Emily Made Her Own Dress for Her September Wedding Blessing at Wolterton Hall in Norfolk

Emily, a florist and flower grower who uses all British and Norfolk grown flowers, married her love Ryan, an arable farmer working on his family farm, on 16th September this year.

The couple chose The East Wing at Wolterton Hall in Nofolk for their wedding and blessing weekend, choosing to have a small, intimate day with just twenty nine guests.

The super talented bride, who discovered her wedding inspiration through Love My Dress, in fact created her own wedding dress, having been inspired by the billowed sleeve designs of Australian brand, & For Love.

Beautiful imagery captured by photographer, Beth Beresford. Enjoy!

We hired the venue as a holiday rental, ather than a wedding venue and this suited the relaxed, intimate feel of our weekend perfectly. The East Wing has beautiful rooms which some of our friends and family stayed in and a lovely downstairs dining room, grand living room and massive kitchen – it felt like our own slice of Norfolk heaven for the weekend.

Our two family dogs Bonnie and Ned were there the whole weekend and it was great to have a dog friendly venue that they could roam in and explore. We stayed from Friday – Sunday and had our closest friends and family stay the whole weekend – we wanted it to be like a little holiday for everyone and Wolterton has beautiful park grounds to explore and relax in.

We spent the Friday night cooking dinner with our close friends and family and the boys enjoyed a bike ride on the Saturday morning whilst us girls got ready. Sunday morning we hired paddle boards for the lake and a group of us even went for a bracing swim.

The hall and surrounding properties have been lovingly restored by Peter Sheppard and Keith Day who bought the hall in 2016. It’s not the first time me and Ryan have been here though as we both had our school prom here back when we were at High School many moons ago!

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Our date on the 16th September was a Wedding Blessing, as we had officially got married on the 2nd August. My dear Mother had been diagnosed with Cancer the year before, and we knew when we set our date in March that there was a possibility that she would not be able to make it to the wedding date we originally set.

As the Summer went on she gradually became more unwell and we decided that the most important thing was for her to see us married. With the help of our family and vicar we organised for our official marriage service to be on the 2nd August, and we had the tiniest, most special church service with just Ryan’s parents and my dad and brother present as my Mother was too unwell to make it to the church. It was the most meaningful, emotional day filled with love, and our vicar finished the service with the blessings and prayers at my parent’s home where my mother was.

My Mother sadly passed away two weeks after our wedding, so we were so thankful that she was able to see us married. She had been with us when we initially looked around Wolterton, and I had shared all of our planning journey with her and the decisions we had made so I knew in my heart that on the 16th of she would be with us in spirit and would have known exactly what we had planned for the day.

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Bridal Beauty & Accessories

I chose to do my hair and make-up myself as it’s something I’ve always enjoyed doing and liked the idea of having that quiet time to myself before the ceremony. I booked in for a wedding make-up tutorial at my local Charlotte Tilbury counter and came back with lots of make-up goodies that I could use for the day, as well as for my day to day makeup.

My look was what I’d call my every day makeup – but a little bit more. I wanted to feel comfortable and like myself on the day, and my hair was a reflection of a style that I love to wear and feel comfortable with, but treated myself to some new GHD curlers before the day to ensure that they stayed for as long as possible!

I have always loved those (very well known!) Loeffler Randall heels and was pleased to find a more pocket friendly version at Monsoon. The bows just peeked out from the hem of my dress as I walked and I think they gave a fun touch to the look.

I made my myself with guidance from a Youtube tutorial! I wasn’t sure if I wanted a veil originally but as my dress was quite simple in style with no embellishments I thought it would be a lovely touch, and created one that fell just past the ground.

I’d seen so many lovely wedding photos with veils billowing around in the wind (my photographer Beth had some gorgeous ones on her Instagram). Wearing it made me feel so elegant and I was determined to keep it in until the end of the night, they are quite fun to spin around in on the dancefloor too!

My perfume was ‘Colette’ by Tocca. It was chosen on a whim when I popped into my local department store to choose something for the wedding day, and after far too many testers and an arm full of different scents I settled on this warm floral fragrance which I think shall now be my forever scent.

My earrings were from Gigi & Olive, and by Sandralexandra.

My mum had given me a lovely gold and pearl bar brooch to wear, which I had worn inside my dress for our official wedding ceremony back in August for my ‘something old’. On the day, Beth our photographer came up with the clever idea to pin it on my bouquet ribbon, which meant that I could see and hold it.

To go with the pearl theme, I chose the ‘Gigi Pearl’ earrings by Sandralexandra via Gigi & Olive. I loved the textural design, which was statement yet delicate and they will be treasured and worn for many years to come.

Bridesmaids

For my bridesmaid dresses, I wanted to choose a design that my two best friends would want to wear again and again as I didn’t want it to be a dress that just ended up at the back of the wardrobe never to be enjoyed again.

I envisaged something a little more casual in fabric and style as our day was pretty relaxed, and I was thrilled to discover a fellow Norfolk business called ‘Hollyblocks’.

They design their dresses in Norfolk and then they are block printed and made in India in the prettiest designs, and I settled on the ‘Daisy’ dress which was made in the lightest cotton and printed in a sage green floral. My bridesmaid Harriet was pregnant at the time, and the shape was flattering for both her and Natasha with its nipped in tie waist, free flowing skirt and delicate puffed sleeves.

I liked the idea of having matching jewellery with my bridesmaids, and gave them a pair of the Flori White earrings from Sandralexandra via Gigi & Olive. They are a smaller version of my ‘Gigi Pearl’ earrings and looked so pretty with the dresses.

Flowers

Together with my best friend (and bridesmaid) Harriet, we run a floristry business called King.Witham, so creating my own wedding flowers was always going to be a highlight of the wedding process. We grow our flowers here in Norfolk and use other local suppliers so seasonality was key.

In mid September Roses and Dahlias are the beautiful focal flowers of the season so I made sure to incorporate these into as many of the arrangements as possible.

For our church flowers, I chose to focus on the end of the aisle and we created large overflowing stone urns to frame the space, echoed by vases filled with delicate Cosmos dotted around the church.

The key thing was to create enough impact without making too much work for ourselves as unlike our usual wedding flowers there would be lots of other elements to get ready in the days prior!

My bridal bouquet and bridesmaid’s bouquets were made in soft peach and pink shades, with the sweetest smelling ruffled roses. I chose similar soft pastel shades for the church flowers and more rich, jewel tones for the reception flowers to compliment the opulent interiors. I had a loose brief in my head for colours and arrangements, but it was a real treat not to be focused on a specific mood board or brief and to just enjoy the creative process.

Photography

We chose the lovely Beth Beresford to photograph our day. I found her account through Instagram and instantly loved the romantic tone of her work and attention to the little details. From her portfolio, I knew that she would be the perfect fit for us and our venue and I was so thrilled when she said that she was available.

Beth was such a joy to work with and on the day she made us feel so at ease in front of the camera, and getting our couple shots was such fun and one of my favourite memories from the day. When we got our gallery through we couldn’t have been more thrilled, and have so many photos to treasure.

The photos are one of the key things to last from the day, and I think that it’s so important to choose a photographer whose work you love

I really enjoyed getting our couple photos taken with Beth as the hall and grounds are so beautiful, and we don’t usually get the chance to have lovely pictures taken together so I knew these would be ones to treasure.

How They Met

We’d known each other through mutual friends for many years but had never properly met (I had secretly always had my eye on Ryan). I’d worked away and had been traveling and when I moved home Ryan sent me a message on Instagram and then after chatting for a few weeks we had our first date and the rest is history…

Ryan proposed at the beginning of March this year and we set our date for the 16th September which gave us 6 months. He organised a midweek day out, which somehow I didn’t get suspicious of, as that was definitely out of the ordinary.

We headed out to one of our favourite North Norfolk spots, Stiffkey, for a walk along the beach where Ryan proposed. We bought a delicious picnic and bottle of Prosecco afterwards, then headed back to see my parents who were waiting at home excitedly.

Ryan wore a sage green tweed suit from John Lewis which was perfect for the relaxed feel of the day and will be worn for many more weddings and occasions to come. We didn’t feel it was necessary for him to have matching suits and ties with his best men and our fathers, so they all chose one of their own suits to wear for the day.

Evening & Dancing

Our friend Sam was DJ for the night and provided the musical entertainment in the downstairs basement room and was very flexible with requests!

Our first dance was ‘Lovin Each Day’ by Ronan Keating, which we chose the night before! We weren’t sure if we’d have a formal first dance but in the end chose this feel good (slightly cheesy!) number as my brother had returned from working in Australia and couldn’t stop playing it.

Words of Wedded Wisdom

I would say focus on the key areas you’d like to put your budget towards, and don’t feel pressured to spend money on things that aren’t important to you as a couple. For us our key areas to get right were the food and a venue to suit our guest numbers, whereas we didn’t feel that things like a band, table favours and matching suits for the men were needed for the day we had planned. These days there are no rules, which is great!

Even though our plans changed to have the day as a blessing instead of our official wedding, none of this mattered as the most important thing was that we were surrounded by our family and friends. All the little details and material things are exciting to plan, but when it comes down to it, it’s the people that you’re surrounded by and their love which really matters.