A Relaxed, Colourful, Country Fete Inspired Wedding

Morning all 🙂 As this post goes live at 7am, I will be on a train on my way to London, to meet with my fellow judging panel members for the 2012 UK Wedding Awards – I'm really excited about these awards and can't wait for the awards ceremony next month – something to look forward to and chase the post-Christmas blues away 🙂

It always makes me smile when I know the Bride who's wedding I'm writing about used to visit Love My Dress before she got married …. "I love Love My Dress!  I’m so happy to be on here as I visited the blog on a daily basis for months", says Bride Tash, who tried the knot with her beau Mikey on 20 August this year.   The couple had a Church ceremony followed by a marquee reception and it was all captured beautifully on camera by Marshalgray Photography.

Tash looked so full of happy in her Pronovias wedding dress form Angelica Bridal in Islington

"The second I put on my wedding dress, I knew it was 'the one'. I didn’t like it on the hanger but the assistant insisted I try it as she thought it’d suit me. I was instantly relieved as it pulled me in all the right places and I felt confident wearing it.

Dieting was one less thing I’d have to worry about and most importantly, I felt like a bride. Other dresses I’d tried had been slightly more informal but as soon as I saw myself in this, the wedding changed direction! I just added a sash for a splash of colour…"

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2011, Marshalgray Photography

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"We went with our Florist, Gillia de Pass, as we’d seen het work before, including a beautiful floral church artchway, so we went to visit her at her home. She seemed to completely understand the look we were going for and was so passionate that we didn’t hesitate to book her there and then. We were initially planning to have jugs on the table but Gillia suggested jars and candles as it would look less ‘blocky’ and give it a more relaxed feel which is exactly what we were after.

I wanted all the flowers to be different on the table and have a wild, summer garden feel. We also had 4 bouquets of flowers in large tin jugs around the marquee. Gillia also leant us her handmade signs we put on the bar and at the entrance…"

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"We wanted a country fete/relaxed feel with loads of colour and nothing matching. Not really sure where this idea came from, but we’d been to weddings before that we felt didn’t reflect the couple so we wanted to put our individual stamp on it and make sure every single person there had a great time {we gave the children party bags and balls which they loved, for example, and tried to cater for varied music tastes too}…"

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"The Church was in Elstead in Surrey as my (Natasha’s ) Dad and Step Mum live there and whenever I had driven past she always thought it seemed sweet and idyllic, so it immediately sprang to mind when Mikey popped the question. The moment we stepped in we knew it was the exactly what we were both after as it was simple and welcoming. We both knew we didn’t want somewhere that everything was done for us so we could really make it our own but didn’t know where to begin. Amazingly a family friend heard our woes very kindly offered us her empty field for the reception . We initially looked at in February but even in frost it was perfect; secluded and laid back but achingly beautiful…"

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"We met in Australia in 2003 in a youth hostel and have travelled all the world together since. We’ve just bought our first flat together in Stoke Newington, North London. Mikey proposed on a secluded beach down in North Cornwall in February. I had no idea he was going to do it and when he pulled the ring out I actually thought it was a joke, I was so shocked couldn’t believe he’d gone to the effort of traipsing around Hatton garden. I felt quite guilty as I’d been quite mad at him when he’d bought me milk throther (I don’t like milky coffee) as a birthday present! Turns out he’d totally forgotten due to ring buying, so had dashed to our nearest shop."

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"We hired the marquee, tables and chairs from Four Seasons Marquees and they came and put it up. We bought loads (400ft) of bunting from ebay and hung it from the poles for the village fete feel. We also got lanterns from ebay that we hung from cheap garden twine and tied it a long fairy lights that we’d bought from ebay (3 x 100m) and put around the edge of the marquee and up the poles. Natasha’s sister made pom poms that we hung alongside the lanterns and idea she got from Martha Stewart Weddings.

The mismatched glasses, chalk boards and rugs came from Deluxe Hire. Natasha’s Grandmother made the table runners out of hessian. We bought some hay bails from a local farmer for seating and found some old logs as make do outdoor tables…"

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"We wanted everyone to feel special so we picked places we’d been too and that were special to us as table names and wrote a story to go along with it for each table. We got wrote names on slate and hung them from a branch we made into a tree and at the entrance to the marquee. Family friend Eve Deary made them for us and gorgeous slate and cheese boards. {email [email protected]}.

We felt it really added a personal touch to the day and got lots of comments about the finer details. We enlisted family and friends to hand write place names with calligraphy pens and Mikey wrote up stories of table names on card we found in art stores.

We picked hanging leaves and heather from the local area and hung it around the poles using garden wire and weaving it around the poles (yes this was a long labour of love and we needed  very tall ladder) but totally worth it as it made such a difference to the feel of the marquee and gave it a real outdoors feel…"

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"We didnt have favours as such, but we did purchase some luxury napkins from ebay and tied them with twine and lavender from the common. It looked gorgeous and smelled really nice when you walked into the marquee…"

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"We pain stakingly researched every inch of our wedding ourselves; from the jam jars and stripped straws to generators and mismatched glasses. I had a clear vision in my mind of how it should look and it was utterly worth all the hard work…"

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"Our entertainment, The Notes, were amazing! They absolutely rocked. We had them all day so they started as we arrived with some acoustic singing with piano to songs we’d hand picked from a selection, they played through dinner which kept it relaxed. They hadn’t planned to do that but as we’d taken longer than expected with photos they gave us an impromptu performance. After dinner and speeches the groomsmen called a ceilidh. Everyone loved it.

The Notes performed out first dance and then rocked some amazing tunes which were cool and not your normal wedding music. Rob (from the Notes) was then DJ til the wee hours and to save annoying the neighbours we had a silent disco from 11pm which was one of the highlights of the day and meant we could dance til 4am. Everyone really got into it and was so much fun…"

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Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"Make sure you get a full quote (including vat) from every single person you’ll be hiring from before you book anything. Get help from the groom during the budgeting as it’s very stressful and can spiral easily. Shop around and you don’t have to get everything from one supplier. You’ll be surprised at how quickly savings add up – £100 here, £50 there soon add up to your honeymoon.

Also taking time to add personal touches that reflect your relationship and will make your day unique to you. Also don’t panic about the weather, it probably will rain but it won’t ruin your day! Promise."

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Huge thanks to Marshalgray Photography who submitted these gorgeous photographs for a feature…

"Our photographer Gary Lashmar of Marshalgray was brilliant from start to finish. We’ve had countless comments about how incredible the photos are and we loved the engagement shoot where we got to know each other and loosened up in front of the camera."

Do we like? I think we do 🙂 It's been a while since I had a Pronovias Bride on the blog – who else will be showing off a lovely Pronovias design on their wedding day?

Much love,

Annabel xXx

Photographer – Marshalgray Photography
Brides dress + Veil -  Pronovias via Angelica Bridal in Islingto + The Wedding Veil shop
Shoes – Wild Swans. 54 Cross Street, Islington
Groom – His own kilt + kilt jacket, shirt and tie from RM McDonald in East Lothian + Ted Baker shoes
Bridesmaids – Coast
Transport – Austin Heely
Florist -  Gillia de Pass
Cake – Cupcakes by the Brides Grandmother
Hair and make-up Artist – Jane Weston + hair by ‘Rose’ at Joes Salon in Mayfair
Catering Company – Owen Hospitality
Entertainment – The Notes

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.

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