Lucy and Jody are one seriously hot couple. I’m talking hot with a capital ‘H’ folks and I just know you’ll agree once you clap eyes on the images below.
WAIT. It gets better. Yep the wedding decor centred around an epic Maid Marian theme (as if you hadn’t already guessed from the title) inspired by Lucy’s EPIC dress. And it is epic – all beading and embellishment from the front to the back topped off with silk chiffon. I tell you when Team RMW cast their peepers on this beauty for the first time only dogs could hear us we squealed that much.
There’s a double decker bus, there’s a vintage headpiece, there’s also a delicious picnic and the whole day is clearly infused with a healthy dollop of sunshine and love.
Oh and when you see their portrait shots your hearts will melt.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you…
Glebe Farm
Lucy The Bride: Spending so much time in hotels in Dubai and Abu Dhabi where Jody and I live, we wanted our wedding to feel more like us – a fun relaxed party with a festival touch and lots of food and drink to keep it going all night!
It was always going to be in Gunthorpe – the Nottinghamshire village I grew up in – and we luckily remembered Glebe Farm. They opened up the huge space by the lake, and even had holiday cottages for ushers and bridesmaids – which gave us an empty canvas to play with only moments from my house and the River Trent.
The guys at Tipi & Kata brought in the fantastic tipis, along with all the extra’s needed from toilets and generators to benches and reindeer skins. So all we had to do was start filling it with flowers, people and plenty of fun! And pray for the weather to follow us from the Middle East…
Light And Simple
I don’t wear much make-up and my haircare regime tends to be wash it and hope for the best – so luckily Rochelle, my make-up artist, did a great job of keeping it light and simple.
A friend’s mum tidied up my hair to help it survive the weather and enjoyed a glass of champagne with the bridesmaids. My main memory of getting ready was feeling sorry for my dad – thoroughly outnumbered with girls swarming in every room!
The tan came courtesy of some tough hours by the pool in Abu Dhabi.
Cleopatra
I had three days to find The Dress on a flying visit to London in February. I’d spotted this Amanda Wakeley online, but hadn’t really thought it could work – how could I possibly wear it in church! But typically – one try and I was hooked on the beaded backless ‘Cleopatra’ design.
The somewhat accidental Maid Marian theme seemed to grow around the dress, but it felt very ‘me’ and the most important thing was feeling so relaxed in something so special. And I knew Jody would love it.
Jody had a slimfit blue suit made for him in Dubai from Ascots and Chapels. Searching for the exact shade took hours poring over samples – bespoke is much harder than it looks!
The dress didn’t need much jewelry but after dropping into A Most Curious Wedding Fair in Brick Lane, I bought a vintage headdress from Rosie Weisencrantz on impulse (after a couple of beers!). My ornate diamond and ruby engagement ring was handed down from Jody’s grandma, so meant we could have very simple white gold wedding rings made for us in Dubai at the gold souk.
You Are My Sunshine
The colours were more ‘country garden’ than anything too precise, but inspired by ‘You Are My Sunshine’ (a song my sisters used to sing to me!), all the bridesmaids wore mismatching skirts in anything from deep red through coral and orange to yellow, and then the metallic necklaces and white tops echoed my dress. It all seemed to work in the end despite a few dramas. (Bride tip – 99% of white vests reveal everything underneath them!)
The boys kept it smart in grey suits with deep red ties and scraps of silk for pocket squares. And polished it off with tie bars engraved with the date, so they never forget our wedding anniversary! One of the ushers couldn’t make it at the last minute so we also had a mask of him, which accessorized the majority of the pictures…
Wedding Raiders
With a blank canvas and a tight budget, gardens, fields and attics were raided to bring the party to life. My Creative Director (sister!) went heavy on ribbon, flowers, piles of old books for table numbers, and generous armfuls of bunting and homemade napkins made by mums. Colours stayed ‘sunshiney’ and the scrabble letters for table names kept people amused – even if some words can’t be shown in the photos! Even the local village hall was raided, with creaky old tables and chairs being delivered throughout the week.
We were in the UAE for most of the wedding planning, but luckily I have a very creative younger sister who took a few Pinterest ideas and turned them into really special invites – making them by hand took her a few weeks longer that she’d hoped!
She also designed a very simple one page order of service and pinned it to a brown bag of confetti with a tiny peg – keeping the fun handmade feel of the day – through to the handmade window frame table plan.
Flowery Presents
As my wedding present, one of my mum’s best friends took on the flowers. She enlisted an army of volunteers, raided tens of gardens (with permission!), and spent months praying for seeds to grow, and the sun to shine.
Every bouquet had some thing special to match the bridesmaid or the usher, such as some deep red flowers that smelt of chocolate, or some lavender for me.
It’s very hard to imagine a florist who could ever have cared as much to put together such lovely bouquets, pew ends, and table decorations. Having your family involved makes such a difference!
As the guest list grew, we filled the church! We kept the ceremony lighthearted with short hymns, (Jerusalem for the boys) and short readings from our sisters with Dr Seuss and George Eliot. The London cab and London bus kept a touch of Jody’s London roots in case it all felt a bit too rural for the urbanite Londoners.
The Most Beautiful Girl In The Room
We drank, we feasted, a friend of a friend sang some of my favourite Bluetones and Ocean Colour Scene classics, then we drank again through the blazing sunshine.
We always knew what we wanted for a first dance – a track from Flight of the Conchords – The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room. Jody’s extreme dance moves were less well planned but had everyone in hysterics, mainly the bride.
And two friends, better known as All Salami No Cheese, and famous in the cooler circles of Brockley for their stylish bear suits, treated us to some hardcore iPod DJing (and Morrissey) until the sun came up. We escaped at 2ish but bridesmaids and ushers kept the party going until people had to walk home along the river.
Help Yourself
The food and drink was ALWAYS going to be the most important thing for us!
Our caterer, Rebecca White put together a delicious feast. Having tasting tables for the starters worked really well on such a beautiful hot day, with piles of porkpies, scotch eggs, ham and tomatoes encouraging people to circulate, gossip and get stuck into the ‘help yourself’ atmosphere.
My sister Holly spent three days baking and cooking to deliver an unbelievable table of cakes and deserts, and even commissioned a personalized carved cakestand to make it truly unique. I suspect she will never bake again…
Cheese for the evening was carefully tasted and lovingly chosen by the groom’s sister from Neal’s Yard. And as Jody and I met over a late night kebab in Clapham (another story), that was the only choice for the evening feast.
Jody used to sell Piper Heidsieck champagne, so those red and gold bottles hold a lot of happy memories for us. They were topped up with Pimms, wines, and a very quickly demolished keg of local beer.
Moments Of Calm
Some moments that really stood out were the moments of calm…sitting in an empty teepee 24 hours before the big day gazing up at the ceiling wondering what on earth we were going to do with 200m of ribbon and a load of branches – then by morning my loved ones had created Sherwood Forest!
So much can be planned but the really fun bits and really creative bits come more naturally than that. Bunting gate almost caused a crisis but trust in the people around you to make great decisions when you are panicking!
Take your time early on thinking about the minute by minute of the day – but with a few days to go, brief it into your bridesmaids, caterers and suppliers – and try to forget it. The day just takes on a life of its own and needs to be enjoyed!
Most of our suppliers were family and friends – which makes every part special. And the suppliers we didn’t know got stuck in and enjoyed the party late into the night.
Sam The Superstar
Sam our photographer had to make do with a skype call and glimpse of our schizophrenic Pinterest pages to get a feel for the wedding – but did a fantastic job of helping us feel comfortable in front of the camera and taking fun pictures ENTIRELY in keeping with the day. The fact he left us late in the evening with near heat exhaustion was a slight concern, but it shows the dedication. And I hope he feels the pictures were worth it.
Click here & view all images from this wedding
Gown – Amanda Wakeley – Cleopatra
Headpiece – Rosie Weisencrantz
Make-up – Rochelle O’Brien
Venue – Glebe Farm
Tents – Tipi And Kata
Groom’s Suit – Ascots And Chapels
DJ – All Salami No Cheese
Photography – Samuel Docker Photography
I think this big day quite possibly has the best bridesmaids I’ve seen in a while – how blinking gorgeous are they.
I also think every wedding should finish with DJs in bear suits and a groom in a crown.
Just saying…
All my love Lolly xxx