A Badgley Mischka Gown and Single Stem Bouquet for a Colourful Devon Countryside Wedding

Tuesdays need something special to get you through them, and I can’t think of anything better than a bright and beautiful wedding to help with that.  Today’s offering is an absolute treat so sit back, take five minutes to yourself, and rewind to June and our beautiful warm summer.

Meet Clinical Psychologist Jenna, who married plumber Ben at the gorgeous Ash Barton Estate in North Devon, on the 9th June 2018.  The couple met on a night out in Stoke Newington in 2012 and, although it wasn’t love at first sight, romance blossomed during a trip to Budapest for New Year.  The rest is history.

“We instantly fell in love with Ash Barton.  We loved that it had no curfew and no corkage fee (as we wanted to have a free bar).  We were keen from the start to make a weekend of it so we had a family and wedding party relaxed meal in the house on the Thursday, meal out with everyone who wanted to come on the Friday, wedding on the Saturday and recovery BBQ on the Sunday.”

Images by Lisa Carpenter Photography

Capturing the magic on camera was Lisa Carpenter, who brought her usual bright and light style to the day, and persuaded Jenna and Ben into an engagement shoot too- something I highly recommend.

“We loved having Lisa photograph us- it was like having a friend do it.  She also did an awesome engagement shoot for us.  We weren’t sure about this, but it was really helpful for the day.”

Jenna wore a fitted lace gown by Badgley Mischka, with a beautiful plunging back, which she purchased from The Dressing Rooms in Halesowen along with her long narrow veil.

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“I’ve never really liked bridal dresses in magazines, but decided to go for a fun day out with my Mum and sister not expecting to find anything.  The dress ended up being the second dress I tried on and it was the only dress that I said ‘wow’ to.  It was totally my style and the one off the hanger fitted.”

“The women at the dressing rooms were also amazing and totally helped sell the dress.  They don’t work on commission and so I never felt like they did the hard sell, they just seem to really love their job.”

In her hair Jenna wore a comb covered with green Swarovski crystals to match her engagement ring, made by Serenity Kate Couture, while for jewellery she opted for a pair of diamond and emerald earrings which Ben gave to her on the morning of the wedding.

Her mum also gave her one of her own diamond rings as her ‘something old’, which matched the art deco feel of the dress.

“The flower girl dresses were all from Debenhams and they looked so cute.  We had them carry huge balloons which added to the cuteness.  The page boys had little suits from Next.”

Ben wore a charcoal suit from Ted Baker, paired with a personalised hip flask (to calm his nerves in the morning) as a gift from Jenna.

Jenna walked down the grassy aisle with her dad to ‘Somewhere only we know’ by Lily Allen (chosen because Ben had to go back to Oz for five months only a few months after getting together and Jenna would listen to it when she got sad) and the two mums, bridesmaids, flower girls and page boys all walked in ahead.  The ceremony was led by Kevin Murphy from the Humanist Celebrant South West network.

“He was great and helped make our ceremony a fun and personal time.”

Ben promised to ‘always bring laughter even though I only have Dad jokes’, while Jenna promised ‘joy, happiness and dancing, lots of dancing’.  I really love their wording for their ring exchange too:

I give you this ring as a symbol of my love and to let you know you do not have to face the future alone.  When we are apart look upon it and know that I am with you.”

“My brother read ‘Love is like owning a dog’ by Taylor Mali while our mutual friend Carlene did the second reading.  Hers was a surprise for us and she wrote half of it herself and half from other readings.”

“It made it super personal and we loved it.  Our friend Siri sang Tom O’Dell’s ‘Grow Old with Me’.”

“We had a bit of veil-gate on the day because I wore it low and it was too heavy so I pulled it out during the ceremony!”

Rings came from Neweys in Birmingham’s jewellery quarter, to seal the deal in the time-honoured way.

“I loved our ceremony.  We had a humanist wedding and had a lot of input and it was so personal that we just loved it.”

Jenna and Ben bought their flowers from Clare at The Flower Monger and their friends and family helped them put everything together the day before the wedding.

“Clare was super helpful.  I wanted bright corals, pinks, yellows and also some big flowers, while the rest of the flowers had a vintage feel.  The bridesmaids bouquets were held like holding a baby which I loved too, while  I always wanted just one large flower so I used one of the bright pink peonies.”

Tables were named after favourite restaurants from around the world and the table plan was made up of each restaurants’ logo.  Ben and Jenna then wrote restaurant reviews for each table- I love this idea!

“Food was incredibly important for me because I am a massive foodie so we used local catering company H&A, who basically would have made whatever we wanted.  We opted for Spanish inspired sharing food for starter and main and big sharing pavlovas for pudding.”

“I loved the speeches. They were a bit of a record breaking length at 78 minutes so I am sure some guests were bored but we loved them all. We’ve got copies to keep and remind us of what people said.”

With a Devon-based wedding, what is better in place of a wedding cake than 120 scones with jam and cream?  Kindly made by Jenna’s aunty Jane, they were the perfect treat.

“We had a solo singer and guitarist called Simon Knight during the canapés.  He was great and even learnt some of our favourite songs.  We then had a band in the evening (Kickback) who banged out loads of pop, rock and indie tunes for us and afterwards our friend Ryan DJed into the early hours.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Try to set our clear ideas from the beginning and always communicate.

Outsource or delegate the bits you find boring so you can get on with enjoying the bits you do.  Blink and you will miss it, so enjoy the build up and the planning.

Try personal touches where you can ours was full of them and it saved us money, but were also more meaningful.”

“On the day make sure you are kept away from the stressful bits.  Make sure your bridesmaids feed you food and water (you totally forget otherwise).

Things will go wrong so don’t ruin the lead up or the day by worrying about things. It really doesn’t matter if they do and most people won’t notice.

Prepare to feel physically exhausted afterwards, but your mind on overdrive. Give yourself time to process it all and remember all the amazing bits.”

So many thanks to Jenna and Ben for sharing their day and to Lisa Carpenter for the fun-filled pictures. Badgley Mischka gowns are always so unique and interesting, don’t you think?  Take a look here for more gorgeous styles worn by past Love My Dress brides.

Love,

Shona x