An Elegant Sincerity Gown for a Rustic and Handmade Spring Country Barn Wedding

The beautiful Spring wedding I’m sharing today, with joy-filled images captured by Roberta Matis Photography, transported me right back to my days in the UK. I spent three wonderful years living in Surrey and have such fond memories of this picturesque neck of the woods, with its endless green rolling hills and quaint little country pubs. Executive Assistant Nina and her beau Oli, who is head of site marketing for Appstore at Amazon, tied the knot on the 28th of May earlier this year at St Mary Magdalene Church in South Holmwood, which was an incredibly special location for Nina, followed by celebrations at The Old Greens Barn in Newdigate, Surrey.

“I always wanted to get married in church and so this gave the wedding a ‘traditional’ feel from the outset. We were lucky to be able to marry in the church where my parents married, 36 years earlier, and where I had been christened, which made it an even more intimate and personal ceremony. Adding to that, we did a lot of DIY with decor, stationery, and flowers, and so the overall feel of the day was a traditional, classic and relaxed countryside wedding.”

Photography by Roberta Matis Photography

The beautiful bride found this very blog to be a huge help whilst in the throes of planning. Thank you Nina for these kind words!

“Love My Dress highlights such a variety of different weddings, gowns, themes, and settings, which was great for inspiration and a ‘guiding light’ in the chaos of wedding planning. Also, I love that you include so many photos in each post, which are really handy when you are looking for inspo.”“I met Oli the very first day of university, when we both moved onto campus in Bristol. It was always inevitable that we would end up together, yet it still came as a complete surprise when, some seven years later, Oli got down on one knee at the top of the Rockefeller Centre in New York, in December 2014. “

Earlier that year, we had bought our first house together and the last thing I had expected was a proposal, but it was an amazing surprise and a special moment that I will remember forever.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

In her Carvela by Kurt Geiger heels, a spritz of ‘Miss Dior’ by Dior, Nina then added stunning pieces of jewellery that were gifted to her to complete her very elegant look.

“Oli gave me a gorgeous bracelet from Links of London on the morning of the wedding (via my sisters). I also wore a pair of beautiful diamond earrings that were a gift from my bridesmaids (they were my something new) and my mum gave me my nana’s blue sapphire ring to wear (as my something borrowed and blue).”

 

Nina found her stylish Sincerity gown via Wedding Frox in Cranleigh, Surrey.

“I wanted a dress that made me feel elegant and sophisticated, but that would also be classic and timeless in photographs (and nothing too ‘blingy’!). I had originally tried on dresses by Pronovias and Jesus Peiro as I loved the clean look of the satin, but I am petite and found that some of the styles were too heavy for my frame.”

“I ended up trying on a Sincerity gown, which perfectly fitted the bill. It was comfortable and classic but the lace detailing on the back and the buttons all the way down to the end of the train gave it that something ‘special’ that I had been looking for. I didn’t want to take it off.”

“I used to live in Madrid and always walked past the Pronovias store on my way to work. I dreamed of finding one of their dresses for my wedding day, as they are just so beautiful, but when I found my perfect dress by Sincerity, I chose to wear a Pronovias veil instead.”

“I wanted to give Oli a special gift on our wedding day, something that I knew he could treasure forever, so I gave him a TAG Heuer watch which he wore on the day, and which my dad kindly delivered to him on the morning of the wedding. His shoes were Ted Baker.”

“Oli had two best men, Martyn and Ashley and two ushers, Mat and Ben. They all wore the same suit as Oli from Next, with navy and white polka dot ties from TM Lewin. Oli and his best men have been best friends since school and have been each other’s best men for all three weddings.”

Adorned in gorgeous gowns from Monsoon and heels from Marks & Spencer, Nina’s sisters were stunning bridesmaids. Make-up for the ladies was by Tania Stephenson-Oliver, and Kay Williams from Dare Hairdressing created their pretty upswept hairstyles. And Nina gifted her maids with a heartfelt piece of jewellery.

“My sisters, Emma and Lotty, are so special to me and I wanted to give them something to say thank you for all of their help and support in the run up to the wedding. I bought them each a necklace from Tiffany and Co. which they wore on the day.”

“The flower girls were Amelia and Molly, and they totally stole the show! But after seeing the photos and how gorgeous they are, I can see why. They wore cream tulle dresses and ballet cardigans from Next.”

Not only did the lucky bride have the same wedding car as her parents, but she also walked the aisle to the same music (played by the very same organist!). This is just the sweetest touch and, oooo there I go, I can feel goosebumps!

“My dad, Lewis, walked me down the aisle. It was a moment I will never forget and I felt so lucky to be able to share that part of the day with him. I walked down to ‘Trumpet Voluntary’ by H Purcell. My parents had walked down the aisle to the same music on their wedding day (it was even played by the same organist, Mary, who has been with the church for many years).”

“We had two readings during the ceremony, the first a religious reading, 1 John 4:7-12 entitled ‘Gods Love and Ours’ read by my Uncle, and the second a poem, ‘I will be here’ by Steven Curtis Chapham, read by a family friend. This particular poem felt so true and relevant to the promises we were making to one another….”

Tomorrow morning, if you wake up, and the sun does not appear, I will be here.

If in the dark, we lose sight of love, hold my hand and have no fear, because I will be here.

Boxwood String Band, a local acoustic guitar duo and friends of Nina’s aunt and uncle, played in the church (and also at the barn for the drinks reception). The couple’s rings were from Goldsmiths and Nina’s dad arranged an incredible wedding car as a complete surprise for her – what a sweet gesture!

“My dad managed to find the same 1935 Rolls Royce Sedance de Ville that he and my mum had on their wedding day, all those years ago! My dad also has an AC Cobra and cars have been a big part of my life. So Oli travelled to the church in the Cobra, driven by my uncle, and my dad’s friends drove the rest of the wedding party in a convoy of classic cars (a Jaguar, Triumph TR4s and Austin Healeys).”

Roberta Matis Photography caught such lovely images of Oli and Nina’s day and they were most impressed with her work.

“We first met Roberta when she photographed Oli’s best man’s wedding. She was friendly, totally approachable, discreet, and her photographs were beautiful. On top of this, and unlike other photographers we had come across, Roberta’s photography package was simple and easy to understand.”

” She provided a full days’ wedding photography and stayed with us right up until the Five Megamix (what else!) at 11pm, which meant all of our special moments were captured.”

The gorgeous bouquets and buttonholes were by florist Willows, whilst the barn was decorated beautifully with flowers from Triangle Nursery.

“The only brief I gave was to avoid roses (there are so many other flowers out there!) and the ladies at Willows put together beautiful country flower bouquets, with plenty of texture.”

Creative Nina made all of the invitations, the order of services, menus, place cards and table plan so as to save money – and the peppermint cream favours (all 600 of them!) were handmade by the patient bridesmaids. The tables were named after New York locations and The Old Greens Barn was the perfect ‘blank’ canvas, with just a few additions needed for their décor.

“We added simple décor to the inside of the barn; metres and metres of bunting that mum and I made in the months before the wedding, paper lanterns, fairy lights, hundreds of old glass jars sprayed gold and used as tea light holders (well done bridesmaids!), a table plan made out of my old bedroom door and photo frames I had collected from charity shops, as well as hand painted wooden signs with the order of the day (thank you dad!). I also made up a sweetie table, and had photos of me and Oli growing up through the years, as well as some of our more recent adventures together.”

“We decided to make all of the table arrangements and decorations for the pew ends ourselves. I ordered wholesale flowers from Triangle Nursery, which arrived three days before the wedding, and my mother-in-law helped to arrange them.”

“I am so glad we did this; it saved us a lot of money and was great fun decorating the barn with all of the pretty flowers the day before the wedding.”

“Our wedding cake was made by my mum. It was amazing, and she is amazing as I know it took up a lot of her time in the run up to the wedding. We really can’t thank her enough!”

“Our first dance was ‘Better Days’ by Goo Goo Dolls. We both remember this as one of the first songs we listened to together at university. It is also on the soundtrack to one of our favourite films ‘New Years Eve’, which happens to be set in New York.”

“It is so hard to pick out just a few moments, but I particularly loved walking down the aisle with my dad and standing outside the church after the ceremony with Oli. We had a moment of calm to ourselves after the guests had left and before travelling on to the reception.”

“At that point it felt as though time stood still for just a minute, and we both realised how lucky we were to have each other. We also managed to take some time out in evening to go and sit outside the barn and look back at everyone dancing – it was great to have this ‘pause’ as it helped us digest it all a bit better.”

A GoGo Photobooth provided very fun times for the guests and DJ Dave Glover played groovy tunes for more evening entertainment. The couple’s first dance song payed further homage to their love of New York.

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Decide early on what is important to you both and prioritise your budget accordingly. Using a spreadsheet to keep track of costs as you go is really handy. I also used it as a reference point for storing our key supplier contact details, so I had all of the information in one place.

Secondly, don’t pay too much attention to how you think you ‘should feel’, or what you think you ‘should be doing’. It sounds silly, but the thing I regret most is giving myself such a hard time when I didn’t feel the way I thought I should throughout the planning process. For example, none of us burst into tears when I found my dress and I thought this meant something was wrong. Nothing was wrong, it just didn’t happen that way and that’s totally ok!”

I am a *huge* fan of the excellent advice above – thank you Nina! I took the word ‘should’ out of my vocabulary years ago and it continues to be one of the most empowering things I’ve ever done. Weddings needn’t be about what you should be doing; time and time again we highlight that the best weddings are those that are personal and completely bespoke to the bride and groom’s little quirks. Many many thanks to Roberta for sharing these delightful images and to Nina and Oli, I’ve so loved sharing your gorgeous Surrey wedding – thank *you* for taking me back to my happy memories of this utterly beautiful location.

Hope the wedmin’s going brilliantly for those in the middle of planning – keep going! – and be sure to have a spot of relaxing over the weekend too.

Love Jo -x-