A Stephanie Allin Gown for a Beautiful, Flower Filled Wedding at Almonry Barn in Somerset

Hello there lovelies, thanks for stopping by Love My Dress to check in our all our latest most beautiful wedding inspiration. It is wonderful to have you here, as always.

It’s a pleasure to be able to share the nuptials of primary school teachers, Fenella and James, on our site today – the couple tied the knot on 16th September 2017,  with a ceremony at St John the Evangelist Church in Milborne Port, followed by a reception at the sensationally beautiful Almonry Barn in Somerset – such a gorgeous venue boasting exposed brick walls and twinkly lights.

I adore the soft, romantic vibes of this wedding – the dress and venue alone are most beautiful, but the flowers by Bramble and Wild are simply divine. We’d like to thank the very lovely Bowtie and Belle Photography for so kindly sharing these images with us today. Over to bride Fenella…

“It was always important to me to get married in a church, but for the reception, we wanted something that reflected the beauty of the English countryside yet with an elegant feel. Thinking about colour, I never wanted one specific colour, but chose a palette of blush pink, lilac, lavender grey and darker pops of claret.”

Film by Cupcake Videos

“I’ve followed Grace from Bramble and Wild on Instagram for a while and loved all her work. After our first meeting where we discussed colours and styles, I trusted her completely and knew that she would create truly beautiful flowers for our day. I was born in Australia, so wanted to try and bring elements of native Australian flowers into the flowers. We went for eucalyptus and wax plant, which I loved. I remember Grace turning up on the morning of the wedding to my house and just thinking ‘yes, these are absolutely perfect’, I couldn’t have been happier.”

Photography by Bowtie and Belle

“Finding the perfect photographers to suit our style was really important to us, Samantha and Thomas of Bowtie and Belle could not have been better. From our first contact with them we knew they would be amazing, their warmth and friendly personalities shone through and they couldn’t have made us feel more at ease. They produced the most beautiful photos from both our pre wedding shoot (something I’d definitely recommend doing) and of all aspects of our day. We could not recommend them more.”“I wore Stephanie Allin’s Margot dress, with a customised lace shrug. I bought the dress from the wonderful Sarah Elizabeth Bridal boutique in Cheltenham. The Margot dress was one of the first dresses that both my mother and I saw and pinned on Pinterest, shortly after I got engaged. When it came to looking for dresses, we had almost forgot about it.

I had tried quite a few dresses on before we went to a boutique that stocked Stephanie Allin. As soon as I put the dress on, my face lit up and I remember saying to my mother, while spinning around in it, that I didn’t want to take it off, I had found the dress.”

Fenella wore the gorgeous open toed beauties that are ‘Luna’ by Jimmy Choo.

The couple’s save the dates were supplied by Norma & Dorothy, whilst all other stationery was created by The Wildflower Illustration Co.

“The girls and I wanted something relaxed and not too formal in their hair. My hairstylist recommended placing some small sprigs of Gypsophila amongst their pretty up-dos, it was perfect and just what I’d envisaged.”

“The girls wore their own choice of earrings. I also bought them all a cute and simple bracelet from Oliver Bonas, with 3 tiny little silver hearts.”

“A friend who had recently got married said that her favourite part of the whole wedding planning process was her trip to Jo Malone to find her signature scent, so I booked an appointment straight away! After much deliberation, I chose to use the Velvet Rose and Oud body moisturiser as a base, then wore the peony and blush perfume on top, such a wonderful combination, thank you to Jo Malone Bath!”

Fenella hired Charlotte Tillyer to style her hair and used makeup artist Kelly Hooper from The Barn.

“I’ve always admired my mother’s gold and diamond bracelet which she kindly lent me for the day as my something borrowed. I also wore a pair of pearl droplet earrings from Sarah Elizabeth.”

“My veil was a simple, cathedral length design, also by Stephanie Allin at Sarah Elizabeth. I wore several pearl and diamanté hair pins that we found at Sarah Elizabeth’s boutique.”

“St John’s is is my family church and had a special place in my heart. My grandmother used to live on the other side of the church yard.”

“We met five years ago in Birmingham, where we were both beginning our teacher training course. On a trip to New York in March 2016, James proposed under the Brooklyn Bridge, overlooking the twinkling Manhattan skyline. We were engaged for 18 months before we got married.”

The bridesmaids wore elegant lilac gowns by Amanda Wyatt along with shoes from high-street favourite, Dune.

“My father, Jonathan, accompanied me down the aisle. James is a wonderful violinist, so I walked down the aisle to a beautiful recording of him playing Pachelbel’s Canon.”

“It was really important to me to have my priest from school, Canon Richard Meyer, to marry us, he made our ceremony so special and personal. Father Richard guided us through the process of choosing the readings for our wedding. We chose quite traditional readings and wrote our own bidding prayers, read by my Auntie and James’ twin sister.”

“James and I used to live in the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham, perfect place for ring shopping! I was delighted with my engagement ring, so we went back to the store where James chose it, Aariya Diamonds. James went for a simple platinum band and I chose a platinum, channel set diamond ring.”

“We both agree that the ceremony was one of our most favourite parts of the day, seeing all our friends and family together for the first time, in such a beautiful setting. I also loved the buzz of getting ready in the morning, despite the very early start! It meant so much to get ready for our wedding in my family home and to have so many special ladies (and my dad) there to share the fun. Smoked salmon bagels, champagne, hair and make up, a girl’s dream.”

“Our venue decor included a lovely welcome sign illustrated by The Wildflower Illustration Co.. We also had hanging pearl hearts and twig lights, sourced from a small, local shop, Jo Malone candles, a Lightbox, black and white poloroid photos from Lala lab to hang from the little balcony.”

“Our reception venue was the beautiful Almonry Barn, in Muchelney, Somerset. We had always thought that we wanted a barn reception and fell in love with it as soon as we walked in.  The beautiful stone walls, twinkling fairy lights and stunning countryside created the perfect atmosphere for our celebration.”

“We wanted something really personal for the favours, so we chose homemade honey and jam. My uncle keeps bees, so supplied us with some of his delicious Surrey Honey. My mother, a wonderful cook, kindly picked and made raspberry jam for us, delicious.”

“Helen Chesterman had been recommended to us by family friends. When we visited her she took lots of time listening to what we wanted and talking us through flavour options, which my dad was delighted we got to try lots of.”

“We went for a semi naked three-tier cake, made up of chocolate, lemon and Victoria sponge, lightly covered in buttercream icing, yum. Grace, our florist, created a beautiful arrangement of flowers to cascade down the cake, a perfect finishing touch.”

“Our first dance was to The One by Kodaline. This has always been a special song for us, the words are so beautiful. We both thought it would be fun to do a bit more than just ‘sway’, so we had a dance lesson to give us some ideas and then James, with some kind help from his parents, choreographed a wonderful dance for us. The whole process was so much fun, although required lots of patience on James’ part!”

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“I would say that it’s best to give yourself lots of time to plan things out, spreading out what needs to be done so it doesn’t all come in a rush at the end. Keep lists, colour coded ones even better (can you tell I’m a primary school teacher?!) they will become your new best FRIEND.”

“Also, organise a fun day with your bridesmaids, we went to the Wedding Fair and a meal in London and it was so much fun to all get together, chat all things wedding and just enjoy each other’s company. Lastly, try to keep things in perspective, issues will arise and things will go slightly wrong at points, but remember the true reason for the day.

I would have left longer to get into my dress, so that we felt less rushed and could have had a few more group photos at home.”

What a gorgeous day! Full of joy and elegance. Our love and thanks to Samantha and Thomas of Bowtie and Belle Photography for sharing these most beautiful images.

You can see more brides wearing Stephanie Allin gowns here on Love My Dress.

Annabel x