It’s clear for the world to see that Charlotte and Chris, the stars of our next wedding, were made for each other. One highlight of their wedding has to be the beautiful photos by Camilla Arnhold. I’m especially taken with the images of the couple alone in the soft early evening light – the magic hour. In every look and touch, you can tell how perfect they are together. So when I discovered they were childhood sweethearts who’d met 14 years ago as teenagers, I loved this couple even more.
Charlotte, a health visitor, and Chris, a draughtsman, held their wedding on 7 June 2014 at Upper Parsonage Farm near Petersfield, Hampshire.
“We wanted a fun, relaxed, rustic wedding with plenty of space for our son Sam, aged 2, and the other children to have fun. We both love being outdoors and the countryside and wanted our day to reflect that. Upper Parsonage Farm, in the heart of the South Downs where we both grew up, was just perfect. It’s a working farm and only hosts a small handful of weddings a year, which made it feel really personal.”
Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Camilla Arnhold
“Chris and I really are childhood sweethearts. Since meeting in 2000 we’ve been each other’s best friend, drinking buddy, travelling mate and sous chef. We’ve been lucky enough to grow together and keep on falling in love with each other at every stage. In 2011 we decided to start our family and had our wonderful son Sam. We began talking about getting married and Chris popped the question in February 2013. It felt like the right time for us and we’re so glad Sam was part of our special day.
We chose a humanist ceremony – we’d dreamt of an outdoor wedding and liked that the ceremony was so personal. We wrote the ceremony ourselves with some guidance from our celebrant Deborah Gibbard. Although we had written our promises together, we hadn’t actually practised reading them together. But when we did it just felt natural and was the most important part of the day. It was a really moving ceremony which reduced lots of people to happy tears, including me.”
Charlotte’s dress nearly slipped out of reach, but it was obviously meant to be.
“I loved the bohemian feel of the Lusan Mandongus dress as soon as I tried it on. Sadly it was way out of our price range. Then one day I got an email from the lovely Sarah at The Ivory Boutique in Farnham where I’d tried the dress on. She told me the dress was going into a sample sale and, although it was several sizes too big, invited me in to see if it could be altered to fit.”
Charlotte’s tulle veil was purchased from Etsy and looked perfect with her gypsophila hair garland, made by Annie at Blossom and Bird, Southsea. She wore a Tiffany pearl bracelet given to her by Chris on the day, and a sweet family heirloom – a pearl horseshoe pin – attached to her bouquet. Also: those heart-shaped sunglassses. Yes!
“The flowers were one of my favourite things on the day. I stumbled across The Flower Field in Hampshire, a small local flower farm and supplier. All the arrangements, bouquets and buttonsholes were made by my mum and her talented friend Jean. They did an incredible job.
We were keen to respect the beautiful setting and use lots of natural materials. We knew we wanted lots of seasonal flowers and this inspired the colour scheme of pinks, peaches, aqua, blues, purples and yellow.”
“Our photographer was the fabulously talented Camilla Arnhold, a friend of a friend I’ve known for a few years. Having seen her beautifully soft, romantic images I trusted her completely. She captured the relaxed, fun atmosphere of the day perfectly.”
“All of the décor was sourced or made by us and our friends and family. I loved scouring junk shops and eBay for hankies, vintage bottles and tea tins. The crates were made by my father-in-law, Will. I used them create the table plan with plant pots and labels. We stocked a bar with ale and wine from local suppliers and Chris made a bar menu using an old pallet. We also created a polaroid guest book area, complete with fancy dress borrowed from various family and Sam’s dressing-up box.”
“As parents we knew it wouldn’t be the same without the little people there. We wanted the children to have fun and made goody bags containing things like bubbles, disposable cameras, wedding-themed activity books and crayons. We also had lots of garden games including croquet, badminton, boules, skittles, giant jenga, frisbees and bats and balls.”
I love the way Chris adapted his own personal style rather than feel uncomfortable in a suit. He looks very dashing, don’t you think?
“Chris isn’t a fan of wearing a suit so we opted for a more informal relaxed look in dark jeans with a shirt, tie and waistcoat. I bought his tie pie from notonthehighstreet.“
“Our wonderful family and friends spent the day before the wedding helping us decorate the barn. It was amazing seeing all our ideas come together and we wouldn’t have managed it without them.”
“Our friend Simon played our first dance followed by a mini set including ‘I Wanna Be Like You’ from The Jungle Book. Watching all our friends and family jumping around pretending to be monkeys was one of my favourite parts of the day! We also had a 50s-style CD juke box which we had added our own CDs to. My wonderful hens created a playlist with all our favourite songs to dance to which really made me smile.”
Words of wedded wisdom…
“Doing so much ourselves with a toddler in tow was stressful at times, and there were moments I wondered if we had bitten off too much. I am so glad we did though as it felt really personal and created lots of happy memories.
On the day, take a moment to step back and look at all your favourite people celebrating with you. On good days and bad, they will be there to support you through married life. Take some time to have fun with your new hubby or wife. Relax, don’t sweat the small stuff or take things too seriously. And smile and laugh… lots!”
Congratulations and thank you so, so much Charlotte and Chris for sharing the details of your fabulous day. And thank you Camilla for capturing it all and making our blog look so beautiful!
Psst… Readers, if that’s left you wanting more, you can find features on children at weddings here and more rustic inspiration here.
Love Kate xx
Photographer – Camilla Arnhold
Venue – Upper Parsonage Farm
Celebrant – Deborah Gibbard
Dress – Lusan Mandongus bought from The Ivory Boutique (now closed) with alterations by Room Ten
Accessories – veil Love You Bride Design, hair garland Blossom and Bird, shoes Dune, bracelet Tiffany
Hair and make-up – the bride
Groom – jeans Levi’s, boots River Island, shirt and waistcoat ASOS, tie H&M, tie pin notonthehighstreet.com
Rings – engagement ring Hallmark Jewellers, Brighton, wedding rings Timothy Roe Jewellers, Chichester.
Page boy – trousers H&M, shirt and tie Debenhams, waistcoat Marks and Spencer, shoes Converse
Flowers – The Flower Field
Cake – made by friends and family
Favours – made by the bride’s mother
Stationery – made with stamps from The Little Posy Print Company
Caterers – Upper Parsonage Farm
Entertainment – juke box from Cute Juke
Very nice.I like your photography and your wedding dress very much.Looking gorgeous..
Loving the relaxed groomswear – it works so well in that country wedding setting. Beautiful
This is just the loveliest wedding – and one that embraces children at weddings wholeheartedly too – I love it so much xXx
My goodness, my wedding is in a week and almost identical. Children centered, homemade decor, bubbles, terracotta & lavender, cute converse & waistcoats for my boys, to name a few similarities! Love seeing that it does all come together so nicely!!
what a beautiful wedding! do you know where the bridesmaids dressing gowns came from??
Hi Jane,
I am the bride – Charlotte.
The bridesmaid dresses were an absolute bargain from H&M.
Happy wedding planning.
xxx
Whoops dressing gowns are from etsy x