A Charming + Elegant Countryside Wedding In The Cotswolds

Hello lovely ones! Today’s wedding is wedding party goals with a gorgeous set of bridesbabes, groomsquad and of course bride and groom to be in awe of. A truly scrumptious day, it was made personal by using the bride and grooms favourite things as decor, and the grooms roots to inspire the cake. So without further ado, let’s read all about it.

Solicitor Emma and history teacher Rob were married on 26th May 2018 at the award-winning luxury Cotswold House Hotel & Spa in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire.

“We’d visited (too many!) of venues in the Cotswold area but instantly fell in love in the Cotswold House Hotel as soon as we saw it – it just ticked all of our boxes.”

Photography by Oobaloos Photography

To set the memories of the day in stone and capture the magic on camera, the couple recruited the services of alternative wedding photographer Sheryl Fish of Oobaloos Photography.

“Sheryl is truly amazing! We searched long and hard for a photographer who ‘got’ us and what our vision was and Sheryl did not disappoint! Her work is so gorgeous and unique and she captured our day perfectly.”

“We are serial eye closers and hate posing for photos, but despite that, Sheryl managed to get some really beautiful shots. Not only that, she was great fun to have around on the day and made everyone feel so at ease. Our guests loved her too, so much so, two of them have already booked her for their own weddings on our anniversary!”

“She expertly wrangled our wayward friends and family into the group shots and singlehandedly rescued our first dance after the DJ had to go home and retrieve a vital piece of equipment right before he was due to start. I can’t recommend Sheryl highly enough!”

“Rob and I had our first date in a pub that served Thai food. Rob had forgotten to book a table and was winging it. Fortunately it didn’t matter and he got the rest of the evening right! The proposal came the weekend following our anniversary when we were out to dinner once again.”

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“Rob had for some reason previously mentioned another anniversary present that ‘hadn’t arrived yet’. He usually eats like a horde but was picking his way through his main course.”

“We got to dessert and I asked when my other present would be arriving. Rob then reached into his pocket and pulled out the ring box. I played it cool, not wanting to assume it was an engagement ring and then he sheepishly asked if I would marry him. Apparently the plan was to propose on an upcoming trip to Berlin, but he got scared that the ring would be somehow discovered at the airport!”

Emma’s dad accompanied her down the aisle, walking in to Canon in D by Pachelbel, and the bride chose a traditional white lace dress by David Tutera via Grand Jour Bridal Boutique in Stonehouse for the occasion.

“It was my first dress shopping day and although I knew what style I wanted, I tried on around 12 dresses in total. My chosen dress was around number 5 or 6 and after that, myself, my maid of honour, mum and aunt all kept comparing each dress to that one.”

“That was how we knew it was ‘the one’. I loved the shape and fit of the dress, and the lace detailing. It was the dress that felt the most right, all it needed was some straps, which were an easy addition to make.”

“Our wedding rings were bought from Malcom Perry Quarterstone Jewellers in Birmingham. I’m from near Birmingham originally and needed my ring specially made to fit the shape of my engagement ring. We visited a number of other jewellers but Malcom was the nicest and most genuine character; a true, old school craftsman!”

“We chose The Bay Tree in Chipping Campden as our florists and opted for classic flower combinations of roses, pink astrantia, sweet peas and cornflowers to match the colour theme of the day.”

“Sue does the general flower arrangements for the venue and knew what would work with the room space etc. It also saved us some money as she made sure she did all of the arrangements around the venue in our colour scheme for that week.”

“My veil was also from Grand Jour Bridal Boutique and I wore wood sage and sea salt by Jo Malone as my perfume on the day. I love this scent and wear it often.”

“Although a wedding is special and lots of things about the day are out of the ordinary, I wanted to keep my scent consistent.”

The bridesbabes each wore full length navy dresses by Veromia Bridesmaid via A-Z Wedding Services in Stourport-on-Severn, to compliment the groom and his groomsmen’s navy 3-piece suits from Slaters. The grooms extras included a pink tie from Moss Bros and a watch, a gift from his bride on the morning of the wedding.

“We won all of our wedding stationery, by Aine Kelly of Smitten Ink, in a local online charity auction one of my bridesmaids had tagged me in. The proceeds went to two children with cystic fibrosis to fund oscillation vests.”

“For our wedding day, we really wanted to keep it personal and ‘us’. We both love reading (our bookcase is our pride and joy) so our table decor consisted of navy blue vintage style hardback books, along with one of our favourite books which also acted as the table name.”

“Tables for Rob’s side had one of the Emma’s favourite books and vice versa. We also thought the books would be a good way of starting conversation amongst guests at the tables. We drink tea by the gallon and think that a good book, along with tea and biscuits, is one of life’s little luxuries. By making the shortbread teapots as favours, we hoped our guests would appreciate the personal touch and effort put into them.”

“Other decor included E&R light up letters, a fairylight canopy and chivari chairs hired from Blue Goose Hire, and blackboard signage around the venue which I made myself.”

“Other than the I Do’s, our favourite part of the day was the evening reception. We had given the DJ company a playlist of songs we wanted played and so apart from a few interesting special requests, we and our guests had a great time dancing to all our old favourites.”

“As mentioned earlier, we provided our guests with favours of shortbread teapots made by myself with tea from Whittards. We painstakingly packaged everything in boxes and stamped them with a personalised stamp made by Rob and my maid of honour.”

Following the ceremony, guests were treated to canapes and a drinks reception in the glorious sunshine, before heading indoors for the wedding breakfast provided by the venue.

“Instead of a traditional wedding cake, we opted for a Cornish cream tea with clotted cream and strawberry jam, decorated with fresh strawberries, all supplied by Maryanne Robinson. We didn’t think either ourselves or our guests would particularly enjoy a traditional cake as much as a cream tea! Rob and his family are Cornish so it was also a nod to his roots.”

“Our first dance song was Wildfire by Seafret. We really love the band and have seem them live. This song in particular is special to us. It’s both upbeat and slow enough for a first dance and the lyrics are very wedding appropriate!”

 

“The video for the song is also quite interesting as it’s based on a social experiment to see if it’s possible for strangers to fall in love. A group of volunteers agree to be put into pairs, and then answer the same 36 questions then at the end, they have to stare into each others eyes for 4 minutes.”

Words Of Wedded Wisdom

“Don’t go overboard on the wedding magazines and Pinterest! All of these things are really helpful for information and inspiration, but choose two or three magazines and blogs as your go-to’s, otherwise it can get overwhelming because you’ll want EVERYTHING!”

“Try to enjoy the planning and organising and do it together. After all the perceived stress, you’ll miss the day it’s all over! Choosing the venue is likely to be the most stressful part.”

“Don’t sweat the small stuff on the day. It’s likely no one will notice that it should have been any different and that time is better spent enjoying it and making sure you remember all the great moments. Even if things do go wrong , it actually makes the day more interesting and more ‘yours’ – people won’t forget it!”

“We viewed 7 potential venues over a couple of weekends. This was far too many as they all start to merge into one. If you don’t already have somewhere in mind, we would recommend viewing 3 or 4.”

“In hindsight, we would have brought the ceremony forward by an hour (it was at 2pm but I was still late!) to give us more time afterwards to mingle and enjoy the beautiful gardens. It was also fortunate that we had been so picky on the playlist as we had it saved on Spotify on my phone so we could play our tracks through the hotels PA system at a lower volume whilst we waited for the DJ to come back.”

Thank you Emma and Rob for sharing your beautiful and very special day with us, and to Oobaloos Photography for sharing the gorgeous imagery.

Until next time…

Much love,

Holly x