Country Garden Inspired Wedding in Oxford’s Dreaming Spires

I’m so pleased to be able to share this gorgeous country garden wedding with you today, our launch day. I want Adored Bride to be a source of diverse, eclectic and stunning photography and celebrations, with the love stories at the very heart of it.

I am then so happy to be able to bring you Elizabeth and Thenuhan’s beautiful wedding. Liz and Then were married on August 6th, a sun soaked day in the beautiful city of Oxford. An amazing backdrop for a wedding and the scene of their love story, having met at University in the city. These images are courtesy of lovely Kelly at Kelly Clarke Photography who has done an amazing job capturing the day.

Then and Liz opted for an English country garden style affair, drawing on the lovely Oxfordshire setting of their wedding venue, a pretty marquee in the waterside grounds of one of the oldest inns in the city. I will hand over to Liz and Then tell us more about their day;

We met at University, New College, Oxford ten years ago and after three years of knowing each other we started going out. Three years later I asked Liz to marry me by spelling out “Marry Me” during a game of scrabble. We both wanted to get married in our College Chapel, where we met, because it is an amazing venue and we were both lucky enough to have gone to the college.

For the day, Liz chose a very elegant classically timeless look, with beautiful detailing and the prettiest of florals. She found her dress at The Wedding Dress Shop in Wimbledon Park a stunning bespoke lace bodice and sleeved dress, with a flowing satin silk skirt.

“I looked in a lot of wedding dress shops and wanted a very specific type of dress to suit my figure. I ended up making quite a lot of alterations to the dress, adding sleeves and changing the back – to make it look how I’d envisioned. The Wedding Dress Shop were so accommodating, letting me make the changes I needed and suggested lots of helpful details.

I chose not to wear a veil or any hair accessories. The back of the dress was the most beautiful part so I wanted to make sure this was the focus. My priority for my shoes was to be as comfortable as possible! I always knew I wanted flat shoes. After a lot of searching I found a lace pair from Tesco which suited exactly what I wanted perfectly. I then wore small pearl earrings, but no other jewellery, I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.

My hair and make up artist was Sophie Dutta from Sophie J Makeup. She did the make up for myself, my mum and all of the bridesmaids. The bridesmaids chose their own hair and make up style and I wanted was style that was simple and classic and Sophie did a brilliant job.”

“I bought the bridesmaids dresses from John Lewis’s own collection. All of the bridesmaids wore whichever shoes they wanted to, most wore flat sandals, to ensure they enjoyed their day as much as possible.”

Thenuhan, his best man and groomsmen all looked very dapper in navy suits. Then’s was a beautifully tailored custom made 3 piece suit from Tailor Made in London. With the complimenting lads suits coming from Marks and Spencers.

Our photographer was Kelly Clarke, she was recommended to us and after our first phone call we knew what she was the exactly kind of photographer that we wanted. Very chilled out and not too many posed photos!

After a beautiful drinks reception in the grounds of the college, the reception was held at the Perch Inn, Binsey.

We picked the Perch because the pub was very quaint and the surroundings were beautiful. They also sorted out all food and drinks for the full day, meaning we didn’t have to worry about coordination with lot of suppliers. They also sourced us a brilliant Cheese Tower as an alternative cake which went down very well with our guests.

The venue we chose inspired the main theme we went for which was an “English Country Wedding” with bunting, flowers, rustic table settings and vintage touches, using the natural setting of The Perch which already has some decorations.

We chose Louise at Wild Thyme for our flowers. Looking on her website she had the wild country type flowers we were looking for and when we met her in person she had the relaxed feel we were after. We showed her Pinterest pictures of what we wanted, vibrant pink flowers with lots of foliage and we couldn’t have been happier with them. Two of my friends who are getting married next year have already booked Louise for their big days next years based on how beautiful the flowers were. 

Our wedding cake was made by Then’s Aunt who makes cakes as a hobby. The design was elegantly simple, a 3 tiered sponge cake with white icing and pink sugar flowers.

Our first dance was “All of Me” John Legend. We both really liked the lyrics of the song as they spoke to our relationship very well!

For entertainment we booked a Band we had heard play in a pub in Earlsfield, who we thought would be great for the wedding.  

Then – My favourite part of the day was seeing Liz walk down the aisle. It was the first time I had seen her all day and she looked amazing!”
Liz – My favourite moments were the Groom and Father of the Bride speeches, they were both so lovely.

If we were to offer any advice to other couples it would be just prioritise what’s important to you. You can’t do everything. Make sure you wouldn’t look back in 10 years time and wish you’d done something differently.

Great advice! Such a beautiful day, I love the flowers really gorgeous and looks like the band was amazing too …did I spot Then crowd surfing???
Thanks so, so much to Then and Liz for allowing me to share your wedding day on Adored Bride and congratulations to you both, my best wishes to you for a very happy future.
Thanks also to Kelly from Kelly Clarke Photography for these awesome images.