Almost everyone has a wedding photographer at their wedding, even wedding photographers themselves, but who on earth do they chose? Today’s beautiful bride is Amber of Liberty Pearl Photography and she and her husband Jesse chose Grace Elizabeth Photography to capture the day they became Mr and Mrs Leach, as well as one of Amber’s colleagues.
Amber and Jesse, who is operations manager at Pennywell Farm, met on a Christian dating website, Christian Connection, got engaged on Dartmoor and married on the 21st of May 2016 at Kingsand Village Hall in Cornwall. As well as the gorgeous photographs, Grace Elizabeth Photography also shot a wedding film for the happy couple.
“We absolutely love our photographs and video. Grace and Mitch are such a lovely creative duo and we are so pleased we chose them to capture our wedding.”
“We wanted a simple and elegant wedding with a green and white colour palette and a splash of colour in the bouquet. I love flowers so they were a major part of the day. We chose very simple and minimal decorations but with lots of flowers and foliage everywhere. It wasn’t a traditional wedding, just very relaxed. I love nature so our inspiration came from the natural world.”
Images by Grace Elizabeth Photography
Amber looked beautiful in the simple but stunning ‘Calla’ by Suzanne Neville, from the 2016 Songbird Collection, which she purchased from The Mews Bridal in Clifton Village Bristol.
“I wanted something very simple and elegant and very comfortable to wear. I am very petite and curvy so wanted something to show off my figure and this dress was perfect. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it.”
Amber teamed her gown with a ribbon edged veil, also from The Mews Bridal, a pair of lace heels from New Look and a squirt of Illicit by Jimmy Choo, which was a gift from Jesse.
“I knew that I wanted a huge colourful bouquet so I went for very simple accessories- just a pair of beautiful handmade silver and pearl earrings by Victoria Sewart. I wanted to be very plain, understated and naturally beautiful with a splash of colour and make a statement with the bouquet.”
“I didn’t want matching bridesmaids so they all wore green dresses from different places. They didn’t have matching bouquets either. It was hard finding something in the shade of green that I wanted as I love green but I was very particular about the shade.”
“I bought eight dresses for the bridesmaids in total until I found the right ones as I wanted the girls to wear something they felt comfortable in.”
“My make up (by Oksana Beauty Salon) was very natural with a beautiful subtle coral lipstick and very elegant yet simple hair up. It was my hair stylist (Zoe at Regan Hair in Plymouth) who suggested I have my veil to the side and it looked great.”
The flower girls looked very sweet in either white lace dresses and lace white shoes or green knee length dresses with white shoes, while the boys looked smart in outfits from Next and Marks and Spencer.
“I wanted exotic, wild, colourful corals mixed with simple whites with an abundance of foliage and I wanted all the bouquets to be different. I didn’t want the wedding to be perfect and matching, I wanted it to be raw and naturally beautiful. We used a new Plymouth based company for the flowers – Bloom and Flourish.”
“Mary’s floral designs are out of this world, wild and wonderful, using local and seasonal flowers. She helped me create my vision and I couldn’t have been happier.”
“I grew up in Cornwall so it is very special to me and my family and I have photographed a number of weddings at Kingsand Village Hall. We wanted a large venue for our 150 guests and the village hall allowed us to do everything ourselves.
We wanted a venue by the sea because I love everything about the beautiful Cornish coast line and pretty little fishing villages. We also loved the outdoor garden in which we planned to have our ceremony (which we didn’t use in the end due to to torrential rain. It actually rained all day but you couldn’t tell from the photographs).”
The couple’s pastor led the ceremony, which took place in the village hall, and Amber’s proud brother accompanied her down the aisle to ‘Bright’ by Echosmith.
“My family and friends are very musical, we go to church and love singing and music is a huge part of our life. All the musicians on the day were friends or family members so they knew exactly what we would like and we worked with them beforehand to create a playlist of live music.”
“We wrote our own vows. We are both Christians but lots of our friends and family are not, so we wanted a ceremony that incorporated our values and beliefs but also wasn’t too off-putting for our non-Christian guests. We also asked our pastor to ask us both what we love about each other so he could read out our replies during the ceremony. It was so beautiful and very funny because lots of them were the same.”
The couple also chose two readings, the first an extract from ‘Les Misérables’ by Victor Hugo and the second all about adventure.
You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving. The great acts of love are done by those who are habitually performing small acts of kindness. We pardon to the extent that we love. Love is knowing that even when you are alone, you will never be lonely again. And great happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved. Loved for ourselves. And even loved in spite of ourselves.
Jesse: “My favourite part of the day was seeing Amber come into church and walk down the aisle. I actually felt like shouting and jumping for joy but didn’t want to take away from the special moment.”
“The ceremony, led by our friend, was also very special to us both because it was relaxed, meaningful and it included our children. My daughter read out what she felt about the new family in an amazingly confident, sincere and loving way and the sense of love, peace and joy amongst all our friends and family was just blissful. It was almost as if we were in a different dimension for the day.”
“Jesse bought my 1930’s art-deco engagement ring in New York. I couldn’t find a wedding ring to match so I just wear it on its own. Jesse chose a plain silver ring from a local silver stall”
“Jesse wore a light blue summer tweed suit jacket from Ted Baker with beige chinos and brown brogues. We wanted to buy something that was tailored and good quality, but comfortable and that he felt relaxed in, and that he could wear again.”
“We also had bow ties made from beautiful blue floral Liberty of London fabrics by Little Red Fox which looked fantastic.”
“To decorate the hall we had a collection of handmade pottery from Jesse’s uncle Jeremy Leach (Jesse’s great grandfather is the well know potter Bernard Leach so we wanted to include some of his family history in our wedding day). The collection was a beautiful shade of green and we filled them with gorgeous bright flowers in corals, whites and greens.”
The food was provided by Amber’s mother, while the desserts were provided by the guests in a ‘bring and share’ style. For favours, the flower abundance theme was continued with wildflower seeds for each guest.
“We used Edible Essence for our cake and it both tasted and looked exquisite. It was also so big we couldn’t eat it all! I wanted a very simple design so that it could be decorated with flowers so we went for a semi naked Victoria sponge.”
Entertainment came in the form of singer and guitarists Keniesha Miller, Esther Cole and Andy Quick, who are all talented friends of the bride and groom.
For stationery, the Prop Factory designed love letters as invitations.
Words of Wedded Wisdom
“We planned our wedding in nine weeks and it was crazy, but worth it. It took a lot of the decisions away from us which made things a lot easier (because lots of suppliers were already booked) and it helped with the budget (because we didn’t have time to save, we could only spend what we had).”
“Lots of our friends helped out and it was so amazing, and made our day even more special.”
Huge thanks to the lovely Amber and Jesse and congratulations on your new blended family.
Much love,
Shona x
Credits & Thanks
- Photographer - Grace Elizabeth Photography
- Venue - Kingsand Village Hall, Cornwall
- Bride's Dress - 'Calla' by Suzanne Neville, purchased from The Mews Bridal, Bristol
- Veil - The Mews Bridal
- Shoes - New Look
- Earrings - Victoria Sewart
- Scent - Illicit by Jimmy Choo
- Hair stylist - Regan Hair, Plymouth (no details)
- Make up artist - Oksana Beauty Salon
- Groom's Outfit - Ted Baker with bow tie from Little Red Fox
- Page boy outfits - Next + Marks and Spencer
- Flowers - Bloom and Flourish
- Cake - Edible Essence
- Stationery - Prop Factory
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.
