An ASOS Wedding Dress for a Woodland Inspired Autumn Wedding

A close friend is getting married later this year and has been considering having a first look before the ceremony – this wasn’t something I considered for my own wedding, three and a half years ago, but they have become increasingly popular in recent years and I can completely see why- a few minutes (or longer) at the start of the day to see one another privately and get all excited for the day to come together?  Sounds perfect to me. (Needless to say I have been encouraging my friend to go for it).

Today’s pretty wedding at Hexham Winter Gardens in Northumberland started with this lovely private moment and was just perfect for our lovely couple, who were determined to make their day their own.  Meet Katy and Glen, who married on the 12th of November 2016, surrounded by their family and friends.

“We were inspired by the surrounding of our venue and our love for the woods and camping.  Choosing autumn/winter for our wedding was always something we’d agreed on and a lot of our decor inspiration came from that.  Greens, reds and golds made up most of our colour scheme but we weren’t particularly strict with them as our main decisions were purely based on what we loved.  We didn’t want to answer to anyone else and so chose our favourite things and people to surround ourselves with on the day.”

Photography by Green Antlers

Katy looked beautiful in a gown from ASOS, worn with knee high moccasin boots from Minnetonka and a gorgeous flower crown, made by her mum.

“I loved the naturalness of my ASOS dress.  After trying on lots of bridal gowns I just didn’t feel comfortable, so I looked on the high street and eventually spent weeks admiring ‘my’ dress until my Mum pushed me to just order it.”
“It turns out, as usual, that my mum was exactly right as it fit me perfectly and the embroidery was exactly me. When you know you know, and I just knew.”

The bridesmaids chose their own dresses and paired their choice with their own shoes so each lady looked beautifully different.  The little flowergirls looked sweet in gowns from Next.

In her hair Katy wore pearl hairclips, which were a gift from one of her bridesmaids, as well as a diamond necklace she owns, which was a 21st birthday gift from her Gran.

Glen looked super cool in his ASOS suit, worn with a knitted bowtie from Broni and Bo, boots from Barbour and a pocket watch which once belonged to his great grandfather.

As a finishing touch he wore cufflinks in the shape of a Mini- a gift from Katy’s parents to represent the couple’s beloved car.

“My Mum and I took on the challenge of the flowers; she created the flower crowns and buttonholes and myself and a bridesmaid created the bouquets the night before.  As an aspiring florist myself I welcomed the chance to try my hand. We used lots of foliage and greenery as we really wanted to bring the outside in, as well as purple heather, red roses and white carnations, purple thistles and eucalyptus.”

Today’s beautiful images are the work of Sam and Diana of Green Antlers Photography– one of my personal favourite photography duos and frequent contributors to Love My Dress.

“Our favourite part of the day was our first look portraits we took with Sam and Diana- having that hour before hand just the two of us with no one to please and just to be alone before we got caught up in the craziness of our wedding day.”

“We absolutely adored Sam and Diana.  Having a married couple shoot our wedding was a dream and we loved their photography style from the moment we set eyes on their pictures.  They were a dream to work with and made us feel so at ease; we cannot recommend them highly enough.”

“We chose the winter gardens because it was a blank canvas and we wanted to be able to create the wedding we had in our minds without any restraints.  It also happened to be halfway between both of our hometowns of Durham and Carlisle.”

Katy walked down the aisle to a piano cover of ‘A Thousand Years’ by The Piano Guys.

“Both my mum and my dad walked with me as  I love them both equally and wanted to make the tradition a little more modern.”

“We wrote our own vows and kept them a secret until the moment we said them.  I can honestly say it was one of our favourite parts of the day hearing those pure and true words for the first time in front of each other.”

“We also included a hand fasting blessing in our ceremony as we loved the symbolism of this binding agreement and our humanist celebrant Kate did an outstanding job with this.”

The couple chose two readings- a speech from Game of Thrones beginning ‘As you are the Moon of his life, he shall be your sun and stars’, and ‘An Apache Blessing’.

“Both of these reading took some searching but eventually we found readings that spoke to us.”

An Apache Blessing

Now you will feel no rain,
For each of you will be the shelter for the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
For each of you will be the warmth for the other.
Now there will be no loneliness,
For each of you will be the companion to the other.
Now you are two persons,
But there are three lives before you:
His life, her life, and your life together.
Go now to your dwelling place
to enter into your days together,
And may all your days be good and long upon the Earth.”

The couple exchanged rings purchased from Durham City Watches in their home city.

For favours, Katy and Glen provided tea and coffee sachets for their guests, purchased from Whittard, choosing a loose leaf mulled wine tea and San Agustin Colombian coffee- both favourites of theirs.

As Hexham Winter  Gardens is a dry hire venue Katy and Glen hired in pretty furniture from Special Event Tipis and Katy’s parents bought light up festoon letters which read ‘K&G’ to add an extra special touch.

“One of my favourite decorations was the fairy lights which we used to light the outside of the room. We made use of lots of greenery, pine cones and branches which we spray painted gold and also had tons of tea lights dotted around.”

“I made the cake a few weeks prior to the wedding and froze it, as we just wanted a simple naked cake. My mum assembled it on the morning of the wedding and we decorated it with delicate icing oak leaves and berries made by a family friend (who also made the same oak leaves and berries for my christening cake).”

Local pizza van, Scream for Pizza, provided the delicious food.

Evening entertainment was provided by Jonny O’Donnell.

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Do and choose what will make you both happy on the day.  If you want something don’t let people or tradition change your mind because it’s your day.

Find other people going through the planning process, talk to them and use their knowledge and advice to fuel your own planning, the Love my Dress Facebook group was invaluable in the last few months of planning our wedding as the girls were a constant support and fountain of information.”

So many thanks to Glen and Katy for sharing their beautiful day and to Green Antlers Photography for allowing us to feature their work.  Are you tempted by a first look?  Take a peek here for some previous couples who have chosen this option- but watch out- there are a lot of emotional images!

All my love,

Shona x