This is rustic…but done a little differently. Karla and Pat married at Stokbridge Farm in Sherborn, Dorset. It was the first venue Karla looked at and it ticked all the boxes. She wanted something magically rustic and she got it.
There are so many sweet details and I love the seating plan and cute lavender favours.
Karla tells the story better than me…so here goes…
Hollywood Glamour
Karla The Bride: I saw one of Patrick’s friends get married in a blue sequin dress and knew at that moment that I didn’t want to wear white. I decided that I wanted a timeless look reminiscent of 1940′s Hollywood glamour. I have a pear shape and wanted a dress that hugged my hips and made me look like Jessica Rabbit! My dress was the Winter Kate Limited Edition Nicole Dress in Pink, designed by Nicole Richie. I got it for a quarter of the price on Outnet.com. It was a dusty rose colour with tailored paneling. A distinctive feature was the fishtail. I wanted my dress to be catwalk moment.
A Little Lace
I wore a lace cover from Etsy. I wanted something white for the ceremony. I had a quicksand dusty pink rose in my hair. I’m half Latin-American so I wanted to have a slightly Hispanic look. I wore a third generation Rose gold bangle, my mum’s pearl earring and a necklace my dad gave me.
I’m nearly 6ft so wore flat shoes from Kurt Geiger. They were white lace.
Distinctive
My hair and make-up were done by Annabel Hornsby and her team. I cannot recommend them enough. She totally embraced the idea of creating a 1940′s glamour look. I wanted someone who also worked on TV to create something distinctive.
English Countryside
Our florist was G Lily. She was recommended to us by our caterers. What I loved about Sabine is that she also hires out various decorative items for your day from candelabras to vintage bottles. She picks little things out that people would love and lets you borrow them. We have her to thank for an unique idea we created. We saw a picture from an event she did where their guests had to find a bottle with their name and the table they were on on it. She suggested we collect the Schweppes bottles free from the pub, which we did. 90 of them! We filled them with lavender from Somerset Lavender and bought wooden tags for the bottles from Cox and Cox.
Both Sabine and I couldn’t have been happier with the bouquet. It was a mix of in season country flowers and included quicksand roses and rosemary. The labels were a rose and rosemary wrapped in twine like the bottles. I asked for “strong look” flowers for the bridesmaids that had a high-fashion look. The table centres were square glass Kilner jars filled with wild summer flowers. The tables were named after types of trees to fit with the our theme of ‘English Countryside’.
Nothing Too Matchy Matchy
I decided to dress my bridesmaid in white. My maid of honour and I found white applique lace dresses on ASOS boutique and lace white wedges from Aldo. One of my bridesmaids was 15 so had a messy fishtail in her hair. My maid of honour wore a low side bun with red vintage lipstick. They both looked stunning. The best-man and ushers wore their own suits. We didn’t want it to be too matchy matchy!
Patrick wore a blue suit from Reiss. His shoes were from Dune. My Dad passed away three years ago, so he wore his Paul Smith cufflinks that had women whose clothes come off like the pens that do the same when you turn them upside down!
Flashes Of Light
I cannot tell you how many people have told us that we have the best wedding pictures they have ever seen. Sam Gibson is nothing short of a genius and an absolute delight to have around on our day. Our photos do more than document our day. They make it seem like we were in a movie. He is a true talent, reasonably priced and a first class professional. We especially loved it when he took us away at one point in the evening “to try something different”. He created a photo were all you can see is our silhouettes surrounded in flashes of light.
Cake Cake Cake
One of our friends made the cakes. We had several different flavours. Carrot cake, peaches and cream, raspberry and lemon curd and chocolate and hazelnut all covered in white chocolate butter cream icing and decorated with lavender. We’re so, so sad that we only got to have a small bite each!
One Day Like This
We had a DJ in the evening. A couple of our friends are really good singers, so we asked them to sing some of our favourite songs. One of the singers husbands accompanied them with a guitar. It was supposed to be a suprise for our friends and family but we were the most surprised when all of mine and Patrick’s friends shocked us by singing Elbow’s ”One Day Like This” to us. It was a truly magical moment. Our first dance was to Cat Power’s “Sea of Love”.
Dutch Courage
Our favours were the bottles filled with lavender. We also gave bottles of ‘dutch courage’ to the maid of hour, father of the bride and best-man, which were filled with whisky.
We spent a lot of time on creating what we felt was original decor. One of our friends made us hessian bunting with lace trimming to complement the bridesmaids dresses. I wanted bunting that we could keep for future family occasions. We fell in love in Brighton so we had sticks of rock in jars with wooden chalk hearts sticking out of the jars that read “Love rocks” and “We fell in love in Brighton”. Outside on the tables we had arrangements consisting of old silver cider mugs, glass bowl lanterns with twine around them, an old sewing box and wicker baskets; all filled with lavender, a rose or candles.
For the ceremony room the aisle chairs had bunches of lavender tied with twine. We had white balls and white bunting hanging from the rafters of the barn. We had wooden apple crates at the entrance of the barn which were filled with glass bottles that were filled with lavender and had people’s names and tables on them. Each napkin was wrapped with twine with a piece of lavender on it to tie everything in.
Outside, we hung jam jars from a tree and filled them with tea lights. Under the tree was a wooden apple crate with a wooden sign on it that read “All you need is love”. My husband is an artist and part-time graphic designer so he created the invites.
A Posh Ploughmans
What made our wedding special was that we refused to conform to any of the traditional ideas of weddings that didn’t feel “us”. We had Prosecco, not champagne. We had scotch eggs for a starter with English mustard, a posh ploughman’s lunch with country desserts and in the evening local cider in a barrel and Cornish pasties served in wooden apple crates.
Without a doubt the most special thing about our day was having all of our friends and family in one room. All the cliches are true. It goes so fast. The one thing I’d recommend people not to scrimp on is the photography. The day goes so quick, but the photos last forever.
Click here & view all images from this wedding
Venue – Stockbridge Farm Barn
Dress – Nicole Ritchie
Shoes – Kurt Geiger
Hair and Make-Up – Annabel Hornsby
Flowers – G Lily
Groom – Reiss
Photography – Sam Gibson
Karla absolutely acheived the Jessica Rabbit look with that stunning figure of hers! And how gorgeous to see a coloured gown…and at 40% off?! A girl after my own heart.
I love when a couple find suppliers that they really connect with and who are willing to work with them to create their vision and willing to hand over all of their knowledge and experience. The lavender bottles are such a lovey idea and who’d have thought to ask your local pub to collect perfectly sized schweppes bottles! Brilliant.
Are any of you having alernative table plans on your big days? Share share share! Or coloured gowns? I want to know everything!
Happy Friday you lovely lot.
Becky
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