weekend of the wedding and Bibury, with its cottages and B&B’s was perfect.

Wedding dress shopping was super fun. I had a vision of a delicate lace dress in my mind from the off and I honestly thought that is what I would get until I went on a spree with my lovely bridesmaids. I tried on plenty of lace dresses, none of which really set my world on fire. Then my Mum and I went shopping a few weeks later and found ‘the one’. I loved the Pronovias dress for its simplicity and elegance. When i tried it with the lace edged veil i was sold! I never thought I’d actually wear the ‘blusher’ walking down the aisle but when I tried it I thought ‘why not’! I’d never get to do it again and it looked wicked. 

The shoes were one of the first things i bought. I’d seen them first on RMW and I fell in love with Rachel Simpson’s style which is so vintage. My mimosa shoes reminded me of charleston dancing shoes, not too high and with a small t-bar to ensure my feet don’t slip out!

I never thought I’d find my perfect wedding jewellery whilst at the gym. Jette from Nordic Gems had just started her own business and had a small stall outside the changing rooms. I knew that I wanted pearls but hadn’t seen anything until then that was a little bit different. I adored the small micro-pearl necklace with a larger pearl pendant and matching earrings. I also bought my bridesmaids rose quartz necklaces and earrings from Jette. 

We didn’t plan on having a colour scheme but in the end I suppose it was subtly blue and pale pink. When looking for inspiration before the wedding, I found that I was pinning lots of things that had a country, romantic, rustic feel so this inspired a lot of the decor. It also fitted with my desire to keep things simple and natural. I used a lot of twine, lace and ribbon bought over the internet.  

I can’t tell you how much I love flowers. I always thought that if I had a career change, I’d be a florist. I wanted a pretty, slightly wild and interesting looking bouquet which was full of fragrance and texture. I was so happy with the result which had ivy and mint flower running through it. The boys had lovely button holes, with spray roses and mint and the barn was full of flower gorgeousness on the tables, hanging from the ceiling and on the fireplace. 

I couldn’t wait to see Darren on the day of the wedding. I had so much nervous and excited energy whilst waiting for the car, my Dad and I sang the Huddesfield Town ‘Smile Awhile’ fan song to get rid of my nerves, a moment I’ll never forget. The ceremony took my breath away. My younger brother Chris sang my entrance song (The Very Thought Of You – Billie Holiday) on acoustic guitar. It felt like i was floating down the isle and all i could concentrate on was Darren at the end. I didn’t see a single other person. Darren’s sister Rhian read ‘The Lovely Other Dinosaur’ by Edward Monkton in her soft Welsh accent. It was perfect for Darren and I and added a bit of lightness to the ceremony. My brother George read a poem called ‘The One’. We had fun with the music and chose Stevie Wonder ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’ to exit to. 

I had been recommended Hussy from a friend and checked them out straight away. I loved them instantly, they were just the type of indie, pop, rock band we were looking for. They had everyone up and bouncing round the whole night, we loved it and everyone else did too. 

From an early stage I decided that I would try and make as much as I could. I really unleashed the creative side of me and completely enjoyed every second. I made invitations, order of services, menus, the table plan, place names and my masterpiece table centres. For the centrepieces, I asked Darren’s brother Matthew who is a gardener to cut some wooden disks so that I could place three decorated jam jars on them for flowers. I had everyone in the family collecting jam jars for me. The end result was so pretty and fitted in with the whole feel of the day.

I wrote an individual message on the back of each guests place card. I recalled a memory or said a special thanks. I’m so pleased that I decided to do this as it was my way of appreciating everyones love and support and saying thanks for being with us on our special day. 

Always remember – on the day, nothing else matters other that you and your hubby to be. Not the weather, nor the fact that the next door cottage is having renovations and you have noisy, hairy arsed workers outside your front door. You will look back at the small hiccups with fondness and a smile. They make good stories! 

Take trainers if you are being photographed in muddy fields, no one will ever know! (your dress can always be dry cleaned but grubby feet will make you feel grubby all day).

Special moments for me were watching the sun going down and the night sky fill with stars. Walking out to the fields with new hubs looking back at the barn, all lit up, music blaring out, people laughing and waking up as husband and wife.

John Hope was the genius behind our wedding! The one who caught all the loving glances. The one who captured the fun and the emotion. The one who made us into the coolest people on the planet and reflected the most beautiful parts of our surroundings in his pictures.

Photography by John Hope
Dress & Veil Pronovias | Shoes Rachel Simpson | Hair Keri Chimes | Make Up Make Up By Charlotte | Bridesmaids Mori Lee | Venue Cripps Barn | Groom Reiss | Groomsmen M&S | Florist Sally Gill Flowers | Band Hussy

Look at that sky! You know when you go on holiday for a while and then you come home and are reminded just how beautiful the UK is. Well these images by Photography34 have had that effect on me… If ever there was a perfect day for an outdoor celebration then this is it. Abby and Andy must have been over the moon.

With a Stephanie Allin dress, stunning natural wood marquee and exquisite DIY florals there is something here for everyone. Did I mention the brass band?…

Abby The Bride: From the moment that Andy and I got engaged, we knew that we wanted it to be more than a day; we wanted a wedding extravaganza! Our search for the perfect venue took us to North Wales where we found Red Welly. As we live in Manchester, and my family are from Sheffield, it wasn’t remotely near where anyone lived, but as soon as we met the amazingly helpful owner, Julie, and saw the contemporary eco cottages and expanse of turquoise sea, it was a done deal.

I managed to convince my hairdresser, who doesn’t do wedding hair, to drive out to Wales at the crack of dawn to do my loose ‘beachy’ hair, which we topped off with my bridesmaid Aimee’s veil as my ‘something borrowed’. It took an almighty amount of curlers to get that amount of oomph but it was just what I wanted.

I teach Fashion and Textiles for a living and always thought I would get a really modern, directional dress. My mum booked me an appointment in The White Room in Sheffield and the owner, Chloe, was so helpful. When we realised that the modern dress I thought I wanted was actually not working she pointed me in the direction of Stephanie Allin’s ‘Sunset’. Even as I tried it on, I didn’t think it was what I was after, but when my mum and best friend burst into tears as I stepped out of the changing room, the blush coloured lace dress I thought I’d never pick became ‘the one’. I bought some rose gold sandals by Diane Von Furstenberg and the most beautiful mother of pearl set which belonged to Andy’s grandma became my ‘something old’.

Andy has very good taste and was also a little bit obsessed with detail. He chose a custom made, true blue 3 piece suit, with burgundy trims by A Suit That Fits and he looked amazing. We never really wanted anyone to match and I even had plans to put the bridesmaids in different dresses with the same fabric, but my girls really wanted to wear the same! In the end we bought the bridesmaid dresses online from For Her and For Him, in a teal colour that in a happy accident (due to the good weather) ended up matching the sea! My dress choice led the loosely romantic theme. I sourced silver candelabras from car boots and charity shops all over the North West, and my dad (who is a tree surgeon) sliced some beech wood as part of the table centrepieces. The bar outside was actually an outhouse that we transformed with homemade signage, tissue pompoms and a selection of glass paraphernalia sourced from the local garden centre. As I have access to a laser cutter at work, I laser cut loads of acrylic mirrors to hang all around the marquee and tied them with blush ribbon, baker’s twine and flowers.

I think nothing looks lovelier than a mountain of flowers at a wedding, and we were lucky that I could buy flowers from the wholesale market through my dad’s account. What I am not however, is a florist, so I went a little over the top when faced with rows and rows of blooms and leaves. We prepped everything on the Friday before the wedding and my SWAT team of bridesmaids came into their own as we set about decorating the church, making button holes and the bouquets ourselves. After the service a brass quartet, The Gold Diggers, met us outside of the church and played the whole congregation down the road to the reception, dancing as we went. We took over the main road (have you ever seen a bridesmaid as a road barrier?) and were cheered along by cars beeping their horns and waving as they passed.

We selected Tents for Elements to supply our marquees. We wanted traditional marquees, with rope and canvas and Harry and his team provided the most unique marquees we had seen. They were really light and summery with centre poles made from actual tree trunks! As the whole wedding party danced down the lane to the reception, the marquees with their little flags billowing in the wind were a pretty impressive and welcoming sight. One of the main priorities for the wedding was food; we’re such massive foodies and we had a really clear idea of what we wanted. Drinks had to flow and food was to be delicious and plentiful. My dad pulled another blinder by shipping over 4 kegs of Sheffield made ale so that people could pull their own pints in the bar, and made some slow gin, which we bottled and labelled as favours. After some searching (and some lovely tasting sessions) Outside Food came up trumps with a four course Italian wedding breakfast. Before we got married, a lot of people said that you don’t even get a chance to eat the food at your own wedding, but the front of house, Rosalyn literally chased Andy and I with a tray of canapés and a bottle of Prosecco to make sure we were involved!

When it came to invites, I approached a friend of mine, Amy, who had recently set up Sunday Society Press and commissioned her to make personal invites with illustrations of ‘our story’. We turned these illustrations into the table ‘names’ and carried the same graphics through to the seating plan. We set up a cake table in one of the cottages with the patio doors opening out onto the sunset. We made personalised straws, labels, flags and little signs to make sure everything had the same special feel to it.

My advice to other brides would be to accept that not everything will go right; just EMBRACE IT! As we stood outside the marquee and were announced as ‘Mr and Mrs’, everyone cheered but the music didn’t cue in time. After a bit of a kafuffle, my chief bridesmaid just got the whole marquee to stand up and sing us in with our chosen song, Morecombe and Wise’s ‘Bring me Sunshine’! We danced in with everyone singing to us; you can’t plan those moments but they are the ones everyone remembers!

Andy didn’t like the idea of a videographer, but I really wanted to see what was going on whilst I was getting ready and in the places where I wasn’t. We chose Shoot-it-Yourself as a compromise, which turned out to be a genius idea as our photographer got full run of the creative overview and the videos got shot by friends. They were really personal and the later the day got, the fuzzier and more hilarious the scenes and interviews. One of our first decisions was to choose Tony at Photography 34 as our photographer and he was just brilliant. He not only managed to coerce my, then doubtful, fiancé into having a pre-wedding shoot (which we both loved!) but his documentary style captured how much fun we had so effortlessly. You were never conscious that he was there and we have so many beautiful photographs to last us a lifetime… or until I persuade Andy to renew our vows! How long is acceptable to wait to do that? Is the first year anniversary too soon?

Photography by Photography34

Venue Red Welly | Camera Hire Shoot It Yourself | Dress Stephanie Allin | Dress Boutique White Room | Andy’s suit A Suit that Fits | Brass Band The Gold Diggers | Bridesmaid Dresses For Her And For Him | Marquees Tents 4 Elements | Caterers Outside Food | Invites Sunday Society Press

Verity & Gavin’s wedding is refreshingly different and full of cute and quirky details. The couple married during the Winter but still wanted to bring the feeling of the great outdoors to their day.

Lots of green shrubbery, white fluffy gypsophila, feathers, and a stag graphic used through the stationery, cake topper and centre pieces definitely had the desired effect.

Chipping Village Hall was transformed into a forest themed wonderland! And with guests being greeted with mulled cider and hot chocolate, they must have felt like they’d arrived at an Alpine retreat.

Verity’s two very adorable little girls were her flower girls. One of whom now has a fascination with photography thanks Taylor Roades.

And once you’ve seen the images, I think you’ll know why…

Verity The Bride: Whilst many brides can tell you the story of the moment they found ‘the dress’, this just didn’t happen to me. I loved so many dresses, but there was always something I wasn’t quite happy with. I decided I needed a ‘Frankenstein dress’ (though I didn’t want a green one!), incorporating all of the different features that I’d liked the most. So I decided it would have to be custom made, and that’s when I approached Chic Dress. I sent them pictures of a number of different dresses and highlighted the areas that I most liked. Then I took a leap of faith and left it in their (fortunately very capable) hands!

Accessories were more simple. I bought Mother and Daughter freshwater pearl bracelets for me and my girls. My earrings were also freshwater pearls, borrowed from my Mum and my veil was borrowed as well, from my friend and bridesmaid, Michelle. I had a beautiful custom made garter and the most amazing custom made shoes which included my ‘something blue’ lining.

For the actual marriage ceremony, it had to be a church. Most of my family are Catholics and although Gavin was less active, we both definitely wanted a religious ceremony. We approached our parish priest and with a little persuasion, he agreed to marry us at a beautiful little church in Ribchester, which was closer to the reception venue than the church I normally attend.

For the reception, we both definitely wanted somewhere we could make our own. We visited a number of village halls, but actually had our heart set on the first before we’d seen any of the others! It gave us complete free rein on décor and layout, had its own bar and stage, staff if we needed them (which we did) and so much space, we didn’t know what to do with it all!

We asked all of the wedding party to let us know if they wanted to take part in the readings in church and luckily, several of them did. I was so pleased when our eldest daughter Alice said she would like to read. My Mum and Alice decided to share one of the readings which, due to the difference in height between them, concluded in Alice being far too short for the position of the microphone, and having to tiptoe beautifully, captured perfectly by our wonderful photographer, Taylor.

One of the main entertainment aspects that I really wanted to get right, was for the children. I was very conscious of how boring weddings can be, even for adults at times, with lots of standing around and waiting for things to happen. A lot of our friends have children and we really didn’t want to exclude them, so we decided to kit out one of the side rooms with as many toys, craft supplies and dressing up clothes as we could. Along with a projector, an adult to supervise and an array of films, this room went down a storm with the kids!

We knew for the adults, all we really needed was lots of good music! My cousin’s boyfriend is one of the most talented guitar players you will ever meet. As soon as we saw him play in person, we knew we wanted him to play at our wedding, and fortunately, he and his equally talented band partner agreed! So they played for us after the meal and while the evening guests arrived, and they were wonderful.

We also had some unplanned entertainment (and no I don’t mean fisticuffs in the car park!) in the form of Alice and all of her friends dancing on stage for us! Totally ad hoc and unrehearsed, it was magical. I was so proud of her.

Shortly after Gavin and I got engaged, one of my best friends took a trip to Canada & came back with our wedding photographer! Well that’s not quite accurate, but basically it is what happened. Taylor was amazing. She flew all the way from Toronto to impeccably photograph our wedding (well, she did get to go to Blackpool as well!) and I literally didn’t want her to leave. She was just fantastic the whole day, in fact, she even got involved with helping to finish off some of the craft projects in the week leading up to the wedding. She also inadvertently encouraged Alice to love photography too (they have been exchanging photographs since the wedding), so I might be sending her the bill for that new hobby!

Our videographer was a friend of a friend, and he isn’t really a videographer, he’s a teacher at a local secondary school who agreed to come and film our wedding! He was fantastic and he gave us all of the raw footage, so we could edit it exactly how we want. He even managed to get a fantastic shot from directly behind Gavin who popped a Champagne cork which flew straight across to the other side of the room and landed on another table! You couldn’t have timed it more perfectly!

Photography by Taylor Roades
Dress Chic Dress | Garter Ayten Gasson | Rings Glen James | Shoes Upper Street | Florist Bloomin’ Lovely | Venue Chipping Village Hall | Decor & Stationery Belle Amour | Caterers D Byrne Catering & Cunliffe Hog Roasts | Bridesmaids New Look | Groom & Groomsmen Next | Band Bad Cardigan

If there’s one thing I admire then it’s a determined bride and I think it’s safe to say that the lovely Jolene is determined alright. So enamoured was she with her exquisite Stephanie Allin dress that she spent hours on the phone trying to track down a sample frock so that she could stay within her wedding budget.

That’s dedication right there folks.

Respect.

Ben and Jolene’s big day is beautiful. Honestly it’s like diving into a giant vat of candy-coloured ice-cream. From the white lace bunting lovingly crafted by Ben’s mum to the peachy pink bridesmaid dresses and handpicked aisle markers, it’s clear that everything was a labour of love for this sweet couple.

And the flowers? All of them were grown and arranged by Ben’s mum. What a superstar!

Lastly if you’ve fallen in love with Jolene’s beautiful gown then today’s your lucky day because Jolene has decided to share the love and has actually listed it for sale on our Undress platform. You can check it out here.

Jolene The Bride:Ben and I met on the first day of starting our graduate degrees at Oxford University. We struck up a conversation in the pub about traveling and our different cultures (I’m from Singapore, he’s from Leighton Buzzard). He made me laugh and there was an instant connection.

I am not embarrassed to say that I was reading Rock My Wedding religiously even before Ben proposed. So once we got engaged, I was thrilled to finally be able to legitimately use it as a resource and inspiration for wedding planning. I can honestly say that the majority of our suppliers were found on these pretty pages!

The first thing we decided was that we were going to have two weddings! Many of my relatives, were not able to come to the UK from Singapore because of the distance. We knew then that we had to have a church ceremony and a ten-course Chinese banquet in Singapore for my more traditional relatives.

Right off the bat, we knew we wanted to have a fun, relaxed and pretty English garden wedding. My closest friends and family would be flying in for our wedding from Singapore, Japan, Australia and the USA for the wedding, and many of them would be visiting the UK for the first time. We decided to have the wedding in England in July and the celebration in Singapore a month after that.

Lains Barn was the first venue we visited. The minute we saw it, we knew it was perfect. It was so lovely and cosy, and we loved that there was the option of having the ceremony outdoors. We knew we could really put our own stamp on it.

Finding the right photographer was probably the most important detail to me to get right. Right after we got engaged (literally), I trawled Rock My Wedding for photographers and looked at website after website. None of the photographers I’d met up with seemed quite right. This went on until fate conspired to link me up with the wonderful Hayley Savage.

I could not possibly recommend Hayley enough – her photographs are gorgeous, glowing, creative and full of emotion. She was a joy to have around and she made us feel so relaxed in front of the camera. Getting Hayley to photograph our wedding was definitely one of the best decisions we’d made.

My dress was the Hayworth from Stephanie Allin’s Jazz Age collection. I tried it on in London, not knowing it was waaay out of my budget, and fell head over heels in love with the drip sequins, glamorous fishtail shape, and soft romantic tulle. After I saw the price tag though, I knew I had to put it out of my mind. I then set about finding another dress over the next few months but I always knew, however, that none of the other dresses even slightly compared. Before I committed fully to buying another dress, I decided to have a last-ditch attempt at finding the Hayworth. I sat down one morning with a list of all the bridal stores all over the country that stocked Stephanie Allin dresses. I finally tracked down a store that was willing to sell me the sample at a discount. My persistence paid off and I had my dream dress!

To complete my outfit, I wore a Helen Martin veil and sparkly pale pink Dune heels. I thought the dress spoke for itself so I kept other accessories really simple with pearl and diamond earrings and a tennis bracelet borrowed from my mother. I also kept my hair and make-up really simple and natural on the day.

Keeping with the relaxed and pretty theme, I asked my six bridesmaids to wear mismatched dresses in shades of nude and pale pink. My bridesmaids were different shapes, sizes, and lived in three different countries. I thought it would be easier to go with mismatched dresses and I also wanted them to feel comfortable and beautiful in dresses they would actually wear again. On the day, I thought my bridesmaids looked so gorgeous.

The speeches were my favourite part of the day. My bridesmaids stepped in and gave a wonderful, heartfelt speech – it was so sweet and really moved me. Ben then proceeded to give a lovely speech that explained our table names (numbers that were important to us) and he had a number of the guests in tears.

The wedding was a real labour of love. Our family and friends were so wonderful and willing to help. In particular, we could not have done it without Ben’s mother. She made yards and yards of beautiful white lace bunting, which we used to decorate the barn. She also made giant paper poms in shades of white and pale pink for the barn.

Ben’s mother also made lots of coloured bunting which we hung outdoors. This made it feel like a summer fete. We trawled vintage shops for old books, tea crockery and fabric for the tables outdoors.

One thing we wanted to highlight was how grateful we were that people had traveled great distances to be at our wedding. We stenciled the different places from which people had traveled on planks of wood and Ben’s father helped us create a stand for the signpost.

For our flowers, Ben’s mother offered to provide them from her garden. I don’t know much about flowers but I asked for romantic blooms in pale colours for a relaxed, freshly-picked look. Ben’s mother planted lavender, roses, sweetpeas and other lovely flowers months in advance. We also spent months collecting jam jars for vases and decorated them with hessian and lace and ribbon. On the morning of the wedding, we had help from Ben’s family and friends to fill the jars with the lovely flowers from the garden. We also lined the pew ends with bunches of gypsophila and made the bridesmaids’ bouquets using gypsophila, hessian and lace ribbon.

Instead of a guestbook, we made up little madlib cards for our guests to fill in. We asked people to give us to advice for a happy marriage and got some hilarious responses – one guest suggested that Chanel earrings are the key to a happy marriage!

Food was really important to us as it is one of our shared passions! We served a two course sit down meal of seabass and confit duck. Keeping with the English garden party theme, instead of dessert, we hired an adorable ice-cream trike which served the most delicious Cornish ice cream. We also had a dessert table that was so beautifully decorated.

In the evening, Ben’s parents surprised us with our wedding cake, which was made of tiers of cheese. We both absolutely love cheese and this was such a hit with our guests. We also served mini fish and chips in cones in the evening.

A month before the wedding, I was on Rock My Wedding and came across a competition run by Matthew Oliver for free on-the-day wedding coordination services. I wrote him an email and we actually won! Matthew was lovely from the moment we met over drinks in a pub. He was so excited about our wedding and he totally understood what we were trying to achieve. On the morning of the wedding, he was up early helping to set up the barn and put together a fabulously stylish dessert table. I felt totally safe and carefree leaving the coordination of the wedding in his capable hands.

My practical advice would be that the day goes by in such a blur, so really take a moment with your new husband/wife to soak it all in. Also, make sure you get a photographer and videographer to capture all the moments you missed. Our photographer and videographer were the best investments we’d made!

Photography by Hayley Savage
Venue Lains Barn | Dress Stephanie Allin | Shoes Dune | Planner Matthew Oliver | Veil Helen Martin | Videographer Wedding Memories.

Village Hall weddings seem to be all the rage at the moment, and when you can hire a venue like Rotherwick Hall, I can completely see why. Not only is it a gorgeous building, but with free reign over supplier choice, decor and exclusive hire too? It sounds like a winning combination to me.

Shelley and Steve’s village hall wedding looks like it was full of fun – the feeling of joy & warmth just radiates from the images.

Shelley was lucky enough to find the much coveted Marianne by Naomi Neoh in a sample sale, she also created all of the floral arrangements herself, including the bouquets (!) and she and Steve made the stationery – using this wonderful stamp found on Rock My Wedding.

All in all, this meant that Shelley and Steve could create a very beautiful wedding on a modest budget. And it also meant that Shelley could have a dress from Zara for the evening and some gold Rachel Simpson shoes too…well, it was her wedding day after all!

Shelley The Bride: At first, my dress was probably the one thing I was least worried about – from the start I knew I wanted to set aside a very small budget for this, as it didn’t seem like a hugely important thing about the wedding to me. I had originally found the very pretty and budget friendly Chelsea Dress by Ghost. I went to Oxford Street to try it on and was really happy with the fit.

Halfway through the wedding planning process I saw an absolutely stunning gown on a real wedding submission and I just had to have it – or at least try it on. I googled the dress and found out that it was Marianne by Naomi Neoh.

I did a bit of research online and found a sample of the dress at a gorgeous little boutique in Kent called Victoria Allinson Couture. Victoria was clearing her old samples, so I was able to get it at nearly half the original price! Later on in the evening when our band came on, I decided to change into a Zara dress – so I was able to dance the night away without worrying about getting anything down my Naomi Neoh!

Steve spent many days searching for the perfect suit and came across an Ermenegildo Zegna suit from Moss – he had it tailored to fit perfectly and then went about buying some shiny, smart Barker brogues from John Lewis and tailored shirt from Thomas Pink – he looked lush!

With all our family based in the South West, we wanted to find a suitable venue that was easy for everyone to travel to. The weekend we got engaged, we scoured hotels in the Hampshire area to find something we liked – although we saw many beautiful places, there was always something not quite right or meant we needed to compromise on something due to budget…

So in the end we decided to find a venue where we could literally do EVERYTHING ourselves – I had seen on many wedding blogs that some couples had hosted their day at village hall, so this prompted me to search the area for something similar.

We finally came across Rotherwick Village Hall via our caterer. All our research was done online and I found our wonderful caterer through Google – she had catered weddings at the hall before and said how beautiful it was and had all the facilities we needed.

We told everyone to meet at the Coach & Horses pub opposite and then walk over to the church, then just walk to the village hall after the ceremony – everything was in such close proximately, which was great as we didn’t have to organise any transport.

Steve is a huge rugby fan, so we incorporated this into the day by naming the tables rugby clubs and our cake topper was a Bride rugby tackling the Groom. We wanted the day to be very informal and for people to have fun and be relaxed, so we included lots of little touches such as kids toy boxes, freshen up stations in loos, flip-flops and pashminas.

The favours were particularly special for us as they were made by my parents. They run a tea and coffee merchants in Richmond called Rosie & Java – and they blended a special tea for our wedding favours and had them made into teabags. They also supplied us with rose petals, which I packed into red striped bags for guests to use as confetti.

We were quickly running out of money and I had been in touch with a few florists, which were unfortunately out of our price range. So, I took an early morning trip to New Covent Garden Market to see what the cost of flowers were – I met a really nice man called Ronny from Bloomfields, who was so helpful and after months of flower name research and You Tube tutorials, I decided to do all the flowers myself (including the bouquets) – I sent Ronny my order the week before the wedding and did another early morning trip with Steve two days before to collect all the flowers – we spent just over £200 on flowers.

We tried to create a ‘rustic, English countryside’ look with the flowers – beautiful avalanche roses, crespedia, daisies, gyp and eucalyptus – we kept it very simple and all the family collected jam jars and interesting glasses for us to display them in.

Steve’s Mum, Rosina, is part of the Basingstoke Choral Society, so we were very lucky that she arranged a group to sing at our wedding ceremony. Steve’s brother Mike had also travelled all the way from Australia for the wedding and it meant so much to us that he did a beautiful reading. Another real highlight was when the organist played the Beatles ‘All You Need is Love’ during our certificate signing.

We had recently visited Mexico and loved a Mariachi band we saw there, so we thought it would be fun to include this in the day. When everyone walked from the church to the village hall, a 3-piece mariachi band were there to greet our guests – playing a mixture of traditional music and well known tunes.

Our main band – The Cover Up Band – was I-N-C-R-E-D-I-B-L-E and we would highly recommend them to everyone. They really got the party started and even learnt a slowed down version of Bob Marley’s ‘Is This Love’ for our first dance.

I had my heart set on a cake table, so I enlisted the help of my sister Tuesday to fulfil that dream. Tuesday is an amazing cake baker and she kindly made a Victoria sponge for us with alternate layers of strawberry jam and salted caramel. She also baked lavender & earl grey and lemon curd cupcakes. I made a selection of cakes for the table – carrot cake, coffee and walnut, rocky road, brownies, flap jacks… We were both icing them on the morning of the wedding!

Our caterer Vicki May was so great and very laid back, which we loved – her canapés tasted divine and we opted for locally sourced bangers and mash for the main course, which went down a treat – my brother still goes on about how tasty the sausages were. The veggie option was spiced pumpkin strudel – this was also delish.

My friend got married a couple of years ago and she had THE best photographer ever – so we just had to steal her for our big day. Gemma at Betti Confetti did such a great job and captured every tiny detail of the day. She had such a relaxed manner and it was just so great to work with her.

There were times when we thought we had bitten off more than we could chew, but it really paid off in the end…from packing up hundreds of bags of confetti, constructing all our order of services to icing the cakes, making all the flower arrangements and setting up the venue the day before – the whole day was amazing – the best day of our lives and we would not have changed a single thing!

It was so personal to both of us and because we were so involved in every tiny detail, this really reflected in the day. We were also able to have everything we wanted within our budget, as we did a lot of it ourselves. I absolutely LOVE looking through all the pictures – Gemma captured everything beautifully and we cannot thank her enough.

Photography by Betti Confetti
Dress Marianne by Naomi Neoh | Boutique Victoria Allinson Couture | Jewellery A Box For My Treasure | Shoes Rachel Simpson | Headpiece Accessorize UK | Flowers New Covent Garden Flower Market| Venue Rotherwick Village Hall | Catering Vicki May & Streetzza | Bridesmaids Joy The Store | Groom & Groomsmen Moss & John Lewis | Favours & Confetti Rosie And Java | Invitations Wedding Tea Towels | Guest Book World Of Moose | Entertainment Mariachi El Mexicano & The Cover Up Band

We love a bride with a floral crown at RMW… So when Lauren & Tom’s beautiful english country wedding with rustic charm and snazzy home grown touches landed in our W-day inbox it was smiles all around at RMW HQ.

With a Raimond Bundo dress, local suppliers, and exquisite florals this is a traditional country wedding to die for. And the menu put together by the legendary ‘Thomas The Caterer’ will have your tummies rumbling as you read.

Lauren The Bride: We chose to have our wedding reception at home for a few reasons; we live on a really pretty small holding with a stable block (for the dance floor, bar and band!) and had space on the driveway for a big marquee overlooking the paddocks. We wanted the day to be a casual, relaxed but pretty event and thought being at home covered this really well. We tried to keep all our wedding contributors as local as possible. We live in an amazing village with an incredible beautician/ make-up artist directly across the street from us and she managed to create the perfect look for me. My hair was done by another talented village resident (part time landlady of the local pub and part time accounts manager for the local Garage!) she was so patient and understood exactly what I was looking for, I didn’t want anything too structured but wanted my hair up so that the back of my dress was visible.

My gown was a Raimond Bundo design, I really didn’t want a meringue, I wanted something delicate and soft and found the unstructured designs by this Spanish designer seemed to fit the bill really well. With regards to the boutique I was again incredibly lucky, after a few failed attempts with some quite frankly grim wedding dress shop assistants in London and beyond I found the most amazing store in Oundle, Peterborough run by a Gem of a guy called Martin Charles, he is a dress designer himself so does all the alterations in store.

The only thing I was really set on with my shoes is that I wanted to wear flats, I wanted to be comfortable and happy all day long. I found some lovely little white lace ballet pumps in Accessorise that my mum then customised by spending all her evenings sewing thousands of little pearl beads into the lace design, they were the best and most personal shoes a girl could wish for.

My bridesmaids were amazing, they were completely willing to try on anything and I am also quite fortunate in that they are all gorgeous so they managed to rock pretty much everything they tried on. I did not have a definite colour in mind but knew that I wanted pastels in keeping with the soft delicate feel of the day, the Ted Baker pastel spring/summer range was a godsend! Two of the girls wore the short version of the dress and two wore long versions as was their preference, they looked stunning. The groomsmen and groom wore suits from Bosideng with pastel blue shirts and floral ties. The suits were absolutely fabulous and I am sure the guys will use them again and again.

My mum yet again stepped in to help where decorations were concerned, we wanted a traditional country wedding type look but with lots of flowers and pastels, mum and I made most of the decorations ourselves from large wooden painted hearts hung from the rafters in the stable block to ebay purchased birdcages filled with lights. We also bought little wicker hearts wherever we could and strung them together using raffia to create heart shaped mobiles that hung in the breeze.

Once again my florist Naomi Strachan was a local lady who just seemed to immediately get what we wanted; I didn’t want blousy peonies or armfuls of roses I was hoping for a gentler subtler look and wanted to use as many wild flowers as possible. She came up with the perfect design a mix of sweet peas, love in the mist, Angelica and daisies. The other bonus of using Naomi is that she grows much of her own flowers and even forages a few! She did everything for us; buttonholes, pew ends, church window arrangements, mothers corsages, mothers thank you bouquets and of course my bouquet. She is a supremely talented lady.

We got married in a very small church a 2 minute stroll from our house so I was lucky enough to be able to walk to the church on the day (as is our village tradition). The church is beautiful and very old with a truly brilliant vicar. It only seats 100 people so it was a tight squeeze to get all our guests in which felt really cosy and lovely, every pew filled to the brim with our friends and family. We had a great band that completely made the night, the dance floor was a complete crush with pretty much every guest on the floor from about 8pm until midnight and even then we had to chase them out to get onto the coach. We had a Proclaimers song for our first dance ‘Sunshine on Leith’ which we both love and have danced around the living room to on a couple of occasions.

Our caterer was the genuinely amazing Thomas The Caterer (the man doesn’t need a second name, rather like Madonna he is beyond that). He created picnic baskets for us using local ingredients; we live in the rural food capital of England so that really helped! Pork pies, stilton, potted shrimp and incredible breads and salads to name but a few of the delights in the baskets made for a really excellent lunch, Thomas followed this up with a ‘Seedling’ pudding, a chocolate mousse with chocolate ‘soil’ and a ‘seedling’ of candied mint. Really lovely. At about 9pm he followed it all up with Roast pork shoulders with the meat flaked on to rolls with a herb salsa, particularly nice with a bit of crackling.

I decided against a wedding cake and instead had a chocolate tree, we found a gorgeous dead branch when we were out walking the dogs (it was so huge we couldn’t fit in the car so Tom had to carry it home, he had the bruise to prove it!) that I spray painted white and wound crystal ribbons around. We then threaded it with fairy lights and hung chocolates from each twig using long lengths of different colour raffia, I think it turned out fairly well and I suspect my little nephew had a few more than one or two on the day! Once again my mum made all the girls favours; lavender stuffed fabric hearts to go on the coat hanger when the smart wedding outfits get put away. The men’s favours were ordered by Tom, they were the little planes that his granddad used to buy him from the corner shop, needless to say the air was thick with them throughout lunch.

We designed our own wedding invitations using pocketfold holders and a local printer for the inserts and invitation, we then wrapped the pocket folds in custom made ribbon and then used a soft silvery turquoise sealing wax to fix the ribbon with our initials inside a heart as the seal.

The only advice I can really give the bride is to try not to get carried away with the champers on the night before with the bridesmaids, you’ll regret it, I know I did! Also try hard to act like a guest at your wedding, by the time the day arrives there is nothing more you can do, take a deep breath let your shoulders relax and have some fun. Also the biggest piece of advice I can give is remember the soul and centre of the day is saying your vows, so take your time, look right at him and make your promise with conviction!

Your choice of photographer is vital, I only realise this post event, seeing the photos and being amazed that he captured not just the spirit of the type of day we were trying to create but more than we ever thought was there. You don’t often get comments regarding the photographer from your friends after the wedding but we did; Joseph Hall was universally praised by all as being friendly, chatty and importantly for me really calm! We also had a video made of our day which was a godsend for me as I have a bit of a memory blank on whole chunks of the day (it whizzes by in a blur) and the wedding video really helped me to remember and relive the day. Our genius suppliers were as follows:

Photography by Joseph Hall
Dress Raimond Bundo | Wedding boutique Martin Charles Bridal Gallery | Caterer Thomas The Caterer | Florist Naomi Strachan | Marquee Bradgate Party Events | Videographer Imagine Your Event

Annabel and Samuel’s summer soiree wedding has festival vibes by the bucketload. Their ceremony was held at a folly (yes an actual FOLLY!!) surrounded by a corn field; honestly you don’t get more of a statement venue than that. And that’s not all; the groom’s brother conducted the service (how’s that for keeping it in the family) as beaming friends and family watched from hay bales as the pair kissed under a floral arch.

Just heavenly.

And then it was transport by tractor where bridesmaids, bride and groom chugged back to the reception where a Calypso bar, an Ibiza lounge and games area awaited them.

It’s clear that Annabel and Samuel thought of EVERYTHING to make their guests truly comfortable on their big day and having looked at the photos it shows. Every single person is smiling from ear to ear and folks that’s really all it’s about.

Take it away Annabel…

Annabel The Bride: For my dress I ended up going to a bespoke wedding dressmaker, Dana Bolton, who is based in Muswell Hill in London. I tried the shops and found lots that were lovely, but none were completely perfect, so I designed one combining all their best features. Dana was on the same page as me throughout and she did such a beautiful job.

I had bridesmaids from one year old to thirty one, so ended up with three different styles of dress. We linked them by putting the younger girls in white dresses with sashes that matched the older bridesmaids and they all looked to die for (especially the one year old!).

It was an easy choice to have the wedding reception in the garden of my family home where I grew up, as it’s so beautiful there. However, we had to think about where to have the ceremony, as we didn’t fancy a church wedding. In the end we took a massive gamble on the weather and had it outside at a beautiful little folie in some fields just down the road from the reception. It completely paid off as we were so incredibly lucky with the weather. We kept it rustic with hay bales for seats, big white festival flags in the fields, flowers and an ivy arch behind us.

Because the ceremony location wasn’t licensed for weddings we did the legal part in a registry office a couple of days before, which meant we could have free reign over the ceremony. We wrote our own vows, my brother in law took the ceremony, friends and family did a reading, poem and prayer, and at the end we all sang ‘Cant take my eyes off you’! It worked so well – personal, emotional and lots of fun.

For our wedding transport we managed to persuade a very kind local farmer to lend us an old vintage tractor that pulled a trailer, which we decorated and put an old sofa and a load of beanbags in. On the way back to the reception we had about fifteen of us all piled in! It was great to have something that all the young bridesmaids and ushers could enjoy together with us.

Back at the reception we had set up lots of different areas around the garden; we had a calypso bar with a rum punch bowl, an orchard with lots of games like giant jenga, a chill out area and a photobooth with costumes.

Together with friends and family we did lots of DIY decorations, which obviously saved money, but meant we had really unique and personal things. We made bunting, ribbon decorations, signs, hung hearts and ribbons from all the trees and did our own flowers. Instead of a wedding cake some of the family made over a hundred cupcakes and on the day everyone decorated one. The effect when they were all done was brilliant!

For entertainment, a friend played the piano in the afternoon (we’re lucky enough to have very talented friends!) and after dinner we had a 50’s rockabilly band ‘The Hound Dogs’. These were absolutely fantastic, playing so many classics that appealed to all the generations.

After the speeches we gave everyone a pair of these amazing glasses that turn every light into a heart. With them on we watched fireworks with Buble’s ‘Feeling Good’ blasting out! Definitely a highlight!

We are so lucky to have so many fabulous people in our lives that helped make the day amazing. We definitely couldn’t have done it without them! Thanks also to the caterers and to the brilliant photographer Michael from ‘My Beautiful Bride’ whose photos speak for themselves.

Photography by My Beautiful Bride
Marquee County Marquees | Dress Dana Bolton | Groom’s outfit Duchamp | Band The Hound Dogs From Function Central | Photo Booth Uber Booths | Bridesmaid dresses Dessy and Alfred Sung | Flower girls Monsoon.

One of the most lovely things about looking at wedding photography on a daily basis is that it makes you incredibly happy.

Seriously, there are moments EVERYDAY where an image makes me grin from ear-to-ear, or brings tears of joy to my eyes. As soppy as that sounds, it really is true.

And that’s before I’ve even read the lovely write up from one of our Brides…

Jill and Pete’s wedding is one of THE most joyous weddings I’ve come across. It is brimming with positivity and it brings me great pleasure to share it with you lovely lot this Friday afternoon.

And if Jill’s seriously pretty hair and the wonderful multi coloured decor aren’t enough to make your heart sing…wait until you see the images of the moment her Dad serenaded the guests with an acoustic guitar. Have a lovely weekend!

Jill The Bride: We struggled to find our venue at first – we live in London, but got married at St Mary’s in Honley, where I grew up and my parents live. We wanted a barn for our reception – somewhere our lovely London friends could enjoy the Yorkshire countryside – but soon discovered most Yorkshire barns have cows in! Luckily we found Woodhead Barn – a mountain rescue centre high on the Yorkshire Moors, with a small, refurbished barn. We fell in love with it, but needed more space. It was surrounded by fields so, after umming and ahhing about budget, we hired a tipi from Papakata and we’re sooo glad we did.

The tipi created an amazing ambience with its open fire and picnic bench tables – it definitely had the wow factor and was completely suited to us. The combination of barn, tipi and field created our dream venue and the perfect setting for our relaxed, fun day.

I wanted a simple dress (nothing stiff, puffy or strapless) and found this tricky initially. Then I discovered Charlie Brear and knew I’d found the place for me. I’d always imagined wearing lace, but found when rating dresses in a magazine with Pete (recommended to find what he likes without giving the game away!) that he’s not into it.

The dress I chose didn’t look anything special on the hanger, it was so fluid and simple and felt risky as it was quite unforgiving. I wasn’t 100% sure I loved it until the day, when I knew it was perfect for me and the day we’d planned.

My shoes were my first wedding purchase! Vivienne Westwood Lady Dragons – they were so fun and it turned out the plastic was perfect for muddy fields as they wiped clean! I wore the Scarlett necklace from RMB – I was a RMW addict leading up to the wedding and when I saw the necklace I knew it would be perfect with the low back of my dress. I’m a musician and often wear long gowns for concerts so have worn it a few times since already! My Mum bought my earrings from my favourite jewellers Dower & Hall, they complemented the mint of the necklace and glowed iridescently. Pete gave me a little ballet wrap cardigan from Jigsaw as a wedding present, which kept me snug when the night drew in.

Our theme (if you can call it that) was things we love – music, birds and the sea all featured heavily. Pete spent hours making 800 origami birds, which we strung on fishing wire in the barn. We scattered tealights inside and out, and had tiny medicine bottles filled with flowers everywhere. My Mum sewed metres of bunting and we hung paper lanterns with LEDs in the tipi and barn.

We collected different coloured wineglasses for every setting so the tipi was full of colour and used biodegradable palm leaf plates by The Whole Leaf Company instead of traditional crockery. We brought décor from home – old crates and books, metal cabinets, vintage chests – and glued buttons onto 3D letters spelling LOVE, which we displayed with the cake. We also displayed old family wedding photos – we come from an inspiring line of long, happy marriages!

I love natural flowers so did them myself, with the help of my Mum and her fantastic garden. We were lucky that the awful spring weather meant my favourites – bluebells – were out for our late May wedding. We gathered cow parsley from the roadside, random flowers from the garden, and ordered astilbe, delphiniums and sweet peas from Triangle Nursery.

We also went to Covent Garden Flower Market to buy peonies at 3am the night before we drove to Yorkshire – definitely worth the effort, as they were beautiful on the day!

My bouquet was made by our amazing photographer Tarah Coonan, with daisies from my Mum’s wedding dress wrapped around the stems. Tarah was absolutely brilliant, we knew as soon as we met her she’d be perfect. She got so many beautiful, natural snaps throughout the day, and sneaked us off for a couple of portrait sessions too. Some of my favourite photos are the ones she took during the ceremony – we didn’t notice she was there but she perfectly captured the love and intimacy between us. She was definitely one of our best choices (after each other!).

The ceremony was our favourite part of the day – standing in front of the people we love most and saying our vows was incredible. My old vicar came up from Bude to do the address, and our talented friends provided the music. We had lots of Bach and our friend’s a cappella group The Lovenotes sang ‘Happy Together’ as we signed the register.

Faith taught everyone The Beatles’ ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’ before the ceremony, and our guests sang us out – it was amazing walking up the aisle as husband and wife, surrounded by our friends belting out the song at the tops of their voices!

The Lovenotes sang for us throughout the day and my Dad sang Bob Dylan’s ‘Tambourine Man’ between the main course and dessert – he was absolutely brilliant and I cried A LOT, standing in the arms of my new husband watching my other favourite man in the world.

In the evening we had a ceilidh with Mason’s Apron, who were fab and joined us later in the tipi, playing an acoustic set whilst we stood around the fire toasting marshmallows – just the kind of evening that we love.

We made our own invitations and order of services, cutting out hundreds of tiny paper flags to make the bunting. My Grandad was an artist, and it meant a lot that we could use his painting of St Mary’s church in our stationery.

We loved our day because it was true to us. We saw it as an opportunity for our guests to really get to know us as a couple, so we only included things we love and/or wanted in our home anyway! Our guestbook was a surfboard which is now on our wall (I love surfing), our tables were named after birds with musical names (tying together my love for music and Pete’s love of birds) and we didn’t have a first dance because, well, we didn’t want one..

We were surrounded by the most fantastic team – our suppliers, who all went above and beyond, and our wonderful family and friends. This was very useful when our tipi blew apart the day before the wedding in 60mph winds, sleet and hail. Amazingly we had blue skies and sunshine on the day, so Papakata came first thing in the morning to secure the tent, then we went in shifts to decorate it and lay tables etc.

Our wedding was the best start to married life we could ask for and the beginning of a lifetime of adventures together. Keeping calm amidst the chaos was easy as I knew that just a few hours later I would be married to the most incredible person I’ve ever met – and that is without a doubt the most amazing feeling in the world.

Photography by Tarah Coonan
Dress Charlie Brear | Jewellery Dower & Hall | Shoes Vivienne Westwood | Bridesmaids Marks and Spencer | Venue Woodhead Barn| Tipi Hire PapaKata | Entertainment The Lovenotes | Groom Reiss | Catering Saunts

You may remember this gorgeous pair from their rather special engagement shoot. If you missed it, please go and have a read – their story is such a lovely one & Emma’s words about her love for Mark are so heartfelt and moving.

‘We were so entwined that I knew I’d found my forever.’ I’m sure that’s a feeling which will resonate with all of you.

So it really is lovely to be able to share their wedding too…and believe me when I say Emma & Mark’s wedding is beautiful.

The flowers are out of this world. The Bridesmaids are sporting the most magnificent floral crowns I’ve ever seen and Emma’s bouquet is divine – oversized and full of beautiful roses and foliage. An excellent job done by Angel Like Flowers.

There is also some fabulous fashion to lust over – I’m loving Emma’s sequinned Malene Birger jacket for the evening and her Gillian Million headpiece is so pretty.

And as if the images from Horseshoe Photography weren’t enough, the wedding highlights film from MY FILM is a wonderful sneak peak into Emma & Mark’s big day.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then we’ll begin…