Annie and Harry are the talented creative founders behind Stories From Eros, a wedding photography and cinematography team who create the most beautifully elegant, timeless and authentic photographs and films for couples on their wedding day.
Along with the support of Lou of L27 Weddings, who assisted in styling, these gifted visual artists planned the most spectacular two-day, double ceremony wedding weekend, spanning Friday 8th and Saturday 9th September 2023 – commencing with a church ceremony at Little Casterton in Rutland on the Friday, followed by a sun-drenched outdoor ceremony at Wootton Hall in North Lincolnshire on the Saturday.
Having an extra ceremony provided the beautiful bride with an opportunity to truly go to town with her bridal fashion, wearing bespoke, couture gowns by Stephanie Allin and Suzanne Neville, along with a sassy evening design by Trish Peng. Shout out to Frances Day Bridal boutique, who Annie chose to work with close for her two bespoke designs, for their incredible skill and expertise.
Working in the world of weddings and having an incredible little black book of connections, the couple were lucky enough to secure some of the best suppliers and friends in the industry to help make their weddings so magical, including floral designer Kim of Dreamboats and Carousels and photographer Katie Julia – but it was their own team they turned to, to document their wedding on film. Words by the beautiful bride follow. Enjoy!
The Church Ceremony Dress
I worked with the wonderful team at Frances Day Bridal in Southwell to design my fashion for our wedding weekend. Julia and her incredible team were truly amazing at every stage – they worked with me to create bespoke looks and helped me style each dress. Each of the women at Frances Day Bridal brought a unique set of skills that helped to create my finished looks. I will be forever grateful for how they guided me through my bridal fashion journey.
It took a while for me to decide on my dresses, I think it is really hard to choose when you have so many different routes you can go down that reflect a different part of your personality.
Each of the pieces I chose to wear reflected a part of me; the Frances Day Bridal X Stephanie Allin dress I wore to our church wedding on the Friday, was a bespoke design, created with the finest little details. Pleated cuffs on the ends of the sleeves and around the back softened all the edges.
The Ceremony
Our ceremony was held at All Saints church in Little Casterton in Stamford. My dad accompanied me down the aisle – it was really special to have that private moment with him outside the church before we walked in, and I know it meant a lot to him.
My Grandparents owned the house next to Little Casterton church when I was growing up, so the church holds a really special place in mine and my family’s hearts. Both my parents and also my auntie and uncle were married at Little Casterton church so it was really special that we were able to get married there too.
For our church wedding on Friday we followed a traditional wedding format, whereas on Saturday, we wrote our own personal vows to one another.
It was really important to me that we wrote our own vows, I wanted to say my own words and my own promises.
It look me months of on and off writing to finish my vows, I would randomly get inspiration whilst watching a film, walking down the street or whilst we chatted to one another, and I just made notes on my phone. So when I actually came to write the vows, I just had to make sense of it all and reword it to flow!
We asked both of mums to do a reading during our church ceremony – Harry’s mum wrote her own piece about the heart, it was so beautiful to listen to and actually became the opening words for our short film.
Flowers by Dreamboats & Carousels
Our incredible florist, Kim of Dreamboats and Carousels, created bespoke floral installations for both of our wedding days. Kim specialises in creating abundant, immersive and colourful experiences and that is exactly what she and her team created for us.
We wanted to create a truly immersive experience for our guests on Friday. We only had twenty of our closest friends and family with us on Friday, so we wanted to turn our rehearsal dinner into an immersive, yet intimate experience. Kim blew us away with what she created. We only made one request about the flowers and that was that we wanted to have some yellow flowers. The rest we left to their creative direction and I truly believe that’s where the magic really happens. Letting creatives be creative and seeing where their imagination takes them!
Kim’s creation quite literally filled the room from floor to ceiling with flowers. Along the walls flowers splayed out and up to the ceiling and along the windows, at the head of the table stood a grand arch that housed an urn filled with flowers of all colours. Kim completely surprised us with this room, we had asked for flowers, but we never expected it to be as abundant as it was.
One of our favourite memories from our wedding was watching our close friends and family see the dining room for the first time. We will never forget the looks on their faces as they entered one by one.
Saturday
On Saturday, we held our second ceremony and a reception at Wootton Hall in Ucleby in North Lincolnshire.
We were so lucky that we could work together with so many of our brilliantly talented friends in the wedding industry. Dora Makeup and Hannah Blinko were no exception. Hannah Dora created me two bespoke bridal looks for both our wedding days. Her elegant style truly left me feeling like the most beautiful version of me, but still authentically me and that was so important to me.
Hannah Blinko created my timeless and natural hair looks for both of our wedding days. Despite me changing my mind on the day for our Friday wedding, she just rolled with it. I was so lucky to have both Hannah and Hannah with me on both days – they were an incredibly calming presence for me.
On Saturday I wore ‘Manoir’ from the Suzanne Neville 2023 Opulance Collection. I remember the moment when I tried Manoir on for the first time with Julia at Frances Day Bridal – there was a real moment where Julia was doing up the buttons on the back, the music changed and both of us just knew that was the dress.
I fell in love with the elegance of Manoir – I had the dress slightly altered to remove the lace panel at the back, and we added a Suzanne Neville asymmetric bow at the back.
On the Saturday, I also wore the Botias Accessories Sicily Drop earrings. The giant pearls were perfect for such an elegant look and I loved the oval stone above the pearl – I felt it went perfectly with my oval engagement ring.
On Saturday, we used 500m of white draping to make the dining experience more intimate. Wootton Hall’s reception area is essentially a converted barn and we didn’t feel like this matched the rest of our wedding. The draping closed the dining area off and separated it from the rest of the room so it didn’t feel like we were all sat in one vast space.
Our cake was designed by Caroline Debonnaire. Caroline worked with our florists designs to create a cake that was a masterpiece. Her floral sugar art weaved between the traditional tiered cake to create a statement piece.
Words of Wedded Wisdom
Be true to what you and your partner want to do. Your wedding should be a reflection of what you both love and what means the most to you.
Surround yourself with people you love and trust. We decided early on that we wanted to book and work with people we loved.
Of course we had already met so many incredible people in the wedding industry that it made our decisions easy. By surrounding ourselves with people we trusted it made us so relaxed about the whole wedding.
A client of ours organised for us to be collected from the church in Little Casterton in his Bentley and driven to Wootton Hall. However, when we were about 20 minutes from Wootton, something struck the rear tyre of the car and it burst. Fortunately, we were in a very safe car and the driver was able to pull into a layby. From there we waited on the side of the road for Katie Julia to collect us as she passed.
We had such a lovely ceremony and day, that even something as dramatic as this didn’t dampen our spirits. We spent most the time in Katie’s car laughing about it. Not everything always goes to plan!
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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.
