Phoebe in Jesus Peiro for her Elegant November Wedding at Aswarby Rectory

Phoebe and Ben celebrated their love with an elegant November wedding at the charming Aswarby Rectory in Lincolnshire.

Inspired by their mutual love for autumn, the couple chose a seasonally rich palette of deep green and neutral tones that perfectly complemented the venue’s warm and characterful interiors. Phoebe wore a chic and sophisticated Jesus Peiro gown, cape and headband and carried the most beautiful, seasonal bouquet that trailed silk ribbons. Her bridesmaids wore bespoke dark green velvet midi dresses that elegantly echoed the cosy, seasonal vibe.

This stylish celebration was beautifully captured by photographer Helaina Storey – enjoy!

Aswarby Rectory was the only venue we visited, and we knew right away it was for us. The Old Rectory is beautiful and has been so lovingly restored by the family who owns and run it– and who were also incredibly warm and helpful throughout the planning process.

Aswarby Rectory has the most perfect balance of gorgeous, characterful features and also being light, bright and airy, with big Georgian windows.

The venue is also really intimate, and you have the whole place to yourself for the whole day and night – right from getting ready, to the ceremony, party and of course, the gorgeous bedrooms for the night of the wedding – this made our wedding day feel so effortless (on the day at least).

I makeup artist, Hannah Dora, and hair stylist, Helen Sutcliffe. Again, two incredible ladies who made the morning of my wedding. They both brought such calm energy and made everyone look and feel incredible.

 We love autumn – hence why we chose to get married in November and this influenced a lot of our decisions, particularly in terms of outfits. Mu bridesmaid dresses were made by Olana. My sister has a design agency, and she worked with Jodie at Olana a few years ago to design the Bellevedere dress that the girls wore. The dress was originally in a black velvet but I worked with Jodie to pick out the perfect shade of green. They are the most gorgeous, feminine dresses and the girls looked incredible. These are now sold on her website, and I’ve even bought one for myself.

My perfume was Liquid Love by Penhaligons – it smells incredible, a mix of rose and ginger – and the name is very fitting too.

I wore a delicate gold bracelet with a small heart on which Ben gifted to me the night before the wedding. My shoes were a simple pair of court heels from Dune.

My brother James accompanied me down the aisle to an instrumental version of ‘Higher Love’ played acoustic on the guitar by Mark Elliot.

The Celebrants from Lincolnshire Registry Office lead our ceremony – they are super lovely.

Both mine and Ben’s mum did a reading – Ben’s mum read ‘You Are The Bubbles’, by Rachel Bright, and my mum read, ‘How to Make a Beautiful Life Together: Reflections on Marriage for the Bride and Groom’. We kept our vows quite simple, but both did a speech to one another after dinner. 

My ring is from Chupi – they are gorgeous, sustainably made rings from Ireland. Chupi make very thin, delicate rings which I love as my fingers are very small. Ben chose a simple gold band from Goldsmiths.

We chose Helaina Storey on recommendation from my sister who worked with her, and also had Helaina photograph her wedding. We loved Helaina’s style, which to us felt like the perfect mix of editorial, fun and effortless pictures. Perfectly captured, but not forced.

Both Ben and I also aren’t the most confident in front of the camera, so it was also so important who Helaina was too – she was so much fun and put us completely at ease, seamlessly weaving into and capturing all the moments of our wedding. We really couldn’t recommend her anymore!

Ben and I met at the end of secondary school and have been together ever since – so over 12 years in total!  Ben proposed in February 2023 (so, 1 year 8 months before our wedding day) – we had a weekend away booked in the countryside, and he proposed whilst we were out walking our dog on the first evening. And despite being together over a decade at that time, I was still in shock.

Ben wore his grandad’s gold pocket watch, that has been passed down many generations. He also wore a gold wristwatch which I bought him as a wedding gift – the watch was originally made back in the 50s and has a very sweet feature that shows the ‘moon phases’ of the month.

Katy Rose May Floral was our florist and we chose her because we loved her style, which combines beautiful blooms and colour palates in a perfectly ‘undone’ sort of way.

Katy also has an allotment and grows many of the flowers herself and seeks to source other flowers and foliage as locally and sustainably as possible – which was also really important to us. 

The flowers for our wedding were absolutely perfect. Katy was also incredibly thoughtful and provided vases for the bouquets to be put in and taken home in – this meant our flowers lasted over 4 weeks once I got them home which was so so lovely! Again, I couldn’t recommend Katy more highly!

Our caterers were Black Peppermint whose food was incredibly tasty! Ruby Lou Cakes made our wedding cake. I originally tried the cake at my wedding dress appointment, and it was so good, we asked Nat to make our wedding cake! The biggest tier of the cake was Sticky Toffee Pudding – our favourite desert. 

Ben’s mum made all the rest of the desserts – we had a huge selection of brownies, rocky roads, millionaires’ short breads, cheesecakes. She is an incredible baker and there was nothing left at the end of the night.

It’s so, so difficult to pick a single moment, it truly was the most perfect day. For me, hearing Ben’s speech was really special – Ben’s not a big public speaker but he really did such a perfect job and had me in tears! The ceremony was also really special, and we loved the live music throughout the day!

Mark Elliot was our musician. He was incredible and carried us and the guests seamlessly through the whole day, from arrival, the ceremony, right through to midnight! He brought so much fun and energy and was an incredible singer and performer. The guests were raving about him for weeks!

Our first dance was to an acoustic version of Elvis’s ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’, played on the guitar by Mark.

We didn’t set a firm budget but there were definitely some last-minute costs, including rings and a few of the details we didn’t factor in. I think planning our wedding outside of the ‘typical wedding season’ saved us money with a number of suppliers, most notably the venue.

We wish we’d had more Prosecco at the reception – we had lots of beers and other drinks, but everyone gravitates to the bubbles for their first drink, and we didn’t factor that into our plan. That being said, I don’t think the guests went thirsty!

I don’t know if it’s a word of wisdom but something we did and I think made a big impact, and that was picking suppliers we genuinely liked, as people. All of the suppliers we picked were incredible, including the team at Aswarby Rectory.

I think it’s so important you pick people you get along with and who have really lovely, calming, positive energies – ultimately on the day you want to be able to put all your trust into them, and if you pick the right ones you don’t have to think about a thing and can just focus on your special day with your partner and all your friends and families. 

Also, live music – this has been the best part of any wedding I have attended and for ours, really carried us through the day!