Kitty Wore a Gold Dress by Nortier for her Intimate Autumn Cotswolds Wedding

Kitty and Rory’s intimate autumn wedding on 21st September 2024 at The Double Red Duke in The Cotswolds, was a gathering rich in seasonal charm and personal touches.

Kitty wore a breathtaking gold taffeta bridal gown by Nortier, a couture label, available exclusively via Miss Bush in Surrey – a highly recommended Love My Dress bridal boutique who we’ve been proud to recommend for over a decade.

Known for bold, dramatic designs, Nortier’s gowns reflect the creative talent of designers Ben Shallow and Adrien Nortier, who handcraft each piece in their Hampshire studio.

Kitty and Rory’s day also featured an exquisite millefoglie cake, created by the incredibly talented and lovely Vaani of Sugar Plum Bakes – another much adored and highly recommend Love My Dress vendor. Their day was beautifully captured by photographer Rachel Wood, whose images are testament to the couple’s sublime, authentic style and the many meaningful moments that unfolded on this beautiful day of love, joy and celebration.

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Venue & Location

Our venue was The Double Red Duke in Clanfield, Bampton in The Cotswolds. When discussing where to get married, we wanted somewhere intimate, full of character and appropriate for a autumnal wedding. We had visited The Double Red Duke on numerous occasions and loved everything about the boutique hotel, the exceptional food, friendly staff, the beautiful interiors and the luxurious but relaxed vibe.

When we discovered they took bookings for weddings, and there was the perfect cotswold church next door, we rushed to book, it was a no brainer. 

Bridal Beauty & Accessories

Whilst I was getting ready, I wore a pair of Desmond & Dempsey pyjamas. I love their Pyjamas and already had the leopard set. They have a custom initial embroidery service, after speaking to their very kind customer service team they offered to embroider our wedding date on the cuff of my left sleeve.

My perfume was Chanel Coco Mademoiselle; I have worn the same perfume since being a teenager. I searched for a new scent before the wedding, but Rory always said whatever I put in front of him ‘I prefer the Chanel Coco Mademoiselle on you’.

I wore vintage Tiffany & Co gold ‘Graffiti Kiss’ earrings and Rory wore the matching cufflinks – a 30th birthday gift that my father bought for my mother in 1990, and my mother bought the matching cufflinks later in Christmas 1998. It felt extremely special for us both to wear them on our day as my parents have been happily married for 37 years. 

I did my own make up, nails and hair on the day. I have sensitive skin and wear particular make up, my hair is naturally curly and I know how to style it. I wanted a relaxed morning, just me and my mum.

I wore the Mach & Mach pistachio triple heart satin platforms and a customised ruffled scrunchie by Nortier in my hair.

The Dress

Nortier

I actually found searching for a bridal dress daunting considering my fashion background. I found myself scrolling for hours trying to find a dress that I really loved, which was different to what I had seen before, felt true to my style, had a basque waist, along with having a strict budget and a champagne swatch in hand. It seemed an impossible task. 

I finally fell on to the Miss Bush Bridal’s instagram and thank goodness I did as I truely believe I am not sure what I would have done if I hadn’t! I saw that Emma and the team were advertising ‘Nortier’ their new in House Brand designed by the talented duo Ben Shallow and Adrien Nortier.

The video of the ‘Stockbridge’ gown literally blew me away – I hadn’t seen anything like it. When I asked if the team would create it in whatever colour taffeta I wanted, it was a yes. I knew right away it was the outfit for me and I booked an appointment. 

Miss Bush was the first boutique I came across that felt unique, Emma is iconic. It’s inside a converted chapel, no stuffy bridal shop quirks in sight, a bridal shop for the fashion bride.

When visiting my mother and I were greeted by Emma at the front of the Chapel, when we walked in, it was filled with the most fabulous smell of Geranium, Lavender and Ylang Ylang, their signature scented candle, which later ended up being our scent for our wedding day, filling the Church and Garden Room. All our guests complimented on how amazing it smelled.

Ben and Adrien were amazing to work with from start to finish, from sketching my outfit, customising my shirt, sourcing the perfect champagne taffeta, and creating my custom hair scrunchie to compliment the look, all while making the experience fun and exciting – I couldn’t recommend Miss Bush Bridal more and it should be on every bride’s list. Also a special mention to Rosie who was extremely helpful and accommodating throughout. 

The Ceremony

We married in a church next door to The Double Red Duke, St Stephen’s, Clanfield, Bampton. We wanted a piece of music that was soft and romantic and suited the small intimate Church for our ceremony entrance.

I walked down the aisle with my father to Rory’s choice ‘For The Love Of A Princess’ from the Braveheart movie. David, our organist played it beautifully and it felt such a fitting choice of music – with Rory’s Scottish heritage. 

Reverend Janice Collier married Rory and I – the ceremony was exactly as we wanted – relaxed, light hearted and intimate.

Rory and I had a traditional ceremony which is what we had always wanted, there’s a magical feeling when you walk in to a Church which we personally feel is unmatched. We chose three hymns, two of which had sentimental value ‘God In the Planning and Purpose of Life’, ‘Morning Has Broken’ and ‘Sing Hosanna’.

Our reading was ‘When Jesus Attends a Wedding’ which is about Jesus going to a party and drinking all the wine!

Rory and I wanted to match in our Tiffany & Co platinum wedding bands. 

The ceremony at St Stephen’s when we exchanged our vows was our favourite part of the day. Rory and I both agree that was a magical moment that we’ll never forget. 

It’s difficult to put in to words how incredible Rachel is, she is loved by everyone that’s lucky to know or have met her. Rory and I don’t often enjoy our photo being taken. However, Rachel made us feel present and at ease while she played music and snapped away as we laughed and embraced one another.

For someone that has such a presence she was almost invisible, fluttering around throughout the day capturing all our memories. We are forever grateful for the beautiful album she has created.

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How They Met

Rory and I first met at college – after completing our creative courses, I went off to London and Rory went off to join the Royal Marine Commandos. We rekindled our friendship ten years later and fell in love.

After asking my parents, Rory proposed to me in May 2023 – he had the whole weekend planned! It was full of amazing food and the special experience of choosing my engagement ring together – an idea Rory recommends to others. Sharing the experience together added to the engagement romance and that evening with my engagement ring on we jumped in the Photobooth at The Hoxton Hotel, and collected our keepsake which we will forever cherish.

Sixteen months later , fter all the planning and crafting, we got married in front of close family and friends. 

Tomoka was extremely helpful throughout the whole process and very attentive. We had many discussions over colour pallettes, floral varieties and my bouquet – she spent time picking the perfect urns which matched the cotswold stone and rustic elegance of The Double Red Duke.

We joined our guests as they stood in awe over the incredible flower cloud that hung from the wooden beams in the Garden Room. The whole process of floral designand florals on the day, well exceeded our expectations. A perfect example of Tomoka’s eye for detail was how she incorporated a tiny chocolate cosmos in Rory’s buttonhole which complimented my bouquet.

We had the amazing Groove Collective perform throughout our cocktail reception. The band filled the garden at our venue with the sound of Latin, Cuban Jazz as the sun set on our day, creating the chilled but uplifting vibe we envisioned. 

We created our wedding stationery ourselves, which my brother later digitised. The original inspiration came from our engagement card from my parents, a concertina card from Hadley Paper Goods which still sits on our bookshelf today.

We wanted to design a piece of artwork which our guests could display and enjoy in the lead up to the wedding; we were inspired by the Autumnal pallete and folk art in The Double Red Duke and the nesting swallows in the church. We added our wedding date in ribbon and later made gold ribbon wands for our group photo. Our menus complimented our invitations, and we handmade metal swallows which hung on ribbon wrapped around the menus with our guests names individually embossed. 

We weren’t originally going to have a wedding cake, which would have come to much of a surprise to everyone that knows Rory and I, as we love cake. However, we changed our minds after seeing a photoshoot that our photographer Rachel had done with Vaani of Sugar Plum Bakes, where she had created this beautiful Italian inspired wedding cake, the millefoglie. It includes layers of puff pastry, vanilla custard, cream and berries.

Vaani was such a pleasure to work with, again, making the planning process a complete dream and creating a unique millefoglie with seasonal raspberries and hand picked, colourful edible flowers. It was a total success and loved by everyone – it gave the wow factor we wanted.

Words of Wedded Wisdom

Enjoy the planning process as it’s all part of the experience. Plan everything in advance so you can enjoy the lead up to your wedding.

Avoid getting caught up in ‘what’s expected’ and comparing your wedding plans to others.

Remember it’s your day, and focus on what’s really important; the coming together of families and devoting your lives to one another. 

We wouldn’t change anything about our day, except for maybe the wet weather! Looking back, we feel so lucky to be able to say that, but equally put hours of thought in to exactly what we wanted from our day and luckily didn’t feel any pressure to stick to any particular formalities and created a day which felt true to us.