Katya Katya Shehurina Lace for Romantic Somerset Countryside Wedding

Good morning everyone – welcome to the start of another beautiful week on this beautiful wedding blog. It’s set to be a very busy week; I’ve two big meetings over the next few days, to advance a huge project we’ve been working on for several months now. Whilst I’ve sprinkled a few cryptic hints across social media land as to what we’re up to, we’ll not be ready to make a full announcement for another 3 months or so. I’m sorry (ha!) to keep teasing, but I truly promise those who love visiting this blog, that the wait will be worth it.

I’m delighted to be kick-starting the week with this lovely Somerset wedding. The bride, Jo, who works in the voluntary sector, married her beau Ash on 27th August last year at Nunney in Somerset. The couple’s wedding beautifully captures the essence of a South West country wedding in the summer and I love how Jo encapsulates that essence in the paragraph below. I also love that she and Ash chose to hire our faves, McKinley Rogers and Story Catchers to document their wedding day in images and film.

McKinley Rodgers have been a supporter of Love My Dress right from the very early days back in 2009/10 – we truly love the sensitivity with which this married couple (Pen and Cam) go about document weddings and make absolutely no hesitate in recommending them to you today.

Film by Story Catchers

“We wanted our wedding to be very relaxed. We wanted it to feel like a community event – with our friends involved in creating it with us. I love the warm colours of the end of summer, the dusty air from the harvest, the cider and the flowers. I guess I was inspired by the time of year, and the things I associate with being at home in Somerset. I grew up in Nunney, and my parents still live in the village.”

Photography by McKinley Rogers

“Our photographers were Pen and Cam of McKinley Rogers. What an amazing pair they are – they were so lovely to us on the day, incredibly easy to work with, calm and patient. They seemed to blend in with the guests, never got in the way or stood in front of everyone (I hate it when photographers do that). Ash and I both felt very looked after by them and trusted them completely to produce the pictures we wanted. They totally blew us away with the photos – they are amazing and we treasure them so much.

We are pretty obsessed with our film! We almost didn’t go for it as it seemed an extra expense that we could do without, but we are so happy we decided to ask Cam to make it – it’s the most lovely thing to watch, the joy he captured is just wonderful.”

“Ash and I met on an internet date, in Peckham (we are so glamorous!). We both knew very quickly that we were going to stay together forever, I’ll never forget those first few months of being utterly gobsmacked that I’d found someone who made me feel so happy and content.”

“A year later, Ash proposed. Having meticulously planned a romantic proposal dinner (in Peckam!) on our one year anniversary, he actually ended up not being able to wait and so asked me to marry him on a Monday morning, before we left for work!”

“This sounds hugely unromantic, but actually couldn’t have been lovelier – we both cried such a ridiculous amount it was rather nice to sob and hug, and sob some more, without a restaurant full of diners looking at us. It was one of the most mind blowing moments of my life and I’m so happy it was just us.”

“We were engaged for ten months before the wedding.”

“The flowers from my Mum’s garden, and my crown braid was created by my very clever friend.”

“Katya Shehurina was the first shop I visited – her dresses are so incredibly beautiful I fell in love with each one as I tried it on.”

“But then the one I ended up choosing (Rosa) was presented to me, and there was no going back.”

“I visited a couple of other places, just to be sure (because it seemed a bit odd to have found it so quickly) – but I couldn’t stop thinking about the Katya Shehurina dress.”

“I love the skirt – it’s so full and swooshy, and the silk taffeta catches the light so beautifully, it glows. I love the high neck and the beading – and the cap sleeves.”

Beneath her skirt, Jo wore a pair of sparkly gold shoes from Monsoon.

“I wanted my bridesmaids to feel happy and comfortable and have dresses that they would wear again, so I gave them a colour scheme and asked them to buy whatever they wanted to wear. I love the dresses they chose so much.”

“They were bought on Etsy, Ebay and from Ellie’s Attic. My bridesmaids wore their own choice of shoes.”

“My mum painted the flowers which we used for all of our stationery. Our friends designed the invitation for us.”

“My Dad accompanied me down the aisle to the sound of ‘Te Deum Prelude’ by Charpentier’.”

“The moments before I walked in to the church, with the bells ringing and my bridesmaids fussing around me was my favourite part of the day – I hung on to my Dad’s arm and I felt so full of love and excitement I thought I would burst. It was an incredible moment.”

The couple’s two ceremony readings were ‘Love is a temporary madness’, an extract from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, and John Steinbeck’s letter to his son Thom (taken from ‘Letters of Note’).

“Our rings were made by Sonia Cheadle, who is a friend of ours – it was really exciting choosing our rings, and she was so helpful and made them beautifully.”

“Also (am I allowed two favourite parts?) vowing, in front of everyone I love, to commit my life to Ash. It blew my mind a little – and I don’t really have the right words to describe how special it was.

I wouldn’t have done anything differently.. nothing at all.”

“My mum grew all the flowers – we planted so many cosmos and dahlias. We also picked greenery from the fields.”

“The villagers all donated flowers from their gardens – it was lovely. In fact it was village donated rose petals which we dried to make the confetti.”

“The necklace I wore was made from the ring Ash proposed to me with – it was just a cheap ring, bought as a stand in, but the stone was a beautiful opal and I loved it so much, so we had it made into a necklace which I wore on the day. I also wore my mother’s gold bracelet.”

“A friend made the seating plan for us (so so beautifully, with origami paper flowers…). And I made all the table numbers – just by cutting them out of card and sticking them in vases of flowers.”

“Ash and I made a lot of paper decorations – what felt like miles of tassel garlands. Our sitting room was full of it for months! Also paper pompoms, they’re really easy and quick to make. I made an origami paper crane for each guest, as a place name (my Dad wrote all the names and stuck them on).”

“We bought fairy lights on Amazon, and hundreds of candles. My friends helped me collect jam jars for the candles and the flowers – I also grabbed vases from charity shops whenever I saw one.”

“Keren Hayden from Events Horizon she did the most amazing job of catering and co-ordinating the event.”

In the evening, the couple and their guests were entertained by the band Fromage En Feu, following which, a friend of theirs DJ’d.

“Our first dance was to ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ by Andy Williams. The band played this for us, and we hadn’t practised once.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Don’t get lost in the hugeness of it – it’s a celebration of love and friendship and family. You’re doing something totally beautiful, surrounded by your most special people – so really, not much can go wrong. Forget about the flowers being perfect or the colours matching, that stuff really doesn’t matter, and so what if it rains – dance in it.”

So very lovely and charming! Thank you so much as always McKinley Rogers and Story Catchers for sharing your work, and my love, thanks and congratulations to you also Jo and Ash for allowing us to share your delightful wedding.

You can see more brides wearing Katya Katya Shehurina gowns here, and more from the wonderful McKinley Rogers Photography on Love My Dress here.

Pop back at 1pm for a look through the latest collection from one of our absolute fave wedding dress designers ever.

Love Annabel x