Nestled in the heart of Leicestershire, Prestwold Hall provided the glamorous backdrop for Cerys and James’ elegant country house wedding.
The couple, she an investment banker and he a property developer, tied the knot on 3rd August 2024, bringing together modern, sophisticated style and classic, old-money charm. Cerys absolutely dazzled in a gorgeous Milla Nova gown, later slipping into a mini dress and pair of show-stopping Berta legging boots.
We’re thrilled that three Love My Dress recommended suppliers were involved with this gorgeous, classy, modern country house wedding; wedding photographers, The Kensington Photographer, captured these beautiful and contemporary images, the bride discovered her gown through the wonderful bridal boutique and couture house, Mirror Mirror and the evening entertainment was booked via the excellent event entertainment agency, Entertainment Nation.
Enjoy darlings!
Changes Are Coming!
Did you know that we’re very busy redesigning Love My Dress ready for a relaunch? We’re making big changes that we’re really excited to share with you, including the ability for you to create your own Love My Dress account and save all your favourite real weddings and articles, shop items and soon to be improved directory listings to your own easily accessible dashboard. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay in the loop.
Did you know that we also have a shop full of hand-picked designs and curated categories that we know you’ll love? From bridal gowns, to bridesmaids dresses, veils, shoes, jewellery, hair accessories, bags – even gifts for newlyweds.
Explore more designs in our shop
The Venue
We were looking for a venue close to our families (who live in the midlands) and not too far from London. Prestwold Hall also had the ability to host us for the entire weekend, which was just perfect.
We hosted family for an afternoon tea the day before, and later hosted friends for a rehearsal dinner. We then hosted a farewell brunch the day after our wedding – it was hilarious catching up on the day’s events with everyone and learning what people had got up to the night before (thank god for photo evidence as half the guests couldn’t remember the night!)
The Dress
Milla Nova
My day dress was a gorgeous Milla Nova off the shoulder gown. I went to a few different dress shops so I could try on dresses with my mum and sister and also with James’ mum (she only has boys so I wanted her to be involved).
I fell in love with a Milla Nova dress that I’d seen on instagram so searched for suppliers in London and came across Mirror Mirror in Angel. I can not explain how incredible they were! I actually fell in love with my day dress before I even looked in the mirror- it just felt so comfortable and high quality.
The Mirror Mirror boutique is an original couture house, so as well as stocking luxury bridal brands, they make fully custom dresses of their own that they can alter in any way.
It was a really fun experience because as I’d try on dresses we’d look at ways they could be customised, from adding bows or slits to lowering the back of the dress etc.
Meb was my fitter and she was like a magician. The main hurdle we came across was tailoring my Berta boots which I wore in the evening – they were too big around my ankle. She also made alterations to my evening dress and a customised bow to match.
I’d absolutely recommend Mirror Mirror to all other brides.
Bridal Beauty & Accessories
My jewellery was all really special; my sister bought me a bracelet with James’ name on, and my mum let me borrow some of my favourite pieces of her jewellery – a diamond necklace and a vintage emerald bracelet that my dad bought for her at Liberty’s – twenty years ago.
I wore a veil but kept it simple as there was already a lot of details on the dress that I didn’t want to distract from. It came from Mirror Mirror.
I went to Jo Malone and got custom wedding scents. I engraved the bottles with out initials and wedding date. I did my hair and make up myself.
My sister bought the flower girl dresses from Next – one of my flower girls was 2 and the other was 10 so we searched really long to find a dress that looked cute but not too young for the older girl.
My Jimmy Choos were so pretty and they were a perfect something blue.
The Ceremony
I walked down the aisle to River Flows in You by Yurumi. I’m a keen pianist and have always wanted to walk down the aisle to this piece of music – it’s a tear jerker, for sure.
We visited the church a lot in the year leading up to the wedding which was great as we managed to see a lot of different vicars.
My favourite was Bob as he was very unconventional- often turning up to church in his motorbike and wearing dangly hoop earrings with crosses. He’s great! So we asked specifically for Bob to be our Vicar and he kindly agreed. We have a great selfie with Bob (taken at his request!) after the service.
James and I rekindled our relationship at a Burns Night ball whilst James was in the RAF. So we chose a Robert Burns poem, a red, red rose for Bob to read in his loudest Scottish accent. Choosing a Burns reading appropriate for a wedding was challenging given most of his poems talk about his time as a womaniser!
My ring came from Melanie Casey and I’d wanted it since before we got engaged! It’s a super thin gold band with tiny diamonds. James opted for a gold band which we got from Pragnals in Mayfair.
Photography
James actually found the photographer! We went for The Kensington Photographer and it was a pretty easy decision as soon as we saw how beautiful all of their work was online.
It was important to us to have a videographer as well as this is such an amazing way to capture the feelings of the day.
We didn’t need any transport as the church and hall were close by, but we wanted to include our defender, Roger, as part of the day. James actually used Roger when he proposed, so of course he had to be front and centre of the wedding.
We bought Roger in lockdown and he’s been our hobby to renovate him ever since. The easy things we did ourselves, but we soon had to bring in a bit of expert help from Chris at CSK Automotive. Chris transformed Roger – adding in panoramic windows, huge new tyres, new paint and lots of other stuff!
The Reception
We didn’t hire an external event planner but Prestwold has event managers. We were lucky enough to have Lucy who was simply amazing. She helped us from start to finish with our wedding and was just incredible – so sad I can’t hang out with her anymore.
I genuinely could not have planned the wedding without her and over the weekend she made everything feel so perfect and special.
All my flowers came form Hiden Designs is run by Marco – I’d seen some work that Marco had done for shoots at my venue and immediately knew that’s who I wanted to go with.
My mood board was wild garden but all pastel colours and we went for some dramatic features including flowers wrapped around the columns at the front of the Hall and also flowers in our beloved defender, Roger.
Our venue itself was so gorgeous, it didn’t need lots of additional styling but huge shout out to Princess Occasions here as they helped with all the small details that made a big difference!
They put disco balls on the fireplace of the dance floor, added napkin bows for the wedding breakfast, neon signs on the dance floor and of course the bath tub photo booth which had provided the most hilarious photos and videos.
Prestwold Hall provided all the catering – they have their own chef who we were able to meet a few months before for a tasting session and to plan the menu. He was happy to reimagine some of our favourite dishes from special occasions we’d had before.
Helen, my mother in law, found our cake supplier; Cathlene’s Cakes. She was amazing, we had a zoom call to discuss ideas and I love the end result so much! It was a heart shaped cake with lots of pipework and Cathleen even sourced the Mr & Mrs topper for us.
All of this came from Papier – I liked that they had an option to buy a voucher at a discount. I also tried to take advantage of any sales they had over the year but because of a few late additions and drop outs I think I ended up paying more than if I’d just waited. So if I did stationary again, I’d leave it as close to the wedding date to sort (as much as that would stress me out).
All my flowers came form Hiden Designs, which is run by Marco. I’d seen some work that Marco had done for shoots at my venue and immediately knew that’s who I wanted to go with!
My mood board was wild garden but all pastel colours and we went for some dramatic features including flowers wrapped around the columns at the front of the Hall and also flowers in our beloved defender, Roger.
Evening & Dancing
Our first dance was to Stargazing by Myles Smith – for me, the lyrics struck a chord as Myles sings about his partner having been there all along – which is the same with James and myself.
We never explored a relationship at university, despite being close friends and James’ multiple attempts to move us out of the friend-zone – but nevertheless, he was right there at my side all along. We are soulmates for sure.
I loved every second but I think the first dance (which I was dreading as we aren’t great dancers) was actually so much fun. My sister’s daughter wandered onto the dance floor so we spun her round and had a little boogie, it was very cute.
We used Entertainment Nation to find a band and chose Hatchland. They were so so good!
In the evening I changed into a shorter version of the dress of my wedding dress, that I found on Etsy – and my Berta boots which I absolutely could not wait to wear.
The evening dress felt like a moment of fate as I was searching for short wedding dresses after having already chosen my Milla Nova dress and just happened to stumble upon a short dress that was almost a perfect match! But the evening was all about the boots – I couldn’t wait to get on the dance floor and see them glistening away.
I first came across the Berta boots on Instagram and didn’t actually think you’d be able to buy them, but at my Mirror Mirror appointment the girls suggested it would be no harm in dropping them a DM and to my surprise I could buy them. My measurements were taken over zoom and then I flew out to New York to collect them.
Words of Wedded Wisdom
Ahh I have so many words of wedded wisdom! But I think the main one is to over prepare (I walked through the entire day hundreds of times in my mind and then in person with Lucy, my events coordinator, the day before).
Once you get to the wedding day, just chill out and roll with as things will go slightly different to plans and there’s nothing you can do about it so just enjoy the day. My dress for example somehow got dirty before I’d even got outside!! But you can’t see it in any pics so it was not worth stressing over!
Visit our Directory
Find Amazing Suppliers
Love My Dress Recommended Vendors & Venues
The below suppliers and venues featured in this article are part of the Love My Dress Wedding Directory.
Additional Credits
The below suppliers and venues are featured in this article, but are not part of the Love My Dress Wedding Directory.
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.
