Anna and Troy – A Sunny Kensington Pre-Wedding Shoot

by Rebecca | Mar 24, 2017 | Engagements | 1 comment

Anna and Troy – A Sunny Kensington Pre-Wedding Shoot

This gorgeous pair, Anna and Troy are from California and were visiting London for the first time, passing through to a wedding in France. They met up with talented Leanne Jade Photography for this perfectly sunny Kensington pre-wedding shoot ahead of their wedding day later this year in Napa Valley.

I’m absolutely loving these images, Anna and Troy are having such a lot of fun discovering the city and the backdrop of sunny Kensington and it’s variety of stunning architecture, pretty painted shutters, cobbled alleyways and greenery makes for such a beautiful setting. These images are very endearing and Leanne has so perfectly captured how in love they are!

Let me hand you over now to beautiful bride to be Anna to tell you a bit more about how she and Troy met;

A few months after I moved to San Francisco in 2012, my girlfriend and I found ourselves with a spare bedroom. We listed it on craigslist and decided to do something a bit more fun and have a little “BYOB” party for all applicants. We invited our friends to the party, had a “sign in sheet” and started interviewing. After a fun filled Saturday with lots of conversation, new faces, and a few too many drinks we found ourselves with a still very empty bedroom.

The following day, Troy knocked on the door. He was a day late for the party but never had better timing. He moved in later that month. The three of us became very close friends. Troy and I would stay up late chatting about life and love. It was not until a year after he moved in that we started dating….we have been together ever since.

Engaged couple pre-wedding shoot in London

Troy kissing Anna's hand in Kensington pre-wedding shoot

I took a work trip to Tahoe in April of 2016 and Troy asked if he could join. On the drive back to San Francisco he suggested we take a little hike and it was on that hike overlooking a gorgeous lake, that he asked me to marry him. He is my very best friend and love of my life!!

The engagement shoot was on one of our first international trips together – we were on our way to France for a wedding and Troy had to work in London for a week so I joined. I had never been to London and was soooo excited to explore. We spent a lovely few days in the city and Leanne was kind enough to offer us a shoot.

Troy sourced the diamond from a friend in NYC and then found a jeweler in SF. I had mentioned that I love ovals and so he went with that shape and designed the ring himself. He then had them hand engraved with linnea flowers (my middle name/mothers name/Swedish flower) along both sides of the metal.

On the drive back to San Francisco he suggested we take a little hike and it was on that hike overlooking a gorgeous lake, that he asked me to marry him. He is my very best friend and love of my life!!

We absolutely LOVED hanging with Leanne – she is the damn best!! We think about the shoot all the time and feel so lucky to have had the vacation, Leanne’s availability, and incredible weather all work out in our favor. Watching Troy be a bit goofy and have as much fun with it as I did was pretty awesome! We loved the whole afternoon!!!

My advice for others……It is always awkward having your photograph taken but I think the best thing you can do is a) choose a great photographer (Leanne!!!) b) not take it too seriously, have fun with it! c) a glass of wine or two before doesn’t hurt!

troy and anna embracing Leanne Jade Photography

Thank you so much to Anna and Troy for sharing their wonderful pre-wedding shoot with Adored Bride, wishing you both a fabulous wedding day later this year. We’d absolutely love to see the images of your big day too.

Huge thanks also to the lovely Leanne of Leanne Jade Photography for these images, make sure you pop over to her website and take a look at her stunning work;

with love

Photographer – Leanne Jade Photography

A Gorgeous Ufton Court Tithe Barn Wedding by Miki Photography

by Rebecca | Mar 21, 2017 | Real Weddings | 1 comment

A Gorgeous Ufton Court Tithe Barn Wedding by Miki Photography

Officially spring has arrived! Even if the great British weather didn’t quite get the memo! Today’s wedding from Miki Photography will brighten things up. Oli and Danielle had a gorgeous summer’s day for their tithe barn wedding with a very cool ‘RumCam’ home video that got all their guests involved in the celebrations.

Danielle and her bridesmaids got ready from her parents home, I love the images of her dad getting the car dressed to go to church, her parents look so proud as they both see her. Oli got ready with his groomsmen and managed to squeeze in some pub grub and pint before walking to the church, well why not. I love the relaxed and authentic feel to their day and the fun and laughter just shows throughout all the beautiful images captured by Ash from Miki Photography.

So let me hand you over to Danielle and Oli to tell us all about their gorgeous tithe barn wedding;

Danielle and I met on the first day at Durham University, in October 2007. We both went to St Aidan’s College, and our rooms were next door to each other. We quickly became great friends, but it wasn’t until midway through second year that I plucked up the courage to break the friends zone and tell Danielle how I felt.

After university we both spent some time abroad; I was in Chicago on an internship; Danielle travelling across Central and South America. We both ended up in London, moving in together in March 2014. Some of our best times together were spent on weekend breaks to “Tinkerbelle Cottage” in the Scottish Highlands. It was somewhat inevitable I proposed to Danielle besides the wood burner in the cottage in December 2014.

We didn’t really have a theme, we pinned a lot to our Pinterest boards. We were both really impressed with weddings we’d read about where a lot of personal touches had been made. We wanted to make sure people felt that everything about the day was authentically ‘Danielle and Oli’.

It felt a natural choice that the reception was at a Tudor manor house and tithe barn (I studied Medieval History at University), and the wedding itself was at St Michael’s Church in Basingstoke. It’s the Church where Danielle’s parents got married and where Danielle was Christened. We also wanted the day to feel relaxed – more a giant party than anything else!

The couple chose Ufton Court for their wedding celebrations;

I love all things old and traditional and this space just exudes character and honesty. It’s also a charity, which was attractive to us. Danielle loved the quirkiness of the barn and the opportunity to personalize it (with very few rules!). Ufton Court assign a Wedding Coordinator to you to make sure the planning and the day itself goes smoothly. We had Verity Rickard-Lawrence – she was amazing, especially with coordinating all the suppliers.
We were so so pleased we put an open sided marquee from Magnifitents outside the barn too. It created a whole separate space in the evening with incredible up-lighting and twinkle lights. We had blankets available and this is where we placed our cigar and whisky trolley.

Ash from Miki Photography captured the day for Oli and Danielle;

There were two main reasons really why we picked Ash, his photos were awesome and interesting and he could he take a great classic wedding shot – tick! But more importantly, the samples of his work we saw were just so COOL. We didn’t want a thousand soppy close ups of us two!

Secondly, we clicked when we spoke to him on the phone and during the engagement shoot – he came across as someone who could have been just another one of our friends. This was really important as you want the photographer to blend in during the day and for the photography aspect to be enjoyable!

Danielle’s dress came from Anya Bridal and was by Essence of Australia.

I really loved the experience at Anya Bridal. I booked a luxury appointment, which means you get the entire ‘barn’, full of dresses, to yourself. I went along on an October Sunday with my Mum, Nan and friends. I just fell in love with the first dress I tried on. It fitted so well and had all the detail I was after (including intricate lace and low key sequins for shimmer).

I wore a vintage-style hairpiece from Anthropologie and a fingertip-length veil with small pearls sewn into the edging ( which worked well with the hairpiece). The shoe choice chopped and changed quite a few times before the wedding day! For the day I ended up wearing the same shoes as the bridesmaids from Vince Camuto. Sparkly heels! I wore ‘Diamond’ tear earrings by Carat London, Selfridges. I didn’t want anything to distract from the neckline of the dress.

Danielle chose hair and make up artist Kirsty Fraser to create her lovely natural look with a with a French pleat. The bridesmaids had a similar hairstyle with small pearl topped pins. Kirsty also did the Mother of the Bride’s makeup (again a natural look).

The bridesmids wore Little Mistress beaded top maxi dresses from House of Fraser in grey. All the bridesmaids went shopping together in London (Grace, Danielle’s cousin, flew over from Ireland). The flower girls wore dresses from Monsoon.

Oli’s morning suit comprised a of a smart jacket made by “A Suit That Fits” and a cream doublebreatsed waistcoat, trousers and tie by Favourbrook. Oli also wore silk braces by Turnbull and Asser, shoes by Russell and Bromley and the finishing touch,vintage lucky sixpence coins cufflinks.

The groomsmen hired their morning suits from Debenhams and we all wore the same black and white stripy socks.

Daneille’s Dad Terry gave away her away and they walked down the aisle together to Mendelssohn’s Wedding March.

We got our wedding rings from Channing’s in Hatton Gardens – the same jeweler where I got Danielle’s engagement ring. These were some of the first things we bought on a very exciting Saturday morning. I have a plain platinum band, Danielle has a platinum band with a twist and Diamond shoulders.

One of my favourite moments of the day was driving off in the Land Rover from the Church to Ufton Court – just the two of us. I think we just kept repeating ecstatically “Holy Sh*t we’re married!!”

We used my family Land Rover Defender as the wedding car. My sister also used it for her wedding so it only seemed fitting. I used to give Danielle lifts to the university library in it during our time at Durham University.

Danielle chose Miss Mollies Flowers for her stunning wedding flowers;

Our florist Miss Mollie’s Flowers were recommended by a friend. Claire was fantastic – so relaxed and personal. I met her with my Mum. Claire showed us round her workshop (at the back of her garden) and we just loved her ideas.

The cake was kindly bought for us by my (Danielle’s) grandparents. It was made by a friend of Nan. It was a beautiful, four-tiered cake with Victoria Sponge, Carrot cake, Lemon, and fruit cake. There was an intricate lace design along with flowers made out of icing.

My best friend Steph is an incredible designer (she works for Boden) and designed all the stationary for us and my Dad Terry is a printer and printed them all.

Our style was shabby chic to a certain extent, but not over the top. We had wood log slices for the cake stand and for the centerpiece flowers to go onto. With festoon lighting from Lex Marquee Hire. We picked up an old suitcase that we lined with custom “D&O” paper and placed that at the entrance to the barn for wedding cards. We also had hurricane lamps dotted about the place. Oli’s favourite piece was the Whisky and Cigar trolley. The trolley was a vintage desert trolley parked under the open sided marquee outside the barn. A humidor and whisky decanter sat on top.

The couple gave their guests some lovely favours, including gorgeous baked cookies by Danielle’s Mum Pauline;

My mum made beautiful baked cookie favours and these were on everyone’s place mats in custom-made bags. We also had sugared almonds at the entrance to the barn, along with little chocolates with “D&O” on them. We also wrote handwritten, personalized thank-yous and tied them to everyone’s forks.

Light up LOVE letters by Typical Type with band in front.

We didn’t have a film on the day but we made a RumCam ourselves. We bought a 1.5 litre bottle of Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum and strapped a camcorder to the bottom of it. Oli then edited the footage using MovieMaker 2012 and put it up on YouTube;

We got married on the Friday, had a family bbq on the Saturday and went on honeymoon on the Monday for 3 weeks. Singapore for a couple of nights, then Bali and neighbouring islands. It was sheer bliss. All arranged through Kuoni. Our favourite places were The Elysian Boutique Hotel in Semanyak (Bali) and the Alila in Ubud . Going diving off Gili T island was a major highlight.

For our first dance we had Ho Hey by the Lumineers. We just really like it. We saw them at Glastonbury a few years back.We had a 5-piece band (with a DJ set in breaks) all supplied by Under The Covers. These guys are just awesome. The whole experience from enquiry to end of the wedding night is just so easy and fun working with them. Can’t recommend them enough.

The only thing we’d do differently was we needed to factor in more time for speeches! Dinner was a little rushed as we had speeches before dinner.

If we have any advice for others it would be don’t leave the planning to the last minute otherwise you won’t enjoy it. Take time off before the wedding (we took the full week) – it was so much fun doing the final preparations with friends and family. On the day – don’t worry about anything. It’s too late to worry!

Such a beautiful wedding at a totally stunning tithe barn setting, I particularly love the ‘RumCam’ totally genius idea!

My huge congratulations to Oli and Danielle, wishing you both a wonderful future together. Big thanks for letting us share your day and to Ash too from Miki Photography for these awesome images.

with love

Charlie Brear and Jesus Peiro for Sophisticated Vineyard Inspired Tipi Shoot

by Rebecca | Mar 8, 2017 | Fashion, Inspiration

Charlie Brear and Jesus Peiro for Sophisticated Vineyard Inspired Tipi Shoot

I love a Tipi Wedding, I really do, they are such a versatile space, so warm and welcoming in the day and such a party venue at night! So, I’m so happy to be able to share this elegant styled vineyard inspiration tipi shoot today, captured by Lucy G Photography. The images are a collaboration of wonderful suppliers who work together to dress the award winning All About Me Tipis for their twice yearly open weekends. This coming weekend, Friday 10th to Sunday 12th March, is their Spring Tipi Open Weekend at Delamere Events in Cheshire and I can highly recommend it if you are looking for a beautiful venue for your wedding.

This inspiration shoot draws on a subtle vineyard theme, with bleach wood wine barrels, rich deep wine coloured florals, textiles and stationery with gorgeous sophisticated dresses for an elegant twist on a tipi wedding. The styling is by Pretty Creative at Adored Bride, dresses curated by Lucy at The White Closet Studios, Liverpool, beautiful florals by Heather at Living Colour, stationery by Emma at Hattie Boo Designs, hair and make up by Clare at Harry Jon and textiles by Kaye Hannabuss Textiles. We’ll actually be featuring Kaye’s own wedding day on Adored Blog soon, so keep an eye out for that!

We wanted to try and create a bit of a twist on the traditional rustic tipi wedding by drawing on a quite elegant rather than boho look. The vineyard idea, drew together a lovely rich tone to the whole shoot that really works so well in the warmth of a tipi.

The tipis were set out with a main reception, party tent along with a smaller ceremony/blessing tent that overlooks the lake.

The two bridal looks were from the collection at White Closet Studios, Liverpool. Both designers dresses by Charlie Brear (the backless dress) and Jesus Peiro (lace backed dress) have the most beautiful delicate lace details and clean flowing lines. Utterly elegant, classic styles but each a little quite daring and very fashion led.

The flowers by Living Colour were just a little opulent, with stone urns placed on wine barrels and deep, claret tones in the stunning bouquet. The stationery again played on the vineyard and wine theme with beautiful hand painted invitations, table plan, save the dates and menus by Hattie Boo Designs as well as all the signage details. The Hollies Farm Shop provided the fabulous cheese and deli board, which Lucy G Photography managed to photograph just before everyone swooped on the cheese board to sample it!

Place settings with little wooden heart favours

Our bride Charlotte had her look created by talented Clare at Harry Jon, with a very natural look to the make up with a subtle rosy claret lip colour and soft brown eye tones. Charlotte’s hair was swept up in a loose up do with the occasional tousled curl loosly falling down around her face and shoulders. For the Charlie Brear dress, Charlotte’s hair was styled with a pretty floral hair clip by Gypsy Rose Vintage.

Kaye Hannabuss Textiles provided the gorgeous bow ties, ties, pocket squares, blankets, cushions and gorgeous claret clutch bags. It is these little details that really bring through the colours of the shoot. Kaye’s work is stunning and all made by hand using liberty prints and Harris tweeds.

Vineyards always make me think of organic, rich, italian style cheese and wine feast eaten alfresco, so that really suited an outdoorsy tipi wedding . Plus we do like a glass of red!

Such a gorgeous shoot, thanks so much to Lucy G Photography for sharing these images today. Don’t forget to call in to the All About Me Spring Tipi Open Weekend, this weekend if you are in the Cheshire area.

An Atmospheric Vintage Inspired Bridal Shoot at Stanton Gardens by Belle Art Photography

by Rebecca | Mar 3, 2017 | Fashion, Inspiration

An Atmospheric Vintage Inspired Bridal Shoot at Stanton Gardens by Belle Art Photography

I love an atmospheric, slightly dark, slightly edgy but ultimately just beautiful experimental styled shoot. Becy from Belle Art Photography, collaborated with talented florist Katie-Jane from The Garden Studio, to bring us this captivating vintage bridal shoot at Stanton Gardens in Morpeth. I love it! Stanton Gardens is a relatively new venue and it’s a total hidden gem, I predict we’ll hear a lot more of this fabulous space in the future and I bet it becomes a firm favourite with couples.

I really love these images and I have a serious fixation on glasshouses, greenhouses, palm houses and orangeries at the moment, so that’s an added bonus. Add a touch of deep green foliage, a log pile backdrop, a rustic festoon lit and foliage bedecked barn, a floral crown or two and I’m in heaven! Oh and of course the dresses, pure vintage gems from the fantastically curated collection available from Vintage at Number 18.

Becy’s photography is so exciting, I really enjoy real weddings of course but styled shoots really enable talented wedding suppliers to really flex their creative side, collaborate, experiment and produce whimsical and mysterious images like these. I hope you love them as much as I do, here’s Becy to tell you more about the shoot;

Katie-Jane from The Garden Studio and I decided to work together to create a vintage-inspired styled shoot.

Weddings at Stanton Gardens is a relatively new venue just outside of Morpeth, Northumberland. Katie-Jane had already worked with them before and showed me some images of the beautiful rustic barn and it was perfect! The venue boasts beautiful green gardens, a rustic barn and quirky greenhouses, so there are lots of option for creating some amazing images.

Barm decorated with bunting for the meal

I then contacted a beautiful vintage bridal shop, Vintage at Number 18, who came on board with the most unbelievable original vintage dresses from the 50’s and 60’s.

My vision for the shoot was beautiful, weird and wonderful! I love styled shoots because it enables you to get the images that you really want to create, I’m an artist so I always create a concept before jumping into a shoot.

My style for wedding photography is quite moody and romantic, dark shadows with creamy highlights and lots of greenery – I wanted to create images where you would question the story behind them.

I know the models very well, in fact on of them is my sister! The real couple, Tom and Erin are both quirky individuals and made the whole experience really fun.

Huge thanks to Becy at Belle Art Photography and Katie-Jane at the Garden Studio for sharing this atmospheric shoot at amazing Stanton Gardens with us. It looks like a hidden gem of a venue!

A Lovingly Handmade, Sunny, Sunflower and Aussie Inspired Wedding

by Rebecca | Feb 23, 2017 | Real Weddings

A Lovingly Handmade, Sunny, Sunflower and Aussie Inspired Wedding

So, as February continues to be a little (very) grey, I am delighted to bring you a major burst of sunshine on the blog today, courtesy of Lee Maxwell Photography. Helen, our beautiful blond bride, married Sammy our gorgeous brunette bride, in an outdoor wedding ceremony in August. It was a gloriously sunny Devon day, surrounded by their wonderful families and friends.

The couple were engaged in Australia, where they lived for 5 years and wanted to bring an Aussie feel to the day, as it was such an important backdrop to their love story. I love all the handmade touches, the surfboard seating plan, the bright sunflowers and floral details which the couple and friends all created themselves! Just stunning and all the thought and time that they have spent over every detail, with help from some very talented friends.

Helen and Sammy chose Lee Maxwell to capture their day. They really appreciated his unobtrusive style, documenting the day, recording the main event, along with all the little moments that make up memories. I love the images of the speeches which look like they were very entertaining and oh the dancing too!

So please enjoy this joyous splash of colour of a wedding, inspired by sunny Aussie shores;

Lee maxwell photography - bridesmaids dresses

We met in 2010, we are not dinner and drinks kind of girls so our first date was a day out at Go Ape adventure centre where we spent the day swinging through the trees on high ropes and zip lines! The adventure continued from day 1 and we moved to Sydney Australia in 2011 after traveling for a few months on the way. We got engaged in Port Stephens, a gorgeous coastal area on the East coast of Australia.

After 5 years in Australia we definitely felt influenced by the relaxed and coastal lifestyle we led overseas. So we introduced rustic wood and coastal blues with a pop of yellow to remind us of the beach and our adventures together.

The couple chose Beaconside House for their wedding celebrations;

We chose this venue as we wanted to have the venue for the whole weekend and it be more of a celebration combined with a holiday with our nearest and dearest rather than a single day where we would be rushing to speak to everyone (Sammy has a rather large family!). We could do and chose everything ourselves, from the caterers to the table décor. We also really wanted to do our own free bar for guests and Beaconside allowed the flexibility of having your own alcohol and bar staff at the venue.

Our venue offered enough accommodation in the main house, cottages and camping for 50 guests from the Friday to Monday. The venue had 2 pools, 2 hot tubs, a massive kitchen and beautiful grounds. It was amazing to have the whole weekend with so many loved ones in such a beautiful venue and surrounds.

The owner was great, around as much or as little as you wanted to assist with getting the venue ready. They also supplied the marquee for us.

Sammy and Helen chose the talented Lee Maxwell Photography;

We loved Lee’s photo style, it was so relaxed and non invasive. Pictures were relaxed and captured moments you didn’t even know had been taken. We don’t remember seeing him at all during the day yet managed to capture every moment, emotion and guest. He was also a really lovely guy.

We planned and styled our own wedding, we made all of our wood and floral centre pieces, signs and the surf board seating plan. We bought our flowers from a wholesaler and made everything from the pinholes to bouquets. Luckily Helen is rather crafty and Sammy takes direction well!

Helen found her dresses at Bellissima Weddings. The boutique was recommended by a friend. She chose a beautiful Mori Lee dress that she initially saw online in their shop and fell in love with it, it was the second dress she tried on and she bought it straight away!

On the day she wore gypsophila flowers in hair and pearl grips from Accessorize. Her shoes were from Rainbow Club.

Both of our favourite moments were seeing each other come down the aisle, as we had not seen or talked about what the other would be wearing. It was a really emotional moment with not a dry eye in the house! It was also amazing walking back down the aisle as newly weds with such beautiful rose petal confetti being thrown over us.

Sammy found her Maggie Sottero dress in Pirouette the Collection in Exeter and chose a more vintage style dress to match her engagement ring. The dress fitted perfectly and Sammy fell in love with it; initially it was too long for her taste, however the seamstress was amazing and used the excess train to make bows for 4 dogs a headband for her niece and added flowers to the straps of her dress. Her teardop necklace was her something borrowed.

Sammy wore blue shoes to pick out the theme of the day and were from Kurt Geiger at Debenham’s Collection and with the aptly named design ‘Samantha’.

For us the day was pretty relaxed and we didn’t plan the first look, however Helen’s dad came in ready for his fatherly duties and couldn’t hold back the tears as he noticed her adding the final touches. Sammy and her dad had a beer together!

Both of our fathers gave us away, it was truly special and amazing, they both cried like babies! We walked down the ailse to song 6 George Ezra. The whole drive to our engagement weekend we had this on in the car, it reminded us of our 5 years in Australia and how we came to be engaged.

We had amazing friends with hairdressing and makeup prowess Sara and Kayleigh and Jamie and helped everyone get ready. The theme with our bridesmaids was to feel comfortable and natural so they all had what they felt was to their taste rather than anything we chose.The bridemaid’s dresses were from a collection at For Him and For Her We allowed our bridesmaids to chose their own individual dresses from the collection but in the same colour twilight blue. Interestingly they chose the same three dresses! Our ‘man maids’ wore their own charcoal grey and navy suits.

We bought and chose the flowers from a wholesale florist Peamore Flora. Helen then made ceremony displays and table centre pieces from sunflowers, gypsophila, chamomile and green fern. Bouquets for brides and bridesmaids with opposite ribbon (navy or navy and white striped) for bride and corresponding bridesmaids. We each had a meaningful charm draped around our own bouquets. We lined the aisle with bunches of gypsophila and slate hearts that we stenciled ourselves with our initials and wedding date.
We loved the bright sunflowers and how they reminded us of the sand and complimented the beautiful bridesmaid dresses. We also had yellow rose petal confetti as we walked back down the aisle and yellow rose button holes all from peamores.

Sammy and Helen’s wedding rings came from Brown and Newirth;

We chose this company as they allowed us to get the same bands in different carats (to correspond with our individual engagement rings) and offered a complimentary engraving service.

We collected jam jars and bought a combination of tea lights, holders, floating candles and pillar candles for the centre pieces. We had a sweets table filled with pick & mix in hessian sacks in a personalized stenciled crate. Our friend Claire designed a map (that matched our invitations) connecting Australia and the UK for guests to sign and we ordered a wedding book with our own photo on the front from not on the high street.

We kitted out our bar with rustic chopping boards, 8 litre mason jars for pimms and water and thatchers beer mats. We had a crate of flip flops on the dance floor for when people got sore dancing feet and needed to kick of the heels!

Our cake was made by Sammy’s mum and we chose a cupcake tower of vanilla cupcakes with chocolate centres and vanilla icing with a sponge cutting cake on the top, our colours were navy and white with a wood personalized cake topper from Etsy. We stained this to match the wood from the rest of our wedding customized items.

Our friend Claire designed the invitations and then we then printed them ourselves. Helen resurfaced an old surfboard, spray painted and stenciled it for our table plan. We had stickers with our initials and wedding date designed by our friend Laura and then had them dishwasher proof printed, we then put them onto mason jars as favours. We also had stubby holders made with our names/ wedding date for guests. Each guest had a wine clip with a personalized photo of themselves.

We decorated the marquee ourselves, we bought paper lanterns from The Hanging Lantern Company. We ordered the table runners from Etsy and the napkins from ebay. We then bought wood from Milverton Sawmill and created signs, centre pieces and table names using our own self made stencils. We also bought some old crates from gum tree and painted/stenciled them to hold ciders and beers. Our friend Kiara from Flossy Fleur made crate liners so they were able to hold ice and be waterproof but yet still match our colours.

We had lots of help on the day and are so grateful to all our family and friends who helped us with the wedding. Sara and Kayleigh for all their help making us look and feel beautiful, our bridemaids for being part of our special day and such an epic hen do making us dress up as kangaroos and take part in It’s a Knock Out in Bristol, where we beat every other team, including the boys..at football… where they actually almost cried!

We are so grateful to our friends Kiara, Claire and Laura for their design prowess and all of our friends and family who helped get the venue, marquee and ceremony ready and made our special day and weekend so amazing.

We danced to L-O-V-E by Nat King Cole, we didn’t plan a dance but just did what felt right and then everyone joined us after spinning each other around the dance floor!

In the evening we had Mr T BBQ Man for a more luxurious approach to an aussie barbie with salmon, steak and pulled pork. For the entertainment we had the band iRock. I can’t explain how amazing this band were at getting the party started, our guests were extremely complimentary and not one seat was occupied during their set-everyone was dancing!

The readings were also a really special moment for us that were really appropriate to us as a couple and made us and everyone have a lovely giggle. We wouldn’t change a thing about our day, it was amazing and so was everyone that could share it with us.

Our advice would be doing a lot of it yourself can make it more personalized and save on costs but it can be stressful getting everything ready in time. Make sure if you do it yourself you have a whole day to get ready to set everything set up. Beaconside does not have a back up plan for larger wedding parties if it rains so make sure you have your own! We bought some gazebos as back up but luckily did not have to use them- we ended up needing sun screen!

Also as a couple know what you are both good at and divide and conquer but come together for final decisions. People love having jobs and helping on your special day, so don’t try and do everything, take the help!

I think that Helen and Sammy’s wedding looked like an absolute blast, so much joy and laughter. Huge thanks to the happy couple for sharing their amazing wedding with us and all it’s fantastic aussie and handmade touches. Wishing you both much love and joy for your future together.

Thanks goes to the talented Lee Maxwell too, who captured the day and all the wonderful emotions and moments perfectly,