Georgia & Toby’s Rainy Day Wedding at Gulliver’s Hall, a Unique Home Stays Cotswolds Wedding Venue

Artist Georgia and gym director Toby married on 30th August at Gulliver’s Hall at Copsegrove Farm in Bisley – a Unique Home Stays wedding venue. The couple gracefully embraced the torrential rain and enabled a beautifully heartfelt wedding that was filled with love and laughter.

Georgia chose a Saint Bridal Couture dress from The Wedding Club, a supplier she discovered on Love My Dress, and worked with a local tailor to create a version of the dress that was just absolutely perfect for her.

The couple styled their celebration with inspiration from French flea markets, bringing in vintage pieces, sustainable details and locally sourced food to create a wonderfully relaxed country house setting that felt personal and full of character.

I’m so delighted to be sharing this beautiful wedding on Love My Dress, and would like to thank photographer Jack Aldridge for sharing and lovely bride Georgia for sharing such kind words a out Love My Dress.

We met around four years ago in Albert Schloss on a night out, being introduced by a mutual friend who we happened to both bump into while out. We were actually both on dates with other people eek! but when you know you know. We got engaged in the kitchen of our new home which was absolutely perfect – I’m not a fan of grand gestures in public so it felt very intimate and special to us. We’d been engaged one day before booking our wedding day which is hilarious!

We were both just so excited to be married like in When Harry Met Sally when he says “when you realise you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible”.

We got engaged on Thursday 13th February and the next day I was scrolling Unique Homestays for a holiday when I saw the venue and it had a barn with capacity for 70.

I rang them that day and they told us they don’t usually do weddings (they’ve only done 3 before) but if I was willing to organise everything they had one weekend free – 30th August (six months away!). I quickly rang round the main wedding party; best friends and family to check they were free and the rest is history.

I planned the whole event myself. It tapped into the project managing side to my work a lot and I absolutely loved the creativity.

I found the real weddings on Love My Dress a calming, joyous filled page of stories and it gave me a lot of hope for our day. It’s also amazing to read about couples who have gone completely against tradition and just done what they wanted no matter how unconventional it is.

I had a lot of material left over from previous shows so I used this to give the ceremony a warmer, cosier feel. Once we knew it would be torrential rain, we quickly made the decision to have the ceremony under cover and I’m so glad we did! It felt even more intimate.

My dad Gary, who is my rock, accompanied me to the ceremony. Toby chose the song I walked down the aisle to; ‘Georgia On My Mind’, by Ray Charles, but an acoustic version by a female singer.

Olivia Coleman whose a celebrant. She was fabulous! She added such a wonderful vibe, lots of laughs and tears during the ceremony thanks to her script. We met her in person before the wedding and she got to know us before writing our story with help from us.

Toby wore a cream suit with all the trimmings by Gieves & Hawkes and a floppy bow from the Bow Company to match. Toby found Gieves & Hawkes to be very professional and offered ideas that he hadn’t thought of but really elevated his overall suit including how to correctly stand in photos! 

My rings are custom made in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham which is where we used to live together! Toby’s ring is from Castro Smith and is very unique, like a work of art in it’s own right!

My vows to Toby were as follows;

“My Tobes, From the moment you bounded up to me with that cheeky smile, those bright blue eyes, and your puppy-dog energy, life as I knew it ended. I knew instantly: I had to be part of your world.

It’s no secret that we are a little bit different. Things you love, I definitely do not – like tours of Churchill’s favourite spots or, books on the History of Cod. And yet, that’s what I adore about us. Our differences.

Because where I’m passionate, you’re steady. Where I’m tangled up in worry, you’re calm. Where life feels heavy, you’re light and joyful through it all. Only the other day, when nerves were getting the better of me, I heard your voice in my head saying, “You’re all good, chick.” And I thought—how lucky am I, that your voice is stitched into my heart like that?

Since meeting you, I’ve grown in ways I never thought possible. You’ve made me braver, and softer too. You’ve shown me what unconditional love really feels like—the kind that doesn’t just accept me, but celebrates me exactly as I am. You know my brain and all of its quirks better than anyone, and instead of trying to change me, you’ve built little ways to walk alongside me. And that is the greatest gift of all.

The truth is, I still can’t believe how lucky I am. Lucky that even on the most ordinary days, I get to be the woman who loves you—and is loved by you.

I am also so proud of you. Proud that you never give up on your goals, proud of how hard you work building an island for us, proud of the determination that fuels you and the kindness that grounds you. I know, because of this, that when the day hopefully comes, you’ll be the most incredible father and I know our children will be the luckiest of all.

And Tobes, “you is kind, you is smart and you is important.”

Now my vows to you; I promise to say “I love you” every morning before we say goodbye, and to wave from the window even when my eyes are still glued shut.

I promise to kiss you three times every night before bed, our silly little ritual that I never want to give up.

I promise to keep your favourite things stocked… though maybe it’s best you don’t have ice cream for every single meal.

I promise to cheer you on in every new venture—from DJ lessons to water polo to whatever wonderfully niche hobby comes next.

I promise to hold you close, but also give you space to grow into every new version of yourself, to achieve all your dreams and ambitions. Just as you do for me.

And on your hardest days, I promise to help you see yourself the way I see you because to me you are everything.

If I could wish one thing for everyone here today, it would be that they find what I found in you: a best friend, a home, and the kind of love that makes life bigger.

I don’t just want to spend my life with you, Tobes—I honestly cannot imagine a life without you. That’s why today, tomorrow, and every day after, I choose you.”

We had two readings during our ceremony, which included ‘The Giraffe and the Monkey by Daniel Thompson’, and ‘If she’s amazing, she won’t be easy’, a quotation accredited to Bob Marley.

Our photographer was Jack Aldridge – he was absolutely incredible and we’re actually having him again at Toby’s birthday party because we loved him so much! We chose him because he focuses more on candid moments of joy / love rather than posed portraits.

After our initial calls with him I knew we would get on but I didn’t expect him to make me feel so comfortable on the day and the bridal party now consider him part of the group! The photos show just how comfortable everybody felt in his presence. What a guy!

One of our groomsmen Piers filmed our wedding using a handheld video camera and I loved how it’s come out so much. It has real soul and personality. A snippet of the film is on my instagram. 

I wanted the whole wedding to feel like we were hosting a huge dinner party for our favourite people. I wanted it to feel relaxed especially as a lot of people at our wedding would want time to catch up properly after years apart! 

I have always loved the idea of getting married in the South of France countryside as we’ve spent a lot of time there, but I also wanted everyone we love to be able to be at our wedding and my Nanny is nearly 90! I took a lot of inspiration from materials you’d find at a Brocante – a French flea market, using lots of lace and antique items to bring a vintage feel into the space and the menu’s included a drawing I made of a flower while we were living in France for a few months.

The colour scheme was formed from our favourite colours; burgundy, pink and greens.

I also care a lot about protecting our planet and sustainability so that became a priority while sourcing things – using secondhand or hiring services, and nearly all of our food was sourced within a few miles of the venue including the fish from a local Biodynamic trout farm caught the morning of the wedding!

On our ‘top’ table, we had a silver candlestick holder that was my Nanny and Grandad’s who were married for over 60 years. I’ve always felt very inspired by their relationship and the patience they had for each other over the years.

Our chef, Ian, of The Family Meal, created the most incredible pavlova in front of all the guests and allowed us to add the finishing touches with icing sugar and fresh flowers!

I designed all my stationery myself using Adobe software. I wanted the whole day to reflect a journey from when Toby & I were children to getting married now, bringing that fun childish energy to the wedding from the start with our signs and then making the table stationary a bit more sexy!

I’ve been to so many weddings where the favours get left behind so I wanted to do something more personal. I wrote a letter to every one of our guests for them to read at the start of the meal before Toby and I entered the room.

It’s safe to say it was a highlight for a lot of people and it bought up memories and very special moments that gave the whole room a feeling of love and appreciation. I think weddings aren’t just about the couple but about the love we’ve felt and given to all the people in the room, and those who couldn’t be with us, who have shaped us over the years. 

We hired LP Collective from Tailored Entertainment. They performed as a live acoustic duo at our ceremony, a jazz trip at our reception drinks and then a 9 piece band in the evening with DJ sets in between.

Lighting was sorted by my step-dad Graham who has always been, and always will be, my most trusted lighting specialist on all my projects! 

We did a first dance to ‘You Give Me Something’, by Jamiroquai and it was mainly because we wanted something uplifting and fun that got everyone in the dancing mood! Jamiroquai is also touring near us this Christmas so it will be amazing to be able to dance to him live too!

Genuinely every single moment of our day felt like a surreal experience of so much joy and love. My peak moments were; 

Number one tip ; be as present as physically possible. Be exactly where your feet are, every single moment will only happen once and life is happening now so remember that in the build up. It really helped me put the pressure into perspective. 

Planning a wedding can feel all consuming – it feels like a lot of pressure for a bride and I really don’t like the culture behind “bridal era” being this suddenly picture perfect bride in white.

Personally every time I wear white I spill food down myself and I definitely didn’t expect to keep my dress clean – please don’t try to change your whole personality for one day! Go with the messy, love-filled moments and decisions that make you genuinely glow with happiness. Our weekend felt so special because we invited exactly who we wanted to, feeling no pressure to keep others happy; we made decisions that others disagreed with; and ultimately the wedding felt like us, not a polished version of a bride and groom. 

Also – stop putting pressure on the day being perfect, perfect is different for everybody. The cotswolds had more rain on our wedding day than they had had since April! We ran over on every single element of the day and didn’t do our first dance until 2 hours later than scheduled but none of it mattered.

Our rule for inviting guests; it’s not a birthday party so if they don’t celebrate you as a COUPLE, they don’t get an invite. It seemed cut-throat to many but I genuinely have zero regrets because we had a room full of people who couldn’t be happier for us. Plus we both turn 30 this year so those that didn’t make the list can always come to those celebrations (if they still want to haha!)

Going into wedding planning, I was already very aware of how expensive everything would be. I was lucky to use a lot of connections I already had for elements and we managed to stick within our budget. We were also very very fortunate that our parents all gifted us some money towards different elements of the day – we felt very lucky.

When it came to wedding gifting, we have everything we want in life so we just requested money towards a honeymoon or a surprise gift if they would prefer!

It genuinely couldn’t have been any better. If anything, I’d have had everyone stay for the whole week! In all seriousness the only thing I might have changed is to have prepared in advance for a rainy-day wedding rather than just praying for sunshine for five months but it worked out amazingly in the end.  One of my friends told me about a witch on Etsy who casts sunshine if you tell her when your wedding day was – it didn’t work but I almost think it was more perfect because of how cosy and moody the whole day felt. It became about love and connection rather than the weather!

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