A Barefoot Bride and her Effortlessly Elegant and Natural Wedding at a Medieval Priory

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Special Tuesday treats for you my lovelies – two weddings in one day! Have you seen the first wedding we shared this morning? This afternoon’s wedding is a different vibe completely but one we love just as much. Zoë, a development engineer for Triumph Motorcycles married Dan, an Army veteran turned web developer on 6th July this year at Blackfriars Priory in Gloucester.

“Love My Dress is so clean cut and up to date, and captures the essence of each wedding featured – and Pinterest was my bible. I wanted everything as natural and neutral as possible, the last thing I wanted to see was coloured sashes and chair covers. My dream was to elope and marry on a mountain in Oregon, but family ties pulled us close and we decided to have a wedding in the UK.”

Film + Photography by Grace Elizabeth Photography




“We chose Blackfriars Priory because it is close to where Dan’s Army barracks were when we first met, the Gloucestershire area seems very special to us because of all the time we spent there on his weekends off. The whole venue was  such an ethereal blank canvas. The moment I saw it I knew that, filled with candles, it would be the perfect ceremony room.”

Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.

“Our photographer was Grace Elizabeth – she was everything I hoped she would be, and the photos she produced blew me away! Truly talented photographer. Grace had a brilliant attitude, was flexible and full of ideas.”

“My dress was designed by myself and hand made by Rachel King at ‘The Dress Suite’ in NuneatonThe dress was one of the hardest decisions; I didn’t want too much fuss but at the same time wanted to be dramatic. Nothing I tried in the stores matched my vision – though I did have my heart set on a Berta Bridal gown originally.”

Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.

“I wore a simple moonstone pendant, I wanted to keep it simple and bohemian and wore mixed silver rings.”

Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.

Zoë chose not to wear shoes, opting instead for some silver foot jewellery from ASOS.

Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.

“We didn’t get a florist, my maid of honour and I ransacked a garden centre for greenery and her mother’s garden, and then went to a supermarket for white roses and put all the bouquets and buttonholes together, by ourselves, on the front lawn of the hotel, the evening before the wedding.”

” I wanted them to be overflowing with green with an elegant touch of white.”

Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.

“I ordered some French silk tulle and cut the veil myself. I also wore Valentino scent – we wear his and hers, they smell divine!”

Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.

“We met classically through friends, and shared the same twisted sense of humour. I instantly knew Dan would be the man I’d marry.”

“We were engaged for almost two years before our wedding day.”

Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.

“My Dad, Warren accompanied me down the aisle to the sound of ‘Experience’ by Ludovico Einaudi, I chose it because it was so intense and beautiful.”

Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.

“We didn’t tailor our own vows, we only say very personal things to each other in private so the civil ceremony vows were enough to show our guests what we want out of our marriage.”

Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.

“My little sister recited a reading completely off by heart, everyone was so impressed and cheered.”

Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.

Zoë’s bridesmaids wore floor length foaty grey dresses from Missguided and shoes from Forever21,

Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.

“We stole half an hour away in an old empty room in the priory, we just lay on the floor together and stared up at the wooden beams of the ceiling.”

“It was so content and peaceful to just be alone with each other and reflect on the day.”

Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.

“For a ‘cake’, we opted for a stack of white chocolate tiffin, and I made these two days before the wedding, in my maid of honours kitchen.”

Zoe & Daniel | www.graceelizabethphoto.com | Blackfriars Priory, Gloucester

“I hand made the wedding favours, making a seed packet design on illustrator, printing onto a matt textured card, cutting them all out and filling them with wild flower seeds.”

“I spent months, and many hours, emptying hundreds of jam jars and hand making candles with soy wax, they added such a beautiful glow to the venue and could be used all day and night they lasted so well. I also ordered dried hops, I had planned to drape these down the aisle but we decided to scatter the dry hops instead and create an aisle from the buds and leaves (and just hoped the guests remembered their hay fever tablets.”

Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.

“The invitations were from an independent designer on Minted.com by Kaydi Bishop. We ordered them in Toasted Almond and had silver pressed foil. The Place cards were stones that my maid of honour and I drove all the way to Wales to get from a pebble beach, she then wrote each name out using a white paint pen. The table numbers were glass that I took from picture frames and painted the numbers on with white enamel paint.”

Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.

“We had two amazing singing waiters supplied via The Big Entertainment Company – they really surprised the guests as we had kept it all a secret. One of my bridesmaids was about to chuck them out as she thought they were genuinely bad waiters ruining my day! We loved them!”

Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.

“We chose ‘Saturn’ by Sleeping at Last for our first dance.  It has a really long instrumental start and the main lyric ‘how rare and beautiful, it truly is, to simply exist’ just summed up the feeling we wanted from our first dance song.”

Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“I would’ve made more of an effort with how I looked! I put so much effort into all the little touches of the day and making sure everything was taken care of, I think I overlooked myself a little!

Barefoot bride Zoё wore a dress she had designed herself for her effortlessly elegant wedding at Blackfriar medieval priory in Gloucester. Captured by Grace Elizabeth Photography.

OhZoë, you really need not have put any further effort into how you looked! One of the things I love most about this wedding is your most beautiful and effortlessly natural look – it’s a joy to see and compliments the natural, organic aesthetic of your wedding so beautifully . You looked just perfect.

Readers – I hope you’ve really loved browsing through this beautiful wedding as much as I have – Zoë and Dan, my thanks to you both for sharing your beautiful day. We are also grateful to photographer Grace Elizabeth for sharing her beautiful photography with Love My Dress today.

Love Annabel x

Credits & Thanks

Annabel

Annabel View all Annabel's articles

Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.

8 thoughts on “A Barefoot Bride and her Effortlessly Elegant and Natural Wedding at a Medieval Priory

  1. Oh Zoë no! You are the most beautiful beautiful bride!! I absolutely adore the bohemian, effortlessly chic vibe of this wedding and I’m totally in love with Zoë’s dress x x x

  2. Oh flipping ‘eck! This is a beauty! I ditto everyone else – natural, beautiful, neutral, classy boho. Oh how I love this. The space, the candles the home created bouquets, all the greens and whites, dancing outside, Ludovico Einaudi, the script. Oh my I’m proper swooning! I need to get married again so I can copy every single bit. Best wishes for your beautiful future together xx

  3. What a special wedding! The dress and medieval priory setting makes for such a romantic backdrop. Looks like a truly beautiful day to have captured, and done so well by the photographers. Photo booths are also a great idea to capture the guests and bridal party interacting on the day – a fantastic way to see genuine, special moments.

  4. It’s quite rare for me to stop and look through a whole blog post these days (trying to be more disciplined and focused!!) but with this wedding I had to – it really took my breath away! The setting, the dress, the trees in the ceremony, the natural organic beauty of it all, just stunning! xxx

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