Hey, thank you so much for being here today, I really appreciate it. I’m also delighted to be sharing this gorgeous old money wedding you today because it is just so beautiful and swoonworthy with a dress to die for.
Clarissa and Oli tied the knot on 23rd December 2023 with a breathtakingly beautiful winter wedding at Elmore Court in Gloucestershire. This divine countryside home set a candlelit scene for this glamorous couple to exchange their vows in front of their loved ones, before celebrating with a champagne tower and a packed dance floor, where all their guests joined in the celebrations until the early hours.
Clarissa looked out of this world gorgeous in her Milla Nova gown, a fantastic discovery at Mirror Mirror London – who we are so very proud to recommend to all Love My Dress readers. Mirror Mirror is one of the oldest, most respected couture bridal boutiques in the country and Clarissa truly raves about her experience there.
I’m going to leave it to this sweet bride to share her story from here on (thank you so much for your wonderful enthusiasm Clarissa!). Get your Pinterest boards at the ready my loves – this wedding is jaw-droppingly fabulous. My sincere love and thanks to photographer Emily Robinson for sharing her glorious work.
Elmore Court
Elmore Court was one of the first venues we came across and loved the vibe and everything it had to offer; however, it was completely fully booked for 2023 so we had disappointingly ruled it out. After visiting many other venues, we were really struggling to find the one.
After months of searching, we saw on Elmore’s Instagram they had a cancellation come up for a winter solstice date. Prior to this, we had only been considering a summer wedding, but actually there was something about the Christmas long Thursday date that totally aligned to everything we wanted and we thought it could be really magical. We ended up reserving the date without even viewing Elmore in person!
We were soo glad we just went for it.
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I was so happy with the Hair and Make-up team – they were so calm and experienced and work together a lot. I had Juta Zorubiene for my Hair – her style is romantic, modern, elegant. She just worked so effortlessly and completely got what I wanted. I couldn’t believe how well my hair stayed in place even at the end of the night and through all the wind it didn’t budget. Then I had Amy Rose for make-up who was incredible and really cool.
I have a lot of skin issues and she made it look great and created a look I was so happy and confident with.
I opted for a bow in my hair as they are romantic, feminine and fun – very the vibe. I bought about 5 in the end as I couldn’t decide! My plan was to go with one from TK Maxx, but on the day, my hair stylist Juta and I decided to go quite rogue and use the one my bridesmaids had bought me for my Hen party. It actually worked really well as it was quite delicate. It was also very very reasonable!
For jewellery, I wore some large pearl and crystal earrings which I made myself. My inspiration was a Mateo pair – I used to work in jewellery as a buyer, and knew I could do it myself – and for a fraction of the price (they cost £500+). My jewellery felt more special, being made by me – and I got so many compliments on them. So much so, that I’ve decided to start selling handmade jewellery for weddings and am starting a small brand, Cora & Cleo – it’s a work in progress but watch this space!
My perfume was Chanel Gabriel. It was a gift from my Mum on the day who always wears Chanel perfume, so it reminded me of her and is just beautiful and classic.
I knew I needed something comfortable to make me last the day so I went for a block heeled, pearly sandal pair, from Rainbow Club.
My veil was also from Mirror Mirror London – Shamel helped me find the perfect one. It was very romantic and had delicate little pearls on it which were so pretty.
A funny story about my veil actually – the wedding was a very windy day and as I stepped out of my car to the church, the veil blew straight off my head and high into a big tree! I will never forget our Vicar and one of the photographers chasing after it as it blew away. They managed to catch it! It was hilarious and the vision of it will stay with me forever.
The Dress
Milla Nova
My main dress was by Milla Nova, which I paired with a tulle-topper from Tala Daniel. I found my dress at Mirror Mirror London as they were one of the few suppliers that stock Milla Nova. It felt like fate as when I came across them, they were hosting a Milla Nova trunk show – and had just one appointment left for me.
My experience at Mirror Mirror was amazing. Shamel was with me throughout the process, and I loved her – I felt like we were friends by the end of it. She really listened to what I liked when I was trying on my dresses and helped guide me to the perfect one.
Following this, if I had any questions, she was just the end of a WhatsApp. All her thoughts and opinions were so valuable. I would 100% recommend Mirror Mirror.
My Tulle Topper was quite a large part of my outfit. As I knew it would be quite chilly, I wanted some sleeves to go over the dress so I didn’t feel as exposed and also it would give me flexibility to transform the look.
I had a really specific vision in my mind and managed to track down the exact tulle topper I had seen on Pinterest from the Tala Daniel Boutique in London. I was so happy when it arrived as it took months to get here and fitted perfectly with my dress
I tried on A LOT of dresses – probably too early in the process too, as I got over excited and was going to appointments before I even had a venue – which probably was not a good idea in hindsight, as venue and time of year is an important factor!
I really thought initially that I’d go for a very cool and chic style, however, I learned quite early that the shape I liked best was ‘full princess’ gown. I was really inspired by beautiful Berta dresses but they were unfortunately out of my price bracket. Then I came across Milla Nova and the dresses were so feminine and beautiful and modern. Exactly what I wanted. When I tried on my dress, I couldn’t get over how the light hit the sparkles and the dramatic train and I knew it would look perfect in a Christmas Church wedding.
The accessories were also quite important being in the winter, I really wanted something to wear over the top to cover my arms but still show off the dress. I managed to source the exact tulle topper I had in my mind and I was ecstatic when the look came together.
People were really surprised the topper and dress were two separate items as they worked so well together, and it gave me versatility to do different looks.
I really wanted my bridesmaids all to be in individual dresses that suited their personalities.
They were all black but with different textures and cuts like sequins and velvet etc, and they all looked and felt amazing. I got them from Jarlo London, Forever New, Meshki, Coast, JJs House and Vesper.
I bought them all different starry celestial earrings from Muuni Studios. They looked so pretty with the black dresses. Their shoes were from Monsoon along with a little short furry necked white cardigan which looked so cute.
Flowers
We used Rose & Co Floral Studio for flowers. We wanted very simple, classic white roses and lots of candles and we were so pleased with Imogen.
She made the styling of the day totally stress free and handled so much of the aesthetics. The flowers looked so beautiful and we couldn’t recommend her enough. She also sprinkled so really cute little mistle toes around the place which guests loved.
The Ceremony
We got married at St John the Baptist Church.
We both loved seeing each other for the first time in the Church. It was so exciting in our full outfits with all our friends and family there and the brass music playing in the background it felt like it wasn’t real life.
Oli’s dad is a professional musician (trumpet player). For our church music he bought along a brass quintet which was so special. We wanted a mix of traditional and modern music to add a bit of fun.
The bridal entrance started with a fanfare leading to Trumpet Voluntary.
They played a mega Abba medley as we signed the register which everyone loved! And we left the church to ‘Can’t take my Eyes off of you’ which really got everyone in the party spirit.
Oli got my engagement ring from Samara James, it’s a beautiful trio with oval center diamond. Engagement rings from Samara James. My wedding band was from an Etsy boutique (Manhattan Box) – I really wanted a Catbird ring but found a really similar style from this Brand where you could custom and engrave everything and it sat really beautifully with my oval engagement ring.
Oli’s ring was from Angelic Diamonds.
We also sang Christmas carols which made us so happy!
Rev Richard Martin of Elmore Church married us and we enjoyed attending the church and getting to know him so much. He is so kind and funny.
Our readings were 1 Corinthians 13 as it is a real beautiful classic and a poem; Serendipity by Becky Hemsley.
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Photography
Our Photographer team was AMAZING! We can’t express how much we loved Emily Robinson and her team. We wanted documentary, classic and stylish black and white imagery and some film. Emily’s portfolio was beautiful and straight from the get-go we just clicked, and our visions were completely aligned.
I was a little worried before the wedding I would be awkward or camera shy, but it just wasn’t the case at all once they arrived. Their energy and enthusiasm made us feel a million dollars. They were this incredible team of hype women with such amazing ideas and visions, and they were so much fun.
Two days after the wedding, Emily shared so many pictures for the preview. The whole experience was just magic, and I am so happy and felt so lucky we got to have them there. We were so lucky that Emily bought along Milana Jones who captured some really gorgeous and fun moments from the day. She captured some really fun shots with our cake that we love!
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How They Met
Oli and I met at Piano Works in London, across the dance floor on a night out. It was a spur of the moment decision for me to go out that night and it was totally unexpected meeting him. I feel like as soon as we started dating, we knew straight away. We were so on the same page with everything.
We got engaged after four years, when Oli took me to the South of France for a surprise trip for my 30th birthday – in a Vineyard over a bottle of rose and a picnic. We were engaged for a year and a half before the wedding.
Oli wore a custom white tux from Zebel. Oli had an inspiration look that he was able to get made and we had a great time looking through the materials, monogramming and options choices in their Dean Street store. We had seen lots of bow ties, but it was great to get a style cut to the shape and style that Oli wanted.
The Reception
We used a template from Lumina Templates and customised the design ourselves. We wanted our stationery to have a slight French feel to it as we got engaged in the South of France and love it there.
Oli then made all the designs himself and they turned out so cute. Etsy is just my favourite for everything! I used them so much throughout the process.
As it was Christmas, we wanted to give our guests a little present, so we bought everyone a handmade Christmas bauble from Bollywood Christmas and packaged them all ourselves in little white boxes with a black velvet bow and name tag.
Yes, it was a bit of a labour of love taking a lot of time but they looked so effective on the table and everyone loved the different bauble designs!
I loved Oli’s speech – he is amazing at speaking, and it was just beautiful. My mum also did an incredible speech which was so out of her comfort zone, and she was so good. She even had a cameo from my five year old niece.
We had a trio of cakes from April’s Baker . They are massive experts in beautifully iced, vintage, frilled, cherry adorned cakes which is exactly what we wanted. Their cakes were so stylish and we had loads of fun shooting pictures with one of the mini GF cakes they did for us.
They were so helpful as well, even when I messed up the collection date, they went out of their way to make sure we got the cakes on time, and I was so grateful.
Evening & Dancing
Our first dance was ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’, by the Drifters. I’m such a fan of music from the 60’s and 70’s and it worked beautifully with our vibe and the dance we did.
Our band was The Alley Catz as we had seen Katie performing at a club in London and she is an absolute powerhouse who really gets the crowd going.
Words of Wedded Wisdom
We did do budget planning and I kept a lot of Excel tables with guides of what we expected to pay. Overall, we did land roughly where we expected at around £40k. We tried to weigh up what we wanted to invest in. For example, we opted to not have a wedding car and instead spend the money on a bus to take guests to and from the church. We also did a lot of the stationery ourselves and printed it on Printed.com but then invested a lot of our time in it.
I learned a lot about myself during the planning. Some things I didn’t like so much like how much on a control freak I am! But please enjoy the process of planning it all, working together as a little team on all the details is really fun.
Get what you can done as early as possible, to avoid last minute stresses the week before trying to source last minute bits. We were so happy we did this.
Long it out! We loved having a meal the night before at Elmore with our nearest and dearest. It meant we could all get into the spirit of the wedding the night before and added to all the excitement. Also go with your gut and focus on the things that are special to the two of you. Like food! For example, we love lasagne so had that for our starter and it was a massive hit.
Have the best day ever and enjoy every moment!
For the evening, I made a last minute decision to change into a feathery, sparkly and rented 16Arlington dress which gave me a bit more maneuverability for dancing. I also got a last-minute pair of pointed bow heels from ASOS to go with my evening dress which were super cute and so so reasonable.
The gloves I wore in the evening were from The Glove Girl on Etsy. They have an amazing selection.
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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.
