Architect and Interior Designer Miranda tied the knot with Financial Analyst Chris on 20th November 2021 at North Cadbury Court in North Cadbury, Wiltshire, South West England.
The couple had originally planned to wed in September 2020, but the pandemic lead to a delay in the proceedings and two postponements.
The couple eventually went ahead with a late Autumn/early Winter wedding, and mega talents, The Springles captured the beautiful warmth of it all. This truly is the most beautifully styled and documented wedding. I hope you love it and are inspired by it as much as I am.
Venue & Location
Our venue was North Cadbury Court in Somerset. When approaching our venue search, we had a few criteria – somewhere that all our friends and family could stay, relax and have fun alongside us, close to Bath (where I grew up) and, with a nearby Church for the ceremony.
We visited a number of venues in the area, with two others on the same day as North Cadbury. With North Cadbury being the last to visit, it all felt a bit Goldilocks. What was lacking in one sense from each of the other venues that we’d seen before was totally found, and exceeded, at North Cadbury.
The house in itself is a dream, with everything beautifully finished, yet all feeling so homely and relaxing – nothing felt ‘wedding-y’, or like a conveyor belt of weddings may be passing through. The grounds however were what really flawed us, though I think for Chris – the rooftop golf was what truly sealed the deal! An added bonus was the proximity of the Church, St Michael’s, which was a few moments’ walk away and such a beautiful light church, with the most stunning stained-glass window beyond the altar.
At the time of visiting, we signed up to the house and its grounds being able to host roughly 50 of our guests overnight, but as a perk of the Covid postponements, by the time we were married, the Court had finished their stunning renovations of their coach houses so we ended up with around 80 people staying on site across the weekend.
Beyond the house, and its grounds and facilities, the staff at North Cadbury couldn’t have been more fantastic, Georgia and her team were like extended family throughout the weekend, who couldn’t have been more kind and helpful, yet let us have the run of the house to feel like it was truly ours for the weekend.
It was all just perfect.
The Dress
My dress was by Suzanne Neville, from Carina Baverstock Couture bridal boutique in Bradford on Avon, Bath. From growing up in Bath I’d always had a vague awareness of Carina’s boutique, looking at the beautiful dresses in the windows as you drive past it etc. I was due home a week after we had gotten engaged and, in my eagerness, had booked into a fitting at a boutique in Clifton Village, Bristol for that Saturday.
However, my mum suggested I give Carina a call to see if they had any availability, miraculously I called up the morning of and they had one last appointment available at 12pm that day, and I was all booked in.
On arrival, I wasn’t too sure what it was that I wanted, asides from something simple in its detailing and likely in crepe, but I needn’t have worried as Carina quickly took me in hand after a series of questions on my likes and dislikes, what we might be looking for for the wedding (which, being one week engaged was very little at that point!) – and quickly we found the dress that my mum and I loved, and the appointment in Clifton was cancelled.
I ended up with a combination of three Suzanne Neville dresses – Orianna, Venus and Mira – alongside a couple of added extras, such as sleeves following the move into November, and I also had the dress made to measure with a toile fitting. This meant that I had one or two extra fittings on top of the usual amount at Carina’s, which only added to the experience.
Each trip that I made there with my Mum felt so incredibly special and we were so thankful to be matched with Louise Allberry as our fitter. There was nothing that was too much trouble and it really felt like we were visiting a close friend every time we came to see Louise.
In fact, we ended up roping her in to the making of the bridesmaids dresses and also my Mum’s beautiful outfit.
Veil & Accessories
My dress was entirely plain in its fabric, which is exactly as I wanted it to be, but I wanted to connect it to the rest of the wedding design somehow and it felt like the best way of doing this was to bring in the flowers. After a lot of trawling of the internet and Instagram I stumbled across my veil on Etsy.
It was a cathedral length veil appliqued with meadow flowers and with a blusher.
The intention was to wear the veil over my face in the Church but we only remembered this at the head of the aisle, when it was a bit too late! In hindsight, it would likely have proved more stress at the other end of the aisle to work out when to raise the veil between myself and my dad as we’d not practiced this beforehand – so the forgetting was probably a benefit!
I wore a pair of Mateo baroque pearl and diamond earrings
In my hair, I wore the Ceramic ‘Poolside Gossip’ Ponytail Hairclip by Completedworks.
Flowers
We were so lucky to come across Debs of Lunaria early in the planning process after seeing some amazing floral installations at both the Newt in Somerset and the Francis Gallery and Landrace Bakery in Bath, each by Lunaria. A couple of phone calls later to chat though both Debs’ style and also that which we were looking for for the wedding, it was evident that Debs would do a phenomenal job. Similarly, being based in Bruton, ten minutes from North Cadbury, it made the decision to go with Debs even easier.
Debs’ Instagram is a treat in itself – the installations that she carries out are the perfect oxymoron of being incredibly natural in their appearance whilst also hugely sculptural and architectural. I just love everything that she comes up with, and each installation is entirely different to the next – really thoughtful, contextual work, reflective of each individual client.
In coming to Debs I’d roughly identified where I’d want flowers to be on the day, in both the house and the church, but Debs created the most beautiful proposal following these discussions and took everything to so many levels above what I’d anticipated. On the Friday, once Debs had set up the first set of flowers with her brilliant team of freelancers, none of us could believe what had been created, it was beyond anything I’d envisaged and couldn’t have been more perfect.
On the Saturday, the ballroom and Church were flowered and again, none of us could get over it – when walking down the aisle, there was a picture perfect bough of greenery arching over the Reverend. Just all so clever.
For the ballroom tables, I’d collected multiple stoneware and brass bottles and vessels for Debs to flower, so on the Sunday we brought down brown paper bags for the guests to fill with bottles and flowers and take home so that the flowers could be enjoyed for a bit longer.
The coat that Louise at L’Atelier made for my Mum deserves its own special mention in and of itself. Through an appointment with Carina and Louise, Louise sketched out the design there and then, and on our final fitting with Louise – the coat was exactly as per the original sketch.
My Mum couldn’t have looked more stunning.
The Ceremony
My Dad accompanied me into the ceremony to ‘I Was Glad’ by Charles H H Parry.
The Reverend who was due to oversee our marriage unfortunately woke up with Covid the morning of the wedding, so we had a very last-minute replacement on the day of the other local Reverend, who was just fantastic, and really put us at ease.
We had no idea what we were doing during the service as we hadn’t rehearsed with this particular Reverend but it all added to the day.
My brother read 1 Corinthians 13, my mum read Roy Croft’s ‘I Love You’ and my uncle read Leo Marks’ ‘The Life That I Have’.
Photographers
Kat and Ash aka, The Springles, had photographed our brilliant friends’ Kate and Zak’s wedding in the Alps in 2018, which I was a bridesmaid at, and also incidentally caught the bouquet at before we were engaged! We remembered how lovely Kat and Ash were to have around on the day, and the photos that they took were just stunning.
After checking with Kate and Zak that it was fine for us to use their photographer, the choice was a no brainer for us and they were the only photographers that we spoke to. We regret nothing!
Again, they were so brilliant to have around on the day and we couldn’t be happier with the photos that they took. Kate was also a bridesmaid at our wedding, so it was lovely for them to all get a reunion in.
During the pandemic, Ash and Kat had to diversify their business and developed Abel Burners, which are well worth a mention. We gifted our parents with one each this Christmas and the smell of them are just phenomenal. Highly recommended!
The Vibe
Our wedding was originally due to be on Saturday 19th September 2020, before a number of Covid related postponements, and I really wanted to capture those autumnal, turn of summer, colours into the palette and reflect this throughout the design of the weekend. I also grew up in Somerset and the colours and patterns used felt really reminiscent of the rural fields and meadows surrounding us.
After moving the wedding into November 2021, with a lot of the table settings etc being purchased and ready to go, the concentration was then on bringing brassware into the tables to highlight the flickering candles in the winter evening.
Separately, we were also really keen for the whole weekend to feel as though our friends were simply coming to ours, or our families, home – albeit an enormous manor house! – and using colours, ceramics and prints that you might find in our own homes was key to this.
Simple things reflected this, such as the blue and white crockery, which we now have in our own home, but which I also grew up having tea on in my grandparents’ home.
The Film
Ashleigh of Ash Videography was recommended to us by The Springles and we couldn’t be more grateful to them for this as we’d have struggled to find someone else that can create such a beautiful story from her films. I spent a lot of time in the lead up to the wedding watching videos by Ash of people that I didn’t even know and getting more emotional than I’d care to disclose!
Ash is just fantastic at what she does, and so lovely with it.
To try and keep it not too twee, we used mismatched Ester and Erik candles across the tables, and the brass, stoneware and amber glass bottles each filled with flowers from Lunaria finished it all off.
The main ceremony/reception rooms of North Cadbury Court come as a blank space, which includes the North Hall and Ballroom. For the North Hall, this was our lounge and bar area for the Friday night, drinks reception, and throughout the rest of the Saturday evening.
Therefore I wanted to find some furniture that would suit this space, and match the soft colours used elsewhere to try and soften the otherwise quite masculine room.
After a lot of trawling, Hire Love seemed to be the only company that could offer a great range of furniture in the colours and styles required, with both wicker and traditional furniture on offer in multiple candy coloured shades.
Rachael, David and Yasmin of Hire Love were fantastic in their delivery of this, driving most of the way cross country from Kent and styling it all to perfection on the Friday night, before driving all the way back again on Sunday to pick it all up. They were such friendly faces to have around on the Friday as we were madly running around setting everything up and we couldn’t recommend them, or their furniture, more!
The tables were a big part of the day, for me, and getting that design right (or right in our eyes) was key. As such, this became a big part of my Instagram trawling and the tablescapes, and how they might interact with their surroundings or respond to the throwers of the events, that these accounts create really inspired me and my approach to the day. The saved images in my Instagram account knows no bounds however and there was a lot of other influence drawn from florists, hotel design, interior designers etc.
Cake
Leanne of My Baking Chick stepped in just a month before the wedding, when the previous baker, who was due to create our cake, unfortunately couldn’t any longer, and we were so lucky to have her! Leanne totally got the style that we were looking for – emulating the plaster cast flowers used throughout the Ballroom in the buttercream, and was such a joy to deal with throughout, despite the rapid turnaround that was required of her!
Evening & Dancing
Our first dance was to Ed Sheeran’s ‘First Times’ performed by Riot. We don’t have a ‘song’ as such as a couple so really struggled with this. All we did know was that we wanted the band to be able to perform the song, and not rely on a plugged in iPhone or similar – we had a band, so why not use them!
So, this song was ultimately a very last minute choice but it worked really well, and Ed’s album had only come out a couple of weeks beforehand so at that point the song hadn’t become completely overplayed, though we’re sure that that will change and it will become a very cliché choice in hindsight, but it worked at the time, and we loved it!
Words of Wedded Wisdom
At the end of the day, it’s all just the most special day between you both, your family and your friends, and that’s all it is. It’s there to be enjoyed. I adored all the planning, in a way it was an extension of my job, and I do miss it now, but if you don’t, that doesn’t matter, just lean in, provide good food and drink, and little else can go wrong. Love carries you a long way!
Stress less about the details in the lead up; as long as there’s good food and drink, everyone’s going to have a great time! However, we loved the details and doing it any differently just wouldn’t have been us and so, foolishly, we’d probably do it all the same again!
As with all brides and grooms, we really had no idea where to start at the beginning and I used wedding blogs in those starting months to try and understand what it was that we were meant to be doing! I looked to Love My Dress and Style Me Pretty throughout the process.
carinabcouture.com
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.
