A Rue De Seine Gown For an Organic, Kinfolk Inspired, Bohemian Wedding

Happy New Year beauties! Im so happy to be back writing to you in 2017 (also known as the year I get married!) and perhaps welcoming some newly engaged lovelies to our wonderful wedding community? So, your first step? (After squealing a lot, taking a gazillion photos of your engagement ring and calling your love ‘fiancé’ at every opportunity,) join our private Facebook group – you can thank me later.

Today I’m so honoured and excited to be sharing the beautifully bohemian wedding of Toria, a Marketing Manager, and Adam, who owns his own construction business. This stunning pair wed on 17^th September 2016 at St Mary the Virgin Church in Kelvedon and held their wedding reception at the nearby Chalkney Water Meadows in White Colne. Their day was partly inspired by the laid-back vibe of a wedding they witnessed in Byron Bay, surrounded by nature in the outdoors, giant tents and quirky street food trucks. Just take a look at their stunning wedding video by Shutterbox Films; sure to give you all the boho luxe feels.

“Without a doubt, outdoor, almost nomadic, Kinfolk, organic, non-pompous, bohemian weddings in Australia, New Zealand and the US inspired our wedding the most; both the aesthetic and the relaxed and ‘full of fun and love’ feel of them. We didn’t want the day to have a theme or colour scheme, we wanted it to be simple and timeless, with a stylish bohemian luxe feel.”

Film by Shutterbox Films

In keeping with the gorgeously bohemian, nomadic style of their day, Toria wore (though modelled might be more appropriate, so stunning is this combination of bride and dress) Blossom by Rue De Seine, purchased from our Brighton-based Little Book For Brides member (newly engaged ladies, bookmark the page for our curated directory pronto), Leonie Claire Bridal Boutique.

“I bought the second (and last) dress I tried on, and it was one of the best decisions I made throughout the whole wedding planning process. Even before I got engaged I was obsessed with Rue De Seine and when I found out that the lovely designers from New Zealand (another place that we travelled, which made the brand even more special to me) were doing a trunk show at Leonie Claire in Brighton, for one weekend only, I jumped at the chance to get an appointment.”

Photography by Kat Hill

“My mum and sister came with me, and both admit they didn’t like the look of ‘Blossom’ on the hanger. However, the second I came out from the changing rooms in her, they knew as well as I did that she was the one, in all her fringed glory.  The dress was fitted and flattering, with intricate long sleeves, which I’d always wanted, but was so different and gorgeous too. I’ve always been a bit of a hippy and I needed a dress to really reflect my personal style and personality. It definitely isn’t a traditional wedding gown, but that’s what I think makes it so special and memorable.

After the wedding I missed wearing her so much that I put her on to do the housework, much to Adam’s amusement. My wedding dress is truly one of my most prized possessions, and I just can’t wait to show my children what I wore on my big day.”

Toria and Adam had a clear vision for their wedding weekend; close enough to home so that everyone they hold dearest could make it (including beloved grandparents), surrounded by nature, incorporating camping, tasty food, and a very full bar – a truly intimate, fun and personal reflection of their relationship. In short, “a magical shindig to remember!”

“I hand-drew, designed and printed all of the stationery for our big day, it was important for me for everything to be consistent, so I kept it simple but effective in black and white with a foliage sketch. I also made had a twelve-page wedding magazine, which we gave at the church as favours.”

“This included a personalised, handwritten thank you message to each of our guests, a ‘who’s who in our wedding party’ gallery, details of our ceremony, a map of the meadow and run of the day, photos, letters to Adam and I from our mums and my sister (and maid of honour), and lastly a ‘guess which guest’ game.”

“Having flowers was never an option for me – I love foliage and as my dress was so intricate I thought that simple was the way to go. The amazing Grace & Thorn florist in London made our bouquets, flower crowns, button holes, foliage table-runners and foliage ladder installations that we hung from the kata ceiling.”

A simple floor-length veil and block-heeled nude sandals from Dorothy Perkins perfectly complemented Toria’s fringed, boho beauty of a gown.

Make-up artist Lisa Marie applied picture-perfect make-up for the bride and her gorgeous girls and loose, tumbling curls crafted by Sally Burgess were topped by lusciously green foliage crowns by Grace & Thorn.

Toria added her own floral crown in place of her flowing veil, after the wedding breakfast.

 

Adam surprised Toria with a divine Tom Ford perfume, Soleil Blanc, which she also wore on their honeymoon to Greece, and his siblings bought her beautiful blue ‘Virtue’ earrings from Grace Loves Lace, which they had shipped from Australia, a second honeymoon staple.

After a pretty gorgeous getting ready session with her bridesmaids, Toria hopped in a minibus to church, where she was walked down the aisle by her wonderful Dad, Ray, to the About Time theme song by Nick Laird Clowes.

“As we got married in a church (the lovely Father Simon Garwood married us), we read traditional vows, which we really felt comfortable doing. The day was so full of personal touches, even if we could have changed and personalised our vows, I don’t think we would have chosen to do so. It felt special saying the same important, symbolic, universal words that so many have said before, and that so many are going to read in the future. The words are timeless, and so powerful, that we both remember getting choked up as we were saying them.”

Toria’s cousins Hannah and Emily delivered readings, Union by Robert Fulghum and Corinthians, the words of which touched Toria and Adam deeply. In a another deeply personal touch, a family friend, Stuart, made the couple’s platinum wedding bands as well as Toria’s gorgeous engagement ring.

The newlyweds exited church hand in hand to Mendelssohn’s Wedding March under a storm of white confetti before heading over to their beautifully styled reception at Chalkney Water Meadows.

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Toria’s sweet flower girl looked adorable in a simple white dress from Zara and the page boy rocked a navy ensemble from Next, matching Adam and his groomsmen in their dark tailored suits from Reiss. Alongside a crisp unbuttoned white shirt and brown brogues, Adam perfectly pulled off the modern and minimalist look he had in mind.

 

“When it came to my eight bridesmaids, I wanted two things: for them to wear white with me, and for them all to feel comfortable and gorgeous.”

“My friends are all so different – one is really tall, another rather tiny, one is pregnant, some are really glam, and others more bohemian, so it was a little tricky to get an outfit that all of them would love. I also didn’t want them in traditional bridesmaid’s dresses.”

“I found an off-white pencil skirt in Forever 21, which I thought was perfect, and we found a nearly matching top to complete the simple but equally striking look. Thankfully all the girls loved the outfits, and felt fantastic. The green bouquets and foliage in their hair against the stark white outfits was exactly what I had envisioned. I bought them each a simple gold necklace and matching dainty bracelet, which they wore on the day.”

“Adam and I have been together for ten years (since I was 17!), and we got engaged on 26th July 2015. We fell head over heels in love a decade ago, and have never looked back. It all started when I asked for his number at a local nightclub we both frequented, after cooing over him for far too long from afar (Adam tells me he did the same).”

“There has never been a shadow of a doubt for either of us that we’d get married one day, but first Adam supported me through university, we both quit our jobs and travelled the world together for eight months, each started our own businesses, and we bought our first little home together and renovated it.”

“We live to travel, and Adam loves to make me beautiful montages of all our travel photos, played to our favourite songs, after each trip.”

“We’d only come back from Morocco a couple of months prior, so Adam sat me down in our front living room one Sunday evening (I was in my gym kit, with no makeup on, greasy hair in a top bun, ready for an Indian take away, the lot) and showed me the video he’d put together for Morocco, which I just loved.”

“Immediately after, a photo popped up on the TV from when we first met, followed by more and more from the archives and one of our favourite ever songs started playing.”

“Adam had collected nearly ten years worth of photos for this video, and I knew something wasn’t quite normal as I could literally hear Adam’s heart beat from where I was sitting. Even though it seems so obvious now, I honestly didn’t know what he was planning to do until he did it.”

“He went down on one knee, with the most stunning ring he had designed and made, once the letters ‘W I L L  Y O U  M A R R Y  M E?’ individually flashed up on the screen during the climax of the song– it was perfect. I felt then, and I still do now, like the luckiest girl to walk this earth.”

With a veritable plethora of gorgeous details and multiple days of wonderful memories to be captured, Toria and Adam chose the talented Kat Hill to document their weekend of wedding celebrations.

Kat specialises in journalistic photography and adores capturing all the personal details and emotional moments as they unfold.

“The day after we got engaged I contacted Kat at Kat Hill Photography to ask if we could go for coffee in London to chat about her documenting our wedding. An hour and a coffee later, we had booked in. I’d seen Kat’s work on a blog a few months prior and Adam and I both instantly fell in love with her work – her photographs were so natural, full of movement and light, captured perfectly cherished moments and had a gorgeous tone to them.”

“We had a pre-wedding shoot on Hampstead Heath a month before the wedding to get used to having our photos taken, which I’d hugely recommend.”

“Kat recommended Lee from Shutterbox Films to film our day, and we are beyond grateful that she did. We have just got back the video and it captures the day exactly how we remember it. The drone footage is just spectacular too – we knew the meadow was beautiful, but we didn’t realise it was that beautiful.

Adam and I joked that we should rename the video ‘A Video of Adam & Toria Smiling and Kissing’ – because that’s all we did all day. We were so full of love and pure joy and elation.”

“One of the moments we will never forget was when we were having our photographs taken with our families and friends, surrounded by the people we adore, holding each others hands tightly, and the sun momentarily shone so brightly through the clouds, from just behind the tepees in front of us. Without saying a word to each other, we both took that as a sign from those who are no longer with us to say they were very much there in spirit. What with that, and looking around at our guests, we felt speechless.”

“As soon as we got engaged we started the venue hunt in and around the Essex area, and Chalkney Water Meadows was the first and only place we visited – as soon as we stepped foot in the breathtakingly stunning meadow, we knew it was the place. Set in the heart of the Colne Valley and nestled amongst ancient woodland, a meandering river and an idyllic tree lined lake, it’s a truly unique setting and all we had ever wanted in a venue.”

“There was no real ‘end time’ and we could use our own contacts for caterers, DJs, stylists and bring our own bar. As an Events and Marketing Manager myself, this was a dream.”

“Nat, one half of the Browning Brothers who own the land, was so helpful right from the beginning and was extremely flexible and laid back, allowing us to truly create the day of our dreams from a blank canvas.”

“We hired the land from the Wednesday to the Sunday, along with three giant katas, seventeen fully furnished bell tents for us and our guests to camp in, and a gorgeous log cabin which was built by the brothers themselves on a nearby lake. Adam and I arrived at the meadow on the Thursday and we didn’t leave until late on Sunday; the day after the wedding we hosted a relaxed BBQ for our guests who stayed with us in the meadow – it felt like a mini holiday.

The 7pm arrival of a Taco Truck, serving up deliciously authentic Mexican tacos and burritos was a real highlight for Toria and Adam’s guests, and the lovely Adam surprised his new wife with a photo booth in the evening, the source of some of our bride’s very favourite images.

As guests arrived at the meadow, they were serenaded by acoustic guitar-playing Johnny B, who Toria and Adam booked for his wonderfully emotive, raw vocals and the day was kept running ship-shape and smoothly by Toria’s friend and work colleague, James Gould.

“Décor was so important to us – we wanted the aesthetic to match the ‘feel’ of the day. We wanted to create a magical space and atmosphere in the meadow that people almost didn’t want to leave, with lots of bohemian lounges for our guests to chill out in and long communal, family style dining tables so that our guests could mingle better.”

“As well as being a ‘DIY’ wedding, it was a very personal one too – we sat on our very own peacock chairs and danced our first dance on our favourite rug from underneath our bed, we had my wonderful Uncle Jon and our brilliant friend Allan as our MCs, our cake was made by our family friend Phil, our DJs were the wonderful Chris (our brother-in-law) and friend Jedd, and our event manager was my friend and work colleague, James.”

“I think you can never have enough foliage so the week before the wedding, Adam and I went to a wholesale florist and bought literally a car load of eucalyptus to hang over the wooden signs we’d made, to decorate the bar and cake and card table.”

“Food was also important for us. When our initial caterers went out of business in December 2015, we were a little panicked, but we soon found The Event Catering Company, who went above and beyond to make the food look and more importantly, taste, spectacular.”

“We weren’t into tiny little canapés, or a ‘meat and two veg’ main course, so we put on food for our guests that we love (and lots of it); a 20-foot table of antipasti platters, a Greek main, crème brûlée and after dinner, espresso martinis.”

“We used a lot of our furniture from our home including all our rugs (we have a lot of rugs!), our peacock chairs, our indoor green planters, our Moroccan chairs etc., but we also hired a lot of furniture from Penny at The Little Lending Company and from The Raj Tent Club.

Penny was especially amazing and so supportive and helpful throughout the planning year (for example, Adam and I cut and stained all of the wood for our signs, and we drove to meet Penny half way between us both so that she could collect to write on them in her beautiful white calligraphy).  Her hire range is to die for!”

“My Mum and Dad had a lemon cake on their wedding day, so we had lemon on the base and vanilla with dripping salted caramel for the top tier. We didn’t want a ‘naked’ cake, but we also didn’t want a ‘traditional’ iced cake, so we opted for a very simple part-iced cake. There wasn’t one piece left, not one!”

“Our good friend Jedd and brother-in-law, Chris, DJ’d from dusk into the small hours of morning, and boy did they do good!”

“The dancefloor was packed from beginning to end and hilarious antics included a recreation of the Dirty Dancing lift, some special lunge action, and a certain bride going crazy to ‘Can’t Stop’ by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.”

From the personalised messages on the guests name places to the wooden hand-painted  signs, the giant foliage-adorned tepees to the projected video for their first dance – all of the beautiful details were handmade by Adam and Toria in their home.

“In the year leading up to the wedding, Adam filmed us from time to time on a Go Pro and he made a video montage that was projected on a huge screen while we had our first dance to The Wedding Song by Angus and Julia Stone. It was so, so special, and we liked it because we wanted to dance on our own for the whole song, but didn’t want eyes on us the whole time.”

“Sitting around the campfire at 3am the following morning with our nearest and dearest, singing songs and drinking from kegs of ale, was also pretty spectacular. Waking up in our bridal bell tent the morning after the wedding, as man and wife, and looking outside to the view of us surrounded by another sixteen bell tents filled with our nearest and dearest was a goosebump moment too.”

“We can’t find the words to express how loved we felt that day; truly, all of our wildest dreams came true in those precious 24 hours and we can’t thank enough our incredible families, our amazing bride and groom tribes and our suppliers and those who helped set up and pack away, and everyone who came and helped us celebrate in true bohemian style to pull off the parties to end all parties.”

 

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“People really do notice the little details; the hard work is worth it. I heard time and time again in the run up to our wedding that ‘no one cares about the little details, only you will notice them,’ but we didn’t find that to be true at all. So many people have said it was the best wedding they have ever been to, partly because there were so many details, everything was personalised, and there were little hidden gems like the whiskey and cigar bar.”

“Try and stay with your husband/wife as much as possible throughout the day – we tried to hold hands with each other as much as we could so that we could enjoy as much of the day together, and every time we lost each other we made an effort to find each other again.”

“Go with your gut on everything, even if your family and friends don’t see where you are coming from at times – otherwise you’ll regret it. Simply have the best time – party, dance, sing, smile, cry, beam from ear to ear, cuddle and love every second of it. It really is the best day of your lives.”

It’s pretty safe to say I’m totally and utterly in love with Toria and Adam’s gorgeously bohemian day – I can’t thank this beautiful couple (I really mean it, just gorgeous; check out Toria’s enviable Instagram) enough for sharing this wonderfulness with us all. And of course my massive thanks go to Kat Hill Photography for these stunning captures – what a way to kick off my 2017 real wedding features!

Lusting after Toria’s gorgeous gown? Check out a few more Rue De Seine brides right here.

Love, Em x