A Pronovias Gown For A Vegan and Eco Friendly Humanist Wedding in Somerset

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Hello wonderful readers, thank you so much for joining us this morning. The start of the week has arrived rather ungraciously quickly, after a sunny weekend spent at my future in-laws Tuscan home for my fiancé’s birthday. It was so exciting to see our wedding venue almost exactly a year to the day before we say I do! So far this month I’ve already been to Denmark and Italy, with a working trip to France fast approaching and today’s couple, Amy, a music teacher, and Tom, a videographer, are currently having a fabulous time in Sri Lanka. Wanderlust anyone?

The lovely pair wed on 29th August last year at Court Farm in Somerset after discovering this charming wedding venue in a wedding blog feature. This wedding has to be one of my favourite ceremonies we’ve featured on our wedding blog – Amy and Tom wove a number of Jewish wedding traditions into their humanist ceremony and symbolic blessings, in honour of Amy’s cultural heritage. Their guests munched on popcorn and the happy happy tears flowed freely from the moment Amy walked down the aisle with her dad to a piano track by Chilly Gonzales.

Making the most of Tom’s work in videography, the groom edited his own wedding film, kindly captured by a colleague (if you’d like to have your own wedding filmed, may we invite you to browse through our film makers category in our Little Book For Brides).

“It was very important to us to have a wedding that felt honest and made all our friends and family feel special. We are both vegan and consider ourselves to be eco-conscious so it was incredibly important to us that absolutely everything was vegan and cruelty free (from the marshmallows to the beer to the tea lights) as well as biodegradable and not harmful to the environment. In terms of decor, we were guided by the beautiful venue. We chose pinks, mint and gold as our colour palette and tried to keep everything earthy, natural and homemade.”




On hand to document the day was our talented Little Book for Brides member, the wonderful Boy Called Ben Photography. The images of the ceremony are my favourite of the entire day; Ben has so sensitively and unobtrusively captured the overwhelming emotion of Amy and Tom’s nuptials. Love simply radiates from the wedding guests and the groom, resplendent in his vegan (no wool, no silk) Oliver Spencer suit and tie, brings a lump to my throat as he wipes away happy tears during his vows.

“We lucked out with our photographer Ben. He had photographed Tom’s friend’s wedding and we spotted the pics on Facebook. They were amazing and he came highly recommended so we arranged to meet him.”

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We both thought he was absolutely lovely. On the day of the wedding, Ben was totally unobtrusive and yet managed to capture so many incredible moments. As the day went on, it felt like we had a friend taking photos as we just felt so comfortable with him.

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“We both balled our eyes out when we saw our photos for the first (and second and third) times. Ben’s not just a photographer, he’s an artist and we feel incredibly lucky that he was there to document our day.”

wpid430574 pronovias rustic farm wedding 29Amy and Tom’s love story began almost a decade ago at Hertfordshire University, where they both studied music. They booked their venue fairly quickly and then enjoyed an 18-month engagement, which gave them enough time to prepare their dream day.

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Ooh I’ve been itching to get to the pretty blooms, especially the stunning floral wedding arch which frames the top of Amy and Tom’s outdoor aisle. The groom’s talented dad created the organic structure from silver birch, sourced from a sustainable supplier in the New Forest, and their florist, Amy, created the beautiful garland around it.

“We actually found our florist by chance as our original florist had to cancel and recommended Amy Cottington of Wired Styling. After an initial meeting, we went with Amy because we got on really well with her and she was really passionate about the style we wanted. She understood what kind of a day we were trying to create and was very accommodating.”

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“We had a mixture of roses, delphiniums, hydrangeas, wax flowers, eucalyptus and lots of mixed foliage. We wanted a lot of green to keep everything really natural and wild-looking and it also helped with our budget as we had so many bridesmaids.”

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Amy looked simply regal in a Pronovias gown, bought second hand from a lovely bride in Oxford. She paired her full-skirted beauty with New Look shoes, customised with Etsy shoe clips, and men’s L’eau D’issey scent, which she used to wear when she and Tom first met.

“My Pronovias Alcanar gown was the second dress I tried on and I loved everything about it, but it was way out of our budget. I tried on lots of other dresses, but in the end I realised I was just looking for another dress that looked like the original one, so I set about looking for a second hand one.”

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“I wore a bracelet with little paper roses on it, which I bought at a market stall in Camden and Tom surprised me on the morning of the wedding with a anklet with an infinity symbol on it. I also wore a mixture of different earrings, some of which I borrowed from my mum. As well as my engagement ring I wore the ring Tom used to propose ( a big chunky men’s ring) and a ring my best friend bought me, which I never take off. My hair was done by Beks at Melanie Giles in Frome and I did my make-up myself. Our florist prepared a mixture of beautiful roses and foliage for me to wear in my hair.”

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“I am Jewish but as I am not religious, a Jewish ceremony didn’t feel right. Our Humanist ceremony was the most important and special part of our day. It was totally unique and something we worked on with our celebrant for around a year. When we first met Zena, we were totally blown away by her charisma, passion and just how utterly lovely she is.”

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We filled out a fun little questionnaire and told Zena our story in our own words, then after several meetings, she put together the most beautiful ceremony we could ever have imagined.”

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With Zena’s help, we included a number of fun traditions and rituals that felt relevant to us. We had a ‘procession of the bands,’ which involved our wedding rings being threaded onto a long piece of red material which ran through every seat. Each guest held the rings in their hand in order to symbolically wish us well in our marriage. We did this as everyone sang ‘Lovely Day’ by Bill Withers. After the ceremony, the thread was cut into small pieces and everyone tied a piece around their wrist. We are still wearing ours, as are many of our friends and family. This red thread has significance in a number of different religions.”

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The couple wrote their own vows, deciding who spoke first with a good old game of rock, paper, scissors. I just had to share an extract with you lovely readers:

Tom: “I promise to wait for you when you need to check if the straighteners are off and I promise to be everything you need me to be for as long as I live.”

Amy: “Tom. My darling boy, my best friend and my other half. I promise that for the rest of our lives, I will always keep you well fed.”

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“Two of our best friends Jess and Rhys prepared readings for us. They were kept secret so we heard them for the first time on the day. Zena also included a number of readings and quotes in the ceremony. I made a wedding certificate which was signed by us, Zena, our bridesmaids, best men and Rhys and Jess. This was then framed and displayed for the rest of the day. While everyone signed the certificate, we listened to a recording of my late grandpa Irving singing ‘This love I offer you’. He was a professional singer with an incredible voice and it was an incredibly emotional moment for everyone.”

Amy and Tom exchanged fair-trade gold rings bought from Harriet Kelsall in Hertfordshire; the metal was really important to the couple and true to their eco-conscious celebrations. The ceremony ended with a secular version of the seven Jewish blessings; with each blessing they took a giant step down the aisle and when they reached the end they each smashed a glass in further Jewish tradition.

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The bridesmaids also wore roses and foliage in their hair and chose their own dresses across several different countries based around a few colours selected by Amy. ASOS and Ted Baker came up trumps for frocks and all of Amy’s girls chose shoes in shades of pink, tan and gold. They each accessorised with pretty Etsy necklaces, which were a gift from the bride.

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Through a storm of confetti, the newlyweds made their way to their gloriously handmade marquee reception and a veritable feast of delicious vegan treats.

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Food was a super important part of the couple’s day. Their Bath-based caterers, Sam’s Kitchen, although not a vegan company, were very accommodating in putting together a most delicious and unique spread.

“We had so many comments about the food. We both love India and Indian food so decided to go with an Indian themed menu. We loved the idea of everyone tucking into big bowls of food; feast-style. On arrival our guests had homemade lemonade (made by Sam’s Kitchen) with giant chocolate covered pretzels (made by us).”

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For dessert we had a bake-0ff, where we asked our guests to bring cakes. People really went to town and we had absolutely loads of wonderful creations. Our evening food consisted of homemade pasties, Midford Cider and ice cream from the amazing Shooting Star, who made us cookies and cream, chocolate tiffin and vanilla ice cream. We also had marshmallows to toast on the fire from Sweet & Sara.”

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“We had 24 hours to decorate the venue. We had a beautiful stage which was designed by Bex who ran our bar. She designs stages at festivals so did a wonderful job. She also decorated the bar and the marquee with hundreds of metres of homemade bunting and as Tom worked for an events company, we were able to use awesome pink and purple up-lighters and beautiful squirrel cage lights (the gorgeous filament bulbs you can see strung liberally around).”

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On the tables we had flowers in an assortment of vintage glass bottles that we collected over a year or so.  The stationery, favours and most décor was homemade and I made the cake as I had a small cake making business on the side. The cake was of course vegan and was decorated with handmade sugar flowers and birds, which I began preparing several months in advance. Despite having made several wedding cakes before, making your own is an awful lot of work. We used loads of vintage games and toys which belonged to Tom’s grandma. We had lots of fun making the giant ‘CAKE’ letters too.”

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Amy and Tom designed an outdoor photo booth, which they decorated liberally with streamers and pompoms. A friend, Becky, made the giant ‘A & T’ letters and guests took a load off perched on second hand stools from gumtree. How resourceful!

Boy Called Ben Photography Amy Tom157

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“We had lots of live music throughout the day. On arrival two good friends played clarinet and violin and after the ceremony two more friends played acoustic guitar and sang. The previous summer we had been blown away by The Evil Usses, after seeing them play at Green Man festival. Sheepishly we emailed and asked if they’d play at our wedding and to our delight they said yes!

Later on my sister Sophie and her boyfriend Ben, who were over from America, did an acoustic set and were joined by our dad, Lawrence, who is a singer too. Our evening’s entertainment were Harry Funk, who played an incredible set and had everyone on the dance floor followed by Tom’s bestman, Roi, who DJ’d.”

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Amy and Tom chose a track called ‘I’m Sorry’ by Jonas Alaska for their first dance; one of their favourites and with ample mentions of love in the chorus. They prepared a dance routine with Amy’s childhood dance teacher, practiced a lot and it went down an absolute storm.

“It’s impossible to choose just one part of the day that was our favourite as the whole thing just felt like a dream.”

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Words of Wedded Wisdom

“A humanist ceremony gave us the freedom to have a truly unique and personal experience.”

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We’ve shared some truly special humanist ceremonies on the pages of our beautiful blog; Amy and Tom I’m delighted and exceedingly grateful to you that yours now joins those ranks. A big thank you as well to Boy Called Ben Photography for the incredibly emotional images. Have a wonderful Monday ladies.

Love, Em x

 

Photographer – Boy Called Ben Photography
Venue – Court Farm
Celebrant – Zena Birch
Wedding Dress – Pronovias
Shoes –  New Look shoes, customised with Etsy shoe clips
Bridesmaids – ASOS + Ted Baker dresses + Etsy necklaces
Perfume – L’eau D’issey
Groom – Oliver Spencer suit and tie + Will’s Vegan Shoes
Florist – Wired Styling
Rings – Harriet Kelsall
Catering – Sam’s Kitchen
Entertainment – The Evil Usses
Hair Stylist – Beks via Melanie Giles

Emily Brown

Emily Brown View all Emily's articles

Emily covets all things Scandinavian and loves travelling, modern art, learning languages and living with her brand new husband and a collection of house plants as a Northerner in London

5 thoughts on “A Pronovias Gown For A Vegan and Eco Friendly Humanist Wedding in Somerset

  1. Gorgeous, and I absolutely love the idea of an eco-friendly wedding. Definitely something I wish we had considered more fully… xx

  2. Well in my humble opinion you can’t go wrong with such a pretty colour scheme, outdoor humanist ceremony, fire pits, festoon lighting and lots of eucalyptus! The flowers are overwhelmingly gorgeous, I have a particular soft spot for Amy’s floral hair piece. Congratulations both on creating your beautiful day and on your marriage xx

  3. This looks like a beautiful wedding. I love the pretty floral hair piece. Everyone looks like they are having a great time xx

  4. My oh my, I adore this wedding! Everything feels so authentically personal and full of joy, I especially love Amy’s headpiece too Katie. Totally uplifting and beautiful, Congratulations! xxxx

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