Katie and Oliver’s wedding at Broadfield Court in Herefordshire was the perfect blend of relaxed elegance and thoughtful detail. Set in the height of summer, their beautifully considered celebration took place across this beautiful country house and gardens, with a soft, romantic colour palette and a timeless black tie dress code.
Katie wore a beautifully simple and elegant silk gown by The Own Studio and her bridesmaids wore soft blush dresses by Maids to Measure. The couple held their ceremony in the woodland, surrounded by friends and family, just as the sun broke through the trees after a light rain shower. The whole day had the feeling of a relaxed summer garden party, filled with personality, joy and effortless style. Enjoy!
Broadfield Court
We chose Broadfield Court in Hereford as our venue. We fell in love with Broadfield court the minute we saw it, it has so many options to make your wedding your own which is exactly what we wanted.
There is no ‘conveyer belt wedding’ feeling at Broadfield – every wedding is inspirationally different. We both grew up in Herefordshire and we knew we wanted to get married outside, when we saw the woodland area at Broadfield it was simply perfect. The flexibility at Broadfield is unmatched, and the fact you are able to have it for the whole weekend / as long as you want makes it even more perfect.
It was my 30th birthday the day after the wedding so we wanted to continue the celebrations and for Broadfield to feel like ours for the weekend, that’s exactly how it felt. The location, gardens, house and views are unique, not to mention how incredible Fran & Alex (the owners) are, nothing is too much trouble and the vibe is incredibly relaxed.
The whole package at Broadfield really is something phenomenal, my words don’t do it justice.
The Dress
The Own Studio
I purchased my dress from The Own Studio in London – all dresses are hand made in the UK by their seamstress. They have a beautiful showroom and you are able to either pick an ‘off the shelf’ style (they release new ones all the time) or have a completely bespoke designed dress.
As each dress is individually hand made, your dress is unique even if you pick a pre-made design as you are able to make tweaks to create the dress of your dreams. I would 100% recommend The Own Studio, and it was an enjoyable experience from start to finish.
I knew I wanted something minimal and silk, as we were having a black tie wedding outside in August (which would hopefully be warm!). I wanted to feel like me, and being comfortable was a hugely important factor. As soon as I felt the silk in The Own Studio the quality to me just stood out above any other dresses I’d tried, not to be a cliche but I truly felt amazing!
I also wanted the ability to have two looks without having to change, so I had an overlay top which I wore in the day and could then remove for the evening – I loved this aspect as it meant I could enjoy the dress for the whole day, and I can wear the top again.
I wore my sisters veil as my ‘something borrowed’ which was really lovely. It was a floor length veil with a slight sparkle to compliment the minimalist style of my dress.
My shoes were Loeffler Randall Camellia bow heeled sandal in Platinum – a touch of shimmer! I was indecisive over the smaller or taller heel height for a good few months, but I went for the smaller heel and kept them on all night – no regrets. My personalised handkerchief was from Gigi & Olive.
For my something blue I wore one of my mum’s rings which had also been worn by both my sisters on their wedding day which was so special.
My earrings were my 30th birthday present (my 30th was the day after our wedding!!). They are small diamond hoops with detachable pearls, from Missoma, I now wear them almost everyday. I also wore two small gold bracelets. One was my late grandma’s dainty gold chain which I’ve worn everyday for years, and the second was a gift from Oli on the day. It was a beautiful slim Monica Vinader bracelet with a single diamond.
The cutest flower girl dresses were from Next. My nieces loved them and they complimented the black tie so well. With my nephew only being 4, I didn’t want him uncomfortable in a child’s black tie, so he wore lovely cream shorts and short sleeve shirt (outfit also from Next). All 4 of them looked beautiful.
Having 6 bridesmaids it was important to me that they could each pick a different style dress. I went for the Maids to Measure bridesmaid dresses all in the pink blush colour, with each of my bridesmaids picking their fave!
All bridesmaids picked their own shoes and accessories, as I wanted them to be comfortable on the day. My gift to them all was a beautiful pair of Grace & Kin earrings.
The Ceremony
Just before the ceremony, after the guests arrived in sunshine, there was a rain shower. As I was about to walk down the aisle the sun came out and it added to the magic of the woodland ceremony.
The sun shone through the trees for the whole ceremony and it was incredibly special. Some of the best photos are from the pre/during/post rain shower and it added to the uniqueness of the whole day.
We feel very lucky that the rain stopped just at the right time and made everything extra beautiful, our friends and family were all in one place come rain or shine (literally).
Laura Crockett was our celebrant – she’s amazing! The beauty of having Laura as our celebrant is she got to know us as a couple and really understood what we were looking for from the get go. Although we weren’t having a traditional church wedding, we were wanted our vows to be quite traditional with a little touch of us.
We could adapt parts of the vows and the ceremony as much as we wanted, but with Laura being a talented writer little tweaking was required. We had so many comments after our ceremony about how amazing Laura was and how refreshing the ceremony / vows were.
I would 100% recommend a celebrant to add a personal touch to your service – with as much or as little personalisation as you wish.
Our readings were an extract from ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’, by Louis de Bernieres and ‘Like a River’, by Whitney Hanson. We also had a third reading but it was anonymous (not sure on title or author). All three of our readings felt like us – not too gushy – but the words resonated with us in different ways.
They slotted perfectly into our ceremony. Two were read by my brother in laws – it was so important to give them a place in the service as having been in my life for over ten years they are virtually my actual brothers!
We bespoke rings created by a jeweller in Hatton Garden. We got our wedding rings from the same jeweller who made my engagement ring and he’s a jeweller we’ve used for several years in the family so it has sentimental value.
Our videographer was James Taylor Films – he was also incredible and we are so happy with our wedding video! He captured every element of the wedding, when we watch it we feel like we are experiencing the day again with every single group of guests.
Toni and James (and their respective second photographers) were a match made in supplier heaven.
The Reception
We had a sail tent marquee from Boutique Marquees, it was majestic. Ellie Frances was our florist – Ellie is unbelievably talented! My flowers were beyond what I could have ever imagined, I knew I wanted greens, creams and peachy tones to compliment our summer woodland wedding, but seeing the colours come to life on the day was breathtaking.
I always wanted a whimsical look rather than formal, and all I gave Ellie was a brief no longer than a couple of sentences – she exceeded all expectations. Ellie also matched all the table candles to the florals to tie the whole look together – they smelt absolutely gorgeous.
As well as the floristry, my dad planted lots of different plants into terracotta pots to decorate around the marquee. This really added to the whimsical, garden party theme and tied the whole look together. We now have these pots in our garden which will be a forever memory.
Our caterers were A to Zest – absolutely delicious food – I don’t think there was a single crumb left in the marquee! For our evening food we had a pizza van – Pizza Post – we could both eat pizza all day long, ideal to soak up the sheer volume of baby Guinness consumed! As favours, we provided limoncello shots, which was a bit of fun during the toast. These were decanted into ceramic bottles on each table and I purchased cut glass shot glasses. The ceramic bottles doubled up as table numbers so no one knew they had limoncello in until the time came to drink.
Our cake was by Cakes by Karen – we went for a thin 3 tier cake with cream butter icing. Our cake was minimalist but fit perfectly with the black tie theme, complimented by a couple of our flowers to add some colour.
The best part about the cake was tasting all the samples before choosing – each flavour was unreal. We went for red velvet, raspberry & white chocolate and lemon & elderflower. We froze a couple of slices (good hack) but are sadly coming to the end of our stash.
Our original invitation was from Smith & Magpie and then all other stationery was Etsy – We purchased a design suite and edited and printed ourselves, super easy. We also used Guestpix to create a QR code where all our guests could add their photos / videos of the day which was a last minute added touch.
How They Met
We actually met when we were at school, around the age of 13/14. We grew up in the same city and then sat next to each other at sixth form – ironically always giving each other relationship advice! We didn’t ever date until post separate universities, where we both found ourselves in our 20s living in London. We got engaged in April 2023 (married August 2024), when I took Oli to Porto as a surprise for his birthday – turned out I was the one getting surprised!
Oli was kitted out in black tie by Hawes & Curtis and wore personalised cufflinks with his initials & the date – Not On The Highstreet
We also got both our dads the personalised handkerchief which was a great decision as I don’t think my father in law stopped crying once!
Evening & Dancing
We chose to have The Distractions band for the whole day, providing acoustic entertainment at the ceremony, sax at the drinks reception and full party band in evening. It was important to both of us that the vibes were vibing all day long, with a live band being our number one non-negotiable. The personalised service provided by The Distractions is unique.
Our band performed ‘Can’t take my eyes off you’ by Frankie Valli for our first dance. We wanted a song that had a bit of both – a bit for the two of us but then a song everyone knew to get up and dancing to kick start the evening. Plus I personally don’t like being the centre of attention for too long which is ironic on your wedding day.
Words of Wedded Wisdom
Such a classic, but it’s your wedding (!!) Don’t let the opinions of others stop you from having the day you’ve always dreamt of. There’s a lot of people to consider and a lot of decisions to be made, never lose sight of your reason for getting married in the first place and the happiness of you and your partner is the priority.
My advice is to not worry so much about everyone else having a good time. It’s a wedding, everyone will always have a good time! No guests knows what was meant to be, they only know what is at the time.
Planning a wedding can feel overwhelming at times, but with an incredible venue, suppliers, and support network, enjoy every minute of the process – it only happens once (hopefully!)
We did end up exceeding our budget – not excessively, but we each prioritised some non-negotiables which did mean spending a bit more than expected to have the day we really wanted.
